Come Back to Truth & Faith

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Galatians 3:1–6 (ESV)

1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

Opening Prayer

Why Are You Not Thinking?

Galatians 3:1 (ESV)

1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Two words used by the Apostle Paul to describe the only explanation for the actions of the Galatians.

Foolish - acting in an immoral way as if thinking is not involved.

This is not an indictment of their intellectual abilities, but of their moral inclinations.

Obviously, walking away from God is the most immoral thing a person can do.

And, with all the witness of creation, conscience, and for the Galatians...

The preaching of the gospel and teaching of the Apostle Paul...

This behavior is without logical thought.

They’re behaving without their minds leading them.

They’re allowing emotions to guide them, not intellect.

Bewitched - to be deceived by crafty and devious means.

The Apostle Paul is telling the Galatians that these false teachers...

They are luring you away according to the lusts of the flesh...

Not according to wisdom, intellect and truth.

What kind of lust of the flesh are they using?

The lust of glory, self-worth, inherent righteousness.

And, they’re choosing this in spite of...

Look at the second half of v.1...

It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Paul is pitting what the Galatians are doing in comparison to what they know.

Paul preached the gospel to them.

Paul explained the Scriptures to them.

Paul taught them, in great detail, all the deficiencies in our fallen state and condition...

And, how Christ meets all our needs to be reconciled to God for eternity.

He is saying, you are not behaving according to truth.

The path you are choosing is going against everything you know as truth.

You’re denying all the benefits that are found in Jesus.

In reality, biblically speaking...

The only explanation for the behavior of the Galatians is...

Foolishness

When the Bible says the fool says in his/her heart that there is no God...

The indictment is not against them not having intellectual abilities...

The indictment is that they are living, in spite of their intellectual abilities.

They’re living in denial of the truths they know in the very core of their being.

Paul is saying the same thing about the behavior of the Galatians.

This is the most dangerous position to be in.

To live against the truth that you know.

And, the Galatians have found themselves smack dab in the middle of it.

But, What about us?

Are we not tempted to live this way every day when we wake up?

Are we not doing this every time we choose sin against God rather than obedience to God?

This is why Paul says the battle for the Christian...

The path of sanctification for the Christian...

Is to not rebuild what the gospel tore down.

He states it a little different in...

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 (ESV)

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

Do you see how impossible it is to actually obey the Law?

The Law is not just the external presentation of the obedience...

Which is impossible all by itself.

But the Law is also the motive and thoughts of the behavior and heart...

Every thought, obedient to God.

Every belief, obedient to God.

Every action of our life, motivated by faith in God.

Paul is arguing for the Galatians to come back to thinking according to truth.

And, so he launches some rhetorical questions at them...

In order to get them to start utilizing their minds...

And to think according to truth...

In order to behave according to truth.

Come Back to a Life of Truth & Faith

There are five questions launched here by the Apostle Paul in vv. 2-5.

The main theme in these questions are Spirit vs. Law.

Were you made alive to God by the work of and by the power of the Holy Spirit?

Or were you made alive to God by keeping the Law.

The first question...

Galatians 3:2 (ESV)

2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

This isn’t some truth that they are unaware of.

This is a truth that they were taught by the Apostle Paul...

This is a truth that the Apostle Paul preached to them...

All the benefits, blessings, and promises of God...

That are yes and amen in Jesus Christ.

And, they had experienced this truth in person, if they were truly saved.

Our regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit...

But here in this passage, more specifically, the Apostle Paul has in mind the sealing of the HS...

The guaranteeing of our inclusion into the family of God all the way into our eternal inheritance.

In which the Apostle Paul says in...

Ephesians 1:13–14 (ESV)

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

The whole work of our salvation is a work of God.

Our being sealed, guaranteed of our inclusion into the family of God...

A guarantee that will not be revoked is received because of faith.

That wonderful truth is part of and is to be preached as part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is a benefit, blessing and promise of God in Jesus.

Not only does God’s word teach this truth...

But, Paul answers this rhetorical question with the next two questions.

Galatians 3:3 (ESV)

3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Paul answers his own question by again calling their attention to the lunacy of their current behavior...

Are you so foolish?

And, by calling their minds back to the obvious answer of the previous rhetorical question.

1st question...

Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Answer...

Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

IOW, remember the truth...

You’re justification, if it occurred...

Which is what the fourth question calls into question...

Galatians 3:4 (ESV)

4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

You’re justification, if it occurred, began with...

Because it can only begin with...a work of the Holy Spirit.

But the crux of the second rhetorical question leads us to the work of staying in the family of God...

Staying in a reconciled state & condition with God.

The work of the Christian life after justification and before glorification.

Who is that up to?

Who does that work in us?

How do we carry that on to the end?

What is our faith in?

Is it in the very thing that leads to death, our flesh?

Our “not keeping of the law”?

Or our Savior who kept the Law perfectly on our behalf?

Are we trusting in the outer man, the works of the flesh?

Listen to what Paul states in...

Romans 7:22–25 (ESV)

22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

You see where the hope is, not in the flesh.

Not in the ability of the flesh to keep the Law of God in a satisfactory way.

Not in the ability for the flesh to perfect us.

Our hope in being perfected is in the person and work of Jesus Christ...

Who will deliver us from this body that can only bring death.

As much as the Christian wants to keep the Law of god perfectly...

We cannot because of the sinful, outer body that we must be delivered from.

All that we do is a work of the Holy Spirit.

Listen to Paul’s explanation of the fruit of the Christian life...

Philippians 2:12–13 (ESV)

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

God keeping us to the end and leading us in victory by the Holy Spirit...

This truth does not release us from the responsibility “to do”...

It releases us from the responsibility “to earn.”

It is a truth that keeps us secure even in the midst of our failings towards God and man.

What & Who Does the Holy Spirit Honor?

The final question...

Galatians 3:5–6 (ESV)

5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

Who does the Holy Spirit honor and glorify?

What does the Holy Spirit honor?

Has the Spirit been given to honor and work through attempts to dishonor God through works of the flesh?

Has the Spirit been given to glorify behavior that dishonors Christ by not trusting fully and solely in His work?

Is it the work of the Spirit of God to honor behavior that disbelieves God and His promises in the gospel?

Or is the Spirit moved, and work through faith in God...

In order to glorify God through the person and work of the Son of God.

Ephesians 4:30–31 (ESV)

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

All the flesh can do is violate God’s Law.

The Holy Spirit works in us when we are believing God...

And that faith is producing fruit of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit works through faith.

Sanctification is not the producing of works by the power of the flesh.

Sanctification is learning to trust God...

Taking God at His word in all areas of life...

And that faith is what produces the changed behavior called for in the commands of God.

Believing God is the weapon of our warfare.

The Holy Spirit works through our faith in God...

Because our faith in God is what glorifies God.

Application

Where are you not believing God, right now in your life?

Pray that God would work in you to overcome those doubts.

Keep that prayer request alive in you every day.

Because every day that area of disbelief may differ.

Closing Prayer