A glorious good day.
We’re just going to read a passage and then comment as the Spirit guides.
We’re going to start with the Epistle of Paul the Apostle written to the churches at Galatia, chapter 1.
Paul, an apostle, (and then there’s parentheses), not of men.
We’re going to pause right there.
My commission, said Paul, of apostleship, my position, my authority in the Lord, is not
just written to one church location.
It was to a region. “grace be to you and peace from God the Father from our Lord Jesus Christ Who gave Himself for our sins”
Wow That was not a good deal for Him, but it was an extremely good deal for us “Who gave Himself for our sins that he might deliver us
from this present evil world
According to the Will of God and Our Father.
To whom be glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
I marvel.”
So he got five verses of introduction, a couple sentences out of the way, and then he gets to the point.
Basically saying, howdy y’all.
This is Paul.
You remember me.
I’m an apostle because Jesus Christ told me to.
I love God.
I want to greet you in the name of the Lord, and then “I marvel.”
I absolutely am flabbergasted.
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.”
So if I was going to summarize, and everyone should come up with a theme for what a chapter means, chapter one is, we’d call it, “Not My Gospel.”
That is not my gospel.
And he’ll clarify what that means as we go down.
But let’s back up and break this verse apart a little more delicately.
Verse 6, I marvel, I’m dumbfounded.
I’m sitting here amazed.
I don’t even know how to begin, but I am spinning.
I marvel that ye are so soon
That’s an adverb.
How soon?
“So soon removed”.
What did they remove from?
They did not remove from church, because he’s writing to the churches.
They did not remove themselves from the teaching of Paul, because he’s going to emphasize it was not his teaching.
They did not remove themselves from a certain particular belief, but they removed themselves, the next word is a pronoun, Him.
“So soon removed from Him”.
So they’re pulling away from Christ, causing distance between them and the Savior.
I marvel, said Paul, and he’s the one who helped introduce them to Christ, “that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.”
So as they left the presence of Christ and believing the gospel of Christ, they were being pulled away to believe this other gospel.
and it’s a colon after that.
It’s not a period.
God likes long sentences sometimes to get His point across.
He’s got a lot of material to process and God believes we’re brilliant.
God believes we do have the capacity to process complex sentences.
Otherwise, He would not have communicated in His current status.
He would have broken it down further.
He says, I’m amazed, I marvel, that you’re so soon removed from Him that called you unto the …
… but there be SOME that trouble you.”
Oppressive, perverse, twisting of a person trying to persuade you away from Christ.
Because the gospel of Christ is super simple and clear and yet there be some that trouble you.
They distorted your perspective and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
So the word pervert means to twist, wrestle, maneuver into another position.
They’re trying to change or twist the gospel.
So he’s going to speak this whole epistle, this whole letter, is to set straight their brain.
He’s going to compel them.
He’s going to say, look, this is why you should listen to my gospel because it’s not my gospel.
He’ll explain whose gospel it is.
He’ll then explain why he was the original deliverer, chosen vessel of God to carry the gospel to these people and why they should stick with what worked.
Stick with what got you there.
Don’t change your perspective.
Stay with the gospel.
It’s genuine.
It’s worthy.
All five chapters of Galatians are about:
Getting the right gospel, making sure it’s not a strange gospel, or a different gospel, or a fake gospel.
And then he goes into this, don’t do it, in verse 8.
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any “other gospel”, air quotes, unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, [the original gospel,] let him be accursed.”
So he says if we come to you and tell you something different than what you already know is true in Christ, stick with what you know the gospel is.
Then he says if an angel comes, now this could be a fallen angel, this could be a deceptive demonic angel, because what kind of angels tell lies?
Angels of darkness.
An angel from heaven, an angel from under heaven.
Don’t listen to anybody that carries a false gospel.
Then he emphasizes it again in verse 9.
“And we, as we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”
The word accursed means cut off from Christ.
Anathema maranatha.
“For do I now persuade men or God?
Or do I seek to please men?”
I think that’s a nice way of saying I serve God.
