Galatians chapter 3 and verse 1. O foolish Galatians. And that's the title of our study
this evening. O foolish Galatians. It was said
of the history of the Cretans that they were always liars.
That's the reputation the Cretans had. The reputation that the
Galatians had that they were foolish. And Paul confronts them
with this, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Who has charmed you? Who's fascinated
you? That you should not obey the
truth. before whose eyes Jesus Christ
hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you." When Paul
says here that Christ was crucified among them, he is speaking concerning
his preaching. He preached Christ to them. He
said that there in verses 8 of chapter 1, that we are an angel
from heaven. Preach any other gospel unto
you than we preached. We preach Christ to you. And
though Paul wrote to these Galatians and told them that he had come
to them in great weakness of his flesh, through the infirmity,
he said, of my flesh, I preach Christ to you. But he preached
Christ, and he preached Christ where the Holy Ghost sent down
from heaven with power and truth. And he preached Jesus Christ
in such a way that we are told here in verse 1, that there was
no mistaking of who he preached. And not only on his part, but
their part. They knew that the one that Paul
was preaching to them was not a mere prophet. He was not just
a great man, not even a great creature, but He was indeed divine. He was the Christ. Jesus that
I preach unto you, He's the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
as Paul preached to them, I have no idea where he took his text. The Scriptures don't say. He
could perhaps, Glenn, have taken his text from that serpent upon
a pole. Or he could have taken his text
from Exodus 12, the priest on the Passover lamb. Or he could
have preached about the sufferings of Christ in Isaiah 53. But wherever he took his text,
he preached Christ in such a way that they saw him through the
eyes of their understanding. They saw him in the Scriptures
as he was revealed. They saw him through the eyes
of faith. Christ's blood was efficacious
to them. And we find out something here
about them as Paul preached to them. The Word came to them in
faith because he tells us here in this very chapter in verse
2, he said, This only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Paul preached
the gospel to these people in such a way that it brought faith
to them. They truly heard what he was
preaching and faith came to them. And something else we are told
about them, that as they heard this, it dawned upon them in
reality that Christ had indeed redeemed them from the curse
of the law. We're told that in chapter 3
and verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us. They saw this as Paul
preached to them. And of course, they learned something
else. Something else came home to their
heart. And that is they received the
Spirit of adoption. They believed in the Spirit of
Christ was sent forth into their hearts, crying, Father, Father. We find that out from chapter
4 and verse 6 of this book. And something else here took
place as Paul preached the gospel to them. We're told here in the
fourth chapter, in verse 9, it brought the knowledge of God
to them. After that ye have known God. So Paul could really say here,
I preach Christ to you as though He was crucified right in your
midst. He was set before the eye of
your understanding." I don't know what text he used, but it
sure seemed to be effectual. And now as he writes to them,
here in chapter 3 and verse 1, he seems like he's presenting
evidence to them that they have left the gospel. They have ceased
to obey or to believe the gospel. They had forsaken the truth.
They had turned from it and had ceased to obey it. And then that
brings us here to the title of our message, O Foolish Galatia. O Foolish Galatia. And brothers
and sisters, it has been said so many times, a man is a fool
to leave Christ and go to Moses. A man is unwise to leave the
gospel of grace and turn to the works of the law. Only an ignorant
man would give up his freedom and turn to the yoke of bondage. Only an unintelligent person
would give up a life in the spirit and turn to the works of the
flesh. Only a fool would turn from a
gospel that blesses him with forgiveness of all his sins,
and justifies him from all things, and frees him from deserved punishment,
and gives him righteousness in life, and the spirit of adoption,
and precious promises, and turn from all of that unto a law that
curses him. O foolish Galatians! O foolish
Galatians, who have turned from the gospel that provides all
things, and promises all things, and turned to a law that demands
all things. A man is a fool to turn from
the gospel that clears him of all of his charges, and turns
to a law that condemns him for his motives, his words, and all
his deeds. What a fitting title! O foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Paul does not excuse them
for their horrible backsliding. He does not do that at all. But
he says here there is a cause for it. And though he blames
them, he partly blames others. Who has done this, he says? Who
has charmed you? Who is it that has fascinated
you, that has turned you from the truth? into a lie. When a man has made a profession
of Jesus Christ, whether it be true or false, that's not my
point this evening. When a man professes to be saved
by grace, and then he turns from that profession and turns from
the truth of it, he does so because someone or something has enticed
him to do it. Something has fascinated him.
