Address—C. Hendricks
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May plead to the Epistle to the Galatians.
Chapter one. Paul, an apostle not of men.
Neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.
And all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia.
Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present.
Evil world according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we are an Angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you.
Let him be accursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received.
Let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. Probably I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion. How?
Beyond measure, I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it and profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in my own nation.
Being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father's, but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace.
To reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen.
Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither when I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me.
But I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days.
But other of the apostles saw I none save James the Lord's brother. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. But they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past, now preacheth the faith which once He destroyed.
And they glorified God in me.
Well, that's enough. We can read right now at the beginning. I want to take up this epistle. It's a wonderful epistle. It was written in the 1St century by the apostle to deliver these Gentile Christians from the notion that they too were under law and had to be circumcised. And if they weren't, they would. They would.
Not be of the the highest order you might say of of Christians.
It was a Jewish thought and the apostle who was the champion of the Jewish cause.
When he was Saul of Tarsus. He tells us a little about his history in this very chapter.
He got thoroughly, completely, fully and finally delivered from Judaism, and he is the champion of the gospel of the grace of God.
Wonderful that God's grace can arrest a man as it did the apostle, as it did fall of Tarsus, I should say, and change him into the apostle Paul. Wonderful transformation. Only the grace of God can do such a thing, and I trust that it is done that with each one of us as well. The sad thing is as we look around about us on Christendom, we see.
This leaven of legalism, which.
Is refuted here so ably by Paul in Galatians.
We see it everywhere, amazing that it is so and yet not so amazing because that's where we gravitate. We go right back by nature to that which is common to nature.
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Man, always.
In his pride, in his lack of being delivered from self, he wants to do something. He wants to contribute in some way to his salvation.
Either in order to get saved and or after being saved in order to keep saved. Either one is the principle of law. And the second, you might say, is even more insidious and deceptive because they will admit, well, you can't get saved by keeping the law. But once you are saved, then you have to follow the law. And that's a common thought that pervades in Christendom today.
Well, if not the law, what?
Christ. Christ is our rule of life now, if the law.
That's something much higher than the law. The law said thou shalt not steal. And Grace says to the one who had stolen that he should labor working with his hands that he may have to give to him that has need. Grace goes beyond the law, not just not stealing anymore, but giving after honest industry and labor giving to the needy.
Well.
Paul, an apostle, he writes.
Very important, very sternly in this epistle. Probably the sternest tone.
Of any of his epistles because he was dealing with an error that was so, so serious.
That had it prevailed, it would have destroyed Christianity.
Paul an apostle not of men. He did not derive his apostleship through some kind of Apostolic succession. He was not an apostle of men.
Did not get it from men.
Neither by man.
Man was not the instrumental means of his becoming an apostle.
It did not originate from men. That's the thought of Apostolic succession. Or didn't come through man, but his apostleship came by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.
His documentation and his authority came directly from God himself and from the Lord Jesus.
He tells us in this 12Th verse, he says I neither received my gospel, that I'm preaching to you.
Of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
He got it as a revelation, and he knew it. He knew it more thoroughly than any other.
Having been thoroughly set free by the gospel of God's grace.
Paul, an apostle, And then I will skip the parentheses and all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia. He's not writing to one local assembly here, but he's writing to the assemblies of Galatia in that province.
Grace be to you, and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the salutation that you find at the beginning and the end of all Paul's epistles. At least he mentions grace.
These epistles especially addressed to the Gentiles.
Christians that had been Gentiles, grace be to you and peace from God the Father.
And from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, from its principles, its actions, its doctrines, its habits, ways, and teachings, that we might be delivered. He gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us.
Not just from hell, which is the common thought. He died to save us from eternal destruction and from hell, but.
He died to deliver us from this present evil world, a system which man has set up around himself, which is dependent upon man's doing something. And Christ died to deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. God wants us, wills us that we be set free from the ******* that characterized.
And characterizes all legalism and all those who are in one way or another under law. Now, you don't have to be under the law of Moses to be under law. You can be under another law, whatever it might be, but you're under a law as the principle of life. You have to do something in order to become acceptable. That's the principle of law.
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To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Right away he launches into the subject matter that which so burdened his heart as he wrote to these Galatians. Saints, he says, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ.
Until it ought to read a different gospel.
Which is not another. These two words rendered another. The one in verse six and the one in verse seven are not the same words in the original.
And he says it's a different gospel. It's not another gospel. There is not another gospel.