I’m here to please Him, not necessarily the audience.
It explains in the next phrase, “For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
Am I here just to make you guys happy?
Am I here to tickle your ears?
I’m here to tell you the truth of God, and I’ll try to say it right, I’ll try to say it clean, but I’m here to make God happy, not to make you happy.
You guys need the truth.
You know, if I brush my teeth or not, you’re still getting the truth.
If you like my personality or not, you’re still getting the truth because I’m not here to… I’m the servant of Christ and the gospel of Christ is super clear and you guys are believing not the gospel.
It’s not my gospel.
It’s not the right gospel.
You need to get back to the gospel of Christ.
Now verse 11, “But I certify you”, I promise, I put my stamp on it, I want to authorize, I guarantee you, “I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.”
I didn’t get this gospel from man.
It’s not originating with man.
It’s not a human level gospel.
So, you know, a lot of people like to use the word ‘religion’.
God’s definition of religion is simply: man’s Way to God.
This definition fits because Jesus Christ is the Way to God.
No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.
There’s only one way through God into eternal life.
Every road leads to God.
We all meet Him, yes.
However, only One opens the Door to eternal life.
Only one provides the
…
[Please listed to the audio version for clarity.]
So this gospel, Paul is saying, let me tell you how valid this gospel is.
I’m going to certify you.
I did not get this original concept, this message of the gospel from myself.
It did not originate from some fatherly tradition.
It did not come from previous generations.
It did not come from a human.
It did not, definitely didn’t come from me.
It’s going to come from somewhere above, and that’s why we have to keep it pure.
And that’s why you guys should go back to the original.
Verse 12, For I neither received it, what is it?
The gospel.
So we’re going to put that in there because it’s a preposition.
Every preposition you can insert the antecedent to get clarity in the sentence.
For I, Paul, neither received it, the gospel, of man, neither was I, Paul, taught it, the gospel, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So Paul is here claiming, and this is the Bible, God wrote the Bible, that he received direct revelation of Jesus Christ
First-person explaining to him the gospel directly.
He says, I got the gospel from God Himself.
And he’s going to explain maybe when that happened a little bit further down here.
For ye have heard of my conversation.
So that’s my pattern of life.
In time past, in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of Christ, couldn’t even be measured, and wasted it.
I wasted the people of God, the Church of God, I destroyed them.
And profited, I did it for a money motive, profited in the Jews’ religion, above many my equals, in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous, he had a robust, fired up,
Just energetic personality, exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
I really believed that the traditions of my fathers, which is Judaism, or the habits and the patterns of believing the old tradition, I was so zealous of that that I wasted the Church of God.
I obviously identified who the enemy was, and I caused, another scripture calls it havoc.
He wreaked havoc
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, that’s very curious, very curious, from his mother’s womb God had a plan for him, and yet God allowed him to be an idiot for umpteen years until God got his attention, and called me by his grace, so God knew his phone number, he got a hold of him, Damascus Road, smacked him off the horse, bright light from heaven, Paul, you’re such an idiot, no he didn’t say that, Paul, Paul, why persecutest thou me?
But when it pleased God, when’s God’s timing to get your attention?
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, this is my Son, who art thou, Lord?
I am Jesus Christ, whom thou persecutest, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen.
For what cause?
What would the Habib do?
And then God told him to go into the city.
He was blinded three days.
God sent a messenger to remove the blindness.
And then that messenger told Paul, this is God’s plan for your life.
And here it is summarized simply, that I might preach him among the heathen.
Immediately, I conferred not with flesh and blood.
I didn’t go to the local Bible college.
I didn’t go to the local church.
He’s going to list off the places where he did not get the gospel.
Now he’s back to his theme.
I know it seemed like a little bit of a rabbit trail.
Where are you going, Paul?
I’m going to explain to you that I did not get the gospel of myself.
That’s why I’m so vehement in expressing to you that you cannot believe a false gospel because this is the genuine gospel directly from the mouth and the heart and the mind of God.
He says, here’s where he did not get his gospel.
