[Music] I think none of us wants to be caught foolish, right? And of course, most of the time we don't consider ourselves foolish, okay, but I believe there are some situations in our life, right, where there is even hard for us not to admit that we have been foolish, okay, so I share a few examples for myself. So for me, right, I remember the few times when I readily admit that I am foolish, okay. Once I actually forgot that I have an umbrella in my bag, you know. It was raining very heavily. I did not use my umbrella. I ran through the rain, got drenched for nothing. Then when I got home, I realized I have an umbrella in my bag. Very foolish. On in my recent trip to Japan, at underpass, I carried a heavy luggage up five flights of stairs, okay, and then to reach the ground level only to realize there's a lift, okay, that to sh use just 50 m away. Very foolish. And then of course, if you watch Korean drama, sometimes you see a character, you know.

expressing his or her affection to someone, and that someone is so clueless, so foolish not to notice when everyone else around her or him right is has already known, uh, his feelings for her. Now, it is indeed foolish for us if we do not know what we have and we do not use what we already have, what position, what privileged position we are already at, and how much we are loved. This would be foolish. Today, Paul calls the Galatians foolish for all those reasons, and if you follow the whole Epistles, you can sense his frustration, his anger, and his love from his writing. If you read the whole epistle at one setting, and hopefully from today's sermon right, we will not be as foolish as the Galatians. So let's do a very quick recap. So last week right, we heard Paul, okay, we heard Paul recounting on how he was safe, how he proved the gospel is not from human origin, and how he stood his ground on the issue of justification by faith alone first in

Jerusalem, and then also in Antioch, coming into direct conflict with Peter, and we learn how easy it is for us to fall into the trap to become a people pleaser, and we read why Paul right was so fiercely defending the justification by faith in order to preserve the gospel for us. Paul clearly shows that we are safe when we stop trusting in our own moral works to keep the law. We have to die to it, and we have to trust instead on the work of Christ. So when we truly get it right, we will have unity in church and maturity in our spirituality. We also talk about what it means to die and then to have a new life that is in Union with Christ. It comes with a new identity, and it comes with new power. And so today, Paul continues his defense of the gospel, and well, to Paul, he was compelled to write this lengthy argument, right, because after all, he thought that the Galatians are foolish. Okay, and I quote the wise words of preacher, you know, when she was preaching.

on Exodus right she mentioned this thing. She said the Bible is sometimes repetitive because it's written for sinners, okay, who needs to be reminded. Indeed, we need to be reminded all the time, and I know why I get a lot of reminders also. Anyway, it is God's word that we need to be reminded of today. And let's see what else Paul has to say from verse 1 to 14, and we ask God to speak to us through the passage today. So let's read just verse 1 to 5 for now. O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: 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. Here we see Paul calling them foolish twice, and the way Galatians have turned away from the gospel seems very illogical and senseless to Paul. Paul wondered if someone cast a spell on him. You know who has bewitched you? he asked. And behind the circumcision group and the Judaizers we read about last week, maybe Paul detected there could be the activity of the evil one, which the Lord Jesus called a liar and the father of lies. But even if there are spiritual forces behind the scenes, Paul is not going to excuse their foolishness because it is still unacceptable. They should have known better because he said, It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. This likely refers to Paul's initial preaching to them, sharing the gospel with them where he publicly proclaimed the crucifixion so clearly. It is as though they have seen it for themselves, and we know that this is always the key trust of Paul's.

preaching in 1 Corinthians chapter 2:2. For he said that I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Then Paul asked a few a series of rhetorical questions just to get them thinking just to get the Galatians thinking about their own experience before that he was talking about his own experience. Now he's forcing the Galatians to think about their own experience. How did they receive the spirit? Verse two they heard the gospel and believe okay not by obeying any law or by being circumcised. They would have known therefore have known that everybody who has heard Paul's preaching. Not everybody beli. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. Not everyone who hears it can believe. It is by the grace of God which gives them the spirit and open their eyes and give them the faith to believe in Jesus Christ. Verse three it says how have they be GED by the spirit and were being perfected in the spirit. The two verbs begun and perfected okay are similarly used in Philippians.

