Galatians chapter 3. We'll be doing verses 1-5. The Word of God reads like this. You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, you are now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? So then, does he who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you do it by works of the law for hearing with faith. God, this afternoon, Lord, as you have allotted me time to declare your word to your people. Father, only you can pierce the hearts. Only your word can pierce the hearts. Only you can give understanding. Only you can give wisdom. Only you can reveal your will. Father, so I pray that this afternoon you would do just that. Lord, that you would use my mouth and my voice to speak forth your truths. Truths that will edify your church, truths that will grow us in sanctification, truths that will root us in this doctrine here of justification by faith, faith alone. God, I pray as I preach your holy word that you would block out any unwholesome thoughts, that you would let your word be spoken clearly. Lord, it is my prayer that Christ would be magnified through it all. I ask this in Christ's holy name I pray. Amen. So I know we have about a two week span in between each time we preach, so I just want to go back and give kind of a backdrop of what has happened in Paul's letter to the Galatians. And as we started out his letter, we see Paul's defense of his apostleship. He wasn't appointed by man, but he was appointed by God. And he makes that very clear. He moves on to how the gospel was perverted by the Judaizers, how they were saying that you had to be circumcised, that these laws had to be mixed in for you to really be following Christ, for the true sanctification to happen. For you to be saved, you needed to be circumcised. Later on in this letter here, we'll see that Paul wishes that those men who would say that would be mutilated, that they would cut themselves off. Because it is such a big deal here that justification is by faith and faith alone, and nothing adds to that. There's no work that we can do to add to our justification. It is simply by faith in Christ. And Paul, he goes on and he defends his ministry. He shows that the gospel was revealed to him by God, that he spent three years in the desert, and it wasn't by any outside learned source, but he was taught the gospel of God by God. So much so that when he was in Antioch, he rebuked Peter, because Peter had steered away from this gospel. Peter had been hanging out with the Judaizers. It even caused Barnabas to stumble, caused many in the church to stumble. And so Paul rebukes him. And then we go on towards the end of chapter 2 when we see that Paul states clearly that this justification is by faith. It doesn't matter what I do. It's all Christ. It's all Christ's work in me. That's what he states clearly, that it's no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives within me. And he ends chapter 3 with, if justification is by the law, then Christ died needlessly. You see these Judaizers, they were teaching, yes, yes, it's good to start with Christ. It's good to do this, but to move on in your sainthood, to move on in your sanctification, there's some work that you have to do. And that work is called the law. You need to become circumcised. You need to cut off part of your flesh. as if this somehow would add to Christ's cross and grow us in righteousness. Do we see the problem there? You see, when we lean towards our works, Christ died needlessly. Because if by my works I could be justified, why did Christ die? But we know that the Bible plainly declares that no flesh can please God. You must be of the Spirit. What has to happen for that to happen? Well, a new heart. He places His Spirit inside of you. He causes you to walk in His ways. Regeneration precedeth faith. He puts it in you and you work it out. But in so many churches today, this is exactly what we see. Not only that, I actually want to expose how it's seen in our life. as we go through these scriptures, how we fool ourselves into thinking that our sanctification actually is where our assurance is, is our justification, and that is totally wrong. We always look to ourselves and we think, well, am I really saved? And we start thinking about ourselves and our works and what we have done, and we say, okay, yep, because of that, I'm definitely saved. If your hope is in that, you're wrong. I will have to repeat to you what Paul says to the Galatians in verse 1. You foolish Galatians. You foolish Americans. Who bewitched you? Who put this spell on you for you to think that there's anything else added to this Gospel? This is the Gospel of God. When Paul calls them foolish here, He's not using it in the sense, as we would see in the Proverbs, that the fool says in his heart that there is no God. When he uses the word foolish here, he is using it as an example of someone who just flat out ain't using their head. They're being mindless. They're being stupid, as another translation would say. You're just not using your head. You ever been guilty of that, not using your head? You see, but when it comes to this matter, when it comes to our justification, it is very important that we use our mind that God has given us. And with that mind, we have to be rooted in the foundation that our justification, that the receiving of the Spirit, that the miracles that he has worked in us and among us is simply by faith and faith alone. And so as we go through this letter here in verses 1 through 5, Paul's going to give