Shooting the Wolves (False Teachers / Judaizers)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. So this morning we will begin our study of the book of Galatians. So turn to Galatians chapter 1.

Galatians as a Defense of the Gospel of Grace

The book of Galatians was written by the apostle Paul around 50 A .D. to a group of churches in the Roman province of Galatia, which is located in modern day Turkey. Paul was writing in order to combat the error of legalism, which is the belief that you are saved by faith plus works.

That if you want to go to heaven, that yes, you must believe in Jesus, but you also must obey the law of Moses. And the big issue of the day was circumcision. Was circumcision mandatory to become a follower of Christ?

That is what the early church was wrestling with early. Some were. And if so, you can kind of understand that would have been a stumbling block to adult males who might want to follow Jesus. So the Christians in the region of Galatia, basically they were bewitched into believing the lie that faith in Jesus wasn't enough.

And that group that convinced them of this was a group of false teachers known as the Judaizers. And they said, you know, you must obey the law of Moses. And essentially you need to become Jewish before you become Christian.

So that's the context of this letter. And while you may hear that and think, well, what relevance does that have to to us today? Well, I promise you it has a great deal of relevance because although the details might be different, the church and Christians are facing the same threats today, different details.

But people want to add to the gospel or try to corrupt the gospel. So what is the book of Galatians? It is a book that clarifies the gospel of Jesus Christ. Before we continue, let's open in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the gospel, which your word tells us is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.

And Lord, help us all to realize how absolutely essential it is that we understand the gospel in all its fullness and yet even in its simplicity. That we believe it, live it, and be ready to share it with others.

And Lord, at the same time, we realize that if these churches 1 ,900 years ago were tricked, and these Christians were tricked into believing things that were false, certainly that could happen and is indeed happening today.

So as your word tells us, there's nothing new under the sun. We need to be aware of these things. So may your Holy Spirit teach us through this most important book of the New Testament. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Amen.

Paul’s Apostolic Greeting and the Gospel of Grace

Let's begin by reading Galatians 1, 1 through 5. Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. And all the brethren who are with me to the churches of Galatia.

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age. According to the will of God, our God and Father to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen.

So I've titled this first message from Galatians. I've titled it grace to you. Grace to you. Some of the things we're going to read about, however, in Galatians might not sound very gracious to some people.

Because let's face it, the gospel, that's what this is about. The gospel. And the gospel is a message of what? It's a message of grace. Grace to you. So with that in mind, if a person can do anything to earn their salvation or work for their salvation, if there's anything that you can do to get right with God, you know, your own works, if that's true, then salvation is not of grace.

You see, it's either of grace or it's not. The majority of professing Christians in this world have been hoodwinked into thinking that it's not of grace, that it's actually based on what you do. That you're saved based on your works.

Or maybe you're saved by grace, but then it's your works that keep you saved or something like that. I just want to read from Romans chapter 4, verses 3 and 4. This is your homework if you want some for later this afternoon.

Read Romans chapter 4. But Paul says in Romans 4, 3 and 4, what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, because Abraham did what?

He believed.

But to him who works, that is the person working for their salvation. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. Let me try to illustrate this. When you get your paycheck at the end of the week, you get a paycheck because you work for it.

Right?

It has nothing to do with grace at all. Your employer owes it to you. Salvation is completely different. God doesn't owe us anything. God doesn't owe anybody anything. Eternal life in a home in heaven is completely 100 by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Therefore the idea that you could do anything, even if it's just one thing, in this case circumcision. But the idea that if you could do anything to earn your salvation, even a little bit, then God does owe you something.

And it totally destroys the idea, the concept of grace. That's a pretty basic thing to understand, isn't it? So Galatians is a book of grace. Grace to you. And oh by the way, every other New Testament epistle it seems that Paul wrote, he begins that same way.

Grace to you. He repeats this phrase in Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, and Philemon. I mean this is how he begins every letter.

Grace to you.

This is all the message of grace. And maybe there's times where you come to church, and again, read it through Galatians. Some of the things that you will hear from the Apostle Paul, some of the, well that doesn't sound gracious.

Well that's the same way probably when you come to Morse Corner Church. We're preaching the gospel of grace. But then you might hear some things, well that doesn't sound gracious. And as a human being, I can make mistakes and say or do ungracious things.

But the message of scripture is a message of grace. Okay, and sometimes when somebody comes in and tries to pervert the gospel, or to add to the gospel, to corrupt the Christian message, that needs to be dealt with.

And of course Paul dealt with it. And that's where people find those statements that they don't think are gracious. So, the word grace is so important. And remember that when we read through this letter.

