Justified and Sanctified By Faith Only

Transcript

GR 1150
5-2-1999
Justified and Sanctified by Faith Only
Galatians 3:1-5
Gil Rugh


We return to our study of the book of Galatians today. So let me direct your attention to Galatians and the third chapter. The book of Galatians chapter 3. Remember that the letter to the Galatians is written back to churches in the region known as Galatia. So there were a number of churches in various cities in this region that has been established by Paul and Barnabas and the record of that ministry is given in Acts chapters 13 and 14. And the time since Paul had been there and preached the Gospel and established churches in various cities, false teachers had come into those churches and had begun to teach a corrupted Gospel. They taught that it was necessary to believe in Christ, that He was the Savior, that He was crucified, but believing in Christ was not enough. You must also keep the Mosaic Law. So Paul writes this letter to refute such an idea. And He does so very sternly and very forcefully. The letter is divided into three basic sections. Roughly two chapters each. The first two chapters dealt with Paul's personal defense. He argued and defended himself as an apostle and he defended the Gospel that he preached as a direct relationship from God. So you might say the first two chapters are personal. The next two chapters are polemical. They are argumentative. They are Paul's doctrinal challenge. And in chapters 3 and 4 Paul deals scripturally and theologically with the heresy that is being taught by the Judaizers. And then in chapters 5 and 6 we have the practical section of the book, that we might title it. Paul's practical concerns. Where he shows that the truth is to be fleshed out and lived out in our lives as God's people.

When Paul gave the defense of his apostleship and his message in chapters 1 and 2 he concluded in verses 15 to 21 of chapter 2 by stating what would be the issues that he would argue and defend in the rest of the letter. And there are two basic points that are dealt with that will be unfolded through the rest of the letter. The first is that justification is by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law. Justification is by faith alone. Verse 16 of chapter 2, "Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by he works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we Jews have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified." So justification, that work whereby God declares a sinner righteous before Him because He has believed in Jesus Christ is by faith only.

The second point that Paul makes and will be developed in the rest of the letter is that sanctification is also by faith and not by works of the Law. Sanctification, the living of our life now as God's people is by faith, not by works of the Law. Look at verse 20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." So both justification and sanctification are by faith, not by works.

Now Paul through the next two chapters, in particular chapters 3 and 4, will argue from a Scriptural and theological perspective demonstrating the superiority of the Gospel and its opposition to the error of the Judaizers. It becomes a very, very pertinent section to us in the church of Jesus Christ today. For the very same errors that plagued the Galatian church have infiltrated on a massive scale into the evangelical church today, as a resulting of the corrupting of the Gospel and the leading of men and women away from Christ rather than two Christ. It is very deceptive and at the same time very destructive.

Chapter 3 opens up with a series of questions through the first five verses. They are stinging, biting questions where Paul focuses the attention of the Galatians on their own experience of salvation in Christ. It says I want you to go back to what happened to you when you were saved by God's grace. Get your feet back on the ground so you can be oriented to understand the issues and what is at stack. In the first two chapters Paul had really talked about his own personal experience. Now he moves into chapter 3 and is going to talk about the experience of the Galatians themselves and the work of God in grace in their lives. He had ended chapter 2 with the statement, "I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly." There is no middle ground on this issue. It is either Christ alone of Christ not at all. If you can acquire righteousness through the Law, the death of Christ was a tragic mistake. Obviously, the Galatians knew that was not so and Paul moves in to chapter 3 with a very stinging and biting rebuke, "You foolish Galatians." And you see something of his frustration, his exasperation, with them at the stupidity of their actions in being willing to listen and possibly follow these Judaizing teachers.

That word "foolish" points to the fact they have failed to exercise any spiritual discernment of perception in this situation and it is inexcusable. The word "foolish" means mindless, unthinking, stupid. Philips in his modern translation of the New Testament translates it: You idiot Galatians. Now that may have some connotations that we don't like, but it's important that we understand the bluntness and forcefulness of what Paul is saying.

