Address—C. Hendricks
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Galatians 11 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 unto 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 ye 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 please 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. For 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 that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it, and profited in the Jews religion above many mine 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 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 within 15 days. Whatever of the apostles saw 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.
The Epistle to the Galatians was sent to the churches of Galatia. It was a province.
And it was dealing with a very, very serious departure that had come in in the early church.
In Acts 15 there were certain that came from Jerusalem to Antioch, and they said, except ye be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, you cannot be saved, addressing that to the Gentiles.
The Jews who were under law and had received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Were not instructed to the to the degree that they'd been delivered from the law themselves. The question with them was, were the Gentiles to be put under law? After all, they had received the law through Moses and they knew that God had spoken to Moses. I remember the the accounting John chapter.
9 The Pharisees said, We know that God spoke to Moses, but As for this fellow, we know not from whence he is referring to the Lord.
And these Jews have been saved out of that kind of a system of things. And it it hadn't entered their mind at this point in time that the Jews were not under law. And certainly they were not sure as to the Gentiles, well, those of us that know Acts 15, after much disputing, it was decided that the Gentiles were not to be put under law. But just four things they were.
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From they were to abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.
That they were not to be put under the ******* of law. But it never at that point in time an acts, it never really entered the minds of the Jews, that they too were not under law. While this epistle.
The Epistle to the Galatians addresses that subject. Is the Christian. Whether he was a Jew or a Gentile doesn't matter. Is a Christian under law? And the answer is no, he's not. He's not under laws or anything wrong with the law. No, there's nothing wrong with the law. The law is holy and just and good.
But what's wrong is, is man. Man has a he has a disposition, a nature which disposes him to sin. And to put him under law is to put him under a curse. It's to condemn him. It's to slay him. It's a ministry of death, a ministry of condemnation and judgment.
What takes the place of law? Well, we read in John 1 The law was given by Moses.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
So Paul writes this epistle. It's the sternest in of any that he has written.
He says some very stern things, as he does in this very first chapter.
He establishes, first of all his apostleship. That's number one. And he wasn't one of the 12. He didn't receive his credentials from the Apostolic college at Jerusalem, but he was called as an elect vessel when he was on his way to Damascus with letters from the chief priests to bind all that called upon the name of Jesus Christ.
And to put them into prison.
And the light from heaven smote him, and a voice spoke to him. Saul saw. Why persecutest thou me?
It is hard for thee to kick against the ******. Who art thou, Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.
That resulted in a complete transformation of Saul of Tarsus.
He talks about that in this chapter.
And he became the greatest defender of the Christian faith of any that have ever lived.
He had been the greatest persecutor, and now he becomes the greatest defender, and he learned what grace is.
In a way that none of us has really attained to yet, the apostle Paul used to be Saul Tarsus, that Pharisee of the Pharisees, one that promoted the legal system to the NTH degree, and he was under it.
And when he was arrested on the road to Damascus by the glorified Christ in heaven.
He experienced a work in his soul that completely changed that man.
He had been an insolent, overbearing man in his.
Pre conversion days and he says to the Thessalonians, I was gentle among you as a nurse cherishes her own children and how dearly he speaks to his children in the faith he was a father to them.
Well, that's what the grace of God can do to a man. It can completely change him from.
A legal.
Stubborn.
Self willed.
Loving person to one that was like the Lord Himself.
Paul, an apostle.
Not of men. He didn't get his apostleship from the College of Cardinals at Jerusalem. I can put it that way. The Apostolic college at Jerusalem didn't originate from man. It wasn't through man.
It wasn't that man was the means of communicating this Apostolic gift.
But it was from God, by it was by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.
He was an elect vessel and the Lord had to say to Ananias when he was told to go.
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And and and bring a message to him.
He was said by I know this man that he'd come here with the purpose of persecuting the Christians, and the Lord says I know it, but he's an elect vessel to me. Go to him and bear this message.
And he goes in, and he finds Saul praying.
And he says, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way had sent me, and he was blind for three days, Saul of Tarsus. And I believe the glory of that light, the glory of that man up there, and the glory just completely blinded him to everything down here that he once valued so highly.
