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For this morning, we're going to start a new book study. If you'll take your Bibles and go to the book of Galatians, we are going to be studying the book of Galatians now. And so we'll start here in chapter one. And as you're turning to Galatians, as I always like to do when we start a new book study, I'd like to give some background, some context, and help everybody to understand what the book is about, where we're heading, and then we'll break it down chapter by chapter. But for those of you who love to take notes, here are a few bullet points about what we are about to read here. Galatians Some scholars believe that Galatians is the first of Paul's epistles that he ever wrote. The date is around 49 A.D. after his first missionary journey, which included the province of Galatia. And the Bible is not necessarily in chronological order. So even though we finished what Paul wrote in Romans and 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians and we come to Galatians, this is believed to be the first epistle that he wrote. Galatia is a province or a region, a territory. Kind of think of it today like we would say a county. And within that county or within that region are other towns or cities. Galatia was located in Asia Minor. So if you looked on a map today, it would be present day Turkey. And within the province, the region of Galatia. There were four particular cities that Paul visited in his first missionary journey. We know this from the book of Acts. He visited Pisidian, Antioch, Iconium, Derbe and Lystra. And typically he would go to a new city, he would preach the gospel, people would get saved, and then that nucleus would form a new church. And then he would stay there for some time, usually not very long. 18 months was considered a long stay for Paul. And then he would go off to another city and do the same thing, preach the gospel. People would get saved. He would start a church and then he'd move on. And so he planted churches in each of these four cities in Galatia according to the book of Acts. And but then almost immediately after he leaves Galatia, he starts to hear that the churches have a problem. Some people are infiltrating the churches with some really bad doctrine. And the doctrine is so bad and the problem is so real that Paul actually says not once but twice in the first chapter, that the ones who are throwing these churches into confusion should be damned. He says it. He says they should be new King James says accursed. The Greek word is anathema. Some of your translations say condemned. So he comes on strong about these people. They are giving false information. It is perverting the gospel and he condemns them. He says, let them be anathema. Let them be accursed. Now, it wasn't unusual for Paul to plant a church, leave and go somewhere else, only to find out later that the church that he planted is moving into some kind of doctrinal error or sin. And listen, that's no reflection on Paul. Like, he didn't set it up. Well, it's a reflection on the human heart, because the human heart will drift from sound doctrine and the truth of Jesus. If we drift from Jesus and the truth of his word. The further we get away from God's word, from the Bible, the more that we will believe and embrace aberrant theology and false doctrines and spiritual weird stuff. And so this often happened. Paul would plan a church. He'd leave and then he'd get word. He'd be like, oy vay. You know, these people, they can't seem to stay on track because they would slowly drift. That slow drift can happen to any of us. That's why we have to stay on our guard, stay close to Jesus and stay in his word. The church of Corinth. Paul planted the church of Corinth. We just got through studying through 1 and 2 Corinthians. And what does he have to do? Well, he leaves Corinth and then he finds out that the church at Corinth, they have divisions. They got sexual sin in the camp, they're getting drunk, they're filing no fault divorces, they're suing each other. And so Paul has to write back to them. And he says in 1 Corinthians 3:1, he says, I can't even address you as spiritual, but as worldly, as carnal. You're not even following the truth. What has happened to you? So these are often corrective epistles trying to straighten out error in doctrine or some sin issues. A similar thing happened when Paul writes to the Thessalonians. He plants this church in Thessalonica, and he writes 1 Thessalonians, and he tells them about the second coming of Christ that you have to look forward to. And they latch onto that. And the Thessalonians are like, well, Jesus is coming again. We might as well quit our jobs. We'll just sit back in our lazy boy chairs with a remote and a Twinkie and we'll look into the sky and we'll be like, yeah, he's coming again. We don't have to do anything. And Paul has to write second Thessalonians and say, get off your high knees and go back to work. And stop just gazing into the sky. And he even says in Second Thessalonians 3:10, if a man doesn't work, he shall not eat. So get up, get back to work, stay engaged, and look for the return of Christ. Like, don't check out, but just stay engaged while you live here on Earth. And so now he's going to write to the church in Galatia and he's going to tell them some corrective things. Also because what's happened in Galatia is that in these churches have crept in people known as Judaizers, and they are spreading some false information. Now here. Here's here. Who are the Judaizers? Who are they? The Judaizers were Jews who. Who believed