We're going to pick up our study in the book of Galatians tonight. Our seventh message in the book of Galatians. If you have your Bibles, you can open them up and turn over to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. We're going to be looking at Galatians chapter 3, verses 1 through 5. That's going to be our text tonight. didn't. Should I just have to tap on the pen to make it work? Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. Thank you. Galatians chapter three. So I'm a big sport fan, and this section of scripture as I studied it, it just blew me away how it's correlated to an ESPN section that they have. They started some years ago. It was called Come On Man. Anybody here, come on, man? Yeah, I mean, come on, man. I mean, stories about, like, Patrick Mahomes scrambling for, like, five minutes, five defenders, just about tackling him. And he gets away, and he throws a sidearm pass to Kelsey in the end zone, and Kelsey drops it, you know, for the win. Just come on, man. Or a story like, Your wife, you've had a rough week. You don't know why. Sometimes those guys don't know why the week is rough. But you want to please your wife, so she asks you to go to the grocery store. Pick up some flour. So you head to the grocery store. You know, slip and slide in the road to get to the parking lot. There's no parking spaces in the grocery store. And somebody pulls out way in the back. So you run over there with your new truck. And you see the spot. And the spot's really narrow. And there's an old beater Chevy truck next to it. And you're thinking, man, should I park here? But man, I've got to hurry up and get this flower. And so you squeeze your vehicle in there. You go into the store. This guy's going to a grocery store. We don't know what we're looking for. And we don't ask questions. We're going to figure this out. So you stumble around the grocery store for about a half hour, and you find a flower. And you're just excited. You get this flower, and you head to the cash register, and you pay for it, and you get out to the parking lot. I hear your truck's got a great big door ding on it. My new truck, and you know, some of us worship our vehicles more than we do our wife. But you get in your truck, and you go home, and you go in the door, and you say, honey, I did it. I got it. She says, come on, man, that's the wrong kind of flower. I mean, this is the type of tone Paul has in this passage of scripture here in the book of Galatians. It's really a powerful, powerful section here. Real privilege to teach. Just to catch everybody up to speed, this is our seventh lesson in the book of Galatians. And we've seen so far in the first two chapters were about Paul's life, his autobiography, so to speak. And we see chapter one, how Paul was an apostle appointed by God. with a message of the gospel of grace. And so Paul's authority was being challenged here in Galatia by the false teachers. And we see that he addressed the people in Galatia. Paul did say, and if anybody preaches any other gospel than what you heard from us, let them be accursed. If it's not a gospel of grace, it's an accursed message. Then we see in chapter 2, or the rest of chapter 1, how Paul goes back and talks about before he got saved, how he was a persecutor of the Christians. But he got saved, he was converted, and now he's a bondservant, he's a slave of Christ. He's a slave of Christ. And then we've seen where Paul, in chapter two, verses one, the section there, how he went up to Jerusalem, up because it was elevation, down geographically, but he went there and met with the church leaders. to unify the message that they were both preaching. The Jerusalem church had the same issues. But Paul went there, met with them, and the message was unified, that Paul's preaching the same message we are hearing in Jerusalem. Then we see in our section, the last two Wednesdays was just one long sentence, Galatians chapter two, verses 11 through 21, about, where Paul publicly rebuked Peter because he was saying one thing, eating with everyone, and then when the Jews come around, he separated to the Jews. He was dividing, and Paul went on to explain that the only way to be justified before God is by faith. We're not justified by the deeds of the law. We're not justified by the deeds of the law. So that's the story. So we're gonna read our text here, verses one through five of Galatians chapter three. Follow along with me. