Are you so foolish?
Galatians 3:1 - 5 (NIV) 1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? 5Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
Trouble in the text:
We see Paul here having a little problem. Paul was dealing with a few people in the church who although they once accepted the free gift of salvation from Jesus Christ but they are now also trying to follow the law. The people who were causing this problem were called the Judaizers. What they were trying to do was to mix Grace and works, which in its self is an oxymoron. The two cannot and do not go together. Paul explains this by saying in verse
15“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
The beginning of creation: You see let me explain; Ever since the beginning of creation and the fall of man in the garden of Eden God has been working on trying to get us back into right standing with Him. But in order to do that, He needed to devise some sort of a way for us to realize that we needed Him. Remember back when Adam and Eve was about to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what did Satan say? Gen 3:4
4“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
One of the things that attracted Eve to eat from this tree was the idea that she would be able to make moral choices for her self. That’s the knowledge of good and evil. But that’s the ability that God has and we don’t. SO she wanted to be like God. She wanted to make these choices herself. But that’s impossible. Our choices will always fall sort of the right choices. And that’s how Satan trapped her. He made her think she can do something that she could never do. God had said if you eat of this tree you will die. Let me make these choices of good and evil for you by your own free will. But she wanted to make them herself and exercised her free will to choose for herself. And what happened? She died. Not only one day physically but also spiritually. Adam and Eve both died spiritually that day and were cast out of the garden. They were cast out of that deep intimate relationship that had with God ever day.
The first step God did to fix this was to show us that we can’t make these choices on our own. He did this by giving us the Law. Or the rules if you will. He said ok, here is right from wrong do it. What we all have learned is that we can’t do it. Somehow some way we always fall short of following the letter of the law. That’s the purpose of the law, to point out that we can’t do it and that we need God, it makes us conscious of our sin.
Roman 3:20 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
But God loves us so much He had every intention from the beginning to fix this issue. So now that we know we are sinners and that we need help and are unable to pull this off on our own he sends His son and an atoning sacrifice to fulfill the law for us. He paid the price we couldn’t pay. He did what we couldn’t do. And now God is saying, if you want to be redeemed, justified and sanctified, have faith in my son. He is the way.
But here Paul was having a problem with some saying that not only do you have to accept Jesus and His sacrifice but you also have to follow those rules again, that you couldn’t follow in the first place, to be justified. Basically saying that you have to justify yourself all over again. And Paul is completely perplexed. Paul was so frustrated he addresses the Galatians church as foolish. He says “you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?” He was so astonished at the absurdity of there actions that he said they must be bewitched because no one in there right mind could possibly think that a debt has to be paid twice. Who in their right mind thinks we have to be justified twice, “Declared not guilty” twice. Either we were declared not guilty or not.
Trouble in the world: Legalistic tendencies: Trying to earn grace.
We see this problem in the church today also, although in different ways. What we see it that many Christians after receiving grace and mercy through faith in Jesus turn to trying to stay saved and justified by following rules and regulations, even thought that’s not how we got justified in the first place. The problem isn’t that they shouldn’t follow the rules. The problem is the motivation or reason for following the rules. We should follow them because of the grace that God has given us. Not to keep the grace or to receive the grace that God has given us.
We do things for God thinking that because we do them we are ok. It helps our consciences. When we hear that someone isn’t coming to church we feel good about ourselves because we do. As if the very idea that we come to church has anything to do with our justification. As if God counts it and says ahha, what a nice boy I guess I’ll forgive him. I am so proud of Robert, he devotes so much time to church, I have no choice but to declare him not guilty. We go around and feel good about ourselves because we don’t smoke, curse, cheat, steal, commit adultery, and feel as though everything between us and God must be O.K.
