Shall we turn now in our Bibles to
Galatians chapter 3.
Background, Paul the Apostle had been in the
area of Galatia.
Galatia was a general area like a county
or a state.
It was not a city.
There were many churches established there.
After Paul's departure, other teachers came in declaring
that the people could not be saved by
a simple faith in Jesus Christ, but must
also to that faith add the obedience to
the law and the rituals of the law
of circumcision.
And many of the people in those churches
that were brought to the gospel of Jesus
Christ through Paul's preaching, were taken in by
these other teachers that followed Paul.
And so a division developed among the brethren
there in that area.
These false teachers that had come in had
spoken against Paul's authority as an apostle.
And they were actually advocating the necessity of
proselytizing into Judaism in order to be saved.
Keeping of the law and a righteousness which
is predicated upon following or observing these particular
rules.
So Paul at the end of chapter 2
said, I do not frustrate the grace of
God for if righteousness could come by the
law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Very powerful words, but very true words.
You see, if I could become righteous by
keeping a set of rules, then Jesus would
not have to die.
The fact that Jesus did die declares that
no man can be righteous by his own
effort or by his own works.
God has established a basis for righteousness, but
it is not upon works, it's not upon
obedience to the law, but it is upon
our faith in Jesus Christ.
So Paul then opens chapter 3, O foolish
Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should
not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus
Christ hath been evidently sent forth crucified among
you?
This only would 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 ye now made perfect by the
flesh?
So Paul takes them back to the very
beginning of their salvation, when they first believed
in Jesus Christ and through their faith in
Jesus Christ were accounted righteous before God, before
they had done any works at all.
God accounted them righteous.
Now someone has come along and said, if
you want to really be righteous, then you
can't be doing that.
If you want to really be righteous, then
you've got to be doing this.
And they started establishing sort of rules for
righteousness, which we are so often prone to
do.
Now if you will read 10 chapters of
the Bible every day and read a morning
devotional and spend a half hour in prayer,
surely you will be much more righteous than
the person who doesn't do those things.
You see, we're prone to put on that
kind of a addition to a person's faith.
By the works of the law, no flesh
can be justified in the eyes of God.
If we could become righteous by obeying the
law, any law, any set of rules, then
Christ is dead in vain.
And so the Galatians were taken in.
They were bewitched by the teaching.
It sounded so reasonable.
But Paul then said, did you receive the
Spirit by the works of the law or
by the hearing of faith?
Now it's a rhetorical question because the obvious
answer is that they received the Spirit by
faith.
Now this epistle to the Galatians is
important because there is, it seems even to
the present time, a great tendency to turn
towards works as a basis of my relationship
with God.
And that's always a dangerous basis for your
relationship with God because our works are not
always approved, even by ourselves.
When I was a child growing up in
a Pentecostal church, desiring rightfully that fullness of
God's Holy Spirit upon my life, I spent
many a night in what they called tarrying
meetings as I was tarrying for what they
called the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Now in those churches where I grew up,
there were oftentimes what they called testimony meetings.
And quite often in the evening, anybody have
a testimony tonight for the Lord?
And usually there was a certain portion of
the meeting set aside for these personal testimonials.
And people would get up and testify of
God's goodness and God's grace and God's blessings
and of problems many times and all.
But much of my theology was formed from
these testimony meetings.
And that's why my theology was so mixed
up.
Because I heard people testify of their receiving
of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and
I was longing to receive the baptism of
the Holy Spirit.
And I would hear people say things like,
when I finally took out my cigarettes and
laid them down and said, God I'll never
smoke again, then God baptized me with the
Holy Spirit.
Well, unfortunately I didn't smoke, or fortunately.
So I couldn't lay my cigarettes down.
And there was, though not perhaps declared, there
was this subtle innuendo that the baptism of
the Holy Spirit somehow came as a reward
when you reached a certain degree of consecration
or holiness.
So that I was actually seeking to receive
the Spirit by the works of the law.
By keeping the rules.
Because I had to sign every year a
pledge.
I won't go to shows.
I won't go to dances.
I won't smoke.
I won't drink.
And these.
And I would sign the pledge every year.
And every year after I'd sign the pledge,
I'd immediately try and receive the Holy Spirit.
Because I just signed the pledge.
Lord, look.
You know, I'm gonna be good.
And I wrestled with this.
Because I could not understand why I tarried
so many years and God never filled me
with the Spirit.
When I finally received that empowering of the
Spirit in my life, was when by faith
one day I just said, well Lord, I'm
gonna receive it.
And I'd set aside my concept of my
righteousness or my holiness because I didn't smoke
and drink.
