"Casting A Spell" (False Teaching & Slight of Hand)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Paul begins chapter 3 by saying what? Go ahead and look at it. Galatians 3 verse 1, what does he say?

Oh foolish Galatians. Now if that sounds like an insult, well, it's not a compliment. But this doesn't refer to their lack of intelligence, rather their lack of obedience. But still I think if a preacher got up and spoke to a congregation or a group of people and called them foolish, I suspect some people would be offended, right?

I'm sure some of the Galatians didn't like hearing it either. But the question is, is this true? I mean, is this accurate? Were they acting foolishly? So let me ask you that question. Were they acting foolishly?

Well, you're not sure. Well, all right, you need to hear this sermon if you're not sure. You know the answer is yes. Why? Why was it so foolish? They were exchanging the gospel of grace for a system of bondage.

And I think there does come a time for that kind of blunt language in order to get through. Why? Because the churches were at risk. These churches were at risk. People's souls were at risk. And lest somebody say, well, Paul saying they're foolish, you know, I don't think Jesus ever would have said that to somebody.

Well, in Luke 24, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, do you remember what Jesus said? Same Greek word. He calls them foolish. He says, oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory.

So Jesus did say it, too, just for the record. But that's the statement. Oh, foolish Galatians. And then Paul starts in with his questions, which are rhetorical, meant to kind of back up his statement.

What's the first question? Who has bewitched you? The second question. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Third question. Are you so foolish? Fourth question.

Having begun in the spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Number five. Have you suffered so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain. And then the final question. Therefore, he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it through the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

So you can kind of tell by these questions. The answer is is obvious. So the answer. Let's go through these. The answer to the first question is pretty simple. Who has bewitched you? Well, who who was it?

Right. The Judaizers. The false teachers. And this word. Let's spend just a moment on this word bewitched. That's an interesting term that Paul would use. Who has bewitched you? It's like they cast a spell on the church members.

Now, obviously, they didn't literally cast a spell. But if you think of a magician today, what do they do? How does a magician perform his tricks? It's all through sleight of hand. Right. They get you to look over here so that you don't see what they're doing over here.

So they divert your attention. I think that's what Paul is saying. The false teachers were diverting their attention, getting the focus off of Christ and putting the focus on keeping the law. So instead of emphasizing the issue of sin and the need for Christ atoning death and his resurrection for our justification, the full pardon of sin.

No, that wasn't the focus. The focus was on thou shalt do this. Thou shalt not do that. So the focus shifted. And, you know, law keeping a legalistic message is actually quite appealing to a lot of people.

Now, the license, the opposite, that message is appealing to, hey, believe in Jesus, get eternal life and go live however you want. That's appealing in another way for some people. But, yeah, legalism can be an appealing thing.

It appeals to the flesh. Why? It appeals to people's pride. Look at me. Look at me. I'm a good person. I'm following the rules. And people can see the things that I'm doing. Wow, he's a really good person.

I'm loving my neighbor. I'm one of the good people. Look at me. Legalism applies or it appeals to the flesh. Today we're familiar with the term virtue signal, right? You've all heard of this, virtue signaling.

If you think about it, the Pharisees and the Judaizers were kind of like the original virtue signalers. What did Jesus say about the Pharisees? All their works they do to be seen by men. So the Judaizers could boast about themselves.

Hey, we're circumcised. We keep the dietary laws. We do this. We do that. It is a system that appeals to the flesh. But it's so foolish because you can't be saved through keeping the law. Nobody has ever kept the law.

And what the church members failed to realize, once you put yourself back under the law, then you have to keep the whole law. It really wasn't just about circumcision or the dietary laws. Now you have to obey 613 commandments and good luck with that.

Because nobody can do it. No one has ever been able to do it except one man, Jesus Christ, who offers you the free gift of salvation. No, I don't want that. I'm going to try to do it my own good work.

I mean, that is foolish. Absolutely foolish. So the good news of Jesus Christ is that he is able to redeem us from the curse of the law. You've sinned. You've fallen short. You have nothing to boast about.

That's part of the true message of the gospel. That Jesus and Jesus alone can save. That it's all about him. He gets all the glory. He gets all the credit. But you know, that's not really a popular message.

Certainly not a popular message today. It wasn't really a popular message back then. Because it all starts, the good news starts with the bad news that you're a sinner. And people have to first acknowledge that they're not as great as they think they are.

