We'll be in the book of Galatians
chapter 3 both hours, if you'd like to turn there. Galatians chapter 3. We've clearly seen the error
of the Galatians following after Peter and Barnabas. We see the
error of mixing law and grace, how they were saying that Christ
is all, salvation is by grace alone, but you have to be circumcised. And somebody might say, well,
that kind of thinking doesn't exist anymore. Actually, it's
alive and well, it just doesn't manifest itself for the same
way as it used to. See, to add one thing to the
finished work of Christ, just one, is doing the exact same
thing that the Galatians were doing. Paul said it this way,
I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel, which is
not another gospel at all. That's what Paul said. He asserts
his amazement of this ideology. Here he continues his disdain
with the Galatians false gospel, not with them in particularly
personally. He's not coming across angrily. He's not coming across
brash or harsh. The Lord's preachers preach in
love, but he is to the point. He is direct, just as our Lord
was direct. But he explains to them that they have been bewitched. That's what I've titled this
message, Bewitched. Look at verse one. I only want to read one
verse this hour. Oh foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified among you. The title is Bewitched. You know
what bewitched means? Who hath bewitched you? Who's
flattered you? Who's flattered you? Who has
played a magic trick on you? See, we know that magicians that
get up, they show you what they want you to see. They don't show
you the truth. The card really didn't disappear.
They just tucked it somewhere else. The hand is quicker than
the eye. Men came in, these false prophets came in, and they begin
to preach a false gospel by adding one thing to the finished work
of Christ. Now they have been flattered. See, the flesh longs
for and desires to have some part in salvation. Our flesh
longs for and desires to have some part in our own salvation.
Why is that? Well, because the flesh wants
glory. Just as Satan wanted glory from
the very beginning. I will ascend above the heavens.
I'll become as the most high. It's always been the case. Satan
is not, we can't see in the flesh that Satan is the angel of darkness. He's not, he's the angel of light,
the scripture says. Think about this. And his ministers
are sent forth as ministers of light. not ministers of darkness. His ministers are sent forth
as ministers of light and ministers of light. They don't
go forth and talk about living frivolously and doing this or
doing that. They're taking the gospel The
ministers of darkness that are coming forth, they look like
they're coming forth in light. They're taking the gospel and
they're just adding one thing to it. That changes the whole
meaning. That's to discredit the blood
altogether. That's to change what really happened on the cross.
Scripture tells us this, there's a way that seemeth right unto
man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And this is
the way that seems right to man, to be religious, to practice
ceremonies, to do good works, to try to live a certain way.
These are the things that these men would tell and the flesh
likes that because they can see evidence now that there are something
that they're supposed to be where God will be pleased with them.
When in actuality, God is only pleased with one, his son. He's
only pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ. Here we have a people that trusted
Christ by grace, through faith, believed on him, believed the
gospel that Paul was preaching. Then you have wolves that come
in in sheep's clothing. You have wolves that come in
and they start sowing discord by telling the lie. They just
added one word. That's what Satan did in the
garden, wasn't it? You shall not surely die. One word, that's
all it took. Changed the entire meaning of
the word of God. This is what men do. They do
it subtly. It's sad because a lot of times men don't know that
they're doing it. They don't know that they have
fooled themselves into thinking God will accept them, and it's
not true. Understand something, by our
own belief, if left to ourself, we'll obey the flesh. If left
to ourself, we'll obey the flesh. The flesh receiveth not the things
of God because they're enmity to him. The flesh cannot receive
spiritual because it's fleshly. It's of the earth, earthly. So
what do we need? Well, we need to be born from
above. We need God to save us, God to give us a new heart, give
us faith to believe him, birth us by his spirit that we may
look to him. Otherwise we'll find ourself
in the same situation as these Galatians thinking, okay, we'll
say, salvation's of the Lord, salvation's all of grace, but
I have to do this also. And I have to do this also, or
I don't do that. I can't do that anymore. Anytime
we're looking at the natural, anytime we're looking at the
flesh, we are not looking to Christ. We don't look for outward
evidence of salvation. Christ is our salvation. We look
to Christ alone. We look to His finished work
alone. We don't look to our sacrifice. We don't look to our work. We
don't look to our life. Scripture says this, if our life
be hid, it's hid with Christ in God. We look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. as all of our righteousness,
all of our wisdom, all of our sanctification, and all of our
redemption. The moment we take our eyes off of him and look
to self, we're sinking like Peter. We're sinking like Peter. And
the Lord may leave us in that state just for a moment, momentarily,
but we'll be made, if we're his, we'll be made to cry out, Lord,
save me. Lord, save me. These individuals,
brethren, they sacrificed Calvary for Mount Sinai. That's what
they did. They sacrificed Calvary for Mount
Sinai. They sacrificed liberty for bondage. They sacrificed freedom for slavery. That's what it is to go back
to the law. You're going back to bondage as we're going to
see here soon in Galatians. It's the curse of the law. By
the works of the law, no man will be justified. It doesn't
matter what law it is, whether it's ceremonial, civil, or moral,
it doesn't matter. No flesh shall be justified by
the works of the law. But what are we justified by?
