This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to our look at Galatians chapter 3, our first day of our
look at this chapter. We're going to look at verses 1 to 3 today. And as we look
at this chapter of Galatians, continuing on in what Paul is saying to these
people he loves about the false teaching they were facing and how they could
find the truth of God.

We're really going to be focusing this week and next week, Galatians 3 and 4, on
how do you continue to grow as a Christian? Because this was really the question
that the Galatians were asking, and it's the question that Paul is answering.
The Galatians are maybe three, maybe four years old as believers, figuring by
Paul's missionary journeys when he'd been there.

They were probably at that time just over their, what I'd call their initial
burst of excitement about their faith. And they were seeking growth on the other
side of the burst. You know what I'm talking about?

The burst where you have a lot of emotion, you have a lot of excitement, it's
all new. But then it becomes not all new, and maybe the emotions aren't always
there, and there is a week when there are more problems than solutions. How do
you grow in that reality?

That's the secret to a lifetime of Christian growth. These Galatian believers
were beginning to face some of the frustrations of growth, some of the very same
frustrations that you might be facing. It's not fast enough, it's not consistent
enough, it's not spectacular enough.

How do you grow in a real world? Now the Judaizers, the false teachers, they had
an answer. They said struggling, frustrated, you need something new, you need
something different, you need something more.

Here's how you really grow, they said, and they pointed to an old thing that
they said was new. They pointed to the law. And they said if you'll start that,
it'll all be new again, and it's the answer that you need.

When you're struggling, when you're frustrated, something new, something
different, it always sounds attractive. It's the easy answer, it's the instant
solution. And so the Galatians went after the false teaching.

They bit at the Judaizers' line. The problem is the line had a hook on the end
of it. It had a legalism to it that would halt their growth.

And so Paul writes in chapter 3, and his plea is this, take the pretty wrapping
off of this seeming gift that they're giving. Take a hard look at what's inside.
And that's what he's going to do.

He's going to look at every side of this issue of law and grace. It's sort of
like a diamond. He examines a seven-sided argument these next few weeks for
grace and promise above law and rules as the means, as the purpose that God has
for our Christian growth.

Paul's plea to them is just think. But as he says this, this is no idle
theological argument or intellectual exercise. Paul is doing all that he can to
help the growth of these people that he loves.

And as you and I, these next few weeks, look at Paul's arguments, I encourage
you to think about your growth. It's just possible that these scriptures will be
used by God to show you some roads that you might be taking right now that
aren't going to lead anywhere. They provide an initial excitement, maybe even
about faith, but in the end, they're not going to lead to growth.

They're just going to lead to depending on yourself, and that leads nowhere.
Certainly, I am sure that for every one of us, there are truths from these
verses, from these arguments that Paul makes that will keep us on the road to
growth, the road that God has that leads to his best for our lives. So we're
going to look at seven different arguments these next few weeks, beginning with
argument number one.

First, Paul argues for their growth. He argues for grace over law with the
argument of experience. And he does that in verses one to five.

Here's what he has to say. You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before
your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified? I would like to
learn just one thing from you.

Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard?
Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to
attain your goal by human effort?

Have you suffered so much for nothing, if it really was for nothing? Does God
give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or
because you believe what you heard? Now, before getting into what Paul says
here, just one note.

Remember, these letters were read out loud to the church. And I just imagine the
person who got to read this passage out loud in front of the church. One guy
gets to end up reading chapter two.

You remember the end of chapter two was, "I'm crucified with Christ. I no longer
live. Christ lives in me.

" I can almost imagine him saying, I've got a little cough in my throat,
"Joseph, could you come and read now? " Because Joseph would get up and read,
"You foolish Galatians, that must not have been received very well. " Paul is
saying here, in the strongest, most personal, most emotional terms, I want you
to take a look at your faith and how you got started in faith.

And he's talking to a people that he loves that have, in essence, lost a hold of
themselves. He says they're foolish a couple of times. Now, the verse he uses
here is foolish of mind.

The meaning behind it isn't a lack of intelligence, but a failure to use it. And
actually, the idea of the Greek phrase here, it's sort of an affectionate
criticism of Phillips translates this, "You dear idiots. " I don't think that
really gets to it.

