I trust you brought a Bible with you this morning. Galatians chapter number 3 is where we'll be this morning as was just read a moment ago. Galatians 3 verses 1 through 14. If you have watched youth sports at all, perhaps you have kids or grandkids, you may have witnessed the confusion of a young player who ran the wrong way on the court or the field and scored against his own team. No time was that error more devastating than back in 1929 in the Rose Bowl. Georgia Tech was playing the University of California, and the football popped out of the hands of a Georgia Tech back. The University of California center, Roy Regals, scooped up the ball and cut across the field, but found himself hemmed in, so he reversed his field. But it was at that point that Regals lost his bearing and began to run down the field in the wrong direction. He broke loose, dashing toward the wrong end zone, while 75,000 fans watched Regals cross the 50-yard line on his way to scoring a touchdown for the opposite team. The crowd shouted at Regals in a vain attempt to turn him around. His teammate, Benny Lum, pursued Roy Regals' downfield, screaming at him from behind to turn back to stop Finally, Lam was forced to tackle his own teammate on the one yard line short of scoring for the other team. When the University of California attempted to kick out of their own end zone, it was Regals who centered the ball. The kick was blocked by Georgia Tech and rolled out of the end zone, a safety. That safety won the game for Georgia Tech by a score of eight to seven. all because Roy Regals became disoriented and he foolishly ran the wrong way, earning him the nickname Roy Wrongway Regals. You see, what a way to make the history books there. But this morning, I would submit to you that in the early years of New Testament Christianity, it was the Galatian church who became disoriented. And the Galatian church, or the Galatian church as they began running the wrong way. Some of the Gentile Galatian Christians had joined forces with the Judaizers, obligating themselves to adhere to the Old Testament law as a means of salvation and sanctification. I've written this at the top of your notes. Paul had to play defense against his own team. That is, Paul had to tackle the issue of justification by faith alone to save the game, if you will, for the Galatians were foolishly running the wrong way. So from Galatians 3 verses 1 through 14, I prepared a message titled simply Defending the Faith. Let's pause for prayer. God in heaven, we thank you for the message of the hymns that we have sung, for the message of the music that has been sung and said to us. Lord, we do praise you and exalt you and worship you for who you are. Lord, we want our attention and our affection, our vision to be wholly upon you alone. And God, now as we open the pages of the Holy Scripture and we read and we study and we learn, we ask for the aid of your Holy Spirit to instruct us so that we might not err in the same way as the Galatian churches did, running the wrong way, pursuing a wrong gospel. Lord, I pray that you'd go before us now in this study, in Jesus' name, amen. Galatians chapter number three, allow me to read beginning in verse one again. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Therefore, he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? In defense, of justification by faith alone, number one, Paul argued from experience. In verses one through five, Paul argued from experience, and Paul asked a series of rhetorical questions here in these early verses that the Galatians could easily answer from their own personal experience. And in asking these rhetorical questions, or if you'll allow, these ridiculous questions, Paul hoped the Galatians would think about the absurdities of their own Christian experience at this point in their lives. So allow me to ask you some questions that will perhaps illustrate the absurdities of our own lives. Answer these questions for me. Question number one, if pro is the opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress? Congress. All right? You thought about that? Pro and con. All right. Next question. If the number two pencil is the most important pencil in the world, why is it still number two? How about this one? If you choke a Smurf, what color will it turn? This is my favorite. If you throw a cat out of a moving car, does that make it kitty litter? We might have to try that. All right, this is serious now. If a man washes a dish and no woman is around to see it, did it happen? And finally, why do people order a double cheeseburger, large fry, and then a Diet Coke? You see, Pastor Matt, those questions are nonsense. You're right, they're nonsense. They're ridiculous. And Paul's questions in Galatians three, verses one through five are considered the same because they expose the nonsensical nature of the Galatians belief and behavior. But at the same time, Paul's questions are not trivial questions like I just posed to you this morning. Paul's questions are matters of eternal significance because the answers to Paul's questions are a matter of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. And the questions that Paul asked the Galatians should have or could have been answered from their own personal experience. Look at verse number one. Who has turned you around like Roy Regals, wrong way Regals, from looking at Jesus Christ and the cross? The crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the cross has been clearly portrayed for you, Paul says, but who has turned you from it? I would cross-reference this back to chapter one, verse number six. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel. Okay, look at verse number two. Did you receive the spirit of God by the law or by grace through faith? Remember your experience, Gentile Galatian Christians. Remember that you received the spirit of God by faith when you believed. Look at verse three. Verse three, since you began in the Spirit, are you now being perfected or completed by the flesh? If salvation is a work of the Spirit of God, how do you think that the preservation or the progress of our salvation, that's our sanctification, can be a work of the flesh if it began as a work of the Spirit? Jump to verse number five. Is the supernatural work of God among you a matter of human work or of faith? These are the self-evident questions that Paul is asking the Galatians, and in it all, Paul calls them foolish. Verse number one and verse number three, twice, he calls them foolish. Now, the word foolish in some contexts may mean a low intelligence. a lack of gray matter between the ears, no measurable brain waves, and we can insert any one of a number of different jokes at this point. We have a saying in our house, you can't fix stupid, we say, right? When someone acts foolishly, but here, being foolish isn't being stupid, it's the antonym for wisdom. That is knowing what's right, but failing to do what is right. That's biblical foolishness. And Paul's rebuke is to those who were smart enough to know the truth. The Galatians knew the truth of the gospel, but they were not responsible enough to practice the truth in verse number one. And that way, Paul called them foolish. They knew the answers. but they were living differently or foolishly. That is, if you'll allow me to extend the illustration, they knew whose team they were on. They knew which way they ought to be going, but somehow they became disoriented and were running the wrong way. So let me explain what's happening here. In verse number two, when Paul speaks of receiving the Spirit, he's speaking of the salvation of the Gentiles. Look at verse three, when Paul speaks of having begun in the spirit, he's speaking of the conversion of the Gentiles. The first Gentiles to be saved, the first Gentile converts, were Cornelius and his household. And we reviewed some of this history last week from Acts 10 and 11. Peter was given a sheet full of unclean animals being lowered to the earth from heaven. Peter was commanded to kill and eat those animals. And then and there, God instituted a new Christian liberty from the Old Testament Mosaic law. Peter then went into the home of Cornelius, a Gentile, an unclean Gentile, and ate at the table of the unclean Gentile, unclean Gentile food because of this new Christian liberty. And after giving the gospel to Cornelius and his household, they were gloriously saved by the Spirit of God. that is then evidenced by supernatural phenomenon in that case of speaking in tongues. And just as the work of the Spirit of God was evident with the Jews when they first believed in Acts chapter two at Pentecost, so now the work of the Spirit of God was evident when the Gentiles were first saved in Acts 10 and 11. And I told you last week that Acts 10 and 11 is so foundational to our study of Galatians. It was later, in Acts 15, in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Council, which I believe took place after Paul's writing of this letter, that Peter would cite the experience of the Gentiles at Cornelius' house when the Spirit was given as an authentication of their salvation. And so the implications of this are really profound. Since our salvation is by faith, it's of the Spirit of God, so also our sanctification is a work by faith of the Spirit of God. And since we have received the Spirit of God by faith, we do not keep the Spirit by works, but rather by faith. You might fill in the margin there. Colossians 2, verses six and seven. Favorite scripture of mine, Colossians 2, six and seven. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. How have you received Christ Jesus the Lord? By faith. So walk in him by faith, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith. And so in defense of justification by faith alone, Paul argued from experience, specifically the spiritual experience, letter A, the spiritual experience of the Gentile Christians. In verse number one, they had a clear picture of Jesus Christ on the cross. In verses two and three, they had received the Holy Spirit of God. In verse five, miracles had been given, done among them, by God the Father, and they experienced the work of each person of the triune Godhead, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father, comes verse number four. Look at verse four, we skipped that. Have you suffered so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain? So there wasn't just the spiritual experience of their conversion, there was also what I'm gonna call suffering experience. And we know from the book of Acts that Paul suffered severely for the cause of Christ in Galatia while on his first missionary journey. We know that the Judaizers became Paul's bitter enemies and made life very difficult for the Christian converts who did not embrace the Jewish law. And I believe it was because of this suffering in verse number four that many Galatians were bewitched Verse number one. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? How have you become bewitched? I think because of the suffering in verse number four, the word there bewitched in verse one, it means to charm away and to make false promises. And I believe it was because of the trouble, chapter one, verse seven, that the Judaizers caused that the Galatian Christians got turned around or bewitched. When suffering came, the Galatians were disoriented and disillusioned, and the Judaizers pointed them in the wrong direction, explaining that their suffering was a consequence of not keeping the law. your persecution, your suffering. The Judaizers bewitched them, promising them a better life if they would just revert to law keeping. Well, if you would obey the law, bad things wouldn't happen to you, perhaps. The Judaizers explained that their suffering was God's judgment on them for neglecting the law, teaching them if you won't keep the law, you won't. suffer. So here's what's happening, folks. The Galatians are very much so operating by experience. Initially, they experienced the crucified Lord Jesus, verse number one. They experienced the Holy Spirit, verses two and three. They experienced miracles from God the Father, verse number five. Their spiritual