BEWITCHED BY NATURALISM!
Gal. 3:1-3
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. I heard about a high school teacher named Mark Jordan who was pulled over by the police for speeding right in front of the High School where he works.
2. The police officer came to his window and asked him for his driver’s license and registration. As the minutes ticked by, Mark’s students began to drive past. Some honked their horns, others hooted, and still others stopped and wagged their finger at him or shouted, “Look who’s in trouble now!”
3. Finally the officer asked Mark if he was a teacher at the school, and he told him “Yes.” The officer smiled and said, "I think you've already paid for your speeding violation!” and left without giving him a ticket.
B. TEXT
1 “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 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 hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by [Gr. “in”] the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Gal. 3:1-3, NIV, NASB.
C. THESIS:
1. Paul says, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.”
2. Paul was shocked; the Galatians were turning away from the true gospel. He was so astonished by their docile acceptance of NATURALISM that he wondered if some sorcerer had bewitched them.
3. This is so similar to the American Church, who are often anti-supernatural. Many of these Christians don’t believe the miracles of the Bible. And of those who do believe in them, they don’t believe God does them today! They have been bewitched away from God’s present-day working!
4. The Galatians weren’t victims of a magical spell or incantation, but were misled by the belief they could live as Christians through natural means; that being a Christian was something THEY could do in their own power! Paul protested that it was impossible!
5. So the title of this message as “Bewitched By Naturalism!”
I. WE MUST BEGIN “IN THE SPIRIT”
A. MANY AMERICANS GET SALVATION WRONG
1. They think being a Christian just means to attend a church, take the Lord’s Supper, be water baptized, join a church, or give in the offering. No! Those are all physical effects of being saved.
2. The key to be a Christian is beginning “in the Spirit” is found in John 3:3,6-7; Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’” WHY?
3. Because our spirit is dead in sin. When Adam & Eve sinned, they infected every man, woman, boy, and girl ever born with sin and a fallen nature.
4. Someone asked, “Isn’t being forgiven enough?” No. Even if God forgave you, you’d still have the fallen nature – that is, a propensity, a inclination or a “bent” toward evil.
5. “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:21-23. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jer. 17:9.
B. OUTWARD CHANGE WON’T WORK: THE CULTURED PIG
1. Henry Moorhouse, as a boy, was walking down the
streets of Manchester, England. His attention was arrested by shouts, "Come see the Great American Pig."
2. He paid his fee and saw, "the most Wonderful pig, which could perform feats (he could spell "good pig") and exhibited intelligence, unlike other pigs.
3. He was washed and scrubbed, and dressed in fine clothing. He walked on his hind legs and could shake hands. But nevertheless, he was only still a pig.
4. Once he was let loose from his performance, he immediately ran back to the mud trough and wallowed in it. All his "culture" hadn't changed his basic nature."
5. ONLY TWO GROUPS -- all humanity in 2 groups:
those dead…………those alive to God;
those in darkness……….those in light,
those who’re aliens…………those who’re heirs,
children of wrath…………children of God,
those who are enemies……….those who are reconciled.
C. BEING “BORN AGAIN”
1. “Born Again” is defined as “The creative life-giving operation of the Holy Spirit in response to faith in Christ. The believing one, before "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), is quickened into spiritual life, and made a partaker of the divine nature and of the life of Christ himself.”
2. We repent of our sins and accept Jesus Christ our hearts.
At that moment, the Holy Spirit comes in and we’re quickened together with Christ we’re made alive! Christ comes in and jolts our spirits with resurrection power! He implants new DNA into us – the genes of God!
3. The Seed of the Word of God is planted within us. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever” 1 Pet. 1:23; “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God” 1 Jn. 3:9.
4. Think of the Tremendous Power of the Seed
a. Prolific principle of future life
b. Within the seed is everything the full-grown plant will be.
c. Genetic material/DNA. Blueprint of the fully grown Creature.
5. Therefore, being born again means something much more than turning over a new leaf, it means to get a new Daddy! (See Jn. 1: 12-13; Gal. 4:6; 2 Pet. 1:4). The origin of our life is no longer Adam, but Jesus Christ. We become a new person from the inside out.
6. “Therefore if any man/woman be in Christ, they are a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” 2 Cor. 5:17.
II. WHAT DOES “IN THE SPIRIT” MEAN?
A. LIVE IN THE DIMENSION OF THE SPIRIT
1. Paul said, “Having begun IN THE SPIRIT, are you now made perfect by the flesh?” Gal. 3:3 Living ‘in the Spirit’ is the key to victorious Christian life.
2. “Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” Gal. 5:16. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” Gal. 5:25. As Rom. 7:6 says, we no longer “serve in the old state of the letter, but in the new state of the Spirit.”
3. The godly life we couldn’t live before we can now live by God’s Spirit; “And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” Ezek. 36:27; (see also Rom. 8:2-3).
4. Our prayers and worship are to be empowered by the Spirit
(Eph. 6:18; Phip. 3:3). If He really inhabits us, we should be “in the Spirit” (Rom. 8:9).
5. THIS HAPPENS AS WE STAY FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. God promises He will do this for us, if we ask and seek it.
B. ILLUS.: THE NEED TO REFUEL
1. On June 23, 2001, the Boeing company finished a labor of love—the complete restoration of the last existing 307 Stratoliner. It was the world’s first pressurized commercial airliner.