1:16 when Paul said, He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion against the day of Jesus Christ, the Galatians know that they began in the spirit. But they also should know that they are being sanctified by the spirit as well. Verse four, it says, Have they suffered for the gospel? They could have avoided the suffering. They could have just continued to worship the pagan idols like the rest of the Roman world through their flesh. Through their flesh, they could have converted to Judaism and obey the Jewish laws. Flesh would choose the easy way out, but they have taken the narrow path because the spirit was with them. They had the faith. They believed in what Paul has preached, and they suffered for it. And by faith, with the spirit's help, they have suffered for the gospel. And verse five says, How does God give you the spirit and work miracles among you? And we know in other parts of the Bible, wonders, signs, and wonders often accompany the work of the early church leaders.

apostles, the disciples, and here Paul appealed to them to remember how God worked miracles among them through the Spirit. And what are the answers to all these questions? It is by faith, in faith, through faith, with faith. It is never, never the works of the law. Jesus did not choose his disciples based on the works of the law. If so, he might have chosen the Pharisees. And when Jesus heals a person, he sometimes said, Your faith has healed you. So these things come together. And here Paul reminds the Galatians that the Spirit entered their lives when the gospel was proclaimed to them. And the Spirit enabled them to believe. And as they received the Holy Spirit, they were regenerated from inside out. They believed, they transferred their trust in their own works to Christ's works. Okay, they no longer want to save themselves, they want to be saved by Christ. And this is what we already confirmed last week. But beyond that, in today's text, right, Paul was trying to show them the way the Spirit enters their life is the same way the Spirit

will advance and bring completion or perfection in their life. We are not only saved by believing the gospel, we also grow as a Christian through believing, reapplying, and reaffirming the gospel. Paul is saying that we don't begin by faith and then proceed to grow purely by our own works. I say it again, the Spirit first came to regenerate us, and verse 5 tells us the Spirit keeps on being supplied through the channel of faith. The continual work of the Spirit is through hearing with faith. I'll talk more about the importance of hearing at the end, but for now, we learn that whatever God accomplishes in and through us is through faith. Okay, it's never by flesh. That's not to say there's no human hard work in sanctification, okay, but even the hard work has to be empowered by the Spirit through faith. And the book of Ephesians exhorts the believers to put on the full armor of God, and one of the pieces of armor, what do you remember what it is, it is the

sword of the spirit. It is the word of God. It's a spirit that will enable us to first believe the word of God when it is preached to us, and subsequently use the word of God like a sword to fight the spiritual battles in the Christian life. And this is what the Galatians should have done, and to pray, ask the Spirit to help them believe God's word again so that they become, they do not become foolish and believe another gospel. I quote a pastor called Dick Kofman who said that Christians think we are saved by the gospel and then grow by applying biblical principles to every area of our life. But we are not just saved by the gospel, we grow by applying the gospel to every area of our life. That means if we truly want to grow in our faith, it's not about trying harder, trying harder, that is still the work of the flesh, the work of the law, not of faith. We need to go back to hearing and believing God's word with the spirit's.

help, and then to obey it with the spirit's help. And why is the working of the spirit through the word so important? Think about it. If you think about it carefully, most of the spiritual problems that we have is that we have forgotten the gospel itself, and we have found something else besides Jesus to be our savior, something else to be our greatest desire, and we worship something else as our idols. I can ask myself this question. I think of, okay, imagine I'm addicted to social media or just, um, gaming. Why am I so addicted to it? I'm trying to save myself instead of looking to Jesus as my savior. Jesus saves me from condemnation, but I find it's not good enough. I want to be safe from other things. Maybe I'm just addicted to gaming and social media because I want to save myself from the stress of difficult assignments or projects that's ahead of me. I want to save myself from feeling like a failure because I'm not doing well at school. I want to save myself from bottom because

I don't know what to do with my life. I want to save myself from a purposeless existence because I don't know what's the purpose of doing all these things. But if you think about it, maybe if you spend if you have some um a lot of assignments ahead of you but you are so stressed you decided, Okay, I want to get away from these assignments. I'm just going to uh spend my time indulging in social media or gaming. Yes, it can take you away from the stress of thinking about your work for a while, but ultimately it's not a real savior. You still have to come back to finishing your work because it has to be done, okay? And you are not you're you're not better at doing your work after that because you have not enough sleep. So the gospel tells us we are already saved by grace, justified by faith in Christ alone, but we sometimes do not see how Jesus actually saves us from the trials and challenges daily, sometimes saves us from feeling like a failure, sometimes saves us from a

