If I can get to the beginning
of it. Let's pray. Father, we're glad that this new day is among
us. Father, we're thankful for the
privilege of knowing the gospel, of understanding the truth of
your mercy and grace toward us because of your love for us in
Jesus Christ. For the sake of our joy, for
the sake of your glory and all the things that come as just Benefits of the gospel. Eternal
life. Knowing that we are forgiven.
Our sins and the guilt of our sins are destroyed and moved
away and gone and father so many things. So I pray tonight as
we open the Bible, as we read Galatians, as we begin to dive
into this important doctrinal letter that you would help us
to see, and that you would give us a humility that is just supernatural,
not self-deprecating, not self-inflicted, but supernatural. Father, give
us a humility that comes from you. that even when we see this
one true gospel and see that there are so many other false
gospels that we would not ever become spiritually proud. But
recognize that it is by your mercy and by the Spirit alone
that we see the truth. And we pray these things in the
name of Jesus. Amen. All right, Galatians. Trey's
going to continue to do interspersed some of his teaching on The Sermon
on the Mount, and then some other doctrinal things, and then I'm
going to continue. I don't know how that's going
to look. We haven't done any type of schedule. But he's picking
up his family, and I thought, well, we're going to hit Galatians
tonight and get started. I'm very excited about this reading
of this letter. for many reasons. First is that
it is the Word of God, and so anytime we can dive into scripture,
I'm very, very happy to do that. Secondly, it is the first letter
that Paul ever wrote. It is the first writing of the
Apostle Paul. Therefore, it is the oldest New
Testament letter of Pauline apostleship. It is the precursor to everything
else he wrote. There's a lot to understand about
this. The first thing that we need
to be aware of is that it is a polemical or an attack against
Judaism and against the Judaizers and against works righteousness
and the works of the law. It is a very angry, angry letter. It is probably one of these,
it is one of the letters where a lot of people who like to be
just really aggressive in their evangelism and their apologetics,
they use the tone of Galatians as the proof text for their hermeneutic.
so they can just say, I'm just going to be ugly. You know, when
they're not dumb enough to use Jesus in the temple and his name
calling of the Pharisees, you know, if they're wise enough
to do that, then they can use Galatians in that way. So we'll
see that. We'll see that that there is
a tone and a tenor about Paul where he has an absolute righteous
and I'll use that word, holy anger. And he is passionately
angry. And it's important to know that
going into the introduction because you need to see that which Paul
argues and asserts his anger comes from God. What is Galatia? Galatia is a region there in
Asia Minor, and I'm not going to get all the different cities.
They're in my head, but they're not in my head. There are people,
there's Northern Galatia and Southern Galatia, et cetera,
historians and theologians alike who've studied the early portions
of Paul and Acts. 12, 13, 14, and his journeys
there, they'll say, okay, he was sort of in this region, but
in a nutshell, there were many, many cities in the region, many,
many communities, many, many peoples, many, many churches
and congregations. So the Judaizers had gone into
this region And the Judaizers are people who were Jewish by
birth, Jewish by practice, and then came to a place where they
would say, we believe in the Jesus Christ as Messiah, as the
Christ. He is the one come from God because
he does all things that God proved, that he proves he's from God
because of the things he's done. He is the sacrificial lamb of
God. He's taken away our sins. and
so on and so forth, and they would give a credible profession
of faith, but then they would add to that profession of faith.
And specifically, they would add this, because Jesus was Jewish
and you now believe in Jesus and Jesus did not come to obliterate
the law. You must now, to be a good Christian,
become Jewish. And that was the point. If you
want to be under the mercy and the love of God, then you must
quantify your statement of faith, your confession of faith with
the practices of the law. So that's the overarching issue
that we're dealing with here. As we're going to read it, it's
going to be in like manner that we read Revelation as well as
the reading of Romans. We're going to go through it,
we're going to talk about it, we're going to deal with it in
context so that we do not bog down in any type of historical
theology. It's not important to know historical
theology. It is not essential to the church.
