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Hallelujah, that's it. Praise God.
So we continue our study in the book of Galatians.
We are coming to chapter 3 this morning.
How it is just humorous to see Paul calling them foolish
Galatians. What does he really mean by
that? Foolish?
If a pastor calls the church and say you foolish people, the
whole church will store the pastor, isn't it?
But this man has the guts to call this people foolish
Galatians. In fact, it is JB Philips
translation. He even went I don't I don't
agree. He did a very good job.
But he says you idiots, he called them idiots.
So there must be something that is upsetting Paul and we need to
find out why. Why is he so upset with
Galatians that he can call them foolish?
And the word foolish has many different shades of meaning.
And here it does not mean that they lacked mental ability
there. He the the Greek word to
describe those kind of people is moron.
That is not used here. Here the word used is they have
intellectual ability, but they're not using it.
They're keeping it on the shelf somewhere safe in their house.
So they don't use their brain. So Paul is saying, guys, wake
up, its time to use your brain. Don't keep it on the shelf.
Don't put in the almirah somewhere in your safekeeping.
No, no, it's time for you to use it now.
Why does he use those kind of words?
Because we already have seen so much already in chapter 1 and 2.
This is only following idea is only following from that.
They were trying to add to the faith in Jesus, faith plus
works, faith plus ceremonial law.
You must be circumcised. You must do this, you must do
that. So Paul is saying wake up, think
straight, don't be foolish, use your brain.
You know, that's just that's, that's how he's trying to exhort
these people or foolish Galatians who has bewitched you.
What is bewitching? It is some people have, you
know, the superstition that people can sometimes look at
them and cast a spell on them. You know its called evil eye.
Oh, sometimes the child, you know, some of you children are
very cute. Mostly, you know, and people
when the child become sick, why is the child sick?
Why is the child coughing? I think that Lady cast an evil
lie on my child. That's why it became sick.
Have you heard this kind of explanation anytime?
Yeah. So what Paul is trying to say is
who has cast an evil eye on you? Who has bewitched you?
Who cast a spell on you? Now read it there.
Who has bewitched you before your very eyes?
Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
So what is he trying to say? I was trying to figure out what
is the meaning of why does he talk about the crucifixion of
Jesus? Talking at the same time about
being being bewitched is because when you look at Christ on the
cross and put your eyes on the cross of Christ, when you are
looking at the crucified Christ, no evil shall fall on you, no
evil shall touch you, no spell will land on you when you are
looking at the cross and Jesus Christ was crucified.
Does it make sense? Why would Paul write like this?
You are foolish Galatians who has bewitched you before your
very eyes. Jesus Christ was clearly ported
as crucified. Basically what they have, what
the language of Paul is deeply rooted in the Greek culture.
Whenever there is a war and a commander or a general is
walking into the area that he has won, there will be soldiers
coming behind him and there will be people.
He'll be mounting a horse and he'll be coming in and grandeur
and there will be a lot of musical instruments and you know
that the people should know that he's coming.
And there will be people walking in the front with a placard.
You know they will have a pole on which they will be something
written on it. You know what is his
achievement, how he has conquered or what are the CTC
conquered? What are his accomplishments?
That is to proclaim to the people so that the general will
be viewed highly by the people who are watching.
Basically its like a billboard. The Billboard is a glorified
version of the placard. But what is he trying to do
here? He's trying to say that Jesus
Christ was placarded, He was lifted on the cross and on.
It is which clearly and also it is for everybody to read.
The whatever is written on the placard is for everyone to read.
Its not secret, its for everyone to read.
So he says Jesus Christ has been lifted up on the cross and you,
he has been placarded so that you may know that you may read,
that you may understand that when you look at that Christ you
will not be bewitched. No one can cast a spell on you.
Does it make any sense? Shout Hallelujah so.
And I was looking at the Septuagint.
That is the Greek translation as well.
There it says Paul constellations foolish,
unthinking Septuagint use the word unthinking.
