THE BOOK OF GALATIANS – CHAPTER 1:2-10 - MESSAGE 2
This message continues from Part 1
(A). PAUL’S COMPANIONS IN UNITY AND CONFIRMATION
{{Galatians 1:2 “and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.”}}
This wonderful truth of brotherhood strengthens the purpose of the letter. Paul’s letter was sent to all the churches of Galatia, for the enemy had done his work and this insidious destruction had infected the churches of the whole region.
There are no individual greetings but in chapter 4:19-20 you see the heart of the caring shepherd revealed, but as well the heart of the watchman of souls. Paul is as a father who cares for his children – {{Galatians 4:19-20 “My children with whom I am again in labour until Christ is formed in you - but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.”}}
It was always Paul’s custom to find some word of praise to give to the ones to whom he is writing, eg, in 1 Corinthians 1 v 4-9, but in this letter to the churches in Galatia, there is not one word of praise or commendation. There is nothing for which he can give thanks. This tells us of the serious state of these churches and the effect that had on Paul. Have we ourselves added the law, added doctrines and practices, added good works and activity to the true gospel? Have we adulterated the true gospel with the addition of that which cuts the ground from under the gospel?
Paul’s term “brethren” is a correct Christian term. In fact it is wider than that for it goes back to Old Testament times. {{Acts 7:26 On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren. Why do you injure one another?’}} In a church fellowship there may be a school teacher, a surgeon, a bus driver and a ditch digger. Who is more important? Well I expect you know the correct answer to give. All are equal before the Lord because all are the Lord’s brothers. All are brethren. In the early days of the church when it was very common to have many slaves and masters and free persons, the slaves were equal in the fellowship gatherings that were held. In fact Paul addressed the master how to treat the slave and addressed the slave how to be a good servant. We are members one of another.
It is wrong for churches to have cliques and favouritism groups, often to the exclusion of the quieter person or one less educated or not of a higher prestige. That is wrong, very wrong, and those churches ought to go and read the book of James.
THE GREETING STATEMENT IN ALL PAUL’S LETTERS
{{Galatians 1:3 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.”}}
Grace and Peace – the greeting statement in all Paul’s letters. These are two fundamental concepts. It is grace that establishes the union between God and man, and it is peace that nurtures the union after that. Grace reaches out to lost human beings and peace with God results. It is the peace of God that enriches all that union with God.
Why does Paul use those two words in all his letters? The answer lies in his own transformation. Paul who sentenced to death true Christians was himself apprehended by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ who saved him. Paul had no peace in his life. He must have been fearful for no murderer can have peace. He came to appreciate, perhaps more than nearly everyone else, how great the grace and peace of God are.
Again it is the fullness of the Godhead in unity that works for our good. The Lord said that His peace He would leave with us. The blessed Lord cares for us all the time – in love and protection, in guidance, in comfort and in peace. Grace made all that possible.
Grace is VERY important in this letter because it opposes all that the false teachers were trying to do. They were trying to impose the LAW on the Galatian converts, a horrible thing to do. See {{Romans 3:20-28 “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin; being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.”}}
Paul offers grace and peace to them but they had been rejecting the true grace of God. What they once accepted they were throwing overboard because they had been ensnared by clever agents of the devil in turning away from the Lord. The legalisers were trying to turn them from the faith.
{{Galatians 1:4 “who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us out of this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father.”}}
We have in this short verse two most important facts –
(A). The Gift – Jesus gave Himself for us, more to the point, gave Himself for our sins. The wording is “who gave Himself,” which indicates a sacrificial willingness even though we also know God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” but the whole Godhead was as One in the redemption of mankind. It is a mystery we can not understand this side of glory. Jesus was the fulfillment of all the lambs that had been sacrificed through the Old Testament times from Abel onwards. None of the lambs of the Old Testament gave themselves willingly but we read this of the Lord Jesus Christ – {{Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.”}}
(B). The Reason – to deliver us out of this present evil age. This age has continued for 2000 years and has been always evil no matter in what part of it we lived. In the Greek the emphasis is on “evil/wicked”. We are not of this world because Christ has rescued us out of it. We were in danger of being swallowed up by it but the Lord rescued us. Fear, strife and hate belong to the world. Evil belongs to the world. Awful things have happened in the past 2 000 years especially to God’s own children.