You know, we sometimes we say to our children, "Stop the foolishness." They are carrying on or doing things that right now you want them to stop. Well, that's not the idea of this word as Paul uses it here. It's not that kind of foolishness. When he says you foolish Galatians he's saying you stupid, unthinking, mindless Galatians. That's a rebuke.

What would you think if we had one of the apostles come today and we gathered all the believers in Nebraska together and he stood up and started off by saying, "You stupid, Nebraskans." You say, well, I'm offended. I probably won't come back to here him again. But Paul is speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit. What he has to say is God's message to the church. And interestingly, he picks up a word that Christ Himself used of His own disciples.

Turn back to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 24. After His resurrection Jesus met two of His disciples on the road to Ames. And they talk about their confusion over what had happened to the one that they thought was the Christ. They didn't understand what the Scriptures had prophesied concerning Him. And in verse 25 of Luke 24 Jesus said to them, "O foolish men." And that's the word we have used by Paul. O unthinking men. O mindless men. "Slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!" What is wrong with you that you don't understand the Scripture/ Why are you so reluctant to believe what God has said? You are not using your minds at all. Well, there is rebuke and harsh rebuke in what is said here.

Back in Galatians chapter 3. Paul says, "You foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you?" Things are deteriorating. In chapter 1 verse 6 Paul said I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ. There he said their turning from the Gospel was an act of desertion. Now in chapter 3 verse 1 he says it's an act of stupidity. And he said it's like you've come under someone's spell. You've been hypnotized by them. You've just been taken over by their power. You know, like someone's cast a spell on you. But I'm not saying he believed in that stuff, but it's a figure of speech to denote a condition.

If you've been a believer for a while, you've probably had such an experience. Where someone perhaps that you have shared the Gospel with and has professed Christ and seemed to be coming along and growing and enthused about their walk with the Lord and service for Him. And then they get confronted by some false teaching and they turn the other direction. And you scratch your head and say, I don't understand what's happened to them. How do I get through to them? I'd like to take them and shake them. Let me give a word of personal testimony. There have been a number of people from this church I'd like to say, you stupid idiot. Stop and think. What are you doing? What has happened to you? Paul says you are like you are under a spell. You've become totally irrational.

When he wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 3 Paul said, "I am afraid lest that as the Serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be lead astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. That's the same concern that you come under the influence of false teachers and you are led astray from Christ. That's a warning. That's why I am afraid of false teachers. I want to be very careful what I subject myself to because I might come under their spell so to speak. And I find myself becoming mindless in following after what they are saying even though it is totally contrary and contradictory to the truth concerning Christ.

"You before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly betrayed as crucified." Their condition and action is all the more inexcusable because Paul had very publicly proclaimed Christ crucified to them. This publicly portrayed carries the idea of putting it on a bulletin board, placarding it before them. I presented the crucified Christ to you openly and clearly like it was on a bulletin board. You can't say that you didn't have an understanding. I told you clearly about the work of Christ and what He had done.

Back up to the book of Acts chapter 13. You hear Paul's preaching in the churches of Galatia. And Acts chapter 13 verse 28. Breaking into Paul's sermon here, "And though they found no ground for putting Him to death [speaking of Christ] they asked Pilot that He be executed. And when they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead." The simple facts of the Gospel laid out very clearly. Look at verse 38, "Therefore let it be known to you brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses." In Christ there is complete forgiveness. In Christ there is complete freedom from the most enslaving, controlling, dominating vices and sins. All those things you cannot be freed from by the Law of Moses. Paul had clearly proclaimed the sufficiency, the adequacy, the finality of Christ to the Galatians.

Back in Galatians chapter 3. Christ was publicly betrayed as crucified. That word "crucified" is a perfect participle. Now you remember the perfect tense is something that happened in the past and the results continue on. It denotes permanency. And he is declaring here that he told them that Christ not only was crucified as an historical fact but that crucifixion of Christ is an ongoing reality, shaping and dominating and controlling their lives. It's not well yes, now I believed that Christ was crucified. OK. That's settled. Now I go on and I pick up with living my life differently. No. The crucifixion of Christ is the dominating element of the life of the redeemed. And it molds and shapes us in every way and every thing.