Verse 17, neither when I up to Jerusalem.
I did not go to the mega spiritual center of that day.
I did not go to Jerusalem.
to them which were apostles before me.
I did not go to the previous generation and say, oh, you’ve been an apostle for a while, I’m going to get the gospel from you.
I did not confer with flesh and blood.
I did not go to a place, Jerusalem, to get the gospel.
I did not go to the church fathers, the apostles before me.
But I went into Arabia.
Now, Arabia is generally a desert land, and many Bible scholars believe that Paul was him and Jesus in the desert, in
The School of Learning the Gospel Directly, which is what he implies earlier, that he received the gospel directly from Jesus Christ himself, and returned again unto Damascus, like his first venture out of the wilderness was directly to Damascus to begin his ministry.
And then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.
But other of the apostles I saw none, save James the Lord’s brother.
Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.
Afterwards I came into the region of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ.
But they heard only, that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.
and
A valid authoritative force and a voice who is an apostle, not of men, back to verse 1, neither by man, I didn’t give myself this title, but by Jesus Christ.
God picked me from my mother’s womb to be an apostle.
And I’m telling you the dead-level, direct-from-heaven truth, and here’s the evidence of why you can trust that my gospel is pure.
Then 14 years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also.
So he’s going to go into a long story about how he got into trouble.
He says, you know, I’m not giving you a fake gospel.
In fact, I fought the churches.
I had to go against the people in Jerusalem.
I got in trouble with Titus.
And then down here with Peter, he says, Verse 11, But when Peter was come up to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Why?
I had to set Peter straight.
I had to correct the record.
Why?
Because he was believing and teaching something that was contrary to the simple gospel.
And the simple gospel is that believers do not have to live as the Jews.
Because if you skip up here,
Yeah, I don’t know what verse it is.
There it is, verse 14.
When I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, he’s like, I’m all about the gospel.
We want to make sure it’s the gospel of Christ and not the gospel of Paul.
It’s the gospel of Christ, not the gospel of Peter.
I said unto Peter before them all, if thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles, that means, Peter, you’ve adopted the now
The Christian Lifestyle, we’ll call it.
You’re behaving and living as a Gentile and not as do the Jews.
Why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
He’s like, you’re living the life of freedom in Christ.
You’re now not under the law.
You’re now not bound by these former traditions that do not improve salvation.
And now you’re trying to persuade the people in your church that you’re ministering to in your, you know, in your outreach
I’m
God moved on the spirit of Paul to go bring purity to the gospel even when Peter started to go sideways in mixing unwanted ingredients in with the original gospel and specifically Peter was mixing in a little bit of works because he says in verse 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even
We have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
We know this from Romans and everywhere else.
For I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God and then the famous I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live
I do not frustrate
or Confuse the Grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
You’ve probably heard many preachers through your lifetime saying, if you could earn your way to heaven, then why would Jesus have to die?
This is the verse, said in the Paulinian style, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
And now he launches in.
He’s basically explaining
and this is a long post, but in chapter 1, he’s like, you guys are believing a twisted, perverse, unproductive gospel.
Now, someone who believes the gospel, they’re saved.
The reason why Paul was striving for the purity of the gospel, one reason is the gospel must be productive for the next generation.
We must keep the Gospel clean so that the next generation hears the full truth, clean truth, simple truth, straight from God.
Right?
That’s why we believe in inspiration of the Scripture, that it came from God, and we believe in preservation of the Scripture, that God is able to maintain the clarity and the purity of exactly what He said, including every comma, every breath mark, that God’s Spirit likes to work through clean vessels and clean people.
Paul wanted to make sure that the next generation, beyond these guys, did not get a perverse gospel.
In fact, in chapter 3, we hear, he sounds kind of harsh on paper, but I think the people that heard him speak as a grandfather before, in his tone of graciousness, and he probably is very compassionate when he starts off verse 3, instead of harsh, he says, oh
Foolish Galatians, like come on guys.
Foolish Galatians, WHO hath bewitched you?