Because I had a real problem because a
friend of mine who did smoke received.
And I didn't think God was quite fair.
I knew I was far more righteous than
he was.
And so when I, by faith, and when
I received that empowering of the Spirit, I
did so by faith.
Paul's question.
Did you receive the Holy Spirit by the
hearing of faith or by the works of
the law?
The answer is obviously, you received the Holy
Spirit by faith.
It's God's gift.
You can't deserve it.
You can't be worthy of it.
And that was the whole context behind the
tarrying.
It was a cleansing process where you'll become
worthy.
My body worthy to be the temple of
the Holy Spirit?
Never.
No way.
I received the Spirit by the hearing of
faith.
Now the next question.
Foolish Galatians.
Having begun in the Spirit.
That's where your start was.
You started out in the Spirit.
Now are you going to be made perfect
in your flesh?
Are you going to improve upon God's work
in your life?
And how many times we're trying to improve
on our righteousness by works, by obedience, by
promising to God, making covenants with God, promising.
Now God, I promise this next week I
am going to faithfully pray one hour every
day.
I promise you Lord, I'm going to.
Now Lord, on the basis of that promise,
I want you to bless me.
You know, because after all, I'm going to
be so righteous by the end of the
week having prayed an hour every day.
And having begun in the Spirit, we so
often are seeking to be made perfect in
the flesh by our fleshly efforts.
Paul is rebuking the Galatians for this false
concept.
Have you suffered, he said, so many things
in vain, if it be yet in vain.
He therefore that ministers to you the Spirit
and works miracles among you.
Does he do it by the works of
the law or by the hearing of faith?
Again, this creates some problems many times.
Because there are those that are going around
with what they call miracle ministries.
And you know, they advertise, come and see
miracles.
And miracles every Monday night, you know, as
though God were limited to, you know, well
I came Sunday night.
No, no, no, this is a miracle night.
You have to come back tomorrow night for
the miracles.
Now, it has created a problem because many
of these miracle evangelists have deep
personal problems.
Yet they stand up before a great number
of people and there seems to be miracles
wrought through their ministry.
There was a fellow, A.
A.
Allen.
He even opened Miracle Valley Ranch in Arizona.
A.
Allen was an alcoholic.
He died of acute alcoholism in San Francisco.
And yet he'd get up before the people
and there were miracles that people would testify
to as the result of his prayers and
the result of his services.
Now you see, that seems totally inconsistent to
us.
A person to have that kind of power
with God, surely you would think he lived
a very dedicated, consecrated, holy, righteous life.
That this was God's attestation to the person's
holiness or righteousness.
Not so.
Those that work miracles do not do it
on the basis of their righteousness.
And this stumbles a lot of people when
they get close to some of these persons
that are going around in these miracle meetings.
To see the inconsistency of their walk stumbles
many people because somehow we think that this
is related to holiness and to righteousness and
to the obedience, you know, of a fine
line of commitment to God.
You see, God does not reward us for
our works, for our efforts, for our goodness.
Whatever God gives to me, He gives to
me on the basis of my believing in
His grace.
And these men have learned to believe in
the grace of God.
Not really looking at their own selves, weaknesses,
failures, or whatever.
And they have learned how to inspire people
to look to God through faith.
And God honors the faith of the people
who have come to receive from God.
Any work that God has done in my
life comes to me by believing faith in
Jesus Christ and in the grace of God.
Now, when you can really assimilate that truth,
then you can start to expect God to
bless you, though you know that you don't
deserve the blessings.
Because I'm not coming on what I deserve.
If I got what I deserved, man, I'd
be frying by now.
He has not rewarded us according to our
iniquities.
But as high as the heaven is above
the earth, so high is God's mercy towards
them that fear Him.
So I stand in the grace of God.
I walk in the grace of God.
Now, does that mean then that I can
just go out and, you know, live any
kind of an old, lascivious life?
No, no, no, no, no.
The love of Christ constrains me to walk
a life that is pleasing.
And when I use that as the criteria
for my activities, I find that I live
a more strict life than when I try
and use right and wrong as the basis
for my particular activity.
Is this right to do?
Is this wrong to do?
I so often hear that question.
That should not be the consideration.
The consideration should always be, is this pleasing
to God if I do it?
You see, a lot of people say, well,
there's nothing wrong with that.
Ooh, but it doesn't please God.
So as I am living to please God,
yet I do not look at myself or
my imperfections as the basis for my receiving
from God or if I happen to have
a good day and have been especially benevolent
and have done, you know, some extra good
deeds.
I don't look to those as the basis
of my receiving from God.
