Choose to Rely

Galatians 3:1-2 | January 19, 2025

1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

 

INTRO AND PRAYER

Have you ever turned a negative into a positive?

Turned that frown upside down?

It’s kind of like you started your New Year’s resolution diet to shed a few pounds and then someone Door Dashed you a thank you gift and that gift was a small box from Duck Donuts and that small box contained one maple bacon donut and one peanut butter paradise donut.

Now, if you are watching calories for the New Year that gift would feel like a negative – but then you vaguely remember something Mike Seaver said one day on the back row of your high school math class which leads you to eat both of those donuts because what Mike Seaver said was that two negatives make a positive – and eating those two donuts would definitely feel like a positive.

Sometimes the negative thing isn’t food – it’s words – someone says something that sounds super negative, and we get all woppy-jawed and can’t even think about making it something positive.

Have you ever had a moment like that?

Have you had a moment like that this week?

We continue our series – “Do the Next Thing” – where we are looking at a simple concept for how to keep moving through life even when we get overwhelmed with things that can be negative – things like doubt or fear or worry or anger or discouragement or stress or anxiety or depression.

The Apostle Paul is going to help us today as we look at a letter that he wrote to some folks in a place called Galatia – which is the area north of Syria now known as the Republic of Turkey.

Our message is called “Choose to Rely” and we begin with Galatians 3, verse 1 – Paul writes…

1 You foolish Galatians,

Well, there ‘ya go – there ‘ya have it.

I mean – that’s how we want people to greet us at the breakfast joint, right?

Hey there – you thoughtless, senseless fool!

One commentor described it like this…

J.B. Philips

O you dear idiots of Galatia…surely you can’t be so idiotic!

Why is Paul using such strong language?

Why is he starting off so negative?

Why didn’t he just say something like…

“Listen, I need to talk to you about something that is super important.”

Well, his language is strong because the Galatians were ignoring and disregarding the grace of God. 

It was like they were trying to stuff the grace of God into one of those big red plastic storage containers that people store their Christmas ornaments in and stick it out in the shed until next year.

And why is that such a big deal?

Let’s consider it from this angle…

Have you ever heard of the law of 3’s?

Every person’s body is different but the law of 3’s goes something like this…

• You can survive three weeks without food.
• You can survive three days without water.
• You can survive three minutes without air.

But what’s behind all of those 3’s – where does all of the food and water and air come from?

If you don’t believe in God you may say all of those 3’s come from the particles of an initial explosion in space many moons ago – or you may say they come as a natural by-product of the evolution of all organic matter – or you may say they come from the hard work of human beings – or you may say they come from the organic chemical reactions of modern science – or you may say they come from the aftershocks of Luke Skywalker destroying the Death Star.

But no matter what you believe the most logical and rational and reasonable reality in all of the universe is that something can’t come from nothing – food and water and air have to have a beginning – and we graciously and boldly proclaim that in the deepest part of every human heart there has been innately planted a moral, practical, reasonable, logical, existential reality that food and water and air have their beginning in the grace of God.

So, to disregard and reject the grace of God is not just some kind of vague religious no-no – in its most ultimate form it is to disregard and reject the very realities of your existence.

Or put another way – you can’t survive 3 seconds without the grace of God.

Paul isn’t primarily talking about disregarding the realities of your existence – he’s primarily talking about disregarding the very reality of what is happening to your being – your soul – right now and when you die.

So, that’s why he’s using such, harsh negative language – this is a matter of life and death.

Listen to what he writes next…

1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you,

1 before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

The gospel was proclaimed to the Galatians – like it was a huge, neon billboard in their front yard, they could not deny that they had seen and heard the historical truth and the spiritual truth about Jesus of Nazareth – the Son of God – the Christ. 

So, Paul is opening with strong, negative-sounding language because the Galatians were foolishly abandoning the truth of the crucified Christ – they were foolishly abandoning the truth of the cross.  

And what is the truth of the cross?

The truth of the cross is that you cannot save yourself.  

Being made right with God can only happen by what Jesus accomplished on the cross – and the Galatians were ignoring what Jesus accomplished. 

They were beginning to define their faith only by their own moral and religious values and their own moral and religious good deeds instead of defining their faith by what Christ did.  

And Paul is calling them foolish for even trying such a crazy thing.

He describes their foolishness like a spell that has been cast on them.

• “Who has bewitched you?”
• “Who has cast a spell on you?”

You know – that same foolish spell can be cast on every single one of us.

We can foolishly let the majesty of the cross fade in our hearts and minds.

We can speak more of what we do for God than what God has done for us.  

And who has cast that spell on us?

Well, we could say that there are two main spell casters – and one of them is us.

The old phrase goes like this…

“The Devil made me do it.”

That’s a lie.  

Jesus said that we do it all own our own.  

Matthew 15:18

…the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and those things defile the person.

Our rebellious sin reflects what’s in our own heart.

But our own rebellious hearts should not stir us to ignore the on-going rebellion of the fallen angel, the creature, the being, the enemy of the world and the enemy of God’s people known as Satan – the Devil.

One of Satan’s most effective tools is using false teachers to take God’s truth and twist it in a way that convinces people to live out and focus on a version of the gospel that is not the gospel at all.  