Something has charmed him. The Apostle Paul said, Demas
has forsaken me. Demas, my fellow laborer. Demas, my friend, has left me. He has left the truth. Why would
a man do such a thing? Something charmed him and Paul
tells us what it was. It was the love of this present
evil world. It charmed him. It fascinated
him. The things of this world, the
glory of it, the prestige of it, the praise of this world,
the temporal pleasures of this world, the lust of this world,
these things charmed Demas, and he ceased to obey and believe
the truth. Now, we know who charmed these
Galatians, and we know something about how they did it. Let me
tell you just a few minutes how this happened. First of all,
who these men were. They professed to have great
authority. They came down from Jerusalem
and said the apostles at Jerusalem have sent us down here. We're
ambassadors for those apostles up there in Jerusalem. I imagine
that carried a lot of weight with these Galatian believers. And Peter, in the 15th chapter
of Acts, was writing concerning these very men, and he said that
we've heard that men went out from us, and they troubled your
souls, telling you that you had to be circumcised and keep the
law of Moses. And he said these men are imposters. They told you a lie. And John
tells us about them. He said they went out from us,
But they were not of us. If they had been of us, they
no doubt would have continued with us. But they come down here
to these Galatians, and they say, we have authority. We have
credentials. We came from the apostles there
at Jerusalem. And you know when they told them
that, these Galatians, this being poor Gentiles, they thought,
well, here are these men, or men of great authority. And they
come down here from the apostles. We've got to hear. We've got
to hear what they have to say. We've got to hear. That's who
it was. And secondly, not only did they
profess to be men of authority, ambassadors from up in Jerusalem,
but the very fact of where they were from had to pull some weight
with these Galatians. After all, they were from that
famous city. These men were from Jerusalem.
This was that old city that God had set up centuries and centuries
before this. It's where God put His name. The Shekinah glory of God had
been seen in this city. The Son of God had come to this
city. He was crucified outside the walls of this city. This
was a famous place. And here these Jews were coming
from this famous place. Surely, we need to listen to
what these men have to say. And brothers and sisters, we
already see that we have to be careful, don't we? It doesn't
matter where men come from. It doesn't matter what authority
they possess to have. Do they know the truth? Are they
telling us the truth? That's the only thing. It don't
matter who they profess to have sent them. It don't matter who,
where they're from. I don't give a who, where men
are from, do you? All that counts is who they come
from, who sent them. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. And I don't care what part of
the country a man comes from. If he don't come from God, he
has nothing to help us, does he? So these men come down there
professing authority. And it was because of where they
were from. I wonder this evening if we had
been advertised that a Jew from Jerusalem was going to be here
this evening to speak. We would have probably had a
house full of people with us. Thirdly is this. Not only who
they professed to be and where they were from, but what they
preached appealed to these Galatian believers. This is very strange.