It is not beneficial to the church. And I speak with one who has
a degree in that field. And it really bothers me when
people become historians and they continue to replicate and
just I don't know the word I'm looking for here. They continue
to repeat the same old mantra from the same old historians
over and over again as if they are the Word of God. The Word
of God is sufficient. All of you young people, all
of you children, all of you teenagers, young adults, old adults, and
everybody in between, you can read the letter to the Galatians
and God the Spirit can help you understand it without any knowledge
of what they thought concerning this letter 100 years ago, 500
years ago, 1,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago, because Paul's writing
is enough. You see what I mean? So, let's
get in. I'd like to read the first ten
verses. We probably would get through some of that, but with
the points I want to make tonight, I want to make sure we just get
a good handle on the tone. Paul, an apostle, not from men
nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father,
who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are
with me, to the churches of Galatia, Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for
our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to
the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever
and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you
are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of
Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another
one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel
of Christ. But even if we or an angel from
heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached
to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now
I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the
one received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval
of man, or the approval of God? Or am I trying to please man?
If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a slave of
Christ. So, there we are. I want you
to look first as we start at verses 3, 4, and 5. 3, 4, and 5. I'm going to have this
singing through your soul and through your brain as we continue
in this letter. I don't know how long it's going
to take. It's a very short letter, but it is a very rich letter.
So some of this I may have to go into the Old Testament and
show, so it may take two weeks to do what we might have done
in one, if you want to see the context of where he's alluding
to, because he speaks about Hagar, he speaks about Abraham, he speaks
So there may be some time and opportunity for us to look at
those things. But he says, grace to you and peace from God, our
father, Lord Jesus Christ. This is not an odd introduction,
is it? It's not something out of the
ordinary with Paul. He often says that grace to you,
grace to be with you, grace to you, grace be with you from God,
the father, Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says there in verse
four, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present
evil age, according to the will of God of the Father. And then
this doxology, verse five, to whom be the glory forever and
ever. So it is. It is true. It's what the word Amen, Amen
means. It is true. So what Paul is saying here,
and there's a lot he's saying here, First and foremost is that
all glory is due eternally to God who saved us through Himself. Through His Son. You see that? And then everything else He says
relates to that truth. This is the explosion. Paul,
if he were on a shooting line, he did not line up and true in
the rifle and shoot for the bullseye and try two or three times. He
did not come and say, okay, we're going to light a big fire and
throw some firecrackers. He came in there and he dropped
an atomic bomb and said, here it is. We're blowing it all up
and it's all for the glory of God. And if you can't stomach
that, oh Galatians, woe unto you. Because this is the reason
I'm angry. This is the reason I'm upset.
This is the reason I'm frustrated. This is the reason that God has
sent me as an apostle to rake you over the coals and correct
your evil. For the glory of God. So when
people say to you, let me give some, let me give a hermeneutic.
Now what is a hermeneutic? Hermeneutics is the interpretation
of text. Whether it be a poem, whether
it be a book, whether it be anything, a story, a narrative, it's the
interpretation. And why is a proper hermeneutic
important? Because that which we interpret,
we also what? Apply. We also apply. Now Paul is not in this introduction
teaching. He's not elaborating. If I were
to teach you French and I were to talk about conjugating verbs
in French and talk about tense and gender and all of these different
things, I would not just sit here and say two sentences in
French and then get off the stage. I would have to pull it out and
show you how to spell it and show you the, you know, the way
in which it was to be understood. It would be contrary to that
which you know in English. But either way, just saying something
doesn't teach you much. And so a hermeneutic would say, what does he mean with all this?
And what are we supposed to get out of it? That's what we're
supposed to get out of it. That God is due all glory And He has
saved us from this evil age according to His will through His Son Jesus
Christ. Now did He explain the Gospel
there? No. Did He expound upon the Gospel
there? No. So that's not a proof text
for what the Gospel is, though the Gospel is there. You see
what I'm saying? There is more to be said. So
we need to recognize this when we're learning Scripture and
when we're acting according to what Scripture says. We do not
have to come and wonder what should anger
us when we see false teaching and why. Why is Paul upset? Well, he tells us, 6 through
10, doesn't he? And in verse 11, He goes on to say that what
he's preaching is not his gospel, not man's gospel, but it comes
from someone. And that someone is from God.