I don't say, well, God, did you see
that?
Did you observe?
Lord, didn't I handle that well?
Now don't you think, Lord, I deserve a
little special credit for that one?
You know, can't you do this for me
because look what I just did for you?
No, God does not reward me for good
efforts or even good performance.
God blesses me because He loves me.
And He loves for me to just trust
in Him.
And He loves it when I seek to
please Him.
But even that is not the basis for
what God gives to me.
The basis is God's love and grace for
me.
He bestows upon me His blessings, His love,
as I simply believe in Him to do
it and trust Him to do it.
Now, if you are coming to God on
the basis of your righteousness, then you're going
to be cut short of what God wants
to do in your life.
You're going to be robbing yourself of many
rich blessings that God wants to bestow.
But if you come always on the basis
of God's love and grace for you, then
you'll never be cut short, as I am
believing and trusting God to bless my life,
even though I know I do not deserve
it.
As Jacob said, Lord, I am not worthy
the least of Thy mercies.
It isn't my worthiness that counts.
Jacob was a scoundrel.
And yet God blessed him abundantly, and he
knew it.
He was a deceiver.
He was a conniver.
He was a manipulator.
And when he looked at God's blessings, he
said, Oh, Lord, I'm not worthy the least
of Your mercies, yet You have blessed me.
So he now enters into this principle, coming
back to Abraham, even as Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
What?
His believing God.
Now, it is true that his belief in
God was manifested by his obedience to God.
It isn't just saying, Well, I believe in
the Lord.
I believe in Jesus.
It's more than just a verbal assent to
the truth.
If I indeed believe, my belief will be
demonstrated by my actions.
If I stood here tonight before you and
said, Friends, I believe there's going to be
a violent earthquake in ten minutes it's going
to level this building.
God's revealed to me that the St. Andrew's
fault line is about ready to, you know,
to let go.
And in fact, in just now, it's actually
only nine minutes and 40 seconds that this
thing is just going to be flattened.
And I just went on talking and all.
You say, Oh, he really doesn't believe that.
Why?
Because my actions are not consistent with what
I am saying.
You see, if I really believe, I say,
Hey, let's get out of here.
You know, get out there under the trees
or get out there in the yard because,
you know, these buildings are going to be
flattened.
Go get your kids, get them out of
the buildings quick, you know, and and let's
get moving.
Now, if a person just says, Hey, I
believe in Jesus.
Yeah, I believe it.
And yet their their actions are not in
conformity with what they are declaring.
Then there is a great reason to doubt
whether or not they sincerely or really believe
it.
If I sincerely really believe something, then my
actions are going to be conformed with and
confirming that which I believe.
So Abraham's actions confirmed what he believed.
His actions were on the basis of what
he believed.
Abraham believed God, and it was the belief
that God accounted for righteousness, not the actions,
but the belief that prompted the actions.
As James said, faith without works is dead.
You say you believe.
Well, you show me your works and I'll
show you your faith.
In other words, James is pointing out that
just verbal assent to truth is not enough.
It has to be demonstrated by your actions
if it is a true faith, if it
is a true belief.
But God doesn't look to the actions, but
he looks to the faith which prompts the
actions with Abraham.
It was Abraham's faith that God accounted for
righteousness.
Know ye, therefore, that they which are of
faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
So Abraham was the father not of a
physical race, but of a spiritual race.
The promises to Abraham were not to the
physical seed, but to the spiritual seed.
So that Paul will soon point out that
we as children of Abraham, who is the
father of those that believe, and by your
believing, you then become a child of Abraham
through faith, and thus the covenants that God
made with Abraham become God's covenant with you,
as you become a child of Abraham, the
father of those who believe.
So you may be a physical descendant of
Abraham, but if you don't believe, you're not
really a descendant of Abraham in that spiritual
sense.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify
the heathen, or the Gentiles, 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.
The promise of God to Abraham, foreseeing that
the Gentiles were going to be justified through
faith, promised him this blessing, of which you
become partaker.
Now, those who were ready to go back
to the law, those that were ready to
look to the law as the basis for
a righteous standing before God, Paul said, Don't
you realize that as many as are of
the works of the law are under the
curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all the things which
are written in the book of the law
to do them.
Heavy duty.
You want to be made righteous before God
by your keeping the law?
Then you've got to keep the whole law
all the time, and if you ever violate
it once in any area, you've had it.
You're under the curse.
For cursed is the man that continueth not
in the whole law to do all of
the things that are written therein.
James said that if we keep the whole
law and yet violate in one point, we
are guilty of all.
Now, it doesn't make any difference which point
you violated.