purposeless existence. Okay, so for in terms of this assignment, let's say the assignments I really hate doing it. I'm trying to get just trying to indulge in some other things to save myself from doing it. But how does Jesus save us from assignments? Okay, saves us not from having to do the assignments, but he is with us in the assignments and he's perfecting us and refining us as we do the assignment. If we can see if we by faith know that this is what he has plan for us, and we have the Holy Spirit to give us the wisdom, we know that we are precious in God's sight. And even if we fail the assignments, we don't need to feel like a failure. We have a identity as a child of God, and God has given us this Revelation in the Bible to give us wisdom to guide us, and he has given us a glorious purpose for our life on Earth. So you can see the gospel doesn't just save us from the condemnation, it saves us from everything else that comes from

the condemnation so let me give me examp give another example so let's say I have anxiety problem. I heard the gospel and I believe that Jesus Is My Savior. I'm justified by faith. So I read the Bible. Jesus always says, do not be afraid. Okay. I want to be a good Christian. I try to remember Jesus' reminder to not be afraid. So I keep telling myself, don't be afraid. Don't Be Afraid. Don't Be Afraid. Am I realizing on the flesh or am I relying on the spirit? What do you think? I'm still relying on my flesh. So I need to recognize that I can't stop help. I can't help myself from feeling afraid. I need to call on God's help. I humble myself. I pray for God to help me. I recognize that I'm unable to control this anxiety by myself. Is this relying on the spirit? Almost there. Okay. The spirit works through the word of God, helping us to overcome areas where we have not truly believed God's word. We

need to apply gospel to ourselves and recognize where we have not fully believed. To overcome my anxiety, we need to know what and repent of the root beliefs that I have that are not in line with the gospel. As mentioned last week, if you're not sure where to start, you start meditating on the concept the beauty of the justification by faith alone. So the prayer could be something like, Lord, I repent. I am anxious because I'm trying to save myself from feeling like a failure. In my flesh, I want something so badly so that I can feel secure, I can feel loved, I can be seen as right in front of others, and be right with myself. I want these things so badly to feel complete and fulfilled in my life, and I fear that I cannot get it. But by your spirit, help me to remember I'm justified by faith alone. God, you are my only Savior, and you love me. In your salvation, you have given me eternal security, and you count me as righteous because of the finished work of

Christ on the cross. And of course, as you pray, you can remember all the promises from the Bible: the hairs on our head are numbered, and God upholds us with his hand, and our names are written in his palm. All these things, it is to help us remember the gospel. Or sometimes, we are anxious because there are a lot of things outside our control. The future is uncertain, we're not sure how people react to us. So we pray, Lord, I'm anxious in my flesh because I'm trying to control things that are beyond my control. I'm trying to control people that are beyond my control. But by your spirit, help me to believe that you love me and you are sovereign in all things. Although I'm not in control, you are in control. Give me the wisdom to faithfully take control of what you think I should take control of, and the faith to surrender to you in areas you do not want me to have control. I want to fully trust in the way you are guiding me. So this is how we use

the gospel and apply it, and to remember it to use the spirit helps to remind ourselves of the Gospel so that we can overcome some of these problems. Of course, there are more things to pray for depending on the reason for your anxiety, but the key takeaway is don't be foolish like the Galatians and forget that you have the Holy Spirit with you to help you arm yourself with the sword of the spirit and remember the spirit works through the word of God, and that's why the hearing the preaching and the hearing of the word of God is so important. Ask the spirit to help you to confirm to remember and to confess the truths in the word of God so that you may be encouraged so that you can be strengthened so that you can be comforted so that you can be emboldened to do the word of God. And now Paul so this is the first blessing that we need to remember we have the Holy Spirit's help. The Second Blessing is we are

blessed along with Abraham. So Paul, having first talked about his own experience last week and then after that talk, getting the Galatians to think about reflect on their own experience. Now he takes the next step for the to convince them. After all, the Christian faith is not just about experiences. Subjective experiences preacher talk about um the subjective and objective aspects of our faith previously. So Paul now is going to point to the scriptures. Okay, the Old Testament scriptures to reiterate justification by faith at the same time it also unveils Another Blessing for us. Let's read verse 6-9: just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those of Faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture foretelling that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of Faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of Faith. Now you might be wondering, you know, is it a