So here Paul is not decided, you know what, these people are
messing up my ministry. Let me get to the point of what
I'm trying to illustrate. He didn't say, these guys are messing
up my ministry. These guys are changing my gospel. These guys are damaging the apostolic
tradition. These people are frustrating
the historical theology of the apostles. These guys are just
not doing what I want them to do. And so I have a problem with
it. This is not Paul's motivation.
His personal pet peeves and the precision of his idea concerning
the gospel is not in view. What's in view is that these
people, by their abominable, damnable heresy, are undermining
the glory of God. Why? Because, as you will see,
they are instituting an addendum of humanistic will and authority
on the assurance of redemption rather than God doing it all. I want you to hear that. I want
you to hear that. And so if we just slow down now
and back up, What does he say? Paul, an apostle.
Now that's not an odd introduction either. Hi, I'm Paul, the apostle.
Solos, Saul. I'm Paul, an apostle. I'm not
Paul, the janitor. I'm not Paul, the preacher. I'm
not Paul, the shepherd. I'm not Paul, the writer. I'm
not Paul, anything. I'm Paul, the apostle. The approved, sent one from God. from the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he emphasizes that. Why? Because his authority is
not his own. His authority is not his own.
You see, a lot of times when we think about defending the
faith, and you realize, you know, back in the summer, and I preached
through the entire letter to Jude, right? about how to defend
it. We should defend the faith, but
there are parameters given to us by a proper interpretation
of Scripture, understanding the difference in a narrative, and
didactics, and commandments. Therefore, then, as we understand
those differences and we see it, then we can approach how
we defend the faith under the terms according to God, not according
to man. So in the same way Paul defends
the faith, as the gospel that comes from God, not from man,
we should also understand the application of His defense as
coming from God and not from man. Now, you want some application
there? God doesn't need me, or you,
or any other person that lives on the earth to satisfy His glory,
or to establish in the realm of this earth any proper defense
of His truth. For the apostles have done it
already. And that is God's only, let me
say this, back the microphone away, that is God's only means
of defending the faith is the writing of the apostles of Jesus. Hallelujah. When I think I am
the defender of God's truth apart from the scripture of the apostles,
I am guilty as a Judaizer and have a false gospel. Let me say
that again. When I think that I am responsible
apart from the writings of the apostles to defend the gospel
of free and sovereign grace, I am just as guilty of adding
to the gospel as the Judaizers. Now see, the myopic ignorance
of our human mind will say, well you just don't, I don't understand,
I don't believe, I don't want to hear that, I don't care what
I want to hear, I don't care what they want to hear. What
is God saying? God is saying He has done it
all. And that's the introduction here. an apostle, not for men. Paul
did not get together with the apostles and say, you know, we
got a problem, we got to have a council. I'm thankful for historical councils.
They give me something to read sometimes in my in my interests. But you know what? They are not
of God, sent by God because they are not apostles and they are
not scripture. Moving on. Moving on. Are they beneficial? Yeah, just
like my sermon is beneficial at this point in time. And if
it's true and I illustrate things rightfully from the apostles
teaching, then therefore it is beneficial for Christians throughout
the ages if I point to the scripture. But when I take my creative mind
and my creative approach and get together with other brothers
who agree with me, we're just clanging cymbals. We're just
adding our expertise to God's glory. Enough of that. He's an apostle, and this is
not an apostle of man, nor through man. No one approved of Paul
but Jesus. No one ordained Paul but Jesus. Now, I have had people tell me,
when I say to them, you are not qualified to be an elder, pastor,
overseer. See, people think that overseer,
I have that question for this Sunday night, what is the difference
between shepherding, preaching, teaching, and oversight? Well, some of them are tasks
you do in the others. But shepherding is not the work
of an, is not the call of an apostle. Jesus called Twelve. And when they died, he called
no more. Never will, never has. And no
one who calls themselves an apostle is of God. They are of the enemy. A pastor is not akin to an apostle
in any way. Here's 100% pastor and 100% apostle.
There is no overlap. None. Well, they're all human beings.