He says in Philippians 3, he says the things that were gained to me, these I counted loss for Christ Jay and I count all things, but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. There's not anyone here in this room that can say we have suffered the loss of all things.
For Christ. And that he did.
Lost his family, he lost his friends, he lost the esteem of his brothers, his Jewish brothers, and on and on and on.
He was a traitor to them, a scum to them, but he said he counted all things but down, that he might win. Christ.
He was an apostle not from men, neither through man, but through 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 unto you, and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of his epistles to the Gentiles.
Begin with grace to you and peace, and they end that way as well. Grace and peace. Now you can't have peace.
If the grace of God is not wrought in your soul and given you the consciousness that your sins are gone and that the sin question has been fully settled, grace must precede peace. You can't get peace by working by being under law. If no, it doesn't work that way. You have to be established in grace, and then peace will be.
What you enjoy, grace to you and peace from God the Father.
And from our Lord Jesus Christ, grace is the hardest thing for us to really understand.
Grace makes nothing of us and everything of God.
Everything of God.
If I thought anything of myself, if you think anything of yourself, you don't need grace because you can do it on your own. I remember talking to a Catholic instructor when I was in college after I'd gotten saved, and I was explaining to him grace, and he looked at me and he said, I don't want that. I don't like that. I want to do my part. In other words, he wanted to.
To know that when he gets to heaven, if you ever would get there, he would have made his contribution towards it.
Why is legality the most natural weed of the human heart? Because we are essentially inherently proud. We're proud, and it's the pride that God hates more than anything else, because it gives to man a place that only belongs to God.
Only belongs to him.
Now that's the principle of law, that you do something in order to gain God's acceptance and you get the credit for it. That's principle of law. The law is not bad. The law is wholly and just and good.
Let's just put it let me just have a little test here this afternoon.
And see if you pass the test.
God gave the 10 commandments to Israel and when they heard it they said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and obey.
And they thought they could pass that test.
Let's go over the 10 commandments and see if you passed the test.
I know I don't.
The first commandment is Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
The second commandment is thou shalt make no graven image of anything in heaven or earth and bow down and worship it. And you'll say I passed that test. I don't do that.
I'm not an idolater. I don't have any other gods. The third test, and I don't pass this one, is Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Before I was saved, I did that quite often.
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And many of you and all passed that test.
That should not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. The 4th commandment is the only one in the New Testament that is not found of the 10.
Of the 9 commandments are embodied in the truth of the New Testament and the 4th is Thou shalt remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Don't work on the Sabbath day. By the way, those that are under the law, they all break that one because they work on the Sabbath day.
You find very few of them that that really meet the requirements of the 7th day that was given to the Jews and that includes 7th Day Adventists and all of those that are under law, the law.
The 5th Commandment Now this is one for you, children. Listen. Honor thy father and thy mother that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the earth. It's a commandment with the promise. It promises you long life if you honor your father and your mother, if you're obedient to them and submissive to them. Have you ever sashed your parents? Have you ever disobeyed them? Have you ever not done what they've told you? I see some smiles. I think there's some that have failed that I.
I am guilty. I'm not saying this as one that's better than you, because I'm not any better. Not for a moment, no. I've probably one of the worst. But the grace of God is just made for someone like me and Someone Like You.
OK, 5th Commandment is honored by father and thy mother.
Yes, Father. Yes, mother. Whatever you say, I'll do it right away.
Is that the way you are?
Let's go on to the 6th Commandment. Thou shalt not kill. Oh, I passed that. I've never killed anyone. How about in your thoughts? I wish he were dead. You ever said that?
How many passed that?
The 6th commandment. The 7th commandment is thou shalt not commit adultery. Now this is more for the older people.
Yeah, we haven't done that, I trust.
Except maybe in our thoughts.
The Lord said he that looketh on a woman to lust after her, have committed adultery with her already in his heart. Guilty.
Guilty.
The 8th commandment is.
Thou shalt not.
Still oh.
You ever stop?
Restoring anything.
This is a test.
Now, if you're going to stand before God on the ground of keeping the law, if you break just one of them, just one, you're condemned.