wise thing for Paul to use this to convince the Galatians. You know I mentioned these Believers are mainly Gentiles, may not be so familiar of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses. But why is Paul bringing Abraham into the picture? I believe it is really to help the Galatians to tear down the arguments of the Juda and the circumcision group that we read about last week. The Jewish people were eager to follow the law of Moses and they see Abraham as their ancestors, okay, and hold him in very high regard. They need to know and they will be convinced if we can prove that Abraham was justified by faith as well. And it is also to point to the Gentiles to the authority of the scriptures. Now I say we don't need to observe the Jewish traditions and law, but that doesn't mean we can disregard the Old Testament. We still considered as divinely inspired scriptures that will help us to know God, okay. So Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. This is

a quote from Genesis 15 chapter 15: 6. So let's recall the story of Abraham. Do you remember the story of Abraham? Was he really justified, counted as righteous because of faith? Okay, so if you recall Genesis 12 onwards, we read the story of Abraham. He was called by God to leave his homeland. At the time, he was about 75 years old, quite old, childless, and he brought Lot along, his nephew, and thinking that maybe if I don't have a child, maybe this nephew can inherit my possessions. But eventually, they separated ways, and later he thought that one of his servants, Okay, I'm still old, I still don't have a child, one of my servants will become my heir and inherit my possessions. But God told him that the servant will not be his heir, his very own son will be. And then God brought him outside. In chapter 15, it says, Look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them. Okay, then he

said to him, So shall your Offspring be. And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. From here, he was not declared righteous or justified because he has done anything to deserve it, or because he has been circumcised. At this point in time in the Bible, the law has not been given, circumcision has not been commanded. It is simply by faith. In verse six, just now, just as Paul linked God's promises to Abraham to us Christians today, just as how Abraham was counted as righteous, this is how we are counted as righteous today as well, by faith. And the faith of Abraham was the same as ours, with a major difference. Abraham believed in the Christ who was to come, but we trust in the Christ who has already come. And Paul pointed out the good news of Salvation through Jesus Christ for all nations was already made to Abraham when God told Abraham in Genesis 12, In you shall all the nations be blessed.

first promise that God has given to Abraham very early in the story of Abraham. God told Abraham, In you shall all the nations be blessed. This is not an afterthought. This is not God's plan B for Gentiles to be saved. It was God's plan all along that through Abraham's descendants, there will be a kingdom, there will be a king, and through that King, all nations will be blessed. Knowing this gives us even more assurance of our salvation and we are more assured of God's unchanging love and divine wisdom. So what do we read in the Old Testament? Israel has been looking forward to this promised Kingdom and King, but they were looking for it in the Earthly Kingdom, in the Earthly King. In the Old Testament, the Israel Kings, um, Kings of Israel, they failed to obey God, their Kingdom collapsed, their land fell under foreign control, and the plot tension remains for the Jews. Is this King coming or not? Is God faithful or not? Is God going to fulfill this promise? Is this Kingdom coming? What happened is beyond their

imagination. God sent his only son, Jesus, to fulfill God's promises as the promised King from the line of Abraham. But Jesus himself said, My kingdom is not of this world, but now my kingdom is from another place. This is what stumbled most of the Jews. They were looking for an Earthly Kingdom, but Jesus himself says and Jesus is the promised King from the line of Abraham, King from the line of David, but his kingdom is from another place, and this is something that takes faith for us to believe, okay, because by flesh we are only focused on the kingdom of this Earth Kingdom that we can see, and maybe the Juda were telling the Galatians converts that, Hey, you should become sons of Abraham by circumcision, but so Paul is countering him here, Galatians, these Galatians believers, they were already the sons of Abraham, not by circumcision, but by faith. By faith, we are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. We are God's people. And who is this Abraham, you may ask? What does it mean to be his

descendants by faith in the Bible. He's someone who God chose, God called, God knew personally, God loved, God used, and God made a covenant with, just like God has blessed him and used him to bring blessings to all nations. God is also blessing us today and using us to bring blessings to all nations when we proclaim the good news, and like what Pastor is doing right now. And since faith is so important and we are talking about Abraham, let me share a few things on faith. It is something we can reflect on more in the coming weeks since we covered it at RTC yesterday. First, a few things about faith that we need to understand properly. Understand, first, faith is not a righteous work. Okay, notice that Abraham was counted as righteous. The Bible here did not say he was righteous in believing. Our human common sense tells us if we know God's word, we know he's holy, he detests sins, then we'll try to live righteously. Okay, it is important