that Jesus is the Messiah, but that you still had to practice the Mosaic Law. So they didn't know what to do with the Mosaic Law. They're like, yes, we believe Jesus is Messiah, but you still guys need to be circumcised. Everybody needs to practice the Jewish feasts and festivals. And you gotta keep kosher. You know, you don't want to be eating pork and shrimp because you need to do all these rules, rituals, and customs, plus Jesus because he's Messiah. But you got to do all these other Mosaic Law things in order to really be saved and go to heaven. Okay, so they were teaching Jesus plus. Take your pick. But they were adding things. Jesus plus everybody listen to me on this. Jesus plus anything ruins everything. Everybody understand that. Jesus plus anything. You start adding anything to the simplicity of the message that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, you alter that, you've corrupted and nullified the message. And so what Paul is dealing with here is this aberrant theology that's crept in saying, it's Jesus. Yeah, but it's Jesus. There's stuff you gotta do. Let me tell you something. What was done for us was done by Jesus Christ for us in a way we cannot do for ourselves. And so Paul comes along here, and this is why he's writing Galatians to help them understand. Look real quickly in your Bibles here, chapter one, we'll read the first 10 verses. But I just want to highlight verse seven for a moment, because in verse seven, that's where he says that there are some who trouble you. Now, if you have an niv, it translates. Some are throwing you into confusion, he says, and they are perverting the Gospel of Christ. You see? It's perverting the Gospel of Christ. Whenever you add anything to the pure, simple message of Jesus dying on a cross for our sins. See, the Judaizers were making it about Jesus plus circumcision plus Jesus plus the Jewish feasts, Jesus plus keeping kosher Jesus plus the Sabbath. And Paul's going to say, no, no, no. It's justification by faith. No one ever got saved by obeying the law. It's about God's grace. See, listen. Best way to illustrate this. The law can only show you how much you need a savior. It cannot save you itself. It's just like a thermometer. Whenever you're sick and you need to take your temperature, a thermometer cannot cure you. It can only show you that you're sick. When we read the standard of God in the Bible and we see his commandments and we see his heart and we see his character and we see his nature, and then we decide, okay, I want to align myself with God and I want to be right with God. We cannot be made right just by obeying the commandments. The commandments were to reflect our wicked hearts, to show us how much we don't measure up. This is why Paul says there's none righteous. No, not one. That we're all sinners. And so therefore the law doesn't save us. It exposes my sinful nature and it causes me to want to cry out for a savior. But unfortunately, there were people in the first century and there are still people today who think that if I'm just a good person and try to obey all the commandments as best as I can, then I'm good to go. Does everybody understand there was only one good person who walked this planet. That's the God man, Jesus. And he died. That one good man, that one good God in flesh died for all of us who are bad people. That's you and me. And it's only through Christ and faith in him and his finished work that we can be saved. And this is what Paul is addressing here now. He goes on then to talk about grace. He says, the law doesn't save you. It's grace. Paul is referred to affectionately as the Apostle of Grace. Somebody came up with the acronym G R A C E could stand for God's riches at Christ's expense. Like we are beneficiaries of the riches of God. I'm not talking materially I'm talking about spiritually and eternally. God has opened heaven for us. It's a gift. And it's because of what Christ has done for us on that cross that we have access to heaven when we trust in what Jesus did for us on that cross that we could not do for ourselves. Now, when Martin Luther read the book of Galatians, it was like an epiphany to him because here he was a monk in the Roman Catholic Church. And those of you who have Catholic backgrounds, you're going to identify with what I'm about to say. Here's what he struggled with as this devoted Roman Catholic. He always was about the idea that it was a performance oriented religion. I got to do this, I got to do that. Indulgences, penance, confession. I got to do all the right things. I got to check all the right boxes. And when he read Galatians, he realized, oh, this is not just a performance oriented religion. That's not what it's about. It's about a love motivated relationship with Jesus. Because he died for my sins. He accomplished for me what I cannot do for myself. It's not about my works. If you notice, glance ahead here, Galatians 2. Look at verse 16 where Paul. Paul writes this in Galatians 2:16. A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So a light goes off in Luther's brain and he's like, I love this epistle. It's so freeing. It's so freeing. In fact, he even said this. I have a quote for you. Luther said this. The little book of Galatians is my letter. I have betrothed myself to it. It is my wife. He loved it that much. You know how we say, well, if you love it that much, why don't you marry it? You know, we kind of school kids say that kind of thing. Well, for Luther, he's just like, I want to marry Galatians. It's wonderful. Now, you know, he's excited. Even though he doesn't look very happy