If you would, turn with me to
Galatians chapter one. Galatians chapter one. Galatians chapter one. First,
starting in the first verse. Paul, an apostle, not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with
me unto the churches of Galatia. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 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
forever and ever, amen. I'm gonna come back to those
first five verses here in a minute. After these first five verses,
we see Paul begins to rebuke these Galatians. He tells them
he wonders, that is, he is astonished, you might say, that these Galatians
are so soon or quickly removed, or that is, they have changed
sides, is what the word means. To pervert is another meaning
of this word. You can read it this way in verse
six. I marvel that ye are so soon perverted from him that
called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. They have turned so quickly from
God who called them into the grace of God in Christ unto another
gospel. Which is not another, Paul quickly
adds, because it is a perversion. Man in his wisdom likes to think
he is preaching good news to men. They will even say that
they preach the gospel. They do this while adding in
with Christ's work something that man has to do for salvation. Some men will preach that man
has a free will, which he then uses this supposed free will
to decide to follow after Christ and decides to do things for
Christ. Now we here know that, us here,
we know that free will is a lie. There's no such thing as free
will when it comes to man, but not everybody knows that. These
men who teach man has a free will will have men and women's
person in admiration because of advantage. Jew says in verse
16, he says, these are murmurers, complainers, walking after their
own lust, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having
men's person in admiration because of advantage. Paul also says
in Galatians 6, those who he is speaking of who are teaching
a perverted gospel do so that they might glory in your flesh.
Paul here when he speaks of a perverted gospel certainly includes in
this those that preach man has a free will. This is not talking
about Buddhism or sun worshiping or any other absolutely Christless
idol worship. These things are obviously Christless
teachings. Paul here is talking about teaching
that even talks about Jesus Christ and will even give him credit
for what he has done. They sneak in man having something
to do very subtly. In fact, they teach their perverted
gospel so cunningly that it can take you away quickly. They have
great swelling words They, in fact, can make things so complicated
with their speech that some may, in fact, think that they're not
smart enough to figure it out. And because of this, they think
those who are saying these things must be right. Listen to how
smart they are. They have to know what they're
talking about. That's kind of the thought they might have.
The gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified is simple. meaning
this, it is singular in who it is talking about. It is singular
in who did and does all the work. Any teaching that puts man as
having any part of his own salvation or the salvation of another is
a perversion of the gospel. It is not the gospel at all. It is a perversion, a turning
away from God, who is the one who called us into the grace
of Christ, who is the only good news to a sinner. The grace of
Jesus Christ is the gospel, and it is the only gospel. You add
anything else to it, you are perverting the gospel. And in
doing so, you have no gospel at all, but a perversion. So
let's look at a few things that we read in Galatians. First,
what is the gospel? Second, what was the perversion
being taught that Paul was speaking of? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians
2 too, he says, for I determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is God breathed words that
had Paul the apostle write that down. I think it is good, a safe
thing for us to know, and that is Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul begins this letter to the
Galatians with what I will call a preface to the book of Galatians. I'm sure someone else might have
a better term for it, but that's what I call the first five verses
of this book. In verse three, we see Paul telling
us that if we are to have grace, and I mean a grace that saves,
it will only come from God. This grace comes along with peace. That is, if God sheds his grace
on us, we will have peace with God. But it is equally true that
God is already at peace with us. Why? Because of his favor
to the son who is full of grace, and he is our peace with God. This was done or this was accomplished
because of what he did. What does he say in verse four?
Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins. Having taken the punishment
due us, we are then made righteous in the sight of God. This all
being done that he might deliver us from the present evil world.
