Title: Hearing of Faith
Text: Galatians 3: 1-5
Date: June 22, 2014
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Galatians 3: 1: O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus
Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2: This only would I
learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing
of faith? 3: Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made
perfect by the flesh? 4: Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be
yet in vain. 5: He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh
miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the
hearing of faith?
Our
subject is: The Hearing of Faith
We have
been studying in Ephesians the importance of speaking the truth in love. The apostle Paul wrote Ephesians and here we
have him doing just that in Galatia. The apostle Paul did what Christ’s
faithful ambassadors do. He spoke the truth in love.
Speaking the Truth in Love
It was
how the Galatian believers had been born-again by the Holy Spirit in the first
place. Paul had been used of God to preach the gospel of the faithfulness of
Jesus Christ to the Galatians. He said,
“before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath
been EVIDENTLY set forth, crucified among you?” That is what it is to
preach the gospel of the faithfulness of Christ. It is setting forth Christ Jesus before our
hearers, evidently--“graphically.” It is
to preach the person of Christ and work of Christ in such clear language that
the hearers cannot possibly misunderstand; it is to preach the faithfulness of
Christ with such plainness of speech that it is as if Christ were being
crucified right before their eyes in their very midst. By hearing of the
faithfulness of Christ Jesus, by hearing that sinners are made righteous only through
faith in Christ, Christ sent forth the Holy Spirit and many at Galatia were
regenerated and given faith to believe.
Paul
continued even now to speak the truth in love. Paul spoke the truth by
declaring exactly what false gospels do, they bewitch--Galatians 3: 1: O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you. It means to fascinate by false
representations. By false representations, men who preach a false gospel,
fascinate their hearers. They fascinated the fleshly man—their message appeals
to the unregenerate, old, dead man of the flesh. They fascinate the flesh by
teaching men that in addition to faith in Christ they must now mortify the
sinful deeds of the flesh and become more moral in the flesh by keeping the
law. This was a totally different
message than what the Galatians had begun hearing Paul preach. Paul preached “the hearing of faith”—the
faithfulness of Jesus Christ, urging sinners to faith in Christ for righteousness
in justification as well as righteousness in sanctification. These men preached “the hearing of works”—they
preached the works of the law that they must do to become more sanctified.
Paul
spoke the truth in love, not only telling the Galatians they were bewitched, he
told them what such preaching does—Galatians
3: 1:…that ye should not obey the truth. To obey such false doctrine is to turn
back to the law and thus cease obeying the Truth. Paul did not say that such
falsehood is only in error on certain points of essential doctrine, he called
it ‘another gospel, which is not another.”
Galatians 1: 6: I marvel that ye are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7: Which is
not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel
of Christ.
Paul’s
response was not today’s promotion of phony, sentimental love which says
believers ought to embrace those whose doctrine is contrary to the word of God.
No, Paul spoke the truth in love. He said,
Galatians 1: 8: But though
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which
we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9: As we said before, so say I
now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have
received, let him be accursed.
Galatians 5:12: I would they were even cut off which
trouble you.
For
such bold declarations to be in the inspired word of God, it teaches the
believer that false doctrine is to be avoided above all things.
Furthermore,
we see in Galatia what happens when we cease to obey the truth. Paul spoke the
truth in love telling them that by taking their affection off Christ they began
examining each other which resulted in backbiting and devouring one another. This
is always the result when sinners are taught to look to self for any aspect of
salvation rather than believing on Christ in whom the believer is complete. He
told them the only cure is instead of looking to one another, set their
affection on Christ and they would not fulfill this lust of the flesh.
Galatians 5: 15: But if ye bite and devour one another,
take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. 16: This I say then, Walk in
the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Works of the Law or Hearing of Faith?
So Paul
had preached “the hearing of faith” and but they were listening to the “the
works of the law.” So Paul asks a few questions. Galatians
3: 2: This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of
the law, or by the hearing of faith?
