Okay, open your Bibles, if you
would, to Galatians chapter 3. We're continuing our study in
this wonderful, wonderful book. The name of the message today
is Suffering for Christ. Suffering for Christ. Galatians
chapter 3. Now, we've seen in our study
in this wonderful epistle, the book of Galatians, that the Apostle
Paul, he didn't mince words with the Galatians, but there's this
tenderness behind his words. There's a firmness in chapter
one, but then when he's talking to the Galatians, even with these
questions, right, there's a tenderness behind them. There's definitely
an upfrontness too, where he's just saying, okay, but you can
tell there's a tenderness with the apostle as well. And as we've
looked at these five questions that are contained in this first
portion of chapter three, We've been examining ourselves. Again,
these are wonderful questions to examine ourselves. Scripture
says, examine yourself whether you be in the faith. And these
are wonderful questions for us to do that as believers, to examine
ourselves. Are we in Christ? And he uses
the words foolish and bewitched But not in the sense of reprobation.
He's not saying, you're totally lost. He's not saying that. These
words are not words saying you're in reprobation. Because we know
that simply because of what he said here in verse 3 too. Are you so foolish having begun
in the spirit? Right? Are you now made perfect
by the flesh? So he's not saying... He's not
saying you're a bunch of lost folks. And even when you read
the book of Corinthians 2, read the book of Corinthians 2 that
way too. It's a correction. He's correcting them. But he's
correcting them in love. He's firm, but yet there's a
tenderness behind his words as well. And again, in 1 Corinthians,
if you look at the first chapter and you see how many times he
mentions Christ, so he gets their minds on Christ right away and
then he corrects them afterwards. And he's kind of done the same
thing in this epistle where he's just put the gospel right before
them in chapter one and in chapter two he's just continued the fact
of justification in Christ and by Christ alone for the believer
and he uses the words foolish and thoughtless in reference
to their immaturity in these verses here remember the Galatians
were Celtic people they they had Celtic roots, and they were
superstitious people, often swayed. Caesar said that the Gauls were
often swayed by different opinions. And so we know that about the
Galatians. And again, like I said, they had Celtic background, having
come over from England and come down and mixed with some of the
people in Gaul. But these Galatians, they've
been thoughtless, they've been flattered by angels of light,
Satan's ministers of light. They'd come in and they'd spoken
smooth words to them, saying you must be circumcised to be
saved. And so some have fallen victim to the
illusion the charm of the idea that these false teachers are
promoting, that a man can be personally
righteous and accepted in the sight of God on their works or
their basis. You know what legalism's like?
It's like a magic trick. It's like a magic trick. It makes Christ's righteousness
disappear, and it makes human righteousness appear. It makes human righteousness
materialize right out of the ether. That's what legalism does. It magnifies human righteousness. as opposed to magnifying the
righteousness of Christ, which is done through the gospel. The righteousness of Christ is
real, it's spiritual. And we see in our text even,
in the first chapter, that Christ, in verse 1, has been evidently
set forth among them, Christ crucified, through the preaching
of the gospel. And the magic trick or the illusion
that legalists use is human merit. It's nothing
but hocus pocus. That's what it is. It's an illusion. And they tell people that you
can be accepted by God based upon your own righteousness. Well, if that was true, why did
Christ even come? Why did he leave heaven? So it's an illusion, beloved.
And it relies on the charm and flattery of self-righteousness. Because these false teachers
are full of self-righteousness. Full of themselves. And the error of the Galatians
is, in general, the same error as Peter and Barnabas that we
saw in Chapter 2, right? They separated, remember? It's
self-righteousness. They separated themselves from
the Galatians. And Paul, he went at Peter, didn't
he? And we learned from that, didn't
we? We learned that our righteousness is only from Christ and Him alone. And the Galatians were not walking
according to the truth. And Paul's rhetorical question
is the declaration that justification is Christ crucified. We are justified by Christ in
Him alone. Because God made you to differ,
beloved. Isn't that amazing? Oh, it's so wonderful. Let's
look at Galatians chapter 3. We're going to read the verses
1 to 9. Our text will be in verse four, but let's read the context
here. I always love to read the context,
you know that about me, so that we can see the verse in its full
meaning. O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth, before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you. So when Paul preached the gospel,
Like every gospel preacher, He sets forth Christ and Him crucified,
the only Savior of sinners. This only would I learn of you.