You won't get there.
Not a very good way to get to heaven, is it? Thou shalt not steal. I remember once I was a little boy and there was a train there in the gift shop. It only cost $0.25, but that's back. Way back when, $0.25 was a lot of money, at least to me it was, and I stole it.
But I never enjoyed it and I finally brought it back and put it back on the shelf because I didn't enjoy it.
Remember one time I wanted another, another.
Another phone for the house.
And so I went to one of the pay phones with side cutters and I clipped the wire and I took the phone off and brought it home and set it up so we could have an extra phone.
After I got saved, I took that phone back to the telephone company, went into the vice president's office and I said before I was saved, I stole this phone.
For one of the phone booths.
Not mine. Give it back to you. And he was very flustered and he didn't know what to say.
He said that's OK, it's all right, he let me go.
But you never had had that happen to him before.
The 8th commandment. The 9th commandment is.
Thou shalt not.
Bear false witness, thou shall not lie.
I think that's the most common sin that I experienced when I was at work. They could look me right smack in the eyes and lie, lie, lie.
Without any any qualm about conscience.
And I remember once my sister.
And I wasn't saved that she wasn't saved. We weren't saved till I wasn't saved till I was 19. And I said, will you put your hand on the Bible to that? Will you swear on the Bible to that?
And I don't know why, but I had a I had a respect for an irreverence for this book. And don't ask me why, but I did. And she put her hand on the Bible and swore to it. And I found out later that she had lied to me with her hand on the Bible. And I thought that was terrible that she would do such a thing.
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The last commandment. Now maybe you've passed the test so far, I doubt it.
I doubt it.
Unless you're guilty of lying.
Anyone here that says he's passed the test so far is probably guilty of lying. So you failed that one, but the last one really gets us all. Thou shalt not lust.
Thou shalt not covet. Little Johnny next door drives up in a brand new bicycle all. If I only had a bicycle like that, then I'd be happy. I want that, daddy, I want that.
That's what the last amendment says. If you're really satisfied with what you have, you won't desire someone elses property, whatever it might be by the way.
When I was up in Iowa not too long ago.
I was visiting a family where she had been a Roman Catholic and he had been a Lutheran.
And I was going over the 10 commandments.
And when I hit the second commandment, I said it's thou shalt not make a graven image. And they said, no, that's not the second commandment. That's not even there in our catechism. The second commandment for them is thou shalt not.
Thou shalt not.
What's the third commandment?
I should not.
What's the third commandment?
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not bake a graven it up to thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Well, in their catechism that's number two. And what they've done in their catechism is they've made two out of the 10th commandment, which is, thou shalt not covet, and their 9th is, thou shalt not covet thy neighbors.
The neighbors property is ox or disaster so on and the 10th is I shall not cover it by neighbor neighbor's wife.
But that's not correct.
And I showed them from the scriptures the one they've left out.
Was thou shalt not make a graven image of anything in heaven or earth. That's very interesting. It's in the Lutheran Catechism the same way as it is in the Catholic. Remember, Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic priest and he carried a lot of Catholicism over into the Lutheran system.
I was in a Roman Catholic Church one time in my life. I just had to see what it was like.
And as I walked in, I saw idols everywhere.
Images, idols, idolatry. But that's missing in their catechism. That's the second commandment, not to make an idol and to worship it. And they've done it.
Repeatedly. It's interesting, isn't it, that that's not in their catechism?
Well, we've all failed to test heaven. We.
The principle of works of law. We are condemned.
We are not entitled to enter heaven. You see, the law held out the promise of life and blessing to the obedient.
But to the disobedient it holds out the promise of a curse and condemnation and death. It's a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation. So once you've learned of the grace of God, that God picks me up as a guilty, wretched, non deserving Sinner and and blesses me not because of anything I've done, because anything I've done has been against me and against God.
But it's.
God deciding to bless me, to bless you.
Because he is loved.
And he wants you as one of his children.
I had that before us this morning.
As we remembered him, we worshipped him as his children.
Brought us, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. Tremendous we who were.
