Bible In A Year - Galatians

Okay, we'll begin this morning. It's good to be in the land of the living. I was sharing some statistics I had read yesterday with members of the family and it was, I think the population in the United States increased 2 .9 million in 2006, I think.

They estimated 300 million in the country, a birth every 8 seconds, a death every 11 seconds and an immigrant every 27 seconds. It's hard to think that way. But many have been ushered off into eternity and many born and brought in and God has given them life and many sustained.

Everybody, yeah, everybody here is sustained. You're here, alive, breathing in the land of the living and God has been merciful to us another night. As we slept, he did not and kept us by his power and we are his.

If we're the people of God, the children of God, as we're going to learn through faith in Christ Jesus, then we're the Lord's forever. And let's go to him and thank him and ask for his blessings upon our time.

Our Father in heaven, we do praise you and thank you for the wonder of life and thank you for the wonder of you. You have not only created us and for your people, you have recreated us being born again, born from above, regenerated by your Holy Spirit, given new life and how we praise you for that life in Christ.

We thank you that everything about us is Jesus. Everything about us is the Lord Jesus Christ. And as the apostle Paul had said, for him to live was Christ and to die is gain. Lord, we just think about that thought of how our focus and our hearts, all of our attention, all of us should be appointed toward Jesus and everything would be and should be for his glory.

And that's what we desire as we gather together today, that we would learn of him, that we would learn from your word how blessed we are as a people to be sinners saved by grace, to be a people who were running away from God and that whole condition, that whole situation to be changed to where we are a people who desire to embrace the true and living God because of your work in our hearts.

We thank you for the opportunity to worship. We thank you for the blessedness of the church and the people of God, our brothers and sisters in Christ whom we can gather and sing with and testify of the goodness of the Lord towards us and to study your word.

And we pray you teach it to us now in Jesus name, amen. Okay, the bottom is loose maybe. It could just be me going like this. Okay, that's all right. Today, this morning is the book of Galatians. So if you turn there and to be ready to look at the scripture there, I'd just like to give you a little bit of a background and then we'll take a look at what it is that the apostle Paul was writing in this book and what the theme is, what the purpose of this book is.

It is an important book to be able to understand. It is a blessed book to the people of God because it's one where just really nails down what it means when it comes to salvation and how salvation is received.

This book is a book that was the earliest of the writings of the apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And it is the only one of Paul's letters that was targeted for a specific region, an area of the map, so to speak.

If you would turn your Bibles to the back and look in the map and you could see this certain region is called Galatia. It wasn't an actual local church that Paul was writing to. Galatia is that region.

If you geography, you have Africa down here, the Mediterranean Sea is here, and over in the east is Israel. And just northwest of Israel is what is now known as Turkey. And that's where we're talking about that area there, the region of Galatia.

Paul went there on his missionary journeys, his first missionary journey. You remember in Acts chapter 13, he was sent out to go on that journey and he preached the gospel in the Galatian cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.

And from there, Paul returned back to Antioch. And we'll kind of get into this a little bit if I remember to do this to go to the book of Acts just to see that. But when sometime after that missionary journey and the gospel is preached and God saves as he only can save, not by works, but only by the gospel.

It is not, you'll see that through this whole study this morning, that it is not by works, it is all of grace. It always is grace. It's always God's favor. It is always God doing something for us we could not do for ourselves.

It is something that God gives. It's something that God works and God brings to us. God visits us. We don't try to do something to obtain the favor of God on our own merit. And the churches were established.

The gospel was powerful and lives were changed. And you can go back and read in the book of Acts how there was great joy and there was a change. And it just brought a dramatic change in the lives of those whom God saved through the preaching of the apostle Paul as he went on his journey.

But when he gets back to Antioch, sometime around that time, he receives word that those churches that had been recently established were under assault. There was an attack coming to them. And you'll see this where the apostle Paul goes someplace.

There's people that are coming right behind the apostle Paul and maybe out of pride, maybe out of wanting control, maybe just having to exercise their position. They come back behind the apostle Paul and they're trying to, especially when it comes to the Gentile believers, they're trying to put something on them, a yoke upon them, a burden upon them that the apostle Paul says they're not even willing to bear themselves.

