All right, so Galatians, it's up there on the screen. This is our new series that we're going to be doing the next, well, it won't take us as long as what it took us to go through Acts. If you think about it, Acts had 28 chapters. Galatians has only six. Galatians is a very important epistle. In fact, it was important to the early churches and it's important to us now. And so in Galatians chapter 1, And beginning at verse one, I just want to read the introduction here, and then we'll go through some preliminary introduction. In Galatians chapter one, verses one through four, it says, Paul, an apostle, not sent from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me to the churches of Galatia. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever, amen. We'll take some time to go through these chapters as we go along and see what the Holy Spirit had to say to these churches and by extension what He has to say to us. But right away we notice first of all that this is the book, the name of the book is Galatians. This comes from the region of Asia Minor modern Turkey where where these churches were located. Let's see. Now there on the map you see Depending on which commentator that you read after, you look after, some say Upper Galatia, Northern Galatia, and others say Lower Galatia. We'll get into that here in just a few moments, but this is the area. It is where modern Turkey now sits. Who wrote the Book of Galatians? Right away, since this is the first letter that we've gone through, and since there's some young ones here, those of us who are Bible scholars, you know this, but I say this for the younger ones. When we write a letter, we sign it at the end, right? But notice, the New Testament letters, they put the name, who's writing it, at the beginning. And so, right there in verse 1, we see who wrote it, and it was Paul. And you can see that in any of the epistles, whether it's an epistle by Paul or an epistle by Peter or an epistle by John. This is the way that they wrote letters in those times. He mentions it here in verse 1, Paul an apostle. not sent from man nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. He also mentions it again in chapter five. Chapter five and verse two. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And so, Paul mentions here, again, that he's the one writing this. Now bear in mind, when Paul wrote this letter, or when he wrote any of these other letters, he didn't put down verse numbers. That would be a strange way to write a letter. Josiah, you don't write letters to your girlfriend and put verse 1, verse 2, verse 3, do you? You just write your letter, don't you? I'm just kidding, he don't have a girlfriend. But someday when you do, you're not going to write it out with verse numbers. You're just going to write nice poetry and tell her how much you love her. Well, Paul, when he wrote this, he just wrote a letter. The verse numbers came later. The chapter numbers came later. That's also important reminder because sometimes when people read their Bibles, we sometimes forget that. In fact, In fact, if you're sitting down to read a book of the Bible, if you've got a copy of the Bible that doesn't have any verses in it, I mean any verse numbers in it, a reader's edition, paragraph Bible, I've got a couple of them, read it that way, and it's a benefit to you. You can also, a lot of times, In your Bible app, you can take away the numbers and just read them, read it like that a lot of times. How did he write this? How did he write it? This is also a good thing to remember. What we have here is God's Word, but it's also, we can also say that this is the letter of Paul to the Galatians. So how is that even possible? How can we say that this is God's Word, and at the same time say that this is Paul's letter to the Galatians? Over in 2 Timothy chapter three, And I know some of this is review for some of us who have been around for a long time, but it's a good reminder. It's a good reminder of these things, and it helps to encourage us with God's word. In 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, It says, all scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work. The King James rendered it, and we all know that because we grew up With the King James, but we know that they rendered it that all scripture is given by inspiration of God The translators here they chose to say that all scripture is God breathed I remember my grandfather and other preachers when they talked about the inspiration of the scriptures they would say that means God breathed and And so what the translators here did is they just took that and they took it literally and they said, it's God breathed. I thought that was pretty interesting because all my life I heard my grandfather say, inspiration means God breathed and here it is. The legacy standard Bible translator notes had this to say about this. It says, no occurrence of this word in the Greek has been found prior to the first century. Many think that Paul may have actually coined the word. Most translations render it with something like inspired by God. The literal idea of the two words combined into one is breathed out or expired by God. Thus, this translation gives the rendering God breathed. The fuller meaning is God breathed out to be effectively breathed in, as applied by the Holy Spirit. This idea is seen first in Genesis 1, as Yahweh said, let there be light, an expiration, and there was light. an application effective to accomplishment of its intended results by his spirit. With regard to humanity, the idea is seen most effectively first as breathed into Adam the breath of life, and he became a living being. The expiration of the breath into Adam applied by the spirit to its intended result. It is the same way that he speaks through us. We expire his word, it is received, it's inhaled by the intended recipient. He brings it home by the power of his spirit, who is able to divide us under soul and spirit, and the spirit applies the word according to his intended impact and result on the in-breathing party. Thus, this special word conveys something much fuller than just the expiration of God's breath. Pretty neat. And it goes to show us the complexity of what Paul was saying in this term that apparently no one else was using, but he was trying to give us something of what the Spirit is doing with God's Word. Indeed, you run into people sometimes who'll say, well, God told me this, or God spoke to me last night, or God said this, and this is why I'm doing it. God speaks to us in this present age through His Word, not any other way. And so it's important to remember this and to consider it. You want to know the will of God? You want to know God better? You want to get closer to God? Get into His Word. In 2 Peter chapter one, 2 Peter chapter one and verses 20 and 21. 