That means they have the ability to think, but they don't want to
think. How many Christians live like
that? Do we have something called
examined life? Examined life is you look at
your own faith and analyze it. Why are you believing in Jesus?
What has he done for you? Why do you want to believe in
him? Do you have a reason to give to
somebody who says, why are you a Christian if you don't have?
We are unthinking Christians because Peter, when he writes,
he says you must be willing to give an apologia, a defense of
your faith, a reasonable explanation of why you believe
what you believe. Does it make sense?
So we should know why we believe in Jesus.
When somebody is bewitched, it is involuntary.
Like, I don't know, I just was talking to somebody in some
other country and I was trying to pray for them.
And when I prayed there was a spirit that is speaking.
And I asked the spirit, who are you?
And he gave the name and it sounded like Russian to me.
So after the prayer, I asked him, what does his name mean to
you? Oh, he was my colleague.
When did he work with you? 2006.
And what nationality belong? Oh, I don't know.
He may be Russian or Romanian, I don't know.
I said, what in Russia? In Romania also, they use black
magic. I didn't expect, but it was
there. So I said leave the leave the
person. Now I cast it out.
The point I am trying to make is bewitched is an involuntary
target. A person becomes an involuntary
target. But Paul is saying why are you
bewitched? You are acting as somebody cast
a spell on you when you yourself are walking into it.
That's the contradiction. That is a contradiction of the
Galatian people. Why is he calling them foolish?
Because they are to believe in Jesus only, nothing more,
nothing more. Just Jesus.
And because they're adding things, he's calling them
foolish. You're walking into the trap.
You're acting like you're bewitched.
You are not using your brain. You're putting it on a shelf.
So wake up, Galatians. You know these people.
Galatians before I already explained to you in one of my
previous sermons, Galatia is not a particular city.
It's a region. It's like a state.
You have many other cities in that place, Iconium, Lystra or
Lystra whatever you call it, then Derby, different places.
So when he went to a place called Iconium and he started
preaching, you see it all in Acts chapter 14.
When you when you read there, so many things happened there.
Its so dramatic is the passage, the chapter you see there Paul
and Barabas preaching the gospel, people responding in big
numbers. Both Jewish and Gentiles
believed in Jesus and after some time the unbelieving Jews, they
stirred up the crowd and then they just wanted to they made a
plan to stone Paul and Barnabas. When they came to know the that
there's a plan to attack, they just slipped in the night and
left the place and went to Lystra.
And there again when when Paul was speaking, he found a man
sitting on the floor and in his face was something that was
noticeable that Paul could see that he had faith to be healed
and he was a crippled from the birth.
He never walked from the time he was born.
And he looked at him and said stand up and walk.
I said, did he say in the name of Jesus?
He didn't. Did he say, I want to pray for
you brother, Just wait, Father, have mercy on this man.
Nothing. He said hey, stand up and that
guy stood up and when he was starting jumping and walking the
priest who has been in that place, they thought that the the
Jews ZEU yes, Jews. That is one of the gods, the
Greek gods, the Jews is come in the flesh.
What is that If I saw he just use it like that Jews that you
were think JUICE. So that's the reason why I'm
spelling it out, because, you know, in a restaurant people go
and sit there. Zeus.
Sorry, Zeus, correcting my pronunciation.
Thank you. I will skip the joke now.
Thank you. Cool.
So. Let's just keep going it were I
would like to learn just one thing from you.
Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by
believing what you heard? I had to struggle a lot with
this verse. I had to sit and think a lot
about it in this verse and in verse 5 as well.
He talks about it in verse 5. Does God give you His Spirit and
work miracles among you because you observe the law or because
you believe what you heard? So what is the measure?
What is the kind of experience that Paul has in mind when he's
saying about receiving the Holy Spirit?
What kind of experience is Paul having in his mind?
When you look into the life of Paul, he was trying to persecute
the Christians. He was going towards Damascus
with the authority to arrest people, enter their homes and
seize the men, women, children and put them in the jail.
But before he could do it, he was struck by a bright light and
he had an encounter with Jesus. I will not repeat the whole
story. You know the story.
