Let's begin with prayer. Let's start there. Father, we're thankful this morning to be able to come together. And we are so thankful that you have given us your word. God, without your graciousness in revealing yourself to us, Lord, we would truly be lost. And yet you've given us mercy and salvation and grace, Lord, but you've also revealed yourself to us in your word, and we rejoice in that. We want to learn this morning and for the next several weeks, and we pray that you would give us the ability to think rightly To love what we learn God that you would through your spirit apply it to our lives and that ultimately you would be glorified in all of it It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen I'm also using the microphone not only because we need to record but because It will hopefully deal with those of us who are less able to hear well You know who you are All right We appreciate and are grateful that you ladies are here this morning. A couple of ground rules for the class so that you understand how this is going to go. If you have a question or comment please put it out there. And the reality is that your teacher is sometimes not able to see, particularly if you're more than halfway back. And so if you're going to do that, you just need to do it. Don't raise your hand, and if you raise your hand and I ignore you, you'll never be able to know whether or not I'm actually ignoring you or I just didn't see you. It's a trick I have, I do that. So anyway, it's just better that you speak out. Okay, introduction. And the first thing that we should talk about is why Galatians? Why are we doing this? Well, we have to determine when we're going to study scripture, we're going to start something new. Why are we going to do that? And that's not always easy, but in this case, for me, it's somewhat, it sort of was easy because I think we need to study Galatians. I think we need the message that's in Galatians. And you say, well, we need the message that's in all of scripture. And I agree with that, we do. But I think we particularly need this message. Galatians does some things for us in the entirety of the book that in a condensed way that no other part of scripture does. Right. And so that's why we're going to study it now specifically. Why are we studying Galatians? We're studying Galatians to prevent mass defection in our hearts. That's why we're studying Galatians. You say, well, I don't know what that means. The Galatian Christians had seen Paul preach the gospel in all of their cities. They'd seen him do miracles. They had seen him love them, love their people. They'd seen him persecuted for the gospel's sake. And yet they defected away from the gospel when other teachers came in and taught them things. They defected and they walked away from it. And we don't want to be those people. When we look at Galatians, we see a couple of things. The first thing is, it is of utmost importance that we understand what the gospel is and that we understand what the gospel is not. And if we miss that at any point, what can happen because it's missed can be catastrophic in our lives. So Galatians is that important. This is not I didn't choose this book because I was wanting us to just gain some more scriptural knowledge as important as this is. But if we miss Galatians and its message. We will go into error and not only will we ourselves get into error but we will teach it. We will teach it. So. The first thing that we want to say is Galatians will prevent our hearts from mass defection. And where our hearts go, what our belief systems are, the rest of us will follow. Always happens. What you believe is ultimately what you're going to do. And so the issue is the gospel, what it is, this is primary for us. And of course we've said it many times, but it's not just a matter of, well, it's primary in our salvation. It is. But it's primary in our Christian lives. It's primary in our sanctification. Most of you have read Galatians before, so you're familiar somewhat with the message of it, I'm sure. The thing is, is that Paul is not talking to people that he's trying to convert. He's talking to people that are already converted. And yet the issue of the gospel is still primary, which means that the issue of the gospel for us is always primary. We never get away from that, because when we misunderstand what Christ did and how we appropriate that, then we're going to misunderstand how to live the Christian life. It's just that's the way it is. It's gonna happen that way Galatians is there to keep us from doing that So Galatians is about God's grace alone through faith. That's what it's about All right grace through faith that Ephesians concept you're saved by grace through faith and plus nothing, plus nothing. Now, none of us think about this quite the way we should. We always want to have these tangible things that we can hold on to that will commend us to God. You say, well, I don't. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. You are always going to be tempted that way. And this is a problem. When you think that you can't fall into something is when you will fall into it. When you think that you can't fall into something, what happens is you already have. This book is not written for other people. It's written for you. It's written for me. The gospel itself is to be protected. Now, that's the first part. The other part is this. We can learn things from Galatians that are helpful to us. We're going to learn from even Paul's very tone in Galatians. Paul, in this letter, doesn't commend these people for anything. If you read some of the things that Paul wrote in this letter, you would question whether or not the man is a Christian. Paul is dealing within a Christian community and within a religious community. And the charges that can be levied against him are you're not being loving. You're not being kind. You're creating division. You're making an issue out of things that are really not an issue, Paul. Not only that, God has called me just in the same way he's called you, Paul. Don't touch the Lord's anointed. Don't cause division among the brethren, all those kinds of things. And yet, Paul, when it comes to the gospel, if ever there was a tone that was harsh, this one's harsh. OK, it's loving, but it's harsh. And, you know. We want to be careful