By the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. By God
sending forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law. This is the good news
of the gospel, for we cannot save ourself The flesh was weak. God sent forth his son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the
flesh. That's the good news. You know what they did in doing
this? They exchanged Christ for Moses. Think about that. That's
what you're doing when you go back to the law. You're exchanging
Christ for Moses. It's a different covenant. It's
the covenant of works. Covenant of grace far exceeds the covenant
of works. It's eternal. It's everlasting.
It never had a beginning. It never had an end. And that's
the only way we can find salvation is through and by the covenant
of grace that Christ had to fulfill all by himself on the cross of
Calvary. They traded their faith for works. They traded liberty
for labor. This is the message to the Galatians. Who hath bewitched
you? Who hath fooled you? Who hath
duped you? Who has tickled your ears, so to speak, made you feel,
made you, isn't that what the Lord says, talks about at the
end times, men shall be, they're going to be seducers. They're
teachers having itching ears. That's what, that's what that's
talking about. Itching ears. They say whatever
it is that they have to say in order to make whomever feel what
they want them to feel. And then they have, they're in
a lie, they're caught, they're trapped, they don't even know
it, they're in bondage, they're in slavery, they're thinking
God's proud of me because I do this or I do that. And the Lord
says, no, you've made a covenant with death and in hell you're
in agreement, but when the overflowing scourge comes, there'll be no
hiding place for you. There's only one hiding place,
and it's in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's it. He's the cleft
of the rock. He's the ark. If we're not in
him, when the flood comes, we'll be destroyed. We'll be destroyed. Who hath bewitched you? To bewitch
is to charm, to deceive, enchant, delight, flatter. Boy, you know
Satan has a flattering tongue, don't you? He's the father of
lies, that's what Christ called him. has been from the beginning,
a murderer from the beginning, the father of lies, that's who
he is. This bewitching means that the false gospel appeals
to the flesh. Our flesh loves the false gospel. It's all by sight. That's why
you can see it. You can see it. We can watch
each other. We can see each other's lives.
We can see things that we're doing or we're not doing and
we think that we are becoming more holy or more better because
we're resisting this urge or we're sacrificing this or we're
not doing that. You won't find that in the scripture
as part of salvation. Salvation is by grace through
faith in that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. That's simple, isn't it? That's
simple. We don't go to the law looking
for salvation. We go to the law, all we're gonna
see is how sinful we are. We can't do anything, we can't
work the works of the law and achieve anything before God other
than damnation, that's it. Other than judgment, other than
justice. Now these here, the reason these Galatians got caught
up in this and the reason there's so many churches, and let me
just say this, this is a representation of every false church, every
one of them. There's no difference in false
churches. It may be a different ism or shism. It may be a different
baptism. It may be a different, uh, maybe
they take communion. I don't know what all the possibilities
are endless. But don't doubt this. If we add
one thing to the finished work of Christ, we are not looking
to Christ as our righteousness. We're looking to self. God says,
I'll disannul that covenant. That's the covenant of works
that you went back to. That covenant of works says,
look at me, look what I've done, look at my service, look at my
lifestyle, look at my choices, look at my good works, look at
my kindness towards others. You ever heard somebody say,
boy, he's such a good man, he's so kind to other people? Why
do you think they do that? That's part of their righteousness,
that's why they do that. I would like for people to say that about
us too, but we're not going around doing it because of our righteousness.
