The Different Gospels of Galatians

Today's sermon title is The Different Gospels of Galatians. The Different Gospels of Galatians.

Commentators have long debated specific problems that Paul addresses in Galatians.

Most commentators agree that one of the great problems is centers on Judaizing.

However, scholars tend to confuse the spiritual law of God with the Mosaic law, and there is a great difference, as we shall see. And it's very important with regard to understanding what law is done away with and what is not done away with. That is, they make no distinction between the Mosaic law and the spiritual law, as summarized by the Ten Commandments.

Neither do they make a distinction between the former practices of the Gentiles.

And of course, this is somewhat esoteric in Galatians 4, as we shall see.

And scholars lump the spiritual law and the Mosaic law together. They also lump the weak and beggarly elements of Galatians 4-9 with the whole law.

Paul would never call, as we shall see, the law of God weak and beggarly. So more about that later.

So what was the problem in Galatia? They were being seduced to believe a different gospel. In fact, there are two main problems, and to some degree a third problem. But let's look at Galatians chapter 1, verse 6. In Galatians chapter 1 and verse 6.

I marvel that you are so removed from him that called you into the grace of God unto another gospel. So the different gospels of Galatians is the title. The different gospels of Galatians. To a different gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Now one of the aspects of the so-called gospel in Galatians harkens all the way back to Nimrod, as we shall see in the Babylonian mystery system.

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. I mean, this is no small thing. Let him be accursed. And when you are accursed, you are separated from God and the truth.

As we have said, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. In the first three chapters of Galatians, Paul addresses the problem of Judaizing. But as we shall see, Judaizing was not the only problem in Galatians.

Before we examine the two principal problems in Galatia, let's examine the word justify. What does it mean to be justified? It means to balance the scales so the person who committed a certain action is no longer under whatever penalty it is or whatever debt he has to repay. Everything is balanced. It's not an equal footing. The penalty has been removed. It has been justified. From the Garden of Eden to the present day, Scripture makes it clear that the wages of sin is death. Paul writes in Romans 6.23 that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So in the case of the usage of the law, it has to do well in the case of Galatians.

Paul addresses how a person is justified from sin first and foremost. Furthermore, Scripture makes it clear that all have sinned. That's Romans 3.23. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, if all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death, therefore the death penalty is on everyone's head.

So therefore, every person who ever lived, past, present, and future, needs to be justified.

True Christianity is the only religion that has a remedy for the death penalty that is on the head of every person because all have sinned.

Once again, true religion is the only religion really that has a remedy for the death penalty, and that has been perverted especially in the world of nominal Christianity.

However, virtually all religions from Protestant to Eastern mysticism do not believe that a soul ever dies. I was reading recently, I'm working on a sermon, and maybe eventually give with regard to the great deception at the end of the age. The Airways are now filled with news about aliens, and we have their movies. There are at least 30 movies out with regard to aliens and time travel, and everything that goes with it. NASA and the U.S. government is pouring billions of dollars into space exploration, and the single, the first goal is to prove that there's life out there, that we're not alone, and if they can so-called prove that scientifically, then they can come back and say, the Bible, as we have told you, and as we're being told already, the Bible is not true. So you can keep your eye on the aliens. When I was reading about that, you remember the Pope? I think it was 2017, somewhere along in there, that the Pope made the statement that if an alien came and asked to be baptized, he would baptize him. Then the article continues with regard to baptizing an alien, in which it says, yes, we would baptize an alien because all beings have a soul.

And of course, no being has a soul. You are a soul, or you are nothing. You're just plain old matter. So all religions from Protestantism to Eastern mysticism do not believe that the soul ever dies. Most religions teach that man can solve the result of sin from physical effort.

The educational institutions of the Western world have embraced humanism and evolution. It is absolutely taught as fact from preschool all the way through the halls of higher education and all the great so-called higher learning institutions of the world. The Jews misunderstood the teaching of Scripture, especially the teachings of Jesus and Paul, about how a person is justified.

I don't know if they misunderstood it or they just deliberately decided they were not going to go along with it because time after time when Jesus' face describes the Pharisees and the showdowns that he had with them, that they understood the law of Moses and all of that, but they would not give up their position. Even though they were looking for a Messiah, and Jesus seemed to meet all of the qualifications of the Messiah because they would then have to give up their leadership position and be reduced to something much less than the mighty of the land, it seems like they made a deliberate choice.

