Who is trying to Bewitch You?

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Good morning, guys.
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Alright, go to Galatians 3.
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We've finally gotten to what is considered to be the body of Galatians, meaning this is really the argument that Paul is making.
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Chapter 1, if you'll remember, I know some of you weren't here, so just a quick overview.
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Chapter 1, Paul begins after his short introduction with a rebuke of the Galatians for turning from the true gospel to a false gospel, which he says is not a gospel at all.
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He defends his message and his ministry.
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He says that his message comes from God and not from men.
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In chapter 2, he showed the unity of his message with the other apostles, that his message agreed with what they were teaching, so there was not any division between him and Peter and James and the other apostles.
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He rebukes Peter for his hypocrisy.
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You'll remember Peter went and was eating with the Gentiles, but when the Jews came, he stepped back away from them and wouldn't eat with them, and so Peter was guilty of hypocrisy, and Paul rebuked him for that.
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And then Paul reminds Peter and the Galatians, and by extension us, of the foundation of justification, and that is that justification is by faith and not by works of the law.
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For by the works of the law, no one will be justified.
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And herein we have the theme of Galatians.
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The theme of Galatians is really simple, and I'll write it down.
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The law is no Savior.
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The law is no Savior.
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The law only has the power to condemn.
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The law does not have the power to save.
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That really is the heart of the entire book.
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And that's what he is going to express in chapters 3 and 4.
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We've seen chapters 1 and 2, which are really the introduction.
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Now we're getting to chapters 3 and 4, which is the body of the work, and then we get to chapters 5 and 6, which are the application and conclusion of the book.
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It's only six chapters.
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It's really easy to divide.
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It's two chapters, two chapters, two chapters.
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And what we're going to do today, we're going to read the whole third chapter.
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Now it's long, but I'm going to ask that you pay attention, because this is the way I teach.
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And he was just asking about how many books of the Bible I've taught.
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I've taught through several.
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And the way I always do is I always give a large overview before going back and breaking down the parts.
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Because if you only see the small part of something, but you don't see the whole of something, it's really hard to get a real picture.
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It's sort of like the three blind men that were asked to look at the elephant and describe the elephant.
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And the first one grabbed the ear, and he said, well, an elephant is like a banana leaf.
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It's big.
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Another one grabbed the leg, and he said, well, an elephant is like a tree.
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And another one grabbed the trunk, and he said, well, an elephant is like a snake.
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Well, if you only get one piece, and you don't see the whole thing, you really don't get the picture of what the elephant is.
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And it's the same way with these chapters.
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If you don't look at the whole thing first, before you start looking at the pieces, you really won't understand it as best as you can.
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So we're going to read the whole chapter.
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I'm going to give you an outline of the whole chapter, and then we'll probably take most of our time today going through the outline, and then next week we'll start breaking down the parts, looking at each individual part.
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Does that sound good? Alright, so let's begin.
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We'll read beginning in chapter 3, verse 1.
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O foolish Galatians...
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It starts out real nice, doesn't it? O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
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Let me ask you only this.
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Did you receive the Spirit by 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? 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? Just as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness.
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Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
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And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel before him to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed.
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So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
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For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
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For it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not abide in all things written in the book of the law, and do them.
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Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.
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But the law is not of faith.
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Rather, those who does them shall live by them.
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The one who does them shall live by them.
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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
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For it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
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To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.
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Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.
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It does not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ.
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This is what I mean.
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The law which came 430 years afterward does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void.
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For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise.
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But God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
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Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions.
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Until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.
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And it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.
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Now an intermediary applies more than one, but God is one.
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Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not.
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For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.
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But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
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Last paragraph.
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Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
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So then the law was our guardian.
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Some of your Bibles say schoolmaster or tutor.
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The law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
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But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
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For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.
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For as many of you as were baptized into Christ Jesus have put on Christ.
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There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free.
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There is neither male nor female.
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For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
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And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.
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We're going to pray.
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As we go to pray, I was asked this morning to pray for Brother John as he's going to court today.
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So we'll pray for him as well.
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Father, we thank You for this opportunity to study Your Word.
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We pray that You would be with us as we look at the overview of this chapter.
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And most of all, Lord, that we would have a better understanding of the distinction between the Gospel and the law.
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For Lord, we know that no one is saved by works of the law.
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But we do know that the salvation that we have comes by the Gospel of grace.
