Hello, and this is Bob from Hackberry House. Welcome once more to God's Word. Lord, we're needing and expecting your blessing as we share the Word of God together in Jesus' name. Amen. Welcome to Hackberry House. Hackberry House is a website that you can reach by just typing in myheartcry.net on your computer. And when it opens up, you'll find a list of things. You can scroll down to the library page, and when you get to the library page, look for our lessons. You've got all kinds of stuff on that library page, many other books to read, and it's all free. But for today, we're just looking for that lesson, Unit 9, Lesson 41, Acts Chapter 8, Verse 5 to 15, 5, and the Book of Galatians. All is in that one written lesson. However, in the spoken lesson, we go a little bit slower. We can't do it all at one sitting, so that written lesson will be broken down into two or three lessons. We're right in the middle of one of those lessons right now. It's number 27 when you get that out in front of you. But in the Bible, it's Acts chapter 13. As we continue, our chronological study of the entire Word of God started well over a year ago on this. We appreciate those who have stayed with it thus far. Continue on. We've got another 11 written lessons after this. Let's go. Acts chapter 13. Actually, we want to start one verse before that. The chapter divisions are a little unfortunate in certain parts of the Bible. Those we understand. Now, this is not an inspired thing I'm talking about. Chapter divisions and capital letters, all that sort of thing. That was put in by man later, hopefully to make things a little more readable and understandable, but sometimes the men didn't quite understand themselves, or so it seems. Actually, the new story that we want to start begins in 1225 with Barnabas and Saul coming back from Jerusalem and taking with them John. And in the church that was at Antioch, which is where they were, there were certain prophets and teachers and it mentions a bunch of guys and Barnabas and Saul are called out by the Holy Spirit. Now we're not sure how that worked. Was it a special work inside of their heart? Was it a word of wisdom or knowledge? Those kind of things, you know, flowing around the church in those days that said to somebody you need to lay hands on, Paul and Barnabas, and went over to them and then Paul and Barnabas just agreed with it. We're not sure. It doesn't tell us how the Spirit said that, but He did. He made it very clear to these two men that they had a very special calling on them. So they go out of there and start their first missionary journey. They're going off to Cyprus now. Remember that John Mark is with them. John Mark is their assistant, according to verse 5. First thing they run into is a sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew. whose name was Bar-Jesus. He was, you might say, the big man of the island, and he had fooled the people with his sorceries. And when Paul came and tried to reason with the man, the political man of the island, Sergius Paulus, who's called here an intelligent man, he wanted to hear the Word of God, but Bar-Jesus, or Elemas, the sorcerer, came against them. At that point, Paul pulled rank on the devil, and through the power of the Holy Spirit in him, rebuked this man so sharply. He says, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you're going to be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. So for a certain period of time, he was blinded. And then when the people saw that God's power was greater than the power that was in Elemas, they decided they would go for the Lord. They were so astonished at what the Lord had done. That's what it says in verse 12. It moves on now in verse 13, where they're going to move on to sail from where they were to go to Perga over in Pamphylia. It's good to have a good Bible map with you when you're studying these things. Some Bibles have a map in the back of them, and some do not. But you'll see that at Pamphylia, is one of the regions of Asia Minor, just around the bend there on the Great Sea, the Mediterranean Sea. You go up north from Israel into Syria, and then you turn left. That's where the land goes. And before you go too far, well, you've passed Tarsus, which is Saul's hometown. You go a little farther on, and you're in Pamphylia, not a town, but a region. And that's where they're going to go. But John, and we're not told all the reasoning here, we're not told what happened. But John is gone. He departs from them. Goes back to Jerusalem. Some would say he was just looking back. He had set his hands on the plow, but he looked back. Well, we know what Jesus said about that. We know what Jesus says about a lot of things, but sometimes we take them in a context that Jesus didn't say them in, And sometimes Jesus is talking about long-term and not just one incident. We'll see later on how the two brothers here disagreed on this. And brothers today disagree on it, too. There would be Pauls and Barnabases among us today who would do the same thing with the John Marks that are among us. People who are just starting out, young in the Lord, want to serve the Lord, and gung-ho, let's go get them, and then they fall down. They turn away. They quit. It just gets too hard. They weren't expecting this kind of thing. And so they don't want to carry the cross. And they turn around. And they're defeated and hurt, and they go on and do something else. The Christian ministry to them just seems a bad memory until God can do something else in their lives. Well, they came to Antioch, went down to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. It was their custom. And they're always, even though they at what point in their ministry turn to the Gentiles, it seems like they're always going to use the method of going into the Jewish synagogues first, wherever there is a Jewish synagogue. That seems to be the pattern. And it seems also to be a command, although we are definitely not legalistic about this, but the Gospel did go first to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles. Perhaps it's wise in some areas to hit the Jewish area first. But for the most part, that is