Now here comes the first of five questions. Okay, so there's five
questions here set before us. Actually, the first one's in
verse one. And then verse two, this only would I learn of you.
Received you the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? And today's question, have you
suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He, therefore,
that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you,
doeth he by the works of the law, or by the here and the faith?
Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness, know ye, therefore, that they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham? in the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be
blessed. So then they which be of the
faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. My, oh my. Today's verse, we see the Apostle
Paul, by again inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, will
still further illustrate the folly of the Galatians. by following
these false teachers or even entertaining them. Even entertaining
them. We see the fourth question in
verse of five and verse four. Have ye suffered so many things
in vain if it be yet in vain? Now we covered the first three
verses in Galatians in the last past studies. Three questions were put before
us. To the saints of the glacier, received you the spirit by the
works of the law or by hearing of faith? By the works of the law. Did
you receive the spirit by the works of the law? No, we didn't,
did we? We heard it by the hearing of
faith. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God,
right? Are you so foolish? So he's saying
to them, are you so immature? And look at this, I love this. Having
begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?
Well, see how these are good questions for examination, because
we can say, no, I'm not made perfect by anything I do at all.
It's the Spirit's work. He's the alpha of my salvation,
just as Christ is the alpha of my salvation, and He's the finisher
of my salvation. As God the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit, the three are one, right? God the Holy Spirit quickens
us, and then He conforms us to the image of Christ while we're
upon this earth, and then we're taken home to glory. It's absolutely
amazing. Now, all five of these questions
are still important and relevant for today. These questions, the
whole Bible is relevant for today. See, these things are written
for our learning, beloved. These are things that can happen
if you get someone come into a church who starts preaching
law works, or things you've got to do. And that's what these Judaizers
had done. They come into this young church and they started
saying, you have to be circumcised as well as believe on Christ
to be saved. So they added works, something
that man does, to the perfect finished work of Christ. So what
does Paul say? He says, that's another gospel.
Chapter 1, he says, that's another gospel. That's not the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not gospel salvation in
and through the perfect finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
when he shed his precious blood to redeem our eternal souls. And that being Christ and him
crucified. So we see here the fourth question, have you suffered
so many things in vain? Now each believer has in some
way or another suffered for their faith in Christ. Some way or
another. Every believer is going to suffer
for their faith in Christ. There's just no getting away
from it. You read, take a book like Fox's Book of Martyrs, but
make sure you got a Kleenex box with you when you start reading
that. And the things that our brothers and sisters in the past
went through. My oh my. the persecutions they went through
for their faith. And the persecution, the suffering
spoken of here, it can come from family members sometimes. It
could come from real close friends. It can come from co-workers.
It can come from places you never even expected. This persecution
for our faith. and that's in Christ, just for
trust in Christ. Paul was thrown in prison just
for preaching Christ. Many believers were taken to
the Colosseum in Rome and sacrificed, giving their lives, not recanting,
giving their lives for Christ. Knowing that man could destroy
the body But they're the fear he who can destroy both body
and soul in hell. The one true living God. That's
our Savior, beloved. That's our Savior. And the Christian can sometimes
be alienated again from friends and family. Simply for trusting
Christ and him alone for the salvation of their soul. Simply
for saying that Christ is my all and he saved my soul and
there's nothing I had to do with it. And I'll tell you what, you
start talking like that and persecution will come. It'll come. And think of what some of these
believers went through. The Galatians were idol worshippers. They left all their gods. They
left their idols. The Jews who were converted,
they left Judaism. And both sides, both Jew and
Gentile, were cast out, outcasts, from their own families for doing
so. Especially the Jews, right? They
were just, they were counted as nothing. Their families wanted
nothing to do with them again. That's why when Paul, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God, speaks about the love of Christ within
believers. And the love that we have for
one another is so unique and it can't be counterfeited by
anyone. Now people can make professions
and do all kinds of things, but the one thing they can't counterfeit
is the love that God's people have for each other. And you know, you know what's
the cement that holds us together, beloved? The precious blood of
Christ. That's the cement that holds
us all together. We're all redeemed by that same
blood, aren't we? We rejoice in the same Savior.
