All right, Galatians chapter
three. Now, the title of our lesson is sanctified by faith
or works. And, you know, the answer to
that is by faith. That's scripture clearly teaches that. But the
false teaching that had arisen in the churches of Galatia. Is
that they were saying these false teachers saying we're not we're
cleansed from sin by the sacrifice of Christ, but we also have to
keep the law in order to be saved. We have to keep the law in order
to stay clean. We have to add something to faith. We have to
add our obedience to the law to faith. And Paul's been slaying
that teaching throughout this letter. He continues that in
chapter 3 by asking a series of questions. And I think asking questions
and then answering them is a good way to preach. It's a good way
to study God's Word. To ask questions of God's Word
and see the answer. Now, I've said this before. There's
no such thing as blind faith. If you have saving faith, you're
not blind. You see Christ. If you have saving
faith, you know Christ. You know whom you have believed.
And believers are not taught to blindly follow the pastor
God's given them. You're taught to follow the pastor
God's given you, but not blindly. You're to follow me as I follow
Christ. And I wish that everyone would
make this a point. to think about what you hear
preached. Meditate on it. Verify what I
preach to you from God's Word. That's how you'll be fed. That's
how you'll grow. Think on these things. I don't
want any of us to just go through the motions here. But when you
listen, listen intently to what's being said, what's being preached
from this pulpit and process it in your mind. Chew on it. Process it in your heart. The
Galatians were not doing that. And it got him in trouble. When
Paul calls them foolish Galatians, that word means unthinking. You're
listening to what you're hearing, but you're not thinking about
it. So here's the first thing Paul can teach us about faith
in verse 1. Faith obeys the gospel, obeys
the truth. He says in verse 1, O foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey
the truth, for whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set
forth, crucified among you? Now, here's Paul's first question.
Who has bewitched you? Who has cast a spell over your
mind? Now, you know he's speaking figuratively
here, but you think somebody must have cast a spell over him
because something's wrong with their thought process. If you
turn from Christ to the law, something's wrong with your thought
process. Now, you've had Christ preached
to you. Paul could say that to the church at Galatia, and I
could say that to you. You've had Christ preached to
you. So clearly, it was like you have seen Christ crucified
with your own eyes. And if God saved us, we have.
If God saved us, we have seen Christ crucified with the eye
of faith. And not just seen him crucified,
seen him crucified for me, for my sin. And when we preach the
gospel, we must preach, we must evidently, clearly set forth
Christ crucified. But when we do that, that's not
just stating the historical fact Christ died on the cross. Everybody
knows that. To preach Christ crucified, there's
a few things we must declare. First, who was crucified? It's the perfect, holy Son of
God was crucified. He suffered and died. That's
who was crucified. The second thing we must declare
is this. Why was Christ crucified? See,
this is asking questions and answering what Paul's doing here.
Why was Christ crucified? Well, first of all, Christ was
crucified because of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Adam fell,
and all men lost all righteousness. All men came under the curse,
and we die spiritually, and we will die eternally unless someone
takes the curse away. unless someone dies for us and
pays the debt that we cannot pay. So Christ was crucified
as a substitute for his people to pay their sin debt, to take
their curse away. And second, Christ died to accomplish
God's eternal purpose. God's eternal purpose is salvation
through the death of a substitute. And the perfect Holy Son of God
came to be a substitute for his people. He was made sin for his
people. And God's holy justice killed
him for it because the law demands death for sin. That's why Christ
died. Well, the third thing we must
declare, third question we must answer if we're going to preach
Christ crucified is who did Christ die for? He died for his elect. He didn't die for every son of
Adam. He died for his sheep. Well, the fourth question we
must answer if we're going to preach Christ crucified is this.
What happened when Christ died? Did he make salvation possible
or did he save somebody? What happened? When Christ died,
his elect were saved because their sins paid for, the redemption
price was paid, the curse was removed and all of God's elect
were redeemed when Christ was crucified. And right now, he's
calling his people from death into life. He's calling his people
from darkness to light because he died for them and they're
They can't stay dead. He gave his life for them. They
can't stay in darkness. He's their light. He redeemed
them. Fifth, we must answer this question if we're going to preach
Christ crucified. Is there any other way of salvation other
than Christ crucified? Is there any other way? No, there's
not. Scripture is so plain on that,
there's salvation in no other. There's salvation in no other
name other than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
is Christ. It's in His righteousness, it's
in His blood, it's in His grace, it's in His calling, it's in
His power. Salvation is all in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
then this brings up the last question. And this is the question
that was going on at Galatia. What about our works? Now, people
that Christ saves, if Christ died for you, you're zealous
of the good works. Not in order to earn your salvation.
