Galatians 3, beginning in verse number one, 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, received 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 3, Paul continues to rebuke the Galatians, and he uses some strong words here because right away in verse number one, he says, "O foolish Galatians," then in verse three he says, "Are you so foolish?"
Now, what strikes me that's 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. I've even heard people say this, "Well, Jesus would never call names," or "Jesus would have never said that anybody was stupid or anything," but what does the bible say? If we actually study the preaching of Jesus Christ, he calls people serpents and vipers when they deserved it, when they needed to be call it.
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 when you've seen all the scripture, you've heard the preaching? What's the deal? What's the problem here?"
It's just that we have this really soft society where people are just really thin-skinned. They don't understand that sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me. They're just like, "I'm telling. You said that I was foolish." This Barney and friends type mentality, it's not biblical." 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 water down where it just freaks them out when somebody calls them foolish or whatever.
The bible says here, "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?" Now, this is an interesting verse because Jesus Christ was not literally crucified amongst the Galatians. Jesus Christ was of course crucified outside of Jerusalem, and he's speaking to people that are in a foreign country. The churches of Galatia are nowhere near Jerusalem.
He says to them that before their eyes, Jesus Christ hath 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 ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" 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 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. The bible says, "We walk by faith, not by sight," talking about literal sight. 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." 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."
As we go down through this, seeing or sight are mentioned in almost every scripture example here from the Old Testament. 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."
I mean, 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." Faith is the evidence of things not seen. 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 the 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. 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 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 ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?"
Now, what verse three reminds me of is when you run into people who will say, "Well, it starts with faith." When 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." Faith 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.
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 four, "Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 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."
Look, the apostles came and they preached the word of God, and as Paul said when he went to the Corinthians, "I determine not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ in him crucified." That was always the emphasis of the preaching. That was the emphasis of the message when they went to the lost. He's saying, "You know, it's not about the works of the law. They didn't come preaching message of the works of the law; they came preaching a message of salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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, et cetera. 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, and we're just Gentile dogs or this nonsense where they ..." The bible says, "As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools."
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." We're all dogs according to these dispensationalists because they are using a parable in the mouth of fools because they don't understand a parable's illustration is not literal, 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 seven, "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.
Then if you jump down to verse nine, it says, "So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." I 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, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ." 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 ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
He said, "Look, the promise made to Abraham and to his seed, the seed is Christ, 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." Here's what people will answer to this, they'll say, "Oh, yeah, of course. We're blessed with Abraham and we received the promises of Abraham, but that's just only the spiritual blessings, the spiritual promises, salvation, and so forth. When it comes to that physical land ..."
Here's the thing. How carnal are these people that they're even so worried about a stupid piece of physical land? 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. That's all that matters, friend.
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, look if you would at Genesis 12 which is the source of the promise made to Abraham. We're going to look at it ... 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.
That's so carnal when we realize that this world is going to pass away, and when we realize that Jerusalem now 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?
Look what the bible says in Genesis 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 shew 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 him that curseth 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, "A bless and a bless thee, curse and the curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Now, go to Genesis 22, just a few pages to the right in your bible where the promise is reiterated unto Abraham. 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 the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; 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."
He says it in two different ways, basically saying the same thing. He said, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." 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-worshipping preachers, the Zionists, 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.
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 Scofield away, put Matthew Henry aside, put Spurgeon on the shelf where he belongs.
The bible says here in Galatians 3 about this exact passage, verse seven, "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.'"
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. 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." We're all blessed through Jesus, not through the physical state of Israel, the so-called political Zionist state of Israel. That's not where the blessing come? 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. The blessing is Jesus.
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. Just like in the United States where they run Hollywood, where they run the pornography industry, 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.
You know who has really blessed me? Jesus. Do you know who's a blessing to you if you're saved? Jesus. Do 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 have?"
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. "Ooh, God's still blessing them." 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." 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. People would say, "Oh, well, what tribe?" The bible says, "Whatever tribe you sojourns among, you're part of that tribe." That's what it says in Ezekiel 47, "Whatever tribe the stranger sojourns, all the males are circumcised, they keep the Passover, they joined 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."