Oh yeah, I'm this and this and this and I'm, it's just, it's
all fake. No, faith worketh by love. Our
motivation is love, not go back to the law for righteousness.
We're looking to Christ and that love that we have, that's why
we're kind to others. That's why we're kind to each other.
That's what the scripture tells us. Be you kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4.32, this is what
the Lord's people do because this is what's been given to
them to do. By faith, faith alone, everything God requires, He provided.
Now we don't look at our choices or our good work, but what does
the gospel say? What's the difference? Because this is a parallel right
here. You have the covenant of works, covenant of grace. You
have Mount Sinai, you have Mount Calvary. You have the bondwoman,
you have the free woman. That's what all this is right
here. What does the gospel declare? Christ is all in salvation. Christ is all in salvation. It
is not your contribution that determines your salvation. It
is not your prayer that saves you. It is not your works that
save you. You're saved by grace alone. This is the Lord Jesus
Christ. His word has given us that. We
know that this is true. Scripture says, not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
according to his mercy, he saved us, not by works of righteousness,
which we, why not? Because we can't work works of
righteousness, that's why. They either in the flesh cannot
please God. This is the message all throughout
the Galatians, all throughout the scripture, really. I mean,
but this is the specific message that's just similar to what was
in Hebrews, wasn't it? He was telling them the same thing.
They had the Judaizers there too, these Judaizers. That's
what they do is they bring you underneath the law. That's what
Judaizer by definition is. It's the religion's Judaism. Judaism is still alive and well
today. They're still over there mixing law and grace, mixing
law and grace. And men do that. In America,
just as much as over in the Middle East, they do it everywhere.
Men want to mix law and grace, works and rest. And how can you
mix works and rest? There's no way, is there? You
can't work and rest. Either you're resting or you're
working. We are saved by sovereign grace,
God's sovereign grace alone, or we're not saved at all. That's
what Paul's telling us back in verse 21 of chapter two, just
go up a verse, look at that. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Then he says in Galatians chapter
five, verse four, Christ is become of no effect to you, whosoever
of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace. That's
simple, isn't it? The moment we go to the law for
justification, We don't have grace anymore. We've fallen from
grace. We've fallen from grace. It's simple, isn't it? Salvation
is by the Lord, by the finished work of Christ alone, trusting
or turning to anything else means that we have been bewitched.
We've been tricked. We've been duped. Somebody's
flattered us with their lips. We've heard a lie and believed
it. Aren't you glad the scripture says you're kept by the power
of God, through faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time? You're not your own, you've been bought with a price. That's
the good news of the gospel. We belong to God, and if we belong
to God, there may be a moment of weakness in our unbelief,
where we find ourself doing something that we regret or we did not
mean to do, we did not want to do. Paul said that himself, the
things which I would do, that I not, but that which I would
not, that's exactly what I do. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? Good news is the Lord
keeps his sheep. He keeps his sheep. How do we
know? He said, well, my sheep, hear
my voice. And I know them and they follow me. And I give unto
them eternal life and they shall never, never, never perish. Never perish. He won't leave
his people to themselves. All that the Father gives to
me shall come to me. He that cometh to me I'll in no wise
cast out. Verse one again, O foolish Galatians.
I'm going to elaborate a little bit more on this. later on, but
he's not calling them stupid. That's not what he's saying.
When he said foolish, it's actually not a condescending term. It
means unlearned. Unlearned. It's a similar word
as ignorant. So he's not condescending to them. He's not speaking down
to them. He's simply saying, are you unlearned? Who hath bewitched
you? It's a rhetorical question. He already knows the answer because
he was the one that taught them the gospel to begin with. So
he knew that they knew the gospel. That's why he's saying you're
not unlearned. You've been flattered. You've been tricked. You've been
tricked. Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the
truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set
forth crucified among you? Trusting in anything else is
being bewitched. It's flattery to the flesh by
the lie. This is what That's what's preached in all false
churches. They cling to Moses, follow after legal principles,
follow after ordinances. They do their ceremonies. Some
people make tithing part of their salvation. Our flesh wants a
part so bad that it will try to do anything to have glory.
