Paul says in verse 10 to the
Galatians, I have confidence in you. I look back in chapter
one. He said to these people in verse
six, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Look in chapter 3, verse 1. O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? Look in chapter
4, verse 9. But now, after that you've known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements, wherein to you desire again to be embodied? You observe days and months and
times and years. I'm afraid of you, lest I bestowed
upon you labor in vain. Look in verse 19. my little children
of whom I travail and birth again until Christ be formed in you.
I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice for
I stand in doubt of you. Tell me you desire to be under
the law. Do you not hear the law? Look at verse seven of chapter
five. You did run well. Who did hinder
you that you should not obey the truth? So doesn't it sound
kind of surprising when he says, I have confidence in you. He didn't say anything like that
up to this point, but now he says, I have confidence in you. Was Paul now glossing over their
errors and becoming tolerant of the false doctrine that was
going on in that church? Well, you know better than that.
So what is this thing of him being confident in them? What is this all about? Now,
the first thing that I thought of is this is a reminder to us
of how, I don't know how else to say it, how messed up a true
Christian can become. That's what he says to these
Galatians. Now, Paul knew if they were believers,
they wouldn't stay this way. But a true believer can fall
into grievous doctrinal error, and a true believer can fall
into grievous sin. And something we should never
say, this ought not ever come off our lips, a believer would
never do that. There's only one thing a believer
wouldn't do, and that's commit the sin against the Holy Spirit.
A believer can do anything else, and the Bible bears witness to
this so powerfully. Look back in Galatians chapter
2. We have the fall of an apostle. Look in verse 11. But when Peter
was come to Antioch, I was stood him to the face, because he was
to be blamed. For before that certain came
from James, he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were
come, these men from James, these Jewish believers, he withdrew
and separate himself, fearing them which are of the circumcision.
And the other Jews dissembled, played the hypocrite likewise
with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their
hypocrisy, their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked
not uprightly according to truth, I said unto Peter before them
all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles,
or not as do the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live
as the Jews do?" Now he's saying to this apostle, you've compromised
the gospel. Peter did. And if you want to
read the book of Acts, you'll find out where Paul compromised
the gospel. He was willing, under the influence
of James, to take the vow of the Nazarite, which included
him shaving his head, which he did do, and at the end of the
seven days, offering up a blood sacrifice. And he was going to
do that, and thankfully the Lord had him arrested before he could
have offered up that blood sacrifice. I don't know what would have
taken place if he would have done something like that, but what compromise
there was on the Apostle Paul's part. I think of the best of
men are men at best, and man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Let's not think of man as the
God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, but let's think of man at his
best state in the garden before the fall. Adam, he didn't have
a sinful nature like you and I have. And he couldn't keep
one commandment. Not even one. I mean, he had
it made. He had everything his heart could
desire. One tree that you can't eat of the fruit thereof. And
he fell before that with an innocent nature. You know, man, there's
no way any man could be saved by law. Even Adam, with an innocent
nature, could not be saved by law. And you look at the way
he turned out after the fall. He actually blames God. The woman
you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I did eat. And he became
dead in sins. And you think of all the examples
after that. You know, why is it Noah, this
great man of faith, why does the Bible point out after he
gets off the ark, Having been saved with his family, he plants
a vineyard, makes wine, and gets drunk, and something awful happens
after that. Why does the Bible point that out? It does. What about Abraham? Abraham,
two different occasions. He let his wife go into a harem. Now, can you imagine, men, can
you imagine if you let that happen with your wife? Can you imagine
the things you'd hear about that? And I'm sure Abraham heard them
too. But he allowed that to happen. He said, surely, I thought, here's
what he said, I thought surely the fear of God is not in this
place. What about his nephew Lot and all of the things that
he did? You would even assume he wasn't
a believer unless the Bible told us he was because of all the
things that he did and sought him. I think of Jacob. What a deceitful, manipulative
man. That's what he was. He was always trying to deceive,
trying to cheat. His name means supplanter. And his brother said,
he is what his name says. He's deceived me again. Look
at the 12 patriarchs. You want to talk about a dysfunctional
bunch of people. And Jacob knew it too. I mean,
when he talked about him, he said, Reuben, unstable as water,
thou shalt not excel. He said regarding Simeon, come
not near his secret, my soul, don't come near his secret. I
mean, you just, this is what the Bible presents about men. David, I was saying to Lynn,
what would you all think of me if I was unfaithful to Lynn and had a child through another woman
and then had a premeditated cold-blooded murder to cover it up. What would
you all think of me if I did that? David did. He surely did. What about Solomon, the way Solomon
died? You would wonder if he was even
a believer. The scripture says his heart was turned after the
wives. He had 700 wives, 300 concubines, and his heart was
turned after other gods through those women. That's what the
Bible testifies about him. Take it into the New Testament.