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Therefore, he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? So this big issue that we're talking about here in the book of Galatians is these legalistic Judaizers in Galatia are telling these new believers that you gotta keep the law in order to be saved, to stay saved, and to be sanctified. You gotta keep the law. You gotta be legalistic, that legalistic mindset, or perform a certain way to stay saved. And you know, Nick brought this up very clearly last Wednesday night in verses 16 to 21. I mean, these are the go-to verses that say that no man is justified by the deeds of the law. We're justified by faith alone in Jesus Christ. So what's Paul gonna say? Oh, foolish Galatians. Oh, foolish Galatians. Come on, man. What's wrong with you guys? I've taught you. I've spent time with you. Oh, foolish Galatians. You know, this word foolish literally means to not be thinking. To be bamboozled, we call it in our day. To be without understanding. It doesn't mean to be dumb. It means to be just not understanding. Foolish. Why would you Take what I taught you, Paul said, and go backwards under the law. Paul was just shocked that these believers were selling out for, they're selling out the truth of the gospel for legalism. I mean, come on, man. You know, we talk about this term and legalism, what does that word mean? Legalism is man's futile attempt to gain God's acceptance based upon his own merits, usually sought after through self-sacrifice and good deeds. Obey and you'll be blessed. Disobey and you'll be cursed. That's the mindset. It is the idea that God owes you because you perform certain deeds. You know what? I default to legalism often. That's just kind of the way my mind is. So, I mean, it's a battle. It's a battle. But if you understand grace, all that God is able to do for us is based upon what Christ did for us on the cross. God loves us unconditionally. He's offering us eternal life by his grace. And God is expressing his love toward us by giving us something we could never earn or merit. We can never earn or merit salvation. You know, this chart shows really well, I mean, legalism is depending upon self. Anybody ever been there before? Yeah, I've been there. Grace, you're depending upon God. Legalism, you're grieving the Holy Spirit. Can a believer grieve the Holy Spirit? Yes, he can. Grace, you're filled with the Holy Spirit. Legalism is glorifying yourself. Look at me. Where grace, you want God glorified and everything. Legalism enslaves you. It's always based on performance or looks. Where grace sets you free. Legalism is action based upon emotions. Grace is actions based upon biblical principles. Biblical principles. Legalism produces an arrogant attitude. Grace produces a humble, thankful attitude. Instead of being worried and distressed under legalism, you can be confident and content. You can be resting in God's promises. Grace is where we want to be. That's the mindset we want to have. So, let's get back to our study here. There's a rhetorical question here. Who has bewitched you? That you should not obey the truth. Who has bewitched you? First question was, who is the who? And Paul didn't bring it out, and he didn't call these people out by name, these legalistic Judaizers, because Paul was looking for the principle with these Galatians. That's what he was concerned about, more than the personalities. Did Paul call people out? Yes. But here with the Galatians, he was worried about the principle. Who has bewitched you? Now, bewitched is an interesting word. It's a word that carries the idea of sorcery. It carries the idea of mysticism. But it originally meant to slander or to speak ill of. It also speaks of like casting a spell on somebody. But that's not what this means here. They were just being fooled. They were being fooled. You know, the thought that they could be put under a spell and be woken up for that, that's not at all what this is talking about. The Greek word means to charm or to fascinate or to mislead in a certain way, to mislead in a certain way, as by flattery. Have you ever been flattered and bewitched by something? Flattery, false promises. Clearly suggest the use of feeling over fact. dealing with emotions instead of a clear understanding. You know, there's places in the world that deal with bewitchment or deal with sorcery or that type of thing, but we don't, in my world, I don't, but in Myanmar they do, they deal with it. Or people are placed under spells or bewitchments, sorcery. Ecuador they do. I mean, it's something that Blake and Allison, I'm sure, deal with a lot. And the culture here, you could understand in Galicia, it was a real issue as well. So he's using this word to say, guys, who has fooled you? Who has bamboozled you? That you should not, Obey the truth. Ask them a question. Not obey the truth. Why were these Galatians being persuaded to not to obey the truth? You know, they had all the evidence. Paul had been there, he taught them. They trusted Christ their Savior. He taught them numerous times. You wonder, how can that happen? And how many times have we been taught, clearly? And we still make a foolish mistake. You know, but these Galatians, you know, they're spiritually bewildered. And what does that result in? It results in not obeying the truth. Not obeying the truth. So what does that mean, not to obey the truth? You know, legalism would say that you're not surrendering yourself to God. or they overemphasize obedience here. But what is this talking about? We're in the section, the first two verses in your handout, you can see he's talking about justification clearly. And so what he's saying here is that If you see in Romans chapter 10, I was gonna have you turn over there, but I got it on the PowerPoint. So we'll just see it on there. Romans chapter 10 and verse 14, it clearly explains what obeying the gospel is. He said, how in the