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So Lord, help us to understand this morning, this chapter.
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Help us to be able to apply some of what we learn to our lives.
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For those who today are believers, Lord, help them to understand the value of law in their life even though it does not save.
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But Lord God, for those who are not saved this morning, Lord, let it be that they understand that the law is what convicts them.
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And the only one who can save them is Jesus Christ.
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We pray it in His name and for His sake.
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Amen.
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Sorry, let me pray one more time.
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Father, we ask that You be with Brother John this morning as he goes.
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And all the decisions that are being made, we pray that the judge would be a righteous man and that those who are facing him, Lord, would understand his authority, give him the honor he has deserved.
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And Lord God, that fairness would reign, justice would have its way.
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And Lord God, that You would be merciful to our friend.
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In Christ's name.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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Yes, sir.
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By the works of the law, no one will be justified.
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This is how the last chapter ended.
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If you'll go back to chapter 2 and look at verse 21, if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
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That is how chapter 2 ends.
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That's Paul's way of saying if you could be saved by the law, then there would be no reason for Christ.
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If you could do it yourself, why would God need to send you a Savior? If you could do it yourself, God wouldn't need to send you a Savior.
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He'd need to send you a list of how to do it.
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And that's the way most people think about the law.
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Most people think that the law is a list of ways to get to heaven.
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That's not what the law is.
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Even though that's the way most people look at it.
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And you say, well, how do you know people look at it that way? Because I talk to people.
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I say, if you die today and you face God, and God said, why should I let you into heaven? You know what they always say? I'm a good person.
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I've kept the rules.
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I've done what I'm supposed to do.
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As if they have met the standard.
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When I face God, He's going to let me in because I have met the standard.
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And then all you have to do is spend five minutes looking at the law and you realize you haven't met the standard at all.
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And not just if you're a person who's been to jail.
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Maybe you have spent your whole life in church.
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Maybe you have spent your whole life doing what you think is morally upright and good.
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Even if those things are true, the reality is, you are still a sinful, wretched person who deserves the wrath of God.
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Now, that may offend you.
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And if it does, that's not my intention.
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I'm not here today just to go around kicking people in the shin.
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But the reality is, we need to understand our wretchedness before God, before we can understand the grace of God.
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Do you guys know who John Newton is? John Newton was a pretty wretched man.
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As far as I remember about his history, he was a slave owner, a slave trader.
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He had done a lot of wicked things in his life.
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And God saved him.
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And when God saved him, he wrote a song.
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And the song is called Amazing Grace.
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John Newton wrote Amazing Grace.
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How sweet the sound that saved a good person like me.
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Is that how it goes? Not at all, right? But that's the way a lot of people think of themselves.
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Amazing Grace, I really don't need it because I'm a good old boy.
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Amazing Grace, who cares about that? I'm a good person.
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But you see, John Newton didn't think that way.
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He said, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
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Now you might not know what a wretch is because that's not a language that we use in our modern vernacular.
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We don't use the word wretch anymore.
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But if I said you were a vile piece of garbage, you might get mad at me.
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I'd say that's pretty angry.
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Well, but a lot of people would be mad.
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You tell somebody what they really are, and they often don't want to hear it.
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But that's what it is.
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When John Newton said, I'm a wretch, he was saying I'm a vile piece of dung.
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Dung is a nice way of saying poop or whatever you want to figure it out yourself.
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And that's what he said.
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He said, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved this vile man.
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Notice he wasn't pointing at other people.
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See, a lot of people, when they start thinking about their goodness and their badness, they start looking at other people.
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They say, yeah, I've done bad, but I know guys who've committed rape.
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I know guys who are murderers.
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I know about Adolf Hitler and others, Mao Zedong and others who've killed millions of people.
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Certainly, if I were put on a scale of goodness and badness, I would be on the side of good.
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Or maybe in the middle at least.
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The reality is, if we simply examine ourselves as we truly are, we will see how much we have truly failed.
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And see, the problem is, we live in a society that doesn't allow for that.
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We live in a society where, and I imagine a lot of you guys are my age, maybe a little younger, and if you're younger than me, you've got it even worse than I did.
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But when I was a kid, the school bent over backwards to tell me how great I was.
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I mean, they told you, you've got to have great self-esteem.
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So they built your self-esteem up.
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They never let you lose.