because sometimes Paul in this letter can sound angry, and I think he is. I don't think he's angry in a wrong way. I think he's angry in a righteous way. I think he's angry for God's glory. I think he's jealous over people that God should be getting glory out of, and yet he's not because false teaching has come in to the church. Now, a word about sources so that you will understand where I'm coming from here. Most of these you can have access to if you want. I have a Galatian study that I'm looking at from John MacArthur. I have a Galatian study that I'm looking at from Tim Keller. I have a Concordance. I have a Vines. And I have one more thing that is probably shaping my thoughts about our study this go-around, and that is I have Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians, which you will not gain the benefit of most of that in this study because that's 1,200 pages, so we won't be doing all of that. You can find those resources easily enough online, but Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians is either free or it cost me a dollar, I think, which probably shows how much it's valued. But nonetheless, I have gotten a great deal out of it. The other thing I should say in terms of, I wasn't going to, but I think it's fair just to lay it out on the table. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this particular book? The reason is because the mass defection thing of our own hearts is important, but there are groups all around us that call themselves Christians who are trying to get us to fall into the error that we find in Galatians. Okay, that's why. They are in our town. Everything that calls itself Christian is not Christian, right? Now, that's not to come over to the other side and say that we have everything right, but it is to say that there are some things that are very, very wrong. They're very, very wrong. Some of the errors that are being made are the same errors, actually, that are being talked about in Galatians. Some of them are a little more subtle, but they fall out the same way. So what happens is that Well, yes, you have to believe in Christ, but you also have to do these things. You have to talk a certain way. You have to know a certain language. You have to practice certain things. Paul wrote Galatians for us so that we wouldn't do that. And in general, the people that you're going to rub shoulders with in other places, the people that you're going to meet that are going to tell you that they're believers in Christ, many may be, many may not be. But if the gospel is compromised in the way that it was compromised in Galatians, it will lead to atrocious things in the name of Christ. This is not a small thing. This is huge. This will lead people to hell. Errors of this kind, errors of this gospel kind will lead people to hell. And so you have to understand that. And that's why we're doing this. That's why I wanted to do it. Okay, with that said, we're going to do some background on the letter. First of all, we want to know when it was written, and we want to know who it was written to, where it is, right? So, here we go. The when, as you can imagine with all Bible books, is, there are two camps on that. Some people want to say it was written about 47, 48 AD. Some people want to say it was written a whole lot further away than that. It was a whole lot later. I have studied that fairly extensively this week. I believe about 47, 48 AD. And some of the reason for that is in the text. When Paul talks about visiting the apostles in the text, He doesn't refer to the results of the Jerusalem Council that happened in about 49 or 50 AD. He doesn't lay those things out there very straight. And so I think when he says that he went to the apostles, it was during the time when the Gentile churches were providing famine relief for those people in Jerusalem because of the famine and also the persecution that was going on there. So I think it was earlier. We think that this was probably one of the first letters that Paul wrote, if not the first letter that he wrote. Okay, you can look at that stuff, but it's early. It's early in his ministry, pretty early in his ministry. It's early in his writing career, I'm pretty sure, based on what I've looked at. Most people, we catch a break on this one because most of the religious scholars will actually say that Paul wrote this letter, so at least we don't have to argue about that. Sometimes we do. I always wonder about that. Paul to the Paul an apostle that says in the beginning of every one of his letters yet many people want to argue about who wrote it. I don't understand but anyway. We don't have to do that here. The second thing is who it was to and you say well that's easy it's to the Galatians. Well it's a little more complicated than that and it's only this. Galatia became a Roman province in about 25 AD. It was fairly new. A lot of these folks were Gauls that came from France that moved in there. Some of them are mixed up. They're kind of Celtic. A little different culture than some of the rest. But there was a North Galatia and a South Galatia. And the issue is that in all of Acts, when we look at Paul's missionary letters, we don't see that he ever visited the northern part of that. We see that he spent a lot of time in the southern part of that. Some have theorized that he's writing this letter later and he's dealing with these people in the north and he went there just because it And he went there just because the name Galatia is often in the literature more properly used for the northern part than the southern part, but nonetheless it's Take it that the churches that Paul started in this region are the ones that he is dealing with. Okay, so With that in mind. I want you to pick up your Bibles and turn to the book of Acts Because we're going to look at Paul's ministry to these cities So Acts chapter 13 Acts chapter 13, verse 13. This is going to take a while to read because we're going to cover this whole ministry. And best as we can tell, these are the people that Paul is writing Galatians to. This is the first of his ministry there. So this is going to give you a flavor of what it looked like for him to minister to them. Now Paul and his companions set sail for Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14. But they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue. All right, so Antioch and Pisidia, there's two Antiochs. This one is in the southern part of Galatia. That's the way that we're going to see it. So this is a group of cities. Galatia is a province. There's a town named that, but it's a province. So it's several churches there, several cities that he preached in. We're going to read about his ministry to all of them. But in Antioch, on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue and he sat down, verse 15. After the reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it. So Paul stood up and motioning with his hand said, men of Israel, you who fear God, listen, the God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. And with uplifted arm, he led them out of it. And for about 40 years he put up with them in the wilderness, 19. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years, and after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked him for a king, and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years, 22. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will. Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25. And as John was finishing his course, he said, What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. But behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie. Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God, as we're in 30, but God raised him from the dead. And for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus. As also it is written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he says it in this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David, 35. Therefore he said, also in another song, you will not let your holy one see corruption. For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him everyone who believes is free from everything with which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about. Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you. As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told to them on the next Sabbath. All right, we're going to stop there for a minute, but stay there because we have more to read. Paul, as was his custom early on in his ministry, comes to Antioch and first he goes to the synagogue. First he goes to the synagogue and he makes an argument from the scriptures that these people are supposed to believe. And he gives a brief history, just reminding them how God has been faithful to them all through the history of Israel, even making them a people, delivering them out of slavery, and that's important. So sometimes we miss things, so let me try to help you with this. Paul doesn't ever drop a word. In an odd way, you know, I've heard people talk about like these sermons like well He just did this to show them that he knew his Bible and that he was Jewish. Well, yeah, maybe but that's not That's not primary. I'm not gonna teach this whole sermon. But what I will tell you is just I want you to see a couple of things Paul starts with Egypt on purpose because Egypt to the Jews was a big deal Right and it is a picture all throughout the scripture of God delivering his people from bondage And he starts with Egypt purposely that way and then bleeding them into the promised land. He mentions that and he goes then through all of the judges that God provided them through Samuel the prophet and Gets to Saul points out their sin even in that whole thing their sin. We want a king Give us a king. So even after all of this deliverance, they're still Intolerant of what God wants they still want their own thing Give us a king but then God in his graciousness after Saul gives them David David being the prefigure of Christ and And these people weren't ignorant of the scripture. They know what it is he's going to do. When he hits David, then he jumps immediately to John, the last of the prophets, and then to Jesus. So he's making that connection. This is why he tells the story the way he tells it. It's because he's pointing out to them, God has delivered you. God has delivered you. You've sinned and yet God has delivered you. You've sinned and yet God has delivered you. And when we get to Christ, God has ultimately delivered you. That's the message, okay? And you wouldn't catch that if you weren't thinking about this as it comes through this story. That's why he tells it the way he tells it. Well, we are now in 42. As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. All right, good. He didn't get stoned after saying it the first time. They still want to hear him. That's all right. Forty-three. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44 the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord But when the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul reviling him All right, so it's just history. We won't talk about we're not gonna do a sermon on jealousy but we just need to see the progression of this thing because these are the people who Paul is writing this letter to you ultimately and starts out pretty good in the small group. He's bringing forth the scripture. He's presenting Christ to be the one who forgives sins, the Messiah. And people enjoy what he says. And apparently not only did they enjoy it, but you've got people who are believing in people who are coming to Christ for forgiveness of sins. God is opening their hearts to that. And it's we're just getting around. There's a change. Something is happening. And so the very next week when he comes to speak on the Sabbath, the whole town shows up. The Jews might have been OK with this new speaker coming in. But you notice this is important because this is going to figure into Galatians later. OK. So you got to keep this in mind. They don't come after him because what he says is wrong. Not first of all. They come after him because he draws crowds and they don't. They contradict him. But it's jealousy that starts this, right? It's jealousy that starts this. And when we begin to look at the false teachers that are going to come in in terms of the book of Galatians and why Paul wrote it, we're going to see that there's a lot of that in there. And we'll also see that being able to draw crowds, being able to have people come to you, being able to identify people by what it is they do, what it is they believe, what it is that they look like, and