not enforced today. And we don't need to be slavish to the possibility of, if there's one Jew in the area, just to bypass every Gentile and go to the Jew first. No, not necessarily. The Gospel has already gone to the Jew first. And it will go to the Jew last. And there will always be Jews coming to Christ. And there are many, many ministries to Jews, by the way. in the world today, many more than Roman Catholic, at least in the American ministries. But anyway, they do go to the Jews first. They are Jews, after all, Paul and Barnabas. And they sit down and they're asked, do you have anything you'd like to share with us? And he says, sure, sure I would. These are traveling men. I've noticed in my travels in Romania, in other parts of the world, that as a visiting Christian, they expect you to say something. It's not true here. Visitors come and go here. They get recognition, perhaps, from the pulpit, but not asked to preach because we're a little more selfish with our pulpits here. Maybe a little careful. I don't know. Paul Stubbs said, yes. And he starts to do his history lesson. He starts to teach history. And they're all with him, you see. That's how you reach Orthodox Jews. That's how you touch them. You relate to what they already believe with you. And then you go from there to the truth. And he talks there in the book of Exodus. He talks about the book of Joshua. He's in the book of Judges in verse 20. He's in the book of 1 Samuel also. He goes to 2 Samuel. It's incredible. And much like what Peter did on the Day of Pentecost, and Stephen has done, and Philip, and Jesus himself. This is how the Gospel was preached to the Jews. And then he gets into the Gospels themselves in verse 23 and following. I'll just let you read this wonderful message on your own sometime. And verse 30, God raised him from the dead after he had told all about Jesus and all the things he did. And then he says, God raised him from the dead. And he was seen for many days. He's giving now the actual documentation of facts This was not just a hallucination, but many days by many people. And God has fulfilled this for us. We are their children. We are the Jewish children. In that He has raised up Jesus. He's fulfilled His prophecies. As it is written in the 2nd Psalm, You are my Son, today I have begotten You. And that He raised Him from the dead. No more to return to corruption. He said this, I will give you the sure mercies of David. You will not allow your Holy One to see corruption. So He establishes the concept of resurrection. in verse 34, and then the very resurrection of Jesus in verse 35. Of course, David is dead. This is much like Peter's preaching on Pentecost, very much. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption. Remember the argument of Peter about all of that? Okay. And so verse 40, he gives a warning. Beware, therefore, lest that what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you. Behold, you despisers. marvel and perish, for I work a work in your day, a work which you will by no means believe." He says, warning these Jews, it was prophesied that many of you are going to reject this. Don't do it. And when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles wanted to hear this. I don't know how they were listening in on this, but they found out about it and they wanted to hear this message. Evidently, people have been hearing some strange stories about this Jesus and they want to know the truth about Him. And it says in verse 43, many of the Jews followed Paul and Barnabas. And Paul and Barnabas turned around and began to persuade them. Yes, you made the right decision when you come to Christ here. I want you to continue in the grace of God. Stay with it. Study it. See if it's not the truth. Now the whole city has come together the next Sabbath day. Sabbath day was the meeting time then. It was the meeting day. The Sabbath started long before the law. Sabbath day went all through the Old Testament and into the early church. The early church were Sabbath keepers because it was a Jewish church. The Gentiles came along later and through Romanism changed some of that. I want you to bear with me on that. I'm not a legalistic Sabbath keeper. I'm not trying to put the law on anybody. But I want you to look at and see, do you have a defense for why you worship on the first day of the week? rest on the first day of the week. Call that your Christian Sabbath. You won't find any documentation. I didn't say what you did is wrong. But you'll have trouble finding documentation for it in the Scripture. And if you're going to give a defense for it, what's your defense going to be? You need to think that one through now. Think it through. But here we're looking at people who, you know, the whole book of Acts, that was their thing, to worship on the Sabbath. And then he knew when he could find those people together, because they were all Jewish people. On the next Sabbath, all the whole city, Jew and Gentiles, at least Gentiles for sure, because when certain Jews, and some of the Jews were into this too, but when certain Jews saw all this popularity for the Gospel, it says they were envious, middle of verse 45, contradicting and blaspheming They oppose the things spoken by Paul. How were they blasphemed? They were coming against God. They were blaspheming against the Holy Spirit when they came against the very message that the Holy Spirit wanted. Now, I don't want to use that term too much, because blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not pardoned. And if these people had repented later on, they would have been pardoned. But to blaspheme against, to speak against what the Message of God is to your heart and keep speaking against it. You'll never be forgiven of that But at least at this point there's they're very opposed Paul Says to the Jews. Okay. Look I gave you guys a chance first But you don't think you're worthy of everlasting life. So forget it. We'll turn to the Gentiles. We're gonna offer the Jewish promises to the Gentiles and That's what the Lord commanded us to do. And he quotes in verse 47, he quotes Isaiah chapter 42, verse 6, I've sent you to be a light to the