2 Peter chapter one verses 20 and 21. Know this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes by one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. This is how we can say that this is God's Word, but we also can say This is Paul's letter to the Galatians, you see. Paul wrote many letters. We know, for instance, that there were at least three and maybe four letters that he wrote to the Church of Corinth. But only two of them are in the Bible. Why? Because only two of them were inspired. Only two of them were God-breathed. But he wasn't just some robot writing down in a mindless way. When you read the things that Paul wrote, they're different in style than the things that Peter wrote. The things that Moses wrote are different than the way David wrote, and so on and so forth. But all are in complete agreement even though they had different personalities and sometimes are separated by many, many years. I'm thankful that God has preserved His Word. And even though it was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek, that today we have it in English. And even in our English, we have multiple translations. There are people today, even though it's 2024, who still do not have copies of God's word in their language. And that ought to break our hearts to think about that and consider it. But it also ought to make us all the more thankful for what we have here. When was this epistle written? Well, let me bring up the... Oops, not that one. Timeline, here we go. I did not design this timeline, but it's very accurate. When we write letters, we like to put dates on them. So if I wrote a letter today, I would say at the top, I would say June 5th, 2024 at the top. But Paul did not do that. No problem though, because in chapter two, he describes the Jerusalem council. Now if y'all think back with me for a number of months ago, it's been a while, but we did study the Jerusalem Council. It was in Acts chapter 15. And if you'll remember, there were some Judaizers, some folks who got the churches stirred up, and they wanted to add circumcision. to say that the Gentiles needed to be circumcised in order to be saved. And there was a meeting that came up, and of course I'm very much simplifying this, but a meeting came up there, and we'll get into some of that later. But it must have happened shortly after that. That would make sense because in Acts chapter 15, We know that there were some events that took place, the events of the Council. We know that there was a letter that was sent out. Since most scholars date the Council of A.D. 49, the most likely time for this epistle is right around that time. And so, I mean, when I say most scholars, I'm talking about some pretty big name scholars, like the ones behind Lexham Bible Dictionary, John MacArthur, Milburn Cockrell. Just a wide variety of fellows who put the date to about that time and so so This timeline is fairly accurate. It would have been somewhere between the year 49 and 57 somewhere when he was Writing this letter This would have been perhaps Paul's earliest epistle that he wrote. This letter was addressed to the churches of Galatia. And so if you go back there to Galatians chapter one, Galatians chapter 1 verse 2 says, to the churches of Galatia. To the churches of Galatia. This makes this letter, this epistle, unique insofar as it's the only letter written by Paul specifically addressed to churches in more than one city. Now, this is good ammunition for those who believe in a universal church. He doesn't address it to the church. He addresses it to the churches of Galatia. We know from the book of Acts that Paul founded churches in different places of Galatia. Now as I showed from the one slide, the one picture, there is debate as to where it was, whether northern Galatia or southern Galatia. I believe the place must have been southern Galatia. This is where Paul traveled. In fact, we see there in in the map, some names of cities that'll be familiar to you who are Bible scholars, places like Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derby, all those places that Paul visited on his journey. This would have been his first missionary journey. Acts 13 through 14. And so you can go back and you can review all that. Acts 13, 14, and 15. This is really setting up the background for what's happening for the Book of Galatians. And so it's a very fitting book to go into after having gone through Acts. Can you imagine if your Bibles were put up chronologically? You would have Acts divided up with different epistles and through it. And maybe some of you have seen Bibles made like that. They're very handy to study, not very handy to use in church, trying to find places and things like that. Why did he write this letter? What was the occasion? So as I've mentioned, Acts 13, 14, and 15, I've mentioned the Jerusalem Council. These are young churches. There's some issues that are going on among the churches. The gospel is being proclaimed to the Jews as well as the Gentiles. Some Judaizers have come in and they want to bring in the traditions, Old Testament law, and so on and so forth, and make those apply to everybody. And so they come in specifically and saying, well, I was circumcised, so they should be circumcised as well, and things of that nature. Old habits are hard to break. In this epistle, This is the only one that Paul wrote in which he did not have any commendation or praise for any of the leaders of the churches that he wrote to. He didn't have