They won't even do it themselves. And we'll see a little bit about that. And Paul hears that these Judaizers are those who are trying to say, you Gentiles have to become Jewish proselytes. You must be circumcised.

You must keep the law. You must observe all of it and Jesus. You gotta have Jesus and something else. What is, I mean, if you just think about that, Jesus, in order to be saved, you must have Jesus and fill in the blank.

What does that do for anybody in this room? I mean, you know, all the alarms are coming on, right? Flashes are going off. It's never Jesus in anything. It's Jesus and Jesus alone, isn't it? Salvation through Christ alone.

And Paul, he shoots that gun, if so to speak. He unloads the double barrel of Christ and Christ alone all the time. Whenever he's teaching, whenever he's preaching, and whenever he's writing the scriptures that we have, it's Jesus and Jesus alone.

And these guys are coming in and they're undermining the central New Testament doctrine of justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. They're just trying to add something to that. And Paul hears this and he is upset with this because there's something historical that's behind this.

And if you hold your place in Galatians, just turn with me quickly to Acts chapter 15. I told you earlier that in Acts chapter 13, the apostle Paul went out with his company, goes out from Acts chapter 13, goes out from Antioch, missionary journey, returns back to Antioch.

And when he gets back to Antioch, he declares what it is that has taken place, that the gospel in not only coming to the Jews and saving the Jews, but when they went out and they were preaching, God saved the Gentiles also.

Now, there were some in the group, and you'll see in Acts chapter 15, certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved.

They're saying that, yes, you believe in Jesus, but you also must be circumcised. And with that circumcision comes with the following of the law. You've got to keep the law. And Paul and Barnabas, it says in verse two, had no small dissension and disputation with them.

They're upset about that. Because that's not the way it ought, that goes completely against grace. That is adding something to Jesus Christ. He says, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go down to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.

They're gonna go down to the source, they're gonna go to the pillars, go right back to the apostles, and they're gonna have this council. They're gonna get together and they're gonna decide what is it that we ought to do with these Gentiles?

The gospels come to them. What should we do with them? So they go to Jerusalem and when they get there, Peter, verse seven, rose up, they're all together now, and Peter rises up and says, men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago, God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

So Peter had experienced this. It had been going on with Peter, Cornelius, the things that were happening. Gentiles were being saved. And God, which knows the hearts, bear them witness, verse eight, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as he did unto us.

They're regenerated, they're indwelt by the spirit of God. And he put no difference between us and them, justifying or purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt you God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

He said, why is it that there are some that are trying to say to these believers, these new precious babes in Christ, why is it that there are those that are coming, these Judaizers are coming and saying, you need to add to that circumcision, keeping the law, observing it all, obey the law of Moses, do all these things, and then they will be saved.

Because, you know, in a way, what are they saying? They'll be like us. That's what we do. We uphold the law, these Judaizers. They're full of pride, and they go about to establish their own righteousness by their self-effort and by their works.

And they just do not, they do not understand what it is when it comes to the purity of the gospel. And that's why I believe Paul is so upset. That's why I believe Paul, he fires off this letter, and I'm gonna explain it in a little while.

But he says, and Peter is here, you know, Paul is present at this council, and Peter says, don't put a yoke. Why do you wanna put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples? And this yoke has to do with the yoke that would be on the animals that would control them and make them go in the way that you wanna go.

And of course, it was a yoke that was heavy that would be upon them. Verse 11, but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. No circumcision, no obeying the law.

It's by grace and it's through Jesus Christ. Then all the multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them. So Peter has said what happened with him, Peter.

And Paul also says what had taken place through his ministry. Verse 18, known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Wherefore, this is now James has risen up. And James seems to be the one who God uses to take the lead of this council.

And he's speaking and he says in verse 19, wherefore, my sentence is that we trouble them not. He's talking about the Gentiles. We do not want to trouble them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God.