Then as soon as we blow it we immediately feel condemned and don’t want to bother anymore. Satan uses our legalistic tendencies to take us out of the game. Paul is like…Are you so foolish…..did you receive the spirit by the works of the law? Did you get saved because of all the rules you were following? Wasn’t it the fact that you couldn’t follow all the rules the reason why you accepted grace in the first place? Wasn’t the reason you couldn’t follow the rules the reason Christ died for all the “saintly people”…For all those perfect people. Opps that right he died for whom? The ungodly
It says Romans 5:6 6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ever since I first got saved I have always been perplexed by this. I accepted grace for free. I remember I gave my life to Christ while I was on the U.S.S. Nassau in the middle of the Mediterranean ocean. What sold me on it was the fact that I knew I couldn’t live the life I was required to live and that God offered me grace. Forgiveness. A new start. I was on the way to hell because of my actions and He was willing to pay the price for me and I jumped at the opportunity. The problem was about the next day I wanted to rid myself of all sin. I went nuts. I used to lock myself in the barracks and wouldn’t go out, because of all the temptation that was out there. It drove me nuts. You see I wanted to stop smoking, but if I went out to a club I would drink and if I would drink I would want to smoke. So I stopped going to clubs. Actually I stopped going anywhere. I went to work and to the barracks. Everyone knew I had lost my mind. Here I was the biggest party animal in the barrack, afraid to leave to room because of fear of sin. Every time I sinned I just knew I was going to go to hell. I would cry and feel so depressed. So I would then accept his free gift again. I even had a problem with coffee. I remember hearing something at church one day about not being addicted to anything. Well I now had a problem with coffee. I understand caffeine can be addictive, but I wasn’t sure if I was addicted to it or not so I would only drink one cup a day. Because you never know.
Well obviously I couldn’t keep this up. I couldn’t take the depression or the emotional rollercoaster I was on, that I would feel every time I would fall short. It would kill me. I couldn’t live life sin free. It was too hard. So I gave up trying at all. I stopped going to church, I stopped praying, and I stopped reading my bible. I went back to the way it was. It was so much easier. I always knew I would one day come back. But you know what bothered me the most. It still does to this day. I remember being told I could never earn my way into heaven that I needed to accept Jesus sacrifice as the way. And then the next day they told me everything I wasn’t suppose to do anymore or I would go to hell. Or I was never really saved. I call it the bait and switch. Bait me with the free gift and then tell me to work for it. Grrrahhhhh.
Can anyone relate to me? Is it just me? The church of Christ is rampant with Judaizers. It is rampant with Legalists. It is full of those that feel better about themselves because they don’t do certain things, Or because they do certain things.
We feel better when we council with someone. We feel better because our lives aren’t as messed up as theirs. We tell people to come to church, come to bible study, and come to Sunday school, as if because you do such things everything is going to be better. And then we learn again in these classes how much we aren’t measuring up to God’s standards. I don’t need to know what I am doing wrong this I can see, what I need is how I get it right. Now I know a bunch of people just got nervous. Let me clarify myself. These things are important for our spiritual growth, bible study etc, but they should never ever be mixed up with our justification.
I am guilty of this myself. I can remember countless times inviting people to church, telling them to come to men’s breakfast etc and never taking the time to tell them about Jesus, never telling them about grace and mercy. I felt good because they were in Sunday school, but if they died the next day they were going to burn in hell. I would tell people who were struggling with life to stop doing or to do things instead of telling them about the life giving message of Jesus. I am ashamed of myself sometimes, that I can be so quick to reveal to people about how we are falling short rather then taking the time to revel to them that.
1. That they are ambassadors of Christ.
2. That we are heirs to a promise of eternal life.
3. I want to spend more time showing people how they are children of God. Praise God.
4. I want people to know that there is therefore now no condemnation for those is Christ Jesus,
5. That we’ve been set free from sin. Saved by grace.
6. That we are a Holy nation a royal priesthood.
7. I want to help people fall in love with Jesus.
8. Why do we feel so compelled to guilt people into following Jesus? Instead of helping them learn to love him
Grace in the text
I know sometimes we miss behave but we are still His children. My son bobby tomorrow may act a fool and might disobey me but that doesn’t change the fact that he is my son. I may be disappointed with him but he’s still my boy. Understand I am sold out for Holy living. All of you that heard my last sermon or have ever talked with me about it know this. But we can never mistake holy living as the means to justification. Holy living is a work of Grace. It’s a work that God does inside of us. It is based in love and not in works. It is based on a change of heart not by a change of effort. Yes the scripture says that without Holiness no one will see the Lord, but it comes from Grace, so instead of working, let’s grab a hold of that grace.
1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 2Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised (if you are counting on the rules), Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised (is counting on the rules) that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
The moment we start counting on what we do as able to enable us to be justified we have fallen away from grace. Why, because grace will no longer be grace. Grace and works do not and can not go together. Either we want to count what we do, or we want to count what Jesus did. You can only turn in one.