We're born again by the same Spirit. It's absolutely wonderful. I'll tell you what, it don't
get no better than that. So these saints could expect
to lose income, homes, jobs, right? Maybe some of them were
former idol worshippers. Maybe some of them were former
manufacturers of idols. They'd say, I don't want to do
that anymore. I can't do that anymore. You're gone. See, this is what occurred during
those times. So they had suffered for their
faith, beloved. The Galatian believers, upon
embracing the gospel, is revealed to them by the Holy Spirit of
God and taught to them by Paul, They were exposed to severe persecution,
just like other believers. And that persecution had either
proceeded from Jewish folks who were still in the Jewish religion
and saying that Christ was just some maverick and some false teacher. or from their own people, one
or the other. And the Holy Spirit was telling
them through the writings of Paul, if you leave Christ for
another gospel, those sufferings are all in vain. They're all
in vain. It's all vanity. And it was Paul's
hope that they'd just been led astray. That's why he's not calling
them unbelievers. Now, can we as believers get
led astray? Oh my, it's not hard, is it? That's why we pray the Holy Spirit
keeps us, right? That's why we need a steady diet
of the gospel of God's free grace. That's why we need to hear the
gospel week after week after week, beloved. I'm talking to me too, eh? Right? I'm preaching to myself. My. We need that. So Paul was just hoping they'd
just been led astray by these false teachers, that this epistle
would make them aware of their foolish error and would correct
them. Again, all of us are prone to
wander. Our old human nature will allow
the weakness of the flesh to fall into sinful traps. Every
one of us, every one of us. You know how I say when we go
out this door, dear sister brought something up last week and it
was wonderful, absolutely wonderful. You know how I say when we go
out this door, we don't want to sin anymore. We don't want
to desire to do what we used to do. Every one of us is capable
still of doing that though. And that's what she brought up,
and I thought, oh, that's gold. So you're going to hear me preface
that now with that. That we're all capable of going
out there and doing exactly what the world does, except for the
restraining hand of God in our lives. And it's the love of Christ
that constrains us from sin, isn't it? That's what the scripture
says. It's the love of Christ that
constrains us from sin. My, oh my. And again, I'm going to say it
again, this is why we need a steady diet of the gospel. Because you
know what the gospel, even though we fall and we sin, you know
what the gospel says? You're forgiven. You're forgiven. Your sins are remembered no more,
as far as the east is from the west. They're gone, beloved,
by the precious blood of Christ. Oh my. Now that gives us hope,
doesn't it? My, you know, have you ever thought
why the Lord said do this in remembrance of me with the Lord's
Supper? Because it keeps our minds on Him. It keeps our eyes
on Him and what He's done for us. His sacrifice on Calvary's
cross to save us from our sins. Colossians says, continue in
the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel. Who's the hope of the gospel?
Christ. He's our hope, isn't he? He's
our only hope. If we stop looking to He who
is our hope, I'll tell you what's going to happen. We're going
to start to lose hope. We're going to start to lose
hope. We're going to start to get all jittery You know how I know
that? Because I've experienced it. My oh my. Turn if you would to
Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Now during
the apostolic age, our Lord was working through his preachers.
He performed many miracles to confirm the gospel. The gospel
that Paul preached. The gospel that was preached.