We don't want to agitate. We don't want to stir up. We don't want to put upon them anything that we ought not to be putting upon them. But that we write unto them, verse 20, that they abstain from pollution of vitals and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood.

And we see this repeated again. Well, let me read verse 24. For as much as we have heard that certain which went out from us, there was some that had gone out from Jerusalem and troubled you with words, subverting your soul saying you must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment.

The apostles are saying we didn't send them out. This is not the truth that we have received directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't give any commandment in this area. And he says in verse 25, it seemed good unto us being assembled one accord to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives to the name of the Lord Jesus.

Verse 28, for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things. This is what they wanted them to do. It was crucial. If they had said you needed to be circumcised, if they had said you needed to follow the law of Moses, then they would be directly contradicting the gospel.

That would not be good news because nobody can keep it. The people who were perpetrating this and putting this yoke upon other people, they weren't able to keep it because nobody can keep the law. It's just impossible.

We already learned that in Romans chapter three when we studied Romans. But what they did say in their decree of this council is they sent out some things that would be things for them that in their practical Christian living after they were saved would be important for them to do.

And that had to deal with their former lifestyle. And it had to do with whether or not they would violate their conscience before God or whether they would pollute their, not only pollute themselves with this idol worship in the areas in which they live, but also pollute their bodies as far as for the lasciviousness and the fornication that was taking place to separate themselves from that because it all had to do, there was a lot of spiritual connotation in that.

It had to do with the false worship. They said, separate yourself from all of that. And what are you gonna separate yourself unto? Unto God, unto the Lord Jesus Christ, to be pure before him. So go back to the book of Galatians, if you would, with me.

And we see that then these teachers were insisting that the Gentiles must first become the Jewish proselytes, as I had said, submit to the law of Moses and live that out and follow the law of Moses. And Paul is shocked by the Galatians in that they were open to this.

They were allowing this to come into the churches. And Paul is devastated by that. And he writes the letter to, one, to defend justification by faith, and two, to warn the churches of the consequences of jettisoning or abandoning the essential doctrine of justification by faith.

So Paul writes this letter, and it's a passionate letter. There is great emotion in this letter. It's urgent, one of his most urgent and unusually severe letter he writes. In the way that he writes, it's almost like a parent who is dealing with their child, and it's like, you know, it just comes out.

It just, there's just this, such a care that you want, it's almost like the child going across the street, you know, when there's traffic. It's not like you go out there, well, Johnny, the traffic looks a little bad, and I think, you know, you could possibly get hit by the car and we might have to take you to the hospital.

And the parent just goes, what are you doing? And pulls him back in, acting quickly, and that's what Paul is doing. He writes this book, and he changes the way he writes. Even in the Greek, he skips verbs, and things are just not normal because he's just getting, I mean, it doesn't even have the characteristic greeting at the beginning like, you know, he has, and maybe a commendation to them, and he just goes right into it.

We see that in chapter one. It may be the only book too, also, the only book also, if you look in chapter six, that Paul wrote with his very own hand, without the help of a stenographer. You'll notice in many of the other gospels, if you read the very last part of it, it'll say that it's written by someone.

It's Paul that is dictating, it is somebody writing, and then it's delivered by somebody else to the region. Look in 6 .11, you see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand. I mean, Paul was just into this, and whether he couldn't trust anybody else, or he just wanted this, it was just so serious, and he was so grieved, the tears flowing from his eyes, no doubt, for what was taking place here.

He pens this book. He's a man of God who has a duty to safeguard the gospel of God, and the honor of God's name, and to have a watch care over the churches. That burden is upon him. He cares for the churches, for the people that he had gone out to preach to, where churches were established, and really, it's our responsibility also today.

That's where it practically comes to us today. When it comes to the gospel being attacked, when it comes to core doctrine being subverted, anybody trying to come in and add anything to Jesus Christ, it is anathema.

It is, that person is to be, as Paul says, if you go in chapter one, he says, "'I marvel,' verse six, "'I am so amazed that you are so soon removed "'from him that called you into the grace of Christ "'unto another gospel.'".

