Galatians in a Nutshell – part 2 (Galatians 1:6-9)
Galatians in a Nutshell – part 2
Galatians 1:6-9
March 2, 2014
I promise that I had no intention of giving you two sermons a couple of weeks ago that were divided into part 1 and part 2 and then taking this long to get back to them.
However, two weeks ago we began a brand new study
Of one of the finest books in the Bible.
We began studying Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia.
To sort of pull you back into the proper thought here,
We began by revisiting a question that one of Job’s friends asked him.
Bildad asked Job:
Job 25:4 “How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman?”
• Bildad wasn’t doubting that man was sinful…
• Bildad wasn’t arguing man’s need of righteousness…
Bildad’s question was how is sinful man
Supposed to obtain that righteousness?
Now, if we had that much time and if we really cared
We could do an extensive study of various religions
And see how they answer that question.
But for brevity sake, we can really quite easily
Break every religion that has ever been down into 1 of 2 categories.
Through the ages humanity has answered that question one of two ways.
1) Sinful man obtains righteousness by earning it through human effort.
He does something or does enough that finally gets him over the hump
And causes God to say he is “good enough”.
Now every religion differs on what those “good works” are,
But still at the end of the day, the answer is that something is required.
And I told you then as well, that this answer is by far
The most popular and most widely accepted.
Most of the world believes this is the way a man becomes just before God
2) Sinful man obtains righteousness as a gift from One who is righteous.
In other words, it is the belief that sinful man has already blown it and regardless of his efforts from this day forward, he can never change his sinful past, and therefore can never be fully righteous.
If he is to be just, someone else must give their righteousness to him.
That means that you must first find one that is righteous and then you must convince that righteous one to give His righteousness to you.
Sounds far-fetched when you say it like that doesn’t it?
And yet, this is the message of the Bible.
The only difference is that we didn’t have to convince the righteous One to share His righteousness with us, He did it freely.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Only Christianity believes that righteousness is credited to sinners
As a gift from One who is perfectly righteous.
In fact, Christianity is the only religion that is even capable of believing this system because only Christianity has a righteous Savior.
And so only Christianity believes that man is made just before God
As a gift by grace.
Adrian Rogers said, “Grace is exclusive to Christianity”
And no book defends that truth like the letter Paul wrote
To the regions of Galatia.
This region was a region that cost Paul much to reach.
He was run out of two cities by Jewish hostiles
And was stoned and left for dead in a third.
And now, after Paul has departed, a group of men known as Judaizers
Had swooped in and were distorting Paul’s message of grace.
The Judaizers basically said, that believing in Jesus was fine (they may have even done that) but that if a man was to be saved, he must also be circumcised.
Acts 15:1 “Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
They believed that adherence to the Mosaic Law
Was necessary for salvation.
You could believe in Jesus, but you must also become Jewish.
(The closest to this today would be someone like 7th Day Adventist)
And so they attacked Paul’s message of salvation by grace through faith.
The result of this perversion was the book of Galatians.
It is a fiery work, it is a passionate work.
And as I told you a couple of weeks ago, it was really this book more than any other that is credited for starting the Protestant Reformation.
This book defends salvation by grace alone!
Two weeks ago we started studying what I called “Galatians in a Nutshell”
That is really what the first 9 verses really are.
The first 9 verses serve as sort of a table of contents
For the rest of the letter.
Everything Paul reveals here, he will greatly expound on later.
But these 9 verses give us a very clear picture of exactly what he wants to say.
Last time we saw:
#1 THE SOURCE OF PAUL’S MESSAGE
Galatians 1:1-2
Paul will expound on this more later (even in this first chapter)
But the basic point was that his message came from God.
The Judaizers first attacked Paul’s message by attacking Paul.
They would try to prove that he was not God’s spokesman,
And that is a point Paul wastes no time refuting.
(1) “Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead),”
Paul was neither trained nor sent by men.
He came from God and he spoke God’s message.
He was not the radical, the Judaizers were the radicals.
#2 THE SUBSTANCE OF PAUL’S MESSAGE
Galatians 1:3-5
And here we saw the basic theological point
Of what Paul will be saying throughout the letter.
1) RECEIVE GRACE (3)
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”
One of the main points Paul will make throughout this letter
Is that grace is only available in Christ.
• If you try to add anything to Christ
• If you try to take anything away from Christ
THEN YOU LOSE GRACE
What God did in sending His Son to die in our stead
And to grant His righteousness to us
Was without a doubt the most gracious thing
That has ever occurred in the scope of human history.
But if you ignore God’s atonement and seek to earn righteousness on your own, you will forfeit that grace.
He will say later:
Galatians 5:2-4 “Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”
• Does anyone really want to give up grace?
• Does anyone really want to go back to works?
Well don’t!
Receive Grace!
2) REMEMBER CHRIST (4)
“who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,”
What a statement!
Have you forgotten what it was that Christ did for you?
• You and I were sinners
• You and I were imprisoned by that sin
• And we were prisoners in this evil age
But God devised a plan
God chose to rescue us from our certain peril
God forged a rescue mission if you will.