Can we say that we live in evil days? Yes, we can. Can we say our days are darker and more evil than in the past? I think we can. Look at the verse that speaks of the closing days of the Church age, which is where we are now, on the eve of the Rapture – {{2Timothy 3:13 “Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”}} That verse is in the section that begins with, {{2Timothy 3:1 “Realise this, that in the last days difficult times will come,”}} All through the world now we see evil spreading like a wildfire and what is bad this year will be worse next year.
Our deliverance came at great cost to God the Father and Son. So precious is redemption, so costly yet so rewarding – who for the joy set before Him endured the suffering, despising the shame . . . but It pleased God to bruise Him. Father and Son. This all happened in the foreknowledge and will of God. I think in heaven we are going to realise the depth of the sacrifice for us in a deeper and more meaningful way.
(C). GLORY BE UNTO GOD
{{Galatians 1:5 “to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.”}}
In the light of what God has inspired so far in the writing, Paul must just stop there and reflect because the greatness of God is almost overpowering. Glory must belong to God and to Him be glory forever. Glory is hinted at here as the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us but it will be exceeding glory we will know in the very presence of the Lord. Only a glimpse of that glory was seen on the Mount of Transfiguration. Glory is revealed in Revelation 4 and 5. Glory was revealed to Moses at Sinai.
Never be lacking in thanks or gratitude for what the Lord did. Give God the glory and do not think to retain some of it for yourself. Many false teachers like the glory of their positions. The true child of God is humble recognizing that none of his/her salvation had any merit whatever in the individual. All of it belongs to God. He has done it all, every last thread of your redemption. We have nothing to boast of; no glory belongs to us. All glory is to God.
(D). THE COST OF OUR SALVATION
Galatians 1:6 “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel (another gospel of a different kind) Galatians 1:7 which is really not another, (another gospel of the same kind) only (that) there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”}}
This is the only letter of Paul’s where he does not call them “saints”. Having drawn before us the grace and peace and glory of God, Paul immediately makes the challenge to these Galatians who are DESERTING the grace of God to turn to another gospel. It is not really good news as it is a bondage they are returning to. God’s people put themselves into bondage. The churches Paul helped establish are now being subverted by a false gospel. There are two words used in Greek for “another” in these two verses. The first used here means “of a different kind” and the second means “of the same kind”. In the two verses above I have inserted that in brackets.
Firstly it is a surprise – so much so that Paul used the word “amazed” - that they went off the track so quickly. When we consider the time Paul spent among these Galatian churches as we saw in Part 1, then it is surprising. False teachers had crept in getting them to keep certain commands and practices of the Law and having to keep the Jewish Sabbath instead of the Lord’s day which is clearly shown in the book of Acts. They were binding them to the Law. They were trying to change them from grace to legalism. These were evil people.
DESERTION – any step outside the grace of God to another gospel is desertion. If you get caught up with the gospel of covertness known as “the prosperity doctrine” or the gospel of false hope known as healing in the atonement you have deserted Christ. Any other message other than the pure gospel of grace is desertion. The word translated “desert” is a revolt from, and applied to a soldier who leaves the army to go over to the enemy, or a turncoat.
The word for “disturb” is the same one as used in John 14:1 – “Let not your heart be troubled”. In the Lord there is peace and shelter from the worst storms. The ones who carry a different gospel are those who DISTURB the true saints. They disrupt fellowships. They sneak into fellowships to subtly change the focus and spread the contagion. There is one cult which does not do missionary work but waits until churches are established and then swoop in. They are not unlike the very ones disturbing these Galatians. On my visits to the south Pacific islands, it saddened me to see a continuing increase in three cults making inroads into churches in the greatly Christianised South pacific nations. They do no church planting themselves but enter (sneak into) established churches with the false gospel and American money. The evil one sows error in every age.