for us to know counted as righteous means God is treating Abraham as righteous, not that he's inherently righteous. Okay, there is a righteousness that does not inherently belong to him, and this is a very important thing for us to understand because faith. We must not think that faith is a form of righteousness, okay, or faith is a form of the law. God commanded me to have faith, so I have faith. I'm actually obeying the law if we think it that think of it that way, right? It becomes a merit. Okay, and when it becomes a merit, it becomes we will start to think that God owes it to us when we have faith. It becomes faith is like a currency. You can pay, pay, pay off God. Hey, I have faith that you better do this for me. Okay, so we need to understand faith is not a righteous work. Then the second thing is faith transcends reasons. Okay, faith is not analyzing probability and assessing the situation to decide whether I want to believe God or not.

okay at that point in time for Abraham, it is improbable from all human angles, right, that Abraham will have many offspring. Okay, he was old, his wife was barren, and um, it is from human angles, it is impossible for Abraham to have many offspring, let alone say that can be numbered by the stars. Okay, especially if it's not from his nephew or his servant. Okay, but he heard God's word and he believed. So, faith is not believing in what you think you can do and what you think can happen, but believing in what God says he will do. So, that's the second thing about faith we need to understand. Okay, second thing, faith will lead to trust and obedience. And when we talk about believing in what God will do, it goes beyond the intellectual ascent. Okay, this one pastor talked about yesterday. Okay, for example, I believe God caused the sun to rise every morning. I believe Jesus is the Son of God. We may believe and agree that Jesus is real and he's the Son of God, but it is not the same

the same as having a personal faith and trust in him. Even before one becomes a Christian, he can also agree, Oh, I read all the references, uh, history books, and I think Jesus is the son of God. Yeah, I think it's slightly true, but that's not saving Faith. James chap 2: 19 says, You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe and sh are the demons are safe. So Luther, right Martin Luther, said one of the most critical elements about faith we need to understand is this thing about personal trust, fiducia, which Pastor mentioned yesterday. So I'll not elaborate too much, but I'll just want to use a story to illustrate this, what it means to be a personal trust. There's this story, right, in the 19th century. There was a great tightrope walker named Charles Blondine, okay, and he was the first man to walk on a tightrope, right, to walk across Niagara Falls, okay, and um, it was such an amazing feat, right. 25,000 people gathered to

watch you know at different places of the nagara force and he was walking um the the distance he has to walk was 330 M and the Rope was about 50 m above the the the Waters of the uh of the waterfall okay which is about 15 to 20 stories high above the Raging Waters below and and he started um he did not have any net or safety hunters and he started from the US side of the water force and he reached over to the Canada side okay just walking across the waterfall and of course when he did that everybody was so amazed they all cheered for him okay in the next few days he will continue to walk across back and forth okay and sometimes he'll bring a chair and then he'll bring a stove he'll cook an omelet and eat at the middle when he's at the midle and another time time he carried his manager on piggy back and walked across um um the waterfall and then once he carried a will barrel with 150 kg of cement

just wed it across the waterfall and the crowd thought wow this person W. nothing is impossible for him. so one day he asked his SP. his Spectators do you believe I can carry a man in the wheelbarrow and push him across the waterfall. everybody shouted yes yes of course you can. you have done so many things I believe you can. and then he pointed to one of the person. you get into the will Barrel. did the person did the person go into the wheel barrel. the person refus. and if you are there maybe someone of us will sub our take this person. okay so so so the true faith is really to put ourself in the hands of God. okay and trusting in his word and allow him to carry us over to the other side. it is one thing to believe a man can walk across by himself. it's another thing to believe that he can safely carry you across. it's entirely another thing to get into the wheelbarrow yourself. okay this is really about faith. okay it is

not enough to believe that Christ theoretically can save you until you get into the whe Barrow. Put your trust in him, you're not safe. And of course, we can say we trust TR God, but ultimately the real the real the real Li test is: do you trust God more than you trust yourself? If we have to cross to the other side, of course you say I don't to get to the other side, but the fact is we all have to get to the other side of life, okay, but do you trust yourself more or do you trust God more, okay, do you trust God to take you to the other side of Eternity on the tightrope, or you work by yourself, by your own effort. Ultimately, it is faith in God or faith in our own works. And last week, we also talked about about how true faith will surely lead to something tangible. It can be surrendering, it can be obedience, it can be good works. So the lesson for the Galatians is: do not be foolish to forget.