The Judaizers were saying yes, Christ was crucified. You must believe that. But that's not enough. What do you mean that's not enough? He has been crucified and that sets you free from everything that you could not otherwise be freed from. Even the Law of Moses couldn't free you from it.

Now it was Paul's practice to do something wherever he went to do something very basic and simple--preach Christ crucified. He wrote to the Corinthians and related what he had done when he came to Corinth. He said in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 23, we preach Christ crucified. In chapter 2 verse 2 he said, "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." That was the Apostle Paul's message wherever he went. That's the simple truth.

We'd all sit here and nod our heads and say yes that's true. But I want you to note the significance of that. He said I put it forth publicly like it was on a bulletin board. We sometimes get confused by people who say, oh, we don't change the message. We just change the methods. I want to tell you in the changing of the methods there is a changing of the message. The message is inseparably joined to the method of dissemination. We have ideas circulating around. You know we just sneak in the Gospel. We mask our true message. On Sunday morning we don't hit people in the face with the Gospel. No, you know, we sort of work it in the back door at other times. The apostle Paul knew nothing of the methodology. That is a corruption of the message. Now let me tell you. People did not like getting hit in the face with the Gospel in Paul's day any more than they did today. You know what happened to Paul in the churches at Galatia? They stoned him and dragged him out of the city because they thought they had stoned him to death.

Well, this idea people don't want to hear the Gospel is nothing new. A seeker service mentality is nothing new. People have never liked the Gospel. They have never liked to be told that they are sinners, that the best of their works are polluted, filthy rags in the sight of a holy God. To be told that there is no hope for forgiveness and salvation and freedom but through faith in the crucified Christ. That is offensive. It offends the pride and arrogance of the sinful heart and mind.

But there was no alteration in apostolic methodology. God is well pleased Paul told the Corinthians by the foolish of the message preached to save those who believe. That's God's methodology. And woe to those who think it's not a good one. God's methodology is the methodology that works in the accomplishing of His purposes. Paul says I publicly, clearly presented Christ crucified.

So you have no excuse for this mindless stupidity, coming under the spell of false teachers. Verse 2, "This is the only thing I want to find from you." I want to get one thing settled. You answer one question. And the answering of this one question the issue should be resolved. I want to take you back to when you were saved, when you believed in Christ, and the Holy Spirit of God gloriously entered your life, how did that happen? By doing the works of the Law or by believing the Gospel.

So he says in verse 2. 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 the hearing of faith?" Well, the Judaisers hadn't even entered the picture when Paul was there presenting the Gospel. They heard Paul preach Jesus Christ crucified. They believed that message and the Holy Spirit of God entered into their lives. Similar experience happened when Peter preached the Gospel in Acts chapter 10 verses 43 and 44 at the house of Cornelius. As he was the Gospel to them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and entered their lives. Simple, clear truth. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Turn back to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10 verse 17. And in this section Paul has been going back to the Old Testament and showing that's God's work in salvation is the same, Old Testament and New Testament alike. It's by faith. So verse 17 of Romans 10, "So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ." Back up to verse 14, "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent." Here you have the divine methodology. God sends a proclaimer with a message He has given. That proclaimer, that preachers, goes with the message God has given and proclaims it. By God's grace some hear and believe that message and turn from their sin and call upon the living God. That's the simple plan. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

And in that same context the Holy Spirit comes to indwell a person. Back up a few passages in Romans to Romans chapter 8 and verse 9. Look at the last part of verse . . . Oh, we will read all of verse 9. "However you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of god dwells in you." Now note this. "But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." An identifying mark of a child of God is the Holy Spirit of God dwells in that person. That had to take place at the moment of faith. If it didn't you wouldn't belong to Christ. So when you believe in Him the Holy Spirit of God takes up residence within you.

In apostolic times this was often accompanied by a demonstration of the Spirit's presence because they did not have a New Testament to refer to, to quote. They did quote the Old Testament but they didn't have the the New Testament as God gave new additional truth. Now we can turn to Romans chapter 8 verse 9 and we are told that the Holy Spirit comes into the lives of those who believe. And if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you don't belong to Him.

