Galatians Bible Study | An Overview

Lord, we come to you grateful for the reality that our salvation was won on the cross, so that we didn't have to be the ones who earned it and worked for it.

In fact, we couldn't. And we're gonna be coming to the Book of Galatians and seeing so much truth about the sovereignty of God and the need for us to be obedient to who you are and not falling back into the works of the world.

I pray, Lord, that over these next months as we study this book, that you will encourage us in this way.

Be with us even this morning, now, this afternoon. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Who is good at their history? Who knows history really good? Rich. Rich. Yes, Rich.

I didn't say church history. I said history. You're probably good at that, too. That's a lot more fun.

There's always people who don't know. Yesterday? What is the

Magna Carta? 1215 England, their

Charter of Liberty, basically. Big paper. It's like the

Declaration of Independence. Okay, that's good. What difference does it make? In what way?

People. The Magna Carta, 1215,

Rick, thank you for that. Absolutely right. Its full name is the

Magna Carta Libertatum. I guess there's a Latin in that somewhere.

It's the proclamation of liberty as it was given.

And you're right, King John, it gives freedom to the people.

And it's one of the foundational documents to our government today, to our

Constitution. Paul writes this letter to the churches at Galatia.

I'll talk about that in a minute. And as we look at it in our scriptures today, we see it as the

Book of Galatians, the letter. It's an epistle, if you would. One of the summary statements,

I got this out of the Bible Knowledge Commentary, when we consider the Book of Galatians, salvation from the penalty and power of sin comes not by works, but by grace through faith in God's provision.

So if we consider the Book of Galatians the Magna Carta of Christian liberty, at one end of the spectrum, we are no longer constrained or obligated to be considered worthy by God.

As he would look down in humanity, and he would say, you know, Greg Woodward, I've looked at the sum total of his life and how he performs his life, how he perceives things.

And I think that there's enough goodness in him that I proclaim him to be worthy and I will accept him as my child.

But you see, this Magna Carta of Christian liberty is going to make us realize that how our acceptance in front of the court of God, if you would, is not based on our doing things to earn things, to be things, to be considered things.

Rather, we are brought into his presence. So in that regard, the need to be the uber good person, we don't have that constraint anymore.

In fact, we know that we can't do it. Salvation from the penalty and power of sin, now this is a given, comes not by works, which is us, but by grace through faith in God's provision.

Now this is a common theme that Paul has used, Titus 3 .5. Not by works of grace, which you have, okay.

It is all about, it is all about God, not about works. And so for the next several months, we're gonna consider the book of Galatians.

And what I intend to do today is to give us enough knowledge about why this book might have been written in the first place.

What was going on where it was to the people that were gonna receive this book? What were the influences around that this book really needed to fight against?

And then we're gonna talk about the letter itself in a higher elevation level, the purpose, the theme of the book, the message of the book.

And then the outline. The book can actually be divided into three sections, and we're gonna talk about that as well.

Galatia. This is a book written to the churches in Galatia.

Where is Galatia? Modern day Turkey. Good answer.

Give me a little bit more details. That is a very good answer. Galatia. If we were to consider many of Paul's writings, you have the book to the

Romans. That was basically written to the Roman citizens in Rome, although it was basically to the people in the

Roman Empire as well. The book to Corinth. You have the book to Ephesus. You have the book to Colossae.

The book to the church at Philippi. And then he's got these personal letters to Timothy and to Titus.

He writes to Thessalonica. This is a slightly different book. Galatia is actually a region.

It's not a city. So you're not going to go into your map and find Galatia.

And Galatia is the central part of Turkey. If you go from east to west, it's the central part of Turkey.

And it's a swath of land that goes all the way from the Mediterranean Sea all the way up to the Black Sea. And it has sometimes been divided into southern and northern.

That will kind of give us an insight as to what this book is all about. But the people of Galatia that are there, there's actually three people groups of interest in Galatia.

One of them are the Celtics, the Celtics. If I use the word

Celtic, what region of the country of the world do you think of? Ireland.