We're not going to honor this person, this Jesus, who claims to be the Messiah. So, Judaism fell into the trap of thinking that a person could be justified through a process of works consisting of confession of sin, offering animal sacrifices, and being circumcised in the flesh. And, of course, of all the works of the law that are highlighted in the book of Galatians and many other places that the Jews honored, it dates all the way back to Abraham, that in order to be a part of the covenant people, that you had to be circumcised.

Galatians, apparently, was written after the decision was made in Acts 15 at the Great Acts Conference in which Paul and Barnabas spoke there along with the Apostle Peter, showing that the door had been opened for the Gentiles to receive the Gospel, that some of the Jews continued to cling to this notion of having to be circumcised. But Paul, look at Galatians 2 and 1, then 14 years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also, I went up by revelation.

In other words, God had revealed to him, you need to go to Jerusalem and check things out and make sure that you're not running in vain, and committed unto them that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. In other words, I told the leaders there in Jerusalem what I was preaching, but privately to them which were of reputation lest by any means I should run or had run in vain. But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, and of course the Greeks were not circumcised, and Titus was not compelled to be circumcised. And of course, circumcision was one of the great hallmarks from Abraham all the way through the time of Jesus Christ of whether or not you could be justified.

And finally, they reached that showdown in the Acts 15 conference, and it was decided that circumcision was not necessary. The Apostle Paul summarizes the fact that the Jews rejected the Gospel in Romans 10, and we'll start in verse 5. Romans 10 and verse 5, Paul shows how the Jews rejected the Gospel in Romans 10.5, for Moses described the righteousness which is of the law.

They had a system that we'll talk about with regard to sacrifices and offerings that they had to give if they had committed a sin so that they could remain ceremonially clean and in fellowship with the congregation. That the man which does these things shall live by them, but the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, say not in your heart, who shall ascend to heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from there?

Who shall ascend unto the deep, that is, to bring Christ up again? From the dead. Now we go back to verse 2, where I bear them record, that is, the Jews, that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge, not according to knowledge. Yet they have developed various amnosis systems, the Kabbalah being one, for example, in which you go through certain orders to get back to God.

For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end. A lot of Protestants like to read this as the end of the law, but this word end here is the Greek word telos, T-E-L-O-S, which means the outcome or the result of. For Christ is the outcome of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes, and I've read the other scriptures there below it with regard to it.

Even though there are thousands who accepted Jesus as a Messiah, you remember on the day of Pentecost, three thousand souls were added. Later there's a place where five thousand were added that day, and a lot of the leadership did accept the Messiah, but as a nation they did not.

The religious leaders did not accept him. The nation as a whole rejected him and consented to him being crucified. His pilot said, whom shall I release unto you but Rabbas, who was a robber or this man who claims to be the king of the Jews, and they all cried out, but Rabbas, but Rabbas, release unto us, but Rabbas. The following passages illustrate the problem of Judaizing in Galatians. So if you notice Galatians 2.16. Now this little said, a few passages of scripture here are so very important because it shows that not only does one have to believe in Jesus Christ, but one has to obey.

Galatians 2 and verse 16.

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, even if you perfectly obey the Ten Commandments, it still would not give life.

It says in Romans that the law was ordained for life, to sustain life, but the law does not give life. Life only comes in the eternal sense from the essence of God, the Holy Spirit. But by the faith in Jesus Christ, O King James says, faith of Jesus Christ, faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Now some might want to stop there and say, oh, okay, you don't have to keep the commandments.

And a lot of people, and I know a lot of people, who say, oh, we believe in God, and we pray to God all the time, but we don't believe that you have to do all those things. Well, doing all of those things is simple obedience to the commandments of God, doing all those things.

But if we seek to be justified by Christ, and we ourselves are found sinners, see, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin, God forbid.

For I build again the things which I destroyed. I make myself a transgressor.

So you may see Christ the minister of sin if you continue in sin and say, oh, I believed in Christ, but I'm continuing in my sin. And that basically is the message of the Protestant world today, trying to gain converts in any way that you can, get people on the roll. Maybe the given offering is to say that, okay, I believe in God, I believe in Jesus Christ. There's so much more to it. So man is not justified just by keeping the law.