Not in order to keep your salvation. You're zealous of good works
because God's given you a new heart. The blood's been sprinkled.
The blood's been applied to your heart. And you have a desire
to show forth the praises of your Savior. You have a desire
to live your life in a way that honors and glorifies the one
who died for you and gave you life. Look over to back in chapter
2. You're zealous for that. You
have such a desire for those works. But our works have nothing,
nothing, nothing to do with salvation. Look at Galatians 2 verse 16.
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, by his
works, by his faithfulness to obey the law for us, and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified." Look back in Romans chapter 3. Paul
says the same thing to the church at Rome. Our works have nothing
to do with our salvation. Romans 3 verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by
the law is the knowledge of sin. All the law can do is give us
a knowledge of our sin, point out our sin. We cannot be justified
by our obedience to the law. We're justified by Christ's obedience
to the law for us as our substitute. Now Paul has answered those questions
when he preached Christ to them. And he asked them, now you've
heard the gospel preached. Why haven't you obeyed? Why haven't
you obeyed the truth? Faith obeys the truth. Well, what is it to obey the
truth? It's to believe Christ. That's all it is. It's to trust
Christ that he by himself saved your sinful soul. And to disobey
the truth, is to leave Christ for something else. Anything
else. And that's just foolish. That's
why Paul said, you're foolish. You're unthinking. This is foolish.
Only a fool would leave Christ to go to our own endless failing
works and attempts to keep the law. Only a fool would do that.
Only a fool would leave freedom in Christ for the bondage of
the law. Only a fool would leave life
in Christ for death by the law. Only a fool would leave joy in
Christ for the fear of the law. Only a fool, an unthinking man,
somebody that is not taught, that doesn't see things correctly,
only a fool would leave Christ and turn to the law. Christ provides
all things for us. The law requires all things of
us. And we've already seen we can't
do the first thing, right? We can't obey the law in the
first way. Christ forgives all sin. The
law condemns all sin. The law, it's impossible for
the law to forgive sin. But Christ forgives sin. Christ
covers our sin by His own blood. All the law does is point out
our sin. Christ gives life. The law can only kill. Well,
a person would be a fool to choose the law over Christ. You're just
not thinking if you do that. Now, believers, wise in Christ,
aren't we? We're wise in Christ because
He's the wisdom of God. But we're fools in ourselves.
And when we act foolish, all it does is shows that we're ignorant.
And this means we haven't been taught. Now, either we haven't
been taught, or we weren't listening when it was taught, or we forgot
what was taught. But one way or another, we're
untaught. That's why we act in an ignorant
way. So here's Paul's question. When you were chosen in Christ,
by God's grace, now do you think that you've got to keep yourself
in Christ by your own works? Of course not. That's just foolish.
Salvation is by grace from beginning to end. And faith obeys that,
believes that truth. Second, faith receives the Holy
Spirit. Verse 2, Galatians chapter 3. This only will I learn of you.
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? Now a believer receives the Holy
Spirit in us. The Holy Spirit is formed in
us by the new birth. Look across to page chapter 4,
verse 6. And because ye are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying
Abba, Father. Now every believer has the Spirit
in our hearts and if you don't have the Spirit of Christ, Scripture
says you're none of His. So how did you receive? When
did you receive the Holy Spirit? Was it when you were obeying
the law? Or was it when you heard the Gospel of Grace preached
to you? Did you receive the Spirit when
you were doing pretty good keeping the law, when you were circumcised
and obeying the Sabbath? Or was it when you heard Christ
in Him crucified preached? Which was it? When were you born
again? When did God give you new spiritual
life? Was it when you were obeying
the law or when you were hearing the gospel preached? When was
your conscience cleared and set at ease? Was it when you were
following the law and failing to do it? Your conscience was
never clear when you were trying to keep the law. Ever. Or was
your conscience cleared when it was purged from dead works
and you trusted and served in Christ? Which was it? It was
when you heard the Gospel. It was when you trusted in Christ.