But look here at a couple of places in chapter 6, and look
in verse 12. Here's what they preached. As
many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you, they urge you, they impress upon you to be circumcised, only
lest they should serve for persecution for the cross of Christ. That's
one thing they preached was circumcision. Look here in chapter 4 and verses
9 and verse 10. But now, after that ye have known
God, or rather known of God, how turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage again? What are these weak and beggarly
elements? Ye observe days and months and times and years These
preachers come down here and they were preaching the keeping
of the ceremonial law. Circumcision, Sabbath days, and
all of this. And verse 17, look how it affected
these Galatians. They zealously, they very passionately
and eagerly affect you. They make you very desirous to
be circumcised and to keep Sabbath days and holy days. They affect
you with zeal, but not well. It's not a good zeal. It's good
always to be zealous, he said in verse 18, over a good thing,
but this is not a good thing. This is an evil thing. And what
they did, they come down here and they stirred up these Galatians
to keep the ceremonial law. And the way they did it was this. And I was raised under Herbert
W. Armstrong. Some of you are familiar
with him. He's been dead now for several
years. But my dad listened to him religiously. And he had a
lively voice and very forceful voice. If you've ever heard him,
you remember his voice. And I remember him coming on
the radio. And he would say such things
like this, Do you want to please God? I know it's in your heart
to do God's will. I know you want to be obedient
to God. You want to be an obedient child,
don't you? Well, naturally, everybody wants
to. Whether he's saved or not. If
he's a religious person, that's his desire. And then he would
proceed to preach the law. You want to please God? Then
you're not being obedient if you don't keep the Sabbath. You're
not pleasing God if you're not circumcised and if you don't
pay your tithes. And he had all this other law
keeping that he preached to people and he was very lively in doing
it. And he got people so worked up
and so zealous about keeping the law, they forgot about the
truth. They forgot about the truth.
Peter said, Moses of old times has in all the cities people
that preach Him. And that's what they did here,
and they were lively people. It's easy to get people stirred
up in the flesh, to get them full of fleshly zeal of doing
one thing or another. Paul said, My heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved,
for I bear them record they have a zeal of God. How did he know
that? He watched them. He watched them,
and he saw these preachers get them stirred up and doing many
things. Fourthly is this, not only who
these preachers were, where they came from, what they preached,
but even what they looked like, how they dressed was appealing
to these Galatians. Outwardly, they appeared to be
such holy men, deserving of respect, deserving of a hearing. Our Lord
Jesus told us about them, didn't He? And He warned them in His
day to beware of them because of this very thing. He said everything
they do, they do to be seen of men. They do to impress men. They do to get a hearing. Even
the way they dress. They make broad their phylacteries. They write Scripture down, and
instead of having it little here between their eyes, they'll have
it out here. They'll put it around their neck. Instead of it being
little here, it'll stand out here. They'll make broad their
garments. They put blue lace around the
borders of the garment, and they made it big and wide. They wanted
everybody to know that they were somebody. And they came down
here, and these Galatians saw these men, and I mean, they were
just impressed with the way they looked. And they said, surely,
these people take their religion seriously. I mean, they're into
this, and we need to hear what they have to say. I was down
at Arby's a few days ago. They had a disturbance down there.
Joe and I and Barb, some of us were sitting there eating, and
something had happened, and this one man jumped up, and boy, he
was using some foul language, and I thought there was going
to be a fight for sure. And I think some of them called
the police, but he went back outside, and him and some of
his family were standing out there, and I walked out, and
he apologized to me. I don't think he apologized to
anybody else, but he apologized to me. And he told Barb he apologized
to me because I had a suit on. I looked like a preacher. So he had a lot of reverence.
There was something about the way I was dressed. He didn't
care about the truth. That wasn't what he was concerned
about. But he was impressed by the way
I was dressed, you see. That impresses people, doesn't
it? Martin Luther said before the
Lord converted him, that he would see some of those monks dressed
in their religious garb, and he said, I have this overwhelming
desire to fall at their feet and worship them. You ever seen people coming up
and kissing the Pope's toes and his rings? Why do they do that? Even poor old John in the book
of Revelations, when he saw that woman sitting on that scarlet-colored
beast, Boy, he's impressed by it, wasn't he? He's impressed
by it. Don't be impressed with Flash.