where you are, where you stand before God, we are already blessed as sons of Abraham. You are counted as righteous, you are blessed along with Abraham. And if we forget this, we are foolish like the Galatians. And one more thing that Paul emphasized, because the Galatians probably have forgotten, is that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law. Okay, so let's read chapter, um, chapter 3: 10-14. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them. Verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, as it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on the 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. Again, the spirit is uh this is a it's a nice summary for the whole passage because it talks about the spirit again and The Blessing of Abraham again so but when we look at this there is another important thing we need to know it is not that we are a good person then we receive a gift of the Holy Spirit and then we are also suddenly given a title as a child of God. It is we there's a blessing that we need to understand is that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law. So the four at the beginning in verse 10 okay links us back to the earlier verse it contrast with those who are of Faith are blessed along with Abraham and those who rely on the works of the law. Do you have the slide those who are on the works of the law they are cursed so there are actually two two parties here next slide is next SL so the those of Faith they are

blessed. And those who rely on the works of the law, they are cursed. So let's follow Paul's arguments here with a few s post. First, he said, Cursed be everyone who does not abide um by all things written in the book of the law. And here Paul was quoting Deuteronomy 27:26. Okay, and here he's appealing again to what the Jews should have already known. The law is meant to be obeyed, okay, so that the people of God can remain in God's covenant, can be blessed, and they have to obey it in full to remain in God's covenant. And the New Testament echoes this um James chapter 2, For whoever keeps the law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. Okay, and then it tells us because we have to obey the whole law, which okay, based on this premise, this is a curse because no one can be saved, no one is justified by the law, and we all know from our own personal experience of sinning, we know that we are not able if

we are honest with ourselves. We are not able, if you know how holy God's laws are, how holy God is, how um, the real Spirit behind his, uh, his written laws. We know that we are not able to abide by all things. But if you think about it, is God being so harsh the Israelites in the Old Testament? Are they all cursed? They are also not able to abide by all things. But do we call the Israelites cursed, or do we call them blessed? What do you think? Do we call the Israelites in the Old Testament curse or bless? Do they live under a curse every day because they God Is So holy and cannot tolerate a single transgression, and then we call them curse, you know, and every time they sin, they get excluded from the Covenant Community, and then after a while, no, no Israelites left course, everybody has left, okay, why would they not curse? So it goes to the next, next verse in Habakkuk chapter 2:4. The righteous shall live by faith, despite God's, um, demand for the

law, but God has a provision for repentance and atonement for sins. In fact, the whole existence of the Old Testament sacrificial system already tells us that God did not expect anyone to be justified by the law. If everyone can be justified by the law, then what's the point of doing sacrifice? So if you fail, you just be excluded, you just be chased off the community until there's no one left. But because God knows that they can't, so there is a sacrificial system where blood is to be shed, and then annually there's a day of atonement they need to observe. You can read Leviticus chapter 16 if you want to know about day of atonement. So God instituted in the Old Testament that animal sacrifice so that sinners can look to God by faith. They identify with this cute animal, so in a way they are transferring their sins on the animal. Okay, and then the animal is being sacrificed. In a way, the death of the animal will be counted as

the punishment for their sin, but this is not a complete solution. Of course, Hebrews chap 10:4 tells us it is impossible for the blood of the Boos and goats to take away sins. It's a temporary solution. It is just maintaining a relationship, God still maintaining that relationship, God. They can still be in the community, okay, but it is actually a way of announcing the gospel in advance to chosen people who live before the coming of Jesus. It's an act of faith that God will accept the animal sacrifice at the time when Jesus was not born yet, okay, because it was not really taking away the sin, okay, but it is a way of reminding them of the sin, but reminding and also having faith that God will accept this, although it's not the real payment of for their sin. God will accept this for the time being, okay, yes, so the next point is the next sign POS is the law is not of Faith. Yes, we are all curs if we do not obey all the law, but thankfully by faith in the Old Testament way God instituted