He says, you have, like in a military way, you have deserted your post. Because Paul's desire in his exhortation to them in chapter five and verse one is to stand fast in the liberty, in the liberty that we've received through salvation in Jesus Christ.

That's the theme of this book. We are free, set free in Christ, and we are freed by justification through faith in Jesus Christ, and we are justified through faith in Jesus Christ. And we are no longer to be under the bondage the yoke of the law.

And Paul says, you are now leaving that and you're putting yourself or allowing this other gospel to come in. He says, verse seven, which is not another, but there are some, that some there are the Judaizers, the same somewhere it says of the apostles in Acts 15 that they've come to trouble you, but it wasn't our commandment.

We didn't send them. We didn't tell them to come in. There are some that trouble you or disturb you, and they would distort or pervert the gospel of Jesus. And that word trouble there is strong. It means that they, it's like a stirring or an agitate.

It's like the sediment in the bottom of a pond and you stir it up and then you can't see anymore. It's no longer, the water's no longer clear. And that's what he's talking about. They agitate in trouble.

And Paul says it this way. He says, but though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached, let him be accursed, or let that man, that person be cursed of God.

As we said before, so say I now again, one nine, if any man preach any other gospel unto you, then then you have received, let him be accursed. I mean, it's strong, isn't it? It's very clear. And it's coming from the apostle's pen.

And really this is one of his, as he begins to deal with this whole issue and he's defending the doctrine of justification by faith, Paul here criticizes and he condemns the perpetrators of the false gospel.

How many gospels are there? When it comes to salvation, really, let's get basic. How many gospels are there? There's only one. And that gospel, that good news is not in a plan. It is not in a creed. It is not in a certain set of list of rules and regulations.

It has nothing to do with methodology. Do you remember when I read in Luke chapter two, I think it was, in Luke two or Luke three, when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the temple and Simeon was there and he had been promised by God that he would not die till he had seen God's Messiah, till he had seen the Savior.

And when he was holding Jesus in his hands, he was thanking God that he now could die. He could leave because God's promise was fulfilled. And he wasn't holding in his hands the ABC plan of salvation.

He didn't have a piece of paper and it didn't say, A, you're a sinner, B, you must repent and C, do this, then you must pray this prayer. He wasn't holding that in his hand. He wasn't holding a confession of faith in his hand.

He wasn't holding his scroll, which Simeon wasn't holding a scroll saying that he was a member of the synagogue and that was what was gonna save him. He wasn't holding a piece of paper that listed all the things that he had done in his life that maybe would make him acceptable before God.

He was holding a person. He was holding God, the God man in his hands looked upon him and he says, mine eyes have seen God's salvation. It's in a person, it's in Jesus Christ. There's only one gospel.

There's no other. That's why Paul, I believe uses the word. He says, this is some other gospel, which is really, he says, no gospel. It's not good news because if you add anything to Jesus Christ, you subtract everything totally.

It's worthless. So he does this first. And then to defend and to go into this idea of what the whole thrust is and Paul is defending this central doctrine. Look with me in chapter two, if you would. It almost sounds like the book of Romans, this one verse.

But check this out in chapter two and verse 16. It's a lengthy verse and it's a verse where Paul says, this is how you're saved and this is how you're not saved. This is how you receive the righteousness of God and justification and this is how you do not receive it.

You're not able to do it this way. Notice this, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. That is what the Judaizers, these false teachers were spreading, were perpetrating. When knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law.

Okay, let's do it this way. Let's see how many times he does each one. This hand I'll do, it's not by the works of the law and this hand I'll do by the faith of Jesus Christ. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

I mean, three and three, he just lays it out. Usually you could say something once and that's enough. You're not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And Paul is just in this verse, just laying it out so clear and repeating it three times the truth that you're justified and only by faith in Jesus Christ.

And he says the same faith even we have believed on Jesus Christ so that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law because by that work or that effort of trying to keep the law, no flesh, no person can ever be justified.

The Judaizers didn't get it. The apostle Paul had this message revealed to him directly by God. We see that in chapter two. You can go back and read that about his testimony that he was alone. God taught him these things.