We who were so bad that we couldn't be worse than we were.
Do you think that of yourself, naturally speaking?
If you don't, you don't really need grace.
You don't really need grace if you think there's some good in you.
This is the only book that tells me that I'm rotten from head to toe.
There's no good in me.
I need to be changed completely. I need a new life.
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I need to have my fins forgiven and I need to be standing in grace. That's exactly where He's put me, in the unmerited, undeserved favor of God.
With races.
And so he says, grace be to you in peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
The dispensers of grace.
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 is he, grace doesn't give me license to sin, it's the power to keep me from sinning.
One of the nicest illustrations I've ever heard is this man.
Was at a slave market and here was this this beautiful colored woman that was up for sale.
And this man bought her.
And she was so furious and so angry that anyone would buy her.
And make her his slave.
That she came up to him and she spit out.
And he said to her, my dear.
I bought you.
Set you free.
I bought you to set you free.
And what was the effect on this woman?
She fell at his feet.
And she said, Master, I will serve you forever.
That's Grace.
Grace makes me want to please him.
Law tells me you must please him. It doesn't give me the power to do it, doesn't forgive my sins, doesn't give me a new life. It just condemns me when I fail.
With grace.
Grace came by Jesus Christ.
Grace has provided A Savior who gave Himself for our sins so that He might deliver us from this present evil world. It's the sense in our souls that our sins are gone and that He's given us a new life and He's pardoned us and He's made us His children. That gives us the desire to please Him, not because we're under law.
But because we're under grace.
Shall we sin then because we're not under law, but under grace, God forbid?
Those that say that do not understand grace at all.
To whom the glory forever and ever. Amen. He is the only one that deserves the praise, the adoration of our hearts is God Himself and the Lord Jesus.
Now that's the beginning of this, he launches into what was burdening his heart so deeply. He says I marvel verse 6 that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto a different gospel. I believe that's the way it should read, which is not another. That's a different word. The 2 words here are another, but it was a different gospel. It's not the gospel of the grace of God. It's not the gospel that Paul.
Preach to them in which they have received. It was a different gospel.
He says. I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that calls you into the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another gospel of works.
That's not a gospel. That's not good works.
Nothing good about telling me that I have to do this and have to do that, and I'm conscious of the fact that I can't do it.
I can't render to Him the obedience that He demands of me if that's the ground upon which I have to stand before Him, but if the ground in which I stand before Him is grace.
Is his favorite. We sing in one of our hymns a lovely expression. The Father's face of radiant grace shines now in light on me.
Grace.
The goodness of God acting to save an undeserving Sinner and to bring him into blessing.
We don't know much of grace.
We get saved by grace and then right away we try to act according to the principle of law towards one another.
Putting people under ******* saying you can't do this and you can't do that. And so I remember I did that when I was a young, zealous, legal young brother at work. I have been speaking to this young man because of love.
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Saved last night. Praise the Lord. I was happy to hear that. Well, now that you're a Christian, you can't go to the movies. You can't do this and you can't do that or what a mistake that was. I put them right away. I put them under law.
But a mistake. And he just withdrew from me, and when he'd seen me coming, he'd go the other way, didn't want to talk to me. And that took about two weeks. And finally that broke down and I realized the terrible mistake I had made. And we did get together again and have nice fellowship.
That's natural tendency of our hearts, is it not?
To put a soul under law.
I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ. What folly to abandon grace for law.
Whether it's all up to me now.
But that's what I like because that gives me some some pride, something to be proud about in myself. And there's nothing to be proud about. I remember my mother used to say I was the first one saved in our family and then mom got saved 2nd and then my sister and finding my dad. But she used to say.
You mean there's no good in us at all?
And I said, Mom, that's not what I mean. That's what God said.
In his word.
Is no good in man.
From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, there's nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.
There's a very beautiful type in Leviticus 13, Leviticus 13 or 14.
I think it's 13 where those are the chapters dealing with the leper.
And I used to puzzle over it because the man that was completely covered with leprosy.
No matter where he looked, he was leprous. He was pronounced clean. I couldn't understand that.
Well.