in a picture, does he? He doesn't look very happy, but I mean, the guy died in 1546. I don't think they knew how to smile back then. But anyway, he actually referred to the book of Galatians by his wife's name. His wife was Katharina Von Bora. And he called Galatians My little Katie. That's how much he loved it. It's kind of like My Little Pony, except not creepy. And so he called it my Little Katy and this book, Galatians, led to Luther leaving the Roman Catholic Church over its abuse of indulgences and its emphasis on salvation by good works rather than on Christ alone. And he launched the Protestant Reformation in 1517. So this book was pivotal in all of that. So Paul writes here, this letter to the churches in Galatia to correct their drifting theology. Let's look now, chapter one. All of that was just the introduction. At no charge. Galatians, chapter one. I'm going to read first ten verses. Here we go. Paul, an apostle, and he wants us to know man didn't appoint him, he says, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead and. And all the brethren who are with me to the churches, plural of Galatia, grace to you and peace. That's a very common Greek and Hebrew greeting, because grace, charis and peace. Shalom. He's saying, grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Verse 6. I marvel now he doesn't mean this in a good way. He's like, I'm astonished, I'm shocked that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. He says it's not even a gospel at all, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. There it is. And he repeats it in verse nine, as we have said before. So now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you that than what you have received, let him be accursed, anathema, eternally condemned. He says, for do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. What he's saying is he's like, look, I know what I'm telling you may not be popular, you may not like me, but I'm not here to be liked. I'm a bond servant of Christ. And if I try to be a man pleaser, I cannot be a God pleaser at the same time. So he says, I'm here to correct you because I love you too much to not tell you the truth. I Have to tell you the truth, you're drifting in error. You're believing a false gospel. And so this is a corrective epistle that comes out of love for the churches of Galatia. Let's pray and then we'll dig some of this out in the little bit of time we have left. Lord, thank you for your word. Bless it to us now as we study it, that we would hear it, obey it, and be encouraged and challenged by it. We love you in Jesus name and everyone said Amen. Sitting on top of the United States Capitol building in Washington D.C. since 1863 is a 20 foot statue known as the Statue of Freedom, or as she's affectionately referred to Freedom Lady. She was sculpted by an American sculptor. His name was Thomas Gibson Crawford. He was living in Rome, Italy at the time that he sculpted it. So the statue was then shipped across the Atlantic to Washington D.C. but a storm at sea threatened to capsize the ship and so its skipper ordered all the cargo to be thrown overboard. But when the sailors went to toss the Freedom lady, the captain shouted, quote, no, never. We will flounder before we throw freedom away. End quote. The book of Galatians is about freedom. Not freedom to sin, but freedom in Christ that some in Galatia were throwing away by adding legal requirements and customs to, to salvation. And frankly, some people even today are doing the same thing whenever they try to improve upon or add any regulations to what Jesus did on the cross. Look, I've said this before and I'll continue to say it every time it comes clearly in Scripture. Good works don't get us saved. Good works show that we are. Once we've come to faith in Jesus Christ, we want to do good works, but the good works don't save us. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And we have to understand this. Anything you add to that corrupts it and nullifies it. But there are a lot of people who think that you can get to heaven by adding something by doing things that somehow improve our condition. You can't improve your condition. We're all fallen people in need of a savior. But there are many people who are very works oriented in their thinking about heaven. Example. And here's the story about when my mom was in rehab the last three weeks, there was a roommate in her room. This was at a nursing home rehab center in Falls Church. And my mom had a roommate for the entire three weeks that she was there. And the roommate's name was Ruth. And every time I would go to visit my mom, I would End with a short prayer. Just, mom, let me pray for you. And so on one of these occasions, I'm praying for my mom, and Ruth overhears, and she says. After I finished praying, she says, reverend, which told me she was probably Presbyterian. Even the Baptists don't call me Reverend, and I don't want to be called Reverend. But she was just being respectful. She's like, reverend, she said, would you mind coming over praying with me? She's 91 years old. She's in there because she's got congestive heart failure and a lot of other medical issues. But she's sharp as a tack. She worked for the CIA. She's a brilliant woman. And so I prayed for her. How can I pray for you, Ruth? And prayed for her. But every time I would go to visit my mom, I had this nagging sense that she didn't know Christ in a personal way, that she had been exposed to religion, she probably had gone to church, but that she didn't probably know him in a personal way. Now, I didn't want to judge her