When you heard Christ preached from the Gospel. Well, then why
would you leave Christ for something else? Why would you turn from
the Gospel to the law? Faith won't. Faith won't do it. Because faith receives the Holy
Spirit and the Holy Spirit will never lead you to obey the law.
Ever. The Holy Spirit is light and
life. And anyone who's trying to please
God and earn something from God by our own deeds of the law or
our own doing of anything, that person's in darkness. They don't
have the presence of the Holy Spirit. They don't have the power
of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. So here's Paul's question. Did you begin your Christian
life depending on God's grace and by God the Holy Spirit being
formed in you? And now you think you have to
finish your Christian life? by your own works? Of course
not. That's just foolish. Here's a
third thing Paul teaches us of faith. Faith receives the Holy
Spirit in salvation. And then faith relies on the
Holy Spirit for spiritual growth. Look at verse 3. Are you so foolish,
having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?
Now, if you look in your bulletin on the back page, there's a very
good article Pastor Todd Nyberg on progressive sanctification.
Todd said, I'll just read you a couple sentences of this, but
he says, if by progressive sanctification people mean growth in grace,
I do believe in progressive sanctification. Our thoughts of Christ grow bigger.
Our thoughts of self grow smaller. And we do grow in the fruit of
the Holy Spirit. If by progressive sanctification,
people mean that we progressively become more holy and less sinful,
I do not believe in that at all. He goes on to say it's not taught
in the scriptures. That's why I don't believe that.
These people who thought that they could somehow make themselves
better by, well, Christ saved me, but now I can improve on
this by keeping the law. That's not taught in scripture.
You did not hear that in the gospel. These Galatian believers, they
had the same desire. They're no different than us.
They had the same desire every one of us have. Every believer
has this desire. We want to be perfect. We want
to grow in grace. We have a desire to live our
lives in such a way that we adorn the gospel. That we adorn and
honor the reputation of our Savior. They had that desire. We do too.
We understand that. But they're going about it the
wrong way. They heard about this business of keeping the law and
without thinking, they just went that way because they want to
live a life that honors the Savior. They want to live a holy, upright
life. So Paul says, are you so foolish?
Are you so unthinking that you think that you're saved by Christ
in a supernatural operation of the Spirit, but you have to keep
your salvation and improve that salvation by works of the flesh?
God forbid! Not to mention, now that's so
foolish, but not to mention that's dishonoring to the Savior. Your
desire is to honor the Savior, and now you're dishonoring the
Savior by adding to His righteousness? That dishonors the Savior, takes
His glory away from Him, and He'll not share His glory with
another. Are you so foolish that you think you can make yourself
better than Christ makes you? Can you make yourself better
than you are in Christ? Now, in our day, you know, people
aren't talking about the dietary laws and the Sabbath and circumcision,
but in our day, the same preaching exists and it goes something
like this. Now, Christ died for you. He died to make salvation
possible. You know, you have to accept him. And then once
you accept him, now you can't be saved if you're not tithing.
You lose your salvation if alcohol touches your lips. You know,
if You know, you go to the movies where you lose your salvation.
You become backslidden. Just don't do anything that sounds
fun and you'll be holy. That's the deal. And they call
that salvation. Now, if that sort of thing appeals
to you, be warned, that's appealing to the flesh. That never appeals
to the new man. That never appeals to the Holy
Spirit in you. Ever. It can't. How foolish is
it to think somehow I can please God after he saved me when before
he saved me, I was never able to please him. How foolish is
that? The only way you and I can ever
please God is by faith, by believing Christ. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. And that simply means this. We
can't please God better than we do. We please God in Christ
through faith in him. Now, salvation is either all
of works or it's all of grace. Scripture makes that so plain.
There can't be any mixture of the two because they're opposite
of one another. Salvation is by a mixture of grace and works.
It just makes no sense. I mean, you just think that makes
no sense. Not to mention, more importantly,
it violates all of Scripture. If you just stop and think for
two seconds, you'll see good news. is that salvation is by
grace. And bad news is salvation is
by some mixture of grace and works. Salvation by grace without
any of my deeds to the law is good news. I'll tell you why
it's good news. Because I'm a sinful man. I'm
a sinner. I can't do anything good. The
only way a sinner can be saved is by grace through faith. Isn't
that right? That's good news. The good news is that's what
Scripture teaches is salvation. It's by grace. So here's Paul's
question. Are you accepted in the Beloved,
but now you've got to make yourself more perfect by adding your own
righteousness to the righteousness of Christ? Of course not. Look at Philippians chapter 1.