That rescue mission was to punish one innocent Man
For the sins of everyone else.
That was the plan, and Christ was compliant.
He “gave Himself for ours sins”
Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”
1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;”
And we could go on and on with verses like that.
But the point is, do you remember what He did?
• Do you remember the cross?
• Do you remember Him saying “It is finished!”?
• Do you remember the atonement?
Well, if you go back to trying to earn righteousness
You must not think much of it.
You must think His work was insufficient…
You must think His death was only partially successful…
Don’t disregard the power of the atonement of Christ.
Receive Grace, Remember Christ
3) GLORIFY GOD (5)
“to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen”
See what the Galatians failed to realize is that
There is a reason why people so easily gravitate toward legalism.
You would think that with grace available no one would choose works instead,
And yet that is what happens in most people’s lives.
When given the option, people repeatedly choose works over grace.
WHY?
Because the one who does the work gets the glory.
People don’t choose legalism because they like to work.
People choose legalism because they desire glory.
And one thing I know about glory is that
If you are glorifying yourself you aren’t glorifying God.
And that is also something that has Paul so angry.
• This message of the Judaizers throws grace out the window,
• Overlooks the magnificent work of Christ,
• And gives the glory of salvation to the sinner instead of the Savior.
That is the substance of Paul’s message and that is why he is so angry.
Well, that catches us up to speed
With where we left off a couple of weeks ago.
Let’s move forward tonight.
#3 THE STING OF PAUL’S MESSAGE
Galatians 1:6-7
Here is another theme that will continually resurface throughout this book And that is that Paul is flabbergasted at what the Galatians are doing.
“I am amazed…” he says.
That word “amazed” translates THAUMAZO
Which means “to marvel” or “to wonder”
It is a word that Paul only uses one other place in his letters.
2 Thessalonians 1:9-10 “These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed — for our testimony to you was believed.”
Paul said that when Jesus returns
All those who have believed in Him will marvel at Him.
Paul actually says that the only other event in human history
That can cause him to marvel as much as he is right now
Is the return of Christ.
Can you see how perplexed he is by the Galatian’s defection?
“I am amazed…”
Later he will write:
Galatians 4:19-20 “My children, with whom I am again in labor 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.”
Paul writes as one whose mind is literally blown.
He can’t fathom what the Galatians are doing.
WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel”
THE GALATIANS WERE DESERTING GOD.
Some would assume at most they were only deserting Paul’s gospel,
But that was not it.
They were deserting “Him who called” them.
They weren’t just deserting the truth, they were deserting God.
How?
They were abandoning “the grace of Christ”
I am actually quite grateful that our study of Galatians is coinciding with our study of Genesis, for we are getting to see grace in both places.
But take Abraham for a second.
We’ve seen Abraham for a couple of weeks now.
• A pagan…
• A barren man…
• A worldly man…
• Even a fickle man (deserting the promised land)…
And when we look at Abraham we know there is only one reason
Why he ever became the patriarch we know of today.
He was a recipient of grace.
But there was a point in Abraham’s life
When he also tried to desert grace and embrace works.
Paul will even talk about it:
Galatians 4:21-23 “Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.”
Do you remember the story?
Genesis 16:1-2 “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.”
What was happening there?
• Abraham was taking matters into his own hands.
• He and Sarah had decided that God needed help fulfilling the promise.
• SO ABRAHAM TOOK GOD OFF THE CASE AND TOOK OVER HIMSELF
Abraham wasn’t just deserting grace, he was also deserting God.
Abraham was telling God, I’ll do it on my own.
That is where the Galatians were.
• They were throwing grace out the window.
• They were throwing Christ out the window.
• They were throwing God’s salvation out the window.
And Paul can’t believe it.
Why would you so quickly determine to throw Christ aside?
And certainly you can feel the sting in Paul’s message to them.
It carries the tone of a father who is utterly disappointed in his son.
• Paul didn’t see this coming…
• Paul certainly expected better…
• They have let him down, they have perplexed him…
And you need to understand this.
Paul is not disappointed in the Galatians
Because they weren’t doing enough FOR God.
Paul was disappointed because
They were trying to do enough WITHOUT God.
Do you understand what a slap in the face it is to God for you to try and earn what He has already provided?
I remember when Carrie and I were dating, and she was transferring to Tarleton because she was madly in love with me.
• She has her electric piano and we were going to take it to her dorm room.
• We put it in the back of pickup, but she wouldn’t let me tie it down.
• We had to wait for her dad to come home so he could tie it down.
(I built furniture for a living, I hauled everything I built once a month to Canton,
I was now hauling her furniture)
But I wasn’t capable of tying it down.
Now that is minor and stupid, but think about it in God’s terms.
He sent His Son in human flesh to pay the ransom for our sin.
It was a gracious gift of salvation.
But instead of just letting Him do it, the Galatians were saying,
“I appreciate your help, but let us tie it down.”
They were insulting God.
They were deserting Him.
And when you or I try to earn God’s favor through various religious works, we are doing the same.