You are able to only turn in one coupon. Praise God. Thank you Jesus. This is amazing. Oh Lord. We have been set free. We have been set free.
The word of God says that we need to stand firm in this and to not let us be burdened by a yoke of slavery. That’s what my life was when I first got saved. It was a yoke of slavery.
The Spirit of legalism was running rampant in my life and stealing all my ability to experience any joy in Christ. This ultimately led to me falling away from the grace I was offered.
The spirit of legalism runs rampant in God church today, also. We don’t mean it. We want to live Holy lives so bad that we end up resorting to our own Holiness. There might be a few right now who are having a slightly uncomfortable time with this. And might even be saying to them selves, what about holiness what about holiness? O.K. ill tell you. Paul says
5But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor UN circumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Let me repeat that, the only thing that count’s is faith expressing itself through love. It’s a love thing. It’s not a works thing. When Gods love through His Spirit take a hold of you, bam, your heart will be cleansed, your mind will be changed and you’ll see how you over come the world and its evil desires. You’ll see how you’ll set your mind on the spirit and on things above. You’ll see how you’ll walk in the spirit and not in the flesh.
Paul says that this righteousness we are expecting comes through the Spirit. Not in what we do. It is also a process. You see it takes time. A brain surgeon doesn’t become a brain surgeon over night does He? No it takes time. Is there anyone here who would allow a person to perform brain surgery on them if they have only been in school a year? No that’s crazy. But we get saved and put holiness expectations upon ourselves and others as if all of a sudden we can get rid of all the baggage we have brought to the table. And it wrong. It’s ungodly. It’s what the Pharisees did. Jesus was against it then and He is against it now. The word of God tells us that
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Training dog’s illustration: Maybe this will help. Let me use an illustration for you. I have been training dogs for many years. I am a certified dog trainer and have trained over a thousand of dogs. And over the years I have come across different types of dogs and one of the things many people would say to me when we first talked is how smart their dog was. Now I am convinced that intelligence doesn’t have much to do with the training of the dog. What counts the most is the dog’s willingness to perform. You see you can have the smartest dog in the world if he doesn’t want to do it he won’t. But if you have the dumbest dog that is willing you can teach him. It might take you longer because he is dumb, but ultimately he will respond.
God is looking for some people how are willing to submit to his spirit and learn from him.
29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
Have you ever heard of positive reinforcement? They say it’s the best way to train a dog. The idea is to reward the good behavior and ignore the bad behavior. The thought is that before you know it the dog starts to do the behaviors that are rewarded. The behaviors that bring him good stuff he repeats and he stops doing the bad behaviors because they don’t bring him anything.
You see a law dog is forced to do what you want him to do. You have to jerk him this way and that way. He needs to be beat into submission to get him to work. As soon as you take the newspaper away he stops responding. As soon as you put the newspaper away He’s back to acting foolish. Oh but a grace dog loves to work for His master. A grace dog eagerly waits for the next command His owner asks him to do.
A Grace dog works with eagerness, with passion, and desire. He isn’t forced to do anything. Holiness becomes a part of who he is because he loves his owner. Let me show you a quick example of what I mean by a grace dog.
Video
My question to you today is “are you a grace dog or a law dog” Are you eagerly awaiting Gods righteousness through faith in Grace. Or do you perform out of fear of retribution? Are you counting on your ability to pull it off, or do you trust in Christ to bring you through a process, which leads to holiness. Are you singing with your whole heart mind and soul? Lord you’re the one that I want..ohoo ooow ooow.
Or have you fallen prey to a system of legalism and works righteousness that promises more but produces less?
Have you fallen prey to formalism, substituting external ceremonies for the internal reality of Jesus?
Have you fallen prey to legalistic systems of dos and don’ts, hoping to improve their standing before God?
If someone asked you to give an example of a backslider, wouldn’t you have thought of someone who once set a shining example of Christian behavior, but now no longer attends church regularly? Now they hit the nightclubs, swear a little, and they have a tall, cold one now and then? But consider this…What about the person who, having experienced the grace of God in salvation, backslides into legalistic heart attitudes? His list of 99 things he doesn’t do (and doesn’t want anyone else to do) and the 9 he does do (and insists that everyone else do), makes him look like a saint.
But the fact is, he may be worse off spiritually than the first guy because of self-righteousness, a sin highlighted by Christ probably more than any other. Are you a law-oriented person or a grace-oriented person?
