Galatians, Part 1

Galatia was a Roman province, and it covered a number of areas where today is Turkey. Now, if you have a map at the back of the Bible, I happen to have a map at the back of the Bible that says Paul's first and second journeys, but if you have a map at the back of the Bible, you can see Turkey there and Jerusalem. In the first trip, Paul went from Antioch, that's Antioch of Syria, that was kind of his home base, Antioch of Syria, that's in the northern part of Syria, and then he went into southern Turkey and then back. So that was his first trip, basically, into southern Turkey and back. That area in southern Turkey is called Galatia. It's the area of the relations, or a Datharnian's called that. In his second trip, after the Jerusalem Conference, then he went back through Galatia, delivering the letter, which we'll go through in a moment, but delivering the letter that they had decided in Acts 15 Conference, and then he went into Greece. The northern part used to be called Macedonia, and the southern part of it is still called Greece, so he went there.

And then, after that, he came back into Turkey, into Ephesus, into that area bordering the Galatian region, and from there he heard news that the problem that had cropped up there, from which he developed a Jerusalem Conference, from which he went there on his trip at the beginning of the trip and dropped the letter and explained, that probably wasn't quite resolved. So they wanted him to go back in there, but he said, no, I want to go down to Jerusalem to keep the feast, and therefore he did not have time because he wanted to keep the feast in Jerusalem, and therefore he wrote him a letter, which is what we have Galatians. And then he went down, and then he went back, after keeping the feast back to, let's call it, his home base, which is Antioch of Syria. So that's when we believe, when he probably wrote Galatians, that is at the end of his second journey, and there was about 52 AD. So Christ died about 31 AD, so that was about 21 years after Christ's death. Paul did, we do know it was definitely after the second trip, by reading Galatians 4.13. If you turn with me, just trying to give you a little bit of background about Galatians and when it was written, if you read Galatians 4.13, 4.13 says this way, I'll be important, says, you know that because of physical infirmity, I preached the gospel to you at the first, at the first trip. So if there was at the first, there must have been a second as well, otherwise you would have been, when I went to see you, not at the first. So it was written after at least the second trip. So that's when we believe it was written. And now, why was it written? Why did we write this letter? What was the problem? Because I mentioned there was a problem, they wanted him to go back to address the problem, and they said, no, no, I want to go to Jerusalem, to the feast. So what was the problem? Now, what is the problem that happens in churches of God, particularly in our growing? Because remember, Christ had died two decades, and the church had just been growing. So it was kind of growing by leaks and bounds. And you think about a church that's growing in a multitude that was only a few people, and twenty years later they had a number of thousands of people, and all over the place. What happened? We had ministers that would go there, and then ministers would leave the people and go elsewhere. So the people would be by themselves, they would appoint some local people, but they couldn't go and visit there frequently. So imagine, then we'd have that situation today. A lot of churches coming up, and ministers go there, start up something, and then they walk away, because you've got to go out elsewhere. So what do you think would happen? The problem would happen today. Well, the problem would happen is that people coming to the church, they bring a lot of ideas of what they have learned before. And those ideas, they learn some new things, but those ideas are still kind of with them. And therefore, those ideas kind of resurface and cause problems. That's basically what it was. So what were the type of problems they had in that society?

Well, they had basically two groups of people. You think about it, they had two generically speaking groups of people. One was Jews, and the other was Gentiles. Very simple, you know? Two groups of people. The Jews, what would have been their issue? Well, the Jews with the baggage that, quote unquote, they came, particularly pterocycles and things like that, they really were very concerned about pterocycle ideas.

Judaism taught ideas. Ideas from where Paul came and he left that. Christ often criticized some of the pterocycle ideas. But some of them were not just pterocycle ideas, some of them were laws that God had instructed the Jews to do, like circumcision, like ceremonial laws, sacrifices, they had to do certain sacrifices and things like that.

And so they had these concerns, the Jews are now... they were reaching Gentiles, and these Gentiles had not been circumcised. They would not go to Jerusalem once a year or whatever it is to do the offerings and whatever. They were not doing that. And these pterosites had a problem with that. And it was resurfacing, they said, guys, you guys got to do this. You can't just be... So it was the Jewish people with all the beliefs that when they came into church they still had these things and saying, hey, you need to offer sacrifices, you need to be circumcised, you need to do these things. Because in the end, they were commanded by God and aware.

So this was one of the problems, particularly at the beginning. Later on in the latter years was that a lot of the Gentiles came into the church. And as a lot of the Gentiles came into the church, they brought in with them the pagan Gentile ideas that they had.

Animal sacrifices that were even animals that shouldn't be sacrificed. Things to do with blood, sexual immorality in pagan top temple, top things that they did. If you do a bit of studying, you find out that in those days they did a lot of...

Even they had priestesses that were basically temple prostitutes that there was to call them, and things like that. And so those were problems that some of those people had come from the world, they were bringing it back into the church. So initially, during the earlier years of the church, the bulk of the problem was the Jewish problem.