There are there aren't two ways of being saved and you can pick and choose for yourself. No, it's a different gospel which is not another for there is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. He he marveled that they were so soon removed from him that called them.
Into the grace of Christ.
Grace of Christ.
The law was given by Moses. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
He brought us grace. He brought us the principle that God is acting towards us now when we deserve it. Not in grace, in blessing, in blessing to man. It's the disposition of the heart of God. That's what grace is.
You can talk to Roman Catholics and if they are deeply schooled in their dogma and in their church teaching, they don't know what grace means to them. It's something that you earn and you get a certain quantity of grace put to your account. It's like brownie points that you win and they they really don't understand what grace is to them. It's it's works.
And in working out certain things, you get certain grace put to your account.
I think they have five different kinds of grace. I can't remember their different names. I picked up a book, it's called The Gospel According to Rome, and it was written by one who had been delivered from that system and knew it very well. And he brings out the different aspects of grace, how you can earn these different merits that are put to your account. And if you get enough put to your account, you might make it into heaven someday.
I don't know if you know this or not, but even the top man in that system.
The pulpit Rome does not know when he's going to die, if he will go straight to heaven.
He has the the the followers, his followers pray for him that he they can pray him out of purgatory and he will not have to stay there very long. What a wretched, awful system of delusion. It is terrible thing. And how they have perverted the grace of God. Paul pronounces a curse.
Upon that kind of perversion.
He says in verse eight, Though we are an Angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed.
So those that are preaching a different gospel which is not another, that is not what Paul preached, the gospel of the grace of God.
Let him be accursed, he says, and then he says it emphatically, as we said before. So say I. Now again, if any man preach any of the gospel unto you, then that you have received. In verse eight he talks about what he had preached. Now he says, what you had received when we preached it, you received it. You received the gospel of the grace of God.
Let him be accursed at the Council of Trent after Martin Luther.
Discovered as he was climbing these stairs, he was a Roman Catholic monk.
And as he was climbing these stairs, trying to earn enough merit points so that he would get admission into heaven someday.
The verse came powerfully before his soul as he was climbing the stairs on his knees.
The justice shall live by faith, and the Spirit of God brought that verse home in such dynamic power to his soul that he got up, walked back down the stairs, and was delivered from that awful system that he had defended for so many years.
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It cost you much.
It cost you much justification by faith without works.
That was the truth that was recovered in the Reformation. The other grand truth is the Bible is the all sufficient guide for our pathway as Christians down here. We don't need the church to teach us. We have all we need in this book. Wonderful tremendous truths that were recovered at the Reformation. The all sufficiency of the Bible as the sole authority for the Christian as he walks through this scene and the other is justification by faith.
From works.
While the Epistle to the Galatians is just filled with this truth. And that's what he saw, the just.
Shall live by faith. And that set him free. That set him free.
At the Council of Trent, which the Roman Catholic Church, that was the.
Leading church at the time held they went through all these doctrines of the Reformation.
And they pronounce anyone that held to them, which is what exactly what you have taught in in Galatians anathema. They pronounced a curse upon those that teach that you are saved by faith alone without works and you're justified by faith by the grace of God. Anathema to such that teach that.
While Paul pronounces anathema upon their doctrine.
And this is the one that stands. This comes from an apostle.
Writing under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, verse 10.
Do I now persuade men or God?
Or do I seek to please men?
For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. If he sought to please men, he would have promoted circumcision, because that would have pleased his Jewish brethren, the ones that were seeking to enforce that on these Gentile brethren. If he wanted to please men, he would never have written this epistle. No, he was writing in order to deliver these Saints that were under this other voice that had come seeking to turn them aside.
And turn them away from the truth of Christianity. So he says. Do I seek to please men?
Or God.
Which is it? We either are going to please men or we are going to please God. And if we want to please God, we are going to have to.
Take the wrath of man that doesn't want the truth of God.
If I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. If you're a man pleaser, you're not Christ servant. You can't be, because you can't serve man and God.
But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. It did not originate from man. It did not come through the channel of man. How did he get it? I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it.
He didn't go to Jerusalem after he was saved, he went to Arabia.
But by the revelation of Jesus Christ, he received it by revelation from the Lord Jesus himself.
In the glory.
All the other apostles knew the Lord when he was here on earth.