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Everybody got a trophy.
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Everybody felt like a winner, because everybody is a winner, and everybody gets built up, and nobody ever gets told they're wrong.
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Oh, you just have a different opinion.
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Two plus two, oh, it might equal six, little Jimmy, because it's okay to have your very own opinion.
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And if you think I'm exaggerating, I am not.
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There are even educational facilities in our land that are now saying that we cannot even teach the basics of mathematics, because those things demonstrate the superiority of one person over another.
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And we can't have any type of superiority of one person over another.
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The person who knows two plus two doesn't equal six.
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So now we're going to remake the rules where everyone receives absolute equality.
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And the problem is, there is a sense in which we are all very equal.
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We're all equally sinners.
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We're all equally deserving of the wrath of God.
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But that's not what we want to hear.
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We want to hear that we're all equally great.
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That's why movies and films are so...
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Movies like Star Wars.
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Because Star Wars basically says this.
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There's a guy out in the middle of the fields of a distant planet.
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He's out working with his uncle, and he becomes the most powerful man in the galaxy, and he didn't even know it.
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He's the most powerful person in the world and didn't even know it, right? By the end of the story, he's the hero.
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And that's what we all want to be, right? We all want to be the hero.
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We all want to find out at some point that we're really the most important person in the world.
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We're really the strongest person.
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We're really the most virtuous person.
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That's what we want.
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We want to be the hero of our own story.
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And you find out, you really begin investigating yourself that you're more like the villain.
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And that's rough.
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And you find out that you're not the hero.
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See, that's the thing about like the story of David and Goliath, right? Everybody wants to fancy that they're David.
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When in reality, we're probably more like the brothers who are hiding.
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Or maybe we're even one of the Philistines who's hoping that the bad guy wins.
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Do we really understand ourselves? Probably not.
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But that's where all this begins.
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To understand the law is to first understand that it does not save you.
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All it can do is condemn you.
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If you evaluate yourself by the law, you will always fall short.
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That's right.
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Because that's what sin is, right? Sin means to miss the mark.
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The word hamartia in Greek, the word for sin, means to miss the mark.
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It was an archery term.
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If an archer took his arrow out and he put it in the bow and he pulled the bow back and he let go and that missile soared through the air and it fell in the ground and didn't hit the target, they would say, Hamartia! Missed the mark.
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We have the mark.
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It's called the law.
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We have missed the mark.
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This is why Paul says in Romans 3, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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So, this is Paul's point.
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You cannot be saved by the law because you've already missed it.
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The mark was set and you came into this world DOA.
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You know what DOA means, right? You were dead on arrival.
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You were dead when you got here.
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You were dead in sin.
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You were born in sin and you just grew bigger.
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You say, Pastor, you're not helping my self-esteem today.
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Well, I didn't come to boost your self-esteem.
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I really didn't.
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I tell you what, there's enough people in the world that will tell you how great you are.
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You need somebody to tell you how you really are so that you'll reach out to Christ.
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Because only when you realize how much you need Christ will you value Him.
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A lot of people think they're in it together with Christ.
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You are not in it together with Christ.
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Christ is all in for you and He's dragging you along.
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That's the picture, actually.
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John chapter 6.
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Jesus said this, No man can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.
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And I will raise him up on the last day.
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That word draw literally means to drag.
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It's the same word that is used for pulling water up out of a bucket.
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And it's the same word that was used later in the book of Acts when the Apostle Paul said he was drawn into court.
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He wasn't drawn like, Come on, Paul.
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No, it was...
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It was dragging.
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That's really the way God works.
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He reaches down into the muck and mire of our sin.
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He reaches down into our wickedness and He pulls us out.
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And He pulls us out sometimes kicking and screaming.
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Because we like our wickedness.
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We like the vileness.
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We like the sin.
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Your body craves it.
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Your body wants to sin.
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You want to sin sexually.
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You want to sin with your anger.
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You want to sin with your frustration.
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I know you want to sin.
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Because if I walked up to you today and I spit in your face, you'd want to beat me to death.
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Your body wants to sin.
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Most likely you would not want to turn the other cheek.
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Right? That's the opposite of what you want.
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And yet that's what Jesus commanded, right? So if a man slaps you on one side, turn and let him slap the other.
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Have you ever done that? Have you ever been slapped and said go ahead and do it again? Never.