What purpose does the law serve? The law was given to us to bring us to Christ. And more about that a little bit later. It is the law that is added or the law alongside.

In Galatians chapter 3 and verse 11, Galatians 3, 11, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident for the judge shall live by faith. Paul presents just about every conceivable argument that you can think of to squash the notion that one can be justified by law keeping. The law keeping is necessary to remain justified because you can't be justified apart from repentance. So these passages show that no one can be justified through any works of the law. Furthermore, even perfect adherence, perfect obedience to the spiritual law will not pay the penalty for past sins. The wages of sin is death. All have sinned. Secondly, they clearly reveal that a person can only be justified by faith. And faith, you know, James writes, show me your faith without your works and I'll show you my faith by my works or by my obedience. Faith without works or obedience is dead. I think that most people forget the gravity of sin. The gravity of sin is, the wages of sin is death. It's very clear from Genesis to Revelation, God told Adam and Eve in the day that you eat at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely begin to die. Commentators tend to jump to the conclusion that since a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law, but the whole law of God, including the Ten Commandments, is a form of bondage. Actually, it is the perfect law of liberty, as James talks about in James chapter 1.

It is very important to note that in Galatians 2.16, that there is no definite article in the phrases, a man is not justified by, it says, the works of the law, these and italics, by works of the law, regardless of which law it is. By the works of law shall no flesh be justified. It doesn't matter what law it is. You can't be justified by works of the law, whether spiritual law or physical law. That will pay for sins that are passed. The point is significant because later in this epistle, Paul makes it clear that some in Galatia were turning to the weak and beggarly elements. Do you know what the weak and beggarly elements are that Paul talks about in Galatians 4?

We shall see.

So Paul argues that regardless of whose law it is, a person can't be justified through lawkeeping. After Paul makes it clear that you can only be justified by faith, he realizes that some would immediately conclude that mere profession in Christ was all that was necessary. And so we have read that if you remain in your sins after you're justified, you make Christ the minister of sin, and that will not work. Christ did not sin. So most Protestants embrace the only believed doctrine and embrace once saved, always saved. They embrace only believed, and once saved, always saved.

I would bring this up to my family way back when I was coming into the church way back in the early 60s. And they would say, well, they never understood to begin with. That was their compound.

If they'd really understood to begin with, they wouldn't have done it.

So it's clear that Paul in no way indicates that the spiritual law of God is abolished. The law still has dominion over a person if they continue in sin. And Christ came to save us out of our sins, not in our sins. Some people can't get that through their head.

The question of the law added in Galatians 3.15 has caused a lot of discussion among some, even some, in the church. The law added was not the spiritual law, because the spiritual law was in place from creation. Now let's look at Galatians 3 a little later here. We're going to read into this from Galatians 3.14 to this law added, because it says the backdrop, and there's some comments that need to be made with regard to this, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. Now what are the blessings of Abraham? It's Genesis 12.34, where that through the seed of Abraham all nations might be blessed. Now what seed of Abraham is it through whom all nations will be blessed? It is through Christ. It is through that one seed. The last sermon I gave here was the seed of the woman and the seed of God. And today they're trying to do away with the seed of the woman and make everybody into unisex or something like that. The things that are going on with regard to this change in gender is absolutely unbelievable. I saw something on television yesterday in which Vanderbilt University there in Nashville, Vanderbilt is known for being a great medical center, and they're doing a lot of these changing men, their chest, into female. And the person doing this said that we are given large sons of money for this $40,000 for the hospital, and the schools are advocating this, and on and on it goes in some of the states, not in Texas. I mean, it's absolutely amazing that probably Texas is the best place to live in the overall sense of any place on earth at present. You got to live somewhere, so. And everybody got to be somewhere. That the blessings of Abraham might come on the nations through Jesus Christ. Those promises that in your seed shall all nations be blessed, we'll see this clearly from Scripture, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brother and I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet it be, yet if it be confirmed, no man dissenals or adds thereto. In other words, the promises to Abraham stands, and that which is added to you doesn't change those promises. The promises which apparently the Jews didn't understand, and a lot of people don't understand today, and even some in the church, they tend to emphasize race more than grace, that the promises to the nations are fulfilled through Christ, as it says here. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said, not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, and to your 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 disannul. In other words, the codified law, the offerings and the sacrifices that were added alongside, does not disannul the promises that were made to Abraham through Christ. That it should make the promise of non-effect. That promise is still in effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more a promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore, then seeing the law, it was added, so what purpose then serves the law, it was added because of transgression. What law? It was the law of Moses, the sacrificial system of sacrifices and offerings.

