Alright, Galatians chapter 3 today as we continue our studies in Galatians, and this is a gear-shifting time. You know, the first two chapters were more personal in nature, dealing with the authenticity of the gospel, and now we come to a more doctrinal section for the next two chapters. Chapters 3 and 4, dealing with the superiority of the gospel, vindicating the gospel, defending it from attack, per se, and Paul especially targets legalism, right here. And, you know, legalism is always something, you know, we talk a lot about, and others around us are guilty of it, you know, but we don't often think of ourselves, and yet our default position, Our natural way of thinking so often goes right back to legalism. John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace and had himself an amazing story of God's redemption. He was a slave trader, a wicked man, a slave trader, then a slave owner, and then became a slave. And in all of this, finally God redeemed him and brought him to himself. And yet John Newton, he wrote a series of letters and had them published. They were just personal letters, but so many people received such blessing from those letters that they urged him to get them printed. And so he got them put together. And the title he gave it was Cardithonia, which is Greek for the voice of the heart. And his letters, you can hardly read one whole letter because they just make you stop and think, you know, paragraph by paragraph. But one of the things that John Newton said is, you know, I am a preacher of the gospel, I rejoice in the gospel, few men, you know, have been real slaves, and no more powerfully than I do, the liberating power of the gospel, what God has done. and he says so I constantly preach a glorious covenant of grace and minister to everybody I can and rejoice in it and he says but I find every minute I'm not paying attention my heart returns to a covenant of works he says just over and over my natural bent is to go back to getting what I deserve go back to having to to earn rather than receive from Jesus Christ the full effect of the gospel so That is what we find in this passage, Paul combating against our inner legalist, combating against that default position to go right back to viewing how we are doing in the sight of the living God based on our performance and not based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. So this new section, it is powerful, it is practical. Paul, as he did in the first section, especially at the beginning, uses very, very strong language and he shows what the gospel means to us and how we think it. How we think the gospel and therefore live it out. So let's read the first 14 verses of Galatians chapter 3 here and then seek the Lord's help. Galatians 3 at verse 1. O foolish Galatians! Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only what I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. You know, therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. We'll end the reading there at verse 14, and trust the Lord will seal His word to our hearts. Let's now bow in prayer. We need the Lord's help, and let's ask for it. Gracious God, again, we're conscious of having a moment in time, O Lord, where we are here in your presence before your word. And Father, having needs, many of which we see and desire your grace to give victory and deliverance and mercy. And Father, we are quite confident there are many of our needs we don't see. And yet, Lord, today you are gracious. Our only hope today, Father, is you are that one who does know what we have need of before we ask, that Jesus Christ is our bridegroom and our shepherd and our prophet and our priest and our king, that he, O Lord, today has us on his heart as the great high priest and on his shoulders, that he makes himself responsible for us, and that, O God, whatever touches us touches him. And so, Father, this is our confidence. We need your grace today. We need your spirit speaking voice to make Jesus real, to make the gospel plain and powerful, and to make, oh God, our hearts, believing hearts, to receive and to walk in all that Jesus has done for us. So thank you for your goodness now. And you are our confidence. We ask you for help. We ask you that there would be an anointing of the Spirit of God, as this passage speaks of it, on preacher and people alike. And that this day, O God, we will know that we have met with you. We will hear your speaking voice. Jesus will be lifted up. We will trust Him. We will worship Him. And we will be different as we leave. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. There are three things that I want to focus on today in this passage. The message, the flow of his thought in these first 14 verses. The main elements, because there are three particular things that he just, they overlap and he hounds them. He just keeps coming back to them. He just sets these three things in very clear perspective for us. And then finally, the meaning. That is how we live in the freedom of the gospel of Christ's finished work. that freedom that it gives us. So I want us to consider today living in an everyday gospel. In other words, a gospel that so consumes our thinking that we're living it out, that we're thinking it and believing it day by day. So let's begin with the message and what I want to do here is just go back through these verses fairly quickly and just highlight what it's saying, smooth out the wrinkles so that we see exactly the flow of his thought and be very clear about what he is identifying about the gospel right here. So verse 1, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? You know, we saw in chapter 1 just this really strong language, calling down curses, saying that people who have