Don't let Flash impress you. I don't care where they're from,
what authority they profess to have. I don't care how they're
dressed. Don't be impressed with Flash. Charmed. Charmed. What matters? One thing, and
that's the truth. That's all that matters, the
truth. O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, and how have
they done it, that you should not obey the truth? Who's charmed you away from Christ? Who's fascinated you away from
the truth? I want to give you four things right quickly, and
it won't take but a few minutes. I made a point not to. Not to
draw these out, but I want to give you these four things that
secures us from leaving the truth. You keep these four things in
your heart, and He'll secure you from leaving the truth. And
these four things are this, the love of the truth. The love of
the truth. Keep your heart with all diligence. Keep this love of the truth in
your heart and you'll never leave the truth. You know why some
men leave the truth? They never loved it. Love will
secure us from leaving the truth. A man may come to the knowledge
of the truth and yet leave it. It appears that demons do. A man may be able to articulate
the truth and yet leave it. But when a man receives the love
of the truth in his heart, you'll never convince that man to leave
it for a lie. He loves it. He loves it. I love
thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. I esteem all thy precepts concerning
all things to be right. Therefore, I hate every false
way." See what the love of the truth will do? It will secure
us from leaving that truth. They receive not the love of
the truth that they might be saved. Love the truth, you'll
never leave it. Keep the love of it in your soul,
you'll never leave it. Number two, when we keep in our
memory what the truth has done for us. You'll never leave it. Keep it in your memory what the
truth has done for you, and you'll never leave it. What's the truth
done for you? What's it done in your conscience? What's it
done in your heart and your spirit? Listen to this, "...of His own
will begot He us with the word of truth. Receive the engrafted
word which is able to save your soul." What's the truth done
for you? You was lost until you heard the truth. The truth saved
you. That's what it's done. Listen
to this. You shall know the truth and
the truth shall make you free. How many of us was bound down
with some false religion? Bound down with traditions? Bound
down with personal convictions? And what was it that set us free?
What was it that dispelled the fear and the conviction of your
conscience? It was the truth. It's the truth. What's the truth
done for you? It's made you free. The entrance of thy Word giveth
light. It giveth light. And understanding
to the simple. What's the Word of truth done
for you? Have you ever spent days in mental darkness? And
you had no light? Nobody could help you. You opened
up the Bible and it was like a sealed book to you. When you
prayed, you prayed and it seemed like it never got out of your
head. Then all of a sudden, what happened? Light came. Just a
word. Where did it come from? This
truth. And it was that truth that came and gave light to your
dark soul. What's the truth done to you?
Well, it's brought light. It's a light unto my pathway.
It is a light. O send out thy light, David said,
even thy truth. Let them bring me unto thy holy
hill and to thy tabernacle. Then will I go unto the altar
of the Lord, unto God my exceeding great joy. Open the gates that
the righteous nation which keepeth thy truth may enter. Brothers
and sisters, what's the truth done for us? It saved us. It's
freed us. It leads us. It guides us. It's
our life. And it's our hope. It's our hope. If we lose the truth, what have
we lost? We lose everything, don't we?
We lose everything. The only hope we have of entering
heaven is the truth. Is the truth. Thirdly is this. Not only when
I remember what the truth has done for us, but when I remember and when
you remember what the truth has cost us. When we remember what
it has cost us, buy the truth and sell it not. And tell what
Solomon said. What's the truth cost you? Brother
Larry got us a DVD the other day about the Armstrong. Herbert
W., when he died, seemed to me like the Lord broke in upon that
place, and He sent a revival among them, awakening them. They
come out of that. They come out of that cult, and they call it
a cult now. And they've lost their college.
They had a huge college. They had many jobs. They lost
their jobs. Some of them lost friends. Some
of them lost families. They lost a lot. when they come
out of that cult and come to the truth. And one fellow asked
one of them, he said, was it worth it? Would you do it again? He said, in a heartbeat. In a
heartbeat. Why? Because the truth costs
you. The truth costs you. But it's
worth it. And the truth will never be worth
anything to you until it costs you something. The Lord Jesus
said the kingdom of heaven is like a man that finds a treasure
in a field. It's a treasure to him. And it's
such a treasure to him that he goes and sells everything that
he has and buys that treasure. That's what the truth is. When
a man's faced with it, he's willing to sell everything. He's willing
to do anything to get it, buy the truth at what cost? Whatever
cost. Whatever it costs. That's why
Paul said, if you suffer so many things in vain, look what the
truths cost you to come to. And you're willing to give it
up. You forgot what it cost you. It's good for a man to be tried
for the truth's sake. It's good to suffer loss for
the truth's sake. It's good to be confronted with
the gates of hell and the rage of men and a broken heart for
the truth's sake. Because it's only then that we
come to value the truth when it costs us something. And you
keep this in your mind, what the truth has cost you. And you
won't be so willing to let go of it. People can have the truth
this week and let it go next week. It's not costing them anything.