Look at the disciples. They were always arguing, but
right up to the death of Christ, they were always arguing over
which one of them was the greatest. The blunders they continually made. If you look into the churches
of the New Testament, take Romans, the epistle to the Romans, the
14th chapter is dedicated to not judging. Don't judge one
another anymore. And there was a real problem
in that church with that. Evidently an entire chapter was
devoted to that subject. What about the Corinthians, the
divisions, the sexual immorality, taking one another to a court,
people becoming drunk at the Lord's table, the abuse of gifts,
and then the Galatians, their desire to be under the law. The
Ephesians, you know, the Lord said to the church at Ephesus
in the book of Revelation, you've left your first love. You remember
that? You've left your first love. And evidently, Paul saw
something about them because he ends up that epistle by saying,
grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. He saw some problem there, didn't
he? You've got, every church had its problems. Philippians had two women he
actually named who were at odds with each other. The Colossians
were turning to man-made ordinances. And Paul said, why, as though
living in the world, are you subject to ordinances? Touch
not, taste not, and handle not. The Thessalonians had a bunch
of deadbeats there who wouldn't work and went around gossiping. And he rebuked them over that.
But I mean, in every one of these churches, Problems, problems,
problems. You see, wherever you've got
sinners together, even sinners saved by the grace of God, but
when you've got sinners together, what's going to happen? It's
that way. And, you know, I think, what
about Todd's Road to Grace Church? What about, and I don't want
you to think about anybody else's sin. I want you to think about
your own sin, your own sin. So when we see these Galatians
falling into this error, and yet Paul says, I have confidence
in you, we see that a true believer can go in a very bad direction
and could be very, very messed up, either embracing false doctrine
or some kind of sinful course in their life. I repeat, don't ever say a believer
would not do that, or a believer would never embrace that error.
With all the troubles going on in these churches in the New
Testament, we see that that's something we should not say,
should we? Never. Now, let's get back to
why did he say to these people, I have confidence in you. Look
at what he says in verse 10. I have confidence in you, what
are those next three words? Through the Lord. And that preposition
through is the same preposition that's generally translated in. I have confidence in you, in
the Lord. Now remember Paul's words in
Philippians chapter three, verse three, we are the circumcision.
which worship God in the Spirit. I love this verse. We worship
God. We worship Him for who He is.
We bow down before Him for who He is. We love who He is. We
worship Him in the Spirit. We know this is not fleshly worship.
The only way you can worship is through the Spirit of God.
He said we rejoice in Christ Jesus. There's one place of rejoicing
for every believer, isn't there? In Christ Jesus. Nowhere else.
And then he said, we have no confidence in the flesh. So Paul
wasn't saying to the Galatians, I have confidence in your flesh.
He didn't have any confidence in their flesh. He said, my confidence
in you is in the Lord. What confidence we have in the
Lord. You know, I love that verse of
Scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter 130, where it says, of him are
you in Christ Jesus. It doesn't say when we got in
him. We've been in him eternally. Of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. He is my wisdom. You know, God,
the immense, glorious God has fellowship with me because I
have the very wisdom of Christ. He is my wisdom. I'm fit for
fellowship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's made
unto me righteousness. He's made unto me sanctification,
holiness. He's made unto me redemption. Now, that is how Paul could have
confidence in these fellas. It's in the Lord. Turn with me
for a moment to Ephesians. I want to look at several of
these in the Lord, and we can see the emphasis of this in the
scripture. Ephesians, beginning in chapter
1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us, not he will
bless us if but he hath blessed us with A-double-L-all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. According as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted." He hath made us
accepted. Not, I'll be acceptable one of
these days, but right now. Right now, He hath made us accepted. Where? In the Beloved. In whom? We have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. Look in verse 9. Having made
known to us the mystery of His will, revelation, according to
His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself. Listen,
if you're a believer, God has made known to you the mystery
of His will. You know God's will and salvation. You know it's
His will that all that the Father given should come to Him. You
know the very will of God. Look in verse 11. In whom also
we have obtained an inheritance. We've already got it. We've obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
Look in verse six of chapter two. He's raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now that
means, beloved, that I'm already in heaven. If Christ is in heaven,
I am too, right now, present tense. Now you want to talk about
secure. How secure is Christ? That's how secure I am. I'm already
in heaven. It's not something to be grasped
for. I'm already there in the person of my blessed Redeemer.