This is what it means. This is what it means.
That's a picture of a man who has thoroughly judged himself to be lost.
To be sinful.
There's nothing good in him. Here's a man that's got leprosy all over, but he sees on this arm there's a spot right there and that's not leprous. I've still got some good flesh in me.
Still got something good, something I can glory in. I can glory in that flesh that's not like this.
But the man that's completely covered with leprosy when he sees himself and he says I am totally bad, I'm totally leprous, then he's pronounced clean because he has seen himself in the eyes of God and judged himself according to God's estimate. And that's true repentance. He's repented. Repentance means a change of mind, a change of thinking.
Our natural thoughts are high thoughts of self, proud thoughts of self.
And very low thoughts of God.
But when we repent, we have God's thoughts of us.
What we are by nature and by practice, totally leprous, totally sinful.
Nothing good in us. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and that did seek Him. And what did he see? They're all together become corrupt. They're all gone aside. There's none that doeth good. No, not one.
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Do you believe you're that bad?
I said to my secretary once, if you don't see that you are vile before God, you'll never get saved. I'll never say I'm vile. I'm not vile, she said.
And I said, well, if you don't come to that.
You'll never get saved.
Because we have to see ourselves as God sees us.
And it's not a pretty picture.
But then there's blessing. There's blessing.
Verse 7, which is not another, this false gospel of works is not really another gospel, but there be some that troubled you. That's these legalists, these Judaizers that would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Now notice this strong language. I can't speak stronger language than we have in verses 8:00 and 9:00. But though we, or an Angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, what had he preached to them? The gospel of the grace of God.
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He says let him be accursed.
Let him be accursed.
The Mormon system talks about this Angel Moroni that delivered a message to Joseph Smith.
And it was a different gospel, not another. That word is, Let him be accursed. That applies to such.
After the Protestant Reformation and the recovery of the scriptures only and justification by faith apart from works.
The Council of Trent was convened, I think it was in the 1400s, a Roman Catholic council and it it lasted for some 2030 or 40 years. It was quite a long council and they took up all of the recovered truths of the Protestant Reformation and rejected them all.
And they said if anyone says that you're justified by faith alone without works, let him be anathema Accursed. The apostle Paul says if anyone preach any other gospel and what we preach to you and what you have believed, let him be anathema.
Two anathemas, the one that I'm afraid of, is this one, not what Rome says, because she has no authority.
She is an apostate, wicked body, and she was always that from the beginning, but she officially became that at the Council of Trent when she officially rejected all the recovered truths of the Reformation.
Verse 9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you, than that ye have received. No, no, not only did he preach it, but they had received it, and that's how they became Christians.
Let him be accursed.
Do I now persuade men or God? Do I seek to please men? If you want to please men, then you'll give man a place, something that man can do, something that he can feel good about himself in doing in a religious way.
Then all he would have to have done was to have them circumcised. These Gentiles, that's all they were pressing for. Just the Jews were saying, these Jewish Christians who hadn't really understood grace as they should have, just have the Gentile Christian circumcised and then they'll be up to our level.
They thought they were up here and the Gentiles were down there. The reverse was true. The Gentiles were saved by grace alone and that's Christianity and the Jews were under law, many of them, and the Church of God today, as you look over Christendom, this was in the 1St century that Paul was fighting this legalistic system that put the levers under law. They had tried it for 1500 years, the Jewish system, and none had kept it. How do we know none had kept it?
They all died, and it held out the promise of life to the obedient. There was none obedience.
To all died.
Do I now persuade men or God? Who am I trying to please men?
Well, Paul didn't. He was not a men pleaser. Not a man pleaser.
But he wanted to please God. Do I seek to please men? No. But if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certified, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. It doesn't originate from man at all.
The gospel that he preached was the gospel of the grace of God.
For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it. How did he get it?
He didn't go to Jerusalem to get it. He wasn't taught it by man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
There's 2 truths, 2 basic truths that were committed to the Apostle Paul, the gospel of the grace of God and he got it by revelation.
And the truth of the mystery of it. By revelation He made known unto me the mystery Christ in the Church. Both were revealed to Him.