They thing of "What tribe are you?" They're 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 things that you're better than someone else or lesser than someone else. That's just a lie. It's a fraud. The New Testament specifically tells to avoid genealogies. For to avoid genealogies, that should just be case closed. It doesn't matter who your daddy is, if it's avoiding genealogies.
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.'" No Christ-rejecting Jew can ever say, "Abraham is my father." Think not to say, "We have Abraham to our father." Jesus told the Pharisees, he said, "If Abraham were your father, you 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 descendant." Meaningless. Well, it has a little meaning. No. Zero meaning.
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. Look, most people are wrong on this just because they haven't been shown, and because they've been brainwashed the other way. 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. Lot of scriptures, Romans 2 is another one, John 8, Philippians 3, all different scriptures but Romans 9-11.
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. I still think God is not done with them. I still think there's something," because you show them. It seems like it's real easy to get people to like 90% on this subject.
You can take them from zero to 90. They're like a good sports car. You could take them from zero to 90 in seconds, 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 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. Without Christ, he says, "Think not to say within yourselves, 'We have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.'" I mean, a rock over in Israel, you just pick up a rock over there. That's just as much the chosen people as one of these Christ-rejecting Jews. You say, "Well, you hate Jews." No, I don't hate Jews. I want to be saved."
You know what? They're never going to 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. Why are you fueling their racial pride instead of explaining them the truth that, "Hey, you guys are nobody special. We're all the same. 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."
We see the Jews, they're 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. No. It's matrilineal, meaning that to them to be a Jew, "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. Who your mother is is irrelevant in the genealogies. It's always just, "Abraham begat Isaac; Isaac begat Jacob; Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; Phares begat Esrom; Esrom begat Aram; Aram ..." It's always just the men, but with the Jews, it's the opposite. 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 ... We asked the rabbis, "Why is it matrilineal?" They all told us, they said, "Well, it's because you could lie about who your dad is but we all know who the mom is because that's who ..."
You know what? That's just a wicked philosophy right there. 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." Here's the thing, the only blood that matters is the blood of Jesus. They want to make sure that they got that Jewish blood in them, "Well, we don't know who the father." Here's the thing. Even if it's not the biological father, that's not the issue because it's not about biology.
In the Old Testament, it was about who your father is in the sense of who raised you, whose house you're growing up and inheriting in, and so forth. Shame on those who would commit adultery, of course, but just to just assume adultery on a national scale, says something about the people that we're dealing with. 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.
Yet, when someone like me gets up and just preaches what the bible says that you guys are adulterous as Israelites. The bible says that we're all one in Christ Jesus, and there is no Jew or Gentile. People will have the goal to call me anti-Semitic which is some kind of a way of saying that I'm a racist or something. Look out 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, the guy who gets up and says we're all equal is a racist. The people who say, "Well, the Jews have a right to that land because of their ethnicity and these other racists need to be thrown out," they're not racist. Whoa! Here's the thing too. If you say that the Jews are racist, that makes you racist. What in the world? The Jews are a bunch of White people, blonde hair, blue eyes, but I'm supposed to be racist against them. 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.
Anyway, I don't want to spend the whole night on that. It's tempting because there's so much scripture and it's such a good subject, but I don't want to spend all night. Look, 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. This whole idea 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 mind-boggling.
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 denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also." People will sometimes say, "Well, why are you so hard on the Jews? Why don't you get on somebody else throw up?" 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. You know what? I've been on plenty of other kicks.
Here's the thing. They say, "Oh, you give Islam a pass." I've preached whole sermons against Islam. 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," so why would I spend time preaching stuff that everybody already knows because people would get bored if I just keep preaching stuff that everybody already knows.
What I'm trying to do is take my sermon, it's like a greasy wrench to fix a problem. That's the whole point of preaching is to fix things. If it is not 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. That's why we need to come in and fix it, and try to get the truth out there. Again, I need to move on because there's other great things in this passage.
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 an angry rebuke against these false doctrines that had crept in to the churches of Galatia. It has a very serious tone. He's using strong language. He's saying, "You've been bewitched. You've been beguiled. You're foolish and going out." I mean, at the end of the book, he's just said, the last thing he ... "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.