Sure do. Ireland has got the Celtics. The Celtics are basically a tribal group of people.

They are not a national ethnic group of people. They're a tribal group of people that are identified together by a language style, by a culture style.

And if we're back into the second century BC and before, we're talking about people that lived in what is today

Ireland, Scotland, Great Britain, France, Germany, that whole region up in there in central

Europe. The Gauls are a big part of the Celtic people as are what we know as Ireland and Scotland and other regions.

In the early, in the second century BC, the Celts experienced attacks from the

Macedonians and from the Romans, the Greeks from the Romans. And they were attacked.

In fact, Sandy and I were able, a number of years ago in 2019, we spent time in Scotland.

And on our way up to Scotland from London, we drove by what's called Hadrian's Wall.

What's Hadrian's Wall? The Romans built it to protect themselves from Britain.

Ooh, that was so close. You were so, so close. The Romans built Hadrian's Wall from sea to sea towards the northern part of what we know as England to protect them from the heathens in Scotland.

The Celts that were up there. And so they had this massive wall and they had a garrison of soldiers.

The command is the garrison right in the middle of Hadrian's Wall. The Romans attacked, pushed back as far as they could, and a lot of the

Celts from Ireland, from Scotland, England, from France, Germany, that region ended up settling down into what we would call

Asia Minor, Turkey. And so within this region in the second century, the

Celts pretty much started to settle down into this region. So that people group was there.

In 25 BC, yeah? So the Celts came from the north to the south rather than the other way around?

Correct. That is correct, yes. It's not like the

Celts went from England and moved to Ireland and Scotland, no. It's like, and I can't totally explain the historical behind how

Ireland and Scotland and France and everything else, their people groups were common in culture and language, but that's how the history shows it.

And the people prominently from Gaul, France, and the region in Germany, everything, predominantly those folks moved down into Asia Minor, what we now know as Galatia, and the others stayed up in Scotland above Hadrian's Wall or in Ireland.

So what we have now here are these people. Well, in 25 BC, Rome actually conquers the region and established

Galatia as a settlement, as a Roman province.

So now we have the Celtic influence, and now we have the

Roman influence. Pastor John, could you make it a little bit clearer where that wall was?

Because I'm looking at the map of Galatia. Hadrian's Wall is in the northern part of Great Britain.

It is in Great Britain, it's not even in Galatia. Correct. Hadrian's Wall, the only reason I brought that up was how the

Romans pursued the Celts, but basically ran out of steam, and so to keep the

Celts up north in Scotland while the Romans owned Great Britain, they built this wall.

Said, you guys are up there, we're down here. So it's way up, way north. It is, it is, yeah.

From the historic perspective with the wall, it is safe to say that we kind of look at history like today, most people would think that Lyndon Baines Johnson was something in the

Stone Age or something, but really recent history, all these kinds of things. So looking at that, there was the

Islamic movement through Europe which pushed the Roman Empire after it fell right further north to the

Swiss shore of those countries. So I'm not going anywhere with it, I'm just trying to picture, there's been these moves in history, so it's easy to say, oh, well, the

Galatia was here, and it was, but sometimes when we try to understand it, we're looking at it from something like, often we would only compare it to maybe the days where we remember the

Great Society, except we don't remember before that, so. Yeah, Dominic, you're making a very good point because what we would see in the book of Galatians is best understood from a geopolitical cultural viewpoint of the first century

A .D. The Islamic influence as it came up through what we know,

Saudi Arabia, Syria, and into Turkey, that happens much later. So the people groups that are there, the cultures that are there, that are influencing this book,

Islam is not part of that. It's not part of that discussion. But what you do have is you have the

Celtics, that pretty much from Gaul, Germany, that area, came down. The other Celtics, they stayed where they were.

You have the Romans now, because this is now a Roman province, and so they would have had their garrisons, their soldiers, their government influence there, but there was also a

Jewish presence in Asia Minor. If you were to consider

Macedonia, perhaps the Jewish influence worked its way through what we know as Asia Minor.

