Sunday Night, May 16, 2021 PM

All right, well, as you find your way back to your seats,

I encourage you to find your way in your copy of God's Word to Galatians.

I'm very glad to have Jodith Forrest come back and preach for us out of this splendid book in the

New Testament, Galatians. Just like Daniel, a critical word for our time from the

Word of God, and so pleased to have our brother come and preach for us. So, brother, come on, bring the word.

Hello. Last time

God graced me with the opportunity to be in this pulpit, I began a study in the book of Galatians like Mr.

Michael was saying, and that was that small epistle that's made an eternal impact on the

Church of Christ as part of the complete and sufficient Word of God. You look down the history of saints that have come before us, and you see that the book has made an impact on them.

I always remember Martin Luther who called this book his Catherine, referring to his wife, and so it had a very close relationship with Martin Luther.

So the study I began with, we began with examining the first five verses of chapter 1 back when

I first began this, and we read how Paul was beginning to write to these specific churches of the region, write to these churches of Galatia, and how the gospel began to spill forth at his intro, even before he really began to write.

And tonight, I'd like to again examine those five verses alongside verses 6 through 17, and kind of see this beginning portion of the book of Galatians.

And indeed, Paul is taking this beginning portion, and he starts his contending for the faith, his fight for the gospel, and that was indeed his concern for the

Galatian believers, that they were beginning to turn away, to desert the true gospel of God, and go to a false gospel, a false message, one brought to them by false teachers and troublemakers that enter into their midst.

These false teachers promoted the idea of Christ plus works equals salvation. They gave them a different gospel, and yes, it was one that mentioned faith, mentioned

Christ, but one also needed to be circumcised. One also needed to be observing certain days, months, seasons, and to adopt certain customs to be right with God.

Paul realizes what is at stake concerning the Galatians, and what is at stake? It's the gospel itself.

It's the message of the person and work of Jesus Christ. And with that in mind, he begins to write.

He begins to write about the exclusivity of the true message in these first 17 verses.

He begins to write that there is one gospel, and only one. So, if you had your

Bible ready, let's read through the first 17 verses of Galatians 1. It starts out,

I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another.

But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, then what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you, then what you have received, let him be accursed.

For do I now persuade men or God? Do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men,

I would not be a bondservant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.

And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his

Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did

I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus."

Here we have the Word of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the book of Galatians.

We thank you that you are such a good God to give us everything we need to make the gospel message clear, to make it clear to us that there is one gospel.

We thank you for the grace of this gospel, Lord, a way to make us right with you, to save us,

Lord, to deliver us. We thank you for that, Father. We thank you for the many blessings you have given us in Jesus Christ, and they are indeed multiple,

Father. And we thank you that through him, through faith in him, we have access into this grace in which we stand.

Again, we thank you for Jesus Christ. And Lord, I ask that I would preach him tonight.

And it's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. In the beginning five verses, we see how there is one gospel by God's grace.

Paul begins by identifying himself as an apostle in verse 1. This was not him standing on any authority of his own or from authority of another human or religious leader.

This was authority not from men nor through man, as verse 1 continues. And Paul certainly didn't mail in a couple of questions, pay $50 and receive his apostleship in the next couple business days.

It's always cool how that worked out, how it works on TV. No, the the title and position of apostle was held by those unlikely servants who had seen

Christ and been personally appointed by him. This authority of apostleship was from God directly.

We also see that Paul was in the company of all the brethren at the time of his writing. These were fellow

Christian brothers who stood with Paul, who agreed with him and gave him their amen.

Gave them, gave him their amen to this letter in support of what

Paul was saying. And of course, Paul addresses the letter to the churches of Galatia.

And in verse 3, he begins like he normally does with grace and peace. A standard greeting for Paul to wish to the brethren, the churches he wrote to, grace and peace.

And even though the Galatians were starting to buy into the false doctrine, starting to kind of think about the false gospel brought to them, promoting

Christ plus works, even though Paul knew they were beginning to waver, he still extended to them grace and peace.

Yet unlike many of his other letters, he doesn't just end with grace and peace to you and then really begin to write.

No, his mind is on the true gospel. He knows this is at what is at stake. And he begins to spill forth the gospel into his intro, even before he really begins to write.

He takes a moment and explains what this gospel is and how it is by God's grace.

The gospel is the message of Jesus Christ. And in verse 4, Paul speaks on what Christ has done, who gave himself for our sins.

Here is wondrous love, where God, demonstrating his love for us, sends his Son to die for us while we are yet sinners.

