worship team. I mean, that song selection right there. Good grief. I mean, that's just fantastic. Thank you guys for leading us well for picking songs that call attention. They really draw the heart to the greatness of God. They call attention to the gospel. And it is just fantastic. It kind of makes you just want to get up and teach through those songs real quick and call her David. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to stick with Galatians. So we're going to be in Galatians chapter 3. We're going to make it through verse 14. So my ambition of getting through Galatians before the end of the month is officially over. It's shot. It's not going to happen. So I'm just going to take my time and get there when I can. So having defended his apostleship against the Judaizers, and begun with a clear but relatively non-accusatory argument for justification or being made right with God by faith alone in Jesus, Paul turns up the heat a little bit in chapter three. And so here's how he addresses the Galatians who have been deceived by these Judaizers. By the way, the gospel of the Judaizers is essentially that you need Jesus. Let's get started with him. Let's do believe in Jesus, but let's make sure that we're also becoming good Jews. Let's get circumcised. Let's obey the law. Like let's make sure that we're doing our part to save ourselves. We need a little Jesus and we need a whole lot of what we're gonna do to earn our way in. And Paul is not having any of that. So in chapter three, actually I'll read 221. Let's start in chapter 221, I'll read that. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish 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, does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it's those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, and you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. I think I would have to put effort into preaching this poorly. Getting to preach a text like this, it feels like cheating. I mean, it's just if I just read this to you repeatedly for 40 minutes, we'd walk out of here as blessed as can be. This is just unbelievable. Again, Paul is frustrated. These people, because these people are buying a different gospel. I picked the book not because I think we're buying a different gospel. We're not. I picked this book because I wanted to remind us of the beauty of the gospel. It is so good. I love the sharpness of Paul's rebuke here. because it communicates, hey, this gospel, this news that is so good, it's beyond belief. It is a big deal. It's a big deal. You need to embrace it. You need to treasure it, love it and never depart from it. And so here's how he starts. He says, Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? The word bewitched can mean deceived by crafty means, or it can mean deceived by black magic, witchcraft, sorcery, their satanic or demonic powers. See, the Galatians' minds have been overtaken by the Judaizers' so-called gospel of justification by works. The Judaizers taught that justification are right standing with God is based upon our performance instead of Jesus's performance for us. And the Galatians have been deceived. But notice that Paul doesn't view them as passive victims here, but as active participants, he says, oh, foolish Galatians. In other words, what what are you thinking? What are you doing? The Galatians are at fault. When Eve blamed the serpent for her rebellion, God didn't say, you know what? That's right. It's not your fault. And Paul doesn't do that with the Galatians. Their deception is their fault. They're foolish. After all, to quote Paul here in verse one. It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Now, Paul isn't saying here that the Galatians witnessed the crucifixion. Very likely, none of them in Galatia witnessed the crucifixion. The word publicly portrayed carries the idea of a most vivid picture. So Paul's reminding them likely that when he first told them the gospel, The reality of the crucifixion hit them in a way that was as though they were seeing it in person for themselves. It struck them deeply. And so Paul is saying, Galatians, when I told you of the crucifixion of Christ, you felt it in your bones. And what now? You think he's an idiot? You think you wasted his time coming here? You think he was crucified for no reason? And in verse two, he makes this comment. He says, let me ask you only this, which when I first read that, I thought that sounds like one. I think he's introducing here a body of questions, not a single question. He says, let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? When Paul preached the gospel, to the Galatians, the Holy Spirit made himself known among them in ways that were obvious. And what were those ways? How can you tell when the Holy Spirit is at work in a person's life? I have heard and witnessed some absolutely insane answers to that question, but Paul answers it in this book. And it's nothing flashy or ecstatic. They don't speak in tongues, utter predictive prophecies, or get slain in the spirit. They don't do any of that. Here's how you can tell. Here's the telltale sign, the standard go-to evidence that someone has received the