If you violate any point of the law,
you're guilty of the whole.
If you want to be righteous before God
by your works, then you've got to be
perfect.
And if you're not perfect, you better listen
then to the gospel of grace through faith
because you need it.
So this is for imperfect people.
The rest of you can go home at
that point.
But that no man is justified by the
law in the sight of God.
It is evident for the Bible says the
just shall live by faith.
This scripture was given to God to the
troubled prophet Habakkuk, who was complaining to God
at a time of national declension.
The nation was going downhill fast, all kinds
of corruption in government.
And Habakkuk saw the corruption that was there.
He had insight into the problems.
And he said, God, please do me a
favor.
Don't let me see anything else.
I can't take it.
The whole system is going down the tubes
and you're not doing a thing about it.
God said, Habakkuk, I am doing a work.
And if I told you what I was
doing, you wouldn't believe me.
So Habakkuk said, well, try me.
And God said, I am preparing Babylon and
I am going to bring Babylon as my
instrument to judge these people for their iniquity.
Wait a minute, Lord, that isn't fair.
We're bad.
Yes, but hey, they're horrible.
They're much worse than we are.
Why would you use a nation that is
even more evil to punish us?
God said, I told you you wouldn't believe
it.
So Habakkuk said, well, Lord, I don't know
what to do.
I'm just going to go sit in the
tower and I'm just going to wait on
you and see what you're going to do.
So he went into the tower to just
sit there and wait on God.
And while he was sitting there, the word
of the Lord came to Habakkuk, the prophet
saying, Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith.
Believe me, just trust in me.
Things are going to get tough, Habakkuk.
The nation is going to go into captivity
and all.
But believe me, trust in me.
The just shall live by faith.
So Paul here again quotes this fantastic statement
of God.
The just or those that are justified will
be justified by faith.
That is why the law cannot justify you.
It cannot make you righteous.
The law is not of faith.
The law is of works.
The law says if a man does them,
he will live in them.
But the law places the emphasis upon the
doing, the obedience, where faith places the emphasis
upon trusting in God.
So then, as many as are under the
law are under the curse of the law
unless they keep the entire law.
But Christ has redeemed us from the curse
of the law being made a curse for
us.
For it is written, cursed is everyone that
hangs on a tree.
So Jesus hanging upon the tree, upon the
cross became a curse for us that he
might redeem us from the curse of the
law.
Again here we have a glorious insight into
God's grace towards us in Christ.
For though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor.
That you through his poverty might know the
riches of God.
I mean that's quite a deal.
Here he was so rich, yet for your
sakes he emptied himself.
He became poor that through his poverty you
might know the riches of God's love and
grace.
For God made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin.
Many times when we go down to baptize
in the ocean, the water is rather cold.
And when people are immersed in that cold
water, sometimes it sort of takes their breath
away.
And as they come up, you can see
them sort of gasping because of the coldness,
you know, just trying to catch composure again.
It's a shock when your body is warm
to suddenly be immersed in cold water.
It's a shock to your body.
I wonder what kind of a shock it
must have been to Jesus who was so
pure, so totally pure, to all of a
sudden have dumped on him the sins of
the world.
Every rotten evil thing that has ever been
committed by man, every perverted thing ever committed
by man dumped on him.
What a shock that must have been.
But yet God made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin.
That we might be made the righteousness of
God through him.
So, he redeemed us from the curse of
the law because he became a curse for
us through hanging there on the cross.
That the blessing of Abraham might come in
on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith.
So, Jesus came to redeem, taking our curse.
But again, that's negative.
Positive that you might receive the blessings that
God promised to Abraham, the promise of the
Spirit through faith.
Brethren, I speak after the manner of men,
though it be but man's covenant, yet if
it be confirmed, no man can disannul it
or add to it.
Now, God made the covenant with Abraham of
blessing.
In blessing I will bless thee.
God made the promise of his blessing upon
Abraham's children.
You are the children of Abraham through faith,
for he is the father of those that
believe.
And so, God's promises to you are in
blessing I will bless you and multiply you.
God's promised his blessing upon you through faith.
Jesus opened the door that you might receive
these blessings that God promised upon Abraham.
And by your faith in Jesus Christ, you
enter into this covenant.
Now, a covenant, though God made it with
man, once God confirmed that covenant, no man
can take away from that covenant or no
man can add to that covenant.
And so, to Abraham and to his seed
were the promises made.
And he didn't say unto seeds, plural, that
is many, but as of one and to
thy seed, which is Christ.
And so, when God said, and through thy
seed all of the nation of the earth
will be blessed, he wasn't saying that the
world is going to be blessed through the
Jewish nation.