anything good to say. He was focused, laser focused, to counter the false teachers who had come in and undermine the central doctrine of justification by faith. Remember from our studies in the book of Acts, the early churches, they had a lot of things that we can look back to and say, well, I wish we had that, right? They had a lot of zeal, they had some, They had some gifts of the spirit that we don't have. And they have some things going on in their lives. And we can look back and we say, well, I wish we had all that. There were simpler times in some ways. But they had their own set of problems. Heavy persecution was coming on them but not only that but There were Heresies springing up and You know where we go when heresies come up we go to the Word of God and we can say oh, well, this is true and this isn't We can check things out very very easily Number one, they didn't have the complete Word of God. They had the Old Testament, but they didn't have the complete New Testament as we know it. That's issue number one. Number two, the printing press had not been invented yet. Sometimes we don't realize how blessed we really are that we've got a copy, and some of us have multiple copies of God's Word that we can hold and carry with us and even have with us on our phones and on our computer. They didn't have that. They didn't have that at all. In the council held at Jerusalem, The question was settled about how the Old Testament or whether or not the Old Testament laws applied to Christians. But these churches at Galatia had either ignored the directions that came out of that or They had not taken care of those within their membership who were still causing trouble. Whatever the case may be, and we'll go through some of this and we'll see. Really, I think there was a little bit of both as you look at it. But Paul had to warn them and to rebuke them for that. He says in no uncertain terms in verse six of Galatians chapter one, he says, I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which really is not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. He tells them, if I or even if an angel from heaven were to come and proclaim a gospel that is different, a gospel that's contrary to the gospel that we've proclaimed to you, let him be accursed. He goes on. He goes on in chapter three. In verse one, he says, O foolish Galatians, who bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? You see, so many strong words that he had to say to them about these issues that were going on. There are key doctrines found in this book. One is, of course, justification by faith. We find the law in this book, specifically that believers are free from the bondage of the law. This is good news for us. The law did not save, it could not save. And we read in here, the spirit's constant battle against the flesh. This book is, as I said, a very good book to study, a good book to read, a good book to know. Milburn Cockrell wrote in his New Testament survey, he said, Galatians has been called the Magna Carta of Christian liberty and the Christians' declaration of independence. He goes on and writes, he says, the truth of this epistle came to life with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Indeed, if you enjoy history, study the life of Luther. Obviously, we wouldn't agree with everything that the man wrote, and we wouldn't agree with everything that he said, but He was, like many Catholics, caught up in a works-based religion until the Spirit got a hold of him. Indeed, once God did get a hold of him, his favorite book was Galatians. And he wrote a commentary that is a good one on Galatians. And that commentary, I like to connect dots in history, that commentary was instrumental in the life, the spiritual life of another fellow from history that would come along a little bit later, his name being John Bunyan. And if you're familiar with Pilgrim's Progress, you know You know something about John Bunyan. Bunyan wrote that if there were any other book besides the Bible that he would want to have, it would be Luther's Commentary on Galatians. This book has impacted a lot of people. Paul's epistle I'm talking about has impacted a lot of people and for good reason. Here's the thing. People don't change. Times change, but people don't. And even though there was a bunch of Judaizers who crept in and was trying to add works to grace and all that sort of thing and trying to bring in their traditions and trying to bring Old Testament stuff into the New Testament and bring people under the bondage of the law, Even though that happened a long time ago, guess what? People still try to do that, even in our day. And the scriptures, Paul's great defense, as the Holy Spirit inspired him to write this, stands to correct that and to keep us straight on this. We'll read there one more time in Galatians chapter one, verses six through 12, as we bring this to a close. And of course, we'll be going through this. He says, I marvel that you're so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel. which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, If any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a slave of Christ. For I make known to you, brothers, that the gospel which I am proclaiming as good news is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." Paul's passion, his reason for writing, the reason he was so concerned for this. He was concerned for the people, but he was concerned for the gospel. He was concerned for the truth. He was concerned for people's souls. Listen, if people goof up something, let's say if they get the head covering wrong, if they get the end times wrong, if they get creation messed up, That's one thing. Did you get the gospel wrong? That people's eternity is at stake. You understand that? That's why it's so important to know the gospel and to preach it biblically. If you haven't already, read through this book. Straight through. I'm excited to preach it. I hope you're excited about it as well. It is a good book. It is a good letter that Paul wrote. And Lord willing, we'll get through it this summer. See what we can learn from Paul's letter to the Galatians.