He didn't get him from man. His apostleship didn't come of men or through man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. And the truth that he preached came directly from the head in heaven. I received it by the revelation of Jesus Christ. God Christ revealed it to him. Then he goes over his history. He says you have heard of my conversation, my manner of life, my conduct, my behavior in time past in the Jews religion.
How that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it, and I profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the tradition of my Father's. He was as zealous a Jew as you could find, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and proud of it.
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But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace.
His Grace.
To reveal his son in me.
That I might preach him among the heathen immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. He received that revelation from the risen glorified man in heaven, the Lord Jesus, who had died for his sins, and put them all away, and now was calling him into a position in a place of blessing, that he could go forth now with the gospel of the grace of God.
And not the.
And not the.
The law message.
Principle of law.
When they pleased God to reveal his Son in me, that I might Verse 16 preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither one. I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. Why is he telling them this? He's saying my credentials don't stem from the 12 apostles. They don't stem from Judaism. They don't stem from anything that I was once connected with.
They're an altogether new revelation.
That he has given to me and I'm giving it to you.
The Gospel of the grace of God.
Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days. It would have been very interesting to have listened in on the conversation between those two apostles.
I'm sure that Paul imparted to Peter much light that Peter was fuzzy on.
But other of the apostles saw none.
Save James the Lord's brother. He saw James the Lord's brother, and he's very prominent in the Book of Acts. He's the one that made that final pronouncement. Not to put the Gentiles under law, but those four things that I mentioned earlier, abstaining from fornication and from blood and from things strangled and from idols.
That was his proposal and the Spirit of God endorsed that.
Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Silesia, 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 time, times past, now preacheth the faith which once He destroyed and glorified God in me.
Then 14 years after, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also, and I went up by revelation. Now that's Acts 15. This has told us in the book of Galatians, but he was directed by revelation from the Lord to go to Jerusalem to get this, this legal question settled. Don't settle it in Antioch. They had two apostles in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas. They were both apostles. But he says, no, The Lord said to him by revelation, you go to Jerusalem.
And get this matter settled. And it was settled there at Jerusalem, the least likely place on planet Earth to get a favorable decision for the Gentiles.
But that's where it took place. That was the power of God over ruling man.
I want to pass down.
To verse 11.
Of chapter 2 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I was stood into the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James. He did eat with the Gentiles, but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. So before James came from Jerusalem, certain came from James. That's the legalist Peter there. He was up at Antioch, and he was sitting at the Gentile.
And here was the kosher table where the Jews sat, and they wouldn't need certain things. And that made the difference. They were still maintaining in the early church. They were still maintaining. There's a difference between Jew and Gentile.
And the decision in Acts 15 did not do away with that difference because it said the Gentiles are not under law, but it didn't say a thing about the Jews.
In fact, in order to pacify the Jews, he said, James says every Sabbath day, Moses is read, You know, that's the So the law was still in force as far as the Jewish believers were concerned.
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What epistle do we have that tells the Jews to abandon Judaism? The epistle to the Hebrews, that's the one that tells them to go forth unto him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. But God bore with that that transitional state where the Jews were still under long, the Gentiles were not. That couldn't continue, of course, and He made sure that it would. It wouldn't continue when He sent the Roman armies in 70 AB.
Was destroyed and Christians were dispersed and from that point on there was number earthly center like they had in the Old Testament and they have it in the New Testament. But that's what the false church in that earthly center with the false church is Rome.
But that's never been God's plan. Where is our center? In the glory? A man that's seated in the glory?
And every local assembly with himself in the midst.
But he's not here. He's in the glory. Spiritually, he's here.
And we enjoyed his presence this morning. He said, where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. But he's in the glory. And there's no place on earth that is central headquarters for the Church of God.
The central headquarters are with the man in the glory. Christianity is a faith system. It it has to do with with faith all the way through.
Judaism was a sight system, a touch system, a smell system, a handle system. It was something that the flesh could get a hold of. But in Christianity, we walk by faith, not by sight. We're saved by faith. We're kept by faith. It's faith that preserves us. Well, Peter was eating at the Gentile table and he had no problem. But when these legalists, these Judaizers came from James, he went over to the Jewish table.