context here of the nation of Israel, Israel present, Paul says, how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on him whom they have not heard? So believe and believe. And how shall they preach unless they are sent? It is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. They haven't obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, who believed our report? So believing is synonymous with obeying the gospel. We simply believe the gospel, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We hear the word of God, it makes sense to us, we place our faith in it. Obeying the gospel is synonymous with obeying or believing. It's one and the same. We see it here in 2 Thessalonians as well. In flaming vengeance. On those who do not know God, and on those who, what? Do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, they shall be punished with everlasting destruction. These are lost people. From the presence of the Lord, and from His glory of His power, and when He comes in that day to be glorified with His saints, He's coming back to the earth, and be admired among all those who do what? All those who believe. They obeyed the gospel. They believed it. They simply believed it because this is our testimony. So this is something we need to clearly understand is obeying the gospel is simply believing it. It's not a human merit system, doing something in order to receive everlasting life. I gotta clean myself up, I gotta repent of my sins, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, I gotta do that. No, you simply have to believe the gospel message. So getting back to the text, he said that before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you, clearly portrayed. Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed to all these people. It's like a notification. This word carries the idea of a notification at the post office where it used to be for certain things. The picture was posted there. Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed. Is he clearly portrayed today? Everywhere you go, people know Jesus Christ. Well, I shouldn't say everywhere. There's probably some places that are not. But, you know, even in our day, you could take a picture right now of this, and in five minutes it can be on the internet for the whole world to see. That's what this carries the idea of, is Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed to you, Galatians, as crucified. Crucified. Crucified carries the idea of being nailed to a cross or a stake. It's a perfect participle. It means it was an event that took place in the past and events are being carried forward. Jesus Christ clearly portrayed among you as crucified. No doubt whatsoever. No doubt. So what is the crosswork of Jesus Christ? Why is this so important to us? Well, the crosswork of Jesus Christ is the means for propitiation, Romans 3, or satisfactory payment. Without Jesus Christ's death, there is no satisfactory payment. It's also the ground for justification. Romans 5, 9. The crosswork of Jesus Christ is a way of breaking this previous master-slave relationship of the sin nature over the believer via our new ID. We are now in Christ. These Galatian believers were in Christ. The base of eternal security and God's guarantee of His future glory. It's all because of the crosswork of Jesus Christ. It's the greatest motivator to live for Christ. You know, how often do we lose sight of the cross? We get mired in life. And when we get our focus, Back on Christ, back on the cross. That's a motivator, right? It's the means for a Jew-Gentile unity in the body of Christ. It's the focus of water baptism and the Lord's Supper for the believer in Christ. Them two ordinances we practice. It's because of the cross work of Jesus Christ. It's the basis of hope and comfort in the rapture. And it's the example of encouragement and to love to others. and it's also the basis for living a post-salvation life zealous of good works. That's our desire. We want to please the Lord. Please the Lord. If you're here tonight listening or on the internet, a question you might consider, how's my Christian life going? How's my race going? There's a lot of believers that hear clear teaching. They become equipped. They maybe even share the gospel with people. And they're responding by faith and they come to church and they want to grow. And then life starts changing. Life starts going amiss. Their family starts growing. Different things happen. In this race of the marathon of the Christian life, you become distracted by the things of the world. There's lots to do in the world. There's lots of distractions in the world. And pretty soon, instead of living this Christian life, we're bogged down. We're bogged down with all these things that we got to do every single day. And pretty soon, we're not growing, we're regressing. Pretty soon church becomes secondary, Bible study, I ain't got time for that, becomes secondary. And we become regressing. You know, it's a choice we all gotta make. Do we want to learn? Do we want to grow? You know, if we're not getting our minds recalibrated upon the word of God and these principles, pretty soon legalism in my performance