It has been 13 years since we
studied this. This is a book, or letter, or
epistle, though penned by men. Scripture says holy men spake
as they were moved by the Spirit of God. This is God's Word through
His church, the church at Galatia, or the church at Rocky Mount. This book is vital to understand
the gospel. The gospel, good news, is salvation
is by grace, not works. And if you're a sinner, that's
good news. That's good news. There's some
key verses in this book that tell us, you know, every word
is vital, There are some key verses that tell us what this
book is setting forth. Look at verse 6 of Galatians
1. Galatians 1.6. You write into
this church and it says, I marvel that you are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. Now, he is going to deal with
some who came in bringing back the law. That's what he's dealing
with through this whole book, like Romans, like Hebrews, the
law. And he's going to show them clearly,
God's people, you're not under the law. Thank God. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. That's in his book, Galatians.
Look at chapter 2, verse 21. This is how serious it is. This
is how important it is. 221. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, the gospel of God's grace. I don't frustrate it, I don't
mix it. I declare it very plainly, Paul
said, if righteousness, come on now, this is vital, if righteousness
come by the law, Christ is dead and vain. That's how serious
it is. It's just error and doctrine
if someone brings you under the law. No, it's another gospel.
Chapter 3, verse 3. And there's so many that don't
understand this. Verse 3. Now, some say, well, we're not
saved by the law, but it's our rule of life. Hold on now. Look
at chapter 3, verse 3. Are you so foolish? You begin
in the Spirit, led by the Spirit. You're now made perfect by the
flesh. You're going to sanctify yourself?
For Christ you're sanctification. That's how serious this is. Verse 10 of chapter 3. As many
as are above the works of the law, be it a covenant or be it
a rule of life, you are under the curse. Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things that are written in the book
of the law to do them. The law says do, do, do. The gospel says done. Key verses in chapter 4, verse 5, Christ came to redeem
them. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son. Oh, what wonderful verses. Made
of a woman. Made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons. We're not under a cruel taskmaster.
Paul wrote of that in Romans, didn't he? We're not under that
former husband. We're not in the spirit of bondage. That's Romans 8. We've received
the spirit of adoption, sons. Chapter 5, verse 1. So near the end of this book,
he says, stand fast now, stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free. Be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. What's that? The law. Verse 4,
Christ is of no effect unto you, whosoever you are justified by
the law, or you've fallen from grace. Verse 18, if you're led
of the Spirit, you're not under the law. What does that mean?
It means what it says. It says what it means. In any way, shape, form, or fashion.
Not under the law. But what? So, to be ignorant of this book,
like Romans, like Hebrews, is to be ignorant of the law, to
be ignorant of the gospel. to be ignorant of righteousness,
without which no man shall see the Lord." Listen to Martin Luther. He wrote a book on Galatians,
a commentary on Galatians. Very good. Listen to it. Boy,
the Lord brought him out from under bondage, didn't He? He said, now this is talking
about the righteousness of faith, or Christian righteousness. We
must diligently discern this. Because the other righteousness
is totally contrary to this. He talked about the righteousness
of the law. He said, this is the most excellent
righteousness of faith, which God through Christ without any
works imputes to us. It's contrary to the other righteousness.
This is passive righteousness. The other is active. Listen,
this is Luther years ago. He said, this is a righteousness
of faith wherein we work nothing. We render nothing to God. We
receive. Someone works for us. That is
to say, God. This is a passive righteousness.
This righteousness is a mystery to most. The world doesn't know
it. And even some believers don't
thoroughly understand it when they have these temptations with
sin and so forth. We need to be diligently taught
Who understands this and apprehends this righteousness and their
terrors and their conscience afflicted? This is the comfort
of conscience, this passive righteousness. Listen to this statement, this
is just his introduction. He said, I abandon myself from
all active righteousness, both of my own and God's law, and
embrace this passive righteousness which is the righteousness of
grace, mercy, and forgiveness of sin. I rest only upon the
righteousness which is the righteousness of Christ. Did that man know
the gospel? You've got to understand something
about this book. that we're just going to get through the salutation. The first five verses is all
we're going to deal with. I'd hope to. But there's so much
here, like every single salutation and every epistle is so full
of the gospel. A salutation and a dedication. He salutes the church and dedicates
this book, verse 5, like every other book, to the glory of God.
Alright, verse 1. Paul, an apostle. An apostle. Now, apostle means a delegate
or an ambassador. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.20,
Now then, we are ambassadors of Christ. An ambassador is one
who is not elected by the people, but chosen by the ruler of that
country. As all of God's true prophets,
apostles, pastors, teachers, evangelists, they're not elected.