And they were witnesses to his resurrection. But the apostle Paul met him on the road to Damascus as a man in the glory. He met a glorified Christ. And he received the gospel, the revelation of the gospel, of his marvelous grace, setting us free from all the shackles of law and the ******* that it puts the soul into. He received it by revelation.
Of Jesus Christ, the Lord revealed that gospel to him.
And then he goes over his history with these Saints. For ye have heard of my conversation, my behavior, my conduct.
My manner of life in time, in past time passed in the Jews religion. How that beyond measure I persecuted.
The Church of God and wasted it in John 16.
The Lord Jesus says the time cometh when he that killeth you will think that he doeth God's service.
And Saul of Tarsus was one just like that. He was persecuting the Christians.
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And he thought, well, he was doing God's service, he says. Later in Acts, he says I barely thought with myself to do many things contrary.
To the name of Jesus.
He thought he was doing God's service, so he says beyond measure. I persecuted the Church of God, hailing men and women even unto strange cities, he says.
And bringing them bound, he compels some to blasphemy.
And he says I profited in the Jews religion, in Judaism, the Jewish religion above many my equals and my own nation.
Being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father's, he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was He was the champion, the Goliath to for the Jewish cause, Saul of Tarsus.
You imagine how they felt when Saul of Tarsus was converted and became the champion.
Of the religion that he had so persecuted and sought to wipe out the faith, I should say the faith of Christ.
But when it pleased God, now God moves into this scene of hostility and persecution. And when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, or how he magnifies the grace of God.
The heart of God, the grace of God, is the heart of God in goodness, going out in blessing to man when we don't deserve any of it.
The law is the principle of our deserving something upon obedience to the principles of the law, to what the wall law says, But grace says God blessing us when we deserve nothing.
In the way of blessing, On the contrary, we deserved only judgment.
He called me by his grace, Paul says. He arrested me from the course that I was in.
Thinking I was standing for the truth.
But he was not.
He says later, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. He persecuted the.
Early Christians with a good conscience. He thought he was doing right.
And he found out he was doing an awful thing. Considers himself, after he was converted, the chief of sinners, because he persecuted the Church of God.
When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, He was a chosen elect vessel unto him.
To call. He called me by His grace to reveal his son in me.
The first one that preaches in the Acts of the Apostles, that's in the 9th chapter after Paul is converted. The first one that preaches that Jesus is the Son of God is the Apostle Paul. Peter didn't preach that truth in Acts two. He preached that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified. Both Lord and Christ exalted that man to the highest place. Wonderful truth, but Paul preaches.
That he is the Son of God.
God revealed in the soul of Saul of Tarsus, He revealed his son in me, He says. Wonderful expression when he pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me, not just to me, but in me.
That I might preach him among the heathen, among the nations, immediately I conferred. Not with flesh and blood. He didn't check it out with the apostles at Jerusalem. Oh no, He received his Commission from the glorified head of the church itself.
And he heard from the very lips of the Lord Jesus the very words which told him that which he would develop so beautifully and fully in his epistles, that the Church, the assembly, the believers down here are one with the man up there in the glory.
Saul saw, why persecutest thou me? That's not the same as you get in Matthew 25 when it says, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. That's talking about his Jewish brethren. But he doesn't say that to Saul. He doesn't say you're persecuting my brethren, He says You're persecuting me.
Because we are one with him. That's the truth that Paul brings out in his epistles. 1 Newman.
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So making peace Christ in the Church are one.
Wonderful truth. Well, he heard it on on that day when he was arrested from his course.
He says immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem, to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia.
And returned again unto Damascus.
Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter.
And abode with him 15 days. But other of the apostles saw I none save James the Lord's brother.
Now James the Lord's brother, and Jude, the Lord's brother, and Simon and.
Jonas, I think we're the four brothers of the Lord, did not believe in him when he was here on earth, says in John 7. Neither did his brethren, his brothers believe in him. When did they come to faith in Him? After the resurrection? When they saw him in resurrection, they their eyes were opened and they came to believe in him. And two of his brothers wrote two epistles in our New Testament, James and Jude.
These were the Lord's brothers.
And so he says he saw Peter, and then he saw none other, none other the apostles. But he said, I did see.
James the Lord's brother. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not. And when you read the history of the Acts, the history of the early church, James the Lord's brother is very, very, very prominent at Jerusalem.
There were two James's that were apostles and then there was James the Lord's brother, and this is where Paul went and he spoke to him and he was to be a very powerful figure in the early church.
Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face under the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. But they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once He destroyed, And they glorified God in me.