starts creeping in. Things start happening in your life and you start getting that legalistic mindset. It's easy. It's a place anybody could be at any time. You know, that's where these Galatians are in chapter three. They're in this mire of legalism. So let's go back to chapter 3 and see what his request was. Here's what Paul requests to these people. He said, this only I want to learn from you. Answer me this one question, Galatians. Only this one. You know, Paul was narrowing this down, making it simple for discussion. Did you get saved by faith or did you get saved by the works of the law? Which is it? You know, the answer should have been an easy one for him. It should have been simple, but it wasn't. Did you receive the spirit? Did you receive the spirit? Lambano, a Greek word that means to receive. It's an heiress tense stressing the action that happened in the past. These guys were believers. And he's asking them, did you receive the spirit? Did you believe? And we know the correct answer to that. He said, did you receive the hold of the Spirit by the works of the law or the hearing of faith? And we know the answer to that. We received the Spirit at a moment in time when we placed our faith alone in Jesus Christ. At that simple moment in time, that completed work in Jesus Christ. So that raises the question here, Paul was asking, how did they receive the Spirit? You know, see, the Word of God says this. In Ephesians 1.13, it says, You know, the sealed is a word that means to be sealed up. It's in the passive voice, so it's something being done to you. It's not you doing the sealing. He's doing the sealing. We're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And notice this Holy Spirit, He is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased property. This purchased property, you and me. is the guarantee. It's like buying a house and going to the bank and saying, well, I need 150 grand. They say, well, you gotta put 25% down. That's your down payment. The Holy Spirit is the down payment, so to speak, for this future inheritance that we're gonna have in Jesus Christ. Our Holy Spirit is guaranteeing our future home in heaven. Jesus also said in his ministry, I'll pray to the Father and he'll give you another helper. This is in the Upper Room Discourse where he was encouraging the disciples. He was telling them, I'm going to leave, but I'm not going to leave you empty. I'm going to leave you the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot see because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him. Why? Because He dwells with you and He will be in you. See, the Holy Spirit permanently indwells a believer when he trusts Christ as Savior, a true believer. This passage of scripture here in Acts speaks about Peter, when Cornelius, the conversion of Cornelius, a Gentile, Peter preaching here says in verse 43, says to him, all the prophets witnessed that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sin or forgiveness of sins. And while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard. And those of the circumcision who believe were astonished. Why were they astonished? As many people came with Peter because they were astonished because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on who? The Gentiles also. So this is a Jew, Gentile, anyone who trusts Christ their Savior, their sins are forgiven, you're indwelt with the Holy Spirit. What's the Holy Spirit doing in the life of the believer? You know, that we could spend weeks on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills the believer as we walk by faith. He's teaching us. The Holy Spirit's teaching us as we walk by faith. He's convicting us when we fail to walk by faith. And the Holy Spirit transforms us when we choose to walk by faith daily. And the Holy Spirit comforts us. He comforts us when we walk by faith. We need that, don't we? And the Holy Spirit produces fruit in the life of the believer who chooses to abide or walk by faith. Walk by faith. Well, so if the Holy Spirit, in this dispensation, permanently indwells a person when they trust Christ their Savior, as opposed to the indwellment in the Old Testament, in that dispensation, They were indwelt as needed, and the Holy Spirit came and went. Well, you ask, well, what about Acts chapter 19? What about this account with these believers or followers from John the Baptist in Ephesus? Apollos and Paul are in Ephesus, and he says, then Paul said, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying that all the people should believe on Him who would come after Him. Who is that? Jesus Christ. That is our Jesus Christ. And when He heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Spirit. See, these Followers of John knew nothing about the Spirit. They knew nothing about the permanent indwelling. And when Paul laid hands on him, the Holy Spirit came upon him. Paul laid hands on him. Now is this something Paul did again in his ministry? There's no other place in the Bible where this happened. Paul laid hands on the Holy Spirit come in him. There was a purpose for this. And so as we study Acts, one thing we always want to learn about Acts, remember