Date: February 8, 2009

Lesson: Galatians 3.1-14

Sermon Title: Bewitched

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Bridal Registry Blooper (1)

A bride-to-be called to make a change to her wedding registry.

It is common, almost expected, that a bride will change something on her registry at least once (dish pattern, color of towels, etc.).

The Customer Service Representative told her that J. C. Penney would be happy to make the change.

She asked if the bride wanted to change the dishes or the linens.

The bride said, "No, keep all that." She just wanted to change the name of the groom.

  1. Change the name of the groom?

    1. That was swift!

    2. You wonder what happened for the couple to fall out of love.

    3. Perhaps it is the fickle nature of our concept of love.

  2. What about the fickle nature of the nominal Christian?

    1. Beware of the those who bewitch.

    2. Beware of witchery.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. In the movie Pal Joey, Rita Hayworth plays Vera Simpson.

    1. She is a rich widow made for the charming, handsome, funny, talented, and a first class, A-number-one heel Joey Evens.

    2. In the movie Ms Hayworth sings Bewitched.

      1. Bewitched, bothered and bewildered From Pal Joey Lyrics by Lorenz Hart, music by Richard Rodgers

      2. The refrain gores like this:

I'm wild again
Beguiled again
A simpering,
whimpering child again
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I

    1. If I am bewitched, bothered and bewildered what about the Galatians?

  1. The Galatians have been bewitched.

    1. How do you account for the sudden change in their outlook and loyalty?

      1. They forsook faith for Law.

        1. People desire certainty.

        2. Rules of life that set out how one ought to think, behave, and worship.

        3. Law appeals compliance and order.

      2. They chose commandment over love.

        1. Love can be difficult.

        2. It requires an intelligent application of principle.

        3. The principle is "Do no harm".

        4. This applies to friend and enemy.

      3. They retreated instead of advancing.

    2. What led to this abrupt turnaround that Paul is so concerned about that he calls them "foolish Galatians?"

    3. They have fallen under the spell of the witcheries of false teachers.

      1. This is the only way of accounting for the sudden and inexplicable change of belief in Galatia.

      2. There must have been some extraordinary power of delusion or fascination at work to throw them so completely out of line with Christian thought.

        1. It might have been the witchery of logic.

        2. It may have the witchery of an apparent need for personal holiness.

    4. Whatever it was the Galatians were foolish in yielding to such persuasive delusions.

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  1. What is different in our own generation?

    1. Are we not subject to the witcheries of the collective voices who seek to put us on a different path?

      1. Bewitched by Madoff and his pyramid scheme.

      2. Bewitched by scam artists.

A Fraudulent Psychic (2)

A woman went to the local psychic in hopes of contacting her dearly departed grandmother.

The psychic's eyelids begin fluttering and she begins moaning. Eventually, a voice comes, saying, "Granddaughter? Are you there?"

The granddaughter, wide-eyed responds, "Grandma? Is that you?"

"Yes granddaughter, it's me."

"It's really you, Grandma?" the woman repeats.

"Yes, it's really me, granddaughter."

The woman pauses a moment, "Grandma, I have just one question for you."

"Anything, my child."

"When did you learn to speak English?"

      1. Bewitched by commercials.

      2. Bewitched by politicians.

    1. If you have internet access you can go to Snopes.com and find hundreds of bewitching schemes.

    2. The worst case scenario is when we are confronted by the intelligent and convincing people who seek to turn us aside from our faith and heritage.

[Carl] Sagan was fascinated by the phenomenon that educated adults, with the wonders of science manifest all around them, could cling to beliefs based on the unverifiable testimony of observers dead for 2,000 years."

So says Jerry Adler who wrote a piece in Newsweek (March 31, 1997, 64-65) about the famous astronomer. He cites Sagan as once accosting [cleric Joan Brown] Campbell and saying, "You're so smart; why do you believe in God?"

Adler says that "she found this a surprising question from someone who had no trouble accepting the existence of black holes, which no one has ever observed. 'You're so smart; why don't you believe in God?' she answered."

Adler says that Sagan never had doubts about his agnosticism.

His wife, Ann Druyan, told him that "there was no deathbed conversion … no appeals to God, no hope for an afterlife, no pretending that he and I, who had been inseparable for 20 years, were not saying goodbye forever."

