Please open your Bibles with me to the letter to the Galatians. Open your Bibles to the letter of the Galatians. This is where we're going to start and we're going to start today. Chapter one and we're gonna just work our way through and when we're done we'll be done. But what a fantastic letter again, I would I would urge you it's it's what six chapters it takes about 20-30 minutes to read depending on how fast you read so I I would encourage you to read the letter straightforward and straight through and and We'll go from there. So let's pray and then we'll get going Father, we thank you for this time that we can come into your presence, Lord. We thank you for this time that we can listen to your word being proclaimed. Father, we thank you for the time of worship we've had in our singing, in our giving, and now may our worship be pleasing to you in our preaching of the word. Father, I ask that you would help me to be clear, Father, for for my sake only, but for others. Lord, I pray that your spirit would come and accompany the preaching. Lord, I pray we would be convicted where you would want us to be convicted, that we would be encouraged where we would be encouraged, and that Christ would always be set on display, Lord. So father I ask this in your name that you would be glorified in all that we say and all that we do in your name. Amen So Galatians So Galatian was this Galatia a little background first on what it was where it was It was a smaller region. It was known as a province. It was a place that on Paul's first missionary journey him and Barnabas They developed four churches in this region which were Antioch and Iconium Lystra and Derby and you can find that in Acts 13 14 through 14 23 Theologians believe that this is who the epistle is written to who the letter is written to is these four churches the churches that were in Antioch Iconium Lystra and Derby So now this is where they are now. What was the the reason for the letter, right? Paul has a reason to write these letters Well, what was happening in the churches is that the gospel was being undermined by false teachers false teachers were coming in and and they were saying that the gospel was something else. They were removing the gospel of grace and they were bringing in the gospel of works. It was a works righteousness gospel. This was the reason that Paul was writing the letter. We see this in Galatians 1, 6 and 7 where Paul says this, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel. Not that there's another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. These some that wanted to trouble him were the Judaizers. Paul was concerned that they were coming in and changing doctrine. He was, this was troubling him. The Jews or the ones that were, had the superficial profession of Christ, they were returning the Judaism. And the Christians were going along as an extension of the Jewish tradition of works righteousness. So this is why the letter is being written is because the Christians in these four churches were moving towards. works righteousness. It wasn't about the grace of the gospel anymore. It was about being circumcised. It was about following the Mosaic law. So what was happening in Galatia is exactly what Paul warned the Ephesian elders about in Acts 20 30 where he says, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after him. This is what was happening. There were men within the churches and they were bringing in false doctrines. They were bringing in works righteousness All Christians in order to be right before God had to embrace the Mosaic law This is what was coming in. This is what was infiltrating the church. It was law and Listen to Galatians 1.8, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. So Paul is addressing of a different gospel being preached. Galatians 3, 3 through 5. Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the spirit to you and work miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Again, Paul talks about it in Galatians 4, 8 through 11. He says, When he says you've observed days and months and seasons and years, we can go back into the Old Testament and see where they had the years of Jubilee, they had the Sabbath days, they had these days and they had these festivals. And this is, what he's saying, you observe these, but I find I might... Have labored over you in vain. So Paul rebukes the Galatians for this. This is not a letter of lifting up. It's a letter of rebuke that we can see in here Galatians 1 6. Here's what he says. I'm astonished that you are quickly deserting him who called you. Galatians 3.1, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Galatians 4.11, I'm afraid I may have led you over in vain. Galatians 5.4, you are severed from Christ. You will be justified by law. You have fallen away from grace. So the Galatians were moving from the gospel of grace to the gospel of righteousness, self-righteousness, works righteousness. This is what they were moving to. So Paul reminds them in chapter 5, this is what he reminds them of in verse 1. He says, for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. to the works righteousness. Don't submit to the do's and the do's and the do's. Because Christ has set us free. So we're to stand firm in this. So this was the reason for the letter. This is what Paul is writing. So now let's dig into the letter. Let's see what Paul starts off with now that we have this little bit of a background. So look with