He was saying the world would be blessed
through Jesus Christ, thy seed, singular.
It was a reference to Jesus Christ and
the work of redemption that he would accomplish
for man through which the blessings of God
might come upon all the nations of the
world.
And the Jews so often misinterpret that promise
to Abraham, thinking that they are to be
the benefactors of the blessings to the world.
Not so.
It is through the seed, singular, Jesus Christ
that these blessings were to come to the
Gentiles and to all the world.
Now this I say, remember if God has
made a covenant, no one can add to
it or take away from it.
And this I say, that the covenant that
was confirmed before of God in Christ, the
law which was four hundred and thirty years
later, cannot disannul that it should make the
promise of none effect.
So the law came along and pronounced upon
man a curse.
Cursed is everyone that continues, not in the
whole law, to do all that is written
therein.
The law came along and condemned man to
death.
But God has promised the blessing.
And in blessing I will bless thee.
And his blessing upon Abraham's seed, those who
would believe, that is upon his descendants, or
those that would follow him in faith.
So the law cannot really take away those
blessings that God has promised to you.
Or your failure in obedience to the law
cannot destroy or disannul the covenant that God
made to bless you.
Now God help us to see this because
it's going to cause your life to become
so rich and filled with God's blessing you
won't be able to handle it.
My life has become so blessed of God.
Having been brought by the Spirit to the
understanding of the basis of God's blessings upon
me, are all in God, in his grace,
in his love for me, and are not
dependent upon my works.
But they are just predicated upon God has
made a covenant to bless me.
God confirmed that covenant.
And the law cannot disannul it.
My failures cannot disannul it.
As I believe in Jesus Christ, I become
a son of Abraham through faith and thus
this covenant that God made with Abraham's children
becomes God's covenant with me and God's covenant
was that of total blessings.
Now the law can't take that away from
me.
Though the law was added 430 years later,
once a covenant is confirmed it cannot be
added to or disannulled.
It cannot disannull God's covenant of blessing with
me because I have failed to keep that
law.
Wherefore then, and of course this is the
obvious, then why did God give the law?
If the inheritance is of the law it
is no more of promise but God gave
it to Abraham by promise.
Then why did God give the law?
It was added because of transgressions.
Till the seed should come to whom the
promise was made and it was ordained by
angels in the hand of a mediator.
So the law served because of man's transgressions
to show man his guilt and his need
of a savior.
Now the mediator is not a mediator of
one, though God is one.
It takes two to have a mediation.
It takes two to tangle.
Two to have a fight.
It takes two to have a mediation.
So Christ has become the mediator between God
and man.
Is the law then against the promises of
God?
No, God forbid.
For if a law could have been given,
which could have given life, verily righteousness then
would be by the law.
But the scripture has concluded all under sin
that the promise of faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe.
But before the law came we were kept
under the law, shut up unto the faith,
but before faith came rather.
Before Jesus Christ came the relationship to God
had to be by the law.
That's how man related to God.
He had to bring the sacrifices.
He had to make the coverings for his
sin.
But once Jesus came, we no longer
needed the law.
The law was our schoolmaster unto Christ or
unto the time of the coming of Christ
that we might be justified by faith.
The law can only show me how far
I have failed to be what God would
require me to be.
It's a schoolmaster.
Man was once under the law unto the
time of Christ.
But after that faith is come, Jesus Christ
came.
We are no longer under the schoolmaster.
Paul said Christ is the end of the
law to those that believe.
That is the law as the basis for
my relationship with God.
My relationship with God is no longer based
upon my keeping the law.
My relationship with God is now based upon
my faith in Jesus Christ.
For ye are all the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many as you have been baptized
into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither bond nor free.
There is neither male nor female.
For ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if ye be Christ, then are ye
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
And so Jesus has become the common denominator
among men.
So that we all relate to God on
an equal basis through Jesus Christ.
I have just as ready an access to
God through Jesus Christ as does Billy Graham
or the Pope or anybody else.
Because they have to come the same way
I have to come through Jesus Christ and
through faith in Jesus Christ.
In fact sometimes I think I have more
access because I know I have to come
through faith and some of those good people
might think that they can come on their
own sometimes.
But I know I can't.
So you as a child of God through
faith in Jesus Christ have access to God
and it doesn't make any difference what your
background is.
For as far as our being in Christ
there is neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither bond nor free.
There is neither male nor female.
There is no male superiority.
God doesn't listen to men more readily than
women or on the other hand he doesn't
listen to women more readily than men.
We are all brought to one common denominator
in Jesus Christ and we are all one
in him.