about Acts, Acts is descriptive of church history. It's not prescriptive of the church. So it's descriptive of the church. in Acts, the early church. They had gifts of healing and tongues, and they had the authority to heal, and the apostles did that, but they did it for a purpose. They were given this power for a purpose and plan. It was to authenticate the message of the gospel of grace. Jesus Christ had the power, obviously, as well. You know, there's often people you speak to, you know, at the fair, and they'll ask you, well, you got the power to heal, or the power to do this, or power to speak in tongues? And you say, no, the Lord didn't give that to me. He gave me the power to come to the fair and talk to you about the gospel. And, you know, so often people want to engage in these fascinating things of the gifts. And I often ask them, well, what about communal living? You know, the early church in Acts chapter 4, you know, they were told to sell all their goods and give it to the church and everybody come live together. Have you sold all your goods yet? You give it all to the church and, oh no, I can't do that. I gotta pay the bills. You know, it's so often people want to cherry pick certain things. But no, the early church was a unique situation for sure. So it's descriptive. Just always remember that. So let's get back to our text in Galatians. Galatians chapter 3, he says, this only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by the words of the law or by the hearing of faith? Well, the answer is quite obvious, right? the hearing of faith. You know, Paul preached and presented the works of the law and the hearing of faith in the gospel of Christ here in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 16. As we were close there we could see that, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ. that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. So it's really clear. The law says do, do, do. Grace says it's already done. Grace has done it all. You know, if you think about it, if these legalistic Judaizers were correct in what they were saying, then these gentile converts, you know, that supposedly received the Holy Spirit, you know, then they were filled with Holy Spirit, they were filled with joy, it would be a farce, wouldn't it? It'd be a lie. You know, that's the allure for legalists. And so as we see in this section here, we're going to jump over to sanctification now. You see on your handout, we're going to look at the last three verses. This is going to relate to sanctification, which is our Christian life after we trust Christ our Savior. So what was this Galatians life at sanctification? What were their lives like? He's rebuked them again. The second time he says, come on, man, are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, you're now being made perfect in the flesh. You were justified, you were in dwell with the Holy Spirit. What changed in your life? What changed? Are you so foolish? You know, there's importance of repetition of words in Scripture. And Paul was very, he was adamant. He was preaching the word. You wonder why, but he loved these people dearly. I mean, if you love somebody, I mean, you wanna help them in any way, shape, or form, right? You wanna give them the truth. And that's what it took here. You foolish Galatians, come on, listen to this. He says, are you now being made perfect? You're now being made perfect. Being made perfect, the epitaleo, it's a preposition word ahead of the word taleo, so the word is like on steroids. It means to bring something to a place where it is totally complete. He's saying, are you guys being made complete? Are you totally complete by the flesh? And the answer is no. A great example of this foolishness is people who wander away from the truth. You've taught the Word of God your whole life, and you leave good, clear teaching for some undoctrinal reason. You know, completion, becoming mature, becoming more usable for Christ is the goal, is the goal. Philippians 1, 3 through 6, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always. Paul loved these believers in Philippi. Always in prayer of my making request for all of you, for all with joy for your fellowship in the gospel for the first day until now. I mean, these guys were serving the Lord. Being confident in the very thing that He who has begun a work in you will do what? He will complete it until the day of Christ. He will bring it to perfection. You know, when I was a young boy, I trusted Christ my Savior. You know, we weren't taught, we were taught a lot of gospel. You know, we weren't taught a lot about the Christian life. And, you know, I remember one of my conversations with Brian and Melissa around the campfire. You know, I told them this verse right here, Hebrews 10.10, by which will we have been sanctified to the offering of Jesus Christ. I am sanctified. It's done. But this is justification, right? And he says, every priest ends ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifice, which can never take away sin. But this man, after he offered one sacrifice for sin, sat down at the right hand of God from this time waiting till his enemies