They're all men. They all have a Bible. They're
all talking about Jesus. There's an overlap. Come on,
let's get real. In role and authority, in inerrancy, there is no. Because
the apostles commanded by the mouth of God what pastors would
do and be. You see that? So when I see Paul,
an apostle, he has me by the throat. And I must yield to God
through him. As a pastor, you don't have to
yield to God through me. You just have to listen, agree,
and when I disagree with the scripture, make noise. See how
that authority looks? I'm one of you with a job to
do, and the Word of God is our security. Not apologists, not
evangelists. Not teachers, not commentaries,
not historical theology, not tradition, not long standedness. The word of God. Paul was sent. Paul did not get together and
decide we've got to deal with the things going on in Galatia.
How shall we defend it? Let's look and see what what
was written by Moses. This was just done by God. And he affirms and attest and
asserts with all authority. Listen to this. All authority.
He is an apostle through Jesus Christ. And he is an apostle
through God, the father. God, the father, God, the son
is who sent Paul to the region of Galatia. God spoke the message
of the cross through Paul. God saved his elect people and
gave them faith to believe Paul. And part of that message is that
Jesus Christ bore the sins of his people on the cross and was
buried and he was raised to life on the third day and he is alive
forevermore at the right hand of the Father. This is the message
that Paul gave to the Greeks and Areopagus. And this is the message that
he leaves with them in this introduction to his affirmation of his apostleship. I was sent by the one who's raised. I'm sent by Jesus who has been
raised. And I've been sent by the Father
who raised Him from the dead. And I'm not by myself either.
All the brothers who are with me. Do you see that? You feel the weight and the power
of that? Now, I can do that introduction for myself. Can you? I've written
a lot of letters. I mean, I can't tell you how
many letters. Emails, letters, postcards, you name it. I've
written a lot of letters in my lifetime. And there have been
many times where I just wanted to get in there and drive my
authority on that page and just push that person with my pen
to the corner and dare him to walk out. You know? That's why
I always write a letter three times. First time, I just throw
it away. Second time, I pray through it.
Third time, usually Robin has come in and helped me warm it
over. No, don't say that. It's true!
Don't say that. That's not what Paul's doing
here. Paul's not trying to just kick him and show him. He's the
boss! Paul doesn't say he's the boss, does he? Paul doesn't say he's the boss.
Paul said God is the boss. Paul said God the Father and
God the Son are the ones who sent him. So when he opens his
mouth about what he's going to say in this letter, it is God
sending and saying all that is said. It is God. See why we have
to have a high view of Scripture? That anyone who claims to be
a brother or sister in Christ but has not been given the knowledge
by God the Holy Spirit that the Word of God is authentic and
real and true and inerrant and infallible and sufficient and
effectual, that we need to pause and consider
where they truly are in the faith. For if there is a way to massage
the word down in any way, in any tense, then we have lost
all that is contained therein. For if we cannot say it is from
God and God alone, then we cannot know what is from God and what
is not. And that's where you get these
ridiculous infantile cults called red-letter Christians. Oh, that
just burned a bunch of people. I probably shouldn't have said
that out loud. We're live streaming. It's ignorance. Well, we'll just
hold fast the red words, the quotations of Jesus that were
written by the apostles. That's your first grade logic
in the toilet. We've got to grow up from that
kind of stuff. It's either all breathed out by God or it's not
God's. Oh, well, you know, it's the
original autographer. Okay. Oh, it's this translation. It's this collection. It's the word of God. And I can
take Satan's version of God's word and show you theological
truths in it. I've sat at the table with many
Russellites, with their translation, and shown them the gospel. And
they go, duh, we got it, go. You can't escape it. Even when
you try, you cannot escape it. You can't take a remnant of God's
Word and twist it to remove it. Now, you can mess it up. There
are paraphrases of God's Word that are terrible. But I can
still show you some truth in it. You can't escape it. God
has preserved His Word throughout the ages. And He has preserved His Word
through the apostles' writing. And He has preserved the gospel
through the Apostle's writing. He has preserved his people through
the Apostle's writing. As a matter of fact, Paul says
in Romans 10 that the only way God saves is by granting faith
to his elect people through the hearing of the Apostle's writing.