In the latter years, when you see in Latin epistles, that Paul writes, you can see the Gentile problem being addressed in greater emphasis during these other epistles. Although a little bit of it is addressed also in the relations that I showed you. So back to the question asked, what was the problem that the church was having? The church was having problems that new people were coming into the church, they were new to the truth, and some of the people that came from other societies were bringing up, no, no, no, but we must still do these things that are still valid.

And that was a problem. And therefore, this became a big problem in the area of the nation, particularly the Jewish problem. Now, we're going to explain that to you in a little bit more detail. Putting it in in a slightly different way. Paul was saying to them, you are justified freely by the blood of Christ, by the sacrifice of Christ, by His death. In other words, you are made right with God by Christ's death. And circumcision is not going to make you right with God. Offering bulls and goats and sheep are not going to make you right with God.

They're not going to forgive yourselves. Yes, they point to Christ, but the end of that law, the end of the law, you know, the finality, the goal of that law of sacrifices was to point to Christ. The purpose of that law of sacrifices was to say the real sacrifice, the real Lamb, is the Lamb of God, which is Jesus Christ. And so, he was saying to the people, look to Christ, not to those sacrifices. And therefore, you as Gentiles do not have the covenant that Israelites have, that you have to do those things.

So, you Gentiles don't need to be circumcised. Yes, Israelites had to. That was part of the covenant. So, he's not saying Israelites don't need to do it, but you're saying with Gentiles, you don't need to do it. So, you are saying, look, you are justified freely by Christ, by Christ's death, by His blood, His faithful, Your sins, not by the works of the city of Mormon law, not by the works of the law.

In other words, not by killing a goat, or a lamb, or a bull, or whatever it is, or circumcision. Those works will not forgive yourselves. That's really what you're saying. That's the reason of why they had the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15. In Acts 15, the conference was conducted for that reason, because people were coming along and saying, you have to be circumcised. You have to keep this law, ceremonial law of Moses.

Let's look at that in Acts 15, just to verify that that was the case. Acts 15, we'll start in verse 1, and it says, And certain men came down from Judea and thought to brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses. It was unless you circumcised and do the custom of Moses, follow those laws that Moses gave, those ceremonial laws, you cannot be saved.

And it was that the requirement to be saved, so to be justified and ultimately to be saved. And therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, I mean, it became a real issue. It says, there in the church, they were having a real first-class argument going about this whole thing. It really became an issue. And they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other men should go to Jerusalem. You know, it was to, let's call it headquarters, to the home office, and where the elders are, and to the apostles and the elders about this question.

And so they went and they told, they went through the phrenaires and told what God was doing through converting the Gentiles, as you can read it in verse 3, and brethren were just joyous to hear our God was bringing Gentiles to the faith. And so they came in and looking verse 5. But some of the sick, of the Pharisees, you see, so it was, those people, they were very strong in those Pharicycle approaches and exactly this way and whatever, they were very strict on those things.

Who believed? In other words, they were true Christians. They believed. They believed in Christ. They believed in Christ. But Christ was not enough. You still needed the sacrifice. You still needed the circumcision. Rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them. That's the Gentiles. Them. Not the Jews. They already circumcise them. The Gentiles. And command them, that's the Gentiles, to keep the law of Moses. Which law? The ceremonial law. It's not saying we've got to tell them that they must not lie.

It's not saying we've got to tell them that they mustn't kill. Of course, it's not the Ten Commandments. It's actually the ceremonial law. It's the law of sacrifices. And so they came together and then they had a meeting and then a conclusion and they came to a conclusion. And then they wrote a letter, which you can read in verse 23, which is what Paul then went to Galatians at the beginning of his second trip with that letter. And it is in verse 23. And they wrote this letter by them, saying, the apostles, the elders, and the brethren. All the people were in court.

To the brethren who are of the Gentiles. It's to the brethren which are Gentiles. Not to the Jews. To the Gentiles. In Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Whatever the Gentiles are in Galatians and other areas. Greetings. Since we have heard that some went out from among us, since we heard, there were some people that left the headquarters church in Jerusalem that went from us. Have troubled you with words, saying, unsettling souls, saying that you must be circumcised and keep the law. You know, we're saying that you have to be circumcised and keep the ceremonial law.

To whom we gave no such command? We never gave them that instruction. We never told them to do that. It seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, we all immigrated, to send chosen men to you. So, we sent some witnesses, some men in the church that are of good repute, with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. Men who have risked their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have, therefore, sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. In other words, there will be witnesses, not only this letter, but they'll go with Paul and Barnabas, so you went there for the second trip. And they'll say, yeah, that's what happened, and there's witnesses.

And things offered to idols. And in their ceremonies, pagan ceremonies, they had things drinking blood. They had things strangled, and from sexual immorality, that is, the temple prostitutes and things like that, they were doing. If you keep yourselves from these, you'll do well. It was get away from paganism, and don't worry, you do not need to be circumcised.