then calling them Christians based on those things because they're part of my group and they're not part of your group. That's going to be a big thing in Galatians. And we can fall into that, right? So they begin to contradict him and to revile him. So what does Paul do at 46? Paul and Barnabas speak out boldly. It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. But since you thrusted aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles, for so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. don't have a good handle on how big a deal this is because outside of that culture is just really difficult for us to understand what's going on here. But for Paul to walk away. from those people who not only genetically he's related to, but culturally he's related to, but then religiously he's related to. Everything about them he understands because that has been him his whole, their whole life. And they are a distinct people group. They're apart from anybody else. And Paul says, Jesus transcends that. And if you don't want him, I'm gonna go to some people who might. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. And again that figures right into Galatians again. So I'm going to lay this groundwork for you now and I hope you think of it later. I'm going to do my best to try to bring these things back up as we come through. But the issue is here when Paul comes to the Galatians and writes to these Galatians churches he's predominantly writing to Gentiles at that point. Right. Those who are going to believe that's what he's doing. So when Paul Says you Jews don't want to believe it you Gentiles now are going to have the opportunity To hear about Christ and to come to him That is huge and the Jews in Galatians are saying well No, wait a minute It's not gonna be the way it is. Yeah, you Gentiles can come in and But you need to look a whole lot more like Jews than you guys look so here's how we're gonna do this You see it comes back. It comes back. They're always trying to get in there. They're always trying to mess with it, but the gospel itself Is by grace through faith alone through faith plus nothing That's Paul's message So 48, when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. Paul is getting believers. God is saving people. It was necessary that he go and preach to the Jews first, he preaches to the Gentiles, and many of them are saved. They're given the ability to repent and believe the gospel. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. Now we have this conflict with the Jews again in 50. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirring up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and they drove them out of their district. So the Jew and Gentile battle, the Jewish This is the way you follow God and you don't believe in this Messiah. And we're not even sure whether or not Gentiles can even be a part of this starts at the very inception of this Galatian church. And that's going to help you in some ways understand how Galatians comes about why it becomes necessary for Paul to have to write it. Well Paul shakes off the dust of his feet against them and he goes to Iconium. We're still in Galatia. Now The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. All right. So that's important because there is evidence the seal of God is placed on these people who believe. And we've got to understand that that's no small thing because in Paul's time when he's dealing with converts he wants to see that. He wants to know if these people have a relationship with God through the Spirit. And so when the scripture tells us that, it's not just idly recording history, but what it's telling us is these guys are the real deal. God sealed them, right? That's important because to say to a Jew that God would save a Gentile, not only would he do that, but he would put his presence on a Gentile, that he would seal a Gentile in that way by putting his presence with that person. It's unheard of to a Jew. the really thing that they're having a hard, really hard time that they're having here. And now we're going to move to Acts 14. Don't worry, we won't read all of this, but we'll finish these cities. Now at Iconium, they entered into the Jewish synagogue and they spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believes. Again, we're getting a lot of, getting a lot of that. And the battle goes on because the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and they poisoned their minds against the brothers. So, they remained for a long time speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. We have the Jews that are coming against them, that are even poisoning the mind of the Gentiles. And we see some of it has to do with the cultural thing. A lot of it has to do with the jealousy thing. Paul is stirring up things. People are being saved. There's been changes in people's lives. And then we have not only that, the truth of the gospel being attested to by signs and miracles. That's what we have. And so God is being gracious. to the people of this region. The gospel is being preached, it's being attested as being true, the spirit is coming, and a lot of people are coming to faith in Christ. Paul is speaking boldly, preaching the gospel, and he's doing signs and wonders. Verse four, but the people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it, fled to Lystra and to Derbe, cities like Kenya, and to the surrounding country. And there they continued to preach the gospel. So, persecution often moves the gospel around. We see that all in the scripture. We see it still today. You're going to kill me? Okay, I'm going to go to the next town and preach the gospel some more. The people in the town are divided, and here's the thing that is necessary for us to understand. God needs to give us wisdom, because we always want to think that when the Word of God is preached, when people are coming to faith, when good things are happening in that way, we always want to think that's the most peaceful, joyful, wonderful time. Well, it is in the individual believer's life, but let me tell you something. I have studied revivals all throughout even modern history, and the reality is they are messy. Okay? It doesn't look like that. Because you have people in their unredeemed flesh, and you have Satan himself who's against