Near, so near to God, nearer I cannot be. In the person of
His dear Son, I'm as near to God as He. Dear, so dear to God,
dearer I cannot be. In the person of His dear Son,
I'm as dear to God as He. Look in verse 15 of chapter two. having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law, having abolished in his flesh, this
is what he did, the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new man,
so making peace. Look in verse 21 of chapter 2.
"...in whom all the building fitly framed..." You know, we're
a building right now. We're stones in a big giant spiritual
building. "...the Lord Jesus Christ, in
whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy
temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together for an
habitation of God through the Spirit." Look in verse 6 of chapter
3, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body
and partakers of his promise in Christ. I love that, his promise
in Christ, by the gospel. Now, all the promises of God
in him are yea and amen. What if the promise went like
this, you'll be forgiven of that sin if you never commit it again.
Where would that leave you? Where would that leave you? You'll
be forgiven of that sin if you fill in the blank. There would
be no joy, no comfort, no rest, no peace, no assurance in anything
like that. Not for this sinner and not for
these sinners. I know that. But what glory there is in His
promises are in Christ. And they're all yea and they're
all amen. They're all positive in Christ Jesus. Aren't you thankful
for that? Look at Ephesians chapter 3 verse
12. in whom we have boldness and
access freedom of entrance with confidence by the faith of him. So we see Paul's confidence was
in the Lord. Now, here's what I see in this. Paul really believed in the perseverance
and the preservation of the saints. Here's where his confidence was.
His confidence was in knowing this, that he that had begun
a good work in you will perform it. He will complete it. He will perfect it. He doesn't
start something and then not finish it. Whatever he starts,
he will finish. And Paul understood that if God
had begun a work of grace in these people, he'd continue it. and that they would be brought
to repentance. He knew that. Turn with me for
a moment to First Thessalonians chapter five. First Thessalonians chapter five. Verse 24. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. Now, because of God's faithfulness,
he's going to cause me to do everything he says to do. Faithful
is he that calleth you. Now, what is the faithfulness
of God? Now, faithfulness is his utter and
complete reliability. He's the object of trust. You can't go wrong trusting Him
completely because of His faithfulness. He's faithful to do all He said
He'd do. He's faithful to be all He said
He'd be. He's utterly predictable in that
sense. He's utterly predictable. He's always going to be exactly
as He says He will be in His Word. When we say things like,
I don't want to put God in a box, None of us are able to put God
in a box. That's not a problem. We're not going to be able to
do that. But we can utterly predict how
He'll be. He's always going to be holy.
He's always going to be just. He's always going to be right.
He's always going to be sovereign. That's from his faithfulness.
His faithfulness arises from his immutability, his changelessness. His faithfulness arises from
his eternity. He never had a beginning. He'll
never have an end. He is who he is and he can't change. He
can't change. Don't you love the fact that
he cannot change? I am the Lord. I change not. He doesn't change in his essence. He doesn't change In His attributes,
whatever His attributes were, they are now, and whatever they
are now, they always will be. He doesn't change in His plans
or purposes. Whatever He purposed, it's always
going to be His purpose. There's no changes. There's no
contingency plans. He doesn't change in the objects
of His love. He does not change. That's His faithfulness. Faithful
is He that calleth you who also will do it. Whatever He calls
you to do, He will enable you to do it because He is faithful.
Let me tell you the scripture I like best about this. 1 John
1 verse 9 says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins. It doesn't say He's merciful
and gracious, although He is. It says He's faithful and just.