You do not need to keep the ceremonial law, because those things point to Christ. And Christ is the end, or the purpose, of that law. That law is just a pointer for Christ. So that explains the problem that existed in that area.

Why Paul had to go to have the Jerusalem Conference. Why he went back from the second trip. As he came back after coming through Greece, the problem hadn't settled down. And some people came, they come, we need you, because the thing hasn't simmered down yet. There's still problems. And he said, I can't go, I want to go to the feasting Jerusalem. But Yazzaletta. And so he wrote the relations. So that's just bringing you in context to explain to you the epistle of relations. So the basic thing about relations is justification. Now, here's a little bit of homework for you. Write down a simple sentence when you go home of what you think is justification. What is justification? Well, I'm going to tell you what it is, but we're going home. Do it again, because it helps to actually go through these things and do it more than once to understand. Because the world, quite often when they read justification, think it means saved. And yet a lot of people, where it says, well, justification, and they kind of, and they talk about, well, they thought you saved. And it's two different things. Justification is part of the process for salvation, but it's not the final end of the road of salvation. It's not immortality. It's justification. So what is justification? Let me give you an example. So for instance, a couple, a husband and wife, have a big argument. They have a big argument. And they have an argument, and they don't talk to one another. In other words, one is not right with the other, right? They're just not at peace with one another. They're not right. Then somehow they reconcile and make peace, and they're right with one another. They're justified with one another. They're just with one another.

So when we sin, you can read in Isaiah 59, I think it is, your sins separate you from God. God, the Father, has nothing to do with sin. That's it. So there's a barrier between us and God. We're not right before God. We're not at peace. We're not reconciled with God because of our sins. That barrier is taken away. It's paid for, is removed by the sacrifice of Christ. He is paid for that barrier, and therefore we are made just before God by the sacrifice of Christ. That's what justification is. He's being made right with God.

So how does Christ do that? He did that by removing our sins.

So when is it that your sins are removed? Say, people are in a row, they're not Christians, but they pray, and their sins are removed because Christ died? Well, now, when are the sins removed? You're going to have to answer now, but think about it. When is it that the sins are removed? Now, of course, Christ is removed then, but when is it removed between John and God, or between Peter and God, and between Smith and God? When is it? When is that sacrifice of Christ applied?

That's baptism. It's a baptism. You repent, you acknowledge repentance, and you acknowledge, and you make a commitment to God. And that commitment upon baptism, that's why baptism is required, then you're washed. The sacrifice is applied. That's when it is applied. That's why you have to be baptized. Because if you're not baptized, the sacrifice is not forgiven. So, that's when. So, let's get back to, in summary, what is the epistle to the Galatians about?

The epistle to the Galatians about what it's about is justification. Being made right with God. Very important to understand what it is. How? By Jesus Christ's sacrifice. Not because we have a portion of our flesh cut off, if you're mine. So, that's not how it is. That is symbolic of changing the hearts. It's the circumcision of the heart. That's symbolic. But all these things are symbolic. So, the theme of Galatians is justification. These are other themes. Righteousness. Living the right way before God. Living with justice. True Christian liberty. Versus slavery. It's got other sub-themes or sub-topics. Issues of work and grace. So, it's got a number of different sub-topics. Issues of work and grace. For instance, it talks about, a number of times, about works of being under the law and works of the law. Turn with me to Galatians to see some of those things where he mentions that. Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. So, it's got a lot of other sub-topics. And these sub-topics we will address slowly, carefully, in the future of other studies. So, I'm just giving you an overview of different sub-topics that are covered in the book of Galatians. For instance, chapter 3 verse 5. It says, Therefore, he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by works of the law or by the hearing of faith? And so, people take this out of context and say, works of the law, therefore, we don't have to obey the law. And things like that. They just, because they don't understand the context. So, it is very important for us to understand the book of Galatians, which is critical for Christian living, for us to understand clearly. So, that's the intent of this Bible study of Galatians, which I'll give it in a number of different Bible studies. But it's very important for us to understand this. Luke also in verse 10, For as many as are the works of the law are under a curse. You see, the law is a curse. Immediately, people read that and say, the law is a curse. But they don't understand what Paul's talking about. And therefore, they just take it and say, well... And then they say, and as I said, we'll go through that in more detail. Look at it in verse 17. In verse 17, it says, And this I say, that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot turn out the problem. So, the law was added. And you see, you look at it in verse 19. What purpose does the law serve? It was added. You see, the law was added before... You don't need a law, far away. But you know, they forget to read the rest. It says it was added because of breaking the law. See, from the translations, it's breaking the law. Isn't it? Now, give an example. If I have an intersection up there, in the street, and I have different lights... I don't know what these lights are for. I just go through them and they're just nice lights. I don't know. It's decoration, you know, lights. Decoration is recorded. But now I know there's a law that says red means stop. Green means go. Oh, this is not decoration. This was something. And if I don't know by it, what happens? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Come. There's a little sign. Now, you are under the curse of the law, which is you've broken the law, and the law has given you a curse. You've got to pay $50 or $100 fine. That's the curse of the law, because you've broken it.