Because Paul is going to have to deal with false teachers, wolves in sheep's clothing. So, as we said Galatia, this is a region, modern day Turkey. The Apostle Paul on his missionary journeys, he went through, founded these churches.

Got many people saved. Their lives were changed. Their lives were touched by the grace of God. And the Greek word charis, or charis, you know has that kind of rolling phlegm sound. Well that's not very gracious either.

But the word charis, I'll just pronounce it that way. What does it communicate?

It's a gift.

It's a gift that brings joy and delight. So, these people had experienced the joy of God and the grace of God. And yet the false teachers were coming in trying to ruin everything. And trying to bring them back under bondage.

They were trying to destroy everything that Paul had built up by the grace of God. And this is what every church and every Christian needs to watch out for today. When a church has a good thing going.

There's nothing that Satan would love to do more than to get in there and ruin the thing. When Christians are walking in fellowship and walking in liberty. In the grace of God. There's always someone who sees that and they want to, you know, do something divisive.

Or teach, usually teaching things that are divisive to kind of weigh people down. And bring them back under bondage. So, while the Apostle Paul is going to say some harsh things. I think we'll get to it eventually.

I won't bring it up now. But the harshest thing the Apostle Paul ever says is in the book of Galatians. Some of you know what it is. And again, that might seem ungracious. But remember why he's saying these things.

Remember who Paul is addressing. He is a shepherd trying to protect the flock.

He loves the people.

He's trying to protect the flock. If there's one thing you don't do, you don't show grace and mercy to the wolves. When a wolf tries to come in and eat your sheep, literally. Okay, if you're a literal shepherd taking care of an actual flock of sheep.

And you see a wolf coming in chewing on one of the sheep. What do you do with the wolf?

You shoot it.

But we're going to show grace to the wolf. That's insane. And of course, we need to shoot the wolves metaphorically. It's spiritually. But you understand what's at stake. You understand why Paul has to do this.

Paul’s Name, His Mission to Jews and Gentiles, and the Need to Reach People

All right, so let's go through these verses one at a time. There's so much rich, valuable truth packed into each one. Galatians chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, an apostle. Not from men, nor through man. But through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.

So he identifies himself as Paul. All right, Paul. Most of you know that his name given at birth was not Paul. Some people have the idea that God changed his name from Saul to Paul. That's not the case.

But his name originally was Saul of Tarsus. He is a Jewish man named probably after the first king of Israel, King Saul in the Old Testament. But when speaking to the Gentiles, he uses a variation of this name Saul.

So he refers, when he's speaking to Gentiles interacting with non-Jewish people, he calls himself Paul. And this probably would have helped out a little bit with his evangelistic efforts since he's trying to reach.

This is his calling to reach the non-Jewish world. And especially back in those days, a Gentile was accustomed to a Jew not wanting anything to do with them. You know, the Jews kept over there. They were separate.

And Gentiles, they really didn't interact much with each other. So Saul, which is a very Jewish name, he just calls himself Paul. He's trying to reach out to people. That's part of why he went by this name.

Trying to reach the uncircumcised, as they were called in the Old Testament. But when he was interacting with Jews, what did he do? Well, he tried to reach out to them. And let's look at one of those examples now.

Turn to Acts chapter 22. So when he was talking to Gentiles, he would call himself Paul. When he's talking to Jews, trying to reach out to the Jews, he would take a different approach. He became all things to all men so that by all means he might save some.

And that's what we want to do. We want to read through the scripture, try to learn something. Because we want to reach people. So in some ways we need to become all things to all men. Meaning we need to find that common ground with people.

We want to build a relationship with people. Okay, so focus on the things you have in common. And that's what we see here. Acts 22, starting in verse 1. Paul speaking to Jews, he says, Brethren and fathers, hear my defense before you now.

And when they heard that he spoke to them in what? He was speaking to them in Hebrew. Which was not very common back then. So when they hear that says they kept all the more silent. Then he said, I am indeed a Jew.

Born in Tarsus of Cilicia. And brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel. Taught according to the strictness of our father's law. And was zealous toward God as you all are today. Now if you go back to chapter 21.

At least if you use the new King James version. Which I would recommend. I think sometimes it's helpful to be looking at the same thing. But I digress. That's another sermon for another day. But verses 37 through 40 is titled, Addressing the Jerusalem Mob.

This isn't exactly a friendly crowd, is it? Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Loras Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message. Or if you'd like more information about the ministry.

Visit our website, lorascornickchurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us. Some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time. May the grace of God be with you.