The Lord says, you're not going to get my glory. No, my people
look to me. My people give me all the glory.
That's what his gospel declares is he gets all the glory and
salvation that he finished the work given to him by his father,
that there's nothing left to be done. If there's something
that God is waiting on you to do for you to be saved, then
he was not successful on the cross of Calvary. It's that simple.
Was he successful? Absolutely. He sat down. He said
when he had by himself purged our sin, he sat down on the right
hand of God. Hebrews chapter one, verse three. Can a seated
Lord still have work to do? No, his work is finished. His
people are in Christ in the heavenlies. That's the good news of the gospel.
He's not looking to you to satisfy God. He satisfied God on his
people's behalf. He saved his people from their
sin. He redeemed us by his own blood. These men, these bewitched individuals,
they follow the commandments of men. They follow the commandments
of men. They follow the traditions of
man. There's a lot of traditions.
that do not point to Christ, but yet they follow after them.
Church after church will have these traditions that they do,
and they're not of the Lord. They're just not. The Lord says
this, those who are looking to themselves, those who are bewitched,
those who are trying to keep tradition, trying to go to Moses
for their righteousness, trying to work out their own salvation
physically. You know that verse, work out
your own soul's salvation. You heard that verse? He's not
talking about working, going and doing something. No, he's
talking about, same thing he said in another place, examine
yourself, see if you'd be in the faith, not examine your works.
Look on the inside and be honest with yourself. Is there anything
that I'm looking to other than Christ's blood for my acceptance
before God? That's how you work out your
own soul salvation. There's no other salvation besides that,
besides the blood alone. besides his finished work alone.
He's saying examine and see if there's anything in you. That's
why David prayed that. Lord, search me. Lord, know me. If there be any evil, wicked
thing in me, take it out. Get rid of it, because the Lord's
the only one that can do that. We can't fix ourself. The Lord
says those who are bewitched, those who did not obey the truth,
They say all of grace, salvation's all of grace, but yet they go
to the law as part of their righteousness, or evidence of salvation, either
one, it's either one, either as part or evidence of their
salvation. The Lord says this, you have forsaken me, the fountain
of living water, and you have hewed yourself out cisterns,
broken cisterns that can hold no water. That's what the Lord
says. This is having filthy rags as
our righteousness. That's all that that is. This
is having, it's discrediting, it's having discredited the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ altogether. Somebody said, well, no, we still
believe in the blood, but you just have to do this also. Well,
that means the blood wasn't successful. If the blood wasn't successful,
it's calling the blood a common thing. It didn't accomplish what
it was supposed to accomplish. The Lord says, no, it's by the
blood alone. He didn't say when I see the
blood, and your works." He didn't say, when I see the blood and
you taking the Passover lamb inside that door that's closed. He didn't say that. He said,
when I see the blood, I will pass by you. That's what he's
looking for. Brethren, there's nothing else
that he's looking for in you or in me for righteousness, but
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing else he's looking
in you and me for, for our justification, but Christ's finished work alone.
He's not looking to your works for sanctification. We're going
to hear that the second hour. No, we've been sanctified by
spirit. We've been set apart. He's done
it all. This is the message here to the
Galatians. The problem brethren, these that
do this, the ones that are bewitched, the ones that do not obey the
truth, they're just simply refusing to submit to the righteousness
of God. Christ is the righteousness of
God and to submit to him is to submit to his salvation, to submit
to his... And I'll say this, we can't choose
to do that. I think I'm gonna submit today.
No, it doesn't work like that. The Lord has to give repentance
and faith. And when he goes those two, then we submit, we say,
truth, Lord, I am a dog. Truth, Lord, I am a dead dog
sinner that needs a savior. It's refusing, those that don't
bow, they're refusing. to submit to the righteousness
of God, the refusing to trust Christ as all of the righteousness
before the throne of God. Paul deals with this bewitching,
not verbatim, but it's the same thing over in Ephesians chapter
four, turn there with me, Ephesians chapter four. Look at verse 11. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints and the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to
and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the
slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive."