heart. I didn't want to make any assumptions. It's just what I sensed in my heart. And every time I'd go into my mom's room, the Lord, the Holy Spirit would just kind of quicken me, like, okay, just remember, be prepared to pray with Ruth, because she needs Jesus. And. But I'm just one of these people that I just. I want to see the Holy Spirit lead. I don't want to rush into places where the Holy Spirit is not leading, because you can mess stuff up when you do that, right? Just wait on the Lord, pray. What do you want, Lord? And I want to be available. I'm going to be open. And so I'd go in day after day after day for these three weeks visiting my mom. But on the day before my mom was released, I go to visit my mom, and I'm in her room filling out discharge papers. And. And then the physical therapist came to get my mom. And so I'm still there filling out papers. And they took my mom to the gym area to do physical therapy. And now I'm in the room alone with Ruth. And just as sure as I'm telling you, I'm in the middle of paperwork, and I sense the Holy Spirit say, now's the time. I got emotional the first two services, and I'm gonna try to fight the tears on this one, too. So I put down my pen, and I walked over to Ruth's bed, and I said, ruth, I said, tomorrow, I'm going to be said, tomorrow I'm going to go. I'm going to be coming back to pick up my mom. I don't know if I'm going to see you again, I said, but I want to be able to see you in heaven. I said, do you know for sure that you're going to go there when you die? And she gave me the classic, bless her heart. She said, I think so. I've been a pretty good person. And she told me about helping with Catholic Charities, and she told me about working in soup kitchens, how her mom was Catholic and she was Presbyterian. She'd done a lot of good things. And I said, ruth, that's wonderful. I bet you've made a big difference in your circle of friends and in your community. I said, but, you know, the truth is that Jesus said he's the only way to heaven. It's not by our good works. We can't boast about anything we've ever done. It's only through faith in him. I said, do you know Jesus in a personal way? She said, I pray to him a lot. I said, that's wonderful, Ruth. I said, but have you ever asked him to come into your life and save you from your sins and forgive you of your sins? She said, no, I can't say I have. I said, would you like to pray to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior? Trust him today. And she said, yes, I would love that. And she reached out her hand and I took her by the hand. I prayed with her, and she prayed after me, the sinner's prayer. And at 91 years of age, Ruth accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. Amen. I said to my mom, and look, you can disagree with me, but this is how my theology works. I said, mom. Later, when I got mom in a car and I took her home the next day, I said, mom, for all you know, you broke your hip so that one lady can have eternal life. You never know. Mom wasn't all that thrilled, you know. No, she was. She was very thrilled for Ruth, you know, but in her condition, she's like, yeah, okay, yeah. I mean, I just believe that sometimes we'll go through certain things. God will redirect our lives, or God will take us this path for a greater eternal purpose. We can't always see in a moment. And the reason I'm telling you this story is not to say, hey, I led somebody to Christ I love, whenever the Lord uses me in that way. I'm telling you this because there are a lot of Ruths in this world. And there's some Ruth sitting right here today or watching online. And you think you're good to go because you've done a lot of good things and I commend you, you've probably made a great difference in your community or your family. But if you think that you can get to heaven because of your good works and good deeds, I'm here to tell you, you can't. Because there's none who is good enough. There's only one good who ever walked this planet. His name is Jesus. And he died for all of us. And the only way to heaven is through him putting faith and trust in him. So there are some people of Galatia here today. Paul's writing to us as much as he was writing in the first century, telling people it's not Jesus and good works, it's not Jesus and circumcision, it's not Jesus and the feasts and festivals, it's Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And you cannot improve upon that. And if you try, you are corrupting the truth and the simplicity and the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Paul is so passionate about this. That's why he says in verse eight, look again in verse eight. That's why he says, and if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. And he repeats it in verse nine. He says, if another human being tells you anything else other than Jesus Christ alone, do not believe him or her. And. And he says, even if an angel in heaven tries to tell you something otherwise. And by the way, by that he means a demon. He's talking about a fallen angel. Cause no true angel would give you a false gospel, by the way. No true angel would even give you the gospel. There's nowhere in Scripture. One exception. I'll get to it in a minute. Where angels are tasked with preaching the gospel. God has entrusted that to frail human vessels like you and me. There's only one exception to that. It's Revelation 14 in the future, when God dispatches an angel to fly midair in us earth to proclaim the gospel to those who are suffering during the tribulation period. Why? Because the church has been taken. So God uses