You’re getting tricked that you should not obey the truth.
Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you, meaning you were eyewitnesses of the crucifixion.
You were there.
You saw Jesus crucified.
You saw Him resurrected.
You were witnesses of Him after He went.
You knew.
You know Jesus.
This is first-generation Christianity.
Who hath bewitched you?
So he knows it’s a third-party teacher, it’s not themselves.
Nobody goes goofy on the gospel without a pervert stepping in and saying, oh, we need to reform, we need to retwist, we need to readjust, we need to contort, and just, if you just dial in and overemphasize this verse and dial down this verse, all of a sudden, Calvinism.
No, no, no.
Uh-uh.
Yeah, you didn’t get that until you went to college and you learned how to twist the gospel.
Verse 2 of chapter 3, this only what I learn of you.
He says, let’s start with point one.
Let’s just begin with at the beginning, please.
I’m going to untwist your brain.
I’m going to comb out the kinks.
We’re going to fix your thinking.
He says, received ye the Spirit.
Now, when does that happen?
That happens at the moment of being born again, the new birth.
You receive the Spirit of God.
This only what I learn of you.
Raise your hand.
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law?
to the World.
in
have you suffered so many things in vain if it be yet in vain in other words did you go to class and you went to all of third grade and you just didn’t get are you gonna have to take it again did you suffer all the way through learning everything for empty no purpose he therefore that ministereth to you
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh the miracles among you, doeth he by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
In other words, look to your preachers, look to your mentors, look to your people.
Are they walking by the flesh?
Or are they walking by the Spirit?
Even as Abraham believed God, and it, his belief, was accounted unto him, Abraham, for righteousness.
God wrote it on his record.
He wrote a record, an accounting.
That’s righteousness.
Why?
Faith.
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith
The same are the children of Abraham.
You want to be counted a child of God, a child of Abraham?
I mean, in the pattern of how Abraham believed God, you need to exercise faith.
And the scripture, foreseeing.
The scripture has amazing power.
The scripture can foretell and foresee that God would justify the heathen through faith, preach before the gospel unto Abraham, there is gospel in the Old Testament, the gospel is there’s a coming Messiah, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed.
Abraham believed Messiah’s coming.
Who’s Messiah?
He’s the Lamb of God.
What’s he going to do?
Sacrifice to pay for your sins.
Okay, I believe.
Great, you’re saved.
That’s the gospel in the Old Testament.
So then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Follow Abraham.
He believed God.
You believe God.
Same Messiah.
Same confidence.
For as many as are of the works of the law, you think that you’re going to work your way into heaven, this false gospel, are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Meaning, you’ve got to be 100% on target with every law, otherwise you’re cursed.
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, obvious, for the just shall live by faith.
He doesn’t even want you to live by works.
He wants you to live by faith, total dependence, reliance on God, to be invited and involved in every moment, every breath, every thought, every attitude.
And the law is not of faith.
So there’s something defective in our human genome that really wants to believe that we have to earn by work.
Now, work does earn money, and money buys groceries, and I like groceries.
However, work cannot earn the smile of God.
Here, God smiles at faith.
And the law is not of faith.
They are different.
They are separate.
The man that doeth them, that’s the law, shall live in them.
In other words, you don’t live by what you say because you’re breaking the law.
Christ, verse 13, hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.
What’s the curse of the law?
It’s made impossible to live up to.
It’s totally opposed to our human nature.
It’s anti-human.
The law is there to show us that we are different than God.
In fact, the law is ten specific ways that humans and God are different.
God does it this way, humans do it that way.
God does it this way, humans fall apart over here.
Ten proofs that I’m not God.
There’s the Ten Commandments, right?
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.
For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.
I’m so glad I get the blessing of Abraham, which is the coming Messiah.
on
Brethren, I speak after the manner of men.
I’m breaking it down on your level.
Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disanulleth or addeth er to.
In other words, God made a promise.
He’s going to stick with it.
We’re just going to pause there because it’s been a minute.
Thank you all for listening.
Have a good week.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