He did. We do not do anything. What He
did and what He does is what delivers us from this present
evil world. And this is all based on the
will of God the Father. If you would turn with me to
Romans 8. Romans 8. Romans 8 and verse 28. Romans 8 verses 28 through 32. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called,
and notice these words, called, past tense, them he also justified,
past tense. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified, past tense. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Here it says in verse 28, who
are thee called? These Galatians are told by Paul
in verse six, it says, I marvel that you are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. So we see these Galatians are
included here, and we are included here if he has called us. And
as I said, if you notice there, all of these words are in the
past tense. Did predestinate, called, justified, glorified. And if we are to believe God
and the record he has given of his son, then we do believe these
things are done. What else do we have to do? Nothing. He has done all these things
for us, completed. with nothing left for anyone
to do to be righteous before him in love. How did he do this
and him alone? Verse 32, he that spared not
his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? Freely. Free to us, but it was not free
to him. But this says freely give us
all things. We do not have to work for them
to get them. They are freely given to us in
Christ Jesus. What Paul says in the beginning
of Galatians is the foundation for everything that happens to
us. And I will say everything we do. But this is a serious
thing. Paul says that if any other man
preaches a gospel, which is not a gospel, but a perversion of
that one and only gospel, which is Jesus Christ and him crucified,
what does Paul say about that one who preaches that? Let him
be accursed. I don't know about you, but that's
quite troubling to hear. It should cause us great pause
in what it is we tell others. It ought to cause us great pause
in what we or who we listen to. Because these Galatians, Paul
tells us previously, when he knew them, anyway, they would
have plucked out their own eyes and given them to Paul if he
needed them. That's what he says. They were with Paul on his side,
in other words, which is the side of God. But now he has come
to telling them that they are so soon removed from God who
called them into the grace of Jesus Christ. If it can happen
to them, it can happen to me. So just what is it that these
men who were troubling these Galatians, what is it that they
were preaching? What was this perversion of the
gospel? Go to Galatians chapter 2 if
you would. Verse one of two. Then 14 years after I went up
again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also,
and I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel
which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were
of reputation, lest by any means I should run or had run in vain. But neither Titus, who was with
me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And that because
of false brethren, unawares, brought in, who came in privately
to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that
they might bring us into bondage. These were those who were teaching
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, but they were adding something
else. They were adding in that you must be circumcised. They
were teaching you had to follow the law along with what Christ
did. These men were brought in unaware,
as Paul says, to spy out our liberty in Christ Jesus, trying
to bring men and women back into bondage under the law. This is
what Paul was telling us. What was his reaction to them,
and what should our reaction be if we hear men start to talk
and preach that kind of garbage? Verse five. To whom we gave place
by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel
might continue with you. Not only that, but Paul also
withstood Peter to the face. All Peter did was get up from
eating with the Gentiles to eating with the Jews when they showed
up. As Tim James has said, he got up from the Gentiles with
pork chops on his breath to go sit with the Jews. In his action,
Peter was saying to those Gentiles that they should be doing what
the Jews did. And when he did this, he also
affected others with him. I want to remind you that Paul
in this epistle is talking to believers, those who had been
called by God into the grace of Jesus Christ. That is, they
were called into that gospel. I know there are some who say
there are different uses of the law. They say there is a first
use of the law, which they call the civil use of the law, which
is to restrain sin. But I read in scripture that
the strength of sin is the law. First Corinthians 15, 56. So
if the strength of sin is the law, how is it going to restrain
sin? These are not my words. That
is what God tells us in his word. They say the second use of the
law is pedagogical. or that is to show man how bad
he is in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is not
too bad necessarily. But I read in scripture that
the law entered that the offense might abound, Romans 5 20. This
is what scripture says the use of the law is. It entered that
the offense might abound. It certainly does show us that
we are corrupt before a holy God. The third use of the law,
they say, is the moral law, which shows us how to live. But I read
right here in Galatians chapter 2, verses 19 through 21. For I through the law am dead
to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Righteousness will not come by
the law. Not before you have faith, and
not after you have faith. If you can obtain righteousness
by doing the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Paul is talking
to believers here. He is not talking about those
who are yet to come to know Christ. We even read where Paul asks
the question in Galatians 3 and verses 1 through 3. O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth, before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you.
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing
of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? If we begin
in the Spirit, we continue in the Spirit. And at no time do
we turn to this flesh to keep God's law. It cannot be done. It is also an offense to Jesus
Christ and what he has told us in his word that he has done
for us. And by the way, you can find
these teachings of the first, second, and third uses of the
law in 1 Comuphams 5-6. they are not in God's word, period. The law entered that the offense
might abound. The law was given by Moses and
its purpose was to show man how bad he is. Most men will never
really see this. Only those who God loves will
begin to see just how bad they are when God's law comes down
before them and they see that they cannot do it. But God be
thanked, we also read that where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound. Righteousness does not come by
the law. And if it does in any way and
at any time, then what does Paul say here in verse 21 of chapter
two? Christ is dead in vain. I think
it's a pretty serious thing to start following after such teaching
that instructs that we now as believers are to start walking
after the law as our way of life. Paul goes on to say to these
Galatians, and this is God is telling us, we are not now made
perfect by this flesh, and in the context he is saying by the
doing of the law. This flesh cannot do the works
of the law, chapter three, verse three. Are you so foolish, having
begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? What
we now do if God has called us unto his glorious gospel is all
done in faith. Verse five of chapter three.
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit and worketh
miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law or
by the hearing of faith? Here is what Paul is telling
us about the works of law. Read verses 10, 11, and 12 of
chapter three. For as many as are of the works
of the law 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. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall
live by faith. and the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. By
this, we are then able to receive the promise of the Spirit by
faith. If we walk after the Spirit,
we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Brothers and sisters, we are
not called to start serving the law of God when God sends us
his gospel. We are called on to serve Jesus
Christ, who is our life. The law cannot give us life.