are at his footstool. By the offering, one offering, he's perfected forever those who are what? This was never on my radar. Those who are being sanctified. Being sanctified. You see, these Galatians were being convinced that they had to perform some kind of legalistic ritual in order to be sanctified. Progressive sanctification, where a believer is growing to completion, to maturity. to become usable for Christ. I mean, God's desire for every single one of us is spiritual maturation, right? He wants us all to be mature. We don't have kids to them to stay babies. Although, grandparents, we like babies. But that's not the goal. We want to train these kids and we want to bring these kids up. That's what God wants for us in our Christian life. And that's what he's saying. So, Paul next is gonna move from his rebuke to these believers, to these Galatians, to a rhetorical question in verse four. He's gonna say, have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Paul is basically saying here, have you guys taken it on the neck for Jesus Christ for nothing? Come on, man. You're arguing that what you believed before, what you were being taught before, is wrong now somehow? Have you suffered so many things in vain? Is there suffering in the Christian life? You know, legalism says, well, if you're doing well, you're not suffering, you're being blessed. No, there's suffering in Christian life. Suffering will happen. If we're not experiencing it now, it will happen. You know, in different ways. You can imagine these new believers when they trusted Christ their Savior. Pastor Sean talked about this, some other stories talk about how when they come home and they were so excited about what they just understood and believed, they told their family, they told everyone, and what did it result in? Rejection. I don't want nothing more to do with you if this is what you believe. And these Galatians were suffered. They suffered physically, emotionally, You know, rejection, we see relationships that are split because of a stand for Jesus Christ. If we make a stand for Christ, it's gonna cost us something. Are we willing to stand for Christ is the question. You may think, well, boy, this shouldn't happen, you know, the Christian life should be easier than this. And what did Paul say in Acts 14? He says, when they had preached the gospel in the cities, And that made many disciples, they returned to Lystria and Icomia and Antioch, strengthened the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith. Continue in the faith. Why? Because you must go through many tribulations to enter the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. Again, this is a process, this maturation. It's a process of going through. What does it mean to be, did you believe in vain, as he said here? It means literally that, did you do this for nothing? We've seen it last week in chapter, in verse 21 of chapter two, it's all for nothing. It's totally empty, void, worthless, if it was in vain. Guys, did you take it on the neck for Christ for nothing? And we know the answer to that, it's not. So the reminder here is, we're gonna see in verse five, is therefore he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles in you, does he do it by the works of the law or the hearing of faith? He's gonna remind them. He who supplies, Who supplies? This word isn't just the word provide or supply. It's a generous supply. It's an overabundant supply. It's to supply abundantly. It's like going to the farm and getting a bag of corn. And they fill the bag up to where you can just hardly carry it. The corn's just falling on everywhere. This is what this carries the idea of. It's He who supplies the Spirit to you. God who supplies or generously gives the Spirit to you. You know, this generous provision of the Spirit is offered to everyone. It's offered to everyone, along with the benefits. You know, it's kind of like when you trust the Christ as Savior, you receive the Holy Spirit, it's like getting a new job. And you get a new job and you know you're going to make X amount an hour. And you get there and you find out, well, man, there's these other benefits that go along with it as well. I mean, HRA, there's use of the equipment, and there's all these things that you don't even realize until you are there and engaged in that. And so the Spirit is abundantly supplying everything the believer could ever need. ever need. What is He doing in our lives as Spirit? We've seen some of the things before, but He's also teaching us. He's teaching us. He's teaching us His word. He's leading us. He's sending us out. He's interceding for us. And see here, and He works miracles in you. You know, the Holy Spirit was working miracles The better translation, your Bible probably says, among you is in you. He works miracles in you. You may be thinking, well, what does that mean? The Holy Spirit works miracles in you. And we talk about this quite often. You know, miracles is this word we use for dynamite again, dynamis, power, mighty strength, is where it comes from. It means to have this overwhelming power, strength, an intrinsic strength. It speaks of supernatural, supernatural manifestation