So back in Galatians chapter 3. The question is simple to the Galatians. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing with faith? Well, obviously they received the Holy Spirit when they believed the Gospel that Paul preached. It was later that the Judaisers came and confused them. All right if you received the Holy Spirit when you believed the Gospel message, verse 3, "Are you so foolish?" He picks up that word again that he used in verse 1. Are you so mindless? Are you so stupid, unthinking, irrational?

"Having begun by the the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" I mean, all you have to do is stop and think. You believed in the Gospel message of the crucified Christ. And when you did you were forgiven and the Holy Spirit came to take up residence in your life. Why did the Holy Spirit come to take up residence in your life? So that you now could struggle by your own efforts to grow to maturity in Christ? "Are you now perfected by the flesh?" The flesh refers to our human ability apart from the work of the Spirit of God. Our efforts. In other words by keep the Law. So God gave you the Spirit at conversion and now it's by your efforts and your works that you come to maturity. That is mindless stupidity. Could you be so dumb? That have begun by the Spirit you would now be perfected, brought to maturity and completion, by your own works. You know, you get the Spirit, He takes up residence, and then He's out of the picture. I mean, that is stupidity.

Paul says the same truth in writing to the Philippians without the harshness. Philippians chapter 1. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. So just a couple of books over further back in your Bible. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Chapter 1 verse 6. In fact he uses the same word for begun and the same word for perfection. Philippians 1:6, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began." There's our word. Having begun in the Spirit. "He who began a good work in you will perfect it. It's the same word "perfect" that we have in our verse in Galatians 3:3. "Until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6 says that God began the work of salvation and He will bring it to its completion, its ultimate perfection. Glorification in the presence of Christ.

The One who begins the work finishes the work. The issue here is that salvation and sanctification are both the work of God. Salvation and sanctification or justification and sanctification are both accomplished and carried out by the work and power of the Holy Spirit. The works of the Law do not enable you to be justified before God nor do the works of the Law help or enable you to be sanctified before God. It’s absolutely crucial. Paul says for a person to profess to be a believer and to practice anything else is stupidity. It's mindless. It's senseless. It's irrational. To say on one hand I believed in Christ and His death and on the other hand deny it by saying something else or something more is necessary to mature in Christ is irrational. It's senseless. It's mindless. And yet it was going on in the churches of Galatia that Paul had established, that Paul had taught. But they had come under the spell of these false teachers.

Come back to Galatians 3. I'm going to read you quote from one commentator on this portion in Galatians. He says, "There is no evidence that these law-observant teachers denied either the fundamental fact of Christ crucified or the manifestation of the Spirit among the Galatians. Their claim was rather that the entry-level Gospel proclaimed by Paul was insufficient for the higher spiritual realities offered only through the works of the Law." That is the deceptiveness, the subtleness of these false teachers. They didn't deny the Gospel verbally. They simple said there is something else necessary. Now in saying that they are in effect denying the Gospel. But it confuses us. People come and say I believe in the deity of Christ. I believe in His death on the cross. I believe He was raised from the dead. You say, well, they are like minded believers. But I also believe you have to keep the Law. I also believe you have to be baptized. I also, and we add all kinds of things. Paul's dealing with the addition of the Mosaic Law but the principle that's established here carries over into other things. And so wait a minute. That's mindless. You can't have it both ways. It is either the work of God from beginning to end or it is not the work of God. And that's the point He is making.

Now let me digress a moment. This same error has infiltrated the evangelical church today. And by the evangelical church I mean the church that would claim to be believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are being told, and we have swallowed this in a mindless, hypnotized way, that the work of the Spirit of God is enough for justification but it is not enough for sanctification. I challenge you to read any list of Christian books that are published by those who sell them. Or go to a Christian bookstore and look at what they have on the doctrine of sanctification and the Christian life. And you'll find that it is material that are put together by those who entitle themselves Christian psychologists. Now why tell me please do we not go to Bible teachers and theologians when we want to know about God's plan and provision for living the Christian life, for dealing with sin as God's people. Oh, we don't, you know, we don't go to a Bible teacher for that. We need someone who has what? Added expertise, added information.