me at Galatians 1 through 5. Galatians chapter 1, 1 through 5. This is what Paul writes. This is Paul's salutation. And so Paul is going to establish some things right here in this salutation. The first thing he's going to establish is his authority. He's going to bring in his authority the authority that he has the right to letter to say these rebukes and to correct the Galatians in where they were going wrong. He brings in his authority because that's what was being questioned the Judaizers question Paul's calling they question his authority. So now he's going to bring that authority to us. And that's what we see when we read the first verse, Paul an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. So in order to be an apostle, you had to witness the risen Christ. You had to see Jesus in his resurrection. And did Paul see this? Yes, we see it in Acts 9, 3 through 5. And he said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Again, in 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse five. And that he appeared to Cephas, he's talking about Jesus. And that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. So we see that Paul saw this. And not only in his apostleship did he see the resurrected Christ, did he have an encounter with the resurrected Christ, but we see that his choice was not, he wasn't chosen by man. His calling was not by man. Galatians 1.1, Paul an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. This is who his calling was from. It was from God. This was his calling. Galatians 1 17 and 18. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remain there with him for 15 days. This is what he does. He goes away. He learns. He teaches. He has this encounter with Jesus. This is where he is. So the gospel that Paul then preached was not man's gospel See this is what happens when the works righteousness comes in it becomes man's gospel Now it's you do and you do and you do to be pleasing to God and we've had this all along as I preached before That why do we do we do? Yeah, but we do because we already are accepted we're not obedient to be accepted and That's where we have to go. It's the gospel of grace. And this is what Paul is doing. He's preaching a gospel of grace, but it wasn't man's gospel, but it's God's gospel. In Galatians 1, 11 and 12, he says this, For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor as I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. So Paul then was a chosen instrument to preach the gospel of grace. We have to remember this. Paul was God's instrument to preach the gospel of grace. Not a gospel of works, but a gospel of grace. This is what he does and this is where he wants the Galatian Church to see So he's gonna bring them now in verses 3 4 & 5. He's gonna show them the gospel of grace He's gonna turn their their attentions off of the works and he's gonna bring them into the gospel of grace and not the gospel of law Not the gospel law. We saw it earlier right Moses right Moses came to me twice Right one time. He shows me Jesus the next time he beats me up. I Right? This is what we saw in the Pilgrim's Progress this morning. So secondly, we see this. It was a return to the gospel of grace. Look at Galatians 1-3. It says, So the first thing that Paul talks about in this citation is grace to you and peace. So when we look at grace, we all know that this grace is this unmerited favor that God has for us, right? That this favor he bestows upon us. But grace is the means of salvation. Grace is a means of salvation. This is what God draws us with. He draws us with his grace. He draws us with his love. He brings us to Jesus Christ. He opens our eyes to our sin. This is his grace working in our lives. This is what he does. And this is how he puts it in Ephesians 2, wait. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God. So brothers and sisters if you sit here today a child of God You under have to understand that it's the only reason you're a child of God is because of his grace This is a grace that he's coming with grace is the means of salvation. Peace is the result of salvation We're no longer enemies of God We've been reconciled to God. We have this peace with God. That's what Romans 5.1 says. Therefore, since we have been justified, since we've been made righteous, since we have been set free, since we are no longer guilty, We're no longer on death row. Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So grace is a means of salvation. So this is where he's bringing him back to. So what's the means of salvation? It's not the working of the law, but it's the working of grace. And what's the result of that? Peace. And they both find their source in God and Christ Jesus. So Paul's desire for the Galatians was for them to be rooted in the gospel of grace. And that should be our desire, our desires as teachers, our desires as preachers, is to see God's people rooted in the gospel of grace. That we wouldn't be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but that we would stand firm in the gospel of grace. Now, of course, we see that Jesus, he is the gospel of grace. And this is what Paul's going to tell us now. He's gonna bring us back to the cross. This is what he's gonna do, even with the Galatians. They're being bewitched. He calls them fools, right? So what's he gonna, he's gonna bring them back to the gospel. Look at verse four. Galatians 1 4 he talks about Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age