Then, Galatians chapter number 3, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads,
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?
This only would I learn of you, receive ye the Spirit by the works of the law,
or by the hearing of faith.
Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit?
Are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Now, in Galatians chapter 3, Paul continues to rebuke the Galatians,
and he uses some strong words here, because right away, in verse number 1, he says,
O foolish Galatians.
Then in verse 3, he says, Are ye so foolish?
Now, what strikes me as funny about this is that in today's world,
any time you say that something is stupid or wrong and idiotic,
people get really upset.
And I've even heard people say this, Well, Jesus would never call names.
Or, you know, Jesus would have never said that anybody was stupid or anything like that.
But what does the Bible say?
You know, if we actually study the preaching of Jesus Christ,
he calls people serpents and vipers, you know, when they deserved it,
when they needed to be called.
And here, Paul is saying, You're being stupid right now.
He's talking to people that he'd spent time with, he'd been preaching to them.
He's saying, How can you be this foolish?
How can you be so stupid?
You know, when you've seen all the scripture, you've heard the preaching,
what's the deal?
What's the problem here?
So it's just that we have this really soft society where people are just really
thin-skinned, and, you know, they don't understand that sticks and
stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.
So they're just like, I'm telling, you know, you said that I was foolish.
You know, this Barney and Friends type mentality.
It's not biblical.
You know, the Bible sometimes has a hard edge to it.
And some people just need to get a little tougher and not be so soft and watered
down where it just freaks them out when somebody calls them foolish or whatever.
But the Bible says, You're a foolish Galatians who have bewitched you that you
should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set
forth crucified among you.
Now, this is an interesting verse because Jesus Christ was not literally crucified
amongst the Galatians.
Okay.
Jesus Christ was, of course, crucified outside of Jerusalem.
And he's speaking to people that are in a foreign country.
Okay.
And the churches of Galatia are nowhere near Jerusalem.
But he says to them that before their eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth
crucified among you.
He's not talking about their literal eyesight.
These people were not literally present at the crucifixion of Christ.
But through the preaching of God's word with their mind's eye they saw Jesus Christ
crucified.
That's why it says in verse number two, This only would I learn of you received
ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith.
Are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit or are you now made perfect by the
flesh?
Okay.
Their faith was based on hearing the word of God.
The Bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Now if you go over to Hebrews chapter 11, which is the faith chapter of the New Testament,
you'll notice that in the faith chapter the thing that keeps coming up over and over again
is sight, seeing, okay?
And the Bible says we walk by faith, not by sight, talking about literal sight.
And it says in verse one of chapter 11 of Hebrews, Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
And then it says in verse three, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed
by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
And as we go down through this, seeing or sight are mentioned in almost every scriptural
example here from the Old Testament.
But just a few highlights, Moses of course, the Bible says if you jump down to verse number
27, By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing
him who is invisible.
How did Moses see the invisible?
Through the eyes of faith is what this is referring to.
He heard the word of God, he believed it, and he saw it not with literal eyesight but
with the eyes of faith.
See, literal sight is the opposite of faith.
That's why the Bible says we walk by faith, not by sight.
And faith is the evidence of things not seen.
And that's why the Galatians were told that Christ had been evidently set forth, crucified
among them.
Now the reason why he's bringing this up is because look at the last verse of Galatians
2.
And he continues on this same thought, it says, I do not frustrate the grace of God,
for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
What he's saying to them is, how foolish can you be, I came and preached to you all about
Jesus Christ being crucified.
That's what the whole power of the Gospel is, the cross of Christ, his death, burial,
and resurrection.
And so what he's saying is, what would even be the point of Jesus even dying on the cross
if you could just be saved by keeping the law?
He says, if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
What would even be the point for his death?
Who has bewitched you into believing this stuff?
Verse 2, this only would I learn of you received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or
by the hearing of faith?
Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?
Now what verse 3 reminds me of is when you run into people who will say, well, it starts
with faith.
You know, when you talk to them about salvation, you tell them salvation by faith alone.
They say, well, it starts with faith, but then you have to do the works.
You know, faith kind of gets you in the door, but then you have to be baptized, then you
have to go to church, then you have to clean up your life.
But the Bible is saying, no, no, you don't start with faith and then you're made perfect
by the flesh.
No, faith makes you perfect in the sense of fully saved, complete in him, et cetera.
That's what this is saying here.
He says in verse 4, have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain?
Be 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?
Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
So look, the apostles came and they preached the word of God, and as Paul said when he
went to the Corinthians, I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ
and him crucified.
That was always the emphasis of the preaching.
That was the emphasis of the message when they went to the lost.
And so he's saying, you know, it's not about the works of the law, they didn't come preaching
a message of the works of the law, they came preaching a message of salvation by faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So this chapter is probably the most powerful chapter on the subject of we as Christians
being the chosen people, we're the children of Abraham, etc.
Now the Bible is real clear in this chapter.
I don't see how anybody could read this chapter and walk away saying, well I still think that
the Christ rejecting Jews are God's chosen people, you know, and we're just Gentile dogs
or this, you know, nonsense where they, you know, the Bible says as a thorn goeth up into
the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.
You know, people mix up, Jesus uses a parable about dogs eating crumbs which fall from the
rich man's table and then they just translate that to every non-Jew is a dog, okay.
We're all dogs according to these dispensationalists because they are using a parable in the mouth
of fools because they don't understand that a parable is an illustration, it's not literal,
okay.
And they don't understand what Jesus was even trying to say with that illustration.
This chapter, I don't see how anybody who's saved could read this and not understand it
when it's as plain as the nose on your face.
It says right here in verse 7, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are
the children of Abraham, period, full stop.