And Christ, through whom we have been made and all of creation has been made, Christ did not just give us another gift, another blessing.

He gave us himself for our sin. This is another element of the gospel, the fact, the reality that we are sinners.

And in our sinful state, we do not live by God's direction. We don't live by his commands. We live rather by our own direction, by our own commands.

In our fallenness, we are lawless and dead. Yet by the grace of God, the

Son has given himself for our sins. To what end? What purpose was in mind that he might deliver us from this present evil age?

That word delivered, delivered by Christ, that specific word, is used in Matthew 5 29.

It's translated like this, pluck it out by Jesus Christ, when he's referring to plucking out the eye that sins.

And in Acts 23 27, it's translated rescued. So looking at the

Scriptures, looking at the Holy Word of God, we see that through Christ, by his work, sinners are delivered, they're plucked out, they're rescued from the evil age that we are in.

What are we rescued from? This present evil age, as Paul describes it. This broken, fallen world, controlled by the prince of the power of the air, the devil, filled with walking dead men, sinners who struggle fiercely against God, against Christ, and age characterized by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, the domain of darkness.

This is the age where we are before Christ, but by the grace of God, we are rescued, we are delivered, we are plucked out from the darkness and brought into the light.

And Paul states this is done according to the will of God, of our God and Father.

It's by his will, it's by his redemptive plan that we are delivered, delivered from where we were into the kingdom of God.

This great rescue is accomplished by Christ who gives himself for our sins. And it is to God to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Amen. This is God's plan and Jesus accomplishes the work.

God saves and God deserves all of the credits, all of the glory, and all of the praise, for he is

God and he saves. There is one gospel, and we note that here in Paul's letter in his intro, that it's a gospel by God's grace.

The gospel reveals to us God's grace, his undeserved merits and favor to us.

It is the message of who Christ is, the very Son of God, incarnate God -man, perfect in every way, utterly sinless.

It's the message of what Christ has done. He has given himself for our sins. He has delivered us from this present evil age, a fallen world broken and characterized by sin.

A world filled with sinners, people like you and me, who don't deserve God's mercy, but deserve

God's wrath, his punishment. This is the true gospel, a message of God's grace, the redemptive story of the

God who comes down to his spiritually dead people and plucks them out from the darkness and brings them into the light.

God doesn't have to do this. He's not obligated to do this.

He's not obligated to save. He would be just still, he would be righteous still, if he were to give to each single one of us, all of us, our proper wages.

Yet God in his grace has sent forth his Son, not because of who we are, but in spite of who we are.

In spite of us being fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexual, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners.

And such we were, not just living in a present evil age, but in fact being a part of it, contributing to it in our lawlessness.

But God has saved us by his grace. He bestows on us unmerited favor, and this grace comes to us most fully in Jesus Christ the

Son. Through Christ we are indeed delivered, and by faith in him we stand in this grace.

We have access into this grace in which we stand. For the unbeliever, for those who are not trusting in Christ right now, this gospel by God's grace calls out to that individual.

The commanded response to this message to the person and work of Jesus Christ is this, repent and believe.

Turn from your sins, forsake them, flee them, turn to God, confess to him, you are right,

Heavenly Father. I am wrong. I am a sinner. Forgive me.

Forgive me. Repent and put your faith completely in Christ to save.

Trust in him alone. Believe who he says he is, and you will be saved by God's grace.

Indeed, you will be saved. Don't delay. Today is the day of salvation, and the

Lord is mighty to save right now at this moment on this particular day. For the believer, for those already having repented and put their their faith in Christ alone to save, remember this gospel and continue in it.

Do not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. The temptation for many is the same as for the

Galatians that they faced. Begin to trust in your works. Begin to lean on them more and more.

Begin to believe you're a Christian, a follower of Christ, because you are circumcised, because you follow this holy day, because you go to church, because I have helped the poor and aided the oppressed.

I've done all of this. I am right with God because of Jesus, and look what I've done. Look at all the good that I've brought to the table.

Look at all the stuff I contribute to my salvation. We don't contribute to our deliverance.

Examine the text again. Look at the first five verses of Galatians. Ask yourself, where are we in Paul's description of the gospel?

What are we doing? We are the sinners. We are the ones in darkness.

We are the spiritually dead ones. We are the ones being saved. We don't contribute to our salvation.

It is Jesus Christ who plucks us out, who rescues us by God's grace, by His redemptive plan.

So continue to abide in Christ. Know it is He who has saved you by God's will and by God's grace.