I was talking to a former seminary professor about the destruction of an evangelical seminary that I at one time attended. And he told how the error came in. That we had to add a Christian psychologist to the faculty because the Bible teachers and theologians they did not have the expertise and the understanding to train men to help people with these serious troubling problems of life. I say that is the Galatian heresy all over again. The same apostle Paul that taught us the great truths of books like Galatians who proclaimed justification by faith in Christ also taught us about living the Christian life. You go to Christian bookstore or Christian publishers today and you don't find books on the doctrine of sanctification teaching Romans 6, 7 and 8. You have to go to a Christian psychologist. Woe be if you say anything bad about them.

How would you like it if I stood up here and I mentioned some of these men and I said such stupidity. He's mindless. You say I'm never going back there. How unloving, how unkind. I tell you that's the way Paul dealt with it. The problem with the church today is it's not too much harshness. The problem with the church today is too much softness. Amen. Thank you. There are two of us.

I was reading an article by a seminary professor--a different professor than I just referred to-- recently published last couple of months, and his expertise is the history of the church. And he noted that in the destruction of evangelical institutions like seminaries, the seeds of the destruction always took place under conservative leadership, men who themselves believed the truths of the Bible but they were tolerant of those who held other views. And that tolerance allowed those institutions to be infiltrated by men of different convictions and over time brought about the destruction of those schools. That's what happens in the church. It's happening today. We have men and they say I believe the Gospel. I believe in the death, burial and resurrection of the divine Son of God. And you say well, they are on our side, but they are men tolerant and supportive of to her methodologies and ideas and the church is being destroyed from within.

Are we so stupid as to think we begin by the Spirit but we are perfected by our own works? Are we so stupid to think that the Spirit of God who regenerates us is not powerful and able to deal with the sinful issues of life? Did not Paul tell the Galatians that in Christ you are freed from all the things you could not be freed from under the Law of Moses? How does the church come to accept such mindless foolishness which is destroying the Gospel? There is a tolerance. As long as we hold our convictions, lets others hold theirs. Paul says that's not the way it can be.

Second Peter chapter 1 verse 3 and then we have to go on. Peter wrote that we know that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Everything pertaining to life and godliness has been given to us in Christ. When God called us to salvation in Him. And any other teaching or doctrine is mindless stupidity. And it is a direct assault on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and must not be tolerated by the church of Jesus Christ. It must be attacked and confronted just as directly as Paul did the issue at Galatians. And keep in mind Paul is dealing with the Galatians, those who profess to believers, churches he had established. This Paul who had in chapter 6 verse 1 will say when you see a believer overtaken in a fault, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness. Is calling someone stupid and mindless gentle? Well, it's the same Spirit of God speaking through Paul. The unwillingness of the church to stand up and confront error and heresy in its own midst is resulting in the destruction of the church and the wholesale desertion of the Gospel in our own day.

Go back to Galatians chapter 3. We'll come more to this when we get to chapter 5 verse 25 and Paul will say, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." If you enter into life by the Spirit, you continue your life by the Spirit. The Spirit of God is sufficient. Do you believe that? The Spirit of God is sufficient. Now don't tell me that the problems of life today are so difficult and so complex that we need more than just the Scripture. And even in schools that would claim to believe this--and I have to get off this sometime in the next month--they act contrary. Because they will offer you a master of arts in biblical counseling. So what's wrong with your general biblical studies program? Is there something else necessary? Saturate them with the truth of the Scripture. What's different that you need a master in biblical counseling? Get your masters in theology. Get your masters in biblical studies. And if you know the Scripture, shouldn't you be ready to deal with these things. Aren't you freed in Christ from everything that you couldn't be freed from in the Mosaic Law? Well, you know, life is complex. Life is difficult. The problems of life today are . . . That's the beautiful thing about our Gospel. That's the marvelous thing about the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

Two problems. Some people are struggling because they have never received the Spirit because they are not truly regenerate. And they naturally chase after the world's methods. The other is perhaps you've come under the spell of false teaching and the confusion it brings.