Churches don't elect them, choose them. God calls them and sends
them. An ambassador is one who is chosen
by the king or president or ruler of that country, personally chosen
by him. to represent his country, to
send him into whatever nation or whatever country that he sends
him, to whatever people he decides. And he's the ambassador of that
man, and he's sent with a message from that ruler. He's not an
interpreter, he's merely a declarer. Sent with that message, you tell
these people what I tell you to tell them. And we just looked
at Our Lord sending the apostles out. We're going to look at it
again in a few minutes. But he said, you go and you preach
what I told you. You go where I send you and you
preach what I told you to. So Paul says, I'm not of men. I don't work for men. That's
a hireling isn't it? If a man works for men, he's
going to try to please men. And that's what he said in this
same chapter. If I yet to seek to please men, I'm not the servant
of God. If you're on the payroll, if
you feel like your livelihood depends on the number of people
there and your salary and all that, then you're not going to
want to offend anybody. And you're going to want some
big givers to come in, so your salary will go up. So you're
going to do whatever it takes to get as many people in. Paul said, I don't work for men.
I'm not of men. Or by man. Wasn't elected, wasn't
chosen. But by, look at this, Jesus Christ. An apostle, a messenger, an ambassador. By Jesus Christ and God the Father
who raised Him from the dead. This is true, go to Ephesians
4. This is true of every man. There are no women preachers.
There are no women pastors. You know that. How do you know
that? You've been taught the Scriptures. You know that for a fact. Ephesians
4, this is true of every man God calls, chosen by God, by
Christ, sent, put in the ministry. One old preacher said, no prophet
or apostle ever applied for the job. None. Moses. Look at all of them. Examine
them. Some of them we don't know where they came from. They just
appeared. Elijah just appeared out of nowhere. Where did he
come from? What school? God called him. Look at Ephesians 4. Eighth,
when he ascended up on high, Christ, he led captivity captive,
gave gifts unto men. Now go down to verse 11, it speaks
of these gifts. He gave some apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Verse 12, for the
perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, the edifying
of the body of Christ. What is the work of the ministry?
It's preaching the gospel. Paul said, therefore seeing we
have this ministry, preaching the gospel. What edifies the
body of Christ? Edify means to build up. What
builds him up? This most holy faith, the faith
of the gospel. Now you try to tell people that,
about this calling, the ministry, the calling, you try to tell
them that it's not a job, and people ask me that all the time.
How did you get to be here and so forth? You try to tell them
it's not a job you seek, it's not a job you train for or apply
for, but it's a calling. They don't understand. God's
people do. It's a calling. Doubtless, the
world is full of charlatans and self-appointed prophets and apostles
and evangelists and pastors and teachers. Self-appointed. Full
of them. But it's still true. It's a calling. It's not something you train
for. My computer or phone or whatever,
you know, I get these pop-up ads all the time. And by the
way, I look at the Weather Channel more than anything else. And
it's even on the Weather Channel, these pop-ups. So down at the
bottom, all the time it says, Be a Pastor. Be a pastor. You want to be a pastor? Click
on this. Go to whatever. Do it online. Not funny, is it? Not funny at all. 1 Thessalonians
2. Go over there just a minute.
1 Thessalonians 2. This is important to understand,
this calling. Because so many are gone out,
false ones are gone out in the world. And many, if not most,
are not called, not sent by God. And Paul in nearly every epistle,
listen to him, Paul in every epistle tells how the true are
known from the false. Our Lord did. And nowhere is
that more clearly contrasted than 1 Thessalonians 2. 1 Thessalonians
2. Nowhere is this... are the true
known from the false more clearly than in these verses. Clearly
seen. The man, his message, his manner.
Look at chapter 2, verse 1. Brethren, you know our entrance
in unto you, it was not in vain. Did Thessalonica call Paul and
say, come over and preach? No. God sent him. They didn't even know the gospel.
They were heathens. And God sent him into that land. Alright, read verse 2. Now you
know, after we suffered before, we were shamefully intrigued.