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Because your body, your natural self wants to let go.
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Not let go and let God.
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Just wants to let go.
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And go crazy.
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Now I'm talking to you guys like men because you're all a group of men.
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This is why the law can't save.
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This is why we stand condemned without Christ.
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And that's really the only two ways you can be.
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You're either going to be under the law and the law is going to crush you to dust.
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Or you're going to be in Christ who is the only person who's ever kept the law.
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He kept the law perfectly and because of his virtue in keeping the law perfectly, he can now take as a substitute the punishment you deserve.
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That's the gospel.
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When he goes to the cross, he takes the punishment that I incurred.
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I deserve to be hung on a cross.
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He takes that for me.
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I deserve to die.
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He takes that for me.
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I deserve the wrath of God.
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Christ absorbs that for me.
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The Bible says he drinks the cup of God's wrath down to the very last drop so that there's none left over for me.
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It's not like he gets half and I get half.
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Or he gets 99% and I've got to drink 1%.
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He drank the whole cup.
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And now I get to be given the benefit of not only forgiveness but righteousness.
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Righteousness before God.
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Not that I'm righteous because I'm not.
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Even now I have his righteousness.
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It's called a transaction.
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He gets my sin, I get his goodness.
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That's the gospel.
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That's the reason why anybody can say I'm going to heaven.
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If I died today and God said, why should I let you into heaven? I would say, apart from Jesus Christ, you shouldn't.
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But in Christ I am forgiven.
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In Christ I am righteous.
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And only in Christ.
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So that's the foundation for what we're going to learn in chapter 3.
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Because in chapter 3 Paul is challenging the Galatians who have gotten away from that.
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Who have begun to think that somehow their participation in the law is adding to their salvation.
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Somehow their participation in the law has begun to build or create for them a salvation.
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And here's the outline.
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It's very simple.
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We're going to look at this.
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If you want to write it down you can.
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You don't have to.
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But I think it's helpful.
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The first is that the gospel is confirmed first by experience.
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And this is verses 1-5.
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The gospel is confirmed by experience.
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Then 2, the gospel is confirmed by Scripture.
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This is verses 6-18.
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That will be our longest.
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Next week we're going to spend a lot of time with verses 1-5 and then it will be a couple weeks verses 6-18 I'm sure.
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And then we see the third part.
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The gospel and the purpose of the law which is verses 19-29.
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So that's the three.
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We have the gospel is confirmed first by experience.
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The gospel is confirmed by Scripture.
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And the gospel and the purpose of the law is our is the last section.
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This whole chapter is making the distinction between the gospel and the law.
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Which I've already tried to explain.
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But the law has a purpose.
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The gospel has a purpose.
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They are not the same purpose.
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The law does not have the purpose of saving because it can't save.
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The gospel is the only thing that can save.
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So you have to understand the distinction in purposes.
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You with me? I ain't putting you to sleep am I? Just making sure you're hanging with me.
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The gospel is confirmed first by experience.
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And we're going to look at verses 1-5 next time we come together.
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In this he asks several questions.
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I want to encourage you to read this before we come together.
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In fact it's going to be two weeks I just realized.
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Next Thursday is Thanksgiving.
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And we're going to have Thanksgiving together.
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You guys are coming to our church and we're going to have Thanksgiving.
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Y'all are going to come to my house.
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My church.
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I'd have you at my house but it ain't big enough.
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But we're going to have it at the church.
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And so we won't have a lesson next week.
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We might do something fun but it won't be like this.
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the next time we come together we're going to look at verses 1-5 but I just want to make a few comments in the overview.
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Notice he begins O foolish Galatians who has bewitched you? That word bewitched How many of you remember the TV show Bewitched? Now we're talking about age.
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Now we're getting a little aged.
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The word I watched it too.
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I guess I'm a lot older than them.
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Bewitched was a television show about a witch who was pretending to be a regular person.
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Yep.
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But this word, this is actually the only time this word is used in the Greek Bible.
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It is a very interesting word and it literally means to cast a spell.
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And it's based on the idea of looking into someone's eye and them giving you like a hypnotic look.
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Yes.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Right? And you've seen people be hypnotized before.
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You know, sometimes they'll use a little amulet or sometimes they'll use some kind of flurry or sometimes they'll just look you in the eyes and start counting or something and there's this hypnotic look.
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And that, the word actually focuses on that.