all of those things, and the gospel itself is offensive to many people, and so what's happening is that there's a division, and it happens. It always happens. You know sometimes if if if when God is gracious sometimes if you have like a waterlocked or Or a landlocked sort of a piece of ground that revival comes to sometimes you don't see as much of it But it isn't very long until the religious people the religious leaders that are already there when a revival comes They don't like it. They don't like it and part of the reason again that we're studying this book is Is because we don't want to be the people that when God comes and does a work through the gospel that we say I don't know that I want to be a part of that You say how could we be these people? Oh, trust me, it's easy. It's easy. When you see somebody who hasn't been doing this nearly as long as you have, and when you see somebody who God is using to do a certain thing that you've always wanted to be able to do, and yet he's not chosen to do it with you, Jealousy comes in there division you start looking at that brother or sister thinking, you know what? You're a pretty good guy you do these kinds of things, but here's the problems with you And if you look hard enough, you'll find them whether they're real or imagined. This is easy to do. Okay, and in this case These people are feeling really really threatened by all of this. They're not examining the truth of it They just, they don't want it. We were the bosses. We were in control. We understood how this should go, and you guys are messing it up. All right, eight. At Lister, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking, and Paul looking intently at him, seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet. Then he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. And when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying men Why are you doing these things? We were also men and of like nature with you and We bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God Who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them? Let me stop there for a minute We get to this town. We get a little bit different experience We're running away from the Jews who are persecuting us because they're jealous. I Now when we get here, what happens is that these people, they've got some more pagan stuff that's going on here. And when they see a healing like this, they want to worship Paul and Barnabas as gods, which is abhorrent to them. They don't want that. And we can learn a lot from that. In discipleship sorts of relationships and those kinds of things, we often particularly when we're dealing with younger believers or people who think the world of us can often get into a situation where we've got people that are looking at us and they think a lot of us. And maybe sometimes even we kind of like that. And maybe sometimes even their spirituality and how they do things is somehow based on how we do things and we kind of like that too. We have to be really, really careful with those things. Paul Speaks against any kind of idolatry, but I want you to look at what he says at the end of 15 It doesn't do him any good for to speak to these Gentiles about the promises of God from Egypt for his chosen people Because these are not those people these are Gentiles teaching them that at this point is not helpful and What does he do? These are idol worshippers. They worship gods that have been made up, and they mostly have a whole lot to do with nature, right? The control of nature, where the sun comes up, the sun's a god, the moon's a god, there's lots of gods. We're looking at the pantheon, we're looking at all those things. So what does he say? He says, there's one god, and he made heaven and earth and the sea and all that's in them. Right? He's dealing with what they know when he preaches. And our example is, we need to be able to do that. We need to be able to size people up and deal with them in terms of what their experience is. Yeah, they're going to learn these other things, but not now. Now they're trying to worship him. Now he's going to give him this message. 16, in past generations, he allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without a witness. For he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful season, satisfying your health with food and gladness. Even with these words, they scarcely restrain the people from offering sacrifices to them. He goes on with nature. He says, you guys pray to these idols and you bow down and you give sacrifices to them. But here's the thing. There's only one God and he's the one who gave you these things. That's where he starts with them. All right. Important for us to see the difference. These are the people who are coming to faith in Christ that Galatians is going to be written to. Well, in verse 19, Jews come from Antioch and Iconium, where he's been before, and they persuaded the crowds and they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. He probably was dead. If he wasn't, stoning is not pleasant. They're not throwing gravel. They're throwing big rocks. And they're trying to hurt you. That's what they're doing. So how does this happen? He heals a guy. He gives these great sermons. Miracles are coming. People are being converted. I want to submit to you that this is what always happens. This is what always happens. I don't know. I don't know if you've experienced this or not, but you will. If you get into people's lives very much who are not believers and you start trying to work with them, God will be gracious and he will save some of them and some of them will turn on you like a rabid dog. They will turn around on you after you poured your life into them and you will often wonder why it is that you did any of it. It happens. It happens and it's happened in the fall too. Good things come out of it. God does good things. But success doesn't mean that I'm. I'm everything is working out perfectly. Success means that I'm being faithful. OK. Well we're nearly done with our background scripture here. But when he in 20 when the disciples gathered around him so he's got people he goes up and enters the city. And on the next day it goes in with Barnabas to Derby. These are kind of close together. And when they preach the gospel to that city and it made many