God showed him these things that salvation is all by grace. And if you mix or add any work at all into it, you totally take away from that. It's clear as he goes on even in this chapter, he just shows the folly of these Christian Jews in abandoning their new faith and returning to the old legalism.

Notice with me if you would in verse 18. He says, for if I build again, the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. And what he's saying there is, look, when the gospel came, you were liberated.

When the gospel came, you were a group of people and you may have, especially those who were keeping the law, those who kept that law, it was a burden to them because nobody can keep it. There's absolutely no one that can keep the law perfectly.

In order to enter heaven, we must be perfect. And if a person wants to try to get it through the law, they have to keep that law 100 perfect. That means you have to get a hundred all the time on every test, of every test of life.

When it comes to anything that you do in thought, word or deed, you have to be 100. No, it can't be 99 .9999. It's 100. And Paul says it's futile to do that. And when God came with the gospel and saved you, showing you that you don't have to keep the law, but you must repent of sin and turn to Jesus Christ.

And through faith in Christ, you are saved. You receive the righteousness of God. You are justified or declared righteous before God, no longer a sinner before God, as far as God looks, forgiven. And you receive that perfect obedience of Jesus Christ and you become a child of God.

Then what do you do with this law? It's no longer a yoke to you. It's no longer a burden. It is something that you say, well, you know, that's what God saved me from. He saved me from that, me trying to save myself or me trying to do something.

And the Paul says here, why are you going to pull that former lifestyle and that former trust, that former way that you thought you should be saved? Why would you bring that in and pollute Christ and pollute salvation through Christ alone and add it to faith in Christ.

And therefore by adding it, Paul says, be careful of this doctrine because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. You bring it in, it's going to just mess up everything. And that's why Paul is so frustrated.

And that's why he is so aggravated and grieved more than anything. And frustration is maybe not a good word because it has kind of points to himself. And that's not the right word. He is grieved. He is stirred that they would allow this to come in.

And notice what he says in verse 20. Kind of lays out what it means to be saved in the Christian life. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live, notice this, I live not by the effort of my own being, but I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

And then he concludes this chapter by saying, I do not frustrate the grace of God. I am not setting aside the grace of God. I am not casting it off. I am not violating it. I am not bringing it to nothing.

That's what he means by that. He says, I'm not setting aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain or Christ died needlessly. That's what he's saying. If you could obtain righteousness, if you could get salvation through keeping the law, then why did Jesus have to die?

It's futile. It's unnecessary. And Paul is saying, look, I'm not setting aside the grace of God. I'm not, I don't frustrate it. I mean, I preach the grace of God. I preach the gospel of grace. That's what he did.

And he's laying over and over again in his arguments as he's defending this central doctrine that it is through Christ and Christ alone. And when he goes into chapter three, he begins, first of all, of course, he comes out with these words of his utter amazement and he's totally shocked.

Look in three, one. Oh, foolish Galatians. He says, you're foolish. You are, you have, I think Mike, or I think it was Pastor Mike or Steve recently, I wrote a note in my margin. You have unplugged your mind.

You have unplugged all reason. You are unwilling to think about what it is that you're doing. And isn't that so true? People get caught up in doctrine. They get caught up in false teaching because it sounds good.

I mean, it looks good. And you know what? It lets us live a little bit differently. You know, maybe a lot of times it panders to and caters to the flesh because it doesn't keep us on the straight and narrow.

In this case here, of course, it puts a burden upon us, but he calls them foolish Galatians. Why do you think he says this? I mean, I already told you, but I need a breathing break. Why does he say this?

Yes, Pat. Yeah, right. You disengaged your mind and you weren't, you did not hold on to, and you did not stand fast in what you had. You just, you know what message came to you. You know what it was that saved you.

And now you're trying to bring this system of works, this Old Testament law keeping that these people who are saying this to you can't even keep themselves. Notice if you would, just hold your place there.

In chapter six, Paul says this. You remember I said in verse 11, I've written to this in my own hand, I've written you. In 612, as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

See, Paul went the route of preaching Christ and through that came persecution. These guys are saying circumcision, everybody's gonna go along with that. There is no offense there. Yeah, we'll agree with that.