And that in fact, it's worse than that. Without the grace of God, you are an absolute wretch. People don't like hearing that, do they? People have a hard time coming to terms with that. And you know, as a preacher, I'm usually preaching to you.

And I don't want to be talking about myself. But hey, that applies to me. It applies to all of us. Without the grace of God, you are a wretch. Without the grace of God. Some of you could tell of this.

That if it wasn't for your faith. If it wasn't for what Jesus has done in your life. Can you only imagine where you'd be right now? What you'd be doing right now? So that's the true message of the gospel.

We admit that. That natural man, there's nothing good within us. And that we need Christ. Now, there's a lot of popular preachers today. Just like there were back then in Paul's day. And even going back to the Old Testament with the book of Jeremiah.

The popular preachers of the day were the false prophets. Preaching peace, peace, when there was no peace. It was the true Bible preacher, Jeremiah, who was preaching judgment. Babylon's going to come and destroy Jerusalem.

Jeremiah was the true preacher. Nobody liked Jeremiah, right? He was preaching the truth. Nobody wanted to hear it. But the false teachers were popular. Even in Paul's day. Paul was kind of the bad guy.

Right? With the Galatians, they weren't listening to him. The Corinthians weren't listening to Paul. They were listening to the false teachers. It's the same today. There's nothing new under the sun. The most popular preachers today.

They don't, some of them openly admit. They don't preach on sin. Well, if a person doesn't preach on sin. If they don't preach on the bad news. How are people going to understand their need for the good news?

And of course, many of those preachers don't really preach the good news either. Their message tends to be about you and self-help and motivational speaking. Why? It appeals to a person's pride. Do this and you will succeed.

If you just do this and do this. You can get all these other things as the result. You know, they're the true legalists. They're the true legalists. Because it's about what you can do and what you can get from it.

Those preachers are actually the true legalists. They're doing the same thing as the Judaizers. Diverting the attention off of the cross onto other things. What does Paul say? Oh foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?

Well what's the truth? He tells us. Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. What does he mean? I think what he's saying is that the preaching was so clear. Paul's preaching about Christ and the gospel was so clear.

It's as if the Judaizers could see Jesus hanging on the cross in front of them. So clear they could almost see it. Certainly they could visualize it. And Paul is pleading with them. Like you know the truth.

You know the gospel is about Christ. You know it's about his shed blood. You know he died and rose again. You know Jesus is the only hope of your salvation. How can you turn away from that and start trusting in something else?

Paul is incredulous. He can't believe it. Now again going back to what we talked about at the outset. Regarding apostasy. Remember the Galatians. Understand this. The Galatians did not openly deny the name of Jesus.

That's not what they were doing. They still would have called themselves Christians. I'm sure many of them were. There's people all along the spectrum. The false teachers who are unsaved. And Paul kind of knew that.

There's the faithful believers in the churches. And then there's everybody in between. So he's talking to a mixed group. Now go ahead and turn to Galatians chapter 5 for a moment. But yeah they still would have said no we believe in Jesus.

We still have faith. They would have called themselves Christians. There's no evidence that they denied that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. There's no evidence that they didn't believe that. So then how did they fall away?

Because believing in Jesus is not about affirming facts about Jesus. Believing in Jesus is loving the Lord. And believing that is putting your trust in the Lord. 100 of your trust has to be in the Lord.

If you trust in Jesus for your salvation 80%. And the Virgin Mary 20%. You don't believe in Jesus. You don't get what it means to believe right? If you're trusting in Jesus 50 in your own good works 50%.

You say you're trusting in Jesus. You don't understand. We're talking about faith alone. The true gospel. Jesus is it. Him alone. Well 99 Jesus and 1 the sacraments. No it's all or nothing. Grace alone.

Faith alone. In Christ alone. A-L-O-N-E. Look at Galatians 5 starting in verse 1. Because what the Galatians had done. They still believed in all these facts. They would have affirmed all this truth.

Paul says you've fallen from grace. He says stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. And do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Indeed I Paul say to you that if you become circumcised.

Christ will profit you nothing. And that is they're getting circumcised because they're trusting in that. Nothing wrong with being circumcised necessarily. But they were trusting in it. Verse 3. Again I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised.

That he is a debtor to keep what? The whole law. You have become estranged from Christ. You who attempt to be justified by law. You have fallen from grace. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message. Or if you'd like more information about the ministry. Visit our website morriscornickchurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us. Some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time with the grace of God be with you.