Now, you pay, and you're no more under the curse of the law. Therefore, now I can cross every other intersection of the red light. No, no. No, of course not. Of course not. You see, being under the curse of the law is being under the penalty of the law. When you break the law, you have penalty. You pay the fine. You're no longer under the penalty. Who paid the fine for us? Jesus Christ, with his blood. Does it mean now we can go out and kill people? Of course not. The law still applies. You see, but people take this out of context and say, the law was added. But they forget which law was added. Which law was added? The law was added because of translations. Translations is breaking the law. So the law was added because people were breaking the law. So is it the same law? No, it's two laws. So people are breaking the law. Therefore, a law was added. A law was said, green means go, red means stop. That's the thing. Come on, think about it that way. In analogy. The other law says, if you break in the law, you now have to pay $50 fine. That's a different law. That was added and says, the ceremonial law says, you now have to kill a lamb or kill a goat for that. Christ paid that. He's the lamb of God and he's paid for that. So people take things out of context and misunderstand it. Look at another example here in verse 24. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ. You see? So we don't need the law because we now have Christ. But you see, they don't understand. He's talking about the ceremonial law. In the ceremonial law, the ceremonies were teaching us that we need a sacrifice and the ultimate sacrifice is Jesus Christ. And therefore, the law is a tutor, is a mentor, is an instructor pointing to the real sacrifice, which is Christ. Which is easy to take out of context to justify what? Justify that you can break the seven. You see, it's not justify that you can kill because they say, no, of course you can't kill. Or that you cannot, no, of course you can't lie. Or it's that you can't cut it, oh, of course you can't cut it. Or that you can have idols, no, no, you can't have idols. So which law are you talking about? It's the Sabbath. You see, it's all back down to one thing. It's the Sabbath and the Holy Days. That's what it is. And so they twist Scripture because they hate the Sabbath. So that's why the Christian world twists Galatians. Why? Because they don't want to get to Sabbath, and they want to have a justification to get Sabbath. As simple as that. As simple as that. And obviously, God's Holy Days. So they don't keep God's Holy Days, but they keep instead Easter Sunday, which is Easter. They keep instead Christmas and other things. Instead of God's Holy Days. So they distort Galatians, and so they distort others, like Colossians and Romans, to justify them. And that's why Martin Luther said, The book of Galatians is his lover. Why? Because he could use the book of Galatians to justify breaking the Sabbath. As simple as that.

And he called the book of James, and the epistle of straw. Why? Because the book of James says, faith without works is dead. Therefore, that is straw. Because all you need is faith! All you need is to believe! And you go to heaven, type of thing. That's what people say. That's what he wants! All you need is faith!

Well, if all you need is faith, then why Paul says, free remains. Faith, hope, and love. And the greatest is... No, it's not faith. It's love. So why people say that all you need is faith when the greatest is love? And what is God? Is love. And what is the Ten Commandments? Is God's instructions of how to love one another and how to love God? So the greatest is love.

You see, people twist the Scriptures. But that's not the new. Look at 2 Peter, Chapter 3. 2 Peter, Chapter 3. 2 Peter, Chapter 3, verse 14-16. As Peter wrote, just before he died and also just before Paul died, he said, Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be founded by him in peace without spotting by delangeness, and consider that the long-suffering of our Lord, his salvation, has also our beloved brother Paul.

According to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, also in all his epistles, in all Paul's epistles, speaking in them of the things, in the words of Christ, being our salvation, in which are some things hard to understand. And we just went through a few little verses that if you take them out of context, people misunderstand them.

They're hard to be understood. So Paul wrote of things which are hard to understand, and taught, and unstable people twist to their own destruction. They twist the Scriptures. They twist Paul's instructions. What to their own destruction, as they also do the rest of the Bible. So, and so it goes on. So people twist things. Now, I hope it's clear what the Book of Relations is all about. There was a problem, and Paul was trying to resolve that problem regarding justification. That is the people today twist Scriptures to justify their own means.

But we're going to understand the context why Paul wrote Galatians, to really fully understand and clearly the Book. So when we go and study the Book, we need to keep that in mind. Now, at this moment, because we're going to go through Galatians, I want to interject with some basic keys to understand the Bible. Some basic keys to understand the Bible, because we're going to read Galatians, and if we stick to those important keys to understand the Bible, we will not fight.

The first key, because we learn things from the Bible. So the Bible is the Bible, as they say, just the Scripture, just the Bible. The first key is to use direct statements from the Bible. It says, John 17, 17, thy word is true. John 10, 34, 35, stand by the Word of God. You've got to stand by direct, biblical statements. What is this? There is a direct, biblical statement that says, thou shall keep the Sabbath, thy holy Sabbath. It's a direct, biblical statement.