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And so the idea that the Apostle Paul is asking is who has tricked you? Who has fooled you? Who has hypnotized you? Who has cast a spell on you? Now if you've been in this study for any length of time, we've already talked about who this group is.
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The group that has come in is the Judaizers.
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The Apostle Paul plants the churches in Galatia.
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He leaves.
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The Judaizers come in and they say, no, Paul was wrong.
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You are not saved just by grace through faith, but you are saved by grace through faith plus the keeping of the law.
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Particularly circumcision and the dietary laws and the keeping of the Sabbath.
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You have to do those things as well as believe in Jesus.
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And Paul is saying who tricked you? Who fooled you? Who cast a spell on you? And we'll look more at that later, but he goes in to say, let me ask you this.
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Or first of all he says, it was before your eyes that Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified.
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He's saying, look, you guys have been fooled when you know Jesus Christ died and that has already been proclaimed to you.
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I came to you and I proclaimed to you a Jesus Christ who died for your sins.
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I came to you and I proclaimed to you a Jesus Christ who gave Himself for your iniquities.
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I came to you and I proclaimed a salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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And then these people come and they fool you? These people come and they trick you? When you've heard the truth, you've had the filet mignon, now you're going to eat peanut butter sandwiches and be satisfied? No! That's the point.
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I gave you the truth.
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You go back to chapter 1.
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What does he say? I'm astonished that you have so quickly deserted the truth.
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Paul is not happy.
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You don't usually call someone foolish if you're happy with them.
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Paul is not happy with the Galatians.
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He says, you foolish Galatians.
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And the word for foolish here, well, it doesn't mean that they don't have any knowledge.
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The word foolish here actually means that they are not using the knowledge that they have.
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So, in this sense, I guess probably the most...
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You wouldn't call him an imbecile or an idiot because those are terms which usually means a lack of understanding.
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But what he's saying in our most modern way of saying it is stupid.
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And you say, why stupid? Well, because as smart as you are, you can still do something stupid.
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Ain't that right? You ever done something and you say, well, that was stupid.
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Because even I knew better but I still did it.
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And that's what he's saying.
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You know better but right now you're being stupid.
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Yeah.
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Well, no, even the ignorant means I don't know.
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They knew and they did it.
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You know what I mean? And I agree that ignorance is possible, but really it's just that moment of stupidity.
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He's saying, oh foolish Galatians, who has tricked you? Who has cast a spell on you? Who has gotten you to look at something different? Because you had Christ publicly proclaimed as crucified.
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Now, some translations, even mine, says publicly portrayed as crucified.
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Some people get confused by that because some people say, well, wait a minute, Jesus wasn't portrayed as crucified because he was crucified 200 miles away.
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He was crucified in Jerusalem.
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This is over in Turkey.
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They didn't see it happen, but that's really not what this means.
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What it means is He was publicly proclaimed.
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They heard the Gospel.
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Anytime the Gospel is preached, what must be preached? The crucifixion.
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Yeah, and the resurrection.
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But what does Paul say? I do nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
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The crucifixion is the foundation of the Gospel.
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They had heard it.
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They had seen it in their ears by hearing it.
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They had known what had happened.
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And Paul said, you have heard this.
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You know that it happened.
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How could you let somebody come along and fool you? And I want to say this to you guys because you guys have a lot of people who come in here and teach.
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And I know that Pastor Mark vets the guys who come here and I am very grateful for that.
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I know he vetted me before I came and I know he vets the other guys who come.
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But at some point, at some point, either you're going to leave this place and you're going to be out on your own or there may come a person here who unbeknownst to Pastor Mark or anybody else comes in and teaches a false Gospel.
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Let me say this about that.
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Do not let them fool you.
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It is on you.
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You have heard the truth.
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I know you have because I done told it to you.
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But I ain't the only one but the point is I know you've heard the truth.
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So my challenge to you is not to allow, you know those people come knocking on your door at 8 o'clock on Saturday morning, them Jehovah Witnesses with their Watchtower magazine.
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It not only is a cult, it is a false religion of immense proportions.
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It is a dangerous false religion that will drag you down to hell.
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You say, oh they're nice people.
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I know people who are Jehovah Witnesses, they're real nice people.
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Yes, but their theology is wrong and it is God it is God dishonoring.