So after that event he was told, go into the city.
You will be told what he should do.
And he was without sight for three days, and he was fasting
and praying. And God deals with another man
called Ananias. Go to sorts of place and you
will find a man called Saul. Pray for him.
Oh, he's a wicked man. He's a very bad man.
Don't worry about it. I will show him how much he must
suffer. You go lay your hand on him,
because he's seeing you come to him and lay hand on him, that
his eyes may be restored. All the story you see there and
then when Ananyas laid hands on him, he received the Holy
Spirit. What kind of Holy Spirit
experience did Paul have? The Bible doesn't tell us.
Was it the initial receiving of the Spirit which happens when
you believe in Jesus, or is he talking about the Pentecostal
experience of second blessing, that after you are converted
again, you have a second experience and encounter with
the Holy Spirit and you receive power for ministry?
Is he talking about that? It is not very clear.
So I, I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to understand
it, but it is not too difficult for us to decipher it or to
understand it because it can be sometimes both can happen in one
go. Both can happen in one go.
What do I mean it? At the time of your conversion,
you also have an experience with the Holy Spirit and you are
saved, sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
According to Ephesians 113 to those who believed he gave them
the Holy Spirit, sealed them with the promised Holy Spirit.
So that is, that is every Christian.
If you are a believer, you have the Holy Spirit.
There is no doubt about it at all.
We stand by this teaching that every believer is filled with
the Holy Spirit. But Paul talks about repeated
feelings when he says Ephesians 518 be being filled with the
Holy Spirit. What is he saying?
It is not a one time experience. It has to be a continuous
experience. It has to be on the go.
You should be filled with the Spirit every day.
There is an ongoing experience, but he also talks about gifts of
the Holy Spirit, which are given by the Spirit.
So you have the Assemblies of God, which is one of the main
branches of the Pentecostal denomination.
That's the one main church that has stood and has taught many
things and has promulgated many teachings on the Pentecostal
experience. They are the people who try to
say that there's a second experience that is distinct from
being born again. Then you have another encounter
with the Holy Spirit, and that time you receive the Holy Spirit
for power. See, this is not for self.
It is for others. Always is for others.
The Pentecostal experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit
is for ministry for other people, not for yourself.
But when you are born again, you receive the Holy Spirit is for
you because you become a child of God.
That is what makes you to connect with God.
When you pray, when you kneel down, Father looks at that
Spirit that is in you and connects with you and speaks to
you because you are his child. Is it becoming clearer or am I
making it more difficult? I hope I'm trying to make it
simple. So in this experience, what I'm
trying to say here is this whole chapter.
When you read you will see the word in the Greek you have got
pistis is faith. There's also the word same root
is used for even for verb. So if you put together all these
forms, nouns, 7 word, 7 times, the word pistis is used, which
is a noun and the same root with a verb, sentence, sense of a
verb is used five times, adjective 2 times, total 14
times. So if you know that the word
pistis, pistios, pistas, whatever is a Greek word, 14
times it is used. What does it mean?
That's the main thing he's talking about.
It's the main thing that Paul is wanting to talk to you in this
chapter is faith. What is this faith?
It is so easy to understand. Every believer knows he has
faith. That's why he is a child of God.
But what is faith? Until and unless we analyze it
and understand it, we will be little bit of like Galatians,
unthinking Christians. We need to analyze it.
And who is the father of faith? Abraham.
So that's the reason why Paul goes on to talk about Abraham.
He he talks about himself, he talks about the Galatians
experience. How did you receive the Holy
Spirit when you heard? Not?
Because you are observing the law.
You heard the gospel, you believed it.
That's how you received the Holy Spirit.
And then he says, OK, let's talk about Abraham.
And he says God proclaimed the message to Abraham before he
anybody else heard the gospel. He proclaimed to him.
And he said, because you believe I am creating your faith as a
righteousness, and all the nations of the world will be
blessed through you. All the nations will be blessed
through you. So what Paul is trying to say
here is, OK, God gave this promise to Abraham.