You see, if He forgives me of my sins, it's because He determined
before the foundation of the world to forgive me of all my
sins. And He's faithful to do whatever He is determined to
do. He's just to forgive me of my sins. You see, justice is
satisfied. My sins have been paid for. And
the very justice of God demands my salvation. It demands my forgiveness. All in His faithfulness. Now faithful is he that calleth
you. Now look at all the stuff he
tells them to do in this chapter. Begin in verse 16. Rejoice evermore. He'll enable you to do that.
Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks. For
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. That trial
you're going through, it's God's will concerning you. Thank God
for it. Don't quench the Spirit. Despise
not prophesying or preaching. Prove all things. Test what you
hear. Hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance
of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it." That's Paul's confidence. The Lord has
begun a good work in you, and he will complete it. Now that's
the confidence. And that's such a joy to me. I can't keep myself. I certainly
can't keep or preserve any of you guys. I can't keep myself.
But here's the deal. God does it. God, He preserves,
He keeps, and it's not in my hands, it's not in my responsibility,
it's in His responsibility. And don't you like it being there? I have confidence in you through
the Lord. But look what it says next in
our text, in Galatians chapter 5. Verse 10, I have confidence in
you through or in the Lord, now look what he says next, that
you will be none otherwise minded. Now, this is what is going to
happen if the Galatians belong to the Lord, they will be none
otherwise minded. In other words, God will bring
them to repentance. By the grace of God, they'll
quit being bewitched by the long mongers. By the grace of God,
they'll no longer be removed from the grace of Christ to another
gospel. By the grace of God, they'll no longer desire to be
under the law. They will no longer desire to
be in bondage to the weak and beggarly elements. In other words,
repentance, their mind will be changed. That's all repentance
means. Isn't it wonderful when your mind is changed? When you
have a certain attitude or have a certain thought, you don't
think that way anymore. Your mind has been changed. The
beauty of repentance. And God, if somebody belongs
to the Lord, he's going to bring them here. And here's what I
want us to get out of this. Believers are same-minded. Every believer is in perfect
agreement with regard to the gospel. They all believe the
same thing. There is a true unity. They're like-minded when their
minds are right. And sometimes their minds aren't
right. Sometimes they're wrong-minded. The Galatians were wrong-minded.
But when the Lord brings them to repentance, they're right-minded. They don't think differently.
There's a true unity. They think the same thing. They
love the same thing. There's a true like-mindedness. And when this is not apparent,
somebody's being wrong-minded. Now, think with me. Every believer,
first of all, every believer is in perfect agreement regarding
the Word of God. This is the Word of God. Believing God is all-powerful. Do you believe God's all-powerful?
Do you believe He's omnipotent? Do you believe He has no limitations? He's not limited by space or
time? He's all-powerful. Whatever He
wills, He has the power to perform. If He's all-powerful, He is able
to preserve this Word, His book, the Bible. And every believer
is in agreement that this word, this book, is our only rule of
faith and practice. This is authoritative. We really
believe that this book is the word of God. We really believe
that. I really believe it's divinely
inspired. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect,
truly furnished unto all good works. We really believe that.
And not only do we really believe that the Bible is the word of
God, it's authoritative to us. We believe what it says. We don't
go to the Bible to prove what we believe. We go to the Bible
to find out what to believe. We really do. And we're in complete
agreement with What the Lord said when He said to the Pharisees,
you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life, and they are they which testify of Me. We really believe
that. The Bible is given to testify
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the purpose of every story,
of every doctrine, of every rite and ceremony, of every sacrifice.
They're all given to testify of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
there's perfect harmony with every believer about that. I'm
looking at some people who said, yep, that's exactly what I believe.
Yeah, that's what we believe. I love the way, I love the we
knows of Paul. We know, we know, we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God. Who's
the we, Paul? Every believer. We all know that. Somebody says,
I don't, then you're not a believer. You're not part of the we. All
the we's do believe. We believe the Bible is the word
of God. And we're all At agreement, what
am I going to do with my glasses there? I can't see my notes without
my glasses. I'm sorry. There is agreement with what
this book says about God's character. We believe everything this book
says about God, don't we? We believe he's holy. Somebody
says, what's that mean? That just means he's just altogether
not like me and you. That's holiness. I like what
Aaron, when you said it's his utter inability to accept anything
but perfection, that's him. And he's just not like me. And
we believe what the Bible says regarding his sovereignty, that
he's the first cause behind everything, he controls everything. I love
him being the first cause behind everything, don't you? I love
knowing that whatever happens, he caused it! He caused it. Are you saying God is the author
of evil? No, I'm not saying that, but I'm saying He caused it.