his personal argument for this. In verses 6 through 14, he gives a scriptural argument. In verses 15 through 29, he gives a logical argument. But in this personal argument, he starts off here by saying, you foolish Galatians. You unintelligent, you irrational Galatians. Who has bewitched you? Who has put this practice of magic on you? Who has deluded you? Who has deceived you? You see, it's blowing Paul's mind, as it did in the first chapter, that they were so quick to leave the gospel of Christ who called them. It's blowing Paul's mind that they would leave this gospel of Christ, that they would turn from this gospel where it says, whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. It's crazy to him. And it should be crazy to us when we look at ourselves and we think, Am I really justified? Man, I screwed up this week. I stumped my toe. I said a bad word. Am I really justified? Because, you know, a Christian doesn't act like that. A real Christian would have stumped his toe and hit his knees and prayed that God would heal that toe. No, we are still wrapped in the flesh. We still stumble. We still fall. But that does not change the finished work of Christ. We are saved by faith and faith alone. The moment we start mixing in our works and using it as justification for our assurance of salvation is the moment that we step into falsehood. We see all sorts of churches doing this. I have family members that are in the Seventh Day Advent that think if you don't go to church on Saturday, oh, were you a sinner? I think, oh, you eat pork. Boy, they wouldn't want to have lunch with me today. As I was praying over our lunch of the pork butt my wife smoked, I was thanking God that I'm not bound by no law. I said, Lord, make this holy. It is good. But we see these things as if they're justifying themselves by abstaining from this or doing this or doing that as if this makes us righteous. That does not make me righteous. What makes me righteous is Christ in me. That is my only hope. And Paul's saying, who bewitched you? How is this possible? I mean, Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified before you. Now, what he's not saying here is that all the church of Galatia, that they was there at the crucifixion. No, this word portrayed here is used as its root word is advertised like a picture or a billboard to be told very Clearly, we know that a picture is worth a thousand words, but with a thousand words, you can paint a picture. He's saying, you receive the true gospel. How is that? How did they see Christ crucified? Well, he explained to them, he preached to them Christ and Him crucified. Paul always preached what he called the word of the cross. He said, we preach Christ and Him crucified. Or again, he said, to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. And he would paint the picture, just as any pastor paints a picture, any Christian who paints a picture, when he goes forth to tell the gospel that this Jesus, that this Christ, that this Messiah, who was seated in all eternity with the Father, there was a plan for salvation. It wasn't a plan, it was a determination. There was no plan A, plan B. But from eternity's past, Christ set his love, the Father set his love, the Holy Spirit set his love upon us. And in time, this Jesus was born of a woman, born of a virgin, born under the law. And he stepped into time. Not with glory shining about Him. No, He was just a common man that walked among common people. There was nothing that would attract you to Him by your sight saying, oh, look at Him shine. He's the Christ. No, He came as a common man underneath the law. The law that we was once bound by, that we was chained by, that was a sentence to death for us because by the law came sin, and by sin came death. And he walked out this law perfectly. And Paul would go on and he would paint a picture just as anyone would, like I said. And this Jesus, this Christ, this spotless Lamb of God who is innocent, is portrayed as guilty among people. And they cried out, crucify Him, crucify Him. They let a prisoner go and held this spotless, guiltless Lamb of God as condemned and cried out, crucify Him. He was beaten with a cat of nine tails. Flesh was ripped from His body. His beard was pulled from His face. He was spat upon. He was mocked. He was cursed. He was beaten. And a cross was placed upon His back to go up Mount Calvary. He had to have help going up the mountain because He was so broken, so beaten, so torn up. And He was laid upon this cross, this old rugged cross. No doubt when you laid upon it, you would get splinters already with an open back, with flesh ripped off, with bone exposed. This Christ was laid upon it. His hands were stretched out and they were nailed to this cross. His feet were placed on top of each other and they were nailed to this cross. And this cross was meant for absolute suffering. It was so bad of a suffering that Roman citizens were not allowed to be crucified in this way. You see, this weight, it would suffocate you. And if he wanted to take a breath, he would have to push up with his feet that had nails stuck through them just to gasp for air. And he was nailed to that cross gasping for air. This is the Christ who was publicly portrayed as crucified to these Gentiles. You see, but Paul never did stop with that, and neither do we. This Christ who was publicly portrayed as crucified, he died. He went into the grave. He was the atonement once and for all. There was no more to be added to my justification. This