[[Willis – “It is a terrible thing to disturb God’s people. They are like a flock of sheep feeding in the good pastures of the word of God, but alas, there are many today, who, instead of feeding the sheep, are disturbing them. There are those who pass for good shepherds of God’s flock who are very often preaching the law, or some other law, like the false shepherds of Galatia instead of feeding the sheep with the true grace of God. There are many who would not preach the 10 Commandments, either for salvation or as a rule for life, but who are continually telling the saints of God, ‘Touch not. Taste not. Handle not. (Colossians 2 v 21). We have such and such a rule. You must not do this. You must do that. You must go through this procedure, keep this certain day.’ The principle is the same. It is law and not grace, and it disturbs the flock but does not feed them. Disturbing the flock is the enemy’s work.”]]
DISTORTION – These false gospels are not radical usually initially, (very subtle at the first) unlike the gospel of the Mormons which is radically different, and seems to be altogether misaligned to the truth at first glance. However the false gospel of the cults is very wrong and in fact each is a distortion of the truth. All falsehood attacks the grace of God.
(E). LET THE FALSE TEACHER BE ACCURSED
{{Galatians 1:8 “Even though we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Galatians 1:9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.”}}
Paul is not the slightest bit accommodating of any doctrine or practice that is outside the one true gospel. Christians are often too accommodating of what the bible does not support. We are told to be on our guard lest something slips through that we have not anticipated. {{Acts 20:28-30 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”
1Timothy 6:20-21 “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge” - which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.”}}
In these days of instant communication when ideas float around everywhere in the media and on the internet, there is much that is suspect. I am not being judgmental, but we have the right to, as the bible tells us to be on our guard and to examine what we hear. {{1John 4:1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”}} People pick up strange ideas from the internet and television. Those who do not know their bibles can be easily duped. Also those churches that have business meetings, be careful what you are asked to institute.
We must be very clear here. Paul called down on a curse upon those who were bringing in this false teaching. Twice he called for this curse. These who were trying to bring in this false teaching to the Galatians were Judaisers, the legalisers/legalizers who were trying to bring in elements of the Law, to distort grace; those who were wanting to enslave the Christians under the Law or sections of the Law including keeping the Sabbath. God will not stand for that. This is what the book of Galatians is about. It must combat this false doctrine that says more is needed than faith, and we must adhere to parts of the Law.
(F). IN EVERTYTHING WE SEEK THE FAVOUR OF GOD NOT OF MEN
{{Galatians 1:10 “Am I now seeking the favour of men, or of God, or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.”}}
Man-pleasers or God-pleasers? How many stand in pupilts and don’t preach Christ or faithfully uphold the true gospel because it might cause some to depart, or some might be offended, or the finances might be down, or popularity might suffer, or people higher up might disapprove. Paul said “Woe unto me if I do not preach the gospel of Christ.” Many preachers say, “Woe unto me if I offend anyone in what I say.” We live in an age of compromise and political correctness. All around us the gospel is distorted because certain parts of it have been hacked away. The true servant of the Lord will be heard to say, “This says the Lord!”
If you want the favour of men, then just start compromising. The world will find that highly acceptable. Don’t be a bible basher but give people what they want to hear. Just remember though, by doing that, you will dismissed by God. Depart from Me. I never knew you!
One of the Old Testament prophets I most admire is Jeremiah. In the face of hostility he did not yield but remained faithful to God; he was abused; he was locked up in a filthy cistern; he was branded a traitor. However this man entered the presence of God with God’s full seal of approval.
Do not allow false teaching to enter for its forms are multitudinous. Be in tune with God to discern truth from error. Uphold the gospel that was entrusted to you ministers and pastors, if ministers are reading this. Your mission is faithfulness to the gospel and not to be men-pleasers.
Paul makes it clear – he who pleases men is not a servant of the Lord. Do not alter the message of the cross – {{Romans 9:32-33 “Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
1Corinthians 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness.”}}
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