experience was significant. Praise the Lord for that. But so also was their suffering experience in verse number four. And like Roy Regals, wrong way Regals, they scrambled, making a mad dash in the wrong direction because it appeared to be the path of least resistance. Allow me to make some application for us here this morning. There are times in our lives when we have a bad experience. and it turns us around. It turns us the wrong way. We become disoriented. We become disillusioned. We abandon the truth because in our suffering, someone or something else has bewitched us, promising us better circumstances if we go the other way. You may know someone who is right now running the wrong way in their lives. And if I were a betting man, I would wager that it is in part because of a bad experience. They were offended, they were hurt, they were wronged, they suffered in some way, and so they're following the path of least resistance. The field seems open before them, and they're bewitched by the false promises of success if they go in that direction. You may know someone like that. Or it may not be someone you know, it may be you yourself. Perhaps you're there right now and you say, Pastor Matt, you don't understand what has happened to me, the suffering I've endured in my life experience. And it threatens to turn you from fixing your vision on God, as we just sang, to look a different direction. And perhaps there is someone who loves you who is chasing you from behind, saying, stop, you're going the wrong way, turn around. and yet we don't heed their cry. Folks, here's what I wanna say at this point. We cannot always trust our experiences. You see, our spiritual experiences may be counterfeit experiences. How do we know? We had that spiritual high. We had that warm, fuzzy feeling. It seemed to work for a while, but then we have suffering and trial and hardship. What do we do? I'm gonna suggest to you that it is insufficient to defend the gospel of grace that is justification by faith alone from experience alone. So, here's the good news. Number two, Paul argued from the scripture. First Paul argued from experience, positively and negatively, and now Paul is arguing from the scripture. Look at verse number six. Just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, this is an argument from history, verse number six, which is an argument from scripture, for verse number six ought to be in quotation marks in your copy of the scripture, or perhaps in italics. It is a citation from Genesis 15, verse number six. Paul is reaching back into history as recorded in Scripture and he's citing Genesis 15 verse number 6. Look at verse number 7. Verse seven, therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham, and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, long ago, saying in you all the nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with behaving Abraham. Okay, now, there is no doubt about it that the Judaizers in the first century would cite Abraham as positive proof that circumcision was necessary for salvation, necessary to find favor with God, while at the same time accusing Paul of presenting some radical new basis for salvation or sanctification, a radical departure from the faith of our fathers, right? The faith of our fathers, Father Abraham, it was law-keeping. It was circumcision. And so Paul turns the tables on them and cites the faith of their fathers by quoting from Genesis. Folks, it was Abraham's faith, not his circumcision, that was the means of righteousness. It was 14 years after Abraham believed God, that he was circumcised. Maybe he didn't know that. It was 500 years after Abraham that the Mosaic Law was given. Abraham's justification was by faith alone, apart from circumcision, apart from the law, because Abraham predated circumcision and the law. Look in the back of your outlines. I've copied here what Pastor Teacher John MacArthur has written. The ancient rabbis were so absolutely convinced that salvation could only be earned through keeping the law that they tried to prove God had somehow revealed his law to the patriarchs and other saints who lived before Moses. and that those people found favor with him because they kept his law. Because they could not bring themselves to consider limiting the supremacy of the law, the rabbis sought instead to reconstruct history and the clear teaching of God's word. Okay, go with me to Romans chapter number four. Quickly to Romans chapter number four. This is important. Romans chapter four, Paul's now no longer writing to the Galatians, he's writing to the Romans, but the issue is the same, Romans four, let me pick up in verse number one, Romans four verse one, what then shall we say that Abraham, our father, has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about but not before God. For what does the scripture say? This is an appeal, an argument from the scripture. Abraham believed God and it was accounted or credited to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt, payment. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Look at the end of verse number nine. For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. Faith was credited because of Abraham's faith. He had the imputed righteousness of Christ. Verse 10, how then was it accounted? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Answer, not while circumcised, but beforehand, before, while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, the Gentiles, that righteousness might be imputed to them also. and the father of circumcision to those who are not only of the circumcision, Jews, but also walk in the steps of faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. Go back to Galatians chapter number three. Galatians 3. Paul is arguing from the Old Testament scripture that justification is by faith alone because Abraham was justified by faith before the law, before circumcision. And Paul defends that, I'll just give you this positively, I believe there. Abraham was the positive case study, positively. Now, there's also a way to argue for justification by faith alone negatively, that's letter B. And you're back in Galatians 3 now, I'm gonna point you to verse number 10. Galatians 3 verse number 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, again, this is a citation from scripture, an argument from scripture, curse is everyone who does not continue in all the things that are written in the book of the law to do them. is what Deuteronomy says. But that no one is justified by the law on the side of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Those who trust in the works of the law are obligated to keep all things in the law without exception, and that is a curse. because no one can keep the law, not even a Pharisee. In fact, Jesus told the Pharisees in his Sermon on the Mount, or he told all the listeners, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, impossible, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. And so, negatively, if you try to earn merit or righteousness by law-keeping, you are cursed. It's Bible commentator John Phillips who recounts this personal story. I'd like to read it for you. He says this, some years ago when I was living in the Canadian north, I crossed verbal swords with a seventh day Adventist who wanted to impose the law on me. In wintertime, the temperature would frequently dip to 45 degrees Fahrenheit below zero and would often hover at minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. All plumbing had to be buried deep underground because in a severe winter, the frost line went down some six feet into the ground. I think we're familiar with this, right? We can identify? He says, I can remember one winter with the temperature hit an Arctic 54 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. The frost on the window panes was nearly an inch thick. It came through the front door and stood white and menacing on the inside panels. The door now was so cold that if one touched with the bare hands, the fingers stuck to it and could only be pulled away at the cost of torn skin. The furnace in our house never stopped running for days. Those who had more primitive housing had a full-time job of feeding logs on the fire. With this in mind, I said to the seventh-day Adventist, tell me, what do you do in the wintertime here in Prince George when the temperature dips below zero? How do you ever manage to keep the law on a day like that? The law says you shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath day, Exodus 35. He had no answer, so I continued. What kind of suit are you wearing? Are you wearing a suit with mixture of fabrics, wool and cotton, for instance? Sure enough, he was. Well, I said, even as you stand there trying to persuade me to put myself under law, you are under the curse of the law yourself. The law says you shall not wear a garment of divers sorts as of wool and linen together. You can't have mixed fibers according to the law. Deuteronomy 22. Indeed, I continued, you are not even making any attempt to wear the kind of garment that the law demands. The law says you shall make fringes upon the four quarters of your vesture, wherewith you cover yourself, Deuteronomy 22. You want me to commit myself to the Sabbath and take upon myself responsibility to keep the Mosaic law when you not only do not keep it yourself, but also cannot keep it. By not keeping it, you put yourself under its curse. you certainly aren't going to get me under that curse too. That's good. It was in Philippians that Paul said he could consider himself blameless concerning the law. But it was in Romans 7 that the law showed Paul his sin, that he was dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2. So negatively, once again, an argument from the scripture. Look at verse 13, Galatians 3, verse number 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, amen? He has redeemed us, he has freed us from the curse of the law in the substitutionary way, having become a curse for us. As it is written, again, a reference from the Old Testament scripture, Deuteronomy, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus. that we might receive the promise of the Spirit, how so? The last two words in verse 14, through faith. And so Paul's defense of justification by faith alone was argued from the scriptures positively, that's the story of Abraham, negatively about those who are living under the curse of the law, but then ultimately let us see redemptively, redemptively. The whole point of Jesus' death on the cross was to redeem us from the curse of the law. And this morning, I present to you the gospel of Jesus Christ by faith alone. If you trust in Jesus' work on the cross, his shed blood, and his resurrection, you can be saved, forgiven from your sin, and promised a home in heaven eternally, no longer bound to the law. The hymn writer Philip P. Bliss put it this way, free from the law, O happy condition, Jesus hath bled and there is remission. Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, grace hath redeemed us once for all. Folks, there are times when we get confused. There are times when we get disoriented, disillusioned, and we are prone to wander, even run the wrong way. And I am here this morning to cry out and call out to you regarding the gospel. Don't go that way, back to law keeping. But celebrate and rejoice in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. and know that we are redeemed from the curse by his work on the cross. Let's pray. God in heaven, I pray that your spirit and your word would just burn these truths deep into our consciousness, our minds and our hearts, or that we might hold fast to the faithful word, that we might cling to the faith once for all delivered to the saints, that we might be believers who rejoice in the gospel. Lord, it's no work of ours. It's entirely a work of Jesus Christ. And God, if there are some under the sound of my voice this morning that have not called on the name of the Lord by faith, believing that you would, by your grace, draw them to yourself and save them from the curse of the law, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.