Then 14 years after, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas.
And took Titus with me also. I think we read of that in Acts 15 when they went to Jerusalem to settle the question. Certain had come from Jerusalem headquarters up there, and they'd come teaching that the Gentiles cannot be saved if they're not circumcised and keep the law of Moses.
And they decided they could have decided it at Antioch. There were two apostles there, Paul and Barnabas. But they didn't do that in order to maintain the unity of the assembly. They went to Jerusalem to settle the question at the very place where.
By natural reasoning, we would say would be the least.
Apartment to make a favorable decision in favor of Grace.
Because that's where these legalists were from.
They were under the power of Judaism in their thoughts, and so they just they settled the matter.
In Acts 15 at Jerusalem.
And they decided that Gentiles were not to be placed under law.
And they wrote a letter back to Antioch and to all the brethren, and wherever Paul and Barnabas went, they delivered this, this message, this decision of the Holy Spirit. It says the Holy Spirit.
That they were not under law.
Only that they would keep themselves from idols and from things strangled.
And from blood and from fornication, those four things.
Were delivered, but not the law.
But they didn't get delivered from the law. The Jews didn't. At Jerusalem, they were still under it.
And so you had an anomalous state of things you had at Jerusalem. You had Jews that were under the law and some that were not, if they were Gentiles.
And that couldn't continue. God bore with that. He bore with these Jewish believers for a long time.
Finally, the Epistle to the Hebrews was written to tell these Jewish believers to abandon Judaism totally. Let us go forth therefore unto him, without the camp, outside the camp of Judaism, unto Christ. And that was the final word. And then God sent the Roman armies down to scatter everyone. There's a great persecution that broke out, and they were all scattered except the apostles who remained at Jerusalem, and then the Roman.
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Came down and they were all scattered and according to the Lord's words in the Gospel of Luke, when Jerusalem is surrounded by armies, fleet of mountains, and the Christians did and they were preserved from many of them from being destroyed like those were who stayed at Jerusalem well.
Let's go on now.
And 14 years after verse one, chapter 2, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also, and I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. He says I went up by revelation. He didn't go up by just some feeling that he had, but it was revealed to him. You go to Jerusalem. That's where this has got to be settled.
And he says, I communicated unto them those that were prominent there at Jerusalem, the leaders.
The gospel, he says, which I preach among the Gentiles, that was the gospel of the grace of God.
But he said I did it privately to them, which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run in vain. He did not want to have a public confrontation of his gospel to be lauded before everyone. That would have been utter confusion.
And it would have been used of the enemy. So he did this privately, communicated the gospel that he preached.
And God worked mightily by His Spirit. And in Acts 15 you have Peter giving a sentence, followed by James, the Lord's brother giving his sentence. And the decision was the Gentiles are not to be placed under the ******* of law, which says no, our fathers were able to bear the ******* of law.
But it took the Jews much longer for them to get delivered from the ******* of law. It's something that is so natural to us and they were trained under it. After all, Moses received the 10 commandments from directly from Jehovah God himself and he brought these commandments and and they had divine authority for them. But if you read the New Testament, all 10 except one.
And that's the 4th commandment, which is says remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
9 Commandments that are spiritual and moral are embodied in the New Testament because the principles of God don't change, his moral principles of conduct don't change. The difference is the Christian is not under law as a principle by which he gets blessed from God. He's under grace. He's under grace.
But still the moral principles of God remain, and they're embodied in the New Testament. Take, for instance, let's quickly run through them. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The Christians believe that. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Christian believes that. Thou shalt not make an idol and bow down to it. Christian believes that.
Honor thy father and thy mother. Christian believes that thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal. Thou should not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal, thou should not lie, thou shalt not covet. All of those principles of the law are found embodied in the teachings of the New Testament.
So I want to point, I want to emphasize that because there's nothing wrong with the law. The law is holy and just and good. They are the moral principles of God himself. And for man's conduct we have when we when we are placed under grace and subject to Christ, all of that is true and produced by the Spirit of God in the Christian, but it's not as a as a principle upon which we gain acceptance with God.
That's false. That's the principle of law. We don't gain acceptance with God by anything that we do. It's grace. God bestows blessing upon us when we don't deserve a bit of it. That's grace.
And that's what we have to realize. If we could do something to gain acceptance or to maintain our acceptance, then we would be able to congratulate ourselves for what we have done. And that would be the principle of law.