Only a fool would think that. That somehow you can add to Christ
and make yourself better than you are in Him. You're not accepted in the beloved,
but now you've got to, you know, keep yourself accepted. Philippians
1, verse 6. Being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, he'll perform
it. He'll perfect it, he'll finish
it, until the day of Jesus Christ. That's how we're accepted, and
that's how we remain accepted. Now, Paul continues to ask the
Galatians some questions. He said, look at your own experience
in Christ. Look at verse four. Have you suffered so many things
in vain, if it be yet in vain, that every believer suffers for
Christ's sake? And these people that Paul is
writing to, buddy, they've suffered. I mean, they've lost their homes,
their families, their jobs, all their friends. They've suffered.
They're in poverty and under persecution. And believers, who
persevere to the end and suffer, persevering to the end, will
reign with Christ. But if you turn back, there is
no reigning with Christ. Now. That's you're not, you know,
I say, well, if you persevere to the end, you know, you suffer
and you persevere to the end, you'll reign with Christ. That's
not because you earned reigning with Christ, because you suffered.
Now salvation is by grace. But if you turn back, there is
no reigning with Christ for this reason. Because you showed you
never were in Christ. You never knew Him. And any suffering
that you did do was in vain. It was to no end because it wasn't
for Christ's sake. And Paul says, if it was in vain. I still have hope for you that
this suffering's not been in vain. That you won't turn from
Christ. And then verse 5, he continues
asking them about their own experience in grace. He says, He therefore
that ministereth to you the Spirit. and worketh miracles among you,
doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith."
Now, in Paul's day, people could recognize God's preachers, they
could recognize the apostles, because they could perform miracles.
The Word of God was not completed, so they couldn't compare a man's
message to the Word of God, but if he could perform miracles,
they knew God was with him. And if he could perform miracles,
they knew the Holy Spirit had to be with him, giving him power.
So his message must be from God. His message must be the gospel.
So Paul says, now, this man who can do these miracles. Did he
do those miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit or did he
do it by keeping the law? By the Holy Spirit, wasn't it?
Were people converted and under that man's ministry, were they
converted by the power of the Holy Spirit, blessing that man's
message? Or were they converted because
they kept the law? Which is it? It's because of the message of
grace. Now, I'll tell you how this applies to us today. Nobody
works miracles today. But you have a better proof of
a man's ministry than they did in that day. You have a much
better proof than if I could do some sort of miracles. Because
you have the completed Word of God. You can look and see, does
a man's message match the whole Word of God? Now, after you've
heard that preaching, have you seen God the Holy Spirit perform
miracles by that man's message? Now, I'm not talking about healing
the sick and speaking in tongues and all that stuff. I'm talking
about, have you seen a miracle? Have you seen the spiritually
dead, dead in trespasses and sins? Have you seen them given
spiritual life? by that message? Have you seen
a spiritually lame walk and follow Christ? Have you seen a spiritually
blind? Suddenly, they see. They see
Christ. They say, oh, I see. Have you
seen growth and grace? Wednesday night, we talk about
that dead stump. Have you seen growth from that
dead stump? That's a miracle of God's grace. That's God's
grace blessing that message. You've seen that. Now did that
happen by the works of the Lord or did it happen by grace? Which
is it? Did it happen by the power of
the Holy Spirit or the power of a man doing what he's supposed
to do? Did that happen because of our
suffering or because of the sacrifice of Christ? It happened by the
sacrifice of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by grace.