If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a child of Abraham, okay, then if you
jump down to verse 9 it says, so then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful
Abraham.
I'd love to talk about that Abrahamic blessing, that Abrahamic covenant, but if we're of faith,
we're part of it, we're included.
See the Bible says in verse 16, now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
He saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ.
So when the promises were made to Abraham, they weren't made to Abraham and his seeds,
meaning physical descendants, but rather to his seed which is Christ.
Now jump down to verse 28, it says, there is neither Jew nor Greek, hello, there is
neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you're all one in Christ
Jesus and if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise.
When the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed, the seed is Christ's and if you're
Christ's, you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
See this is how the inheritance goes, Abraham begat Jesus, Jesus begat all of us.
We're in that direct lineage of Abraham, we're the sons of Abraham through Jesus because
we're the sons of God, we're the sons of Jesus Christ by faith.
It's so clear, look at verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
And here's what people will answer to this, they'll say, oh, well, yeah, of course, you
know, we're blessed with Abraham and we, you know, we receive the promises of Abraham,
but that's just only the spiritual blessing, the spiritual promises, salvation and so forth.
You know, when it comes to that physical land, you know, but here's the thing.
How carnal are these people that they're even so worried about a stupid piece of physical
land?
You know, it just shows how carnal their mind is, where that's what they're thinking about.
They want to see a bunch of physical troops marching with machine guns, and they want
to see planes dropping bombs, and they want to see physical earth, and they want to see
a physical temple built, and they want to see a bunch of people with funny hats that
they can point to and say these are the people of God.
Why?
Because they don't have faith, they're carnal.
So they think it's all just this temporal, what we can see.
No, it's a spiritual blessing that even matters.
Okay, that's all that matters, friend.
And here's the thing, just to prove to you that the exact covenant that they're talking
about is referring to the Gentiles in all ways, okay, look if you would at Genesis chapter
12, which is the source of the promise made to Abraham.
We're going to look at it, I mean, I mean, just think about how silly it is for these
people to get so excited about a bunch of troops, and land, and wars, and bombs, and
they get all excited when they pick up the newspaper, and Israel is kicking those Muslims
butts or whatever, and they get all excited about it.
You know, that's so carnal when we realize that this world is going to pass away, and
we realize that Jerusalem that now is is in bondage with their children, and that we seek
heavenly Jerusalem.
We seek the new Jerusalem.
Look, if Jerusalem is such a wonderful city, then why is God going to bring a new one down
from out of heaven?
Can you explain that to me?
Okay, so look what the Bible says in Genesis chapter number 12.
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee
a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, watch this, and
in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Now listen, that's all in one breath.
There's no gap there.
One breath.
He says, I'll bless them that bless thee, curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall
all families of the earth be blessed.
Okay?
Now go to Genesis 22, just a few pages to the right in your Bible, where the promise
is reiterated unto Abraham.
And you'll see the same thing.
It says in verse 17 of chapter 22, it says that in blessing I will bless thee, and in
multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, of the heaven, and as the
sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.
So he says it two different ways, basically he's saying the same thing.
He said in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
And then he said in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed.
He didn't say in thee one nation shall be blessed.
One nation, the nation of Israel.
No, he said in thee shall all nations be blessed.
How are all nations blessed?
I've heard these Israel worshiping preachers, these Zionist dispensationalist types, I've
literally heard them interpret it this way.
They said, well the reason why all nations would be blessed, because God will bless those
that bless Israel.
So all nations could be blessed, because if the United States blesses Israel, they'll
be blessed.
So it's all about being an ally of Christ rejecting Israel for these people.
But what does the Bible say?
Look at Galatians 3.
Look if you want a commentary on the book of Genesis, I got a commentary for you, Galatians
3.
See the New Testament is the commentary on the Old Testament.
The New Testament interprets the Old Testament.
So we don't need a commentary.
This is the commentary.
Put Schofield away.
Put Matthew Henry aside.
Put Spurgeon on the shelf where he belongs.
But the Bible says here in Galatians 3, about this exact passage, verse 7, know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
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.
So what did God mean when he said, in thee shall all nations be blessed?
The Bible says that he foresaw that God would justify the heathen through faith.
So when he foresaw that God would justify the heathen through faith, heathen is another
word for the Gentiles, the nations, he said, in thee shall all nations be blessed.
So we're all blessed through Jesus, not through the physical state of Israel, the so called,
you know, political Zionist state of Israel.
That's not where the blessing comes, they have not been a blessing unto the world.
They've not been a blessing unto me, they've not been a blessing unto you, okay?
The blessing is Jesus.
And by the way, the Jews throughout history have not been a blessing to the nations where
they lived.
They've brought the curse of God upon every nation that they've ever lived in, okay?
Just like in the United States where they run Hollywood, where they run the pornography
industry, right?
Where they run the banking system, the fractional reserve lending system, that's not a blessing.
Those things are all things that have brought a curse upon us.
But you know who has really blessed me?
Jesus.
Amen.
You know who is a blessing to you if you're saved?
Jesus.
You know who has blessed all nations of the world?
Jesus.
Why?
Because the heathen of every nation in the world have been justified through faith in
Jesus.
See, this is sound doctrine.
This is what any normal person just reads the Bible and walks away saying, you know
what?
Isn't it great that all nations are blessed through Abraham since Abraham gave us Jesus
through his loins?
Isn't it great that we can be justified by faith and be the sons of Abraham and that
Abraham is our father because we're all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus and
we have the same faith that Abraham had?
But no, no, this gets perverted and twisted into this thing of where, you know what, God
is blessing this physical.
Don't let it bother you that they all hate Jesus over there, 90 some percent of them.