According to the will of God and our father This is where he brings us his back to Jesus Jesus being this gospel of grace first Peter 2 24 puts it this way He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness By his wounds you have been healed. I And again, in Galatians 3.13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So we see that Jesus is the gospel. He is the sole source of the gospel. He is the only one who is the gospel, and it's a gospel full of grace. Secondly, we see that not only did Jesus give himself for our sins, but we see the purpose of the gospel of grace. We see what the purpose of it is, and that purpose is to deliver us from the present evil age. Galatians 1-4 again, that's what it says, to deliver us from the present evil age. Now this deliver, the word deliver means to rescue or pluck out from danger. So Jesus came to do what for his bride? He came to rescue his bride. He came to deliver his bride. He came to pluck his bride out of what? This present evil age. This is what Paul is drawn to back to. And why does he do it? Because of grace. It's all about grace. It's not because they merited it. It's not because they got circumcised. It's not because they were falling back in or they were obeying the Mosaic laws. No, it's because of his grace he delivers us from this present evilly. This word is described in Peter's rescue in Acts 12 11 says when Peter came to himself. He said now, I'm sure that the Lord has sent his angels and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. It's the same word this deliver this rescue. We see it done this present evil age. Now this was written a long time ago. So what does Paul mean by this present evil age? Well, it's simple. It's the satanic world. It's the satanic Forces, it's the satanic system. This is what Jesus comes to rescue us from he plucks us out of this So then when he plucks us out of the system, does the system go away? No, it's still a evil age that we live in, right? I mean, we can sit here for the next hour, all of us, and we can all have, or we can see where we see the evil in this age. And this is what Jesus has done. He's delivered us from this present evil age, but we're still here. But we're still here. So believers are still in this world, but we're not of this world. Right? We're journeying through, as 1 Peter tells us in 1 Peter, that we're aliens. Right? We're aliens going through. We're pilgrims on a progress. Right? We're pilgrims headed to the celestial city. This is who we are. So Jesus says that we're still in this world. We're not of it. Listen to John 17 11. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world. He's talking about us. They are in the world. And I'm coming to you, Holy Father. Keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. So Jesus prays for us. He intercedes for us. We saw this in Hebrews a couple of weeks ago when we talked about Jesus's intercession for us, that he intercedes for us. He's praying for us. Why? Because we're still here. We're not with him yet. We're still in this world. We're still in this world. So we see that also in Philippians 3, 20 and 21, he says this. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself. But that first part, but our citizenship is in the United States of America, Are we citizens of the United States of America? Well, sure we are. But as redeemed people, as those who God has set his affections upon, we are citizens of heaven. This is where our citizenship is. Brothers and sisters, our loyalty is not to a flag. First of all, it's not. It's to a cross. That's where our loyalty is. It's to a cross, not to a country. That's that's where our loyalty is because we've been plucked out of this now. I'm not degrading the flag at all Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that this is who we are We are those who defend the cross also But I know there's many of you in here that have defended our country and we're very grateful for that So I don't want you to think I'm looking down on that but this is where our citizenship is it's in heaven and that's what we wait we wait a savior from heaven the Lord Jesus Christ and So we are believers that are still in this world, but we're not of this world. Jesus has delivered us out of this present evil age. So the gospel of grace is not only this deliverance out of this present evil age, but the gospel of grace, its driving force, is God's will. The driving force is God's will. Look at Galatians 1-4 again. Who gave himself for our sins, to deliver us from this present evil age. Why? According to the will of God and Father. This was God's idea. The son to come and die for a people was not man's idea. It was God's idea. God was the one who put it all in motion. We read in John 3, 16, This was God's love. He brings Christ to die for sin. Isaiah 53 10 puts it this way yet. It was the will of the Lord to crush him He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt. He shall see his offering He shall prolong his days and will and the Lord shall prosper in his hand Right yet. It was the will of the Lord to crush the Sun. I This was God's idea. The gospel of grace is God's idea. Acts 2 23. So the driving force is God's will of the gospel of grace. And if you notice that, So God so loved the world, he gave his only son, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan for knowledge of God, you crucified, right? Here's the grace, it's not us. It's not you and I. It