Now works ARE important.
• God determined that we would do good works.
• If you don’t have works you don’t have faith.
But works are only the result of grace and NEVER the cause of it.
To try and earn what God is giving is either to doubt God’s power,
Or to doubt His generosity.
This letter stings because the Galatians are deserting God
And Paul just can’t believe it.
They are deserting God “for a different gospel”
“different” translates HETEROS
(HOMO is same – HETERO is different)
It is not the same gospel message.
It may sound a lot like what I preached, but it is different.
Paul says in verse 7 “which is really not another”
It may have many of the same concepts as the true gospel,
But it is not like the true gospel.
If you add anything to or take anything away from the true gospel,
Then it is not the gospel.
Think of it like a recipe for a fine dessert.
• There is only one way to make that dessert.
• If you add to or take away, it is not the same.
It may taste close, it may look close, but it is not the same.
And the gospel is something that cannot be changed, or you lose it.
If you add works, you lose the gospel
If you subtract grace, you lose the gospel
And these men had come into Galatia with an altered gospel,
And Paul is blown away that the Galatians would accept it.
“only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”
Do you see their gimmick?
They first DISTURB, and then they DISTORT
They came in disturbing the Galatians
By convincing them that they still were not pleasing to God
Then they distorted the gospel to satisfy that need.
It is a dangerous circle, but always the circle of the false prophets.
They accuse, they manipulate, they threaten, they guilt
And then they offer a false gospel to sooth that guilt
It is a cunning work of Satan
To convince people to follow a system which cannot save.
2 Peter 2:1-3 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
They pull you away from Christ and enslave you to a false salvation.
The Galatians were believing this false system of salvation.
• They were accepting it.
• They were leaving God.
• They were abandoning Christ.
• They were deserting from the true gospel.
And Paul can’t believe it, he is shocked!
If you wonder why this letter is so direct and fiery, that is why.
The Source of Paul’s Message, The Substance of Paul’s Message
The Sting of Paul’s Message
#4 THE SINGULARITY OF PAUL’S MESSAGE
Galatians 1:8-9
It is impossible to miss the passion or severity
With which Paul is speaking.
“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!”
Now you might be familiar with language like that in the Old Testament.
We hear a lot of the curse there.
But that is not common in the New Testament.
In fact being accursed is reserved for people
Who have heard the gospel and rejected it.
Hebrews 6:7-8 “For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.”
The cursed are those who know better and reject.
And the other cursed people are found here.
Those who distort the gospel.
“accursed” translates ANATHEMA
It was in reference to an offering devoted to God for destruction.
Joshua 6:17 “The city shall be under the ban, it and all that is in it belongs to the LORD; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.”
(And you’ll remember Achan’s sin of stealing some of it)
Jericho was ANATHEMA
Devoted to God for destruction.
The main use of the word was of an offering devoted for destruction.
You sinned, so you presented a lamb to God – why?
So the lamb could be destroyed that you might be forgiven.
You never presented a lamb to God with hopes of it being given back.
It was devoted to God for destruction
And Paul says if anyone – and I mean anyone
Me, an angel from heaven, anyone
Preaches a different gospel, let him be devoted to God for destruction.
In 2 Peter 2, Peter reminds that
• If God didn’t spare sinning angels
• And if God didn’t spare sinners in Noah’s day
• And if God didn’t spare Sodom and Gomorrah
2 Peter 2:9-10 “then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.”
Jude 12-13 “These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”
These men (or even angels) who distort the gospel
Are absolutely unredeemable.
They are already handed over for destruction.
And just to make sure we didn’t hear Paul wrong:
(9) “As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”
WHY SO SEVERE?
Because if you lose the gospel, you lose salvation.
Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”
Adrian Rogers said it like this:
“I’m not the best preacher in the world; there are a lot of people who can preach the gospel better than I can. But no one can preach a better gospel than I can, because there’s only one and God will bless it and God will honor it.”
That is what Paul was saying.
And that is Galatians in a nutshell.
It is a fight to preserve the true gospel.
And the sheer passion of the book
Reminds us of what an important battle this is.
We live in a day where distortions to the gospel are overlooked…
Tolerance is the virtue of the day…
And Paul was that type of man in so many areas
• He could quit eating meat
• He could live like a Jew or Gentile
• He could go out of his way not to be an offense
But the preservation of the gospel was a hill on which to die.
• It was a truth worth fighting for
• It was a truth worth losing friends over
• It was a truth worth losing ministry colleagues over
Above all else, the gospel must be preserved.
And as I told you a couple of weeks ago,
This became the motive for the Protestant Reformation.
The reformers learned that many things could be compromised
But salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone
For the glory of God alone was not one of them.
As the church we are commanded not only to know, understand, and preach the gospel, but we are also commanded to defend it.
1 Timothy 3:14-15 “I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”
If we allow the gospel to be distorted,
Then we have failed to “the pillar and support of the truth”
Which God intended.
• We must learn it
• We must understand it
• We must preach it
• We must defend it
Galatians 1:3-5 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.”