Verse three of chapter 2. But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into ******* the ******* of law.
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All they wanted was to get Titus and any other Gentiles circumcised. Just have circumcision, the mark of circumcision in your flesh, and then you will come up to our standard.
They had the idea that circumcision made them sort of first rate Christians, and the Gentiles who were not circumcised were second rate Christians. And there are other ways in which we can establish that kind of a principle amongst us.
You say not amongst us, Yes, amongst us. You can do the same thing in principle.
First rate Christians that follow certain rules and regulations set up by a certain group and the others that don't, and their second rate Christians. That's the principle of law, and God hates that.
Because He has brought in grace where we all stand before him. Because He is the God of all grace.
So he says, to whom we gave place by subjection know not for an hour.
He stood firm against these legalists.
That the truth of the Gospel might continue with you.
But of these who seem to be somewhat whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me. God accepteth no man's person. He was not going to be intimidated by man, no matter who it was.
For they who seem to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me. They didn't have truth beyond what Paul had. In fact, he was far beyond them.
In his understanding of grace.
But contrary wise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter.
For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty and me toward the Gentiles. And when C James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me in Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go on to the heathen, and they enter the circumcision only they would that we should remember the poor. The same which I also was forward to do.
But when Peter.
Was come to Antioch. I withstood him to the face. He was an apostle Wanda, who had pronounced in Acts 15 that the Gentiles are not under law, that that we Jews shall be saved even as they wonderful way in which Peter puts it there in Acts 15. We Jews shall be saved even as they Gentiles. How is that by grace? But here what does it? What does it say of Peter, how he fell into the snare of the legalists?
When Peter was come to Antioch, I was stood him to the face because he was to be blamed for before that certain came from James.
He was the head man there at Jerusalem. That was James, the Lord's brother. He did eat with the Gentiles before they came from James. He ate with the Gentiles.
But when they were come, he withdrew himself and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
The ******* of legalism very strong, and it takes.
Very. It takes one who is thoroughly established in grace to withstand it and to refuse it. And Paul stood against it, and even Barnabas was carried away. Notice what it says. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him in so much that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation, The only one here that stood firm for the truth of grace.
In contrast with law was the apostle Paul.
But when I saw that they walked out uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before the mall.
If thou, being a Jew, liveth after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compel us all the Gentiles to live as do the Jews here? Before these Jews came from Jerusalem, from James, Peter was free to eat with the Gentiles.
He was one with them no different but when they came.
Who were pressing legalism. Peter withdrew himself and didn't eat with the Gentiles anymore. And just by that simple refusal to express fellowship with the Gentiles, he was putting up a barrier. He was putting up the wall between Jews and Gentiles again, which the gospel which the cross of Christ is broken down. He was rebuilding what had been torn down.
And he was going clean, contrary to his own pronouncement in Acts 15. We should be saved even as they reestablishing. There is a difference between Jews and Gentiles. The Jewish Christians are better than the Gentile Christian. We can't eat with them. That was Judaism, that wasn't Christianity, completely negating the truth of the Gospel.
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So he says, Paul says in verse 15, we who are Jews by nature. Now this is a public rebuke administered by 1 apostle to another.
We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law.
But by the faith of Jesus Christ, that faith which has Christ before its soul as its sole object.
Even we Jews have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. How clear the principle. And yet Peter just refusing to eat with the Gentiles. When these Judaizers came from Jerusalem, he was going back to the old principle. He was coming under the influence and ******* of the law, and denying the grace of God, denying Christianity. Very serious.
Can an apostle do that? Yes, he can, and he did it, and Paul publicly rebuked him for it. But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners. Because whenever you put yourself under law, it's going to you're going to come up as a Sinner because you're not going to keep it.
Is that therefore Christ the minister of sin? Are you going to identify the name of Christ, our Deliverer, with that principle that's going to find you a Sinner before God?
Is he the author of sin then?
God forbid.
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
A liberated Christian, as Paul was what he wants espoused and stood for and defended.
Advanced in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries.
He's now delivered thoroughly from that and he will not build it again. He will not build it again. He will not constitute himself a transgressor.
For I through the law, I'm dead to the law. The law slaves me. It slays everyone that puts himself under it.
It's a ministry of death and condemnation.
That I might live unto God.
I've been delivered from the law, and now I live to God. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, and not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The faith which rests upon the Son of God is its soul all absorbing object.
I live by that faith.
I do not frustrate the grace of God.