Don't let it bother you that they reject the Lord Jesus.
Oh, God's still blessing them.
Well, you have to ask why.
Why are they blessed?
Are they justified by faith?
No.
So why are they blessed?
Oh, their ethnicity blesses them.
That's insane.
I mean, how could you be blessed by your ethnicity?
It's racist to sit there and say, oh, just by virtue.
And look, even in the Old Testament when that nation was the chosen nation in the Old
Testament, it still wasn't an ethnic thing.
You could be an Ethiopian and join the nation and you're just as blessed.
And people will say, oh, well, what tribe?
The Bible says whatever tribe you sojourn among, you're part of that tribe.
That's what it says in Ezekiel chapter 47.
Whatever tribe, the stranger sojourns, all the males are circumcised, they keep the Passover,
they join the nation.
Hey, if you're living in Reuben, you're of the tribe of Reuben.
You're living in Judah, you're of the tribe of Judah.
So this thing of, well, what tribe are you of?
They're a tribe of whatever place they live.
It's never been ethnic with God.
God's never been a respecter of persons where he looks at your DNA and your pedigree and
thinks that you're better than someone else or lesser than someone else.
That's just a lie.
It's a fraud.
And the New Testament specifically tells to avoid genealogies.
So if we're to avoid genealogies, that should be case closed.
It doesn't matter who your daddy is if it's avoiding genealogies.
And here's what's so dumb.
These people who want to say, oh, those people over there, they're the physical descendants
of Abraham.
I mean, Jesus, or I'm sorry, John the Baptist said, think not to say within yourselves we
have Abraham to our father.
So no Christ-rejecting Jew can ever say Abraham's my father.
Think not to say we have Abraham to our father.
And Jesus told the Pharisees, he said, if Abraham were your father, you'd do the works
of Abraham, if you're the children of Abraham.
He said, you're of your father, the devil.
Oh, but we're ethnically descended.
Meaningless.
Well, it has a little meaning.
No, zero meaning.
And it's funny how when you start showing people the scriptures, they can't refute this
stuff.
I mean, unless they're just unsaved and just want to ignore everything the Bible says.
And look, most people are wrong on this just because they haven't been shown and because
they've been brainwashed the other way.
But when you show this to a saved person, usually they don't have any trouble seeing
this because it's real clear.
So many.
And Galatians 3 is just one of them.
A lot of scriptures.
Romans 2 is another one.
John chapter 8, you know, Philippians 3, all different scriptures.
But Romans 9 through 11.
But the thing about it is, though, when you show this to people, they have no trouble
seeing it because it's as plain as the nose on our face.
But this is what I'll often hear people say, though.
They'll say, well, but I still think that there's just something small for the physical
Jews.
Like, I still think God's not done with them.
I still think there's something.
You know?
Because you show them and you can always, it seems like it's real easy to get people
to like 90% on this subject.
You can take them from zero to 90.
I mean, they're like a good sports car.
You know, you can take them from zero to 90 in seconds, okay?
But getting them all the way to where they just realize that being Jew or Gentile is
meaningless in the sight of God, it's hard to get them that final step.
They're sort of like, they remind me of Esau, crying and saying, isn't there just one more
blessing for me, my father?
No.
There's nothing for you without Christ.
Without Christ, you're without hope.
You're without God in the world.
You have nothing.
If you don't have Jesus, you have nothing.
Everything is Jesus.
The physical nation is nothing.
And without Christ, he says, think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to
our father.
For I say unto you that God has abled these stones to raise up children of Abraham.
I mean, a rock over in Israel, if you just pick up a rock over there, that's just as
much the chosen people as one of these Christ-rejecting Jews.
And you say, well, you hate Jews.
No, I don't hate Jews.
I want them to be saved.
But you know what?
They'll be saved if you keep telling them that they're the chosen people because they
think, oh, well, why thank you.
Look, you know what stops people from getting saved?
Pride.
Yeah.
So why are you fueling their racial pride instead of explaining to them the truth that,
hey, you guys are nobody special.
We're all the same, you know, red and yellow, black and white.
We're all created by God.
We're all related.
All of us have been intermingled anyway over the centuries and over the millennia that
really genealogy is meaningless.
Avoid it.
And we see the Jews today not avoiding genealogies.
We see them embracing genealogy.
But here's what's amazing, too, and a lot of people don't know this, is that the Jews
today, their genealogy is not father to son, father to son.
Oh, no.
It's matrilineal, meaning that to them to be a Jew, it's is your mother a Jew, not is
your father.
Now, in the Bible, it's the opposite, isn't it?
In the Bible, it's always your father.
You know, who your mother is is irrelevant in the genealogies.
It's always just, you know, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judas'
brother, and Jews begat Pharaohs and Sarah of Tamar, Pharaohs begat Ezra, Ezra begat
Eram, you know, it's always just the men, right?
But with the Jews, it's the opposite.
It's the, why?
Because they're an evil and adulterous generation and here's what they say, well, we don't really
know who the father is.
That's what they'll do.
We asked the rabbis, why is it matrilineal?
They all told us.
They said, well, it's because, you know, you could lie about who your dad is, but we all
know who the mom is because, you know, that's who, but you know what?
That's just kind of a wicked philosophy right there.
You know, we should, we should assume that people are going to get married and be monogamous
and have children together, not just, well, there's so much adultery, let's just do the
opposite of what the Bible says, just to cover ourselves, just to make sure they've really
got the blood.
But here's the thing, the only blood that matters is the blood of Jesus, but they want
to make sure that they got that Jewish blood in them.
You know, well, we don't know who the father is, but here's the thing, even if it's not
the biological father, that's not the issue because it's not about biology.