No other way. These people like, well, I was
just sitting in a hotel room and watching the news and saw
a snowflake and thought about how awesome that snowflake was
and there must be a God somewhere and then I got saved. That's
not true. You did not get saved. You became religious. You answered
and confessed that which is obvious to you that there is a God and
He created all things. That's not salvation. That's
not redemptive. Knowing that God exists and asserting
that He is does not save you. He must know you. And you must
be a recipient of His love. That means that Jesus Christ
has to be yours. For you, He died. For you, He rose to life. And He is the Word of God come
flesh. Paul is not alone. All the brothers
who are with me, we all agree in this gospel and we all write
the words of God. To the churches, better turn
there, to the assemblies in the name of Christ in Galatia. To
those who are gathering in Christ in Galatia. That's a better translation.
The word church is a terrible word. I hate it. Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's normal for Him. Grace given to you. The very
definition of grace is what? Mercy. A gift. A gift given. God in His sovereignty has given
grace to you. This peace that comes through
the grace of God is only through Jesus Christ, whom the Father
raised from the dead. Now see, is Paul teaching about
grace here? Is Paul giving instruction on
peace? Is Paul teaching about the power of the resurrection?
Is Paul dealing with any Christological things and teaching about who
Jesus is and the fact that the Bible even says Jesus raised
himself from the dead? Is Paul teaching anything there?
No, he's asserting truth. He's not explaining anything.
That's how we have to understand this. He's going to teach some
stuff. Right now, He's just giving it
out there, straight as an arrow. Here it goes. You better pay
attention, because this is the truth. Grace to you and peace. Where does that come from? Does
it say, from me and all the brothers? Does He say, from me and the
assurance that you have in the gospel? Does He say anything
about the Judaizers or anything? Listen, He loves them. They are
His. They believe the gospel. Now
some other folks have come in and caused havoc. And he's furious. Why? Because the name of God
is at stake. And the sheep of Christ are being
scattered. They're being divided. That's
why we see some of the other apostolic writing. When people
are divisive, when they start taking in other doctrines, you
warn them swiftly. And if they keep on in that same
conversation, you kick them out of your presence for the rest
of their natural lives. Until they come back and say,
I was wrong. You don't carry with people who debate the gospel
by being divisive in it. Can we learn? Can we talk? Can
we debate? Yes, but debate in its forensic sense is not what
we see in this world. We see a bunch of selfish hog
wallering fighting. Grace and peace comes from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 4, he gives
an identifier a little bit more about who Christ is. Why is he
doing this? Have they never heard it? Yes,
they've heard it. They've already heard it. Who gave Himself. Jesus, the Son of God, who gave
Himself, who is the Lord, for our sins. So what satisfies God
the Father? How can God the Father be giving
them grace and peace? Through the Lord Jesus? Because
the Lord Jesus satisfied God's wrath because He saved them from
their sins. And this isn't the first time.
This is not a letter to introduce the Gospel. This is a letter
to correct people who are damaging the Gospel. And beloved, I think
in our culture, we need to be very versed in how to deal with
this letter and how to apply it and how to use it in our conversations
when we defend the faith. We defend the faith with this
letter. So he gave himself for our sins
in order to, what did it do? Deliver us from the present evil
age. Now, the present evil age. I mean, a lot of us, you know,
born in the 70s, some of us born in the 60s, some of us born in
the 50s, who are here tonight, and then there's all of our children
and everything else. And ever since I can remember,
I have been hearing about this evil age, haven't you? I have read a lot of history.