Holy Spirit. They believe the Bible, they trust the Bible, and they bear fruit. That's it. They trust God's word and they grow in love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control. That's what it looks like to have the Holy Spirit. And Paul says, think back to the beginning. When did you first receive the Holy Spirit? When did you first start bearing fruit? Did that begin when you heard the gospel of justification by faith alone? Or did that begin when you started buying that man centered works based nonsense from the Judaizers? Now, obviously, Paul's question and all of these questions, none of them are really questions, right? These are all statements. These are those kind of questions you don't really like to get. They're all statements. He's reminding them that they've received the Holy Spirit by hearing with faith. They started bearing fruit when the Holy Spirit gave them ears to hear the gospel of justification by faith alone. So the Holy Spirit isn't the prize they won by their obedience. He's the gift they received by faith in Christ. Question two, are you so foolish having begun by the spirit? Are you now being perfected by the faith, by the flesh? Sorry. You are being pregnant by faith, but having begun by the Spirit, you're not being perfected by the flesh. Paul's question called the Galatians back to how their Christian life, his first question called their attention back to how their Christian life began when you first heard, had you received the Spirit in the beginning? That was the first question. The second question calls them to consider how they'll persevere to the end. How will their Christian life be brought to completion? Having begun the Christian life by faith in Jesus, he asks, will you complete it by your works? Having begun by grace, will you finish by earning? And in many ways, this was the crux of the Judaizers theology. Again, they would have said, yeah, you know, you need Jesus if you want to get into heaven. Of course, you got to have that. You need faith and whatever all that is. But let's get real here. If you want to get in, you dang well better be a Jew. You better get circumcised. You better obey the law. You better start keeping the rules or you're not going to make it. Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived by this. Jesus is enough stuff. He's not. John Stott summarized nicely. I think I love the way he said this. It's just arresting. He summarized the Judaizers theology this way. Call it. This is disgusting. Listen, these lines. You must let Moses finish what Christ has begun. Or rather, you must finish Christ's unfinished work. I think that probably would have struck the Galatians the way that it struck us. But he's not done questioning them. In verse four, you find question three. Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? There's a little bit of debate here. The Greek word that the ESV translates as suffering, I think the NIV does as well. I think, maybe, I'm not sure. What does NASB say? Does it use the word suffer there? OK. It can also be translated as experience. Regardless, we know that the Galatians had great experiences with Paul, the gospel, and the Holy Spirit. So Paul could be asking if those experiences were wasted on them. It seems more likely that he's referring to persecution. The Book of Acts puts on display the kinds of persecution the early church would have faced. And some of it is significant. Paul elsewhere chronicles some of his own sufferings in Romans eight. And it is intense to say the least. And so it's as though Paul is asking the Galatians How is it that you who were once so convinced of the gospel that you were willing to suffer for it have now abandoned it? Was all that for nothing? Question four is in verse five. Does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? His final question here is more or less a restatement of the first one. With one addition, he refers to miracles. Paul gives no specifics here, but we know that God regularly performed miracles. In particular, you can think of lots of healings through the apostles. So it's quite possible that God healed various Galatians through Paul and or others. And so Paul asked them, did you earn these miracles from God? Did you purchase those like he's some cosmic heavenly vending machine? Or were they gifts from God that you received by faith? And so having asked these four, we'll call them leading questions, accusatory questions. He reminds him in verse six, that even Abraham was justified by faith. This would have gotten all over the Judaizers because Abraham would have been their boy. They're going, Hey, you remember Genesis 17. You got to be circumcised, baby. Got you, Paul. And so it's as though Paul says to the Judaizers, hey, you guys are big into Jewishness, right? Perfect. Why don't we talk about Abraham? And I bet the Judaizers were like, oh, buddy, yes, let's do Paul. Let's talk about Abraham. The Judaizers would have been drooling over Genesis 17, 9 and 10. Here's what it says. And God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you, every male among you shall be circumcised. The Judaizers would have loved this. They'd have been champing at the bit to talk about this. They would have said, see Paul, we're not saying you don't need Jesus, but it's pretty clear you also gotta be circumcised. I mean, it's right there in Genesis 17. And Paul basically says, Genesis 17, huh? Why'd you skip chapter 15? I'll tell you what, let's table Genesis 17, because we've got it ahead of ourselves. For now, let's back up a few chapters. Remember in Genesis 12, God said to Abraham, he gave us what has become his most famous promise to Abraham. Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you. So God's going to give Abraham a land. And I'll make you a great nation. He's going to make him a father of a lot of people, many, many nations. I will bless you. I'll make your name great. So he's going to have a great land, a great nation, a great name. So that you'll be a blessing. I'll bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. But there was a problem. Abraham and Sarah had no kids at the time. He was 99. She was 89, not exactly ripe age for childbearing and she was barren. So in Genesis 15, Abraham asked God how this great nation thing is going to happen. Hey, I remember you telling me about this great nation I'm going to become and how in me, all these families, the earth is going to be blessed. I have noticed there is a problem here. I ain't got no kids. And so God makes a promise to Abraham. He says, your very own son shall be your heir. And if you'll look with me at Galatians 3.6, you'll find Paul quoting Genesis 15.6, which is Abraham's response to God's promise that he would bear a son. Abraham believed God, He believed God and it was counted to him credited to him as righteousness. That is stunning. That is stunning. So Abraham. was declared right with God two chapters before the covenant of circumcision ever even existed. Abraham was justified before any word was ever spoken about circumcision. So if not by works, how was Abraham justified? By faith, by faith. Abraham believed God, he trusted him. And notice what Abraham received through faith is righteousness. Abraham didn't supply righteousness. That's the teaching of the Judaizers. You need to supply some righteousness. You need to bring your own. Abraham received righteousness. And really he received credit for righteousness that was not his. Righteousness was counted to him. Through faith, Abraham got credit for the righteousness he needed to be right with God. He got credit for it through faith, trusting he believed the promises of God. Now, to distort the gospel of justification by faith alone, the Judaizers had to deny the plain teaching of Scripture that Abraham was justified by faith, not works. And so Paul calls them on it. In verses seven to nine, we find not only was Abraham justified by faith, but God's promise to Abraham points to justification by faith. The Judaizers believe the children of God are the physical descendants of Abraham. That's their thing. And so if you Gentiles want to be saved, then you need to take on the sign of a physical descent as close as you can get. You really can't get all the way. And it kind of stinks to you guys. But if you'll do a little surgery on yourself, then you can be considered Jewish. You can be considered a physical descendant of Abraham. through circumcision. But God's promises to Abraham and even the outworking of them in the Old Testament make it obvious is not the physical descendants of Abraham who would be blessed. That's not who the promise was ultimately speaking of. You see hints of it in the Old Testament. You know, you've got Rahab. You have the Gibeonites and others. There are those who were not Jews in the Old Testament who were were saved, who were brought in to the family of God. But that's not where Paul goes here. Paul says it's the spiritual descendants of Abraham who would be blessed. Hearing this, I am sure the Judaizers have said, hello, Paul, have you read the Old Testament? Israel is God's chosen people and the other nations are excluded. So isn't it obvious that the physical descendants of Abraham are the sons of Abraham and the heirs of promise? And Paul's response is, but that's not what God promised, is it? He didn't say in you shall the nation of Israel be blessed. He didn't say that. He said in you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. So God's promise wasn't ultimately about Abraham's physical descendants. It was the good news of an unconditional covenant. Not a conditional covenant in which God was saying, listen, Abraham, listen, nations, if you do your part, if you do your part, I'll do mine. That's not what he said. The covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 12 was not based on Abraham's performance or mine or yours. It was not based on anyone else's performance. God said in you shall all the nations be blessed. It is going to happen. It was a signpost pointing to the gospel point to Jesus. It was a promise that the spiritual descendants of Abraham would be justified by faith, just like their father, Abraham. That's why during children's church, a room full of Gentiles can joyfully and rightly saying that father Abraham had many sons and many sons had father Abraham. And I am one of