Back to Galatians 3 verse 4, "Did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain/" Paul's sending them back to those early experiences of their Christian life. The writer of the Hebrews does the same thing in chapter 10 where he's dealing with professing believers who are thinking of returning to Judaism. He takes them back and says think about what you suffered. Think about the price you paid in those early days when you lost all your possessions and you counted it a joy to suffer for Christ. Sometimes it's good for us just to go back to the beginning and say stop a minute. Let's go back. How did you get saved? What happened when you got saved? What did you hear and believe when God gloriously saved you? Think about those days following your conversion when you didn't care of what people thought. I didn't matter to you if you lost every possession you had. It didn't matter to you if you lost every friend you had. It didn't matter to you if your family never talked to you again. You were thrilled that Jesus Christ was your Savior.

The Galatians suffered. When Paul was at Galatia he suffered. As I mentioned, he was stoned to death or almost to death. His parting words to the Galatians in chapter 14. I believe it's about verse 22 were a reminder, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." Think back. Did you suffer those things in vain? Was that just emptiness to you if indeed it was in vain? And that's a note of hope. Paul hasn't given up on the Galatians. If indeed it was in vain. I have hope that you are going to be turning back to the truth. But there is a concern, a deep concern, on Paul's part.

Come again over in chapter 4 verse 11, "I fear for you that perhaps I have labored over you in vain." Now if you consider on this course, I have to come to the conclusion that your salvation was not genuine. But I have hope otherwise. I believe what I saw in your lives and your response to the Gospel and the work of the Spirit was real and was genuine.

Verse 5, "So then does he who provide you with the Spirit and works miracles among do it by the works of the Law or by the hearing with faith." This is the question of verse 2 reiterated now. What we've been through. The One who provides you with the Spirit works miracles among you. The apostle Paul did miracles as he carried the Gospel to new regions, demonstrated the authority that was his as God's representative and the validity of his message. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 4 speaks of those who spoke the Word of God had their message validated by signs, wonders and miracles. Second Corinthians 12:2 Paul says the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all signs, wonders and miracles. We don't have time to go back to the book of Acts, but in Acts 14:8-10 the apostle Paul confronts a lame man and commands him in the name of Jesus to get up and the man leaps up in the air, a demonstration of the power of God, to add validity to the new message that Paul was preaching in the Gospel of Christ.

And He provided you with the Spirit and that word "to provide" in verse 5. "He who provides you with the Spirit." A word that has its background . . . We've seen in other places like in our study of Colossians. It means to pay the expenses of a chorus. And it costs a lot of money and those who were public benefactors who put on these productions provided as lavishly as they could. Sort of like some of our rich people today. They want to give so many millions of dollars and people look and say wow they are rich. Well, they did it in those days. So the word came to mean supply abundantly lavishly. And here God lavishes His Holy Spirit upon us. He did his works of power in their midst. I just want you to think did He do it by your keeping the Mosaic Law or did He do it by your believing the Gospel. Well, no issue here. Paul went and preached the Gospel. They believed it. Then the false teachers infiltrated and tried to lead them astray. Well, wait a minute. How'd you get saved? Let's go back to the beginning. You can deal with a lot of false teaching that infiltrates the truth by just saying let's go back to the beginning. Let's settle this thing. Back to the idea of verse 2. This one thing I want to know. Look for the fatal flaw and then be done with it. Bury it. People who won't let go of teaching even when they've been shown the fatal flaw are doomed to confusion and ruin. You don't dabble with false teachers and false teaching. This is not a game. This is a war.

So how did you get discouraged? How did God demonstrate His work? Was it by the Law or was it by faith?

Let me walk through. I put seven points down here. They overlap but seven is the number of perfection. It doesn't mean it's a perfect sermon. It means this section is perfection.

Number one, we must confront Christian stupidity. That's verse 1 and verse 3. Are you so foolish? Are you so stupid? We must confront Christian stupidity. Paul's writing to churches at Galatia that he had established. This idea well, I don't want to hurt their feelings. I don't want them to feel bad. I didn't want to look like I was too narrow or intolerant. We must confront Christian stupidity.