Do you see what he's talking about there? It's the same thing.
It's the same ones that are bewitching. That's who he's talking about
here. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him
in all things, which is the head of even Christ, from whom the
whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part, making increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love. This I say, therefore, and testify
in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened.
Here's the ones that's bewitched. Having their understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who
being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness,
to work all uncleanness with greediness. but ye have not so
learned Christ. That's the good news right there,
that's it. You have not so learned Christ. If so be that you have
heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus
that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old
man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness true holiness. The Lord's people, when they
are born again, are created in righteousness and true holiness.
When the Lord sees his people, he sees righteousness and true
holiness. But those who believe the lie, as we just read, they've
been given over to all manner of different things. Lasciviousness
is one of them. The definition for lasciviousness is shamelessness,
excess, and filthiness. There's nothing more filthy than
There's nothing more shameless and filthy than for a man to
stand on a pulpit and tell everybody that Jesus loves everybody the
same way. That's blasphemy. There's nothing more shameful
for that man to do, but they're doing it shamelessly. They brag
about letting Jesus have his way. They brag about God. I made
God my Lord. They say these things. This is
what the lie does. This is what this bewitching
does. They go the way of Cain, bringing the works of their hand.
This is what the lie does. No, the Lord don't need our help
by making a decision. And he certainly don't need our
help making the blood effectual, does he? It accomplished that
which he purposed for it to accomplish. This is to say, if we have to
make the blood effects, what's to say Jesus was a failure? And
that is the highest form of blasphemy. Those who hold this lie, they're
bewitched. They're flattered by what appeals to the flesh.
They're flattered by what they can see. They're flattered by
what they know and what they do. rather than being flattered
by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord talks about the Song
of Solomon being smitten, being smitten. The Shulamite girl,
she was talking about being smitten of her beloved. See, the Lord,
we fall in love with Him. We fall in love with Him. We
love our Lord. He's the most precious and the most beautiful.
And the flesh says, well, I want some glory, but no, that new
man that we just read about just looks to Christ and said all
glory and honor and praise to the lamb, which was slain forever
and ever. That's why he said here, you have not so learned
Christ. You didn't learn it the way that
this is being taught. You haven't learned it the way
that it's being said. This bewitching, this lie, you've learned Christ.
You've been taught of God. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. We hear his voice, we're taught
of God. That's what he said. They'll all be taught of me,
the Lord said. And what are we taught? Are we taught to return
to the law for righteousness? No. We're taught that Christ
is all. We're taught that it is finished.
We're taught that he is seated. We're taught that we are the
center and he is the savior. We're taught how he made us accepted
in the beloved. He knew no sin was made to be
sin that we might be made the righteousness of God for he hath
made him who knew no sin. to be made sin, that we may admit
the righteousness of God. And this is our hope, this is
our only hope. He took our sin and nailed him to this cross
and put him away. He's not waiting on me and you to do something
in order for the sin to be gone. Those he died for, the sin's
already gone. We just find out about it in time. This is the
calling that he does for his people. He's bringing them out
of darkness into light. God's people are taught the truth.
What is the truth? We heard a message on that a
couple weeks ago, didn't we? What is truth? Pilate asked the Lord,
what is truth? Christ said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Christ is truth. What is the
Lord's people taught? They're not taught about Christ. They're taught Christ, he's all. They're not taught about how,
they're not taught just random facts of scripture. We're taught
that Christ is all in scripture. Every word points to him. He's
the topic, he's the focal point. He's the reason that any of us,
if any of us are to be saved, he'll be the reason that we're
saved. When Christ went to the cross,
he wasn't trying to do anything. He was fulfilling the word of
God. It wasn't an attempt. That's
just to diminish his isness, to say it that way. It wasn't
an attempt. He couldn't fail, he was God. He was God. He was going to fulfill the promise
that his people, his elected people, would be redeemed back
to God. They would be purchased by the
blood. They would be saved from their self, saved from their
sin, saved from Satan and the world, saved from bewitching,
saved from all of it. And he by himself purged our
sin. Hebrews chapter one, verse three.