There is no direct, biblical statement that says, thou shalt not keep the Sabbath anymore, but thou shall keep the first day of the week. There's none. There's no direct statement that says that. So stick to direct, biblical statements. So there's direct, biblical statements about God's laws. There's direct, biblical statements about the Sabbath. There's direct, biblical statements about the holy days, and so on. There's many direct, biblical statements.

That is point number one about understanding the Bible. Stick to what it says. Number two, use direct implications of the Bible when maybe there are no direct, biblical statements. What do I mean by that? In an example, simple example. We all talk about the second resurrection. Don't we? We all heard the second resurrection. Show me in a Bible where these two words together, second resurrection, are there. No way. No way in a Bible the word second resurrection appears. But we know there is a second resurrection. Turn with me to Revelation 20 verse 5. Revelation 20 verse 5.

Now it's talking in the eye in the context about there's some thrones that you see. In verse 4, judgment was given to them. Those are the saints. And the rain will cross for a thousand years. That's a millennium. It says these thrones are people that have been resurrected, obviously, before the millennium. So they did. So it says, but the rest of the dead, verse 5, did not live again until a thousand years were finished. These that were resurrected before the millennium, says, yeah, this is the first resurrection. The rest was after the millennium. So if this is the first resurrection, what is that?

Second. But no one in the Bible uses the word second resurrection. But it's a direct implication of the Bible that there is a second resurrection. Do you follow what I mean? So use direct statements from the Bible or direct implications from the Bible. That's it. That is doctrine. Now, in the church, we have a booklet of fundamental beliefs. All our fundamental beliefs are based on those two principles, direct Bible statements and direct implications of the Bible. We call that, in a nice, quote, quote, unquote, user-friendly way. We call it the trunk of the tree.

In other words, direct Bible statements and direct implications of the Bible are the trunk of the tree. So some people say, oh, well, stick to the trunk of the tree. People say, well, what is the trunk of the tree? Well, the trunk of the tree is direct biblical statements and direct implications of the Bible. That is the trunk of the tree. That's it. That's the call.

Okay. Then what is not the trunk of the tree? Well, what is not, it's probable implications of the Bible. Probable. You might think this means that. Oh, I guess. Oh, I feel this means that. Oh, I've got an inkling that this means that. And in fact, I think the place of sight is going to be whatever. Or I think that it's going to be on this side or that side. Or I can assume that it's going to be this or that, you know? But it's not necessary, so.

Now, is it wrong to talk about those things? No. I mean, we all like to talk amongst brethren. Well, it's probably this, could be that, could be that. Great. It's nice. But always keep in mind that is not the trunk of the tree.

Keep in mind, it is not the trunk of the tree. Now, if it's not the trunk of the tree, what is it? It's a twig. So if it's a twig, and you put your pipe on the twig, and put all your white on the twig, what's going to happen? If you ever stand on a big tree, high up in the air, and you hold onto a tiny little twig, and then that twig breaks, it's not a pleasant thing.

I've been cutting trees and I've stood on the wrong place. And I tell you, it's not pleasant when your ladder goes like this, and you either fall or you grab back onto the trunk of the tree very quickly, you know? But you see, when we stand on the twig, and the twig breaks, then we're no longer connected to the vine.

You see, we are being loved by being connected to the vine. The vine is Christ. When we break off the twig, think about a vine. Have you ever broken a branch of a vine? How quickly that branch of the vine goes dry? It's unbelievable. It's got to be connected to the vine. I mean, you get trunks of other trees, you break twigs, and they stay still green for quite a while. But you do that with a vine.

It goes dry so quickly. It's unbelievable. And that means if you and I stand on a twig, and the twig breaks, it's not connected to the vine, because we're putting too much weight on that instead of to the trunk of the tree. We go by ourselves, we by ourselves, and no more do we end up having those of the spirit, because we're not connected to the vine.

So it's a dangerous situation. I mean, other examples of not being connected to the trunk of the tree is when you have inferred conclusions. Well, because of verse of that, and because of that, and because I'm very clever, I'm a very bright, intelligent person, and I've got all this human reasoning, and therefore, verses that. It was human reasoning. Or I had a dream. Oh, I had a dream last night. Ha ha! I had a dream, and therefore, do this, or come to church and give an offering, because I had a dream last night about whatever.

You know, that is not Scripture. That's not Scripture. That's not the trunk of the tree. Those are not direct statements from the Bible, or direct implications from the Bible. And then, last but not least, you get pure outright speculation. Pure outright speculation. Who are the two witnesses? Start naming people, or you start naming or saying the date that Jesus Christ is going to come, and then you're embarrassed, because it was and so. So, pure speculation. Brethren, as we go through the book of Galatians, we need to understand what is the trunk of the tree. Direct Bible statements. We can't take a statement out of context and say, well, it means this, so to back up something else.