Maybe the word that we would use in English today is blockheads, "Oh, you
blockheads. " This is a church full of Charlie Browns, if you remember Charlie
Brown being called a blockhead in that comic strip. And they're ready, Lucy
would always pull the football away, Charlie Brown would always miss it and fall
flat on his back, and he was always a blockhead.

And Paul is saying, "You blockheads, you're missing it. " He says, "You're
foolish. " He also says, "You are bewitched.

" Some of us, that makes us think of witchcraft, but that's not really what Paul
is talking about here. It's interesting. One of the ideas behind this Greek word
is to fascinate, to be transfixed by something, to be spellbound by something.

And what he's saying here is like this shiny bauble, they're waving in front of
you this new thing, the law. He's saying just because something is fascinating
does not mean it's true. The world is filled with fascinating lies, with
fascinating dangers.

As Paul writes to the Galatians about the fact that they've gone the wrong way
and it's going to keep them from growing in Christ, we have to realize that
we're all in danger of this. This isn't about somebody else or somebody who
lived 2,000 years ago. We're all in danger of this.

I like the honesty with which Martin Luther wrote about this in his commentary
in Galatians. He said this about this passage, "Although I am a doctor of
divinity and have preached Christ and fought His battles for a long time, I know
from personal experience how difficult it is to hold fast to the truth. I cannot
always shake off Satan.

I cannot always apprehend Christ as the scriptures portray Him. Sometimes the
devil distorts Christ to my vision. But thanks be to God, who keeps us in His
word and in faith and in prayer.

" There's Martin Luther, one of the great leaders of the church, saying, "I
struggle. We all struggle with this. It's easy for Satan to fool us into
trusting in ourselves.

" So what's the answer? Paul tells us the answer here. The answer is, remember
your experience.

In fact, he gives a picture to this experience. He says, "It's Jesus Christ
portrayed as crucified. " How could you miss your experience, he says, when
Jesus was portrayed as crucified before you?

This idea of portrayed, it's like putting up a public notice. He's saying here,
"You saw it as clearly as if it were put up on a billboard. Christ was
crucified.

He died for you. " Again and again and again, Paul returns to this truth as the
basis for our commitments, what Jesus did on the cross and what Jesus did in His
resurrection. Don't miss that, he says.

Now, based on that experience of who Jesus is and our experience of coming to
know Him, There are some questions about growth that should just answer
themselves. You shouldn't have to ask them ever again. He says, "Did you receive
the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

" You receive the Spirit by faith. And so obviously, that says some things to
you about your growth. Having begun by the Spirit, he says, "Are you going to
now be perfected by the flesh?

You begin by God's Spirit, but you're going to get perfected by your own
efforts? " That makes no sense. That question's already answered, he's saying.

Or does he now work by works of the law or by hearing with faith? He's always
worked by faith. Paul goes back and says, "By your experience of seeing Christ
and the experience of how you've grown in your life, how you started as a
believer, you know it's by faith.

" Now, this is the argument from experience. And behind each of these arguments,
there is a principle of growth. And the principle of growth behind this argument
is growth begins by faith and growth continues by faith.

There are so many of us that fall into the trap of thinking, "Yeah, we're saved
by faith. My growth in Christ begins by faith, but now it's all up to me. I've
got to make myself grow.

" No, it's faith all the way through. Growth begins by faith, that's how you're
saved, but it also continues by faith, by faith through Christ. It is a faith
relationship.

And so without faith, you obviously cannot grow in that relationship, and that's
what it means to be growing in him. You look at your life right now today. Are
you growing?

And if you look at your life and think, "Oh, I'm really not," or "I see some
places where I'm not," these verses are saying you don't need something new.
What you need is faith. What you need to do is to remember how you began by
grace through faith.

Let's remember that together in prayer right now. Jesus, thank you. Thank you
that you saved us by grace through faith.

And thank you that you grow us by grace through faith. We get confused
sometimes, I do, because I've got something to do when it comes to my growth.
I'm reading the Bible or going to church or trusting you for strength to serve.

But Lord, it's not me, it's you. You're giving me that strength, you're giving
me that truth, you're giving me that fellowship. So help me not to make the
mistake of thinking I have to trust myself to grow.

Remind me again and again, Jesus, that it is by you, through you, for you, that
I grow in you. Remind me today. Encourage me today with that truth.

In your name I pray, amen. Well join us tomorrow. We're going to look at a
second argument that Paul talks about, an argument from Scripture the principle
of us being a new creation.