I've read a lot of writings from philosophers to economists, theologians. I don't know why. I found a book
that was decorative when we were on vacation a couple of weeks
ago. And I took it off the shelf and asked the person, could I
take it and read it? And I did. And it was about the
redemptive picture of religion throughout all the different
ages of time. Pictures and paintings, and I'm
going, oh, this is neat. Oh, that's neat, that's neat. And
I read it. Why? I don't know. I just like to
read stuff. Somebody drops a piece of paper. Oh, what's this? Just
read it. But I have been hearing about
the evil age, and I've read about the evil age before Christ, writings
that were that old. I've been seeing it. in historical
writings long before the Reformation. It's always in evil age. Today
and even in my lifetime, I've probably heard hundreds of pastors
or so-called pastors and preachers and teachers who would talk about
we're at the end times. We're at the evil age. It's at
the end of things. We are here. And they've been
right about that. Paul is right. about this present
evil age. And as I get older, I think things
get more and more evil. And I remember my parents saying
that, and I remember my grandparents saying that, and I remember my
great-grandparents saying that. I had the privilege of knowing
my great-grandparents. They all died in my adult years,
except one of them. My great-grandfather died in
my teens. It was a blessing. But they all would say, son,
I'm just, this world is evil, more and more evil. I remember
reading one time in history books about the evil age of the bicycle. You ever read that? Have you
read anything about that? You should look it up. It's worth your time
to read. Don't look at blogs. Don't look
at mommy blogs. Don't look at daddy blogs. Go
find the original writings. Read the articles. Read the letters
of the clergy who came out against the bicycle. Because young boys
would not stay home and work like they're supposed to work.
Because now there's a means by which they can go find girls
faster and further away. I mean, you know, this is the
argument. This must be of the devil. It's
an instrument of disaster. Remember the television. Remember
the radio. Rock and roll. Rap music. Prince of the power of the air.
And one thing leads to another and every generation has evidence
that this is an evil age, more evil than the age before. What
is it that Paul is calling this present evil age? Humanity and their self-righteous
attempts at standing before God. It's not even abortion. Abortion
is a wicked evil. And in some sense now, just like
mobile phones, it's almost impossible to remove it from our culture.
It's almost a necessity in some situations, according to the
culture. Not that I agree with that, I'm
just saying. I don't agree that cell phones are a necessity. But it doesn't make this age
even more evil. Because in pre-historic times, I've read, in pre-New
Testament times, they killed babies. They've been killing people old
and young. They've been killing people because of race. They've
been killing people because of gender. They've been killing people because
of economics. They've been killing people because of free commerce. as old as the earth and as old
as human history. And it doesn't, even though it
might get worse, maybe come for sorry and selfish reasons, that's
not what makes this present evil age even more evil than the age
before. What makes it evil in the context of Paul's writing
is that men think they can do something to stand righteous
before God and they continue to get others to do the same. Humanity is depraved and fallen
And by nature, we are just like all the rest of humanity who
are objects of wrath, but in God's love for us through his
son, he has satisfied his wrath and we will not be condemned. He will call his people and we
will hear and we will believe that we are justified through
Jesus death on the cross. But I find that interesting.
Jesus gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present
evil age. Oh, what it would have been like
to sit and watch Paul teach. And from his own confession,
he was not a very eloquent speaker at all. When we see him talk to the Philippians
and to the Ephesians, when we see him talk to the Corinthians,
we see him often talk about frailty and weakness. We see him say
sometimes he was unable to stand and unable to speak and unable
to explain things and lose himself. in the gospel, and he would just
come out and say, I just can only preach Christ and Him crucified,
and he would just teach the doctrines of Christ about who Christ is
and what He came to do, and what He accomplished and for whom,
and he would proclaim it, and God in His mercy, when He saw
fit, would bring His people to faith, and He would celebrate
that, and then He would teach them and train them, and He would
stay with them as long as persecution would permit Him. And then he
would go to jail or then he would escape or he'd be, you know,
like he was in house arrest. And that's when he would write
these letters. When he couldn't go, he'd write. And that was
the sovereignty of God for his apostle to be incarcerated and
afflicted so that we would have the Word of God. And so Paul would say, I celebrate
and I rejoice all the more in my sufferings. That is how you
do that, by the way. That's how psychics work. Just in case you
knew. All the more of my sufferings
for your sake, Paul would say. That I may fill up what is lacking
in my suffering, in the suffering of Christ in my body. This present evil age, Paul would
call, he would not be pointing to the sinfulness of a culture.
He would not be pointing to all of the wickedness that we see
on the television and in the music and all of the hostility
that we see. And as I've podcasted over the
last few days, I think about how I poison my own spirit by
just watching things that drive the vengeance in my own soul.