That is, the law cannot make us righteous before God. We are
nowhere instructed in the word of God to start doing the works
of the law once we come to believe Jesus Christ. We are in fact
told that we are dead to this law. That we are freed from this
law. Galatians 4.9, Paul tells us
that trying to go back to the law after we are known of God
is turning back to the weak and beggarly elements, and we are
desiring to be in bondage. 4.9, it says, but now after that
ye have known God, or rather, are known of God, how turn ye
again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire
again to be in bondage? We are free to serve Jesus Christ
being given a faith, which by His Spirit points us to Jesus
Christ, that we may serve Him, and in doing so, we fulfill the
law of God. Paul says that he wished these
ones who were teaching them that they had to be circumcised. Those
ones that were teaching, they had to be circumcised. He wished
they would slip with the knife and cut themselves off. You know
what circumcision is, and that's what Paul is saying in Galatians
5 and 12. He says, I wish they were even
cut off, which trouble you. I feel the same way of those
who trouble us here with that kind of perversion. This faith
given us is energized by love. The new man created by God loves
Jesus Christ and loves the brethren. The fruit of the spirit of God
has no law against those fruits. Paul is not just talking about
teaching men to be circumcised. If anyone teaches that once you
are a believer, then you begin to walk after the law, they are
teaching a perversion of the gospel. Paul thought nothing
of his keeping of the law. We read in Philippians 3, verses
three through eight, we read, for we are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might trust in the flesh, I more. circumcised the eighth
day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew
of Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee. Concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in
the law, blameless. But what things were gained of
me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done that I may win Christ. We have liberty in Christ Jesus,
but we are not to use our liberty as an occasion to the flesh.
If you want to live a debaucherous life, then you do not know Jesus
Christ. We will fall, but we do not want
to live there. Paul tells us if we walk after
the spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. In Galatians
5.18, but if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the
law. The believer desires to walk after the spirit, and he
says the fruit of that spirit is, in Galatians 5, 22 and 23,
but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against
such, there is no law. I say all this because I care
about men's souls. This is a serious thing, and
I know I'm not capable of preventing something like this happening
to me. I do not have strength enough in and of myself to prevent
it. I pray God keep me from myself. This flesh, it likes to do, do,
do. This flesh will continue to fight
against the spirit so that we cannot do the things that we
would. We have to mortify this flesh. mortification is to subdue
or deaden. This will be done until the day
of Jesus Christ. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that's all it will ever be. So we must continue
to mortify our members. The new man does not have to
be mortified, but this flesh will always need to be mortified
until we lay this body down. What else does Paul tell us back
in Galatians chapter three, verses 19? Wherefore then serveth the
law? It was added because of transgression,
till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and
it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. I'm here
to tell you that the one being spoken of, that seed being spoken
of in that verse has come. Jesus Christ has come and we
are told right here in this book that Jesus Christ brought to
us grace and peace from God. Meaning God has grace and peace
toward us and this has always been or else we would have been
consumed long ago. But this is also peace to God
from our side. Meaning we have peace with him.
We lay down our weapons and submit to Him and this all being by
His death and resurrection. We are even told in Hebrews that
He has saved us, past tense, to the uttermost. What else do
you need to do? If you need to do anything, then
God has not saved you. What Christ does is right and
it is good. and it is sure and it accomplishes
everything it was intended to accomplish. We are told in scripture
that we are dead to the law. We are told that we are freed
from the law. The law can only show us how
bad we are. It did not make us what we are
and it cannot fix what we are. Only Jesus Christ can do that.
And if you are one of his, he has done this. This is the gospel. There's nothing else for you
to do. Do we do things because of Jesus Christ saving us? Yes,
we do. But it has nothing to do with
us keeping the law of commandments. We serve Jesus Christ by believing
him by faith given by God. Him giving us this by grace,
we have peace with God. We love Christ and we love the
brethren. This will cause us to stop and
wait on Him. We will work to rest in Him. Teaching that salvation is of
Jesus Christ and Him alone, and this salvation does not involve
falling man, saved by His grace, keeping that law. Christ has
already kept the law, we are in Him. But if you teach this,
that is Christ alone saves without anything added by man, then you
will suffer persecution. Galatians 6, 12, and 13 says,
as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you to be circumcised, only less they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. Grace and works do not mix. If
it is by grace, it is no more of works. If it is by works,
then it is no more of grace. Grace is favor, and grace coming
to sin will follow man is unearned and unmerited favor from God
in Jesus Christ. Works are merit-based, meaning
that you will get the wages that your works have earned. I know
I read in Scripture that even our righteousness, I mean, I
know I read in Scripture that even our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags in God's sight. But here is what we glory in.
Turn with me to Galatians 6. Galatians 6, verses 14. I'm gonna
read all the way to the end. 6, verse 14. But God forbid that
I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace beyond them. and mercy, and upon the Israel
of God. From henceforth let no man trouble
me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, amen. Oh God, help me to glory in the
cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the grace of
God for his people, amen. Dear Lord God, we're such weak, sinful men, dear Lord. Be with
us, strengthen us by your spirit, by your word. May we continually
be looking to hear his gospel, to join with God's people and
hear your gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified. Be with those
who may have some ailments, dear Lord, Comfort them, heal them
in the only way you know how, dear Lord. We don't even know
what to pray for. May it be that all things we
do and say, dear Lord, because we are, we are clay pots. May it be that all we do and
say is to your honor and glory and all these things we ask in
Christ's name, amen.