Continue in this. Don't turn aside. Let us live accordingly, relying on God for our salvation, our sanctification, and our future glorification.

There is one gospel by God's grace and no other. No other gospel.

We see this in verses 6 through 9 of Galatians 1. After Paul finishes his unique introduction to the

Galatians in verse 6, he now really begins his letter. And we see that, again, this letter is unique from Paul's other letters because he starts out a bit differently in the body of his letter.

In Philippians, Paul starts out saying he is so thankful for the believers at Philippi. He always thanks

God's for them in every prayer of his. In Colossians, Paul again says he is thankful for the believers at that particular location, praying for them often.

And even in 1 Corinthians, Paul is thankful to God for the grace given to the believers in Corinth.

And now he sends a letter to the Galatians and he writes, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ.

Kind of harsh, Paul. The Apostle stands in wonderment.

He marvels that the Galatians are turning away, that they are deserting the true gospel, that they are deserting

God himself. They're starting to give. They're starting to waver. They're in the process of deserting their position in Christ, turning to something different entirely.

And they were doing this so soon. So soon. You can hear the emotional concern in Paul.

As a spiritual mentor, he cared about these believers. And though he started his letter in kind of a harsher, serious tone, he cared for them.

He loved these believers. And note in verse 6 as well, that the

Galatians were turning away from him who called you in the grace of Christ. These churches were beginning to turn from God's gospel to another message.

And in deserting the gospel, when you change it, when you alter it, when you subtract from it, when you add to it, you desert

God himself. Deserting God for a different gospel, another message of salvation, another word of how to be made right, a message that included

Jesus and circumcision, Jesus and works. This was a different gospel created by man and through man.

And Paul has a little point he likes to make in verse 7 about this idea of another gospel, which is not another.

This other gospel isn't a gospel. There is no other gospel. There's no other message. And Paul acknowledges, but there are some who trouble you.

There are some who trouble you. Here we see the false teachers, those who promote this false gospel.

Here we see those who trouble these churches. In John 5, 4, we see at the pool of Bethesda, there was an angel that would go down to the water and would stir it up.

And anyone who had a physical infirmity or ailment would go into the waters and be healed. The word stirred up in that context is the same word as trouble in Galatians here.

And in Luke 24, 38, Jesus, recently risen, appears to his disciples and they think him to be a ghost.

They think him to be a full -on spirit. And he asked them, why are you troubled?

Why do doubts arise in you? Why are you stirred up?

There were some that had come into the churches of Galatia and began to promote this false gospel, troubling the believers there, stirring them up, agitating them, causing them to doubt, causing them to waver.

What were their thoughts? Maybe Jesus really isn't enough for me.

These guys bring up some really good points and some smart stuff that point back to the Old Testament about circumcision and all these signs and these days and months.

It sounds right. They use the right terminology. They use the right words. Sounds right.

And Paul further says about these false teachers, they want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

And indeed, that's what they did. They took the message of the person and work of Jesus Christ and they twisted it into something else completely different, something else entirely.

Yeah, it mentions elements of truth. It mentions Jesus Christ and the Father, but it's still gravely wrong.

Still gravely wrong. The Galatians were not to give an inch in abandoning

Christ alone to save. Not even if a trusted source, a legitimate source, came to them with another gospel.

And that's what Paul says in verse 8, but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, even if the best case scenario were to happen and someone like an apostle, a fellow brother in Christ, or an angel from heaven were to come to the

Galatians and say, I have this new thing, they were not to take that. They were to reject it.

And Paul knows these best -case scenarios would never happen. As one commentary puts it,

Paul speaks hypothetically. Even if a trust source came with a different message, do not accept it.

This other message would still be wrong regardless of who brought it. This other gospel would still be wrong and the one preaching it would be faced with strong condemnation.

For Paul says of those who bring another gospel, let them be accursed. Those who promote a different gospel, one other than Jesus Christ alone to save, let them be accursed.

That is, let them be anathema. Let them be devoted for holy destruction.

As the commentary, the same commentary, further puts it, Paul goes from the hypothetical to the very real situation that the

Galatians face. He says, as we have said before, so now

I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

If anyone, if anyone preaches another gospel, don't receive it. Don't take it in.

And those who would promote such a gospel, let them be accursed. Let them be anathema. Let them be devoted for holy destruction.

Is this harsh? Is Paul being mean once again in his writings to the

Galatians? Some would say, yeah, but consider the gravity of the situation.

What is at stake here? The Galatians getting the gospel right. Getting the gospel right, knowing and believing the true and only gospel from God.