You know, in the Old Testament, it was about who your father is in the sense of who raised
you, you know, whose house you're growing up and inheriting in and so forth.
And you know, shame on those who would commit adultery, of course, but, you know, just to
just assume adultery on a national scale says something about the people that we're
dealing with.
And you say, well, how dare you say that?
Well, how dare Jesus say that an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.
How dare Jesus look at Israel in his day and say, this is an adulterous generation.
That's what he said.
And yet when someone like me gets up and just preaches what the Bible says, that you guys
are adulterous as Israelites, you know, and the Bible says that we're all one in Christ
Jesus and there is no Jew or Gentile and people will have the gall to call me anti-Semitic,
which is some kind of a way of saying that I'm a racist or something.
So look how everything's backwards.
Our world has got us so brainwashed.
We call good evil and evil good and we put sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet and
light for dark and dark for light.
Look, so the guy who gets up and says we're all equal is a racist.
And the people who say, the people who say, well, the Jews have a right to that land because
of their ethnicity and these other races need to be thrown out.
Okay.
They're not racist.
Whoa.
And here's the thing.
And here's the thing too.
If you say that the Jews are racist, that makes you racist.
What in the world?
And here's the Jews are a bunch of white people, blonde hair, blue eyes.
But I'm supposedly racist against them.
You know, at least accuse me of being racist against somebody who looks different than
me.
You know what I mean?
If you're going to lie about me, don't just tell meaningless, crazy lies.
But anyway, I don't want to spend the whole night on that.
It's tempting because there's so much scripture and it's, it's such a good subject, but I
don't want to spend all night on that.
But look, I, you know, I challenge anybody come up to me after the service and tell me
where I'm wrong because I can't even see where these people are coming from.
It's all just such a fraud.
Okay.
And, and this whole idea that, that our nation is going to be blessed by God if we support
this Christ rejecting, sodomite embracing nation in the Middle East, that's so-called
Israel.
I mean, it's, it's mind boggling.
And the people who post to Facebook pictures of Israeli soldiers praying to God, shame
on them because they're not praying to the God of the Bible because he that deny at the
sun, the same hath not the father either acknowledge that the sun had the father also.
And people will sometimes say, well, why are you so hard on the Jews?
Why don't you, why don't you get on somebody else for a while?
But here's the thing.
I've already been on everybody else.
Where have you been for the last 10 years?
This is my current kick right now, buddy.
But you know what?
I've been on plenty of other cakes and here's the thing they say, oh, you give Islam a pass.
I preach whole sermons against Islam and listen, Islam is just as wicked.
It's every bit as wicked.
But the reason that you have to spend more time preaching against Judaism is because
everybody already knows that Islam is wicked.
If we took a poll amongst Christians, 99% would say Islam is a wicked religion.
But so why would I spend time preaching stuff that everybody already knows?
You know, because people would get bored if I just keep preaching stuff that everybody
already knows.
So what I'm trying to do is take my sermon is like a greasy wrench to fix a problem.
That's the whole point of preaching is to fix things.
And if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
So I don't want to just spend my time up here beating a drum on something that everybody
understands.
This is a subject where 90 some percent of Christians get it wrong, where people are
mixed up.
So that's why we need to come in and fix it and try to try to get the truth out there.
But again, I need to move on because there's other great things in this passage.
Now remember we talked about how in the book of Galatians, there are certain themes because
there are certain problems that this church had.
And the whole book is kind of an angry rebuke against these false doctrines that had crept
in to the churches of Galatia.
It has a very serious tone, very, he's using strong language.
He's saying, you've been bewitched, you've been beguiled.
You're foolish and going on.
And I mean, at the end of the book, he's just like the last thing from henceforth, let no
man trouble me.
I bear in my body the marks of the Lord.
He's just like, look, you don't like it tough at the end of the book.
So it's a very much a rebuke book.
And the three things he rebukes in chapter one are the three things that he rebukes throughout
the book.
And if you remember what those three things are, number one is he rebukes salvation by
works.
That's why he keeps bringing up over and over again, hey, it's not the works of the law,
it's the hearing of faith.
And then number two, he rebukes the Judaizing, the exaltation of being Jewish and the segregation
of Jew and Gentile and this Judaizing effect, trying to bring them back to observance of
the ceremonial mosaic laws.
And then the third thing he's constantly rebuking is the trying to please man instead of pleasing
God.
And those are the three things that come up over and over again.
So in this chapter, he hammers on the fact that salvation is by faith.
He says in verse number eight, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham.
What's the gospel?
The good news, right?
Gospel means good news.
Saying in the East shall all nations be blessed.
So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.
Now let's stop right there and explain this, okay?
He's talking about two types of people.
Those who are of faith and those who are of the works of the law, okay?
Those are the two types of people.
He says the people that are of faith are the children of Abraham.
The people that are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
They that are of faith are the children of God, okay?
Those that are of the works of the law, he says are under the curse.
So what does he mean by of faith or of the works of the law?
He's basically talking about where you derive salvation.
There are those who believe that salvation is by faith, saved by faith, and then there
are those who think that salvation is by the works of the law.
They're of the works of the law.
Now he says they're under a curse.
Now why is that?
The Bible says right here in verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are
under the curse.
For it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them, but that no man is justified by the law on the side
of God.
It is evident, for the just shall live by faith.
And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is
written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.
Now what does he mean by the fact that those that are of the works of the law are under
the curse?
The curse is that cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them.
Here's what he's saying.
If you believe that your salvation comes from the works of the law, then he's saying you'd
have to keep the whole law perfectly to be saved.
Because there's a curse on anyone who doesn't keep the whole thing.
So he's saying well okay if you want to be saved by the law, you've got to follow the
law to the letter.