Look at this in Hebrews chapter 2 verses 1 to 4. You know God sends a spirit into
our hearts, right, whereby we cry, I have a father, Paul wrote
in Galatians, which we're going to get to. And that's within
all the blood-bought people of God. We hear about Christ. The Holy Spirit teaches us the
things of Christ. Look at this. Therefore we ought
to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard.
That's the preaching of the gospel. We need to, even as believers,
we need to give earnest heed to that which is preached. See this is practical stuff for
us here, right? This is everyday stuff for us
right here. To give heed. Lest at any time
we should let them slip. Satan is a master at distraction. A master at distraction. And how easy am I distracted? You want to know how easy I'm
distracted? I'll be studying for a message and then something
will come in my head and I'll go, And I'll pull up another window,
and I'll go somewhere else, and I'm distracted. And then I shut that little window
down, and I get back to my message. Oh, we're so easily distracted,
beloved. Look at this, for if the word
spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if
we neglect so great salvation? How can one escape the condemnation
of God without Christ? You can't. Now in Christ there's
what? There is now therefore no condemnation,
and that's judgment in the Greek. No judgment for those who are
in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the
spirit. And he says here, how shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the
Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? confirmed
unto us by them that heard him. Well, that's speaking of the
apostles, right? God also bearing them witness both with signs
and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy
Ghost according to his own will. You see, God works according
to his own will. Do you know if you're sitting
here today and you're a saved person, it's because God willed
that. Isn't that wonderful? And how
do we know that? Because he does all things according
to his will and purpose. It's wonderful. I'll tell you
why. The more we hear about this wondrous salvation, the more
incredible it is in Christ Jesus. It's like an onion, beloved.
Except we're just peeling the first little layers. And we get
a little glimpse underneath and we go, oh. Don't we? And look what it says here about
salvation. So great salvation. God's salvation is great. You
know why? Because he's a great God. And
you know why? Because we're great sinners to
our shame. But we're saved. This salvation
saves great sinners of whom I'm chief. And every one of us would
say the same thing, right? We say with Paul, I'm the chief
of sinners. Oh my. But we're saved, beloved. washed
clean by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
we hear that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second
person of the Blessed Trinity, equal with God the Father and
God the Holy Spirit in every way, we who are the born-again
blood-washed people of God, what do we do? We rejoice, don't we?
And when we hear that for the first time, oh my, how great
is God. How magnificent is God. And when
we hear that Jesus Christ, our sovereign creator, became a man,
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and his entire life
on earth in human form was a life of perfect obedience to the law
of God. Not for himself, but for we who
are his people. When we hear about that, does
it not fill us with awe? and wonder that He did that for
me? Oh, it's incredible. And then we
hear that the pure, sinless, spotless Lamb of God offered
Himself as a sacrifice, willingly, freely, as a sacrifice for our sins,
and that He obtained eternal salvation for us. and cleansed
us from all our sins with his precious blood. My, how our hearts
rejoice. And we often say, why me? And the answer from the scripture
is, because it pleased God to do so. My, oh my, what a Savior. What a King. And when we hear
that we're reconciled to God by the death of his son, that
Jesus Christ was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification, how we rejoice. And then we hear that
Jesus Christ, when we hear the gospel, is on his throne right
now, the God man, mediating for us right now. And that we're
already seated in heavenly places with him, how it makes our hearts
rejoice. Do you see why we need to hear
the gospel? Does it not fill your heart with
joy to know that Christ done that for you and for me as believers? And there's a whole bunch of
sheep out there. We don't even know who they are, do we? But
God knows them, and he's going to get every one of them. As the gospel goes out into the
world. Oh, my. My, oh, my. And we greatly rejoice,
don't we, brothers and sisters, over this wondrous salvation.
Oh, what mercy we've been shown. What mercy? You can't measure
the mercy that we've received while multitudes perish in their
sins outside of Christ. And here we are, by the grace
and mercy of God, receivers of his grace and mercy. So we see then that because of
their attachment to the truth of the gospel, the Galatian believers
willingly submitted to much persecution, just like every believer will.