And yes, there are those who would take this blessed message and twist it into something else entirely.

Pervert it into another message. And that's what the false teachers did.

And by doing so, they severely troubled the believers there and possibly kept some unbelievers in the dark.

They gave people man -crafted gospels. During his earthly ministry,

Jesus had something to say about teachers who also kept people in the dark. Matthew 23, 13 and 15, he says,

Hold up. You going down the narrow path? Bunch of weird people do that.

You want this broader path. It's a lot smoother. It's a lot nicer. Look at all the interesting people going down this path.

It'll be a lot better for you. They make their followers twice as much a son of hell, twice as much.

It's good to meditate on Christ's words in Matthew's gospel account. It's good to meditate upon Paul's words in Galatians.

It's good to meditate on what the Bible tells us about those promoting another gospel.

It's good to meditate on what God has said about them. They are doomed.

One theologian put it this way, commenting on verse 8 and 9 of Galatians. Throughout history,

God has devoted certain objects, individuals, and groups to destruction. This is indeed true, and it's true biblically.

And we see this in the Old Testament book of Joshua. In Joshua 6, 17, we know the story.

Joshua and the Israelites have circled around Jericho a couple of times. And on the seventh day, Joshua's stage, shout, for the

Lord has given you the city. Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and all who are in it.

Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are in her house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

And he continues in verse 18, and you, by all means, abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it.

One thing to look out for in the Word of God is repetition. That's a solid warning from Joshua.

The city itself, Jericho, was doomed to destruction by the Lord himself, as well as the objects left behind in the ruin, and the

Israelites were not to take them. But one man,

Achan, did not follow the instruction very well. Coveting the objects, he did not follow the instruction given by Joshua, and he took some of the accursed objects.

Because of this sin, he and his family were found out, they were stoned, and they were burned. They themselves were accursed.

And now in the New Testament, the false teachers, those who preach another gospel, they are the ones who are devoted to holy destruction, for they pervert

God's good gospel. How many gospels in today's world could you list?

If you sat down with pen and paper, how many could you list? 10? 20?

30 perhaps? Maybe more? If you really did the research, you could find the various messages of false hope out there, and that are active in this present evil age.

Gospels that promise how to be right with God, how to be forgiven, how to be right with fellow man, how to be justified in other people's sight, how to achieve a higher enlightenment, how to ascend above this physical world, and the list goes on and on and on.

In his godly wisdom and strong, serious tone, Paul makes it clear in these four verses of chapter 1 of Galatians, there is one gospel and no other.

This true message by God's grace is very much indeed an exclusive message.

It's not very inclusive. It's not very helpful.

It seems kind of cruel to say that one person's message, one person's gospel, one person's redemption is wrong, yours is the right one.

It seems hateful, doesn't it? How can God give us only one way to be made right?

It doesn't seem fair. One theologian answered this type of question with another question that went something like this, why does

God give us one way at all? And that takes us back to God's grace.

Unmerited favor and love is bestowed on us in spite of who we are, and God would still be just to give us all what we really deserve, but he provides us a way, he provides us a deliverance.

Is God giving us only one way, hateful, or is it merciful?

And specifically, what is this way provided for us? Rather, who is this way? It's Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father except through him. He is the door by which we enter in. No one outside of Christ will ever be made right with God, will ever be made forgiven, will ever enter into heaven, but all those who repent and put their faith in Christ alone to save will be saved.

They will be delivered, they will be rescued, and we must remember and continue to abide in Christ, knowing that there is no other gospel that is true, that is right.

First, know this for yourself, for your own personal salvation, in your most quiet times when you're alone, know that it is

Christ who saves you, it is Christ who saves me. And also know that this is the only salvation for others you know, your friends and your family.

This is the one way, and the loving thing to do is to tell them, be led by the

Spirit, be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. And know that Christ is the only way.

Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

Moving forward in the book of Galatians, we see that Paul also makes the point that the one gospel of God is not according to man.

I appreciate the way the ESV translates verse 10, Jesus Christ, I'm a slave of Christ, and if I were serving man,

I wouldn't be a slave of Christ. As a slave of his risen

Lord, Paul went through many difficult situations, many dangerous situations. He was not out to gain popularity, he was not out to gain, have people like him personally, he was out doing the work given him.

He was out to preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ. And he continues in his letter, but I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

This was not a message created, crafted by man, praise the Lord. It was not from men nor through man.

It was not a message created by a sinner looking around in his sinfulness, looking at the created order, and coming up with theology, making up religion.