Actually, when I looked more deeper into the story of the
Abraham story, how did Abraham believe?
He had a problem. Basically that problem is he was
not able to have a child of his own.
He was wealthy, powerful and he had an army of his own.
Everything is going good for him.
There is no problem with his life, but only one little thing.
He didn't have a child and he was he.
God appeared to him at the age of 75 and he keeps talking to in
between several times and now at the 99 1/2 years of age again he
appears to him and says by this time next year you are going to
have a son. And Sarah listen from in the
tent. She says will I have the
pleasure of becoming a mum, nurse, a baby at this age?
And she laughs. The Angel who didn't see her
physically was why does she laugh?
He has to go back inside and ask, did you laugh?
And she says no. And the Angel says no, she did
laugh. That's why they named their son
Isaac. Isaac means laughed.
OK, so now what am I trying to say here is there was a
necessity, there was a need, there was a lack.
And God promised I am going to fulfill that lack.
And Abraham believed him. Now there are many things here,
important things. One, when the faith comes into
your heart, there will be a revelation.
Without revelation its not possible to have faith.
Whether it is through your need or through intellectual grasp or
understanding, you will have a revelation.
And when you have revelation, that is the one that puts the
seed for your faith. Seed for your faith comes
through revelation and no revelation faith is not
possible. And when I you know, these are
the things, some, some things are difficult to understand when
you are beginning your life, when you are young, you can't
see much into the future. But after you have lived your
life for 1020304050 years, you look back, it becomes easy to
understand life because you are able to see retrospectively what
happened in your life. What are the milestones?
When you look at the milestones, you know that you did hear God
that time you think, did I really hear God?
Did I do I know it? And then after a few years, when
you look back and say, yeah, that day God spoke to me.
That thing, God did it for me, that thing because God ordained
it for me. So as you look back into your
life, faith makes sense. It becomes easy to explain.
Every time when I look into my life, I have supernatural
revelation. I did have.
It is not just thinking or else I'm reading the Bible.
I think God is speaking to me from this verse.
Not like that. I had supernatural revelation
few times and one of the first ones that I ever had was to hear
the Holy Spirit. He just flashed into my mind.
I would say it's like a fiery letters or golden letters and I
could grasp it. You are not fighting with flesh
and blood, but its principalities and powers and
whatever. I was struggling at that time.
In one second everything gone. I was free.
But did I understand it? No.
It took me 40 plus years to understand.
Now I know that God had given me a revelation 40, nearly 3440
years ago. And now I know when I'm, when
I'm praying for people and I'm cashing over the devil.
I can tell the devil I have authority over you because he
said to me. He said to me I am not fighting
with flesh and bread, with peace, partisan powers.
When he said to me he has given me authority over you, you
devil, you are now coming out. So revelation is very important.
And Abraham in all those intercourses with God, with
Yahweh, he had not only deposited the seeds of faith in
him, but in fact he became the father of the faith because of
the revelation. Whatever is your, whatever is
your need for guidance, or I had to do this, I had to do that.
What is the best way? Should I take left turn or right
turn? God speaks to you in your ear.
Is there a promise in the Bible about it?
Yes, in the book of Isaiah. So when you have that experience
and when you take that path and then you find things are going
well, you look back and say thank you Lord for speaking to
me that day. Thank you for guiding me.
See, this is how Christian, Christian life is developing
into your own individual life. See Abrahams experience is not
for himself. It is for every one of us.
Every one of us is an Abraham. Everyone of us is a Sarah.
Why? Because your experience is so
unique and that is required for the body of Christ.
So don't keep your mouth shut, but speak about it so that
somebody else faith will be ignited because they hear your
story. The faith is contagious.
You cannot keep to yourself. When you share your faith, it
ignites faith in somebody. It has got that power because
somebody came to transmit that faith from their heart, from
their mouth to someone. That faith has reached you
today. So my question is, what do you
want to do with this faith that you have, which God has
deposited in you? Do you want to keep your mouth
shut? That's not the purpose.