Till, how long did it last? How long did that last? Till the seed come, to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

Then he summarizes this with regard to what purpose it served. Verse 24, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. There's no other way. Now, let's look at this thing of the law being added. First of all, we'll look at Jeremiah 7 and verse 22. Then we'll go back even farther than that to Genesis 2, but in Jeremiah 7 and verse 22, we'll see that when Israel came out of Egypt, when they were let out of Egypt, God did not speak to them concerning sacrifices and offerings. That was added. Why? Because of their transgressions. In order to keep them halfway civil and in a ceremonially clean position, he instituted the Old Covenant, which was based on the spiritual law and the offerings and sacrifices.

Now we look at Jeremiah 7 and verse 22. For I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. Those were added alongside because of their disobedience, as it says in Galatians 3, which we skipped over. Now we go to Genesis 2 and verse 2. How old is the spiritual law? Well, this began to be observed at the creation. Now you look back in eternity and you say, well, before God created anything, was the spiritual law in effect? Well, I think it was in that God and Christ, even before they created the physical universe and human beings, the angelic realm. They created the angelic realm before the human beings because the angels shouted for joy when they saw the creation, and so on.

In Genesis 2, thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work, which he had created and made. So God began to observe himself a seven-day cycle at that point. Maybe it's already, I don't know, we don't know with regard to whether or not it was observed before that time or not. Then you look at the days of Abraham in Genesis 26 and verse 5. In Genesis 26 verse 5, why did Abraham receive the blessings? We'll see it here. Genesis 26, 5.

In Genesis 26, 5, because that Abraham obeyed my voice, kept my charge, my commandments, my statues, and my laws.

Look at verse 4, and I will make your seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, promising this to Isaac. And I will give unto your seed all these countries, and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. The seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are the sons of Isaac, as it says in Galatians 4. Why are we the sons of Isaac? Because we are of faith. So here we see the spiritual law was already in effect. So what law was added? Now we go back to Galatians chapter 3. We need to skip jump there. In Galatians 3, 21, I got so many markings. This is the Bible I used when I came to ambassador in 1969. My mother gave to me way back before then. I had to rebound. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For there had been a law given which could have given life.

No law can be given which gives life. Verily righteousness lost my place, sorry. Very righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture had concluded all under sin that the promises by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. That before faith came we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. And then we read 24 that the schoolmaster would bring us to Christ. Verse 25, but after that faith comes no longer under a schoolmaster, for you're all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. So the law added was the system of sacrifices. People want to ask, well, what was it done away with? Well, even that is clearly addressed by the Apostle Paul in Hebrews chapter 9, which in essence we've just covered more in a generic sense, but this is more in a specific sense. In Hebrews chapter 9, verse 8, the Holy Spirit thus signifying the way into the Holy Subullant was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet standing. Now on the day of atonement in the physical sense under the Old Covenant, the high priest went into the Holy of Holies once a year on the day of atonement, made atonement for himself, the people, the tabernacle, and so on. But we're talking about now entrance into the holiest of all, where you can live in the Holy of Holies. That's what has been done through faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit thus signifying that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then present, and which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make them that did the sacrifice or the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, the knowing within. Many times you've heard me say that through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God you can have a new knowing within.

You know right from wrong. You don't have to guess. Which stood only in meats and drinks and different washings, carnal ordinances imposed unto them, unto them, until the time of restitution. That's what was done away with it. But Christ being come a high priest, the good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands. That is to say, not of this building.

There's another problem that Paul confronts in Galatians. Now we go to Galatians chapter 4.

And we'll read three or four verses here and then we'll talk about them.