And there's no offense. But notice in verse 13, but neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised so that they can boast in you. He says the message that they're bringing to you, they can't even, and they don't even do it themselves.

How foolish. And he goes on in chapter three and he says, who has bewitched you? Or who has cast a spell upon you? Basically, that's what he's saying. I mean, who has, basically today, one of the phrases we would use, who's pulled the wool over your eyes?

Don't you understand what it is that you, he says in verse two, this only what I learn of you. And he begins to talk to them and appeal to them about the spiritual experience that they had gone through when God saved them.

How did it come to them? How was it that they were saved? What did God do to bring them to his son, Jesus Christ? And what did God do in their lives so that they would be forgiven and become the children of God?

And he appeals to this and he goes after this. And he says this, and he uses these questions. He's kind of got to kind of get them to think about, because that's what they need to do. They're not thinking.

And mark it down, when a believer gets in trouble, we're not thinking. And I'm not talking about, we're just not thinking intellectually and we just don't remember facts about the Bible. It's when we allow anything to subvert the word of God.

When we allow anything to come in and say, this is what God's word says. And, but, if you ever hear a teacher said, this is what God's word says, but, and it's contrary to that, flee. You run away from that.

It's not the truth as it is in Christ. It's the, it's danger. And the signs ought to be, the warning signs ought to be flashing. If that happens. Paul says, this only would I learn of you. Did you receive the spirit or did you receive the spirit of God by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

When you were keeping the law, is that when God saved you? Is that when you were born again? Is that when the spirit of God indwelt you? Is that when you were forgiven? Is that when you became a child of God?

And we can look back on our lives and we can say, when we were going to this church, that church, the Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, whatever church it was, when we were in that religious system, trying to find favor with God, trying to work off our sins, trying to save ourselves, is that when we were saved?

And of course, the answer to the question is no. It wasn't by that. It says, did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? By the hearing of the message that said you needed to believe, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course, it's through faith. Are you so foolish, verse three, having begun in the spirit and you are now made perfect by the flesh or mature? I mean, you began in the spirit and now you are gonna be made perfect by the flesh.

And what does that mean, by the flesh? By the works, right? By keeping of the law. So you start in the spirit and now you're gonna be made mature and you're gonna go on and you're going to please God and you're gonna grow as a Christian by going back and reverting back to the law.

Of course not, he's saying. It's not that way. He says in verse four, have you suffered so many things in vain if it be yet in vain? And of course, the suffering is when those that will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

It comes to those who hold to the clear message of faith in Christ alone. He says, you've suffered so much and all of that is gonna be for nothing if you go back to the law. People weren't persecuting them for keeping the law.

I mean, that was the easy road. That was the one everybody was doing. That was the broad way. But the narrow way in Jesus Christ, far different. He says, you've done all that in vain? He therefore, verse five, that ministered to you the spirit and works miracles among you.

Does he do this by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? When God works, when it comes to salvation and we must compare scripture with scripture, right? All throughout the scripture, we see that it is, of course, by faith.

So in that instance there, Paul appeals to their former experience of the Galatians and saving them. And then he goes on in this chapter and he shows that even Abraham, like Paul did in Romans chapter four, even Abraham was justified by faith because who were they?

They're Jews who have a lot of stock in Abraham, right? They look at the past and that's their connection. And he says in verse seven, know you therefore that they which, well, I mean, verse six, even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted him for righteousness, know you therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

And so if you, and I can't do it in this class, but if you go through chapter four, you will see, of course, the verses we've already read that have to do with faith. Verse seven, faith. Verse eight, through faith.

Nine, faith. Verse 11, the just shall live by faith. Verse 14 at the end, through faith. Verse 22, by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe and on and on through the chapter. It's faith, it's faith alone.

It's believing upon Christ. And of course that faith is a gift of God and that's how God saves us. And Paul is making it super clear to them that they have gone a different way and they're holding on to and trying to hold on to something else.