Didn't he want to believe? she was asked.

"Carl never wanted to believe," she replies fiercely. "He wanted to know."

    1. This is bewitching.

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  1. How may we avoid becoming bewitched?

    1. How may you tell the difference between the bewitched and the true?

      1. How do you tell the difference of quality from junk.

        1. A man will come to your door usually stating that he has just finished a neighbors driveway and has some of the sealing product left over.

        2. He will do your driveway for half the price just to get rid of the excess sealant.

        3. Sure, you say, go ahead.

        4. In most cases is not sealant but waste motor oil, which will look good for a while but will not dry and will deteriorate the driveway.

        5. To seal your driveway you look in the Yellow Pages for a reputable firm.

        6. You may even check them out with the Better Business Bureau.

      2. How do you tell the difference between Paul and the Judaizers?

        1. Examine their character and their motives.

        2. What is being taught.

        3. Why go backwards to Law that has been left behind by Jesus and Paul.

    2. But then Paul encourages you to Look to Abraham!

      1. All who live in faith are the children of Abraham.

        1. 6Just as Abraham "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," 7so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham.

        2. 8And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you."

        3. This promise was given to Abraham before he was circumcised.

        4. Adam Clarke in his commentary on this passage writes:

Abraham, while even uncircumcised, believed in God, and his faith was reckoned to him for justification; and Abraham is called the father of the faithful, or, of believers. If, then, he was justified without the deeds of the law, he was justified by faith; and if he was justified by faith, long before the law was given then the law is not necessary to salvation. (3)

      1. 9For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.

    1. Look to Jesus!

      1. Paul stated his position as dead to the Law, and inspired by Christ, goes on in the present paragraph to appeal to the Galatians to free themselves from the bewitching power of the Law, and to yield themselves to the faith in the crucified and now risen Christ, who alone secures justification and its accompanying blessings.

Paul here declares that two attractive powers had been presented to the Galatians--a crucified Christ in his own preaching, and the Law in the preaching of the Judaizers; and, to his amazement, the Law had bewitched them as to lead them to look for salvation to Law-keeping instead of to the Savior.

      1. Yet it only brings out the fact that there is in Law and self-righteousness a bewitchery which is continually leading souls back into bondage.

      2. It seems so natural to establish some claim by Law-keeping and ceremony that poor souls are from time to time falling into legal hope and its delusions.

      3. The superstition, which is abroad now, and leads so many to ceremonials for salvation, rests upon this foundation.

      4. It is the fascination of an evil eye which is upon the foolish votaries; they fancy they can save themselves by Law, and maintain their self-complacency and pride all the time.

      5. But it is a delusion pure and simple.

    1. Listen to Paul!

      1. So the idea is that you must know for yourself.

      2. Take nothing for granted.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. There are some strong and enormous bewitching influences in our world.

    1. Scott Grant in The black swans, The Eyes of Faith, relates a story that brings home the message for today. (4)

A father once took his 5-year-old son to Disneyland, the boy was most fascinated by black swans in a pond. In the middle of this artificial world designed to dazzle the mind, it was something from a different world that captivated this boy. It was something from the real world. If the best thing in the artificial world is something from the real world, that says that the real world is better.

    1. Perhaps at times it seems as if we're living in a Disneyland of sorts.

      1. We're looking for something of substance, of permanence.

      2. We're looking for something real.

      3. Then something like a black swan swims across our pond, and we know we want something more.

      4. We know we want a different world, and in some sense, we can see it.

      5. It is the world of Jesus and of Paul.

    2. Faith gets glimpses of that world here in this world.

      1. Do not be misled by the Judaizers.

      2. We are children of Abraham and of God.

Amen!

1. Received from Thomas Ellsworth. (From "JCPeople," the company newsletter of J.C. Penney, Inc., April 2001, Vol. 3. No. 4)

2. from Pastor Tim's Sermon Illustrations and Inspirations List, http://www.cybersaltlists.org

3. Adam Clarkes Commentary on the New Testament. Electronic STEP Files Copyright © 1999, Parsons Technology, Inc. Clarke, Adam Parsons Technology, Inc. All rights reserved.

4. Scott Grant, The black swans, The Eyes of Faith, August 23, 1998, Pbc.org/dp/grant/hebrews/heb20.html.

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