Galatians 4 verse 1, Now I say this, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the fathers. So we were under tutors and governors as long as the Mosaic law was in effect until Christ came. Even so, when we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world. Now we'll talk about this word, elements of the world. The Greek word there is stoikia. stoikia. S-T-O-I-C-H-I-A stoikia. stoikia. I think I said K. It's S-T-O-I-C-H-I-A.

That's the singular. Then the plural is, and basically the same word, is S-T-O-I-C-H-I-O-M.

stoikia. Now these words are important. You say, oh, Greek, I don't know what you're doing. I mean, it's very important to the understanding of what we're about to talk about.

The elements of this world.

So let's read this again, Galatians 4. Even so, we were children even in bondage under the elements of the world.

But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law. Jesus Christ perfectly kept the law, showing that the spiritual law could be kept while living in the flesh. To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the sonship, wisio thea, not adoption, we are sons. We are the same. We receive the very essence of God, just like you receive the very seed of your father and your mother with the sperm in it and all of them. And because we are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, you are no more a servant but a son, if a son than an heir of God through Christ. How be it that when you knew not God, you did service unto them that which were by nature no gods, no gods. You did service to them which were no gods.

But after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, you have turned to the weak and beggarly elements. Would God, would Paul ever call the law of God weak and beggarly elements?

Well, no, because in Romans 7 he says that the law is holy, spiritual. So, whereunto you desire to be in bondage. You observe days and months and times and years.

So let's explain what's going on here.

The bondage that Paul refers to associated, is it associated with the law of God, or is it associated with something else? The bondage that he says is associated with the law of God, either spiritual law or law of offerings, or not.

If one insists that the only problem in Galatia centered on the heresies of the Judaizers, he would be forced to conclude that Paul calls the law of God weak and beggarly. So Paul writes, as we have read, how to turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements.

The mode of worship in Galatia harkened back to their pagan practices before they were converted. They were pagans. Of course, there were some Jews that had moved there.

Howbeit then, when you knew not God, you did service to them, which are by nature no gods.

So what were those gods? We shall see. But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire again to be in bondage. Before their conversion to the true gospel, the Galatians were steeped in paganism. Some of them not only were Judaizing, but they were returning to these former practices. These practices were a part of the mystery Babylonian religions, and a brief review of the origin of these practices was set the stage for explaining why Paul wrote what he wrote concerning their return to the weak and beggarly elements. What is the origin of the elements that the Galatians were returning to? Let's go to Genesis chapter 10, where we read of old Nimrod doing his thing.

In Genesis 10, Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah. In Genesis chapter 10, Cush begat Nimrod, he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter, and really this should read, he placed himself before God. In fact, he claimed to be God.

Wherefore, it is said, even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter, before the Lord. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Akkad and Kalna in the land of Shaiar.

And of that land, he went forth Asher and built Nineveh, and the city Rehobooth and Kalna.

So, Nimrod organized a combination of religion and politics by which he took control of much of the old world. Nimrod organized a combination of religion and policies. He claimed that he was the promised seed of woman. Remember Genesis 15 before Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, God promised that he would, through the seed of the woman, raise up a savor that would bruise. He didn't use the word savor, that one that would bruise Satan's head. Nimrod was called the roistra in the Babylonian language, the Chaldea, and this means the seed of the woman.

The roistra in Islam was a very powerful religious force in the ancient world, especially in Persia for years and years. Nimrod's doctrines and rituals of worship became known as the religion of Babylon, or biblically mystery Babylon. From China or Babylon, Nimrod's religion spread into Egypt, India, China, and into Tibet. Nimrod and all his priests taught a false interpretation of the religious history of Adam and Eve and of the nature of man. Since the entire educational system in the ancient world was pagan, there was no, in today's world, basically the educational system is pagan, but there are Christian colleges and schools and parents and families and so on that stand somewhat in the gap of the whole pagan educational system. But Nimrod had to run the whole planet, as it were, with regard to his religious influence.

Centuries later, the Jesuit missionaries that went out from the Catholic Church were amazed to find the mother-child figures, they call it the Madonna, where the baby Jesus is in the arms of Mother Mary. They found the mother-child figures when they arrived in India, in China, and Tibet. Nimrod and all his priests taught a false interpretation of the religious history of Adam and Eve because they had control of the system.