So as you go to Paul's missionary journeys, and he goes to Derbe and to Lystra and to Iconium, when he goes there, he goes to the synagogue.

The synagogue required a minimum of seven males. When he goes to Philippi, there's no synagogue.

They didn't have enough Jewish presence. So when he went to Philippi, he went to the river, where they were having their worship service.

So on the other side of the Adriatic Sea, or whatever that is there, into what we know as Greece and that area, not so much

Jewish influence yet, but in Asia Minor, there was Jewish influence. So there are three people groups there.

There are the Celtics, there are the Romans, and there are the Jews. As we look at the establishment of the churches, because this is a letter that is written to the churches in Galatia, how were the churches established in Asia Minor?

Who did God use to establish the church? Paul. Thank you, Paul. It's too easy.

It's almost too easy. It's a trick question. In his first missionary journey, we can read it in Acts 13 and 14, he leaves

Antioch, and he goes, and it's basically a loop in the southern Galatian region of Turkey, of what we know as Asia Minor.

Derby, Lystra, Iconium, those things. He does a loop, and then he comes back. The second missionary journey is gonna send him out, and he's going to touch base with some of these churches, and then he's gonna be heading north into the northern region of Galatia with an intent of preaching in Asia.

But he gets a message from the Macedonian, and he says, please come over.

And so he's actually in central Turkey, as we would call it, which is Galatia. He's near the

Black Sea, and instead of proceeding doing what he did in the first missionary journey up in the northern region, he hangs a left, goes west, and crosses over.

He goes to Troas, and he crosses over, and eventually gets to Philippi and works his way down that region, which is to say he did not spend a lot of time in the northern regions establishing churches as he did in the southern regions.

He spent more time establishing churches in the southern regions. So who is he writing this to?

To whom is he writing this? He hates dangling parcels. Are you still an

English teacher, or have you gotten that out of your system? It comes back to haunt me every now and then.

Maybe he has a good word for us today, I don't know. The word of the day. In the book of Galatians, not to be throwing

Greek at you, but Ecclesiastes, churches, it's plural, which is unique to the book of Galatians.

If you go into the book of Corinth, it says Ecclesiasta, it's singular.

It's the church at Corinth. If you go to his other types of books like Ephesians, it's agios, saints.

He doesn't even say church or churches. He just says to the saints in Ephesus. And if you go into the book of Philippians, it's adelphios, to the brethren who are in the church.

He doesn't even say church, to the brethren at Philippi. But in this letter to the

Galatians, he actually highlights the fact that this is a circular letter that is intended to go to all of the churches that are established in Galatia.

It's not a city, it is not a church, it's the region. And all the churches in that region, he has a message for them.

Scholars looking at the book of Galatians have one of two theories. Either this is the

Southern Galatian theory or it's the Northern Galatian theory. And there are reasons that they have it for when he wrote it, how he wrote it, who he was writing it to.

I'm gonna tell you at this point in time, I don't think that changes how we are gonna perceive what's in this book.

While that's interesting information for scholars to banty about, is it the

Southern theory, is it the Northern theory? It is letter that is written to churches within Galatia because they have certain issues and he wants to instruct them, encourage them, and teach them.

So if you're of a Southern Galatia theory person,

I got that and I respect it. If you're a Northern Galatia person, I got that.

And I'm not asking my wife, my wife would probably say she's a Pan -Galatia. It's gonna pan out.

It'll all pan out in the end. It'll all pan out in the end. The book is what it is. But what's important now is these churches have been established and have structure to them.

The fact that he is calling them a church probably signifies certain things.

What would it signify? If he describes them as a church? They're established.

Excellent, meaning what? They've been there and they've been settled.

And they're settled, they're established, and they're settled. These are great ideas. What else would it indicate? That they're believers.

Thank you, thank you. They're believers. There is a difference than today.

If I say, I think I want to attend a church at Three Corners in Medford, you might not know what

I'm talking about because there's a Presbyterian, no, I'm sorry, there's an Episcopal church, there's a

Methodist church, and that doesn't mean anything except that it's a country club. In this particular context, we are talking believers.