The whole world is celebrating
Christmas. They are shouting Jesus was
born, Jesus was born, Jesus was born.
The shops are shouting it, malls are shouting it.
Everywhere you see decorations on the street, lamps are
decorated everywhere. They are saying Jesus is coming
to the world. But nobody's heart it is
touching. It's not touching anybody's
heart because somebody who has faith has to open their mouth
for that message to become meaningful to somebody.
I would encourage you to open your mouth this Christmas
season. Tell somebody, Jesus saved me
and he wants to save you too. How much time does it take to
say that? Right, right.
The doors will open for you to talk about evangelism.
Cool. So yeah, there's so much more to
talk about. Faith 1 John 54 For whatever is
born of God conquers the world. Whatever is born of God conquers
the world. Has Abrahams faith conquered the
world? It did.
Has your faith conquered the world?
That's the next question. Yield to God, God my I, yield my
spirit, my soul, my body, my mind to you.
Holy Spirit, take over and guide me.
Paul could say in the previous chapter, it is no longer I that
live, but Christ just who lives in me and reigns in me.
Until you come to that point of surrender where you think that
your life is not yours, but it is his, and you allow Him to
live in you through you and that great exchange you do, then your
faith will conquer the world. Then your faith will conquer the
world. Until then we are putting in the
safekeeping somewhere in the house.
Faith is the gift of God. No one can boast about it.
Faith is God, not conviction that rests on his self
revelation and responds with personal trust and obedience.
So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, Word
of Christ, Romans 10/17. Faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of Christ. So we need to have this
experience. Only then your faith will become
valid. You know, there are people who
have lots, lot of kinds of faith in the world.
You, you meet a Buddhist or a Muslim, they all have some kind
of a faith. Even atheist also has a faith
that there's no God. He believes it.
You may say, oh, that's a faith. He says, no, I don't think it's
a faith, but that's a faith because they do not, they cannot
prove that God does not exist. There's so much more shouting in
their face that God exists. Look at the world, whether you
might whether you look it through a microscope or a
telescope, you have lot of plenty of evidence.
It is difficult to erase it and they are having some kind of a
faith. Faith is always the work of God
and involves hearing his voice whereby the believer lays hold
half his lays hold of his preferred will.
It is John Calvin. I was quite surprised that John
Calvin said those words because I thought in his theology is not
much room for revelation. But he says faith is always the
work of God involves hearing his voice.
You have to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
When you hear his voice, then you lay hold of his will.
You lay hold of his will. Whether it is marriage, whether
it is Job is your vocation or the holiday where you want to
go. It is not for you to make a
decision on your own. This is what I believe.
You got to go to God and say, hi, I want to go to Italy, Rome.
Is it your will? Is it your will?
I was just thinking there was a time.
I just think if you want to have a holiday, you can have a
holiday, you have money, you go. And now I think, no, it's not
like that. You have to go to God and say,
can I have some fun? God says yes, go.
God says no, don't go. It's very simple.
Every time we have gone on different trips, like once we
went to India, we we bought the tickets 10 months in advance.
But those ten months I have prayed every flight, every means
of transport I bring under the bread of Christ.
And every train we take, every flight we take, you know
everything. The people we meet, the words we
speak. I have prayed over it several
times. And when it's all over, we take
the flight and land back here. Then the COVID was declared as
so God kept an eye on us and brought us back home.
He did not allow us to be struck somewhere.
Because you committed your holiday to God, He ordains it
for you. He protects you.
He keeps a special eye on you. This is how I want everybody to
live your life. Don't live on your own.
I have intelligence. I have a lot of the ability to
think through. I can plan.
I want to make my life according to my likes and dislikes.
That's not the way to live Christian life.
You have to bring it to God. Cool, let's go.
Romans 1423. Whatever is not of faith is sin.
It is not of faith, it is sin. So you need to have that faith
mixed in everything. And without faith it's
impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe
that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
And you know, this is all things.
All these things are talked about in the book of Hebrews.
Genuine scriptural faith is not our ability to count it done.