The three things he rebukes in chapter one are the three things that he rebukes throughout the book. 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." Then number two, he rebukes the Judaizing, the exaltation of being Jewish, and the segregation of Jew and Gentile, and this Judaizing in fact trying to bring them back to observance of the ceremonial mosaic laws. Then the third thing he's constantly rebuking is trying to please men instead of pleasing God. Those are the three things that come up over and over again.
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 thee 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. 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. Those that are of the works of the law," he says, "... are under the curse."
What does he mean by of faith or of the works of the law? He's basically talking about where you do 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 there "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 every one 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 in the sight 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 hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, 'Cursed is every one 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 every one 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."
He's saying, "Well, okay. If you want to be saved by the law, you got to follow the law to the letter." Of course, James 2:10 says that, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Not only that, but flip over to chapter five, it says at verse two of chapter five, "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; ye are fallen from grace." He's saying, you're a debtor to do the whole law. You can't just pick one thing.
Circumcision is part of salvation. He's saying, "No, no, no. If you're going to include circumcision in 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. There is none righteous, no not one. 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. 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. If Galatians 3 says that, "Anyone who is 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 27:26, 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."
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. When we say, "Salvation is not by works," here's what people have in their mind that what we're saying is that salvation's 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.
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. The bible would have used 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 hath before ordained that we should walk in them." 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. 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 would 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 work because we have tons of people out there that will say this, "Well, salvation is 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. 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 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. 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 every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.'" 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. 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? Positive or negative? A positive command would be, "Open the door." A negative command would be, "Don't open the door." 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 craftsman, and putteth 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.
"Cursed be he that setteth 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 neighbour'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 uncovereth 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. 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." 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.
According to that, not doing these things that he tells you, "List 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. Look, people will say sometimes, "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 go to stop sinning. You have to turn from sin, repent of sin." I can't do his little New Zealand. I can't do his New Zealand gimmick accent but, "You got to repent, repent, repent. You have to turn from sin, turn from sin. So when are you going to turn from your sin? 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?" and makes all these videos and everything.
This guy, he deceives a lot of people. He just made this pro ... He made this movie now about the homos. That it's just most water 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. It's just all ... 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.
The bible says, they shall be stoned with stones. 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 sodomize our eyeballs for an hour of looking at these freaks. Who wants to look at that garbage? It's a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. Who wants to sit and talk to him and look at him?
Audacity is the name of the movie. Love can't stay silent. You know what? Hate can't stay silent either, buddy. I'm going to be pretty loud right now. 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 fly out and say, "Oh, well, most people believe in Jesus but have they repented of their sin though?" It's not enough to believe in Jesus according to this guy. Faith is not enough. You got to repent of your sin.
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. Even amongst people who have salvation right though, some of his methods have crept in. This method of using the 10 Commandments to get people saved. Who's been exposed to this?
Look, hands all over the building because of the fact that it becomes so popular the way of the master. He claims that we're supposed to use the 10 Commandments to get people saved. That's what's going to get him saved. When you look at these people's method of preaching the gospel, there's very little gospel. It's just ... They'll literally spend 10 minutes just telling the person how sinful they are, showing them the law, showing them the commandments.
It's all works of the law, it's all commandments. 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 know, you have to turn from your sin, right, that we've been talking the last 10 minutes." They don't emphasize Jesus or the gospel, they emphasize turning from sin. That's the emphasis.
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 10 Commandments with people. Here's their justification, and this is what Ray Comfort teaches. He teaches, "Well, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." 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, 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, "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. 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 every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." 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. The good news that Jesus paid it all, that Jesus is our savior, he died, he's buried and rose again.
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. You could say whatever you want. Watch these people. They spend 90% of their 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, when really it's supposed to be about Jesus, the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection, the hearing of faith, faith, eternal life 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. Wherefore 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."
Do 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 determine not to know anything among, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Why didn't he walk in preaching law, law, law, "Hey, let's go through the whole 10 Commandments and show you what a filthy wretch you are."
Is that what the bible says? No. This verse is being taken grossly out of context. 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 given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath 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. We're talking Old Testament under the law, under the schoolmaster. New Testament, under grace, no longer under the schoolmaster, faith in Christ.
See, what did the law serve? To show man his sinful condition. People are taking this verse out of context, and building a whole soul-winning program out of misunderstanding this verse. 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? It 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 will 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's crucified. The cross of Christ is what we preach. That's our message. 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, 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 ..." No, no, no. That's not what it's saying. We're talking old covenant versus new covenant.