And that is significant, especially early century, first century, because proclaiming yourself to be a believer in Christ can put you in the crosshairs more so then than it does now.

But there's an identification of who I am and they're believers. What else would it mean?

Probably means that they have a certain amount of structure of leadership. Probably means that there are individuals, men who have been called that are preaching the word, that the word is being taught.

So there's a lot of that. One thing

I think of, and that's why I brought up the cultural aspect, is that the Jews were living in these areas too.

And the Christian churches were established through the synagogues. And that's why, so contextually, like when this movement took place, they preached through the synagogues, people became believers, they established churches.

And, but yet there's still the outreach, there still was the issue of Judaizers, there still was these cultural things.

And this was before the disbar, right? This was before the disbar. Yes. 70 AD. So the

Jews had settled there. Hang on a second. So making sure everybody is on board to what he said.

After the attack in Jerusalem, the burning of the temple, there's an event that we call the diaspora.

And that's where the Christians, for real fear of bodily harm or whatever else, the

Christians were forced to scatter from Jerusalem. It's amazing how God used Romans 8, 28, all things work together for good, not as good to them who love him.

So God used this attack, this burning, this horrible thing to take

Christians that were cloistered in Jerusalem and sent them out into the world. First Peter is powerful in talking to the diaspora.

But that happens much later. Right. But these, they were established, so these cultural things, because in Galatians we're going to get into that kind of like whole thing with like the

Judaizers and circums, you know, I mean, I know that's more in a feast. So there are three cultural influences that are impacting the churches, the people, the

Christians in this region. And the first one, it would be the Roman influence. Now here's a quote from John T.

Cook, the historical encyclopedia is the reference. As the

Romans extended their dominance throughout the Mediterranean world, their policy in general was to absorb the deities and cults of other people groups rather than try to eradicate them since they believed that preserving tradition promoted social stability.

So initially, 25 BC, Rome comes in and conquers and now sets up Galatia as a province.

They would have been accepting of the religious practices of the people, believing in polytheism.

And so there would not have been a persecution of individuals at that point in time.

That changes right about the time that this is starting to go on with this letter, something called the

Neronian persecution. Anybody take a clue what the

Neronian? Got it! Yeah, Nero with his persecutions.

Now depending on whether you are a Southern Galatia or a Northern Galatia advocate, either this is right before the

Neronian persecution or shortly after it started. But that being said, opposition to Christianity already existed because Christians were not bowing the knee to Caesar.

I think it started when Nero set Rome on fire to rebuild it and rename it Neuropolis.

He blamed the Christians for the fire. It started the persecution. Yeah, yes, yes.

And he was fiddling while Rome burned. We all know that story. But here's my point is that there are some cultures on the surface, there's polytheism in the region, which says that that's your

God, that's your God, that's fine, that's your God, don't make. It's almost modern, a postmodern culture.

Your truth and my truth. Your truth is good for you, that's fine, have it. That would have been the Roman polytheistic approach.

But the opposition, because Christians refused to bow the knee to Caesar, the

Christians got in the crosshairs and they were uniquely now being persecuted. So that's part of the culture of the day.

But the other culture of the day was the Jews. And the

Jews were upset with Christians. Well, why were the Jews upset with Christians? What did

Jews believe with regard to having a relationship with God?

They had to submit to the law. Yes, they did. Yes, they did. They had the law and they had to believe.

Now, by the way, at this point in time, it was not just the

Mosaic law, but it was the traditional law. All of the trappings that were there.

And for the Jews, this was mandatory. You have to do this. And the key behind it all often became circumcision.

You're either accepting your identity as demonstrated by your obedience in the act of circumcision or you're not.

It was black and white. This does become an issue for Paul and Titus.

But in the region of Galatia, the Judaizers were there.

They were not just challenged by the message, but they were indignant at the message.

I'm gonna ask Conrad, if you would get Galatians 1, verses 6 and 7.