Brothers and sisters, if I feed myself Vengeance. I like it. I love a superhero who gets the
bad guy. And I want to be a superhero
who gets the bad guy when I watch them get the bad guy. And then
if I keep on feeding myself that stuff too much, my goodness,
I think I am a superhero. Then I start looking for a bad
guy. But in my sphere, I'm a preacher
of the gospel of grace. So the bad guys are those who
don't preach it. Let me go get them. That's why I'm wearing
my cape tonight. Poison our spirit. It's not that
either, is it? It's not greed and adultery and
fornication and murder and lies. That isn't who Paul preached
to. That isn't what Paul preached against. Now He'll say, hey,
put that junk away. Church, O beloved ones of Christ,
for whom Christ has died and raised from the dead to save
us from this present evil. But He articulated what this
evil was and it was false religion. It was historical religion in
the name of God. And beloved, I shudder in my
spirit when I see the historical. I'm almost 46 years old, very
young. But I shudder just in my lifetime,
just in my ministry of over two decades, just barely over two
decades that I've been in the pastoring of those who I used
to be certain were my brothers, who I know now are not. because they are Judaizers adding
to the gospel and holding the reins tight and
doubling down, blaspheming God's grace and glory. When God gave His Son to deliver
us from that false hope, the present age of evil according
to the will of God and Father. You see, this is the will of
God that you believe on the one whom He has sent. I am the bread
that comes down from heaven. Eat of my flesh. Drink of my
blood and live. Oh, but many of you, you all
who are here for the worship of God in the shadow of election, the shadow of grace through Jesus
Christ called the Passover, You all are here as religious people
looking to be satisfied and assured of your righteous standing before
God the Father. And I'm telling you, this is
what Jesus is saying, I'm telling you, you must eat Me and drink
of Me, not the manna, not the Passover. And those people were disheartened
and disgusted that Jesus would contemplate eating human flesh. By the will of the Father, to
the glory of His name, forever and ever, Amen. This is why Paul
was furious. Not because there was a false
gospel out there. Because that false gospel came
in here. That false gospel came in and
said it was the truth. And the true church of Christ
was being divided. Being confused. You don't think you can be confused
as a Christian? Yes you can. Somebody could take you down
a rabbit trail of ridiculousness and after a while you could possibly
be deceived for a short term but you will never lose hope
in the gospel. How do I know? Because of the
teaching of Paul to the Galatians. And what this letter does, as
we'll see, is it re-instructs the true church on the foundations
of the gospel of free and sovereign grace. It calls out those among
them who refuse it and have changed it, have added to it as not brothers. And it has given them a tool
now in order to sift those who say they're in the faith, but
are not in the faith. And when those Judaizers left,
and this letter was effectual, the true saints of Christ stood
assured. There must be heresies among
you, for in the heresies we shall cleanse the body. And it is time for us to know
how and when and at what opportunity we're to employ this teaching. Let me read a few verses, then
we'll close. Notice this introduction is very endearing, very powerful,
very potent, and then he just goes right into the problem.
I am astonished. I'm flabbergasted. that you are
so quickly deserting. Listen to his language here.
Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to
a different gospel. So let's leave that there until
next week. Paul is saying that there are
those who are grabbing hold and being deceived by a different
gospel. And while doing so, they are
deserting Christ. They're deserting Christ. There's
a lot to be told here, but they are not lost who once were saved
and they are not utterly lost if they are deceived, but they
are lost and always have been lost if they do not renounce
it. And that's what you'll see. Let's pray. Father, may we glorify
you in the hearing of your word. And Lord, just temper my mind
when it comes to teaching Scripture. For there is sin that prohibits
me from being clear. There are physical restrictions
that inhibit me from being clear. There's a lack of preparation
at times that keeps me from being clear. But Lord, Your Spirit
is sufficient to teach Your Word, so by Your mercy on me, give
me clarity in teaching. And most importantly, Father,
give your people clarity and understanding despite me, in
spite of me. Father, I really do pray that
this letter will encourage us and equip us to praise you and
to live for you and to love as you love. And that we would just not be
fearful of these false gospels. But Father, in a way that only
could come from you, we would be infuriated. But we would sin
not in our anger. And we would not take the reins,
just as Paul did not become the authority. We would not become
the authority, but we would yield to your word. and yield to the
one who yielded to you, who wrote this letter. In Jesus' name,
amen.