I don't set it aside.
It's either you can't mix grace and law, you can't mix the two. They don't mix.
Not at all. And that's what Christendom has done. And that is what is so, so horrible is mixture. That's what we're told in Second Timothy 2 to separate from is mixture. God wants purity. He wants a true, pure testimony to the truth of the gospel. The mixture that man has brought in is.
Abomination to God.
I do not frustrate, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law and Christ is dead in vain doesn't come by the principle of law. You can't work it out yourself, nor did Christ work it out for you in his life. We're saved by his death. The gospel begins with his death. 1St Corinthians 15 Paul says Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and he rose again the third day according to.
It begins with His death, which has put us away, put our sins away, and now brought us into an altogether new place. Chapter 3 Now he says, Oh, foolish Galatians, oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, who have cast a spell upon you, who has so deceived you, that what does he say that you should not obey the truth?
It started out so well, but now they've been turned aside by this other voice.
This legal, very persuasive, legal kind of reasoning.
And it sounds right to the natural man. Sounds very right.
Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you. Paul had so poor vividly portrayed to their souls the death of Christ crucified on a cross of ignominy and shame. He had to go through that in order to save your souls. And now you're going to come into God's acceptance by keeping the law.
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How foolish.
Who hath bewitched you? He says.
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?
Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was portrayed a crucified man on a cross. He had to bear that in order to bring us into blessing. And now you're going to do something to enhance your your standing before God.
How foolish.
This is only what I learn of you received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith.
They received the Spirit because they heard the gospel presented to them, and in faith they received it.
They didn't work for it. They didn't work to get the Holy Spirit.
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the flesh?
You receive the Spirit by faith of the gospel. Are you now going to?
Improve your standing before God by keeping the Law, the works of the flesh.
Have you suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain, they had suffered. They had suffered from their own countrymen, the Jews, from the Jews, the Gentiles, from the Gentiles, like he says to the Thessalonians, he says, You have suffered from your own countrymen, the very thing that they, the Jews, have from their own countrymen, the Jews.
Because they embraced.
The doctrine of the grace of God. The gospel of the grace of God.
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you.
Do with he it by the works of the law.
Or by the hearing of faith.
The answer is in each one of these questions. It's the hearing of faith.
They heard the gospel, they believed it, and they received the Spirit of God and the power of the Spirit to work miracles. Neck had nothing to do with law.
Didn't flow from their own faithfulness to the to a principle of law. It was they heard the gospel and believed it.
And then he gives a beautiful illustrations from the Old Testament. Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, he was accounted to be righteous by God because he believed God, not because he did anything, but he believed God. Know you therefore, that they which be of faith.
The same other children of Abraham.
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preach before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
It is the principle of faith in contrast with the principle of works.
It is grace in contrast with law.
Grace and faith go together, works and law go together, and the cross has set aside.
Works and law, they which be of faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham, with believing Abraham.
For as many as are of the works of the law are what are under the curse.
For it is written cursed is everyone that continue with not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Cursed put one put yourself under law and you put yourself under the curse. You put yourself under a principle which can only curse the the offender and the disobedient.
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them.
How are you going to get to heaven? Well, by keeping the law. What's the law?
And most people cannot even tell you, thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make an idol, worship it. Graven image. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Third Commandment. I'll skip the 4th, which is, remember the Sabbath day, because we're not under that.
The 5th is Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee. I may just live long on the earth. Thou shall not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not lust.
Can you honestly tell me that you've kept that?
Is anyone on the face of this earth there is that has kept that kept those ten? Well, I try. No, I haven't kept them all. It's like A10 length chain. The man's down in a pit and you let the chain down and you start to pull him up and one of those links breaks. Just one. That's all it takes. One link breaking and he falls back down.
When we put ourselves under law, when we are so foolish to just get circumcised and put ourselves on that ground before God, we're a debtor to do the whole law. Not 1-2 or three things that we think we've accomplished, but to do the whole law.
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The whole law, remember that young man that came to the Lord, and the Lord gave him some commandments and he said, what must I do to enter the Kingdom of God? And the Lord said various things that he should do or shouldn't do. And he says, I've kept all these from my youth up. And the Lord said one thing thou lackest sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.
Well, the Lord summarized the 10 commandments in just two simple things.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength. That's our responsibility to God. And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Did that man very rich? Did he love his neighbor as himself when he went away? Sad because.
He had great possessions. No, he didn't.