As I was working on my sermon yesterday morning at the coffee shop a man walked by my table and laid some glossy color pamphlets on my table and walked off – they were for a so-called Christian ministry that I thought had died out many years ago after waves of lies and corruption but undoubtedly they are still alive and well – and even though they quote the Bible and speak of salvation in Jesus it is a version of the gospel that is not the gospel at all.

So – it is extremely important that we study the Bible and pray and seek counsel so that by God’s grace we can discern when the enemy is trying to cast a spell.

And we must also prayerfully discern our own rebellion and often our own desire to trust in ourselves more than Christ.  

So how can we break the spell?

Well, Paul told us right there in verse 1 by specifically pointing out Christ as “crucified”.

The spell is broken with the cross.

69 years before our country was founded, Issac Watts wrote a rich song declaring how Christians can break the spell of foolishness…

Issac Watts/with extra comments

When I survey, when I look upon,

the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

Issac Watts/with extra comments

My richest gain

My most rebellious sin

My most selfish desire

Issac Watts/with extra comments

I count but loss, I lose my delight in

And pour contempt on, I hate, all of my pride.

Issac Watts/with extra comments

All of this – when I survey the wondrous cross

How do we break the spell of foolishness?

How do we break the spell of putting God’s grace in a Christmas trunk to stick in the shed?

Look at the cross – look at the cross!

But in our culture, especially within the church culture, the cross seems to not be enough.  

We need more activities and more programs and more videos and more books and more visions and more dreams and more signs.

Something along the lines of, “Show me an image of Jesus in my breakfast taco and then I will believe more!”

But what we need most is more of the cross.

1 Corinthians 2:2

For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

Look to the cross – the cross is our message – and truly fixing our eyes on the cross has the power to transform any moment of life.

Paul knew that, so he challenged the Galatians toward the cross.

And then he asks them a super important question.

2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you:

2 did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

Paul is asking them…

Did the Spirit of God take up residence in your life simply because you prayed a sinner’s prayer and filled out a slip at the church and were baptized – or did the Spirit of God take up residence in your heart because your heart and mind were quickened to see the weight of your sin and the infinitely heavier weight of God’s grace and that grace captured your heart and by faith you believed in the gospel and are looking to the crucified and risen Jesus Christ as your joy today and your only hope for the moment you breathe your last breath?

Which is it – is a person saved by works of the law or the Spirit of God?

Many people try to make salvation just a method or a system or a process or list of things you do – but you cannot make a method out of a miracle.

To be saved and redeemed and rescued by Jesus Christ is a glorious and wonderful miracle of God!

Christian, let us be mesmerized and stunned all over again this morning that we have been saved!

Let us be stunned and mesmerized all over again that we have received grace!

Let us be stunned and mesmerized all over again that the miracle of the cross has captured our hearts! 

The Galatians were not being stunned and mesmerized anymore – and that’s why Paul asked the question.

And he knows they already know the answer.

One time in high school – and only one time – I came home after curfew – and my mom looked at me in the same sweet way she looked at me on the day I was born and said, “Do you know time it is?”

I already knew the answer – my lateness meant I was ignoring and disregarding what I already knew.

Paul knows they know the answer – and he knows they are ignoring and disregarding the truth because they been listening to false teachers.

Someone may say, “Oh, a true Christian would never listen to a false teacher!”

You sure about that?

Marshall Segal says this about the Galatians…

Marshall Segal (sea-gull)

…however wrong the false teachers may have been, their message met a sinful inclination deep inside the human heart: we all secretly love a gospel that relies on us.

Marshall Segal (sea-gull)

We love being the hero, or at least a celebrated sidekick. Self-reliance feeds our self-esteem and self-worth.

Marshall Segal (sea-gull)

But self-reliance never offers us a real meal, and eventually it can get us killed (spiritually).

Marshall Segal (sea-gull)

The first bite may taste so rich and satisfying, but we only get the one bite.

Marshall Segal (sea-gull)

And while we’re caught nibbling at the crumbs, the buffet of grace is suddenly out of reach.

That is why Paul started off with that negative language – he’s wanting to turn a negative into a positive – and the positive is this…

There is a buffet of grace!

Don’t miss the buffet!

Don’t nibble on self-reliance because it will never satisfy you.

Rather feast on the grace of God – feast on your faith in the grace of God.

C.S. Lewis

Now faith…is the art of holding onto things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.

• Your mood will change.
• Your circumstances will change.
• Your family will change.
• Your government will change.
• Your health will change.

But the omnipotence and omniscience and omnipresence and majesty and mercy and love loyalty and glory and goodness and grace of God will never change – and will never end.

So, when negative things like doubt or fear or worry or anger or discouragement or stress or anxiety or depression show up – and they will – don’t be foolish and miss the buffet of God’s grace that is always prepared for you. 

Sometime more than 958 years ago an anonymous person wrote a poem about what taking the next bite of grace at the buffet looks like when we feel overwhelmed with life – this is part of that poem…

Unknown

Do it immediately. Do it with prayer.

Do it reliantly, casting all care.

Unknown

Do it with reverence, tracing Christ’s hand.

He placed it before you with earnest command.

Unknown

Rest on His omnipotence, safe beneath His wing.

Leave all resultings. DO THE NEXT THING.

Don’t choose foolish self-reliance.

Choose to rely on God.

Rely on God – and do the next thing.