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Those two little young men who come with their white shirts and their nice ties who come knocking on your door wanting to tell you about another testament of Jesus Christ.
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Those boys don't even realize that they are agents of the devil himself.
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You think I'm exaggerating.
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Do you know what Mormonism teaches? Mormonism teaches not only was our God once a man but that you if you obey Mormon teachings can become a God one day.
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I tell you what, I'd be the worst God there ever was.
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I don't even want to be God.
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Why would I even aspire to that? Mormon theology is actually further from biblical Christianity than Islam.
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As far as what they teach about God and the history of the Bible.
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Now Islam is wrong too.
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Don't think I'm an apologist for Islam, but the point is Islam is closer to a biblical theology than Mormonism.
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Mormonism believes God was once a man, he lived on a planet that surrounded a star called Kolob.
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Because of his adherence to Mormon teachings he died and became a God himself and through celestial marriage he was able to populate his own universe which is this universe and now he who is called Elohim was given birth to a son named Jehovah who is also called Jesus.
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Jesus came to the earth and died for our sins.
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But that is the view that is not biblical.
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It is so false that God was once a man and that you can be God and that there is an eternal regression of God that goes back into infinity.
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It's so damning, it's so false, but again they bewitch people all the time.
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It is not just another denomination.
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Who has bewitched you? That's the question.
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Paul is asking the Galatians.
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He knew who bewitched them.
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The Judaizers had bewitched the Galatians.
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But I want to ask you in all honesty who has taught you something other than the Gospel and you believed it? Who has taught you a false Gospel and you still believe it? Maybe it was a teacher who taught you that you were in fact not a special creation of God but you really are just a grown ape and that your ancestors were apes and before them were smaller creatures and all the way back down to the original microorganisms that first populated this planet and that you came about not by a special creation of God but you came about by a process called evolution and that is what brought you to where you are today.
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Have they bewitched you? They bewitch so many in our society.
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I talk to kids all the time who say, yeah, I'm just a product of evolution and when I die I'm just going to go back to the dust.
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There's no judgment.
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There's no afterlife.
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There's nothing to look forward to.
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I'm going to die and go right back to where I was before I was born.
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Into nothing.
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And I say, you know what? Not only is that a fearful reality to think about just going into nothing but the reality is it's more fearful if you're wrong because if I'm right, and I am, you're going to die and you're going to be judged.
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You're not just going to go into nothing you're going to go into hell.
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See, we're dealing with life consequential things.
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Y'all think I come here on Thursday morning just to hear myself talk? We're talking about eternal things.
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You go to a doctor, the doctor tells you you're sick he gives you medicine, he makes you feel better.
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Eventually that's going to stop.
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One day you'll go to the doctor, he ain't going to have no medicine he's going to tell you you've got so many months to live or whatever, you're going to die.
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I'm telling you about what's going to happen after that.
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What's more important? What's more important? People say, oh well doctors they're very important.
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They are very important, they keep us going but all they're doing is kicking the can down the road because eventually you're going to die.
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No matter how good the doctor is, he can't keep you alive forever.
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No matter how healthy you are, many of you are more healthy than me.
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I'm going to die one day.
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One day I'm going to close my eyes and I ain't never going to open them back up in this life.
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Am I ready for that? That's the reality.
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Am I ready for that? You going to let somebody pull the wool over your eyes when it comes to the most important thing ever? And that's what's going to happen when you die? That's what Paul's saying.
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Who has bewitched you? Who's fooled you? How are you going to let somebody come in and lie to you and say it's okay? Imagine a rope that goes on and on forever.
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Some of you heard me tell this story.
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You heard me tell this story before about the rope? Yeah.
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Imagine a rope that goes on forever.
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I know it's not possible, but if you can imagine, you can have imagination.
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A rope goes into a hole.
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The hole goes forever.
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The rope goes forever.
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You're holding the end of the rope.
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On the end of that rope is a piece of electrical tape.
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You know how big electrical tape is? Right on the end of that rope is that electrical tape.
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The rope goes forever.
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You got the end of the rope.
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Holding the end of the rope, there's that piece of electrical tape.
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That is the example of this life compared to eternity.
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This life is like that little piece of electrical tape and that rope is what's going to happen when you die.
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That rope goes on forever.
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Now you understand why I say it's much more important? People say, I just, I can't live for God because I got things I want to do now.
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Talk about the worst retirement plan in history.