altered the gospel are not following Jesus Christ. I mean, he was very powerful in that language, and he is right here. Foolish Galatians. I wouldn't call somebody foolish very easily, I wouldn't take that lightly, and Paul is not one to do it either. But then he says, who has bewitched you? And you remember he's dealing here with false brethren, he's dealing here with those who had shifted the emphasis of the gospel, and he is saying, look, this is bewitching. This is the kind of thing that puts you under the influence of an error and changes what you think and changes what you believe. So, very powerfully strong language. But what's the substance? He says that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you. In other words, look, we have lifted up Jesus Christ, and this is something powerful that we have to understand. One of the most, one of the popular ideas of what Christianity is all about is your life, shaping your life, doing good rather than doing evil, being a good person. And this is telling us the gospel has nothing to do with that. The gospel is an announcement of something God has done, that Jesus Christ has lived and Jesus Christ has died to redeem people. So Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, and notice how it emphasizes this, crucified. He is crucified. God the Son has come to die for us. Now, you know, I mean, you think about when Christ died and darkness came over the land in the middle of the day. And the earth shook and trembled. You think of the hymn, well might the sun and darkness hide and shut his glories in. When Christ, the mighty maker, died for man, the creature sinned. I mean, that's getting it, that's seeing it. And the apostle here says, Jesus Christ is set forth for you crucified. There is the heart of the gospel. You have a Savior who loves you to the cross, who loves you to the death, who loves you to the shedding of His blood, who loves you to the taking of the wrath of God the Father, the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable justice of God on every sin you have committed, and He has taken that cup and drained it for you. That's what He has done. And so here is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the gospel. This is a gospel that is not presenting, it's how you live. It is presenting to you, it's what he did, that he died for you. And so this teaches us and enables us to live and to change. And we're going to see that as we go on. But then verses 2 to 5, he sets a couple of things apart from each other in these verses. This only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Were you redeemed because you went out and did a bunch of things, or did you believe at the preaching of the gospel? So, very clear answer, by the hearing of faith. Verse 3, he comes back at it, Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? And he's saying, look, if you believed and were saved by a work that God did, that you took into your heart, do you now carry that on by just pulling up your bootstraps as it were? You know, strapping on your tool belt and going to work? Is that what you think? Is it by the flesh? Is it something you do? Then verse 4, Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? And this is kind of hard to see, but what he's saying is so many people, especially Jewish converts, but also the Gentile, because they were living in places where idolatry was rampant, and they are saying we worship the one true God and His Son Jesus Christ, who lived for us and died for us. We worship a dead Savior. And so a lot of them had suffered as a result of that and certainly had been ridiculed. And yet he says, look, have you suffered so many things in vain? Because it would be in vain. It would absolutely be in vain. If what you do is what makes the difference. If that is the whole difference, then Jesus Christ is dead in vain. What he did doesn't matter. because you were justified, you live by what you do and do not do. And then verse 5, he therefore that ministereth to you, and notice he turns to the present tense, even right now, the one who ministers to you the Spirit and works miracles among you, the Spirit's powerful working, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Do you earn this? Can you command it and control it, as it were, by your works? No. It is that which the Spirit of God does by, as you trust Him. He is at work. And so then, and here's where he shifts gears, because now And think about who we're talking about. We've talked about these false brethren. They're Judaizers, okay? So they are Jews, and what they are saying is, look, we have a Jewish Savior, and so what you need is, yes, you can go ahead and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you Gentiles, but you also have to do the Jewish thing. You have to live out the Old Testament ceremonial law, and as we saw in the last chapter, they had to be circumcised, and then they had to obey all the ceremonies. Here, all of a sudden he says, this, what I am telling you, is what Abraham found. Well, who is Abraham? He's the first Jew. He's the father of the Jews. The Jews are the descendants of Abraham. And so he's going to these Judaizers, he's going to bring up Jew number one, the father of the whole land to say, hey, what did he find? What was his experience? How did he become redeemed before the living God? And here's what he says, even as Abraham believed God, he is quoting Genesis, he believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now the language here is really specific. This word accounted here is the idea, it's financial, okay? It's like accrediting. This is credited to your account. And so what he is saying is Abraham believed God, and without being righteous, God made