Re elected the wall between Jew and Gentile, and Peter and Paul calls him to task. Here we have one apostle rebuking publicly another apostle, because what Peter had done was in effect to deny the truth of Christianity.
Before that certain came from James 12. He, Peter did eat with the Gentiles, but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. The fear of man bringeth a snare.
And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him. Now notice this, insomuch that Barnabas, Paul's companion in laborers, also was carried away with their dissimulation. So strong is the legalist principle to draw us back into a legal state of things, and to reelect the barrier that has been torn down between Jew and Gentile.
And the other Jews?
Dissembled likewise with him.
13 insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all public rebuked, If thou being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles. And that's what Peter was doing. He was sitting at the Gentile table. He was saying, I'm no different than you are. That's what he had said in Acts 15.
But now come these legalists.
And everything changes. He goes from the Gentile table to the Jewish table.
So Paul says, if thou being a Jew, littest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews.
Why do you compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
By going from the Gentile table to the Jewish table, he was saying there there are not higher than you are, so you got to come up to their level, you Gentiles.
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. Now this applies to both Jews and Gentile. Doesn't matter what you came from and how what you were. I've heard numbers of times as I travel and pick up a Christian broadcast. Sometimes on the way I hear a testimony from a Jew.
There's a program called the Christian Jew Hour and these Jews give their testimony and almost every time they spoil it.
When they're all done, they say, but I'm still a Jew.
They tell how they receive Christ as their Savior and their Messiah and so on, but I'm still still glorying in what they came from, glorying in the flesh in some way. They're not still a Jew. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Whether you were a Jew or a Gentile, that's gone and all things have become new, and now you're a Christian, so to say. I'm a Christian, but I'm still a Jew. No, that will not go.
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That's to deny the difference between Christianity and anything else. Anything else.
You'll never hear Gentiles say, well, I'm still a Gentile because they didn't have anything to glory in, but the Jews did. We have Abraham for our father, Moses the Lawgiver, David the great king, and they had all these worthies of the Old Testament and they could glory and all that. We have a law which is holy and just and good, and none of the Gentiles have that. And we have a ritual and a priestly system and, and on and on and on.
That whole thing, that's the whole Epistle to the Hebrews, is to show that that's all been replaced by Christ.
Replaced by Christ, Christianity replaces it all.
And there's nothing of the old. The old was just types and shadows and figures. But now the reality has come.
And that man is in the glory, and we are associated with him. Partakers.
Of the heavenly calling.
Verse 17 He says, If while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners.
And if we put ourselves under law, it will find us as sinners, we will break it, and will be found out as sinners. He is therefore Christ, the minister of sin. Is he the head of that system?
No, Moses was.
Christ is the head of a system which is green.
Grace.
By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
It's amazing these statements in Galatians are so powerful and so strong and so clear that it's amazing that most of Christendom today is still under law.
Than it is.
Most of them very few that really understand the grace of God.
If while we seek to be justified by Christ, we are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. To go back to the law principle, once you've been delivered from it, as he says in that first chapter, I marvel that you are so soon removed from the grace of Christ to a different gospel.
Verse 20, We love that verse. It's precious to us. I am crucified with Christ. So all that I was, all that I was in Adam, all that I was in my natural state in the flesh, is gone in the death of Christ, in the crucifixion of Christ judicially set aside, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. A new life has been given to us, the very life of Christ. He is our life.
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Some don't understand that expression. The faith of the Son of God doesn't mean Jesus has faith. It means that he is our, the object of our faith, the faith of the Son of God. It's a, it's a Greek expression and it means, and I'll give it to you as it means. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith which has the Son of God as its object.
You see, the law didn't give an object.
The law was works. The law told them what they should do and what they should not do. And if you failed, we always mix the law with grace.
I thought of this example of pure law.
The our governments, United States and Canada, enforce a law which will be strictly enforced. They put out a law and legislate a new law that anyone that drives over the speed limit.
Will be.
Exterminated.