You guys are sharing Bibles, so Dominic, I'm gonna ask if you would get Galatians 6, verses 12 and 13, please.

Go get them, Jeff. Here come the judge. Go ahead.

I'm astonished that you are so eagerly deserting him who called to you in the grace of Christ, and are not that there is another one.

And then put on top of that 6, 12, please. 6, 12. Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised simply so that they will not be persecuted.

There is a strong desire on the Jews, on the

Judaizers, to not allow Christians to go down their path of Christian liberty.

But they need, if you want to come to God, you must be circumcised first. And so there was this strong push, there was a strong push of adherence back to the law.

And so in Galatians 1, 6, it says, I'm surprised that you have so quickly removed from the gospel of grace to another gospel.

This is one of the phrases, oh, by the way, that got Martin Luther's attention. Martin Luther, we know his affinity to the book of Romans, but this phrase in the book of Galatians, Galatians was only second to Romans for Paul for understanding the salvation by grace through faith and not by works.

I am surprised that you are so quickly removed from the gospel of grace to another. There is no other.

Let's go to the next page. Let's talk about some of the purposes of this letter. Galatians 3, and Suk, if you could get

Galatians 3 ready for me, I would, Galatians 3, 1 to 5. The purpose of this letter can be almost put down into one phrase.

It's an attack against the gospel of works and a defense of the gospel of faith.

You could almost put that as a one -sentence summary over the entire book.

We're gonna see it's divided into sections. The gospel of grace is gonna be defined. The gospel of grace is, as I said, defended.

Then it's gonna be explained, and then it's gonna be applied, but it's an attack against the gospel of works, and it's a defense for the gospel of faith.

Galatians 3, 1 to 5. O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes

Jesus was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I wanna learn from you.

Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish?

Having begun in the spirit, are you being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain?

Therefore, he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

The reality is you've been made perfect by the spirit. Why are you again surrendering to the flesh?

John? Yeah. Can I read my version? Please. I would like to learn just one thing from you.

Did you receive the spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard?

Are you so foolish? After beginning with the spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

Have you suffered so much for nothing? If it was really for nothing, does

God give you his spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard?

And you said at the last verse, it seemed to me like there was almost a little bit of works in the spirit there as opposed to works and works.

And that's the fact. So what he's basically gonna be saying is that you have been brought in with Christ, you've received the spirit, but you didn't receive it by the works of the law.

But what's gonna happen in your life, Romans 8, no,

Romans, where's the golden chain of redemption, Rich? That's Romans. The golden chain of redemption?

Yeah, that's, anyway, we go from foreknowledge to predestination to justification to glorification, okay.

In the middle of this, and this is kind of what I was talking about a couple of weeks ago in the pulpit, is this dash, this is our life.

What are we doing in our life? We come into salvation made positionally perfect by the blood of Christ, but yet retaining the defects of the flesh.

And the works of the spirit are to slowly remove the rust of the flesh.

Well, they both seem to flip. Verse 2a says, did you receive the spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard?

That's a question. He says, are you so foolish? After beginning with the spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

So he starts at first by saying, are you trying to work for spirituality or salvation?

And then the other one says, now that you've been saved, are you still trying to work?

And that's the message, which is to say that your salvation was not because you worked to earn it.

Now that you're positionally there, is your works the central to your spiritual growth, or is

God still the source of your spiritual growth? That's a very good observation. The Galatians is actually going to express things that have been fulfilled that have been promised by Christ.

I want to read this quote from Charlie Taylor Ministries. Jeremiah had prophesied that the new covenant, and by the way, while I'm reading this,

Bob, if you would get Jeremiah 31, no, you just read yourself. Rick, get Jeremiah 31, and Stan, get

Ezekiel 36 ready. Jeremiah had prophesied that the new covenant, which the

Messiah would introduce, would be a liberating covenant, and that's the idea that we don't work to make ourselves better anymore.

We obey God, but we're free, but eventually we've got to know that we're not free to do whatever we want.