him righteous. God declared him righteous. God gave him a righteousness earned and purchased and lived out by someone else, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so he is saying here, Abraham himself believed God and that was credited to him for righteousness. Not what he did, what he believed. That he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. So then verse 7, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. So if you want to be a follower of Abraham, you believe. You believe God. That's what makes you the seed of Abraham. Not because you're a Jew. It's not physical in nature. And it's not in obedience to the law. Now, in other places, in fact, we had the time we could go to Romans 4 and Romans chapter 9, where Paul is really direct. And he says, look, all those who are of Israel, they're not the real Israel. In Isaac your seat is called. It is those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who believe God for a righteousness greater than their own. They're the true spiritual descendants of Abraham, not the ones of the flesh. And then verse 8, And the scripture, for seeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. Now this is, that's a big statement. The Apostle Paul says God preached the gospel. So if you think it's just a New Testament thing, no. He preached the gospel to Abraham. When he told Abraham, not because of your deserving, not for anything you are, but because by my grace I have given my righteousness as you have believed me. In you All nations of the earth shall be blessed. It will be what God does by grace, by nothing else. And that was the essence of the gospel. And that's an important thing because there are people who... I think this passage really and this book gives us the very strongest proof that the way of salvation in the Old Testament was absolutely the same as now. By grace, through faith, the one Old Testament looking forward to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and the other looking back to Jesus Christ and His finished work. It's what He did. It is the grace given to us and sealed to us by Jesus Christ. So the Gospel was preached to Abraham. The Gospel is the same. We believe in what He did. And then verse 9. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. The same as verse 7. If you're a seed of Abraham, it's because you believe in Jesus Christ. Verse 10. For as many as are under the work of the law are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Now in these next three or four verses, he's going to give a whole bunch of Old Testament quotes. Well, why? He's dealing with Judaizers who want them to live out the Old Testament ceremonial law. And he's going to say, look, read. Read what God says here. The gospel is in the Old Testament. It is there. It points to faith in Jesus Christ. Abraham, Jesus says, saw my day and he was glad. He believed in me. The Psalms, there are so many places in the Psalms where you see the whole idea of grace just poured out. I mean, you take this man, David, who was a man after God's own heart, but also happened to fall very egregiously. a liar, a murderer, an adulterer in one fell swoop. And when you read Psalm 32, when you read Psalm 51, what do you see? You see him finding forgiveness in the righteousness of another. You see him finding an acceptance and a mercy of God, notwithstanding the blackness of his sin. Why? Because someone else had lived for him and someone else had died for him. You know, David ought to be the great encouragement to all of us. And by the way, in Romans chapter 4, Paul uses David as this great example of this righteousness imputed by faith, imputed by this grace and received by faith. And that ought to be a great encouragement to us. It doesn't matter what's in your background. It doesn't matter what your sin has been. There is forgiveness in Jesus Christ. David is this powerful example to show us just that. But then, so here, he said, That's what the law said. The law said, you've got to have a perfect record or forget it. If your record isn't perfect, If you're going to live by the law, well, great. I mean, I can stand here right now today and say every last one of you, in theory, can be justified by the law. Oops, it's a little too late. Our first sin ruined that. Our first sin brought nothing but condemnation. And so here, Paul says, if you want to live by the law, great, but you're going to be cursed if you don't follow everything to the letter. And so verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it's evident because what God said, again, quoting the Old Testament, the just shall live by faith. It's the only way we live, trusting in the work of another, looking to what he has already done constantly. The just shall live by faith. And then in verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse in our place, for us, is the idea of in our place. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. There's a little bit of background to this. So often the judgment in the Old Testament And in Old Testament civil society, part of the civil law was that transgressors were, especially death penalty kinds of transgressors, were stoned. When they were dead, they were hung up. And the hanging was not to kill them, they were already dead. The hanging was a display of the displeasure of God, the display of the judgment of God justly on sin. And so this idea of him quoting Deuteronomy, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Here is Jesus Christ on the wood of the cross fulfilling that curse and being a curse in the place of all his people. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law because he was a curse in our place. He was our curse in our place. And then finally verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So what's the end of it? The end of it is Abraham found you Judaizers that the only way he could be redeemed, the only way he could be saved. was not by what he did, not by his law-keeping, not by his record of faithfulness. And once again, you remember he's the father of the faithful, the father of all those that believe. He is set as an example of faith to us and was guilty as you read the Genesis account of unbelief on so many occasions. Places where he didn't believe. His salvation was by faith in the finished work of another. So that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles Through Jesus Christ and his finished work that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith We get the Spirit Working the presence and power and finished work of Jesus Christ in us as we believe Not as we work Not as we earn All right. Now, there's a lot of overlap in what we just saw. So again pretty quickly I just want to go through the main elements here the three things that I mentioned Number one, the gospel. So, verse one, foolish Galatians, who have bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you. What do we have? Jesus Christ died for sinners. His work is finished. He is the essence, the focal point of the gospel. So then, verse eight, And the scripture for seeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham. In thee shall all nations be blessed. God pours out a blessing on Abraham because of what someone else did, not because of what he did. And then finally verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. He's the curse in our place. Now think about that. You think about something that happened in the past. You have regret for it. But what is that regret? That regret is the evidence of this curse. And our sins bring their own curse, don't they? They bring the curse of just how it affected other people. They bring the curse of our own shame at what we did. They bring the curse of this is what we did to put Jesus Christ on the cross. But the point that he is making is that he's made the curse for us. So if I'm regretting If I'm wallowing in the miserable memory of something in the past, I'm forgetting that Jesus Christ was made the curse for that sin. That Jesus Christ has made the Father smile on me. That Jesus Christ has worked in such a way, and the scriptures in these different images picture our sins being forgotten. The God whose omniscience, by an act of His will, forgets our sins. God says they're separated as far as the east is from the west using an image of something. You never get there. You can't find it. God talking about our sins cast into the depths of the sea where they are crushed into non-existence, into oblivion. All of these pictures to say they're not there. So why do you take this great big hammer and hand it to the devil and say devil beat me black and blue every time I think back on that failure, on that sin? Jesus Christ is made a curse for you and me so that we don't have to go there. So that we can say, and I mentioned this last week with Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan picturing that and the devil, Apollyon, just saying, you did this and you did this and you did this, being the accuser of the brethren. And what does he say? You're right. I know everything that you've talked about, and you left out a lot. There's more. But my Savior, my Master, has dealt with that sin. He has looked it full in the face. He has paid for it. And He has nothing but a smile for me. He rejoices over me with joy, the scripture says. He joys over me with singing. because he's put my sin away, because Jesus Christ hung on that tree to be my curse. My curse is gone. So it's the gospel. The second element is the foolish way to live. Who has bewitched you, he says, O foolish Galatians, again in verse 3, are you so foolish? Well, what is this foolish way of living? It's certainly the way that the devil is trying to move us to live all the time. Who hath bewitched you? Well, that foolish way to live is what is described in verses 2 to 5, by the works of the law. Are you now made perfect by the flesh, by your own effort, by what you do? Again, by the works of the law, he stresses. In other words, you're out of touch with the gospel. And this, by the way, look at verse 4. Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? I want you to turn over just a page or so to chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5. Because Paul is really going to spell out the implications of what this means to actually live depending on the flesh. So in Galatians 5, he says this, and by the way, when we get to Galatians 5, you will see the difference. He is no longer talking about doctrine in the gospel. He begins with a command, by the way. In other words, he looks us straight in the eye, and he's going to tell us, now I'm going to talk about the implications of the gospel. And let me just say one thing to you right at the start. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set you free. Stand fast in that liberty. Remember what He has done. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Do not turn back to what you do to make you justified, to make your existence worth living. Verse 2, Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, and here, just using circumcised as an example, of going back and trusting in the law, being just before God, or accepted for God, or blessed by God. Because you have a higher standard, because you do better than other people. Blessed by doing these things. And he just uses circumcision as the example. But he says this, I say, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. In other words, if tomorrow you skimp on your Bible reading, you know, and you say, I really don't have time, and so I just can't read, and then you go to pray, and the devil whispers into your ear, don't even bother. I mean, you just basically gave God the wave, didn't spend any time with Him. You think He's going to hear you? You think He's going to hear you? If you say, yes, devil, you are right. You won't say it like that, mind you. But if you think, oh, that's right. That is right. How could I think God would answer my prayers? That's gotta be right. I mean, I just, and it sounds holy, doesn't it? Sounds great. Oh, I'm taking God's side as I beat myself up. I'm taking God's side as I say, yeah, I can't expect God to do me any good. Certainly isn't gonna answer my prayers. You know what Paul would say to you? If that's the way you're thinking and that's what you believe, Christ died in vain. He didn't do a single thing for you. Because you have just left Christ to go back to what you deserve and what you earn. That's what he would say. And that's what he does say. Verse 2, Paul say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, he's a debtor to do the whole law. You go one step in that direction and you've got to go the whole nine yards. And you already blew it, so you can't gain anything from it. Verse 4, Christ has become of no effect to you, whosoever you are that are justified by the law. You're fallen from grace. All right, now that's powerful language, isn't it? Christ has died in vain. You were fallen from grace. You've got to do the whole law. And if we're talking about doctrine and wrestling over justification by faith, we say amen. But you know where the devil keeps this? He keeps this in the foggy recesses of the back of your mind and mine. He keeps this indistinct. He keeps it just this vague thought that, yeah, I haven't done very well, so I can't expect much from God. God cannot be happy with me. I've messed up so many times lately. This is what the devil does. He keeps it. low on the radar as it were. So verse 5, for we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, in other words, nothing we do or don't do, but faith which worketh by love. In other words, a faith that trusts in Jesus Christ and says, Lord, I'm all yours. Just like Paul said, he said, I'm crucified with Christ. So I turn from what I do. He says, nevertheless I live. And so how do I live? The life which I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Christ lives in me. Paul says, I just turn my back on how much I deserve and I look to him and I love him for what he has done and loving him for what he has done changes everything. Now I want to serve him. Now I'm not doing it because I have to, I'm doing it because I get to. I'm doing it because I want to. It has changed everything. And so this foolish way that he illustrates here in Galatians chapter 3 is this way that, by the way, is our default position. It is so natural to us to shift right back to what we do. But if we do, we'll never fulfill it, we'll never get there, we'll never feel like we deserve, we'll never feel the smile of God. That will only come through Jesus Christ. And then thirdly, the third element, is the gospel way to live, the gospel way to think. And so here in these verses, rather than the works of the law, it's the hearing of faith. Rather than being made perfect in the flesh, it is leaning on the Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit's stated work is to take the presence and power of Jesus Christ and bring it to you, and work it in you, and make it real to you. You remember in John 14 when Jesus Christ has just dropped the bombshell on the disciples, and he says, I'm sorry, I'm leaving. I'm leaving. And he says, I'm glad, because the Comforter is coming to you. And they're not understanding, and they're not getting it, and so John 14 he expands on it. And he says these words. He's telling them about a comforter, but he says, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. In other words, when I send my spirit, he is taking the reality of my presence and power and bringing it right to you. We talked about this, I think, over the summer on one particular occasion. I think I just made the offhand comment, but we need to put our focus our attention on it for just a second. I just made the statement that sometimes, because of some branches of Christianity going to extremes in terms of the Holy Spirit, and in some cases just wild stuff that almost makes it circus-like, but unfortunately a lot of times in more conservative Christianity what has happened is we've gone because we don't want to get anywhere near that we don't want anybody to think we think like that or talk like that we've gone all the way to the other extreme where we say next to nothing about the Holy Spirit where the Holy Spirit is a person in the Trinity and the Holy Spirit is a doctrine but the Holy Spirit is not a living reality that we lean on every day A person in the Godhead that we ask for direction and listen for an answer. Ask Him to open the Word of God to us that we interact with. Folks, all this about the Holy Spirit all across the New Testament is not just nice poetic language or something to fill a theology book with. It is what you live on. It's the Spirit of God is the most present power of the Godhead in our lives. And therefore, we cannot take him lightly. We cannot marginalize him, make him a reality by looking to him, as this passage says, to actually work in us the work of the gospel. So you see, this other way to live is the just shall live by faith. By the way, that's the quotation from the Old Testament, Habakkuk 2.4, that is quoted three different times in the New Testament, and seemingly with different points of