When his soul was made an offering for sin, it was an offering to
man. It was an offering to his father and his father was well
pleased. Nothing changed from the time the Lord said that whenever
he went and got baptized with John the Baptist to the time
he was on the cross, he was perfect. Lord Jesus Christ pleased the
father on the cross. In so much he justified every
single one of the people he was dying for, justified, fulfilled
the law. Don't return to the law, it's
been fulfilled. It's been fulfilled in the Lord
Jesus Christ. This was all by his doing, his
will, his purpose and for his people. Now, I wanna turn to
one more place and then we'll go back to our text and close.
So 2 Thessalonians chapter two, Here you have the parallels again
that we talked about. You have the ones working for
the law, the ones by grace. You have the saved, you have
the lost. This is what he's describing here. Look at verse seven, second
Thessalonians chapter two. For the mystery of iniquity doth
already work. Only he who now let it will let
until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked
be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all
powers and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness and
unrighteousness in them that perish because they received
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for
this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should
believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. This are they
left to themselves. How does God send them strong
delusion? How does God send them strong delusion? He leaves them
to themselves. They believe the lie because
that's what the flesh will believe. The flesh is bound to its nature.
It will always choose the lie, that I can contribute something
for my salvation, or I can contribute something for my justification,
or I can contribute something for my sanctification, or there
should be outward evidences of these things in my life, and
if I don't see that, I need to do more. None of that's true.
No, that's true. Christ said it is finished. Christ
didn't say come to work. He said, come unto me, all you
that are labored and are heavy laden. I will give you what?
Rest. We rest on the Lord's Sabbath,
the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's who he rested on. That's
who he's satisfied with. Oh, how does the Lord send strong
delusions? He allows them to be flattered. by leaving them
to themselves. What a sad state for an individual
to be in. Here's the good news, let's continue
reading, verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, wherein so he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions
which ye have been taught, whether by word or epistle. Now our Lord
Jesus Christ himself and God, even our father, which hath loved
us and hath given us an everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace, comfort your hearts, establish you in every good word and work.
These are the called according to his purpose. These are the
kept according to his power. These are the Lord's people.
That's the good news. We have the two, the bewitched. And now
some of these that were bewitched back in, we can go ahead and
turn back to Galatians three. Some of these that were bewitched,
bewitched were, they were duped, but they were still the Lord's
understand that. Paul hadn't given up hope, or he wouldn't
have wrote the letter. If Paul thought it was all for nothing
and they were all going to believe the lie, and no, he wrote the
letter in order to tell the ones that were the Lord's, don't do
that. Don't go back to the law for
righteousness. That's not okay. Now we know that because we have
the epistle, but These men will take traditions, and not just
these men, but men in our time, too, will take a tradition that's
not even in the scripture, and they'll try to apply it at some
point in salvation, but they'll be having their own righteousness.
That's what they're doing, and that's what he was talking about
in 2 Thessalonians. They're gonna do the things that
they think is best, the things that they think is right. But
he said, not you, because you're chosen unto God and to salvation.
Lord's going to keep us. Lord's going to keep us by his
gospel, according to the riches of his grace. Oh foolish Galatians who have
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified among you. Thank God we are saved by his
power. We are kept by his power and
grace. We are brought to an understanding
that Christ is all by his mercy. We are made to see our sin has
been put away. Can't see it ourself, but we
believe it by faith, don't we? That's how we see it. We're kept
by Him, made to look to Christ alone as all of our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, made to look to Christ as everything
in salvation. May the Lord be pleased to keep
our eyes on Him. Never become bewitched, never
become seduced by those which would sow discord or sow the
lie. May we always remember Christ is all in salvation. The law
was not given for eternal life. The law was given by Moses, but
eternal life came by the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and truth.
That's what that is, came by the Lord Jesus Christ. The good
news is, even if we deny him, this is what the scripture says,
even if we deny him, Our faithful high priest, our mediator remains
faithful. He cannot deny himself. He cannot
deny himself. He will bring us back. He will
bring us back. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take this and bless it to our understanding for your
glory. In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.