We've got to hold on to the trunk of the tree. And that is important. And that's why many people struggle with Galatians, because they don't keep these principles of the Bible study in mind, and with other Scriptures as well. So, with all that is background, hooray! We can start Galatians chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, an apostle, not from man, not through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.

Have you ever seen people that claim that they are apostles? Have you ever heard of people, oh, I'm an apostle. In fact, have you heard of people that say, I'm a pastor? I mean, I deal with people in other countries, and I get emails from other countries, and it's this pastor, and in fact, I went to one of the countries and says, no, I'm a pastor. And the next thing, next time I talk to him, he says, no, I'm no longer a pastor, I'm a bishop.

And I say, for me, who made you that? Well, I made myself. He doesn't say that, but that's what he says. I'm a pastor. I'm a bishop. I'm a self-imposed. Now, I'm going to give an example from business. Now, I work for IBM. Jim also knows what I'm talking about. I work for IBM.

And imagine somebody walks down the street, comes to me as an IBM, and says, I am a managing director of IBM. Who are you? I'm just now a manager of IBM. But you, Tom Lickinari, walking down the street, you don't even work for IBM. But I'm a managing IBM.

I mean, it's ridiculous, isn't it? I mean, you get somebody in the street coming to you and says, I'm going to manage it, or I'm a director.

I mean, you'd say, ridiculous. I'd say, possible. Right? And that's what people do with religion.

They look down the street and they get a bright idea, and the next thing they are a pastor. They just ordained themselves a pastor. Who ordained you all? I had a friend of mine, or some other guy, who ordained me, or whatever he is, whatever.

Now, for me to be a manager of IBM, it's going to be, that position has to be, quote-unquote, appointed by senior management.

Those are viable to say, you now are a manager.

And likewise, to be an apostle, a minister of Jesus Christ, you have to be appointed by Jesus Christ.

Not by any tundi canary down the street that says, well, you know, I'm, well, because I'm calling myself Church of God, and I'm God of this label, and I create this thing, and therefore I'm, come on, how can yourself appoint? I mean, if somebody appointed themselves as a manager of IBM, and they're just walking down the street, I would say to him, what audacity do you have to claim yourself you are an IBM, and makes more an emergent?

And we, I say we in general terms, we accept people to give themselves titles like that in the region, and people worship, quote-unquote, them.

I mean, I'm not saying worship, I don't mean, but they kind of honor them and respect them for those positions which they're self-appointed.

So Paul was telling them, listen Galatians, I can appoint myself. There's an authority here, and authorities, I got it from God.

I was not self-appointed. It was not a title that I got myself, not from man or through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from his dead.

Yes, it's from Christ. I mean, you can see in verse 15 through 18, it says, yeah, but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace, to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles. Do you remember the story about Paul? I think it's in Acts 9, when Paul was trying to persecute the Christians, and he was going out to persecute the Christians in other areas?

And next thing, like a bolt of lightning, he hit him and he became blind. The next thing is, so this vision, whatever, is in his soul, Christ. And he realized, oh, oh, I'm doing things wrong. I am stepping, but I should have not stepped. Lord, what you want me to do? I beg your pardon. I'm in trouble here.

And he says, well, go to whatever and somebody there will tell you what to do next.

You see, and then God gave him a position. God gave him a responsibility through his ministers. Through his ministers. And then he was given a responsibility to do things. He did not appoint himself.

So, yeah, we have Paul, an apostle, not from man, but from man. And how many people self appoint themselves? And then he says, Paul, an apostle, and all the brethren of all with me, to the churches of Galatians. In other words, I'm writing to you churches in that region. Not one specific town or city or congregation, but in that region, like the same. To the churches in Kentucky, for instance, in that area. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ and from the Holy Spirit. No, no, he doesn't say that. He doesn't say it from the Holy Spirit. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is not a being. It's the power of God.

And in all of Paul's epistles, he's got a similar salutation at the beginning of the epistles, and it's always from God the Father and Jesus Christ.

And then he goes on to verse 4. Now verse 4 is what I would call the SPS of this letter. Now you're saying, what is SPS? You've never heard of this thing. Well, in the church many years ago, we used to have what you call a speech club training. And in a club like a not a rotary club, but there are certain clubs that do that, that do that speech training. I can't remember another name. But anyway, they have people, men go and they train like a club or a gathering where they teach people how to speak in public.

And they help them out to do a presentation, how to do an introduction, a body, a conclusion, and things like that. And a part of the speech is called the SPS. And SPS actually stands for a specific purpose statement. And it was often introduction, some of you have a little introduction, and then you say, what I'm going to tell you today is talk to your calculations. So you know where I'm going. You've got a statement that says, you know what I'm going to be listening about.

So it gives you, think about a sense of direction where you're going. You know, like in the sermon today, we had a specific purpose statement. We knew that we were going to hear about that we need to be courageous.