Those that preach the gospel are going to be hated. We were bold in our God to speak
unto you the gospel of God. Bold. What do you do? What are
you here for? Do one thing. With boldness. And we had much contention. But our exhortation was not of
deceit. of uncleanness or guile. We were allowed of God to do
this. We're put in trust with the gospel. So that's what we
do. We speak. Not as pleasing men, but God. We try at the heart. Neither
at any time use we flattering word. You know this. We don't
talk about you good people. So glad you came. Thankful that
you came. We thank men for coming to worship
God. We thank God for bringing us to worship Him. And a man
stands up and calls people like that out. Worms. Leopards. Dogs. I mean, at any time we use flattering
words. That's how you know a true preacher
of God. Verse 6, Nor of men sought we
glory. Neither of you! Or others. We might have been burdensome. Paul, you know, was a tent maker. He would not be accused of being
in it for the money. And he worked harder than anybody.
With his hands. He said, we are gentle among
you as a nurse cherishes her children. We were affectionately
desirous of you. To the Corinthians, Paul said,
we don't desire yours. We're not in this for what we
can get out of you. We're here for what we believe God has given
us to give to you. The gospel. Not silver and gold,
but such as we have given unto you. A name. A gospel. It could go on and on, couldn't
it? Alright, go back to our text in Galatians. So Paul says, I'm
an apostle. Now, there are no more apostles. There's some today that claim
to be. They still do. I know you've
driven by that place down on 220 South. They've got a parking
place reserved. It's called Apostolic Corner.
I guess that's where the apostles parked their chariot. You know this. You've been taught
this. You know this. But there's three things Qualifications
for an apostle, and why? There are no more apostles. Three
things. Number one, they had to see the Lord with their eyes.
Personally. Paul saw Him. He said, I saw
Him as one born out of due time. Where did he see Him? On the
road to Damascus. Number two, they had to be sent
by the Lord. Not man. The Lord, Jesus Christ
Himself chose His apostles. and said, I chose you. Thaddeus,
follow me. Matthew, follow me. Levi, follow
me. Thomas, follow me. Now, I send
you. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. They received their calling and their ministry from
the Lord Himself. Number three, they were given
powers such as no man ever had before or after. They were given
powers to heal, cast out devils, There's nobody on earth today
that can heal a sore toe. Cast out devils. These ones that
claim to are working for Him. Raises the dead. Now why? Why did the Lord give
them such credential? Because the Bible wasn't written
yet. These men were used by God to write the Scripture. After
the last book was included in God's Word, that's it. Then all these gifts and healing
were gone. Don't need them anymore. Why?
Because this is the test from then on by which true spirits
or preachers are known. This is how you know them. Before the Bible was written,
These men were given these credentials, and they'd go into these towns
and these villages preaching. Now, everybody had something
to say. Mars Hill, remember. Everybody
had something to say, like today. And everybody claimed to be this
or that, okay? Well, these men came, sent by
God, sent by Christ, healed lepers. The lame, and
the haught, and the blind, and the deaf, and raised the dead. One place when Peter, they worshipped
them like gods. And they said, oh, don't worship
us. So it made people sit up and listen. Nobody can do what
these men have done except they be from God. So it made people
sit up and listen. And pay attention, these men
have come from God, we're going to hear what they have to say.
And those powers were in order to give people ear for one thing,
to preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. That was their credentials, okay.
But now, there are no more, we don't need those things. This
is a man's credentials. Timothy couldn't, he didn't have
any of those powers, he wasn't an apostle. Timothy wasn't an
apostle. He was a pastor at Ephesus. And here's what Paul said to
Timothy. Timothy, you do this one thing.
He said, you go according to this calling that you've been
given, and preach the Word, Timothy. Preach the Word. And the Word
is going to heal lepers, and the blind, the halt, and the
lame. Real lepers. An apostle, verse 1, he said,
I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ. He said this in every... I had
it written down to read Romans 1, Ephesians 1, Philippians 1,
Colossians 1. Every one of them begin this
way. Paul. Not the right reverend father,
Dr. Paul. D.D. behind his name. Barnard
used to say, D.D. You see, that comes from Isaiah
56, which talks about dumb dogs. It's talking about those preachers.
I said, read a piece of it. Barnard used to say, they need
to put a fiddle in front of that d.d. Fiddle d.d.? I thought that was
funny. Seriously. Paul one time said, do I need
credentials to come preach to you? Are we, as other men, do
we need letters of commendation and credentials in order for
you to hear us? Then God didn't send us. If we
need these sayings for men to hear us, God didn't send us.
We need one thing, the Spirit of God and the Word of God. And
His sheep will hear His voice. And they're not going to bow
down for a man. They're not going to worship a man. No, no, no,
no. I was going to read from Romans
1. Paul said, I'm sold out to the
gospel of God. Ephesians 1. The gospel of God.