Number two, we must present Christ openly and boldly as crucified. God forbid that you will be able to bring your unbelieving friends to this church and they will be comfortable. That they would come and go away feeling and having enjoyed themselves and never had been confronted with the truth of Christ crucified. There are lot of places you can take them for a good time and a lot of places you could take them where they'll have fun. This is the place you bring them to hear about Christ crucified. We must present Christ openly and boldly. And anybody who talks to you about a methodology where we don't present the Gospel too openly in our service. We do it in another setting. Pronounce anathema and get away.

Number three, we must remember the basics of our own conversion, verse 2. This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Go back to the beginning. Let's go back to the beginning. It's good for us to go back and review in our minds how God saved us, what He did when He saved us. I heard the Gospel. I believed it. I was listening to the teaching of a passage and God opened my eyes and I realized it was true and trusted the Savior.

Number four, we must remember we received the Spirit by faith in Christ. We received the Spirit by faith in Christ. That means you need nothing more, nothing else, nothing new. You received the Spirit. Is there anything that could keep you from growing and maturing to perfection that the Spirit is not sufficient and able to deal with? And don't tell me I need something more than the Word of God and His provision of the Spirit. He's given me everything pertaining to life and godliness and I'm even offended by even the terminology Christian psychologist. That's an oxymoron and I don't believe they can put together like that. So I said it. I think it's stupid.

Number five, we must live the Christian life in the power of the Spirit. I mean the simplicity of Paul's argument. Well, yes, I was saved by faith and yes, I received the Holy Spirit of God who indwelled by faith and He still indwells me. Because if you don't have the Spirit, you don't belong to Christ. And as I trust in Christ and in faith and dependence upon Him, it is His power that matures me and gives me victory and the liberty and freedom from all those things that I would not otherwise be free from. We live the Christian life by the power of the Spirit. So much of the confusion on the Christian life in this whole area of sanctification is just washed away by the simplicity of what Paul says here. All the mindlessness of the charismatic movement, the second work of grace and getting the Holy Spirit later, Paul dealt with in this simple truth.

Number six, we must remember our earlier experiences of faithfulness for Christ, verse 4. We must remember those earlier experiences of faithfulness for Christ. You know we don't want to live in the past but it's good for us as God's people to go back to the beginning. How did God save me? The Gospel as I believed. Those initial days of passion for Christ we might say are reckless passion for Him. Nothing else matters. No cost is too great. It's good to go back and think of what you went through. People who scorned you, made fun of you, the family who tried to shut you down. It's good to remember those days. Go back to reflect upon them and be encouraged.

Number seven, we must remember that God's work in our lives is accomplished by faith. That includes the work of justification. That includes the work of sanctification and anything else is an attack on the sufficiency of the provision of God in Christ and there can be no tolerance for that. It must be exposed for what it is. And anyone who names the name of Christ and gives ear to such heresy must be confronted firmly and boldly and exhorted to return to the proper path of life in Christ by the power of the Spirit.

Aren't you glad it's that simple? I mean here Paul is rebuking the Galatians at what their life, their liberty, is the abundance of God's provision that He dwells in me. He empowers and enables me. There is no sin that can enslave me that He cannot give me victory over. He is the One who is maturing me into perfection in Christ. That is God's work. The One who began the work is the One who will see it to completion and that is my safety. That is my security and that is my hope. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for so mighty a salvation, so powerful a work that could only be accomplished by you. And we have been justified in Christ, set free from all those things which you could not be set free by the Law, that the Holy Spirit of God has taken up residence in our lives to empower us and enable us, to lead us, to direct, to bring us to perfection and completion in Christ. Lord, may we take hold of these truths tenaciously. May we as Your people not be swayed into mindless foolishness by the error of unprincipled men, by the false teaching of men with good intentions but bad theology. May we be a church that holds firmly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the life that is lived by the power of that Gospel. And we pray in Christ's name, amen.