emphasis each time it is quoted. But it is kind of used as a capital thing to say, look, folks, this is how we live, the just, we live by faith. We go forward and we live. Having begun in the Spirit, we live, we go forward, we take in the Lord, we worship Him, we exist, we conquer problems and mountains and obstacles, we walk and grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ by faith, by looking again and again at Jesus Christ, by what He did for us, by who He is, by what He's promised, by what He's given. We live by that reality in our own hearts. And so these, what do we have? We have the gospel. Jesus Christ did it all and he has been made a curse for us. We have the foolish way to live where we lean on ourselves and we're taking the temperature constantly. How are we doing? Have we earned enough to feel any smile of God or not? Versus the right way to live. The way that Ken is not afraid to own any sin. that is liberated by the gospel to say, yes, I am a sinner, but I am redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is for me. He loves me. And seeing that and rejoicing in that and hearing the power that he has promised by his spirit to overcome my sins, I go forth with confidence. I go forth with joy. I tell the Lord that, Lord, what is right in your eyes is what I want to do. And if I'm not seeing it right now, show me. Doing what is opposite, doing what you have commanded against. Lord, I know you said that for my welfare. I know you said that because those are enemies to my soul and to my happiness. So Lord, let me walk in those things. Let me see, let me get it. That's the gospel being played out. Well, that brings us finally to the meaning. And the meaning is just puts all of this together. The gospel the way that turns from the gospel, because we're living based on what we do, and the way that turns to the gospel, then says, Lord, you've done everything I need, and trusts Him for it. So we are saved by faith in Christ, how then do we live? And I think the most direct words are the ones in verses 2 and 3. This only what I learn of you. Receive you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Everything we have, we have by faith. And then verse 3. Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Lord, I don't want to live that way. I want to trust you in all ways. Folks, one of the things this says to us is that, and unfortunately a lot of times this is just kind of misunderstood, you are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, but you are also sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ. And by the way, you serve by faith in Jesus Christ. Oh, and you worship by faith in Jesus Christ. The gospel is never left behind. The gospel is something we never can check off as having, okay, I'm done with that. Show me something new and exciting. We never get to the bottom of the gospel. For that would be getting to the bottom of Jesus Christ and all His finished work. It's infinite in its nature. There is always more it has to teach us that points us to Jesus Christ and shows us that there is nothing on this planet that can satisfy like He can. Nothing that can fill us with joy. Nothing that can make our life worth living. Like a living, real Savior who loves us in a way that we can't begin to fathom and will spend all eternity learning more about. That's what it does for us. It points us to Him and I've said this before and I remind myself, I have a document, I have some documents and this shows you what What a mess I am but I have a sole daily document a sole weekly document and a sole monthly document Okay, so they are trues that I think I only need to see once a month It's the smaller list and then the ones I only need to see once a week Well, it's a little bigger and then there's the daily list that is page upon page upon page You know stuff that I just have to be reminded of but on that sole daily list. I Have this section where I've written, whenever I'm discouraged, whenever I feel defeated, whenever I'm unhappy, That is an emotion that is revealing that I've stopped looking at Jesus Christ, stopped finding Him enough for me, and started looking at other things. Started looking around me, started taking the temperature of, do people like me? Am I doing okay? Are things going well in my life? Do I have enough? You know, started all the silly idols, none of which can make you happy. That's where we're looking. And what does this teach us? This teaches us Jesus Christ is evidently set forth, crucified, proving his love, having secured everything that your soul and mind needs. That's what Jesus Christ has done. Folks, performance Christianity is what the devil wants us to live in. As I've said already, it's our default switch. We just fall to it so easily. We get what we earn, or we get what we deserve, but if we walk in that, we're sunk. The Christian message to you and to me is not try harder. It is not do better. It is look to Jesus Christ. Look away to Him. It is not lean on your own effort what this passage is calling the flesh. And the Word of God stresses this in so many ways. Let me just come to a close today by just reading you a few of these passages. John chapter 6 and verse 63. Here's the Lord Jesus. It is the spirit that quickens. The flesh profits nothing. Your effort doesn't help. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Look at me, seek me, spirit and life will be yours. Philippians 3, Paul says we're the circumcision and he's talking about the Judaizers there. And he says we're the true circumcision and what marks us? We worship God in the spirit, we rejoice in Christ Jesus and we have no confidence in the flesh. And then 2 Corinthians 10 3, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. Yeah, we're living a fleshly existence, but we do so by a spiritual faith in Jesus Christ, looking to Him. And then one other, and this is Jesus speaking again in John 15. Christ says, and this is real, don't make this something spiritual and high and out of reach and for some elite somewhere. This is for you and me. Jesus says abide in me meaning just remain stay connected to me. Keep me in view Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except that abide in the vine no more Can ye except you abide in me? I am the vine you are the branches he that abides in me and I in him the same brings forth much fruit and then these words for without me You can do nothing It doesn't mean you can't do something, right? It means you can't do it effectually. It means you can't do it joyfully. It means you can't do it so that it actually matters. So that it's something worth doing. And so here are the scriptures, just again and again from different viewpoints and there are so many more I could go to. But this is what God's servants have found. So many biographies that I've read over the years. Missionaries, servants of God, preachers, you know, just eminent saints of time past. They talk about this same thing, of having to be brought to where they stopped trusting in their flesh and stopped earning God's favor and started just receiving it. Well, read George Mueller, read Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor says, he gives an illustration of it and Hudson Taylor says, you know what I learned? He says, I look at my servant, he had a national servant when he was in China and he says, if I send him down to the store to buy something, sometimes he was sending him to buy new pencils because that's what they needed, cost only a few cents. Other times he was sending them down there to buy medical equipment or to buy expensive medicines and he says, you know what? Doesn't matter a lick to my servant He doesn't care what I've been sent for because he knows I will tell him what to do and I will give him the money And he says there's my life before my lord It doesn't matter what he asked me to do or where he puts me or what he puts me through It doesn't matter because he's promised to give me what I need and he's promised to be with me every step of the way so again and again God's servants have found this very thing true and James Proctor, in an old hymn, said this, Lay your deadly doing down, Down at Jesus' feet, Stand in Him, in Him alone, Gloriously complete. John Bunyan said, Run, John, run, the law demands, But gives us neither feet nor hands, Far better news the gospel brings, It bids us fly and gives us wings. And then John Newton, I mentioned him earlier, John Newton wrote this, You see, what Paul is saying here is foolish, bewitched Galatians This work's way of living, this performance mentality is oppressing you. It is putting you in bondage. It's killing you. Jesus did all the work already and His Spirit is right there with you to make His presence and His power yours as you look at Him and as you trust in Him. So how do you live? How do I live? Are you afraid to pray? because you've not been good enough to deserve any good answers. Have you given up trying to meet with God because you started so many times, started anew, oh, I'm gonna do it this time, I'm gonna be consistent every day, I'm gonna try this new plan, but you failed every single time, and so now you're totally hopeless about it. Are there certain areas of your life you've tried again and again to conquer, but all you have experienced is just total defeat, so you're sure God is miserably unhappy with you and there's no looking forward, there's no place to go? Folks, whatever your particular brand of bondage or performancism is, Galatians presents you Jesus Christ crucified for you. He died for you so that all your sins, past, present and future, are forgiven, so that you are His well-beloved bride, so that you could know that no matter what happens, He loves you, He is for you, He will hear you when you call. He will do you good as you trust in Him. He is responsible for your welfare, not you. So go to Him. Go to Him with who He is. Go to Him with what He has done. Go to Him with what He has promised. He loves you. And He wants you to come. And He will do you good as you look to Him, as you ask Him, as you trust Him. May the Lord seal His word to our hearts. Let's bow in prayer. Let's all pray. Blessed Father and gracious God, today we do thank you, Lord, for all your work. Thank you for what you've given us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, there's just no way to fathom that we may sit as souls here in this place and can say, God the Son, Creator of the universe, sustainer of all things, love me and died for me. Father, let us understand that. Let it sink into our hearts more deeply. Let us not forget it. Let it, oh God, as those who have stood before some great judge somewhere, with the threat not only of life in prison, but of death before us, have heard Him pronounce us guilty, and have seen our Savior come and intervene and say, I will take the judgment, I will take the punishment on my head. Oh, Father, if we did that in a real way, in a court here, in one of these counties nearby, Father, it would be hard for us not to just feel the incredible lifting of burden, the incredible deliverance, the incredible liberty of having a new lease on life. Yet this is the reality eternally, and I pray that you'll seal it to our hearts, and that, Father, that love that has been proved to us by the shedding of Christ's blood on the cross, will be lived out day by day as we trust Him, as we love Him, as we worship Him. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.