of powers. You know, it's like The power and strength that doesn't come from the flesh. It's something much more. Working miracles in you. Miracles, we see this, doing a message here in Mark 16, 20, and they went out and preached everywhere. The Lord working with them and confirming the word and accompanied with signs and wonders. They had the power to do miracles. They had the power to do miracles here. Acts 14.3, the early church, therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to them and His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. You see, during this time in ministry here, during Galatia, the early church, miracles were being performed. Where did these miracles come from and who gave them the power? Well, we see the power came from God, from the Holy Spirit. But again, it was a temporary power that ceased. It served a purpose. We're gonna see this further in our studies as we get back to 1 Corinthians. We're coming up on that here, I think, after we finish Galatians. But some of these miracles that were performed at this time were instantaneous. They weren't waiting for the results of it. They were instantaneous. They were perfect and complete. There wasn't no miracle performed that was incomplete. Jesus would heal everyone when he'd come around people. If he had seen you, made contact with you, needed something, he healed you. You know, these miracles were undeniable. They were totally undeniable. You couldn't go and question them. And they were spectacular. They were just, I mean, just imagine being in that environment when Jesus healed the woman who touched his garment. I mean, wow. You know, this is the opposite, right, of the so-called miracle workers of today. You know, the miracle worker today, their miracles are doubtful, right? You're really not sure whether or not they're really doing it. And it's a controlled environment where, you know, it's kind of, you know, I don't really know if this is true. And it can be very disappointing, right? You know, my dad used to say, he used to be fascinated by going to watch these miracle workers, and he used to say, I'd walk up to him and I'd tell him, hey man, you got the power, you got the strength to heal people. Let's go to the hospital, let's MDL at the hospital. Miracle workers say, no, I just want to do it right here. It's very disappointing, today's miracle workers. You know, God gave gifts to the church. We see in 1 Corinthians, he gave gifts that were temporary, he gave gifts that were permanent. And he's going to talk about these gifts. Love never fails. Love is a gift that never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will fail. Where there are tongues, they will what? Cease. Knowledge will be vanished away. But we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part will be done away. I mean, these were temporary gifts. They were performing miracles in Galatia here. They were performing miracles. And you may wonder, we talk about these miracles ceasing, tongues ceasing, these miracles ceasing, because the revelation is complete. We don't have a need for it. The Jews required a sign, they got their signs. The revelation is complete, the miracles have ceased, but is God still performing miracles today? I just heard somebody talk about that earlier, just a little bit ago. Is God still performing miracles today? Well, the answer is yes. The answer is yes. Just think about some people understanding the gospel and get saved. Think of Daniel Randall, all the years we prayed for Daniel. If Daniel gets saved, that's gonna be a miracle. Me getting saved was a miracle. And we live this amazing Christian life. It's a miracle. If you look at some people's backgrounds, you wonder, how in the world is this possible? You know, Jill's cancer treatment, it's a miracle. Is God still working miracles through man? Yes, but God is the miracle worker. We pray, and he performed the miracles. Just think of the nation of Israel, the Jewish people. This little bitty nation, surrounded by all these people. Muslim countries, just think of them. And you look back in 1948 when they come back in their land, they never lost their identity. All them years they were exile of their promised land, they never lost their identity. You know, Jews can immigrate to other countries. You know, we get a lot of Jews in America. You know, they're American Jews, but they're still called Jews, right? Or Russian Jews, but they're still called Jews. I mean, that's a miracle that God's chosen people, he's preserved. for a certain purpose and a certain plan. He's got a plan for them, the nation of Israel, and he's got a plan for the church. So the answer to this question, he who does it by the works of the law, meh, or by the hearing of faith, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I mean, this is a no-brainer. I mean, come on, man. But you know what? This is an easy trap to fall into. So you're saying, we're not the Galatians. Obviously we don't perform miracles. We don't live in this culture. So what does this mean to me? What does this passage of scripture mean to me? If you're turning your eyes away from Jesus Christ and you're focusing on a