We're still, okay. For centuries, Israel had failed to keep the Mosaic Law. The gift and hypocrisy had built up, but both

Jeremiah and Ezekiel said the new covenant would free God's people from the burden of the law.

God would write his law in our hearts. He would give his spirit to enable us, and Ezekiel, et cetera,

God said, I will give you a new heart, et cetera. The difference between the old covenant and the new covenant is the primary concern of the book of Galatians.

Jeremiah 31, Rick. Behold, the days are coming, declares the

Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when

I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, like though I was their husband, declares the

Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the

Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their

God, and they shall be my people. Now, the strength of that does require that the writing of the new covenant on the hearts will really make any difference, because for the

Old Testament Jews, their hearts never were soft and receptive to the message anyway.

They had stubborn hearts. And so the promise is expanded. Stan, you're gonna read

Ezekiel 36, 26. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.

I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

So the message is that Christ's coming, this message of salvation by grace can now be understood in light of the fact of the promises.

I will give you a new covenant. I will write it on your heart, and I will give you a new heart.

The old heart of stone will be removed. And so now the central message of the book of Galatians.

Galatians 2, Rich, if you would get that ready, and Galatians 5, Candy, if you would have that ready.

Galatians 2, 20 to 21, please. Not the whole chapter. The central message is freedom from the law.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'll get you, I'll get you, I'll get you. Central message is freedom from the law.

Now, we are not free from being obedient to God. That we're not free from.

That comes further down into the book. But we are free from having to be justified, having to be validated, having to be accepted by God on the basis of how much of the law

I keep, how much of the law I don't keep. Don't let, now you can read. Okay.

I have been crucified with Christ. Therefore, there's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I live now in flesh, I live by faith in the

Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I'm living in a new life that is lived by Christ through me.

That's the answer to my question before. It is. It really is. There is an enablement that only somebody who has been reborn could ever possibly experience.

And the blessings of this new existence are expressed in Galatians 5 .1.

For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

We are not bound to a yoke of slavery because it says in that passage, no longer submit yourself to the yoke of slavery.

That yoke of slavery is not something that by definition is what we are and who we are, and we have nothing to do about.

The only reason that the yoke of slavery can impact your life is if you willingly reaccept it.

And that suggests that we try by works rather than accepting

God's grace. If we accept the yoke of slavery, we are trying to do it by works instead of grace.

Now, yeah. I think one of the key things there, too, is the concept of circumcision because there's circumcision of the heart versus, so it's kind of like some time ago,

I came upon in the Gospel of Matthew where they sent lawyers to ask

Jesus questions, and they said, you know, Lord, what's the greatest commandment? So then, of course, he quoted

Deuteronomy, love the Lord with all your heart, strength, and soul. And then he said, love your neighbor as yourself.

Sometimes, you know, I think we stop the sermon, but then later it says, which to me was even more shocking is that Jesus goes to them and says, well,

I got a question for you now. And they're like, yeah. And he says, well, what about Messiah?

I mean, if David said, Lord, sit on my right hand, time, you know, how could, whatever it says here, that you asked him the question, what do you think about the

Messiah, whose son is he? And they said the son of David, and then he reminded them.

What I'm saying is like sometimes we look at, the circumcision of the heart takes place through the regeneration and born again, but also, too, we can't put our eyes back on, we gotta always remember that it was

Messiah, not works. Absolutely. See, that's, and it's hard for sometimes, because it's like, well, as believers, we wanna do things that are right, but we also have to live in that liberty of like, well, what about Messiah?

But if we didn't need a Messiah, David could still do it by works, right?

So you're actually, I need to grab that point, because we're gonna talk about it.

Let me real quickly, we only got a couple of minutes, give you a real quick outline of the book of Galatians.

Chapters one and two is gonna define the gospel of grace. In the beginning of it, in chapter one, verses three or four, he's gonna say that what

I have to give you is according to the will of God. That if anything is given to you other than this message, it is an anathema.