Then don't be foolish. and turn from that ministry,
from that message of salvation by grace through faith. Don't
be a fool. And then last, Paul gives us an example. An example of justification by
faith without works. The example of Abraham. Look
at verse 6. Even as Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him, it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, Abraham's the example of
faith in all the scriptures. Abraham is the father of the
faithful. Now these Judaizers that came into Galatia, they
were very proud of being descendants of Abraham. And they said, you've
got to be circumcised like Abraham was, like we are. Abraham was
circumcised, so if you want to be justified, if you want to
be of the faith like Abraham was, you have to be circumcised
too. Well, now wait a minute. Don't be foolish. Don't be unthinking. Think about what's being said
and compare it to God's Word. Yes, Abraham was the first Jew. Absolutely. Abraham was the first
to be circumcised and Abraham was counted righteous by God. But was Abraham counted righteous
because he believed God or because he was circumcised? Now which
is it? They said you've got to be circumcised
like Abraham was in order to be justified. Was Abraham justified
because he was circumcised or because he believed God? Now
which is it? Abraham was justified, Scripture says, because he believed
God. It was accounted to him for righteousness.
Now, Abraham wasn't justified because he did a work of faith.
Well, I believe, so that's my work, so I'm justified. No. Faith's
the gift of God. We're justified by the object
of our faith, not by our faith. We're justified by Christ. Now,
look over in Genesis chapter 15. Now, this is so clear. The very example of Abraham that
they're using to pervert the gospel and make people do these
things because they're not thinking is the very example of justification
by faith, not by the deeds of the law. Justified by Christ
and His obedience, not our obedience. Genesis 15, verse 5. And he brought
him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven and tell those
stars, if thou be able to number, then you tell me. And he said
unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he, Abraham, believed in
the Lord. And he, God, counted it to him
for righteousness. Now, Abraham is righteous, isn't
he? God said so. He's righteous. Abraham is justified. Why? By
faith. He believed in the Lord. Now,
that's clear, isn't it? That's what God's Word says. Couldn't have had anything to
do with Abraham being justified, could he? He believed God and
he was justified. And I'll show you that. Here
in Genesis 15, Abraham was somewhere under 90 years old. Look over
two more chapters. Genesis 17. Ten years later. We read this in Genesis 17. Now
we read about circumcision. Genesis 17, verse 10. And this
is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you, between
thy seed after thee. Every man child among you shall
be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh
of your foreskin and it shall be a token of the covenant between
me and you. This is not the covenant between
me and you. This is not how you're made righteous. It's a token
of the covenant. It's a token of what God has
already done. Abraham was not justified because
he was circumcised. That happened ten years later.
Abraham wasn't justified by circumcision and he was not justified by any
other deed of the law. Look back in Galatians chapter
3. I'll show you that. Abraham was not justified by
the law in any way. Galatians 3 verse 17. And this
I say. that the covenant that was confirmed
before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after,
cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
For if the inheritance be of the law, it's no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. God gave it to Abraham by grace
through faith. Abraham couldn't have been justified
by keeping the law. God didn't give the law to Moses
till four hundred and thirty years later. Now, you know, we
think, well, your circumcision couldn't have anything to do
with his justification because it is ten years later. But now
the law is still important. Four hundred and thirty years
later, God gave the law. The law had absolutely nothing
to do with Abraham's justification. And the same Christ that saves
Abraham saves us today. Galatians 3 verse 7. Know ye
therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are children
of Abraham. These Judaizers come in saying
that they've got, you know, Abraham's DNA. That doesn't make them a
child of Abraham. You're a child of Abraham if
you have the same faith as Abraham. Not if you have the genes of
Abraham. And it's that same Christ, that same faith that saves sinners
today. Abraham believed the same gospel
we do. Abraham heard the gospel preached and he believed the
same gospel that we believe. Look at verse 8, and the scripture,
For seeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached
before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations
be blessed. Abraham believed the gospel and
he was blessed, not by anything he did, just like we're not blessed
by Abraham, we're blessed the same way Abraham is blessed,
by the seed of Abraham, which is Christ, the Christ that's
declared in the Gospel. Not just Jews, not just physical
descendants of Abraham, but Gentiles, like us, are children of Abraham,
if we have the same faith that Abraham, our father, had. And
then verse 9, so then, here's the conclusion. This is the only
conclusion a thinking person can come to. They which be of
faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham. Everyone God saves is
saved the exact same way Abraham was, by faith, without the deeds
of the law. Abraham was saved and justified
by faith in Christ. And if God saves you and me,
it will be by that same God-given faith in the same Christ. So
don't seek to be justified or make yourself better by your
own doings. That's an insult to Christ. Seek faith in Christ. You seek Christ, and you'll be
saved. You'll be justified, and you'll
be perfect. You need nothing to add to Christ. So seek Him, and you'll be perfect.