And Mr. Graby did it very nicely, brought it across the point how important it is for us to be courageous. He had that specific purpose statement, was clear in our mind where he was going. He wasn't rambling on, talking about courage and talking about faith and talking about love and talking about the birds and the flowers and trees. It was very specific. It was very specific. And they had a purpose, and it obviously was a statement. So he had a specific purpose statement. So this verse is verse four, in a sense. He's paused, think about it, theme statement. Statement that puts down where is he going on his letter. And where is he going?

He's saying, listen, it is Christ who we need to look at for. It is Christ who we justify for. Christ is the center. That is it. And then the whole letter ties into this theme, this point. Because he says, 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. In other words, it was Christ who did this.

Now, I want to break down this sentence into a couple of things. First, who gave himself? He was not, said, you do it or else? And he said, yes, sir, I'll do it. He gave himself. There's a difference when someone says, come do it because I'll start to do it. We do it because he gave himself to do it. He said, I'll do it for pleasure. He gave himself to do it. Now, let's look at that in a little bit more detail. So keep your finger there because we're going to come back in there.

But look at Philippians 2, 5-8. Because that was the mental outlook of Christ. And in Philippians 2, 5-8, it says, let this mind, let this mental outlook be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, he was in the form of God. In other words, he was of the God kind, did not consider robbery to be equal to God. It was not saying anything wrong to be equal to God.

It's like saying, like the example I gave a little earlier about this man saying, well, I'm a manager of IBM. He was walking asleep. He's robbing the title because he's not even an IBM. How can he be a manager of IBM? But if he's a genuine a manager of IBM and he says, I'm a manager of IBM, he's not robbing any title. The title belongs to him.

And so when it says, yeah, Jesus Christ did not consider robbery to be equal to God, it was not any taking a title that didn't belong to him because he was equal to God. But, verse 7, made himself, you know, it was like we read in Galatians, he gave himself, he made himself of his own choice, of his own prevelition, of no reputation.

I mean, when he walked down the street two thousand years ago as Christ, did Peter and John and Mary, I mean just Tom Jones or whatever it is, Dick and Harry down the street, did they know that he was God?

They didn't! They just said, he's a carpenter! He made himself of no reputation.

You see? He said, he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant. In other words, taking the form of man. He was of the form of God, as we see in the previous verse in the form of God, and he took the form of man, which we call the human being. So he was a God being, and he took the, he was the form of God, and he took the form of man, and he became a human being.

And coming in the likeness of man, so he really emphasized that. Being found in appearance as a man. I mean, he's saying basically three times the same thing. He became a man.

He humbled himself. Not only that, he furthermore humbled himself, he humbled himself. In other words, people say, well, who killed Christ? Well, he allowed himself to be killed. Because that is spoken to the Roman authorities and told him who he was, they would have not killed him.

He allowed himself to be killed. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So, back to Galatians. When we read that he gave himself, let's understand, he did not give himself as a human being.

I mean, you and I said, okay, I'm going to give my life to another person. You say, well, but you're not giving, Christ was not giving his physical life. He was giving his eternal God life, putting it in jeopardy for humanity. Because that he failed, had he sent but once, will be in tickets.

He put that on the line. Not just a human life, who's an internal life, he put it on the line of his own pre-evolution.

So, he gave himself for what? For our sins. We all sinned. We all sinned. And what are the wages of sin? The wages of sin is death. And so, we all are condemned to die. We all have the wages of sin upon ourselves. There's no man or woman alive, nor Christ. No man or woman alive, that is never sinned. No man. We're all going to die. I mean, is there any man or woman that you've seen that has lived many years ago, that has not died? Tell me. The sooner later, they all go one way. There's nobody living on earth today, that's 200 years old. I mean, there are some people 100, but there's nobody that's 200 years old. So, the old sooner later, they die. So, the wages of sin is death. Fact. We all can adapt. All are sinned. Now, turn with me to Romans 3. I want to read a few things there in Romans 3, starting with verse 23. Romans 3, verse 23. Romans 3, verse 23. All are sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Everybody! But it says in verse 24, being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. But being made right freely by His grace, made right with God, our relationship with God is right. We can now communicate with Him. We can talk to Him. We can receive forgiveness. How? Through the redemption that is in Christ. What is retention? Buying back. Buying back. I'll give you an example. Let's say that you went to a party and you drank and you're a little bit under the weather. And now you went driving. And hey-ho, but a traffic officer stops you. And now you asked to walk the line and breathing to this little thing, breathalyzer, and you're given a ticket and you take Him to see the sun in little squares because you are deemed to be driving under the increase. So now you go to court. You go to court. And you pretty well know what the judge is going to tell you. You're going to have a record. It's going to have a record. It's going to impact your driver's license. It's going to impact your insurance. It's going to impact a lot of things. And it's going to have a record of DUI for, I mean, you go in here and you shouldn't have said, Did you ever have a DUI offense? It's always there. Always asks you. I mean, whatever. Go to a life insurance or whatever it is on the application form and say, Did you have a DUI? Whatever. It's always there. So now you go to the judge and he says, Okay, all the evidence he has, therefore, and he's going to issue this. And there's a man that stands up. You don't know him from a bar or something. He stands up and says, Give me that. I'll have the record. I'll take the DUI and he can walk free. Are you sure? Sure. So he gives this man the DUI and he walks free. Free. You're redeemed. You're bought by this person from the DUI.