an angel to proclaim the gospel, that people might get saved. Other than that, there is no reference whatsoever in the Bible of any angel ever preaching the gospel. So if an angel shows up one day and says, I'm here to Proclaim the gospel to. You know this. Not a real angel, not the real gospel. It's a false religion. Reject it. And I am sad to report that there are several religions that have been started on the basis of angel visitations to present a gospel. Be aware, Mormonism started that way. Friends. Joseph Smith had a visitation from an angel named Moroni, not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. Moroni spelled moron with an ice. And Moroni says to Joseph Smith, I have the golden tablets written in a language you do not know, has extra biblical information for you to proclaim. And you will have to have a seer stone to. To ride over these, this language so that you will know what the language is saying. Sounds like a Ouija board to me. And then after you're done with the golden tablets, because no one's ever seen them besides Joseph Smith, give them back to me. The angel Moroni. And the angel Moroni has had them since 1829. This is all documented. And Mormonism was started that way by another angel preaching a different gospel. Know your history about Islam, too. Muhammad received a visitation from a spirit being who orally dictated the Koran. Muhammad said himself that he believed he was possessed by a demon. Hebrew, rather Arabic. Jinn. He said, I'm possessed by a jinn. His wife convinced him that it was a divine revelation. Khadijah, his wife, took Muhammad to her cousin, and her cousin said, oh, that spiritual revelation that you've gotten from that spirit being that dictated the Koran, that's the angel Gabriel. He was convinced that it was Gabriel, this angel who had visited him. It's another angel with another gospel. It's not real. It's demonic Christian science. The founder of Christian Science was Mary Baker Eddy. Before she started Christian Science, you know what she would do? She would go to seances, she would conduct seances to tap into the dead, the demonic principalities, the spirit realm. She's the one who starts Christian Science. Someone who attends and conducts seances. By the way, Christian Science is neither. It's neither. It's kind of like grape nuts. Open a box of grape nuts. There ain't any grapes in there. And there aren't any nuts in there. It's neither. So Paul is saying any person or demon who tries to convince you about salvation through any other means than by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, is to be eternally condemned. It is a false. Now, some of you are already uncomfortable that I'm calling out these religions like this. But listen, this is why Paul adds in verse 10, for I do not now do I now persuade men or God. Like I'm not trying to convince God. He says, do I seek to please men? No. He says, if I tried to be a man pleaser, I would not be a bond servant of Christ. Paul cares more about the souls of people than the opinions of people. And some folks won't tell you the truth, but because they want to be liked too much. Paul says, I'm not here to be liked because I love you too much to withhold the truth. That's the way I feel. I want to proclaim the truth of the gospel because I love you too much to withhold the truth. I mean, that would be a horrible disservice of eternal significance to you. So, like Paul, I want to tell you the truth because I care more about your soul than whether you like me. And I want you to know the truth because the truth will set you free. We are sinners, saved by grace. He came into the world to save us from our sins. He summarizes verses 3 and 5. This is the whole summary of the gospel. And then we'll close with this and pray. In verses three to five, he says, grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins. Circle that cause. Number one, we have a sin problem. That he might deliver us from this present evil age. That he might deliver us from this evil age. We live in an evil age, and we need to be rescued. That's why Jesus came to deliver us according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. So the simplicity of the gospel he condenses here in these three verses. Verses three, four and five, we have a sin problem. Number two, we live in an evil age. Number three, we need to be rescued. And number four, Jesus gave himself to save us. And it is through grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone. Add anything to that and you've nullified the gospel. It's not by works, it's by faith in what Christ has done. We'll pick it up there next week. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word today. And we thank you, Lord, for the free gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. I pray for the Ruths in this world. What a gentle, sweet lady she is. A lot of good things that she has done, like a lot of people. But I thank you for her newfound salvation at the age of 91. And I pray for anyone who thinks that they are good enough to get to heaven by their own works would understand that it is not by works that we are saved, but it is through faith in Jesus Christ alone and what Jesus did for us on that cross. So Lord, would you please bring people to the awareness of your amazing grace that they might surrender their hearts and lives to your lordship and trust you and receive you as their personal Lord and Savior. We give you the glory, the honor and the praise for who you are and all that you've done for us. And it's in Jesus name we pray these things and everybody said amen.