system of performance, I mean, we can get caught in this trap where we're turning our eyes away from Christ and we're looking, for a system of performance. Those who live according to the flesh, what do they set their minds on? The things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. Keep the focus on the cross, Christ crucified. That's what he wants for us. Keep your eyes on the prize. Any belief system, of required obedience that isn't truly the gospel of grace results in a disobedience before God. Any belief system that says you have to trust Christ plus repent of your sins, trust Christ plus get baptized, trust Christ plus anything, it results in a disobedience before God. Disobedience. Is there a place for obedience in the Christian life? Yeah, we know there is. Romans chapter six, but we also know that Paul teaches clearly in Romans chapter six. We have to know who we are in Christ. We have to reckon ourselves dead to our sin nature. We're now in Christ, we're dead to the sin nature. We simply are yielding ourself to him, we're abiding in Christ, and therefore we can obey. Because he wants us to obey. But not to get saved, but because we are saved. Romans 11, six says, and if it's by grace, it's no longer a works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. You take grace and you add one thing to it, it's no longer grace. But if it works, it's no longer grace. Otherwise, work is no longer work. It's either one or the other. It can't be both. In this present age, every believer, every genuine believer in Christ receives the Holy Spirit at the very moment of faith in Jesus Christ. At the very moment you trust Christ your Savior, you receive the Holy Spirit. We see that in Romans 8.16, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Abba Father, Abba Father. We don't have to wait for this spirit. We don't have to wait for someone to give us a spirit. I mean, this is given to us automatically. And we simply, by trusting in Christ, is our personal savior. One last principle. God has provided all you, you as a believer in Christ, this Holy Spirit, as the means or the power source for living this supernatural Christian life by faith. You know, this life is supernatural, this Christian life. I mean, there's some people that can, moral people that maybe can on the outside live this Christian life and look holy, but there's a lot of us that without the strength of the Holy Spirit and without the wisdom of God, there's no way to live this Christian life. And that's why so many people quit. They end up in Romans chapter seven where they just get defeated and quit because this Christian life is so tough. But when we're trusting in Christ, we're yielding ourselves to him. Now, Religion, some religions teach you gotta surrender your life to the Lord. And surrendering your life to the Lord is, again, this flashlight coming upon me and I gotta do something in order to live this Christian life. No, I, the Bible says, I simply have to abide in you. I in you, without me you can do nothing. I simply abide. It's not a means of me doing something. It's a matter of he did it, I'm trusting in him. Philippians 4.19 says, and my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Jesus Christ. God wants to supply abundantly every need we can ever have. Do you see God working in your lives? Are you responding by faith? One more. Will you walk by faith in your daily life, fully trusting him and his promises? fully trusting in his promises. Psalms 118, verses 23, 24. I just love this psalm. He said, this was the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. I'm gonna get up every single day and pray, Lord, what have you got for me today? Give me the strength, give me the wisdom as I walk by faith throughout the day. See this, if you're mired in a, A legalism problem. It's very disappointing and defeating. Very disappointing and defeating. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Hopefully what you can take away from this passage tonight is never lose sight of the cross. Never lose sight of how you got saved. Never lose sight of that we're sanctified, we're declared righteous progressively as we're walking by faith in Jesus Christ, progressive sanctification. Someday, by faith, we're gonna be glorified. He's gonna save us from this very presence of sin. Come on, man. You got this? Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this time. We just thank you for these passages. Just thank you for these examples of the Galatians, Lord. And we just have so much biblical information, Lord, that there should be no reason why we can't take these principles to heart. We can apply them to our lives, Lord, but we know it's all by faith. We know it's a mindset. We just pray that it would be our heart's desire, is just to take in the word, walk by faith, trust in your promises, let you do all the work. We simply be just yielding vessels of honor as you work in our lives. We just thank you for the body of believers here and we just thank you for your word and we just pray as this study goes on that more and more the Holy Spirit will teach us about the Galatians here. We thank you in Christ's name we pray. Amen.