As you recall, a few people knew the true God before the flood and after.

It speaks of Noah, I mean, well, first before Noah Enoch, walked with God for 300 years, and then Noah was on the scene for a long time building the ark.

And even though Noah's wife and three sons and three wives went with him, eight people were saved Noah's flood, it might be that only Noah was converted of those eight.

So very few people knew the true God before the flood and after.

And the work of God really began with Abraham when he called him out to work through his seed, and that's Genesis 11 and 12 we've already touched on. Babylon was controlled by Nimrod's priesthood. The educated class of people were soon well indoctrinated into the misinterpretation of the first three chapters of Genesis. Nimrod combined monotheism and animism. Animism is that nature is inhabited by different spirits, but altogether it produced pantheism. And pantheism is simply this. God is all and all is God. There's nothing that doesn't have God in it. From the lectern to you, Oprah, Winfrey, and all the New Agers, and some of the so-called Protestant evangelists teach that you are little gods now because of that expression that Jesus used where it says, know you not that the scriptures say ye are gods. Well, not yet.

Some may become. That's our destiny if we know the true gospel and obey it.

So Nimrod taught a form of pantheism, and God was said to be nature itself. So God is nature, and nature is God. They're one and the same because everything has God in it.

And it was said that the nature was composed of four elements, the earth, the brought forth life, the water which moistens the earth, the air either or spirit that gives life and of life, the fire of sun which gives light and heat. So earth, water, air, fire, these four were said to make up nature or to make up God. The creation itself was worshiped as a universal soul, and there's a trend back toward that today. It's called the worship of Mother Gaia, the worship of the earth. The apostle Paul addressed this in Romans chapter 1, verse 25.

I'll read that, Romans 1, 25. In Romans 1, 25, Paul addresses what they had done, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creation more than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. The old King James says the creature, but it's the creation. They worship nature. Nature was God and God was nature. The creation itself was worshiped.

As was previously stated, God consisted of these four elements, earth, water, air, and fire. To each of these natural elements was assigned an invisible spirit or nature spirit that was inhabited by gnomes, dwarfs, and elves. Each one was assigned a specific responsibility in guarding earth's treasures. Water was inhabited by invisible beings called undides. Air was inhabited by imaginary things called sifs. That's why L-P-H-S. Fire was inhabited by imaginary mythological reptiles. You'll see even today the dragon has white fire coming out of his mouth. We're able to live in fire. Each class of nature spirit was said to be composed of one of four elements, and at death they simply disintegrated into that particular element. They were also said to have personalities corresponding to the four fixed astrological signs. So we have people, I'm sure even some in the church, who consult their horoscopes to see what their sign is for today. The four signs of the astrological chart of Taurus, Scorpio, Aquarius, and Leo. The elementals were thought to live from three to four, from 300 to a thousand years. Thus to the Babylonians, God was nature as a whole, consisting of numerous gods called elementals. And on Mount Olympus, of course, this reached probably as pinnacle with the Greeks, who had a god for everything. So the understanding of elementals is very important to the understanding of the elements.

The stoic keyon in Galatians 3 and also 2 Peter 3 of what is burned up.

You know, Ecclesiastes 1.4 says, you know what it says? The earth abides forever.

And some have discussed, well, is the earth going to be burned up? Is the universe going to be burned up? I would ask you, what about the New Jerusalem when it comes down? Is it just spirit, or is it literally exist? I submit that it literally exists. Streets of gold and all that. So we have spiritual streets of gold. I doubt it. That's another subject.

The elementals were thought to become visible to those who took certain drugs.

And drugs is one of the main things that has been used in conjunction with various religious teachings to deceive the masses. And we look at Revelation 18 and verse 23, and we'll see that Babylon, the mystery Babylon, the great, even at the end of the age, and Revelation 18 describes the destruction of mystery Babylon, the great. But in Revelation 18 and verse 23, and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in you, and the voice of the bridegroom, and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in you. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorceries. And the word in Greek is pharma kia, which is drugs, by your sorceries. And pharma kia doesn't just include the actual drug, it's the whole teaching of the occult behind it. By your sorceries were all nations deceived.