doesn't say, for God so loved the world that he gave Mark to die for the world. It doesn't say, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Mark or put your name in there. This is the grace we see of the gospel of grace, is that it was Jesus who took our place. It was Jesus that bore God's wrath. That's the grace that we see. And that's what Paul is drawing them back to. Look at who Jesus is. Don't look to the law. Don't look to what they're telling you that you gotta be circumcised, that you gotta obey days and years and months. No, he's saying look to Jesus, because he has set you free. That's what he's saying. So what is the great end of the gospel of grace? This has gotta have a great end to it, right? Here's the great end, Galatians 1.5. To whom be the glory forever and ever, amen. To God be the glory. We talked about this for 10 weeks, so we're not gonna dwell on this part, right? God is the one who gets all the glory for our salvation, because it's all his work. It's not our work, it's all His work. If you have come to know Jesus, if you sit here as a believer, it is because God has had massive grace on us. Massive grace on us. And this is what Paul, this is what he wants to do. He wants to draw the Galatians right back to what? The purity, the simpleness of the gospel. because they're moving away from it. And we can do the same thing, brothers and sisters. We can easily move away from the gospel, right? And it might not be circumcision, right? It might not be circumcision. It might be something else. So how do we look at this? How do we apply this? How do we apply this to ourselves? What do we do? Well, first of all, I think what we gotta do is we gotta remember, right? We have to remember. That's what God always does through the Old Testament, right? When he's coming to the Israelites, he's always telling them, remember what? Remember your sin? Remember how bad you were? Does he say that no, he always comes from he says remember what I did for you in Egypt how I delivered you it's the same thing for us brothers and sisters We have to remember what Jesus did for us. You see that's what the that's what Satan wants to do We saw it in the pilgrims progress with Apollyon right Apollyon's first attack on Christian was oh how bad of a sinner you are and And he says, you don't know the half of it, right? But that's the attack. But see, what we gotta do is we have to remember what God has done for us, right? When we start to see, oh, how bad we can be, we have to look in the mirror and say, oh, but you know what? Jesus died to deliver me from this evil present age. We have to remember what Jesus has done for us. We have to remember, this is how we apply this, we have to remember that when we start to get into our legalistic tendencies, right? When we start to get into, oh, I haven't prayed enough, I haven't read enough, I didn't go to enough Bible studies, I didn't go to church enough times, right? Although those are things that we should be doing, but when we start to trust in our performance, that's what the Galatians, that's what the Judaizers are doing. It's not about the performance of Jesus Christ, it's about the performance of Jesus Christ plus your performance. is what saves you. It's not based on our performance, brothers and sisters. It's based on the performance of Jesus Christ. And his performance was absolutely perfect on the cross. It was a perfect sacrifice. It was an infinite sacrifice. It was a pleasing sacrifice. Jesus propitiated God's wrath for us. He satisfied that wrath for us. He appeased God for us. Nothing that you and I did. He has done all of this. So it doesn't matter if it's circumcision. We should read the word because as believers, that's our desire is to read the word. It shouldn't be a, oh, I have to do my quiet time. No, it should be, I get to do my quiet time because of the redemption I have in Jesus Christ. That's what it should be. Oh, I have to go to church. No, we get to go to church. We get to sing songs. We get to sing praises. We get to hear His word preached. It's not a I have to, it's a I get to. And we have to remember that that's what it is because the minute it becomes a I have to, it becomes your performance and my performance. But when we say we get to do this, It's all of God's glory, and He's the one that receives the glory. This is how we apply this, is that when we start to waver, like the Galatians do, we remember what Jesus did. That's how we apply this. Go back to the cross, see what Jesus has done, and bring all that glory to God. So, in closing, this is what we do, brothers and sisters. We must remember. We must remember the cross. We must remember Christ. We must remember what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. We have to remember that Galatians 5.1 tells us that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free, and we are to stand firm there. So with that, brothers and sisters, we will begin this journey in Galatians. But let's remember these things as we go through there. Remember that as you read. Remember that as you pray, that it's all the work of Jesus. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for our time. As we journey through this book, Lord, may we find much joy in it. May we see ourselves in it, Lord, and may we see what Christ has done for us. Lord, would you please open our eyes to the wonders of your word that we would see Christ so clearly. In your name I pray all these things. Amen.