there's a way for atonement of sin. Okay, but verse 12, Paul mentioned the law again. He seems to be unable to get rid of the law, you know, but the law is not of Faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. And this Leviticus 18:5, and Paul again, again reminds us, no one can be justified by the law. Okay, and he said that the law is not about faith and believing. The law is not of Faith. Okay, so in both Habakkuk 2:4 and Leviticus 18:5, right there is a shall leave it somehow tells us there is something about faith and obeying the law, right, that can enable us to receive God's promise of Life. There is a way or shall leave, but we know that the way by the law is not possible for us humanly, not possible. But then there is the shall live by faith, but faith in what, since we don't have the sacrifice right now. So let us think more deeply, is there really no one who can perfectly obey the law to

receive life. And if we have to take the Road of Faith, how does it work for us in the Old Testament? The substitutionary atonement for the people to obtain forgiveness of sin is they to transfer their sin on animal to be sacrificed. So, who can be our substitute so that our by faith we can have atonement for our sins? Who the answer to these two questions Converge on one person, one single person in the whole history of mankind and in the whole universe: the Messiah, the true Lamb of God, Jesus Christ who can take away the sin of the world. Jesus perfectly obeyed the law, and Jesus' perfect obedience is important. If Jesus did not perfectly obey the law, what happened on the cross is no more significant than other Jews dying on the cross. Okay, it is because of his perfect obedience he has the righteousness, he has the life that can be transferred to us so that we can be completely fully reconciled to God, and his death on the cross is significant because that's how

the substitution will take place verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, Curse is everyone who is hanged on the 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. In John Stock's book, he has a book called The Cross of Christ. He says that Galatians chapter 3: 10-4, right, is the clearest explanation of the necessity and the meaning and the result of the Cross. This is what he said, For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of Salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man exalts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be, and God sacrifices himself for men and puts himself where only man deserves to be. So in verse 13, in this place on the cross, there's a great exchange, there's a great

substitution. In verse 13, Paul says Jesus became a curse. It's a very unusual way of saying this person became a curse. But in 2 Corinthians, Paul also says Jesus became. It sounds weird, right? How does one become a curse? Or how does one become a sin? It surely cannot mean that when Jesus is on the cross, he became sinful. He became angry, selfish. It's not the case, not what we read in the gospel. Then how did he become a sinner? And did he become cursed when he's on the cross? But no, but he obeyed the law fully. He's not cursed, but he's so. In a way, we have to understand he is counted as though he's a sinner and he's treated as though he's a curse. And why is this so important for us to realize? Because it supports and explains the things that happen to us when we believe. Jesus was treated as cursed, as sin, so that we can be counted as righteousness. It is nothing about our own righteousness. It's just a treatment.

it's just they say in theological term it's a legal status, okay, so it's a treat we are counted as righteous, not that we are, we have any righteousness in ourself. Of course, through sanctification, we can have more and more righteousness, but this is counted as righteousness, there is a substitution, there's an exchange, not only we have our curse laid on Jesus and our sins forgiven, we are receiving from his righteousness is imputed to us, we are regarded by God as though we are perfectly righteous. God sees us as though he is seeing right, uh, Jesus who has perfectly obeyed him as perfectly righteous and Flawless and the Galatians have been redeemed from the curse of having to rely on the law, but in their foolishness, Paul is saying they are beginning to rely on the law again, but they redeem from, from, from that. Why are they going back? There's a purpose for the law, and it's not to save them, and this will be covered in the subsequent, uh, passage, uh.

in the subsequent session. So this is what Galatians 3: 1-4 is really talking about. It's really Paul emphasizing again the blessings that we have that we should not forget. Um, and if we do, we are being foolish. And at the start of the sermon, I gave examples of how we can be foolish, you know, if we do not know what we have, how to use what we have, do not know where we are, where we stand, and do not know how much we are loved. And like the Galatians, it is not that we do not know all this before and what is shared every Sunday on the pit should not be something radically new. And we should not be expecting that if you have been Christian for a few years and you have been reading the Bible, you should have known all these things already. But just as Paul taught the Galatians should have known what he was saying, but it still needs to be spoken because we can be foolish. We think we already know and we