And of course James 2 10 says that whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in
one point, he's guilty of all.
Not only that, but flip over to chapter 5.
It says verse 2 of chapter 5, behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you're fallen
from grace.
So he's saying you're a debtor to do the whole law, you can't just pick one thing, oh circumcision
is part of salvation.
He's saying no, no, no, if you're going to include circumcision and salvation, include
the whole law.
Because it's either all faith with none of the works of the law, or else it's all law,
and you better get it perfect, and guess what, we've all sinned and come short of the glory
of God.
It's none righteous, no not one.
So everyone would be doomed going that route of the works of the law.
Now this is really interesting when you look up this quote that he refers to in Deuteronomy
27, keep your finger there in Galatians 3.
And listen, one of the best tips, if you really want to understand the New Testament and understand
the Bible, one of the best tips I could give people is when there's a quote in the New
Testament where he says, as it is written, it's always good to go back to that quote
and read it in the Old Testament and then put the two together.
See the Bible says we compare spiritual things with spiritual.
So if Galatians 3 says that anyone who's of the works of the law is under the curse, for
it is written, and then he gives a quote, let's look at that quote and compare it with
Galatians 3.
Because it's a very interesting quote.
Look at Deuteronomy 27 is where this quote comes from.
The closest thing you'll find to that wording is in Deuteronomy 27 verse 26 and it says
this, cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them and all the
people shall say amen.
So there's the curse there that puts a curse on everyone who won't do all the works of
the law, who won't confirm all the words of the law and do them and all the people shall
say amen.
You say, well why is this significant?
Why is this interesting?
It's very significant and here's why.
Because a lot of people misunderstand the term works.
So when we say salvation is not by works, here's what people have in their mind.
That what we're saying is that salvation is not by doing good deeds.
That's true.
That's included in works.
But there's another aspect of works that a lot of people do not understand and that is
the aspect of not doing things that God tells us not to do.
That is also works according to the Bible and I'm going to prove that to you.
So we have two kinds of works that the New Testament talks about.
I'm going to prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt.
There's two kinds of works.
Number one is what the Bible calls good works.
Good works is going out and doing good things, doing good deeds.
You're giving to the poor, you're preaching the gospel, you're raising up godly children,
you're going to church and encouraging people, whatever good deeds you're doing.
That's called in the Bible good works and the Bible will use the term good works.
The Bible says, for example, in Ephesians 2 10, for we are his workmanship created in
Christ Jesus unto good works which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.
So we've got works but here's another kind of works that the Bible talks about, the works
of the law.
The works of the law is obeying the laws of God, okay?
So we've got doing good deeds but then we've also got not doing things that we're not supposed
to do.
For example, not stealing, not killing, not committing adultery, not coveting.
Now a lot of people say, wait a minute, that's not works.
You're not doing anything.
Okay, but who defines works, us or God?
I'm going to prove to you from the Bible that that is works.
When you obey God's commandments, that is considered works because we have tons of people
out there that will say this, well, salvation's not by works.
You don't have to do anything to earn salvation but you do have to stop doing some things.
Isn't that what they say?
You got to stop doing some things.
You got to turn from your sins and, you know, that's the works of the law.
If you're going to tell people, well, you have to start following the law.
You have to start, you know, obeying the law in order to be saved or be willing to obey
the law.
No, no, no.
It has nothing to do with the law.
It's the hearing of faith.
It's faith in Jesus.
Now let me prove it to you.
Look at Galatians 3 carefully, okay?
It says in verse number 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the
curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueeth not in all things which are
written in the book of the law to do them.
Okay, so the people who are of the works of the law are under that particular curse.
Go back to Deuteronomy 27, look at that curse.
Let's get it in the context, okay?
Let's back up to verse 14.
And I want you to tell me as we go through these, is God telling you to do something
or is God telling you not to do something, okay?
Positive or negative?
A positive command would be open the door, okay?
A negative command would be don't open the door, okay?
So tell me are these positive or negative.
Verse 14, and the Levites shall speak and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud
voice, cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord,
the work of the hands of the craftsmen, and puteth it in a secret place, and all the people
shall answer and say, Amen.
Is that telling you a positive or a negative command?
Negative, don't do it.
Okay, cursed be he that seteth light by his father or his mother, and all the people shall
say, Amen.
That's negative, it's telling you don't do that.
Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark, and all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way, and all the people shall say,
Amen.
Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless and widow, and
all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife, because he uncovered his father's skirt,
and all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast, and all the people shall say, Amen.
On and on down the list, every single commandment in this passage here is negative, all of them.
And it's ending with cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them,
and all the people shall say, Amen.
So if we get that verse in context, the works of the law that he's specifically referring
to is not doing bad things.
It's not about telling us to do good things.
It's about telling us not to do bad things.
So according to that, not doing these things that he tells you, he lists all these things.
Don't do these things.
If you don't do those, you're performing the works of the law, according to Galatians 3.
When you don't steal, when you don't kill, when you don't commit adultery, you are performing
the works of the law, and it shall not justify you in the sight of God.
Now one of the big false teachers of this, and I'm going to bring this up because of
something else that comes later in Galatians 3, one of the biggest false teachers of this
is Ray Comfort.
And look, people say sometimes, you know, why are you going after Ray Comfort?
If he were a brother in Christ, I wouldn't be going after him.
He is a lying, unsaved false teacher, because he teaches salvation by works.
Now he's one of these that says, well, you don't have to do the deeds of the law, but
you got to stop sinning.
You have to turn from sin.
Repent of sin.
Okay, I can't do his little New Zealand, I can't do his New Zealand gimmick accent, but
you know, you got to repent, repent, repent.