2. A New York company used a vintage loom to reproduce the original Pan Am wall fabric. An interior company put in the flooring, carpeting, and paneling. They even imported Scottish leather for the single-aisle and crew seats. All the light fixtures, bulkheads, and trims were manufactured from original engineering drawings. Everything was done to perfection.
3. Six months later the aircraft crash-landed in Seattle’s Elliot Bay. Were there problems with the ancient engines? Did the dated tail and wing controls fail? No, they worked without a hitch.
4. The problem was an operator error; the crew had failed to refuel the engines. (Stuart Bond, Gig Harbor, Washington; source: komotv.com) I’m afraid that’s the way many Christians try to live their lives. We can get a lot right, but if we forget to refuel our spiritual engines, we may find ourselves wondering why we crashed!
C. ILLUS.: STUCK IN FIRST GEAR
1. One of the first cars I ever got had a “standard” transmission, not “automatic.” To change gears you had to let off the gas, push in the clutch, and then change the gear.
2. If you wanted to keep going faster, you’d have to keep changing gears! Now it was possible to drive it without changing gears, but it would only go about five miles per hour!
3. I’m sure some people have done that, but you don’t go very far or see very much. And you never reach your potential. How much better to change to a higher gear!
4. The same is true in Christianity. When we’re “born again,” we enter the Christian race driving in first gear. There’s only so much we can do or see at that level.
5. So God encourages us to shift to a higher gear with the Holy Spirit! To begin to live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and be filled with the Spirit. Then God can take us places at a higher speed.
6. Some of us are still in first gear and you don’t know how to get out of it. Life is a long journey in first gear! But the Bible tells us how to switch gears – how to allow the Spirit to work more in our lives. Begin to study the Book of Acts and how they were repeatedly refilled by the Spirit!
III. OUR PERFECTING: BY SPIRIT OR BY FLESH?
A. IT’S NOT BY ‘SELF-HELP’
1. Most Americans think that if they got saved 10 years ago, that’s all they really need to do; they’re set for life and eternity.
2. Paul explodes this idea by saying that much more development is expected by God. “Are you so foolish? Having begun by in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Gal. 3:3.
3. Trying to perfect ourselves by worldly efforts (the flesh) won’t work. God expects us – by reading the Word and yielding to the Holy Spirit – to be “conformed to the image of his Son,” Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29).
B. EXPECTING IMPROVEMENT
1. At a Promise Keepers rally in 2000, Gordon MacDonald talked about his days of running track. One day his coach pulled out a notebook with Gordon’s name on the front cover.
2. He immediately turned to the back page – labelled three and a half years away. “Gordon,” he said. “These are the races I’m going to schedule you to run almost four years from now. Here are the (running) times you will achieve.”
3. Gordon looked at those times and thought, “Impossible!” They were light years away from where he was at that moment as a runner.
4. Then the coach began turning back the pages of that book, page by page, showing the 42 months he had scheduled for workouts. They were the graduated, accelerated plans for Gordon’s increasing speeds on the track as the months and years would go by.
5. The coach had a schedule of development for Gordon’s athletic growth. (“Go the Distance,” www.PreachingToday.com) God has a growth plan for you!
6. Just as it looked impossible to Gordon MacDonald to run that much faster, the changes the Lord wants to see in us seem impossible. But with Jesus as our trainer and the Holy Spirit as our power, God will transform us during our lifetimes!
7. BUT DON’T THINK YOU’VE ARRIVED! YOU HAVEN’T! GET IT IN YOUR MIND THAT YOU’RE TO IMPROVE, BY THE H.S.!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Actor Kevin Bacon said when his 6-year-old son saw Footloose for the first time he said, "Hey, Dad, you know that thing in the movie where you swing from the rafters of that building? "Well, I didn't do that part--it was a stunt man." "What's a stunt man?" "That's someone who dresses like me and does things I can't do."
2. "A little later he said, "Dad, you know that thing in the movie where you spin around on that gym bar and land on your feet? How did you do that?" "Well, I didn't do that. It was a gymnastics double." "What's a gymnastics double?" "That's a guy who dresses in my clothes and does things I can't do."
3. There was silence from my son, then he asked in a concerned voice, "Dad, what did you do?" "I got all the credit!"
4. Had Kevin Bacon tried to do all those stunts himself, it would have been a whole different movie. When we try to live the Christian life apart from Christ, it’s completely different than when we let Jesus do it for us. (Guy McGraw)
B. THE CALL
1. ILL.- An American with an English gentleman was viewing the Niagara whirlpool rapids, when he said to his friend: “Come, and I’ll show you the greatest unused power in the world.”
2. And taking him to the foot of Niagara Falls, “There,” he said, “is the greatest unused power in the world!”
3. “Ah, no, my friend, not so!” was the reply. “The greatest unused power in the world is the Holy Spirit of the living God!”
4. Let’s stand and ask the Holy Spirit to:
a. FILL US this morning;
b. Help us to begin to LIVE IN THE SPIRIT daily;
c. To CHANGE US TO BE LIKE JESUS CHRIST – His love, His compassion, His patience, His soul-winning spirit.
5. Prayer for those to be BORN AGAIN today.