spotless Lamb of God came to save the world. He was no longer just the Jews, but He was going to call all people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, and every people group. And because this sacrifice pleased God the Father, He rose up His Son from the dead. Jesus even said, they don't take my life from me. I lay it down and I'll pick it back up again. And He rose from the dead for our justification. So when we go to mess with, as these Judaizers did, justification as in Christ's death plus my works, we see the evil of it. We see that anything added to it is evil. It's not right. It shouldn't be spoken of amongst Christians. Because this Christ rose from the dead, and now He is seated at the right hand of the Father, continually interceding for me and for you. Father and the Son has sent His Spirit into us to sanctify us, to grow us in righteousness, to cry out, Abba, Father. This is why Paul is so disturbed. This is why he says, who has bewitched you? This has to be a spell. This Christ was preached before you. How is it that you're falling back to this? Or are you that foolish? Are you that stupid that you would try to add to the cross as if his finished works was not enough? And so he presses them on to make them think. Paul uses uses a great question here to set their minds back right. He said, this is the only thing that I want to find out from you. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? How did you receive this spirit? How did you receive this spirit? Was it because someone come and laid their hands on you and the Holy Spirit entered you? Did you receive this salvation because you was dunked underneath water and then at that moment you received the Holy Spirit? Did you receive this Holy Spirit because one day as you was worshiping you broke out in tongues? No. Those are all works. You received the Spirit by faith. Any church that would say That those are the ways that you receive the Spirit are a church that needs much repentance. They need the true gospel. They need the understanding of justification by faith and faith alone. And it breaks my heart to know that I have family in those churches. But it is our job as Christians to go forth into the world to proclaim truth. because the Word of God is used for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. And so Paul, he is reproving, he is correcting, he is training up in righteousness. This is one of Paul's most blunt messages, I would say, especially in chapters three, the beginning of chapter three to the end of chapter four, out of all of his letters. He is very blunt so that they understand this. And this question that he asked, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? This forces them to answer this question. The Spirit's work is not a reward based on a person's own spiritual achievement. It is a gift granted to those who believe in Christ's achievement. The Spirit that you have is by faith, faith alone. There's nothing that you did to conjure up God to give you this Spirit. No. It is a gift so that no man may boast. This question that he asked him ultimately leads into the next question. When he says, Are you so foolish, having begun by this Spirit, Now you are perfected by the law. You see, the only answer to the first question, how did you receive the Spirit, is evident. It is by faith. And he's saying, well, if you've begun by faith, are you now being perfected by the flesh? You're telling me, you, who was not even good enough to make yourself righteous by the law, now you're perfecting yourself by the law? Who bewitched you? That's foolishness. He's saying you're starting with Jesus, but now you're being sanctified by Moses. You're starting with Jesus, and now He didn't do enough, so now you must complete it. Here is the thought. We cannot base our justification on our sanctification. I want to make that very clear. You cannot base your justification on your Sanctification. What do I mean by that? As I said earlier, you can't look at your life and say, OK, man, I got this perfect attendance. I've. I study really hard when when I'm being taught in Sunday school, I read my Bible, I've never missed communion. I make sure I sing every song and I'm to the page and in the hymnal before they start. You know, I even pray at night. I even do family worship. I even do this, this, this, and this. Are all those things great? Absolutely. Those are the fruit of the Spirit. We're going to do those things as Christians. But the moment that we start looking at those to justify ourselves before Christ, we are absolutely wrong. We are justified by Christ and Christ alone. It is His death is the only thing that satisfied God the Father. And His resurrection is the only thing that justified me. It is the only thing that justifies you. There is no such thing as performance-based Christianity. This reminds me of one of the hymns I listen to you often, and it says, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. I have no hope but Christ. Everything else that I try to stand on is sinking sand. Another hymn that I believe it's Rock of Ages. It says, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. You see, there's a problem when we go to add to it. And it was stated in Galatians 2.2, when Paul said, I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. Now, I don't want us to misunderstand all of this and think, well, I don't have to seek righteousness, I don't have to seek God, I don't have to do any of these churchy things. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is in doing these things, because you will do these things, you prepared the good works beforehand that you will walk in them, we don't look to these things as our justification. We don't look for these things for our assurance. Our assurance is in faith alone. This is the doctrine that Luther said, the church stands or the church falls. It is the hinges that the door swings on. If we get this wrong, we go downhill. If we get this wrong, it opens up the door to all sorts of heresies. If we get this wrong, we're going to see what happened in the Roman Catholic Church. how it painted its face like a whore and went into the streets to do whatever it needed to do. To get your money, to get your land, to get your time, and use Christ as an example to even steal it from you. That's what happens when we open the door to be justified by anything else but Christ. Paul goes on in verse 4, and he says, did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain, another translation, instead of using suffer, it uses the word experienced. There's kind of a debate on what's going on here, and honestly, to me, I don't care which one you use. They both work as great examples. Talking to the church then, as we know that the church would have been under heavy persecution, he says, did you suffer so many things in vain? No doubt we know that if you are identifying with Christ, you're going to lose your job. You're going to be an outcast from the Jewish nation. You're going to be one who is hated, not only by the Jews, but you're going to be hated by the Romans. And he says, did you suffer so many things in vain? You who Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified, you who who had heard the message of the gospel. Now you're telling me that you're going to turn to these things after suffering in so many ways. as possibly being beaten, as being jailed, as being any style of persecution. Was it indeed in vain? Was it in vain? Or are my questions showing you that you're stumbling into error? And you see that it is not in vain. But it is Christ who justified me. Or with the other version that the other translator would go with is that you experience so many things in vain. And in that, they would use the illusion of just how the Spirit renews us, how God is always performing His works around us, how He has changed our heart. Was this just experience? Was it in vain? Really wasn't real? Or did you really see and did you really taste the goodness of God? And so then he asked, so then he who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, does he do it by works of the law or by hearing with faith? He's asking them, these miracles that happened, this moving of the Holy Spirit that we see where people are coming to Christ, did this happen because you obeyed the law? Did this happen because you were circumcised? Did this happen because you was sure to do all the steps that Moses had commanded us? Or did God's spirit move because you had faith in Christ? Which one was it? He really doesn't leave much room for them to err here. He's speaking to them in a tone that That is, I would hate to place it as far as saying condescending, but it is in that sense. It's showing them that the foolishness of what they believed leads to utter ruins. That no, indeed, you did receive the Spirit by faith. you do finish the Christian life by faith, that the miracle of the Holy Spirit and the workings of God around you is by faith. None of this is by works of the law. And so what we must see here, what we must understand is simply that doctrine, that justification is by faith, and faith alone, that there is no religious experience that justifies us, that we had done. There's no adding to the gospel. Like I said, we see it everywhere. We even see it in Armenian faith. Yes, let me clean you up, my son. You are holy, beloved, a royal nation, a holy priesthood. Hope your sin dropped you back in the mud. You lost your salvation. It's not my gospel. My gospel is Matthew 1 21. His name will be called Jesus and he will save his people. There's no might. There's no possibility that He could lose me. No, He says, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I would lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. Christ is not a failure. He's not going to lose who Christ has given Him. A drop of the Savior's blood is not going to be shed in vain. No, those whom He justified, He will therefore glorify. We see that plainly in the chain of salvation in Romans chapter 8. And so we hold to this doctrine that justification is by faith and faith alone. It is apart from works. Glory be to God for that, because if it was for works, I would be damned to hell every moment of my life. because I cannot love God every moment of my life with all that I am because I continually am influenced by this world and by this flesh and by others around me. But when I am surrounded by that darkness, I am caught up by what the scriptures have said that, hey, none of that justifies you. None of that makes you right. This can't stop you from God sanctifying you. You are forgiven. Get up. Ask for repentance. Keep pressing on. Forgetting what lies behind. Pressing forward for what lies ahead. Keeping our eyes fixed upon Christ, who is the author and the finisher of our faith. This is justification by faith alone. May we never stumble into this error. May we never look to ourselves for assurance of our salvation, but may we always look to Christ and Christ alone.