And I'm saying it's all part of His purpose and plan, and
whatever He does is right. And I'm so okay with that. Aren't you okay with God being
on the throne, ruling and controlling and everything? We love His holiness,
we love His justice, the fact that He's going to punish all
sin. We love His immutability, that He's never going to change.
I'm the Lord. I change not, therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. Oh, there's agreement. We agree
with what this book says about God, don't we? That's who God
is. How somebody really views God
is seen in how they respond to what this book says regarding
the living God, the living and true God. And not only Are we
at agreement with regard to what this book says regarding the
character of God? We're also in agreement with
what this book says regarding the character of man. And God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Amen. What's your name? Sinner. What's your nature? Sin. What do you do? I sin. What about the best things
you do? They're all sins. You believe
that? You believe? Do you really believe? There's complete agreement with
every believer regarding what the Bible says regarding man. And we're at complete agreement
regarding salvation. Salvation is in Christ alone. Salvation is by grace alone. Salvation is through faith alone. We all believe in the simplicity
that's in Christ. That means the singleness, the
singularity, the simplicity that's in Christ. What that means is,
that means he is all in salvation. And that means He is all that
I have. I don't have anything else. Not
only, I don't want anything else. That's the simplicity, the singularity
that's in Christ Jesus. You see the simplicity of Christ
Jesus, it forbids the word and. It's not Christ and my fill in
the blank. Christ alone is all in my soul. All God requires of me, He looks
to His Son for every bit of it. He doesn't look for a thing out
of me, and I sure am glad, aren't you? What if He had to find something
in you? You wouldn't be saved, would
you? I was reading just today about a lady, I've said this
before, but she was talking about election. And she said, I know
that I must have been chosen before the foundation of the
world, because if God would have waited till after I was born,
he would have never chose me. I thought, yeah, I can see that. I can see
that. Christ is all. And you know, aren't we in complete agreement
that Jesus Christ gets all the glory in our salvation? We're
complete agreement, aren't we? We say amen. He gets all the
glory. Now Paul says, I'm confident
in you, in the Lord, that you will be none otherwise minded. I'm confident that you will be
brought to repentance. I know you're not going to stay
this way, but look what he says at the end of the verse. But,
but he that trouble with you, Look back in Galatians 1. I marvel that you're so soon
removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ unto
another gospel, which is not another, but that there's some
that trouble you and would pervert, would change the gospel of Christ.
But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel
unto you than that which we've preached unto you, let him be
accursed. That's wrong language. He's saying,
let him be damned. As we said before, just in case
someone didn't hear me, as we said before, so say I now again,
if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which you've
received, let him be accursed. Now, back to Galatians 5.10.
He that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be."
The person who did this is going to bear the judgment, the wrath
of God. Whoever he is, he's an enemy
of Christ. Christ is called the sinner's
friend. He is the friend of every sinner. And he is the enemy of everyone
who's not a sinner and who rejects the gospel and who changes the
gospel. And if you have Christ as your
enemy, oh, that's not an enemy you can stand before. He said
that person who troubles you, who brings in this other gospel, He's going to bear God's judgment,
whosoever he be. You know, when I think of stuff
like this, I said to Lynn today or yesterday or today, I said,
it's a scary thing to try to preach the gospel. I don't want
to misrepresent the Lord. I don't want to Oh, may he be
our teacher that we don't do anything like that. But what
a place to what a place to have confidence. I have. I have confidence
in you. Through the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would cause
us by your grace. To be none otherwise minded. Give us this blessed assurance that the Bible is your word,
and that you are as you reveal yourself in your word, and we
are as you reveal we are in your word. and that Christ is all
in salvation as you've revealed in your word. And Lord, give
us the grace to hold on only to that and be none otherwise
minded. Bless this word for your glory
and for our good. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
We got one.