Faith it until you make it(Galatians 3:1-14)

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Read Galatians 3:1-14

Galatians 3:1–14 NAS

You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 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 hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “The righteous man shall live by faith.” However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Introduction

Now when I think of defining characteristics of any relationship, I think about trust.

Every relationship rises or falls on trust.

It succeeds or fails on trust.

If I cant trust what someone says or does then the relationship won’t go very far.

here is an example…

there was A man walking along a narrow path, not paying much attention to where he was going.

Suddenly he slipped over the edge of a cliff. As he fell, he grabbed a branch growing from the side of the cliff.

Realizing that he couldn’t hang on for long, he called for help.

He yelled...’Is anybody up there’?

Then heard a Voice say....’Yes, I’m here!’’

The guy said ‘Who are you?’

The voice responded ‘I am The Lord.’

He responded “Lord, help me!”

The Lord responded “Do you trust me?”

and the man said “I trust you completely, Lord.”

The Lord then said “Good. Let go of the branch.”

The man shockingly replied “What, can you say that again?

The Lord replied, “Let go of the branch.”

The man replied... [After a long pause] Is anybody else up there?

I am sure that everyone here has relationships where trust was hard to come by.

It could be from a family member, a friend, a boss or a co-worker.

Now the Apostle Paul in Galatians is talking about the most important relationship we can have. That’s a relationship with Jesus Christ and having a faith that trusts

That brings me to my first point. That..

faith is the hearing of the Word of God.

Galatians 3:2 (ESV)

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

Paul is still upset that the Galatians were trusting in their work of obeying the law to earn their salvation instead of trusting in the work of Christ on the cross.

So Paul asks them a rhetorical question.

He asks them how they recieved the Holy Spirit in the first place.

By what they have done or by what Jesus has done.

If we aren’t careful, we can be tempted to earn our own salvation.

We can go through the motions of life and put so much of it on our shoulders instead of letting go and letting God take care of it.

How do we exactly hear from God and hear by faith?

An American missionary in Africa wanted to translate the English word faith into the local dialect. He could not find its equivalent. So he went to an old teacher, who was himself a fine Christian, for help in rendering the needed word into understandable language. The guru studied it, and finally said, “Does it not mean to hear with the heart?”

We hear the voice of God, not with the outward ear alone, but with the inward ear; we hear it as God’s Word, and we believe it to be so; that is the “hearing” of faith. It’s to believe what God says to be true.

One thing that was normal in the old testament was the prophets declaring “Hear! The Word of the Lord.

Now today people can hear something and it goes in one ear and out the other or they listen to answer back instead of hearing to understand.

now on sundays I don’t think we are really hearing the word if we’re focused on what we are going to say right after service or we’re thinking about what we are going to have for lunch.

That’s just not honoring the Lord.

God wants us to have a faith that hears Him speak but, to go even further God wants us to have a faith that obeys what He says.

Now a parent might tell their child to clean up their room but, a child can hear them without listening to them.

They can hear what they said but to actually listen to them is to take action and actually to do it.

James says faith without works is dead. He also said to be doers of the word.

Now we can also see that...

Faith is not being fooled

Galatians 3:1 (NRSV)

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

Galatians 3:3 (NRSV)

3Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?

Faith is about not being fooled and not acting foolish. Somehow the Galatians have took their eyes off of Jesus and the cross.

They allowed false teachers to come in and deceive them.

Now this word bewitched is an interesting word. It’s the only time that it’s used in scripture.

It has the sense of looking at someone with a envious heart and casting a spell on someone that causes them harm.

Today i could see it as someone giving you the death stare. You ever hear the expression “If looks could kill”?

We all know when we get “the look” Either by our spouse, our parents, sometimes even our children!

So Paul, goes on telling the Galatians you seen the very evil and darkness before you that Christ was crucified.

You started off so well but what hindered you.

We can be the same way in our journey of faith. We get saved and we are on fire for God.

We go through difficult times and trials and see how God provides for us through those times.

but then our focus shifts off of the cross and onto ourselves and the fire slowely starts to go out.

we see Paul allude to this as he talks about how…

Faith gives Suffering purpose

Galatians 3:4 Did you experience so much for nothing?

Where is it written in the Bible that a Christian believer is exempt from suffering?

Unfortunately, many have bought into a false doctrine that says “bad things don’t happen to good people.”

We need to rest in God’s ability to provide everything that we need in order to become more like Jesus.

A good picture of this the time a man found a cocoon of a moth and took it home to watch it emerge.

One day a small opening appeared, and for several hours the moth struggled but couldn’t seem to force its body past a certain point.

Deciding something was wrong, the man took scissors and snipped the remaining bit of cocoon.

The moth emerged easily, its body large and swollen, the wings small and shriveled.

He expected that in a few hours the wings would spread out in their natural beauty, but they did not.

Instead of developing into a creature free to fly, the moth spent its life dragging around a swollen body and shriveled wings.

The constricting cocoon and the struggle necessary to pass through the tiny opening are God’s way of forcing fluid from the body into the wings.

The “merciful” snip was, in reality, cruel.

Sometimes the struggle is exactly what we need.

Faith's example found in Abraham v6.

Now we see a great example of faith found in verse 6 with Abraham where it says..

Galatians 3:6 (NIV)

6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Abraham lived a life a faith. But he wasn’t perfect. He had times of doubt.

He lied to the Egyptians and said his wife Sarah, was actually his sister out of fear for his life.

Sometimes we can look at people in the bible as hero’s.

The danger of that is that we can become fans of God rather than participants in the work that God is doing.

But all the saints in scriptures are human just like we are. They were just filled with the Holy Spirt’s power and we are also.

We seen this with Abraham when...

God told him the leave all the comforts of a familar place to a land unknown to him

he believed God when He told him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars

he believed God when he tested him offer up his son as a sacrifice upon the altar

We see that Abrahams faith didn’t just affect him and his family but it affected people of all generations to come.

That brings me to my final point that ...

Faith is generational v7-9

Through the ages Christians have looked upon the church as the company of the committed, the visible followers of Christ, members of His body in a broken world, pilgrims on earth.

The majority of believers consider the church to be the carrier of the faith from one generation to another.

There are many saints in this very church that have gone to be home with the Lord. Whats the best way to honor them and carry on their legacy?

Its to continue the traditions and work they did for the church.

The book of Hebrews gives us a definition of what faith is in chapter 11 known as the hall of faith chapter.

The nature of faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen.

It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.

Whats really interesting about Hebrews 11 is that it lists all the members of the hall of faith in Chronological order and as they happened from generation to generation.

Application

Just imagine what your life would look like if we took God at His word!

Let us not be like some of the galatians who was said to have started off so well but then through the deceit of the devil are enticed away.

God takes no pleasure in those that shrink back and we are in danger of hell if we do so.

There is no retirement in the kingdom of God.

The good thing is that we can trust God. He is faithful no matter what we are going through, so let have a faith that trusts.