You have to turn from sin, turn from sin.
So when are you going to turn from your sins?
So when are you going to repent of your sins?
That's what he does on soul winning.
He finds the weirdest freaks that he can find and tells them, so when are you going to turn
from your sins?
You know, he makes all these videos and everything.
But this guy, he deceives a lot of people.
He just made this movie now about the homos, it's just the most watered down, just, oh,
we love you so much, and let's just, I mean, look, how can anybody sit through that movie?
Who wants to look at a bunch of fags for an hour or however long that movie is?
The movie is filled with fags, like they're just talking to all these fags, oh, we love
you so much.
I don't.
Sorry, I don't love perverts, I don't love pedophiles, okay?
The Bible says they shall be stoned with stones.
But anyway, aside from that, this guy is a lying false prophet.
He's not just wrong on homosexuality, where he just wants to be their buddy and their
friend and love on these people and, you know, sodomize our eyeballs for an hour of looking
at these freaks, okay?
Who wants to look at that garbage?
You know, it's a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
Who wants to sit and talk to them and look at them?
But, oh, audacity is the name of the movie.
Love can't stay silent.
Well, you know what, hate can't stay silent either, buddy.
I'm being pretty loud right now.
But this guy is a lying false teacher who teaches that to be saved, you have to turn
from your sins.
It's not enough to believe in Christ, and he'll flat out say, oh, well, most people
believe in Jesus, but, you know, have they repented of their sin, though?
It's not enough to believe in Jesus, according to this guy.
Faith's not enough.
You've got to repent of your sins.
Well, here's one of his things that has crept in, though, even amongst Bible-believing Christians
who believe that salvation is by faith alone.
People who do not believe in this repent of your sins type salvation where it's all about
turning over a new leaf like a 12-step program, okay, even amongst people who have salvation
right, though, some of his methods have crept in, this method of like using the Ten Commandments
to get people saved.
Who's been exposed to this?
Yeah, look at hands all over the building because of the fact that it's become so popular
the way of the master, and he claims that we're supposed to use the Ten Commandments
to get people saved.
That's what's going to get them saved.
And when you look at these people's method of preaching the gospel, there's very little
gospel.
They'll literally spend like 10 minutes just telling the person how sinful they are, showing
them the law, showing them the commandments.
So it's all works of the law.
It's all commandments.
And then they literally will bring up the fact that Jesus died on the cross almost like
an afterthought, like because they have to.
Oh, yeah, and by the way, Jesus died on the cross and buried and rose again.
But you've got to turn from your sin, right, that we've been talking about for the last
10 minutes.
So they don't emphasize Jesus or the gospel.
They emphasize turning from sin.
That's the emphasis.
And so I've even been in a lot of independent fundamental Baptist churches, though, where
we'll go out soul winning and people are going through the whole Ten Commandments with people.
And here's their justification.
And this is what Ray Comfort teaches.
He teaches, well, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
And they say because the law is the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, this is how we bring
people to Christ, through the law.
The law is going to bring people to Christ.
So they go out preaching the law, right, and then they just kind of a little sprinkle
on top of a little bit about Jesus and the gospel.
But it's like all law.
And they claim like, you know, it's the law that's our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
That's a verse from this passage, and I'm going to show you how they're completely twisting
the meaning of that.
Okay.
No, you know what brings people to Christ?
The gospel.
The Bible says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
And the gospel is defined as the fact that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures
and that he was buried and that three days later he rose again according to the scriptures.
That's the gospel.
Amen.
The good news that Jesus paid it all, that Jesus is our savior, he died, he was buried
and rose again.
But Jewish false teacher Ray Comfort teaches that the law is our schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ.
That means when we go soul winning, we preach the law instead of preaching the gospel of
Jesus Christ as our primary focus.
And you can say whatever you want.
Watch these people.
They spend 90 percent of the time talking about how they're a sinner and need to turn
from sin and about their sins.
That's why he makes a whole movie about homos, because it's all about their sin and the sin
and turn from the sin and the sin and the sin and the sin, okay?
When really it's supposed to be about Jesus, the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection,
the hearing of faith, faith, eternal life, you know, should be the emphasis.
Look at what the Bible actually says.
The Bible says this in verse number 22, but the scripture hath concluded all under sin,
everybody's a sinner, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe.
But before faith came, we were kept under the law.
Shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Therefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified
by faith, but after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
You know what this is talking about?
This is talking about the Old Testament.
They were under the schoolmaster.
And that in the New Testament, we're no longer under the schoolmaster.
This isn't saying, oh, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
That's how people get saved, by preaching law to them.
That's not what the Bible.
Why did Paul then say, well, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ and him crucified.
Why didn't he walk in preaching law, law, law, hey, let's go through the whole Ten Commandments
and show you what a filthy wretch you are.
Is that what the Bible says?
No.
And this verse is being taken grossly out of context.
And I can see how people would get this wrong if you take it out of context.
If you just take the verse by itself, all by itself, where it says in verse 24, wherefore
the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by
faith.
If you just read only that, I could see how you could think that.
Except that that's taking the verse out of context.
Because back up, he said that in verse number 21, is the law then against the promises of
God?
God forbid.
For if there had been a law which could have given life, verily righteousness should have
been by the law.
But the scripture has concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe.
But before faith came, we were kept under the law.
Shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Look, Christ had not been revealed in the Old Testament.
They were under the law in the Old Testament.
The Bible says the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
So we're talking Old Testament under the law, under the schoolmaster.
New Testament under grace, okay?
No longer under the schoolmaster.
Faith in Christ.
See, what did the law serve?
To show man his sinful condition.