It is a deep consciousness divinely imparted to the heart
of man that it is done. It is the faith that only God
can give. What am I trying to say here?
Deeply in your heart you are conscious, and the Holy Spirit
puts it in your heart. It is done.
We are you're you're asking for something when you're asking for
a healing, asking for a deliverance.
You're you're trusting God to come through to do a miracle for
you Divinely ordained instinct, you call it instinct or whatever
it is, nudge in your heart, you know it is done and then the
miracle happens. Miracle before the miracle
happens there somebody has to believe, somebody has to have
faith and only then a miracle happens.
So I'm quite amazed about the things that I have been thinking
about in in James chapter 2 verse 19, you believe that God
is 1. You do well.
The demons also believe and shudder.
You tell the demon God exists. It may be shaking, but it cannot
be saved. It cannot be saved.
Demon is judged already. They will go into hell, but they
shudder at the name mentioning of the name of God.
What about believers? They don't have the same kind of
fear the demons have. How many of us really afraid of
God? I see some hands going up.
That's good. Good to see that when when you
are able to answer affirmatively, that means you
have a genuine encounter with God.
And when you have a genuine encounter with God, you will
have a respect. Is not fear fear, its not about
crouching before God. It is that reverence that comes
in your heart that lifts him up, that gives him the top place,
that obeys him, that just wants to please him.
Nothing else matters except his approval.
Just a nod, just a wink. We are looking for that wink
from his eyes and that is really living by faith.
Just living by faith and this, this kind of a faith will be
tested. If it is not tested, it is not
genuine. Remember Me, these words of
mind, every faith, when it is tested, only we know it is
genuine. And I think it is Peter who
talks about our faith being tested.
That is like gold being refined in fire.
The gold is a solid. It takes a lot of heat to melt
it. But when you melt the gold and
all the impurities come up on top, you remove the impurities
and then you allow it to cool down, that becomes pure like
that. Trials have got a place in
Christian life and they make you pure, they make you holy, they
make you to align with the will of God, the mind of God.
And there is a place for trials and faith will be tested and
other otherwise it will not be legitimate.
And faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 522. So we have looked at so many
things about the faith, but ultimately what is important is
that we need to have this faith like Abraham.
And when you have the faith, you will be justified.
That is what it justifies. And Paul goes on to talk about
everywhere he scatters this idea in Romans 117, the just shall
live by faith, which picks up from the book of Habakkuk in the
Old Testament. He talks about in the book of
Galatians, he talks about elsewhere.
It is the most powerful thing that anyone can ever understand
and rely or base your life on is the faith.
Your foundation has to be faith in Jesus Christ, nobody else.
No other thing, no other thing. It is not Jesus plus something.
No, it is Jesus only. It is Jesus only and then you
have a real faith that's very, very important for us to
understand. So let's look at I think my time
is finished so I'll try to cover it next week, explain a little
more. There's so much more to talk in
chapter 3. We'll continue next week.
Shall we pray? Father, we thank you again,
thank you again, thank you again.
Thank you again for the gift of faith which your given a measure
of it to each one of us. I thank you for the deposit of
faith in our heart, in our spirit that has helped us to cry
out to our Father, to connect with You and to be saved and to
believe in your Son Jesus. We pray for the gift of faith.
We thank you Jesus. Nothing else can substitute it,
nothing else can replace it. Nothing else can replace it.
It is just Jesus and Him alone. He is our life, He is our light,
He is our bread, He is our fortress.
He is everything to us. He is our shepherd.
And I worship you, our Father, for this great gift of Jesus.
We thank you. For the gift of faith, we honor
you, We praise you. Lord, bless your children now.
Holy Spirit, I invite you now to touch their heart.
Put your hand, Lord Jesus, upon their heart right now that they
may know that you are touching them and strengthen their faith.
Make it strong. It may be able to stand firm
until you're coming to the glory of your name, Jesus.
Name, we ask and everybody says Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Omega. If you need prayer for healing
or breakthrough, or simply to find out more, please head to
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