neglect the hearing. So, I want I I mention I want talk talk about hearing in the Bible. Hearing God's word is not just allowing. It's not a scientific thing allowing S waves to enter your ears, okay. Hearing means more than that, and I hope what it I hope we understand what it means to hear when we gather for God's word, okay. The most famous prayer in the Old Testament that the Jews uh still recite daily, okay, starts with the command Shima, which means here, Deuteronomy um 6 verse 4 and 5. Here, oh Israel, the Lord Is Our God, the Lord is one. As for you, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. This is the this is the command that the Jews always reminded them here, and if you follow the next few verses after the command to hear, it is followed by calling the hearers to teach the commands to the children, to talk about it as they eat, as they sit, as they walk, as they lie down, and they should put the

sign on their hand. They should put something on their between their eyes. They write it on the doorpost. The hearing must be responded with action. It is about receiving God's word, letting it sink in, and allowing it to shape your perspectives, your actions, and in fact, your whole being. If the hearing doesn't lead to all these things, we have not really heard. And we should be hearing it again. Okay, and if we do not hear it repeatedly, we will forget, we will be distracted, we'll be misled. We have returned to our old lives out of habit. So what have you heard today? We have the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are children of Abraham. And we have been redeemed from the most devastating curse for mankind. And the curse is our separation from God, our condemnation from God because of our bondage to sin, leading to our inability to perfectly obey the law. And Christ, as Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, let us also see how this Cosmic level Redemption has swallowed up all the other smaller curses, the curse of loneliness, the curse

of borom the curse of meaninglessness and all the other curse that we are desperately trying to save ourself from by our own Works. Only then we can be truly transformed. We our hearing can transform our our living. Just as we are justified by faith, we live by faith today with the power of the spirit and the word of God so that we are no longer cursed. We are blessed. In fact, the weight of our Salvation does not really just Crush all the curses that we think we have. It ought to surpass all the joys that we have in this world. Just want to share a passage from Luke 10. Okay, in Luke chapter 10, right, we see Jesus sending out the 72 deciples, um, two by two ahead of him to the villages to heal the sick in the Villages and to Proclaim The Nearness of God's kingdom. They had great successes, you know. They came back to Jesus so excited, hey, wow, they with much joy, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. It is a joy.

indeed, it is a joy to have power, to have success in Ministry. But Jesus acknowledged that success, but he said something that's worth thinking about. He said, Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this. These people were rejoicing after they have done God's work, experienced God's power, so excitedly going back to Jesus. And Jesus said, Do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you. What a wonderful thing, the evil spirits are subject to you. But Jesus said, Do not rejoice in this, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. What does that tell us? The joy of our Salvation is not just greater than Earthly and temporal Joys, though we can have true Joy from serving our Lord, we can have joy from bearing fruit and experiencing God's help. Jesus calls us not to be satisfied in this or put our hopes in it. Even though we may encounter failures in our life and Ministries, maybe we bear very little fruit, and sometimes we feel defeated. I'm trying to serve God, but I still feel very defeated.

I'm not seeing success. Jesus tells us there is still a reason to rejoice because your faithful labor is the proof of your salvation. There's a joy, there's a reason to rejoice ultimately when we remember how we are justified by faith, not by works of the law. There's a joy and power of salvation that can never be taken away from us. Of course, this joy and power will have its full expression in the new Heaven and new earth when we receive our new bodies. But, brothers and sisters, I want to emphasize again, this power and joy can be experienced today when we live by faith. Of course, Christianity is not just about believing in Jesus and go to heaven later. As we set our minds on eternal things, on things above, on justification by faith alone that leads to assurance of our salvation, we can experience the joy and the power of God through the spirit even today, this moment, in the hearing of his word. So that we have the power, we have the strength to glorify his name through our lives. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for giving us Jesus, the perfect, the unblemished Lamb of God, to be the sacrifice for our sins, so that we may be declared righteous. Lord, we know that we deserve, we do not deserve all this, and we acknowledge that this is solely from your grace. Lord, we also thank you that you did not leave us to our own sanctification after you have just justified us. Lord, we pray for the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to be itive and lively in everyone here today as they hear your word again and again. And Lord, you give them the faith to live by the power of your spirit and trusting in your promises. Lord, lastly, we want to thank you for the joy and the blessings that you have given in our lives. As you have reminded us today, Lord, help us to rejoice more in the promise that our names are written in heaven. We give you all the praise and glory. We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Choose Faith, Not Foolishness (Galatians 3:1-14)

Choose Faith, Not Foolishness (Galatians 3:1-14)