So people are taking this verse out of context and building a whole soul winning program
out of misunderstanding this verse.
And then they'll take you back to Psalms where it says, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting
the soul.
You know what that means?
That means that the law of the Lord changes your mind about stuff.
Just to put it in modern vernacular.
Because God's law is perfect, so it'll change the way you think about things.
Look, when it comes to all the hundreds and hundreds of verses we could show you that
salvation is coming through the power of the gospel.
And that it's the gospel of Jesus that we need to preach and Christ crucified.
The cross of Christ is what we preach and that's our message.
And then that's all just, nope, nope, that's not the emphasis.
The law is our schoolmaster.
No, the law was the schoolmaster in the Old Testament, okay?
So to sit there and take this verse out of context and say, well, we're no longer under
the schoolmaster means that once we get saved we're no longer under, no, no, no, that's
not what it's saying.
We're talking Old Covenant versus New Covenant.
And again, this guy has perverted the soul-winning even of churches that preach the right gospel,
that it's by faith, because they get stuck on this dumb method of going through all Ten
Commandments with people at the door.
And I've been with people who do it.
This is what they do.
They walk up to the door and they, so you think you're a pretty good person, huh?
So you think you're pretty good, huh?
Okay, well, you know, let's go through some of the Ten Commandments with you, see how
good you are.
You know, have you ever stolen anything?
Oh, well, yeah, you know, or well, no, I've never stolen anything.
Well, have you ever gone to work and you weren't really working hard and you were on the clock?
Well, you stole.
And then they'll say, well, you know, have you ever committed adultery?
No.
Well, have you ever looked on a woman to lust after her?
Well, then you've committed adultery.
Okay, have you ever killed?
No.
Well, have you ever hated anyone in your heart?
Because the Bible says, you know, that if you hate your brother without a cause, you
know, and you're a murderer if you hate your brother and, you know, have you ever desired
something that didn't belong to you?
Yeah, I've done that.
Have you ever, you know, taken God's name in vain?
Have you, and they go through every single one of them.
But here's the thing, a lot of times they don't even get to first base with people because
they don't even get to the gospel by the time the person is just like, all right, leave
me alone, you know, because they just want to badger people is what they're doing at
that point.
They're badgering them.
I've literally stood at the door where a guy is talking to a guy at the door and behind
the guy was his wife and he's like, come on, have you ever looked at a woman with lust?
And the guy's wife is like, you know, I want to hear the answer to this.
And he's just like, he's like, oh, well, and the guy that, the guy that's talking, he's
like, come on, you know you have, come on, he's like, oh man, you know, look, it's dumb
because you're beating a dead horse because 99, listen to me, please.
Listen to me.
99% of people out there already know that they're a sinner, right?
How often, and look, those of you who go soul winning a lot, you know, this is true.
How often do you go out soul winning and have somebody tell you, oh, I don't sin.
I'm not a sinner.
It's like one in 500.
It's probably one in a thousand.
It like never happens hardly at all.
So here's how long I spend on the point about you're a sinner.
Yeah, it's just about 30 seconds because everybody's just like, well, yeah, I mean, it's just, it's
just for all of sin and come show the glory of God.
We've all sinned, right?
And 99% of people are like, oh yeah, of course.
I say, you know, we probably sin every day because the thought of foolishness is sin.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Right?
Then I go into some scriptures showing them that we deserve hell.
Now here's the difference though.
When I show them we deserve hell, I show them the verse that says all liars shall have their
part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death because
we've all lied and everyone that you talk to will admit that they've lied again, except
that one in 500 anomaly, 99.9 some percent will tell you, oh yeah, I've lied before.
That's enough.
We're condemned.
You know, we're, we're not saved.
We're going to hell because we've lied.
We need Jesus.
Okay.
This is why the 10 commandments method is such a bad method because by trying to paint
the person as a horrible person who has broken all of the commandments because that's what
they're trying to show you broken every single one of them and they try to get the person
to see what a wicked, wretched, vile, disgusting, sinful person they are.
Here's the problem with that.
The problem with that is you're leading that person to believe that that's why a person
would go to hell because they're just that bad and then you're trying to convince the
person that they're that bad to where yes, you do deserve hell because you are that even
though you think you're good, you're that bad.
Here's the problem with that.
A lot.
Most people are going to walk away from that conversation thinking, I don't care what that
guy says.
I'm not that bad.
You know what I mean?
You're going to walk away thinking, okay, I'm not as bad as that guy was making me out
to be.
Whereas if you show people that one sin will send you to hell, lie will send you to hell,
then they walk away thinking, oh wow, I am condemned.
But trying to get somebody to see just how disgusting they are is a good way to end the
conversation real fast when you just start telling somebody how filthy they are, number
one.
It's giving them a false doctrine like that you have to be this major sinner who's broken
everything in order to go to hell.
In reality, it's quite the opposite.
You just have to be a sinner whatsoever.
That's what we ought to be preaching.
But that whole part of the gospel is a minimal part because look, here's the way I do it
when I'm out soul winning.
I spend as much time as necessary on each point.
I do a thorough job on each point, but you know what, when they get that point, I move
on to the next one.
Why beat a dead horse?
I mean, look, if someone's not getting it that we deserve hell, then I'll park it there
and spend four or five minutes going through a whole bunch more scriptures and just showing
them scripture after scripture.
But here's the thing.
If I show them we're all sinners, oh yeah, of course, check, next point.
No need to go down nine more commandments, okay?
Then we get to the second base and it's like, okay, we deserve hell for our sins.
Once they get it and acknowledge it, it's time to go to third friend.
What are you doing?
Just hanging out.