Philippians. All these salutations begin with
the gospel of God. The gospel. The gospel. The gospel.
What does a preacher do? He preaches the gospel. Alright,
so who is an evangelist? Who is an apostle? Who is a pastor,
elder? The preacher sent by God, he
is that man who like Paul said to the Corinthians, I'm determined
to know nothing among you, to do nothing else among you, say,
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ my Lord. That's it. That's how
you know him. I bet my dad used to say he's
not a socializer, an organizer, an ear tickler, a programmer. He's a preacher. Alright, look
at, here's the salutation. Paul, and all the brethren which
are with me, unto the churches of Galatia. Now again, this book,
like we just read, others, Ephesians, is to the churches. Not to the
world. To the churches. He hath ears
to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith." To who? The churches. All the churches. And all of
God's true churches hear and believe the same gospel. They're gathered the same way.
They're saved the same way. They hear the same thing. They're
all God's children. John 6, 45, they shall all be
taught of God. And every man that hath heard
and learned of the Father does what? come to Christ. They worship God in the Spirit.
They come to worship God. They rejoice in Christ Jesus.
There's no flesh in it. No flesh in it. Wherever God's
church is, there's no flesh in it but the
Spirit of God. Verse 3, here it is, the salutation. Grace to you. Grace to you. What kind of grace? electing
grace, redeeming grace, predestinating grace, forgiving grace, sealing
grace, inheriting grace, keeping grace, restraining grace, constraining
grace, grace, grace, grace, salvation is by grace. God's people never
get tired of hearing it. This is the gospel of our salvation.
By grace you say. Grace to you. And peace. Peace! Peace! Peace! Boy, we
need that now more than ever, don't we? Peace in a world full
of turmoil and trouble and wars and rumors of wars and fighting
and conflict and all that. We have peace with God. Christ said, My peace I give
unto you. Peace I leave with you. Peace
of mind. Peace among yourselves. Peace
from God the Father. God who's angry with the wicked
every day, God who's in no peace for the wicked, those outside
of Christ. There's no peace. They'll never have any peace.
But God's people have peace. Why? They know why. Christ is
their peace. From our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
4. Oh, here's the gospel. Isn't
this the gospel in one line? Who gave Himself for our sins. That He might deliver us. Who's
He talking about? His sheep. That's who He laid
down His life for. His people. He gave Himself for them. Well,
what did He do? He delivered them. From this
what? What does God say about this
world? What does God call this world? This present evil world. According to the will of God
and our Father. Oh, He's come. He's given us
a knowledge of His will. He's made known unto us the mystery
of His will that the world doesn't know. The world actually thinks
man has a free will. But we know God worketh all things
after the counsel of His will. Everything's according to His
will. And we're so glad. Oh, how glad we are. And it's
all according to the will of God. Our Father. It's a salutation, opening comments,
remarks to the church, God's your father. I used to, as a
boy, think my dad was the strongest, tallest, smartest, wisest man
on earth. He wasn't, but to me he was. Well brethren, our God is. Our God is God. Our rock's not
like their rock. Our God is God. Not trying to
be God. He won't be God if you let Him. But He is God. Aren't you glad? And He's our
Father. If God is your Father. If God
is your Father. I used to think, my dad's so
strong, I thought he could leap the tallest building with a single
bear. I saw him confront some people. that dealt with me, with
my sister, my brother, all that. And I thought, he don't want
to tangle with my dad. He was no wimpy. He was a man,
Rick. He was a man's man. And he defended
those he loved. And people feared him and respected
him. Oh, buddy, if our God is your,
God is your Father, If God is your Father, you're in good hands. And nobody and nothing is going
to touch you except what He wills. Oh man, isn't that good news?
Now, here's the dedication, one line. To whom be glory forever
and ever. What do you say about that? You
must be the church. That's what the Amen says. Amen. Amen. That means, I love
that word. Don't you love that word? I like
to hear it. It does me good to hear it. I like to read it, and
I love to say it. It means, that's the way it is. Amen. Thank you buddy I was over here
fooling around with that yesterday and I changed
all the settings, I forget where we have them. This one's left, this one's right. Okay. Do we have any of these?
Are those any? No? I certainly thought. What about this and I'll change
this too. I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, this one
might be the one. Okay. I need to write it down.
I don't know exactly what you're talking about. I bought a guitar. I bought a guitar that I can
plug into this and play over them. So I had to fool around
with that. under his wing. I'm