them. And so are you. Dang! That's unbelievable. How is that possible? Because the promise to Abraham that all the nations would be blessed was pointing to justification by faith. These other nations, the law wasn't even given to them. They had no hope. There was nothing they could do. So how were they going to be blessed? They were going to be blessed the same way Abraham was. Righteousness was going to be credited to them. And so not only did the Judaizers deny that God's promise to Abraham, or that Abraham was saved by faith, justified by faith, they also deny that God's promise to Abraham points to justification by faith. And so Paul calls them on that, but he's not done. In verses 10 to 12, we find that even the law of Moses points to justification by faith. So Abraham's own justification, the promise to Abraham, and even the law itself point to justification by faith. Justification by works is not only opposed to Abraham, it's opposed to the law. In verse 10, Paul notes that all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. Do you believe that? Do you believe that if you're if you rely on your works to make you right with God? You are outside of Christ and under a curse. It's as though God saying, hey, you want to you want to be justified by works? Well, buddy, your works aren't looking real good. You have dropped the ball over and over and you have no hope. There's no hope of being justified by your works. Don't cling. to your works. Don't rely on your works. That's foolishness. Galatians, that's foolishness. If your words can make you right with God or even contribute toward your rightness with God. You are under the curse of the law. If that's what you believe, you're under the curse of the law. And what curse is that? Paul quotes several Old Testament texts here. In verse 10, he quotes Deuteronomy 27, 26. He reminds the Galatians that cursed be everyone. Listen to this, listen to how devastating this would be. If we really were justified by works, or if that was the system we were under, where we, to be saved or to be justified, we had to do the works right. Listen to how devastating this one verse would be. Cursed to be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law. And then he just, he issues like a little redundant redundancy, if you will. Cursed everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Oh, you gotta abide and do them, I see. But it's for emphasis. I mean, the emphasis is you've got to get every single aspect of the law perfect, start to finish, birth to grave, every moment, every day, forever, if you want to be justified by the law. And obviously, no one has done that. And so the impossibility of justification by works is evident in the law. Right? It's evident right there. OK, we can't be saved by works. That's crystal clear. If I don't abide by everything written in the book of the law and do them, I'm out. There's no hope there. In verse 11. Paul notes the justification by works is only rejected in the law of Moses Habakkuk. How about that? You don't hear Habakkuk quoted all the time, do you? Habakkuk gets in on the action here. Quoting Habakkuk 2.4, he gives the reason why no one will be justified before God by the law. And here's why. It's not just that we're incapable of obeying the law perfectly. That's the negative aspect. Positively, according to Habakkuk, the righteous shall live by faith. The ESV notes that this can also be translated. And listen to, I love this. The one who by faith is righteous will live. The one who by faith is righteous will live. Unbelievable. It's the Old Testament. It's Habakkuk's commentary on the law on the Old Testament on justification. He's saying, hey, you want to know who's going to live? It's those who are righteous by faith. That's who's going to live. That's Habakkuk. That's Old Testament, Paul would say to the Judaizers. Hey, yeah, let's look at your Old Testament, Judaizers. Let's do it. Because your Old Testament is telling you that justification is by faith. In verse 12, Paul cites Leviticus 18.5 and notes that the law is not of faith, rather, The one who does them shall live by them. Now, Paul isn't referring to the law itself. He's referring to the belief that justification can be obtained by law keeping. It's not that the law is not a faith. The law is certainly pointing to faith. What he's saying is this this idea that you can be justified by law keeping. Is ridiculous, it's absurd. Because only the one who does them will live by them. I mean, that's it. If you don't do them, you're not going to live. You're in bad shape. So Paul's putting on display yet again the fact that even the law of Moses, that's Leviticus, that's in the law, points to justification by faith. In other words, Paul's saying, hey, The law is pretty clear. You're certainly not going to get in by your works. It's not going to happen. You can't do it. But there is a way you can get in and Habakkuk points to it. The righteous will live by faith. And then there's verse 13. You believe that? Christ redeemed us. He bought us, paid in full. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. How did he do that? By becoming a curse for us. He took our place. For it's written, curse is everyone who's hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so we might receive the promised spirit through faith. Christ came into the world to pay the penalty that our sin required. He paid it. Like all of it. Paid in full. He redeemed us. And as I say, he initiated our redemption. He got our redemption started so that we kick in a little bit of, you know, later on, if we supply a little bit of righteousness, we'll get in. He redeemed that's past tense. It's done. He accomplished it. He got it done. He took our curse and we got his reward. Who does stuff like that? I mean, how great is our God? I can't even hardly talk about it. It was this great exchange. My sin in exchange for Christ's righteousness. And how did that happen? How do I get credit for that? By faith. By trusting. Trusting. Not earning. Trusting. Tell me that's not beautiful. Because we had no hope apart from that, right? There was no hope. The law makes that so clear. Just these couple of reminders Paul gave us these couple of quotations here. There was no hope. And so Christ came into the world to do for us what we absolutely had no way of doing for ourselves. And Paul concludes this section by calling the Galatians attention to the fact that the blessing promise to the Gentiles through Abraham is only yes, through faith in Jesus. To conclude, It does feel wrong for a Protestant to conclude a sermon from Galatians three without saying something about Martin Luther. Um, it can be argued that Habakkuk two, four started the Protestant reformation. So let me close this morning with a reading. Uh, David Platt and Tony Morita wrote a little commentary on Galatians. Um, It's okay, it's not my favorite one that I've used, but this quote right here, I just thought was fantastic. They write, Luther first read Habakkuk 2.4 when he was a monk living in a monastery, but he didn't understand it at the time. Later, he went through a period of illness and depression as he imagined himself under the wrath of God. Lying in a bed in Italy, fearing he was about to die, Luther found himself repeating over and over again, the righteous will live by faith. He recovered and went to Rome, where he visited one of the churches there. The pope in that day had promised an indulgence, forgiving the sins of any pilgrim who mounted the tall staircase in front of the church. Are you kidding me? Yikes, get out of Rome, pay your money, climb the staircase, and you can have your sins or someone else's forgiven. People flocked to climb the staircase on their knees, pausing to pray and kiss the stairs along the way, looking for justification. They're wearing themselves out climbing the staircase. They're paying their money. They're kissing the steps as they go up. Why? Because, yeah, we need Jesus. But man, if you're at the end of the day, I got to bring my work to the table. They believe that. Luther's son later wrote the following of that experience for his father. As Luther repeated his prayers on the ladder and staircase, The words of the prophet Habakkuk came suddenly to his mind. The just shall live by faith. Thereupon, he ceased his prayers, returned to Wittenberg. I didn't know that's Wittenberg, but I'm an American, so I'm saying it, Wittenberg. And took this as the chief foundation of all his doctrine. How about that? So Luther is there at the stairs. He's climbing them. Presumably he's kissing them. He's stopping to pray. He's got in his mind. Hey, if I jump through the right hoops, if I do the right stuff, God's going to finally accept me. I'll get acceptance with God. And as he was in that act, the just or the righteous will live by faith came to his mind. And he hops up. He's like, OK, I don't need staircases anymore. I'm not buying any more indulgences, whatever the heck that crap is. I'm not doing any more of that. That's over. Luther later said. Before those words broke upon my mind, I hated God and was angry with Him. But when, by the Spirit of God, I understood those words, the righteous shall live by faith, the just shall live by faith, then I felt born again like a new man, and I entered through the open doors into the very paradise of God. Let's pray. Lord, thank you that there are open doors into the paradise of God. Or we praise you that. Christ became a curse for us. That when he died on the cross, he accomplished for us everything you require of us. Lord, your gospel is beautiful. It's beautiful. As people, we so want to earn things. We so want to say, yeah, look at what I did. There's no hope in that. Because what we've done is break your law over and over and over again. I don't know that any of us have ever had a fraction of a millisecond where we could honestly say that we have loved you with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind. We have no hope if we're relying on our works. And so God, rescue us from the natural, I'm gonna earn it mentality that we have. And help us to rejoice in the fact that you have done the earning for us. You've done the earning in our place. so that by faith in Jesus and faith alone, no works, we get credit for Christ's righteousness. Lord, we love you and we pray it in Jesus' name, amen.