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Introduction to Galatians: Grace vs. Works 0:09 Good morning. Welcome to Stand on the Word. Today, we begin Paul's letter to the Galatians. We're gonna look at chapters 1 and 2 of the book of Galatians. Verse 20 of chapter 2, I have been crucified with Christ. It is0:20 no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. What a powerful0:32 verse. Alright. The Galatians, was not, this book, the Galatians, was not written to a single church, but to churches in the region of Galatia that that Paul had either planted0:44 or had helped plant. Now considering all of Paul's letter, this 1, I believe, should, I I think, have special significance to us. They all have application to us, but Galatia was a part of the modern day,0:56 Turkey, basically the center region of the peninsula of Asia Minor. Now the name Galatia means the country of the Gauls. Okay? Now these were the Celtic tribes,1:08 from the, the same gene pool, alright, of those who eventually inhabited Ireland, Wales, and the Highlands of Scotland, as well as France and Northern Spain, of which their descendants1:20 populated what? North America. These, Gallic, Celts had, much the same temperament, alright, and characteristics of the American population today. Alright. So when1:32 was it written? Most likely, the letter was written after his second visit to the Galatian churches, which would place the writing around the end of AD, 541:44 54 AD. Obviously, there are disputes about the date of that, but but that's kind of the 1 we're going with. That's where most of the scholars land. Now word did come to Paul that false1:56 teachers had come in behind him, and they were doing 2 things. 1, they attacked Paul's credibility so that, they could then attack his teaching and try to bring these gentile converts. Right? They were2:08 gentiles. Under the law of Judaism, under grace plus works. Okay? Now these churches, which included the churches in Iconium, Lystra, and Derby, had,2:20 gone from freedom through grace to bondage under the law. That well, that's what was happening here. So Paul writes a very, very fiery and direct letter. This is the only letter in the New Testament that he wrote by his2:32 own hand. He says that in the very last chapter. He was apparently so worked up when the word of the situation came to him, they didn't he did not wait for a scribe or an assistant, so he began to write in big letters,2:43 which also contributed, contributes to kind of what many believe was his his ailment that he had that he often talked to2:55 about his thorn in the flesh was his eyesight. Nothing specifically said in the scripture about what that ailment was, but based on this and other, statements, they3:07 believe it was his eyesight or that he had some, issue with his eyes. So this was this was not a gentle correction as we see in Paul's other letters. This was correction, as we see in Paul's other letters. This was a3:17 very stern, severe, and solemn message, I think in part because they were attacking, the the people coming in were attacking his credibility, his character, and he had, suffered a lot as a result3:29 of preaching the gospel. Alright. Verse 1, chapter 1, Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through men, but through Jesus Christ and God the father who raised him from the dead. Alright. He hits it right off. Okay. Paul3:40 goes to the very heart of the primary attack on him by the false teachers, claiming he was not that he was not a real he was not the real thing. He was a second rate apostle, not at the level of Peter and James, and3:52 those who were teaching or still aligned with Judaism. He made clear he was not an apostle by the selection of men or through through their teaching, but rather he was an apostle through the4:04 selection and training of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, frankly, this is a common tactic of those who peddle self serving lies. Right? They can't confront the message head on. We see this today. Okay?4:16 So they attack the credibility of the messenger and use that to discredit the message. So we have to be discerning when people start making allegations about messengers. Can't believe everything we hear, especially4:28 in this day of social media. There's so many lies out there. There there's also truth, but we have to have the discernment to wade between the truth and the lies. Now here's where we get into the4:40 relevance of the gene pool, the relationship with these folks. They were very fickle. Verse 6, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel,4:52 which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. Infirmity5:04 of the Gauls is that they are fickle in their resolves, fond of change, and not to be trusted. That's what Caesar said. Recall in Acts chapter 14, the people of Lystra, remember this, that was part of the Galatian5:15 province, wanted to make Paul a god 1 day, and the next minute, they were wanting to stone him. Alright? I mean, that kinda sounds a little bit like America today, fickle, impulsive. I mean, why do you think5:27 infomercials do so well? You know, the Ginsu knives, ThighMaster, Power Juicer. But wait. There's more. Alright. Verse 8. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you5:39 than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Even if an angel were to preach a different gospel from what we have preached, let them be damned. That's what he was saying. Alright? That's strong language.5:51 Now there are some religions today that say they have extra revelation that was brought by an angel. Paul says, don't be fooled. Do not be fooled. It is not true. God has6:02 revealed in his word, and if it is there's no addition to it. Okay? Verse 9. And we have said before, so now I say, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you, then6:14 what you have received, let him be accursed. It's not Jesus plus. It's not faith plus. It is Jesus. It is faith in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Now Paul acknowledges that these are strong words,6:27 but he's not trying to please men. Look what he says, verse 10. For I for do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.6:39 Alright? You gotta choose 1 or the other. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man nor was I taught it,6:51 but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Verse 15. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in me, that I might7:03 preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Now we talked about7:14 this before. When Paul had his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, he didn't immediately go on his missionary journeys and start preaching the gospel. He went to Arabia, the desert, it7:26 was a desert area, for 3 years. Now some say it was probably Damascus. We don't know. It was in the area of Arabia, but it was a a deserted place. It was Damascus. We don't know. It was in the area of Arabia, but it was7:32 a deserted place. It was basically he was he stepped aside. And and and it's interesting how the god uses the desert, a place of isolation, of scarcity to train his people.7:44 Here he says he did not confer with men. He spent another decade in apparent preparation for what would be a world changing ministry. You know, I I remember years ago7:58 at at at the church we were attending, shortly after my wife and I had been married. I think we'd only been married about a year, maybe year and a half. And a young member of the church staff got married. And he came8:09 back from his honeymoon. And, that next Sunday morning, as he got up to speak before the church, he said, man, I can tell you how to make your marriage work. Just love your wife. Well,8:21 unfortunately, that marriage and ministry didn't last. The the, we have to we have to learn before we can speak. The apostle Paul was over a dozen years in preparation8:33 to preach the way. Alright? That's what it was called, the way, to preach the gospel and point people to the way. Leaders and teachers need to be tested and tried before they are followed.8:46 And I I don't know if I've said this in, in our devotional time together, but, I often say it when I speak and I certainly do it when I mentor among the the young men that I mentor is that8:57 I read mostly the books that I read in terms of study, in terms of theology, bible, those sort of thing, doctrine. I I read those who are dead because I wanna know how9:09 they finish the race. In chapter 2, Paul zeroes in on the focus of the Judaizers. Circumcision and the fact that, he's not, gonna compromise9:21 the truth. Okay? He's not gonna he's not gonna fall for this. Verse 4. And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they9:33 might bring us into bondage, to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour that the truth of the gospel might continue to you. He he even goes, goes into his confrontation with Peter9:45 over his duplicity on the issue. Verse 11. Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to blame. For before certain men came from James, he9:57 would eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him so that even Barnabas was10:08 carried away with their hypocrisy. So, you know, what we have here, Peter and the other Jews,10:20 were were putting on a show for some of their Jewish friends. Alright? They would they would do 1 thing when the Gentiles were there, but when the the the men of the circumcision, the Jews, and these were even10:32 Christians, they were Christians, they would come. They would then separate themselves from the Gentiles. Oh, you know, Paul, we as he repeatedly says, there is no difference between Jew and Gentile in Christ.10:44 Now you you can see why this issue works up Paul. It it it because it it attacks the very foundation of the gospel, that we are all the same in Christ. We and we're gonna get into this more in this book of Galatians10:56 as he talks about the promise to Abraham was all about the gospel for all men. Alright. Verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we11:07 have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. Now in his letter to the Ephesians, he says it this11:19 way, Ephesians 2 8 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Then11:31 he provides what should be our focus. Galatians 2 20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by11:43 faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. You11:55 know, during 1 of my visits to, to Israel, I went to, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. And it it12:06 it, I mean, it's it's it's very sobering. Alright? And, I really don't like I've been there a few times, and it's really hard to go into it. But it's it's startling to think about the power of sin12:18 and just what unredeemed man can do to his fellow human being. I mean, it really is. It really is. But this is what we see today. It really it's what we see today. The the unredeemed12:30 man, the suppressing of the truth, and and and the fallen nature of man. I mean, we we we see what they did. 6000000 men, women, and children, mostly Jews, were12:41 killed simply because they were Jewish or associated with Jewish people. You know, they were in the museum, there were displays about the various aspects, including the concentration camps or death camps.12:53 And and, of course, the most, infamous 1 being in in Poland, Auschwitz, where over 1000000 Jews, men, women, boys, and girls were killed. Now major Rudolf13:05 Hess, he was the commandant of the camp. He had, in German, he had these words inscribed above the gates leading into the Nazi death camp. The phrase, the German13:17 phrase, came from the title of a book written in the 19 eighties. The words say work in the 18 hundreds, I should say. The words say work set you free.13:29 Okay. The message was to these, prisoners that were being taken into these death camps, it was a lie, that if you work hard enough, you could earn your freedom. Well, I mean, it was a lie.13:41 There was no freedom in their work. It was only exhaustion, humiliation, and eventually death. Spiritually, Satan has promoted the same deceptive lie that somehow if we just work hard enough, do enough good13:53 deeds, read our Bible, go to church, we can earn spiritual freedom. It won't happen. Trying to earn your salvation, trying to earn a standing before14:05 God by keeping the law or doing good will only lead to exhaustion, humiliation, and spiritual death. Our hope, as Paul made abundantly clear, is14:17 in God's grace by faith alone. That is the only way to freedom. Father, we thank you for your word. Once again, we just thank you for your grace and your14:29 mercy. And, Lord, I pray for those that are on this journey that may have never fully trusted you and believed in their heart that you raised Jesus from the dead. As he died on the cross, you raised him from the dead. I14:41 pray, father, that they would believe unto salvation and confess with their mouth that Jesus is lord. Continue to guide us on this journey, and may we, through the power of the Holy Spirit, knowLiving by Faith and the Power of Grace 14:53 how to rightfully apply your word to our lives in this world in which we're living. For we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Alright. Thanks for joining me this morning, and until next time,15:05 keep standing on the word.15:10 Today's study comes from the Stand on the Word Bible Reading Plan available for free at frc dot org slash bible. By following along in just a few minutes a day, you15:21 can read through the entire Bible in just 2 years. Learn more and request the free reading guide at frc dot org slash bible.In this video 0:00 Introduction to Galatians: Grace vs. Works14:47 Living by Faith and the Power of Grace
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