Welcome to the Hackberry House of Chosun. My name is Bob and reading today from a study of Galatians. Let me give you the outline that I have here for this book so you'll know exactly where we are. I've divided Galatians into three main parts. Paul defends himself, Paul explains the gospel, and Paul calls the Galatians to the spirit walk. And we've covered that first section Totally. Well, there was a little section before that, too, the greeting and the shock and the warning thing. And then sections 3, 4, and 5 were Paul defends himself. We're now beginning section 2, sorry, part 2, section 6, number 6, the law versus the spirit. Why does Paul seem to insult these Galatian believers? Look at chapter 3. Verse 1, you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Well, the first issue I guess we have to deal with is Jesus and Paul's use of the word fool or foolish, even in talking to believers. in the light of Jesus' clear command in Matthew 5.22, never to call someone a fool, or moros in Greek, we get the word moron. Of course, Jesus cannot contradict himself. Always we look at context. In Luke 12.20, the man who stores up things in this world is called a fool. The Greek is aphron there. Foolish men build on the sand, Jesus said. That's the Greek moros. Then there are the five foolish virgins of the parable, that also is moros. In 1 Corinthians 15, 36, persons who do not comprehend the nature of resurrection are called fools, aphron. 2 Corinthians 11, receive me as a fool, says Paul. You've demanded that I accept this title, aphron. I have become a fool, aphron, in boasting. So that's how the English looks in the fool passages. But our text here in Galatians uses another Greek word. It's called anitis, anoitis. Strong's tells us the difference in the words. Moros is dull, stupid, heedless, blockhead, absurd, whereas Aphron is mindless, stupid, ignorant, rash, unbelieving. It's translated unwise. But anointus is simply unintelligent or sensual, listening only to your own senses. This is not a mental idiot. This is a spiritual idiot. Jesus in Matthew is talking about anger. If in anger you accuse someone of being a fool, you have committed a sin. If, like Jesus or Paul, you assess a person's standing before God and realize he's making a serious mistake, and you let that person know of that mistake in love, not in anger, you're on a different level altogether. The Galatians had heard the true gospel from the apostle to the Gentiles. They had rejoiced in it. They'd seen its value and origin, welcomed its results, when along came the Judaizers and robbed them of their joy in their newfound faith. It is foolish to exchange truth for a lie. We can say that with wisdom and compassion, not in a fit of rage. It's the anger associated with lack of self-control which leads to hatred and murderous thoughts that seems to be at the heart of Jesus' warning about calling people fools. This is not about the discernment of knowing what is wise and what is foolish and calling it so, not that kind. But then, woe to the man who calls foolish that which God has called wise, or who in anger discourages one who is just simply growing in the Lord by calling that person a fool. Luther suggests that even the use of Galatians here instead of brothers or beloved is a part of the rebuke of these churches. Well, next we've got to discuss Paul's use of the word bewitched. Bewitched, in English, this has to do with influencing someone's mind by way of witchcraft or the demonic. The Greek Paul uses does not demand this, only that someone had maligned the good doctrines they had been given, had fascinated them in some way to believe untruths. This, of course, is the devil's work, but to think in terms of a witch is not necessarily what the text implies here. Another word altogether in the Greek is used in connection with the actual bewitching sorcery that was going on in Acts 8 in the city of Samaria. Unfortunately, we have used the same word in English in both passages in most translations. But sorcery, true witchcraft, true demonization, and fascination are not exactly the same, although we could say they could come from the same source. Paul certainly is frustrated. He preached Christ crucified. to the Galatian people. A crucified Christ, as he implies earlier, demands the crucifixion of his followers, dead to the law, alive to Christ, dead to the sin that the law must bring, alive to the forgiveness through grace alone. Paul preached this message, and they had rejoiced in it, and they took it to their hearts, and yet someone had fascinated them into turning their heads away from the obvious truth. Let's move on to some other passage here, verses two through five. And the question I have is how does Paul use rhetorical questions in his argument? Listen to this. This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? There it is again. Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? And so then, does he who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? So Paul is now appealing to the manifestations that the Galatians had been receiving and how they had received them. By way of review, here's some of the record of what happened in Galatia when Paul first visited in Acts 13.52. The true disciples of Jesus in Antioch of Pisidia We're filled with the Holy Ghost. Something happens when you're filled with the Holy Ghost. There was some kind of manifestation. There's something happened in their person. In Acts 14.3, in Iconium, also in Galatia, as the apostles preached, it says, the Lord granted signs and wonders to be done. And then in Acts 14.8 in Lystra, a cripple is healed by the Spirit. People want to know what sort of power is released in our own day. Oh, that opens up a lot, doesn't it? Is the gospel accompanied by the miraculous today? I like Ironside's answer. When the gospel of the grace of God is preached, men and women believing it are delivered from their sins. The drunkard finds the chains of appetite are broken. The licentious man who reveled in his uncleanness like a swine in the mud gets a sight of the Lord Jesus and becomes pure and clean. The liar who has not been able to speak honest words for years learns to speak right words, true words. When men genuinely believe, they actually become new creations. There were no such signs and wonders accompanying law preaching, you can bet on that." End of quote. In none of these cases was the hearing and obeying of Moses a prerequisite to God's moving upon them. The very first falling of the Holy Spirit upon Gentiles in Peter's presence during his message is further proof that God responds to this gospel in ways that he does not respond to Moses. They knew, therefore, experientially, that the Judaizers were wrong. But these Jews were convincing teachers and perhaps introduced the element of fear. In verse three, there's that foolish title applied again, this time because the Galatians were thinking that a work that was begun in this miraculous way by God had to be completed by men doing things like Moses said. But the promise to us is that God himself will complete that which he began in us. We listen, we obey, but it's his work through and through. We can rest on the fact that he will do it. They were not resting. And suddenly they felt that they must take the reins. That's foolish thinking. Another point in verse four, they'd paid a great price for their faith. Jews persecuted them. The Roman Empire certainly didn't welcome this new king, Jesus. Were they to run back to the safety of Moses and admit they made a big mistake? Making all that persecution so much wasted time and effort? Paul repeats the argument that he puts forward in verse two, only perhaps personalizing it to himself as the supplier of the Spirit. He insists that he did not do what he did because of some obedience to Moses, but because of the new life that was flowing through him. You say, well, no, that's Christ was the supplier. It would appear to me that Paul is speaking about the human agent that Christ used here, namely himself. Well, that's the end of section seven. It's a smaller amount of time today. Hope you can deal with that. Next section is called the faith of Abraham. We'll attack that next time. the faith of Abraham in chapter 3 verses 6 to 14. Hey, we've got the works of great men of God on this website. I do hope that you go looking for them. I have their stories, their words. You know some of those great names. I won't have to list them for you, but so many of them are on this site. North Korea audios are here by the hundreds. Please check them out so that you will, with me, learn how to pray for North Korea. It's a sad, sad place. It needs your prayer. It needs work and move from God and I believe he will do that if we will continue to pray. I have photos there too. We've studied the Quran on this site showing you how very different it is from the Bible. We've studied Muhammad showing how different he is from Jesus. We've studied end time prophecies. We've gone through the whole Bible a couple times asking and answering questions. We have commentaries on whole books of the Bible, as we're doing right now. 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And then Zoom guys, how about some men? We need some men who want more fellowship to join us on Saturday night, seven o'clock central time. And there's no, cost involved in this thing. You just come and fellowship with us. Just send me an email after you get your Zoom set up on your phone or your computer. Send me an email telling me a little about your testimony and then I will send you an email with a link to that site and you'll be able to meet with us every Saturday. seven o'clock central time, that's Chicago time. We're having a good time. We're actually doing the Book of Galatians and we're slower than here online because we are interacting and the men are able to put their comments in. I started to say two cents worth, but it's a lot more than two cents that they put in, I want to assure you. All right, well, that's all for this time. This is the Hackberry House of Chosun. Lord willing, we'll get to talk real soon. Bye-bye.