And then people are like, I got to go because they're going to get bored with you beating
them over the head with the same repetitive thing for 10 minutes just where you're a sinner.
You're a sinner.
You're going to hell.
You get to the point, Jesus.
That's what you spend time talking about.
You spend time talking about the fact that it's by faith, that it's not of works, that
it's everlasting life.
You talk about the cross.
You talk about Jesus dying and being buried and rising again.
What's the power of God?
Look, is the power coming from our flesh to save people or is it coming from the Spirit
of God?
Where's the power?
The Bible says that God's word has power, Bible verses.
And the Bible says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
So what do we emphasize?
The gospel.
Jesus.
What's gospel mean?
The good news.
Now look, the bad news is you're a sinner.
The bad news is you're going to hell.
What's the good news?
Jesus died.
Jesus was buried.
Jesus rose again.
Salvation is all by faith.
It's eternal life.
You can't lose your salvation.
So what are we supposed to emphasize?
The good news or the bad news when it comes to soul winning?
The good news.
That's what the Bible says.
So don't get sucked into this guy, this gimmick, who goes around with his little soapbox to
the most filthiest weirdo places of Santa Monica, California, you know, gets up on his
soapbox and finds the most filthy, vile, homosexual reprobate and just argues with atheists and
argues with these people.
And how often do you actually see him get somebody saved?
How often do you see him get somebody saved?
The videos always end with like, oh, you gave me something to think about.
What?
In the Bible, they keep getting people saved.
People keep getting saved.
They're receiving Christ.
There are some people who are like, we're going to hear about this later.
But then some people get saved on the spot.
You don't see that with this guy.
Why spend time attacking him?
Why talk about it?
Because of the fact that people are duped by this stuff all the time.
And even independent Baptists are watching his movies.
Even independent Baptists are getting all softened up in a tear in the eye about some
homo.
Like we're supposed to feel bad for some pedophile.
We love you so much.
Let's bake you a cake that says how much we love you.
No, the Bible says we're supposed to hate sin and we're supposed to hate those who hate
the Lord.
And look, I love about 90 some percent of people in this country and I hate those who
hate the Lord.
You know, that's what the Bible teaches.
But you know, almost everything I'm saying in this sermon tonight, virtually wall to
wall in the sermon is rejected by Christians now.
You know what I mean?
Like the Christians now, it's all about, it's pro-Israel, homos are our friends, have them
over for a barbecue.
You know, the only barbecue I want to see a homo at is Sodom and Gomorrah, part two.
And people are like, how can you say that?
Look, hey, wake up and read the Bible, friend.
You know, I'm up here saying stuff and people think I'm crazy and stuff, but people think
I'm crazy about the Jew thing too, but yet it's all right here in the Bible.
And people think I'm crazy about the homos, but it's all right there in the Bible.
It's all in the New Testament.
It's all in 2 Peter 2, Jude, Romans 1.
It's all right there.
And you know what?
It's not my fault if you don't read the Bible.
And if you want to walk out of here all mad because you don't read your Bible, that's
not my fault.
I'm right about this stuff.
And come up to me after the service and I'll provide scriptural proof for everything that
I've said tonight.
Every single thing.
Oh, but it's love, love, love.
What about the verse on hate?
There's a lot of them.
Get a concordance and just look up hate.
You know, that's a start.
But the thing about it is that there's a false gospel out there that's a works of the law
gospel, okay?
And what's the works of the law gospel?
It's telling you that if you stop sinning or turn from sin or attempt to turn from sin,
that's going to get you into heaven.
Or they'll say, well, you begin with the Spirit and you're made perfect by the flesh.
That's a lie too.
No, it starts and ends with the Spirit.
It starts and ends with faith.
It's faith, it's from faith to faith.
That's what salvation is.
It has nothing to do with works.
And listen, when you're getting up and telling people you have to repent of your sins to
be saved, that's works.
That's the works of the law.
And that's why it says in Jonah 3.10, God saw their works that they turned from their
evil way.
And God repented of the evil that he said that he would do unto them.
And he did it not.
And of course, the ray comforts of this world will show you verses on repentance.
But whenever it's about salvation, it doesn't say repent of sin.
They just add that.
When it says repent, they're like, see, repent of sin.
But God repents more than anyone in the Bible.
So you can't just assume it's repenting of sin because God doesn't repent of sin.
God doesn't have any sin.
You can repent of anything.
And what the unsaved person needs to repent of is wrong salvation, wrong belief, wrong
doctrine.
You know, they need to repent of a false religion.
They don't need to repent of their sins because if you had to repent of your sins to be saved,
then that would be salvation by the works of the law.
That would be the law saving us.
And then yeah, I guess we would have to go through the whole Ten Commandments with you
because you've got to figure out all the stuff you have to turn from.
Oh, you've got to turn from all this stuff.
Don't get sucked into these trendy, cute, soul-winning methods, okay?
It's based on taking scripture out of context and it's teaching a false gospel.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the truth, Lord, in the Bible.
Even though a lot of people are dull of hearing today, Lord, a lot of people can't handle
the truth.
They get mad.
They hear preaching like this and they get mad.
How dare you call somebody foolish?
How dare you point out a false teacher by name?
How dare you yell about homos and pray for a second Sodom and Gomorrah?
But Lord, help this ignorance amongst your people to be cured, Lord.
It's really an epidemic.
I pray that people would read the Bible, Lord, and I thank you that our church is not like
that.
I thank you that our church is a church of people who read the Bible, Lord.
But Father, I just pray that everybody in our church would keep reading and keep reading
and be able to defend what they believe to a world that, frankly, doesn't read the Bible
and to a Christianity that doesn't read the Bible in 2015, Lord.
Help us to stay with the book and what it teaches, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.