It was not man taking God's word and twisting it into something else. Paul's gospel was

God's gospel. For I neither received it from man nor was

I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul was not intellectually taught or convinced that this message was real by men.

Unlike his earlier life, filled with zealous understanding of the law and of the traditions of the

Jews, learning the gospel was different for Paul. For it came directly through Jesus Christ.

Paul was an apostle appointed by Christ, having seen him on the road to Damascus.

And he further supports that this gospel is not from man by giving his personal testimony.

He's transparent with his life, he's transparent with the grace that God has given him. He says, for you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism.

At first Paul was not Paul, he was Saul, not a friend of the church, not a friend of Christ, but one who persecuted the church harshly.

He was set against Christians, aiming for their very destruction. And he says here that he didn't just do his job, persecute the church from nine to five and go home.

He put in the overtime. He advanced in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

Paul writes, he was dedicated and consumed in Judaism and the traditions he was brought up in, he was taught.

This was his life. But when it pleased

God, but when it pleased God, not when Paul came to his senses, not when he thought he should be a better person, no, when it pleased

God, according to his will, his perfect timing, God changed

Paul, God saved Paul. The apostle acknowledges the sovereignty of God in his entire life.

He was brought into this world for a purpose. He was called to be a Christian, a spiritual leader, to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Called to specifically do what type of work? To preach Christ among the

Gentiles, to make him known, to preach repentance and faith to Gentile and Jew.

And again, Paul didn't learn this gospel from men, not even from the other apostles. For he did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did he go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before him.

But he went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. He didn't conspire, he didn't learn the ins and outs of the gospel from the other apostles or from men.

It was directly given to him by God. You can certainly see

God's grace in Paul's life. Someone who was an enemy of the church, who murdered Christians, but now is an apostle of Jesus Christ.

This true gospel is not according to man, praise God. It's not created, it's not been thought up, it's not been designed by man.

How can fallen humanity do anything like this? How can it create any message or system to be made right with God?

For in our sin we are powerless to exit out of this evil age that we're in. We cannot build a tower to reach the heavens, to reach

God himself. We cannot achieve our own salvation or elevate our minds with the right thinking.

We cannot change ourselves. The only gospels that come out of this world are broken ones that point people to more and more sin and keep them in the darkness.

We need a divine gospel. We need God's gospel. One that is not according to man, but according to our maker, our sustainer, our rescuer.

God's gospel, where he sends his Son to pluck us out of the spiritual deadness and make us righteous before the

Father, where we are commanded to not trust in man's wisdom or knowledge or strength, but to trust in the perfect man, the

Holy One, the Son in whom the Father is well pleased. Don't follow gospels according to man.

Don't be troubled by the thoughts and the new ideas of the present day, the fresh perspectives that help us see things better, to change biblical theology entirely, the perspectives and ideas from man and through man.

Measure these thoughts biblically. See if they are truly a part of the real gospel or if there's something entirely different.

Stay with God's gospel, a gospel of divine origin as one commentary put it.

Continue to abide in Christ. Yes, let's continue to abide in Christ.

For like the time and situation of the Galatians in the early church years, we live in a present evil age filled with many false gospels and messages.

They promise goodness, they promise happiness, but they only lead us away from truth.

Praise to the Lord and praise to the Lord that the gospel goes forth ever still and Christ continues to build his church.

The gospel has not been stopped and will not be stopped ever. This gospel continues and this gospel contains the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and is timeless and transcends culture.

It contains Jesus Christ, his person and work.

This is the one gospel by God's grace. There is no other. That's not according to man.

Praise God. Would you pray with me? Father, I thank you for your grace.

I thank you for forgiving us for our sins, Lord, and for delivering us, for plucking us out from the darkness.

When we were helpless, when we were dead in our sins, we thank you for the gospel that you have given us through Jesus Christ, the message of who he is and what he has done.

And Lord, when we meditate on Christ, we do indeed know that he is the only way and that he is the only way that is worthy and capable of doing this task.

He is the only one that can open the scroll. Thank you for Christ.

Thank you for grace. Help us to believe this personally in our private moments, in our heart of hearts,

Lord. May we know Christ as our Lord and our God. Father, may we believe this for others as well.

May we know and give us the strength to tell people that there is one way. Give us the strength to tell people that the false gospels are wrong.

Give us strength to be like Paul, to speak seriously and strongly when we need to.

And give us grace to examine our faith and to make adjustments according to your word, to measure ourselves according to what you have said, what you have revealed to us.

Thank you for your goodness and for your grace. Thank you for Jesus, and it's in his name we pray.