Persecution will come, and we just submit ourselves to it,
don't we? Knowing that it comes from God. And you know it's for
our good and for his glory. It don't feel good, does it? Sister, you said a long time
ago that you believe that trials were weaning us from this world,
and that's true. They wean us. They make us homesick
for glory. They make us homesick for glory,
don't they? Let's read verse 4 again. Have ye suffered so many things
in vain, if it be yet in vain? Note how skillfully Paul here
brings this before them. He probes the dangerous wound
of them accepting the false teaching. They had not fully shifted their
ground to the sinking sand of law works, because if they suffered
with Christ, they should also reign with him. But if they renounced
the truth, their past sufferings would serve no good purpose.
They'd be all in vain. Be all in vain. And look at this, have you suffered
so many things in vain? Paul brings forth these questions
for them to consider, not only the good work which the Holy
Spirit has begun in them, and then he has them consider the
many things they have suffered for the sake of the gospel and
for the name of Christ. And beloved, in this life, we
may suffer the loss of all our possessions. We may be called to bear reproaches
for Christ. We may pass through many dangers
of the body and of this life. Some are called to endure much
for the name of Christ. And you, it is the Lord Jesus
Christ who keeps them and us through these persecutions. You
know, we'd just fall to pieces under persecution if it wasn't
for the Lord. Think of the things that have
went on. We'd just fall to pieces if it
wasn't for the Lord, right? Think of the things that you
went through in your life for your faith in Christ. Think of
the reproaches maybe you've received from others. Think of the abandonment of close
friends and family because of what you believe. It's all for the cause of Christ,
isn't it? And we wouldn't change anything, would we? We wouldn't
change anything, beloved. Now pray for your family members.
Pray for your friends. Pray for those who despitefully
use you. Pray for them. Pray for him,
beloved. But always remember that he who
has begun a good work in us will finish it. He's going to finish
it. He's going to finish it. James
pens these words. He says, my brethren, count it
all joy when you fall into divers temptations. And in the Greek,
temptations there is trials. And divers means various. Count
it all joy when we fall into to various temptations and trials? Yep. Knowing this, so he doesn't leave
us there, because we'd be scratching our head right there, wouldn't
we? Knowing this, that the trial of your faith worketh patience. Works patience in us. But let
patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect in an
entire wanting nothing. James chapter 1 verses 2 to 4. When God gives us faith to believe
the blessed truths of his electing grace, his redeeming grace, his
sanctifying grace, the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us. And he is
the one who enlightens us to these wonderful truths. Otherwise,
we'd never know them. But he's illuminated these things
for us, hasn't he? He's revealed the gospel to us. He's revealed Christ to us. You
see, without the Holy Spirit revealing Christ, we'd never
know him. And we didn't receive the spirit
of Christ by the hearing of the law. No, God began a good work in
us, beloved. Here, finish it. Here, finish
it. And God will perfect, he'll fulfill,
he'll accomplish his work. Not by the hearing of the law,
but by the preaching of the gospel. By his almighty power. And there's
a cost incurred in trust in Christ. These Galatians had paid that
price. They'd been disowned, they disowned their pagan gods.
They'd been disowned by their friends, they'd been disowned
by family. They've incited the wrath and
censor of the legalists. They had lost the exaltation
of self. They had lost their world. And
Paul asks them here, was it all for naught? Was it all for nothing? And this also addresses what
they had gained by trusting Christ, redemption, justification, sanctification,
life, eternal life, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. All
things were theirs and they were Christ's, just as we are, beloved. So let us always remember that
to go to the law for righteousness, that is for justification, would
make all that Christ did in vain. That's the danger of adding works
to the finished work of Christ. And all their gain would be lost. Because they'd be abandoning
the true gospel, wouldn't they? They'd be abandoning the one
whose salvation is in, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ in him
alone. So beloved, let us examine ourselves to see if we're in
the faith with these five questions in the text. May God be glorified
by the preaching of his word. Brother Dan, will you close us
in prayer, please?