One mile an hour over 10 miles an hour, over 20 miles an hour. It doesn't matter if you go over the speed limit, we'll have detection devices along the highway and if you go over the speed limit, you'll be met with a ray gun just down the way and you will be. You would be liquidated. You will be.
Put out a Commission.
Do you think that had many speeders in that country?
They're either going to be dead or alive, and if they're alive, they don't speed.
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Well, that's the law. The law is unforgiving. It's unyielding. It's unbending, it's inflexible. You go one step over or 100 steps over, it makes no difference.
I was talking to brother Dean Rule at the conference at Walla Walla and he was talking to a brother and said he had the idea that Jesus did 20% and we have to do 80%. But now he's progressed and now he sees that Jesus did 80% and we just have to do 20%. Indeed, said he doesn't realize he's not one step closer.
To what? The truth is that Jesus did it all.
Jesus did it all, All to Him I own.
We don't do anything.
We just bring, we just present ourselves. How many times have you failed?
And you said in your own soul as a Christian, now I've got to clean up my act.
Before I come to the Lord, how many times people have done that who are sinners? They had to make themselves presentable to the Lord. I can't come into his presence in these filthy rags that I'm in. So I have to make myself better, take shower, make myself better, put my clothes on and so on. And apply that in a, in a moral sense, in a spiritual sense. That's man thinking that he can do something. He can make himself presentable to God.
Do it.
You can't do it.
Just as I am.
Without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou ***** me. Come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. No pretension, not pretending to be something I'm not. Just come all your sins.
And how many times we've sinned as Christians have failed, and we think we've got to clean up our act before we come to Him.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We stay away from the only one that can set us right, that can cleanse us and forgive us.
And that can bring us into blessing, that can give us the power to live for Him.
That powers Greece.
Power increase.
The law is the strength of sin.
It's not the strength of holiness.
That's First Corinthians 15. The law is the strength of sin.
You can't force a Sinner.
To be obedient to the law by putting him under law.
But you can enable him by putting him under grace to fulfill the law.
Because.
Because he has a new life.
The new power and the new object.
And that's what Paul's talking about in Galatians 220. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith. Notice how faith comes in here always when it's the Christian's position, faith which has the Son of God as its object, who loved me and gave himself for me. Now notice that last verse. And then we'll have to close. For I do not frustrate the grace of God. I don't set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness come by the law now.
The Reformers, they did recover a lot of truth, but they were way off when it came to the righteousness of God and the righteousness in which we stand before God.
Because their idea was that Christ kept the law for us, and that's what's imputed to us.
So that we stand before God in the law, keeping righteousness of Christ. Now it's true the Lord did keep the law, but that's not the righteousness in which we stand before God. What is it? Christ risen from the dead. Christ is risen. He's our life, He's our righteousness, He's our sanctification, He's our redemption. Christ business is everything. Notice what this said. If righteousness come by the law, whether we keep it, which we don't, or he kept it for us.
That Christ when Christ is dead in vain, why would he have to have died? If the righteousness that we standing before God is is perfectly law keeping during his life, why would he have to have died?
We had to die to put our sins away. He had to die to become a curse for us. We had broken the law. You see it. From this moment on in your life, you could keep the law perfectly. What about your previous sins? What about your previous life? What would take care of that? The work of Christ?
But you will not find that you will keep the law perfectly ever, especially if you put yourself under it. I remember when I was a young Christian, I used to read the 10 Commandments and I would say now I'm going to keep it.
And I get out of the house and like turn the corner and by that time I'd already broken.
Had already broken.
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Thank God we're not under law.
But we don't agree.
A grace that has made us His children, even if we're not His children.
Sometimes the children's hymns are so beautiful. Jesus loves me when I'm back.
Make any ways to make me glad?
Yes, he does.
And sometimes we're bad.
But the grace of God is that in which we stand. I wish we had more time. Such a wonderful episode that we have in Galatians. Let's see #10 in closing.
#10.
There is the sweetest sound.
That ever reached our ears.
When conscience charged and justice found.
Twice.
And liberty.
It takes its terror from the grace from death.
It's victory.