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You're going to set up your retirement in hell so you can have a good time right now.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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That's why I'm here.
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I care whether or not you go to hell.
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I can't control it.
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I can't turn your heart to God.
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And I can't change your life.
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But I can point you to Christ and I can say there's only one person in the world who can save you and that's Him.
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And I can say this, if anybody tries to pull the wool over your eyes or tell you anything different that those people do not love you, they hate your souls no matter how nice they are to you.
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No matter how much they welcome you into their community.
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No matter how much they tell you that they do love you.
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If they are giving you a false Jesus, they hate your soul.
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Even if they don't understand.
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Paul says, you foolish Galatians who has bewitched you.
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You know Jesus Christ was crucified.
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It was proclaimed to you and you believed it.
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And now you believe that you're somehow going to perfect yourself by what you do.
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Look at what he says.
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We'll look at verse 2 and we'll kind of just begin to draw to a close on this.
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He says, let me ask you this, only this.
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Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Notice this goes right along with what he's been saying this whole time.
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When he says receive the Spirit, what he's talking about is when you got saved.
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When you get saved, you receive the Spirit of God.
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When you get saved, the Spirit of God comes and makes His home inside of you.
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In fact, Romans chapter 8 verse 9 says this, if you do not have the Spirit within you, you don't belong to God.
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You don't get the Spirit later, you get the Spirit the moment you believe.
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The Spirit of God comes and makes His home within you the moment you become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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He regenerates your heart and He makes a home there.
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And He becomes the empowering presence in your life.
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And Paul asks a very simple question.
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Did you get that Spirit by doing the law or did you get that Spirit by believing in Jesus? Did you get that Spirit by what you did or did you get that Spirit by what Jesus did? That's why we said the Gospel is confirmed first by our experience.
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Because your experience tells you you didn't get saved by what you've done.
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Your experience tells you you didn't get saved by what you do, but by what Christ does.
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So the question becomes this, and it's very simple.
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If you got saved by believing, do you somehow now keep being saved by the law? No.
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Read with me.
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He says, Are you so foolish? Verse 3.
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Having begun by the Spirit, are you being perfected by the flesh? If you began by believing and receiving the Spirit and you didn't get saved by keeping the law, why would you think that you're now going to continue to be saved by keeping the law? You couldn't do it before.
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You think you can do it now? Now this doesn't mean the law has no purpose.
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This doesn't mean we shouldn't do what's right and we shouldn't forsake what's wrong.
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We'll talk about that in the weeks to come.
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But the point is this.
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If at any moment in your salvation you begin to think that you somehow have earned it by keeping the law, you have abandoned the Gospel.
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If at any point you begin to think that my salvation is rested on what I do rather than on what Christ has done, you have abandoned the Gospel.
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It's a very simple formula.
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Either it is what Christ has done alone or it is what Christ has done plus what you do.
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If you believe in what Christ has done alone, you are saved.
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If you believe it's what Christ has done plus what you do, then you are hoping in error.
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Because it is not what you do but what Christ has done alone.
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That's the Gospel and that's the distinction between the Gospel and the law.
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Now he confirms this with Scripture as we'll see in the weeks ahead and then he shows us the actual purpose of the law at the end of the chapter.
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When we come back we're going to look over these first five verses again a little more closely and we'll move on into verse six which Paul uses the greatest example of all.
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He uses Abraham.
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He says, you want to know why I know I'm saved by faith and not by works? Because I can go back to Abraham.
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I can go back to Genesis chapter 15 and verse 6 and God said to Abraham that he had been declared righteous because of faith.
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He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
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So that's where you are guys.
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You've either believed God and it's been accredited to you as righteousness or somehow you're trusting in yourself.
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My prayer for you this morning is that you're trusting in Christ and not in yourself.
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Let's pray.
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Father I thank you for your Word.
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I pray it's been helpful.
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I pray it's been fruitful.
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And I pray Lord that anyone here who might be trusting in himself, anyone here who might have been fooled by false religion or fooled by some false idea of Jesus or fooled by some other influence in their life Lord, that that wool would come off their eyes.
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That they would see the Savior.
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That they would see him high and lifted up.
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That they would see the glory of Jesus Christ.
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That they would forsake all other things.
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And that they would pursue him.
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For only in him is there genuine and true salvation.
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And it's in his name we pray.
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Amen.