There isn't any the one that does that.
So on the ground of law keeping, we are all lost and under the curse.
Verse 11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident for.
The just shall live by faith, and it was that verse that came before the soul of Martin Luther.
He got up off his knees, walked down the stairs. A Freeman.
The just shall live by faith.
And the law is not of faith, but the men that doeth them. The law is the principle of doing.
Shall live in them.
Put yourself under law. You are responsible to do it and to keep it. Florida State.
And then it says in verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.
Those of us, those of us who have so foolishly placed ourselves under law, the Jews did it. Some Gentiles have done it.
They're under the curse of it. Christ has borne the curse of a broken law.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, especially applicable to Israel, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hanth on a tree.
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles.
Through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Blessing coming on the Gentiles now. The grace of God is too good to be limited to just one nation like the law was.
It goes out to the whole world.
That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Promise of the Spirit. Just think we have received the greatest gift, the Holy Spirit, to indwell us, and to be the power to walk pleasing to God while we're here in this world. Rather, and I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disagulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and to his seed were the promises made.
He saith not and to seeds as of many, but as of 1 into thy seed.
Which is Christ?
And this I say that the covenant. I might just explain this. This has puzzled me for so long. Maybe it's puzzled you. In the English, seed and seeds are both plural. Seed is plural, could be singular, could be plural. Seeds is plural. But in the Greek not. So the word seed is singular and the word seeds is plural. So there's no question about it in the original.
That clears that up. He's clearly talking about Christ as the seed.
Singular sea to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was 430 years after.
Cannot disallow that it should make the promise of none effect. God gave the promise 430 years before He gave the law. The law doesn't set aside the promise. The promise is the principle of grace.
God says I'm going to bless you.
And you're going to be blessed, That's the promise.
And so the law did not make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Then he says, why then serveth the law? What? Why was the law given? It was added because of transgressions. It was. It was added to show that man when given a perfect law, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not lust, thou shalt not steal, and thou shalt not.
Take the name of the Lord in vain. And all these commandments that he was given, all that, he still didn't keep it. He became a transgressor. It's like children. They're walking home from school and the lawn is newly seated and there's a little bit of a small fence there. And they just totally ignore the fact that this lawn is seated. And they walk all over the lawn and the the owner of the house looks out and sees what they're doing. So the next day he puts a sign there. Please, no trespassing. Stay, keep off newly seated. Long keep off.
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Now if they do it, they are transgressors. Before, when they did it, they were sinners.
It was wrong in the 1St place to do, but now it's more than wrong. It's transgression. That's the principle. That was the purpose of law. It was added because of transgressions, and it was added until the seed came. The seed should come to whom the promise was made. That's Christ. And once He came, the law no longer was our schoolmaster. It was there unto Christ until He came.
And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
Grace is the principle of God being one dispensing blessing on man because he decides to do that. That's grace. But law is the principle of entering into a contract with another. You tell me what I have to do, and I will do it, and then I will get my reward for it. That's the principle of law.
But the principle of grace is God is one, and He's the dispenser of blessing.
Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could have given life fairly, righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
But before faith came, that doesn't mean that there wasn't faith in the Old Testament. But he's talking about the object of faith, which is Christ. Before He came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ. Take out the words to bring us. That's in italics, doesn't belong there. The law was not intended to bring us to Christ. It was intended to show that we're sinners by transgressing the law.
We're transgressors.
And it was given until Christ came. The law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, or until Christ, that we might be justified by faith in entirely different principle than works.
But after that faith has come, and that's what's established in Christianity, We're no longer under schoolmaster. The law was our schoolmaster. We were. We're no longer under the law. We're not under that schoolmaster anymore. It applied until Christ came. And now that he has come, we're under Christ. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Faith in Christ, where all the children have got Jews or Gentiles.
For as many of you as have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ.
Not circumcision, not something that you can boast of in the flesh, but you've put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female for year all one in Christ Jesus. How different Christianity is from Judaism?
And that's why it was so hated by the Jews, because it tore down that which Judaism had erected. That wall of separation between Jew and Gentile, that's all torn down. Anything that re erects that wall is not Christianity.
And if you be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs.
According to the promise, if you be Christ, you a Gentile.
Your Abraham seed in a spiritual sense.
Heirs according to the promise, so we can play claim to the promises even though it was given.
To the nation Israel, but it was to the seed Christ, and now that we are.
Our faith is in Him. We come into the good of that as well.