It was
by the hearing of the faithfulness of Christ that God sent the Holy Spirit and
gave them life and faith in Christ. That
is what the “hearing of faith is”, it is the hearing of the faithfulness of the
triune God in Christ Jesus. Paul answers his question a few verses later,
Galatians 3: 6: Even as Abraham believed God, and it was
accounted to him for righteousness….8: And the scripture, foreseeing that God
would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto
Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Abraham
heard “the gospel”—the “hearing of the faithfulness of Christ.” In the gospel which was preached to Abraham,
he heard that through his children’s, children’s, children, the Christ would be
born in the earth. He heard that by the
faithfulness of Christ all the elect of God from every nation on earth would be
blessed. Through the “hearing of Christ’s faithfulness” God sent the Holy
Spirit, gave Abraham life and he believed God. And God imputed the
righteousness of Christ to Abraham through faith. Abraham could not have heard “the hearing of
the works of the law” because the law was not given for 430 years after God
preached the gospel to Abraham.
Galatians 3: 17
And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in
Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot
disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
It was by
the same message that Abraham heard—“the
hearing of the faithfulness of Christ”—that the Galatians were given the
Holy Spirit, made righteous and sanctified, through faith in Christ. So Paul
asks,
Galatians 3: 3: Are ye so foolish? having
begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?...5: He therefore
that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it
by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Paul says since sinners are not regenerated
by the works of the law or by the hearing of the works of the law but only by
the Holy Spirit through the hearing of the faithfulness of Christ and him
crucified then it is foolish to think that we shall be grown in grace by
“hearing the works of the law” or “by our fleshly law-keeping.”
So now,
brethren, I want to set Christ graphically—evidently—plainly before you and
show you how we are made to put off the old man and put on the new man; how the
old man is mortified and the new man edified. It is not by the hearing of the
works of the law.
Proposition: Christ is the Truth. If we would begin obeying the
truth, continue obeying the truth and be grown by the truth then we must begin
by hearing the faithfulness of Christ the Truth and continue hearing the
faithfulness of Christ the Truth.
The same thing that had happened in Galatia
is what Paul was warning the church at Colosee to beware of.
Colossians 2: 4: And this I say, lest any man
should beguile you with enticing words. 5: For though I be absent in the flesh,
yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the
stedfastness of your faith in Christ. 6: As ye have therefore received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7: Rooted and built up in him, and
stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with
thanksgiving. 8: Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
after Christ. 9: For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10:
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
I. FIRST, BY CHRIST’S FAITHFULNESS HE PUT OFF
THE OLD SINFUL MAN FOR HIS PEOPLE—Colossians 2: 11: In whom also ye are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12: Buried with him in
baptism,
For
God’s elect, Christ put off our body of sins, our old man of flesh, when he
took our sins and died under the justice of God on the cross. Old testatment circumcision typified the
putting off of the old, defiled, polluted man of the flesh which Christ
accomplished on the cross. This is the
circumicision Christ accomplished. Our old man of sins was put off without our
hands, without any sinners hands. This text says our old man of sins—the whole
body of our sins—was put off by Christ on the cross.
Our old
man was buried with him in baptism. Baptism spoken of here is the baptism
Christ was baptized withw hen he was immersed in the judgment and justice of
God for the sin of his people which he was made as our Substitute, when his
lifeless body was buried in the tomb.
Water
baptism is not a new testament version of old testament circumcision. Old
testament circumcision pictures the putting off of our old man of sins. Water baptism
pictures the burial of our old man with Christ and rising again our new man
with Christ when he was arose from the grave to the right hand of God.
This is
the hearing of faith. Believer, does
this message not fill your inner man with strength to know your old man of sins
is destroyed? God remembers our sins no
more. The old man of flesh which does all the sinning in you and I, who
believe, is crucified, dead and buried before the all-knowing eye of God our
Judge.
God
regards your old man as dead. So you
regard your old man as dead. The fleshly
deeds of our old man neither count against us or for us. He is dead. So you
mortify him—treat him as dead. This is the message that makes us not serve
sin—not the hearing of the works of the law.
Let me show you that.