It's not precious to them. And therefore they're willing
to let go of it. Fourthly and lastly is this. If you and I
will keep in our memory what a sad and dangerous state we
could bring ourselves into if we leave the truth, that will
keep us from leaving. I'll be honest with you, there
are times, there are times when I've been tempted to leave the
truth, and it's not been the love of the truth that's kept
me from leaving. You know what it's been? A fear of leave. I will put my fear in their hearts
and they shall not depart from me. Somebody says the Lord has
given His people these two things. One, He's given promises. Precious,
precious promises so they won't despair. And He's given them warnings
so they won't presume. And that's the way God keeps
us, isn't it? It sounds sometimes like it's
inconsistent when we talk about the believer having this absolute
security, that the security of the believer is sure. He's sealed
unto the day of redemption. Those who believe the gospel
have eternal life, and the Lord Jesus said they shall never perish.
It's impossible for them to perish. And then turn right around and
tell them, The only way to be saved is to stay in the ship. To turn around and tell them,
don't you go outside the house where the blood's been sprinkled.
But that's perfectly consistent. And I'm afraid to leave Christ,
aren't you? You think about leaving the truth?
You're tempted just to quit sometime during these heavy hours and
dark hours, and your struggles, and the devil comes to you and
says, just quit. Quit praying, quit reading, quit
gathering with the Lord's people, and just rest and take it easy.
And when I think of that, that scares me to death. Don't you?
And there's a good reason for it, brothers and sisters. If
a man leaves the truth, where's he going to wind up at? Where
is he going to wind up at? Sometimes we find these places,
I was looking at one this evening, in James, the last chapter of
James, this is the last thing he remarks on there in chapter
5. If any of you brethren, he said, brethren, he calls them
brethren. If any of you do err from the truth, if a brother
err from the truth, and one of you converting him from his error,
you have saved a soul from death. Now can you understand that?
There's all kinds of Scripture like that. I can explain them
away, but when I look at them and begin to consider these things,
they put a fear in my heart. I'm afraid to leave the truth. What if I begin to leave and
I'm just left alone, and I'm allowed to go ahead and leave
it? What's going to happen to me? Death. And that's why Paul was writing
these Galatians here, and he says, I stand in doubt of you.
All these things that he talked about and received in the Gospel,
and it preached before the eyes of their understanding. Finally,
he says, I stand in doubt of some of you. And boy, I tell
you what, if you and I leave the truth and we go back out
into the world, I'll stand in doubt of myself. And I can't
live like that, can you? Too long, even as a believer,
I live with doubts and confusion and torment. And I can't live
like that. I want assurance. I want to know
Christ is mine. I want my hope to be bright.
And the only way I know that you can live like that is to
walk in truth. to walk in truth. Buy it and
don't let it go. God help us to do so. Father,
we do thank You. Thank You for this precious Word.
Thank You for encouragements. Thank You for warnings. Oh Lord,
sometimes we look inside ourselves and we see nothing but utter
weakness. And we see that we must look
out, we must look up. We thank you for the way that
you deal with your people, the path that you bring them in.
It's not in man to direct his steps. There's many devices in
his heart. But oh, the man is blessed, the
woman is blessed, whom the Lord leads and keeps and secures. We thank you for the warnings.
Thank you for the times you've made us afraid, you've made us
tremble. Thank you for the times you've
convicted our conscience and that we stood as it were before
you, not knowing what you were going to do with us. Nothing
to do but to plead your tender mercies. Thank you for the way
you've brought me. Thank you for the way you've
brought others here in this congregation. Bless your dear people. Bless
the poor lost that's dead in sin. Don't know you, don't know
the way to the city. Oh, give them light. Cause them
to turn into you and find rest and refuge in Jesus our Savior
and our Lord. Bless us as we partake this evening
of this communion. Let us truly remember Your broken
body and Your redeeming blood for Christ's sake. Amen.