There is a great deception that is going to come upon the earth at the end of this age. So the priests were called sorcerers or pharma kia. Now this is a quote from Savitari in the Occult Sciences. It's a book titled The Occult Sciences. He states, these unctions were exceedingly frequent in the ancient ceremonies before consulting the Oracle of Trophonius. Now Trophonius is another name for Zeus, and in doing a little research on this, I find out that there was more than one Zeus. But Zeus supposedly was the chief god up on Mount Olympus. They were rubbed with oil all over the body, and this preparation certainly concurred to produce the desired vision. Hislep writes, and used to in the church back in the 60s especially, people were very big on Hislep's works. But Hislep's works fell into just favor. The Greek scholar that we had in Pasadena greatly criticized Hislep in his works.

Here's what Hislep writes, they were also anointed with magical ointments of the most powerful kind, and these ointments were the means of introducing into their bodily system such drugs as tended to excite their imaginations and add to the powers of the magical drinks they received, that they might be prepared for the visions and revelation that were about to be made to them in the mysteries. That is Hislep's The Two Babylons, page 166. As I said, it used to be a very popular book in the 60s and into the 70s in the church, and then it was like, didn't exist.

The belief in the elementals was enhanced by the hallucinations brought about by the use of intoxicating drinks. The drug priest or initiate had all sorts of visions and hallucinations, but believed he was seeing normally invisible creatures, the elementals, the invisible elements, and in today's world what are they labeled? Fairies, elves, gnomes, and the like has pervaded children's literature to the present day. In fact, Disney, the Disney company has made a fortune off of imaginary characters.

And now the next great wave will be the aliens, as we mentioned from outer space, but that's for another time. With this background, we now have a framework for the reference as to why Paul so forcefully warned the Galatians not to return to their former practices.

Commentators have long wrestled over the meaning of the Greek word stoichiia that has translated elements in Galatians 4, 3, 8, 9.

The meaning of the word seems clear enough. Most all commentators agree that it means elements out of which things are formed, the heavenly bodies, the fundamental principles of any art or science. Now let's note the notes from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance.

I'll just read the one that he gives, 4 or 5. The principles and practices of the Old Covenant world order. He defines the elements as the principles and practices of the Old Covenant.

See, under the Old Covenant, they offered the offerings and sacrifices under the Old Covenant.

But is that what it's really talking about? Even the definition of the word in Strong's include as a part of it the law of God.

The difficulty arises when exegetes, those who are trying to explain an attempt to equate stoichiia with the law of God. Paul warns that Galatians not to return to the weak and beggarly elements that held them in bondage before they knew not the gospel. How be it then, when you knew not God, you did service unto them which by nature were no gods.

So in bringing this to a conclusion today, let's look once again at Galatians 4 verses 8, 9, 10, and 11. Galatians 4, 8, 9, 10, and 11. Now the question is, what are the weak and beggarly elements? What I am submitting to you is the weak and beggarly elements are those who were not gods before they were converted. If you say they were part of the law of God, then you are saying that the law of God is done away with. Now one might argue that it's just talking about the offerings and sacrifices, but it does not say that.

It does not say that. And we have had those even in the church who have argued that when Galatians talks about the law, it is talking about the whole law. That cannot be true as we have explained in Galatians 3, that that which was added was set alongside was the sacrificial system which stood in, as we read from Hebrews 9, 10, and 11, oblations, sacrifices, offerings until Christ came on the scene. So Galatians 4 and verse 8, Howbeit then, when you knew not God, you did service unto them, which by nature are no gods.

You did service to them. I mean, they thought their destiny was tied up with the heavenly bodies, just like some people today and some even cultures today think that their destiny is tied up with the heavenly bodies. Your destiny is not tied up with the heavenly bodies. But now, after you have known God, see the true God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements. And the elements we have explained explain the stoichiya. The stoichiya were those four elements, the earth, and the water, the air, and the fire. Then it says, you observe days and months and times and years.

You see, there were holidays that were associated with the various gods, and they observed those times. It is not talking about God's annual holy days. It is talking about these days that were held in honor of the pagan gods. So, brethren, I hope you get a greater understanding of what this book is all about. No wonder that Paul writes in verse 11, I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.

There's hopefully the Galatians repented, and we look forward to seeing them in the Kingdom of God along with all of you.