Romans 6:1: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in
sin, that grace may abound? 2 God
forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism
into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the
likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should
not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is
freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead
dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once:
but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments
of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over
you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
II. SECONDLY, BY THE FAITHFULNESS OF CHRIST,
OUR NEW MAN WAS RAISED WHEN CHRIST WAS RAISED—Ephesians 2: 12: Buried with him
in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the
operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
This is
the second thing water baptism pictures. Every elect child of God in the eye
and purpose of God was raised a new man when God raised Christ from the grave
to the right hand of the Father.
Before you
and I were born the first time from our mother’s womb, before we were
born-again by the Holy Spirit, before the all seeing eye of God, the new me was
born when Christ came out of the grave and sat down at his right hand.
Ephesians 2: 5: Even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6: And hath raised
us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7:
That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
There
is no possibility that God will fail to regenerate and bring his redeemed to
faith in Christ because he raised Christ “that
in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus”
This is
the “hearing of faith”—it is hearing that I have been risen a new man in Christ
since the time that Christ arose. This
is what makes the believer no longer regard the old man of flesh—which makes us
not want to continue in sin—the sin of looking to our flesh for morality or
immoralty.
Colossians 3: 1: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2:
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3: For ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
III. THIRDLY, BY THE FAITHFULNESS OF CHRIST,
HE SENT THE GOSPEL AND THE HOLY SPIRIT TO YOU WHO BELIEVE AND QUICKENED US TO
LIFE THROUGH THIS VERY TRUTH—Colossians 2: 13: And you, being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him,
We were
dead in sins. Our old man was dead and he is still dead. But Christ quickened us together with him.
Christ was formed in us. By his life within us there is now a new man within
us. One with Christ: Christ in you and you in Christ
Through
faith he revealed to us that God Colssians
2: 13: “has forgiven you all trespasses; “All—means past, present and
future. The old man is dead. The wages of sin is paid to justice by
Christ. Therefore all our sins are
forgiven
Also,
Christ reveals that the law no longer has anything to say to us—v14: Blotting out the handwriting of
ordinances [the dogma—the whole law of God--]—that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the
way, nailing it to his cross;
Christ
fulfilled the law in the room and stead of his people. So it is not established
for all who believe—for you who believe. You are not under the law.
Romans 10:4: Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believeth.
Christ
did all of this work: on the cross and within his people stealing you from yoru
captors and making you his—Colossians 2:
15: And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Now
doesn’t this hearing of faith strengthen your inner man? Doesn’t the old man appear truly dead to
you? He is before God. God says now you reckon it to be so.
IV. LASTLY, PAUL SAYS, THEREFORE LET NO MAN
BRING YOU BACK UNDER THE LAW FOR SANCTIFICATION. YOU WILL BE GROWN IN GRACE THE
SAME WAY YOU BEGIN IN GRACE—BY THE FAITHFULNESS OF JESUS CHRIST THROUGH THE
HEARING OF HIS FAITHFULNESS—Colossians 2: 16: Let no man therefore judge you in
meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the
sabbath days: 17: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of
Christ. 18: Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and
worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen,
vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,…
Do not tolerate
people trying to rule your life by ordering you to bow and scrape under the law,
do not listen to men insisting that you join their obsession with angels and
that you seek out visions. They are a lot of hot air, that’s all they are.
Colossians 2: 19: And not holding the Head,
from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and
knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
They are
completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ. He puts us together in
one piece, in his body. His very breath and blood flow through us by his Spirit
being in us. He is the Head and we are the body. We grow up healthy in God only
as he nourishes us.
The old
man is mortified one way. It is by the faithfulness of Christ who grows us through
the hearing of the faithful works of Christ.
Galatians 2: 20 I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21: I do not frustrate the grace
of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Remember,
it is the old man of flesh that would have us turn from Christ to ourselves, be
it to mortify the evil deeds of our flesh or to make our flesh more outwardly
moral. If we do so then we have ceased
to obey the Truth. So put off that old man and put on the new man by obeying
the Truth. The Truth effectually
commands us in the inner man to look to and rest in Christ alone in whom believers
are complete. (Col 3: 1-11)
Amen!