disciples they return to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch. All right. This is holy boldness and this is guts. All right. By this point everybody on your first pass that's going to believe has believed. But there's a lot of people who hate you. The pagans don't like you. The Jews don't like you. You've been stoned, they've run you off, they've spoken against you. And by the way, it doesn't say this here, but there's another thing that you should understand. When it says things like that he was reviled, you need to get what that means. Because this is going to give you a sense of the suffering that he does for these Galatian Christians as he preaches the gospel to them. In the end times, when it says that things are going to wax worse and worse, and we're going to deal with persecution and we're going to have to have people mock us and those kinds of things. Many times you don't understand what that means. You think it's going to be really really straightforward. You think that people are going to come to you and say you have to deny Christ and if you don't deny Christ then we're going to cut off your head. Maybe in some places. but more likely they're going to say horrible things about you that aren't true that will get people to not listen to you. They're going to pull you in and call you child molesters. They're going to pull you in and they're going to say that you're part of cults that do horrible things. And they're going to print it in the newspaper and they're going to put it on the news and they're going to do it in such a way so that everybody who sees you will think we need to stay away from that person and not listen to them because they do these horrible things. Don't think that when you get persecuted that the persecutors tell the truth about why you're being persecuted. They don't. So what's happening to Paul here is lies are being made up. He doesn't even have the ability to broadcast print or news or anything like that. It's only the people that he can talk to. But yet even in the midst of all of that God is gracious and he's saving people. So. He's strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the word, to the Lord in whom they had believed. Now, five minutes, I think I can do this in five minutes. Here's what modern day Christians don't get, particularly in America. Okay. Some of you may get it, but here's what modern day evangelical people don't get. Paul preaches the gospel, which brings forth converts, which brings forth churches. Okay. The local church is the thing that Paul went about his missionary journeys to do. You have to get that. If you're not understanding that, then your philosophy of missions is wrong. Because you think that we can, we'll just go around and preach the gospel, try to get people to make decisions, and then they can just flutter around out there on their own, right? I mean, that's not gonna work. That's not gonna work. God has chosen to put his glory in his church. Now that's a worldwide thing, in terms of people that are saved, but it comes out, and our example, in the way it comes out, is local churches, and we see that because that's what Paul does. The local church is very important. And if you don't understand that, you're going to constantly be trying to figure all of this out on your own. And you won't be able to do it. And you say, well, I don't know. Well, I talk to evangelicals all the time about this. Well, you know, church, that's OK. But there's a bunch of hypocrites there. Well, some cases there may be. Look at the New Testament, right? Paul's letters are to churches. Now, some of you, I'm preaching to the choir, but some of you need to get this a lot stronger than you have it right now. Paul is interested in dealing with local groups of believers. And he brings the correction to these churches in Galatians because he is primarily telling them the church can't look like this. You see, when you read the letters to the churches, here's what you do. I know because I did this for a long time, too. This letter is written to me. And look, I need to go through and look at all of the ways in which I need to come through and obey this letter. Well, there's a sense in which that's true. I don't want to take anything away from that. But there's another sense that you'll miss if you're not real careful, which is that letter is written to us. It's not just about, can I deal with, can I understand the concepts? Can I be obedient? Can I believe? Can I do all those things as an individual? The issue is in some ways more glorious, but in some ways more complex, because the issue is, can we do those things? Your job as a believer is not just to take care of yourself. And so the issue is, and we see that from Paul, right? And so the issue is, it's not just that you get it right. It's that we get it right. And when we're talking about the issue of the gospel, that's where it starts. That's where it starts. We have to get it right. Now, unfortunately, I didn't intend for this to happen, but it did. I'm not going to be here next week. So there is one of two ways that I may choose to handle that. I may choose to give you something to listen to about this next piece, or I may just have somebody else teach on an unrelated topic, and we'll actually start to book proper on the next Sunday. In the meantime, your job is to read Galatians chapter 1, and not just once. Read it over and over and over. Read it every day. Deal with it. It's short. It'll take you 3 or 4 minutes. It'll take you 3 or 4 minutes. Just read through it. Just read through it. Just read through it. We're going to focus on 1, 1 through 9. I anticipate that from here on, it's going to take us 8 to 9 weeks to get through the book. The Lord knows that, but we'll We'll find out for sure. Let's pray. Father, we're grateful for your word this morning, and we're thankful for the example that you give us in it. Lord, thank you that you chose to spread the gospel. to the believers at Galatia. And thank you, Lord, that we're able to see Paul's correction to them as he's directed by your spirit to write. We thank you that we have that. And we pray that you would give us an anticipation of what we're going to learn and how you're going to change us through our study of it. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.