You've got no record. Record is erased. I can now go and drink and drive. No, no, I can't go and drink and drive. I can't. But I've been redeemed from past sins by Christ. That's what retention is. He bought me. That's what it means. So continue reading. Being justified freely by his grace. Freely. That man was made just. He didn't have the DUI under him. Freely by somebody's grace that he doesn't know from anywhere. Then he came and he was justified freely. Through the redemption, the buying back that he is in Christ.

So, understand, that makes it a little clearer, I think, what Christ's done for us. And then jump down to verse 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith. Who's faith? Who's faith? That man that had the DUI, did he have any faith? He uses. But it was the faith of the other man says, hey, I'll take it. In other words, we're justified freely by the faith of Jesus Christ. Not by my faith. Not by your faith. But by the faith of Jesus Christ.

What do you mean? I mean the Father. If Jesus Christ did not trust that God the Father would resurrect him after he had given up eternal life, he had given up physical life and he died. If he did not trust that God the Father would resurrect him. Imagine if God the Father was not faithful.

And he says, oh, now he's out. Now I have no competition. It's just me. No, that's not called the Father. Christ's faith made him give everything up. Christ's faith made him humble himself. Christ's faith made him humble himself to the cross to death.

Faith is absolute trust that God the Father will bring into life. That's the faith that justifies you and me. That's Christ's faith. Not mine. I don't have to work out great faith. It's Christ's faith. It's already done there.

I don't have to believe that for instance, I'm this is going to do this, this, this because of my faith. Thank God it's not my faith. It's not faith. It's Christ's faith.

I don't have to work out that faith. Now, of course, I need trust and I need to believe in God. I need to have faith. That's why it says from faith to faith. But it's Christ's faith that we are justified. We are justified freely by faith. Christ's faith. Apart from the deeds of the Lord. It was apart from having to kill a lamb or kill a bullock or whatever. That's how I justify it. By faith. So let's continue to the relations where we were. We're making a lot of progress in the relations. Verse 4.

Let's just check the one verse 4.

Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us. What does deliver mean? What other word could have been used to deliver? Instead of deliver? Saved. Yeah, deliver or saved. To be saved. From this present evil world of the evil age. To deliver us. You know, there's two types of salvation. There's salvation you can have now. Like what he says, you get into a pool, you cross women, you're going to drown, drown, somebody comes and saves you.

That's salvation now. You delivered now from that day. But that's not the final salvation from immortality to brutality in eternal life. And that's why it says you delivered now to deliver us from this present evil age.

We've been saved now from this present evil age. What does it mean then?

You see, first, the Bible talks about three worlds. You can take some notes and say, there's the world before the flood, 2 Peter 2 verse 5. That's called the ancient world, the world before the flood. There's the present evil world that we read in YAH.

You also can read in other scriptures like 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4 that, Satan is the god of this world. I mean Ephesians 2 verse 2 is the god of this world, is the god of this age. And then in Hebrews 2 verse 5, it talks about the world to come, which will not be under angels.

You see, this world is under angels. You see, Satan was an angel, became a demon, but the world is now under angels. But the world to come will not be under angels. It will be under god beings.

So it talks about, but we are says, yeah, we are delivered, then you might deliver us from this present evil age.

What does the word evil mean? Now, if you go into that word that is used in Greek, which happens to be poneros, but anyway, that word means bringing toils or causing pain and trouble. In other words, it's a being that is causing pain, continuous. It's got an intent to do bad, an intent to do evil to others.

And Satan, this present evil age is under Satan, which has an intent to hurt people, continuously. That's it. But what are we delivered from? We are delivered from Satan from the point of view that his deception is not affecting us.

Why? Because once we learn the truth, we are delivered from that veil that hides us or helps us or prevents us from understanding the truth.

So we deliver from this present evil of Satan to try and distort the truth from us. And yes, we are protected in certain ways. And he says, watch and pray that we will be counted worthy to escape, because there will be also other things that will be protected from in this evil age. But that's what he says. He gave himself for us, since then he might deliver us from this present evil age. And he's delivering us from the deception of Satan, according to the will of our Father, of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever. So it's according to God's will, not our will, not Christ's will, God the Father's will. And that is in this verse, he's basically pointing it to Christ and he's basically introducing the thing that he says, we look into Christ. That's what we're looking for. We're looking to Christ. So that is the introduction to the relations that I wanted to cover today. The next part of study, we will be going further into relations and we'll go into that in a lot more detail.