But what I have to speak to you, I am speaking to you by the will of God. Tim, you and I spent some time yesterday in the beginning of Ephesians.

And how does Paul describe himself? Not by the will of man, but.

Not by the, his ministry, the word that he, now the word that Paul is gonna give here is not man -made and it's not according to man's traditions.

It is the will of God. And then he's gonna go on in six, verses six to 10, he's gonna say, if you hear any different gospel that distorts this, don't go there.

There's one gospel, 1219 is a carryover from a previous study, just cross out 1219.

What I do often when I'm writing these things is I just take a previous lesson and I delete what

I don't want. Cross out 1219. The gospel is now gonna be explained, which is to say that, what do you mean by the gospel?

And he's gonna say in Verse chapter three, did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or did you receive it by faith?

And the message of the gospel is that it's not the law, it's faith.

I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe.

The gospel message to those who don't believe is foolish, First Corinthians, but to those who believe it's the power of God unto salvation.

The gospel message is the blood of Christ to tell us die.

And it's his payment for our sins. So John, you may have meant 219.

Go ahead. It says, for through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. I think you're right.

I have been crucified with Christ and no longer I am the Christ. Thank you for that, brother.

Earn your stripes. Just so, if you just wanna cross out the one instead of the whole reference.

If you wanna understand the gospel, it is that you are by faith, not by works.

311 is gonna say no one's justified before God by the law. And I have had debate with many believers over the years.

I personally, and I'll be glad to debate you on this, don't believe that scripture says that the unregenerate man cannot do a good deed.

I don't think that's what it says. It says that the good deeds that man performs are like filthy rags.

It doesn't say they are filthy rags. It says they're like filthy rags. So if you were to take something that's like a filthy rag and try to clean your windshield, hmm, okay, nothing that you can do as a righteous deed can take that rag and clean the windshield.

It can't happen. That's the gospel message explained. And any other, it says in 4, 8, and 9, any other gospel distorts the gospel of Christ.

And what we are attacked with here, what the people were being attacked with there were

Judaizers, were those who wanted Christians to have to revert to being justified by the law, to revert to finding their value and their obedience to God by the law.

The Judaizers were pushing them in that direction, and he's going to be pushing against that so hard.

Perhaps our problem today is different. Perhaps our problem today isn't Judaizers, it's culturalizers.

I made that word up. You made up a word the last time I talked. And Fleshman, you made up that,

Fleshman. The culturalizers are really our danger today.

Now the gospel applied. 5 .1 is going to say, for freedom Christ has set us free.

Stand firm and don't go back again to the law. But 5 .13 is worthy of reading.

Sandy, if you would get 5 .13 and read that for me, please. For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Okay, I'm going to throw this out there because that is such an important message. Magna Carta of spiritual liberty, of Christian liberty is a true message.

But don't use that message to say I can do whatever I want to do. Don't indulge the flesh.

That's the message that 5 .13. And then in 6 .8, the one who sows to the flesh will reap corruption.

The one who sows to the spirit will find eternal life. Two questions we don't have time to ask, but I would just throw them out there to ponder.

How has the cross transformed your life? And the second one, why is it dangerous, even for a believer, to revert back to works for validation of your spiritual life?

That was a 20 ,000 foot view of the book of Galatians. We're going to get started in detail next week.

And Pastor Tip, would you close us in a prayer? Yes, Father God, thank you for this time of fellowship together and learning from John.

I pray that we would be equipped through studying the word that you wrote through Paul to the

Galatians, that we would be equipped to battle the culturalizers and any other isers out there that are trying to preach a different gospel, but that you would have us remain strong to keep the true and only gospel that you've given through your son.

So we thank you for the teaching time today, and pray that we have a blessed day. Go quickly. Thank you so much, folks.

And I welcome our, it's good to have Judy from here. Is this your first time here on Wednesdays?

Yes. Yeah. Oh. And Dominic, it's your first time here on Wednesdays.

It's good to have you guys. We weren't here last week.

Did you come last week? I thought I had made the announcement from the pulpit.