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 10 Commandments with people at the door. 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, let's go through some of the 10 Commandments, so you'd see how good you are. Have you ever stolen anything?"
"Well, yeah, you know ..." or "Well, no. I've never stolen anything." "Well, have you ever gotten to work and you weren't really working hard, and you were on the clock? Well, you're still." Then they'll say, "Well, you know, you ever committed adultery?" "No." "Well, have you ever looked on a woman to lust after? Then you've committed adultery. Okay. Have you ever killed?" "No." "Well, have you ever hated anyone in your heart because the bible says that if you hate your brother without a cause and that you're a murderer, if you hate your brother. Have you ever desired something that didn't belong to you?" "Yeah, done that." "Have you ever taken God's name in vain? Have you ..."
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," because they just want to badger people is what they're doing at that point. They're just 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. He's like, "Come on. Have you ever looked at a women with lust?" The guy's wife is like, "I want to hear the answer to this." He's just like, "Oh, well ..." The guy that's talking, he's like, "Come on. You know you have. Come on." He's like, "Oh, man."
Look, it's dumb because you're beating a dead horse, because 99 ... Listen to me, please. Listen to me. Ninety-nine percent of people out there already know that they're a sinner. I mean, 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.
Here's how long I spend on the point about you're a sinner. Yeah, it's just about 30 seconds because everybody is just like, "Well, yeah." I mean, it's just for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've all sinned, right, and 99% of people are like, "Oh, yeah. Of course." I say, we probably sin everyday because the thought of foolishness is sin. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
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. We're not saved. We're going to hell because we've lied. We need Jesus.
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, "You've broken every single one of them." 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.
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. 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? They'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'll walk away thinking, "Oh, wow! I am condemned." 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, and number two, it's giving them a false doctrine that you have to be this major sinner who has broken everything in order to go to hell. In reality, it's quite the opposite. You just have to be a sinner or whatsoever. That's what we ought to be preaching.
That whole part of the gospel is a minimal part because look, here's the way I do 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 of scriptures and just showing them scripture after scripture.
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, "You're a sinner, you're a sinner, you're a sinner, you're a sinner. You're going to hell, you're going to hell, you're going to hell." It's like, "Okay. Bye." 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 is the power? The bible says that God's word has power, bible verses.
The bible says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. So what do we emphasize? The gospel, Jesus. What's the 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. 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 in to this guy, this gimmick who goes around with his little soapbox to the most filthiest weirdo places of Santa Monica, California, gets up on his soapbox and finds the most filthy, vile, homosexual reprobate, and just argues with atheists and argues with these people. How often do you actually see him get somebody saved? How often do you see him get somebody saved?
Their 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 will get saved on the spot. You don't see that with this guy. Why spend time attacking them? 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 and 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. Look, I love about 90 some percent of people in this country and I hate those who hate the Lord. That's what the bible teaches.
Almost everything I'm saying in this sermon tonight, virtually wall-to-wall in this sermon is rejected by Christians now. You know what I mean? The Christians now, it's all about it's pro-Israel, homos are our friends, have them over for a barbecue. The only barbecue I want to see a homo at is Sodom and Gomorrah part two. People are like, "How can you say that?" Hey, wake up and read the bible, friend. I'm up here saying stuff and people think I'm crazy and stuff, but people think I'm crazy about the Jew, thank you, but yet, it's all right here in the bible. 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.
You know what? It's not my fault if you don't read the bible. 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. 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. That's a start. The thing about it is that there's a false gospel out there that's a works of the law gospel. What's the works of the law gospel? 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 from faith to faith. That's what salvation is. It has nothing to do with works.
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. 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 had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not."
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.
What the unsaved person needs to repent of is wrong salvation, wrong belief, wrong doctrine. 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 will be the law saving us.
Then yeah, I guess we would have to go through the whole 10 Commandments with you because you got to figure out all the stuff you have to turn from. Yeah, turn from all this stuff. Don't get sucked into these trendy, cute, soul-winning methods. 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 dole 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?
Lord, help this ignorance amongst your people to be cured, Lord. It's really an epidemic. I pray that people will 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. 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. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