Gentiles. Now when the Gentiles heard that, they're very happy. They really are impressed that they've taken something away from these Jews. They can't believe it. Something for them. They were glad and they glorified the Word of the Lord. And it says, as many as have been appointed to eternal life, believe." Wow, what a clear statement about the counsels of God before the foundation of the world, the very predetermined counsel of God that there are some people determined, appointed to eternal life. Don't panic now, because whosoever will may come. If it's your heart that you really want to come to Christ, that means you are a part of these people. Don't be thinking God tries to exclude you when you read statements like that. Anybody that wants in, gets in. But that wanting, even itself, is from the grace of God. That, you know, faith, not of yourself, it's a gift of God. By grace we are saved. Through faith, but that didn't come from you. It came from God. So the Word of God goes everywhere. The Jews go and start stirring up people. Paul and Barnabas have to leave again. They're so unpopular. Everywhere they go. This is called the offense of the cross. When you preach Christ in all of His fullness to people who don't want Christ in all of His fullness, you are going to have trouble. So they just took off the dust from their feet as Jesus had told them to do. That's in verse 51. They go on to the next town, Iconium. But the disciples are filled with such joy and with the Holy Spirit. We leave them there in that town rejoicing in God. And it moves on. We're going to Iconium now. Forget the chapter break. The story continues. They're in Iconium. And they go together to the synagogue. Same thing, a multitude, both Jews and Greeks, believing everywhere this gospel's going. It's good news. But notice how they preach it. They don't preach it with fuzzy, warm feelings. They tell the truth. They tell the truth about the Jewish history, where it all came from, and then they tell the truth about Jesus, and they tell them, they warn them, if you don't take this, you're going to be lost. Beware. So they tell it straight. They tell it true. And people want it. They accept it. So they stayed there a long time. But no, verse 2, I skipped. Here come those unbelieving Jews again. They knew all about what was going on. It's the same thing in every city. Unbelieving Jews. What do they do? They poison the minds of the Gentiles as much as they could. That's why they had to stay there a long time. They could have just preached the Gospel and moved on. But in fact, there's Jews there. There's enemies raised up to try to snuff out Paul has to stay there and contend for the faith. You see? What happens when you preach the Gospel? Somebody's not going to like it. You can't just walk off down the road. Somebody's got to stay and bless these people. Somebody's got to stay and encourage these people and plant them until they can stand on their own. Then you move on down the road if God lets you do that. I'm not talking about staying somewhere forever, building a little kingdom for yourself. No. That's not God. Stay and make them strong. Don't let them be weak when you leave. So they stayed there a long time. The city's all divided up, verse 4. Some people like the Jews, some people like the apostles, the Christian message. Now, the Jews are coming to persecute with their stones and their abuse, and they have to run again. Where are they going now? They're going to Lystra and Derby, and another region of Asia Minor called Laconia. That whole area, that whole surrounding area is going to be filled with the gospel. While they're in Lister, it talks about a miracle that they have there, a cripple from his mother's womb. Never walked, had never walked, heard Paul. Wants to be healed. Paul sees that he has faith to be healed. So he simply says, stand up. He doesn't do what Peter did, reaching down and making it get up. He just says, stand up. But you do see here, the parallels in the ministry of Peter and Paul so far. Peter doing things for the Gentiles, the Jews, and Paul for the Gentiles, but it's the same gospel, has the same power, and the same effect in people's lives. Well, when the people, these pagans, see this kind of stuff going on, they think that some other pagan god, that the gods have actually come down. Well, it's true they have, but our God had already gone back up. It's not the Spirit. And God has come down. But these men think that Paul and Barnabas are little gods. They even call them Zeus and Hermes. Hermes being the speaker, the chief speaker. Mercury, who was the speaker, the prophet of the pagan religions. Verse 13, there was a priest of Zeus there. You know, they're just backward people. They don't know any better. They see power, they assume there must be their god doing it. So there's this priest, he hasn't had anything going on like this for a long time, and he's suddenly getting very popular here, his religion's getting popular, so he thinks, I'll just go favor these guys. The way I favor anything that has to do with religion, he brings a sacrifice to them. He's gonna sacrifice to the gods. What gods? Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas heard this, they ripped their clothes, as the Jews did, not in anger, but in anguish. And they run into the people and say, wait, don't do this, don't do this. No, no, that's how it used to be. That's what people used to do. But there's a real God here, and it's not us. Let us tell you about Jesus. They just barely restrained the people from sacrificing to death. Well, these Jews that had started back in Antioch coming against Paul and Barnabas have caught up with them again. And here they are. They stoned Paul. and they drag him out. Now, for you and me, I won't speak for you, but I know my flesh. Something like that happens to me, I'd say, well, I guess God closed that door. I guess that's the end of my ministry. I guess we failed there. Oh, my. We have got to get over this, don't we? Especially if we're going to be ready for the things that are no doubt coming to our world. And I think probably soon. More soon than late. It's very near. We've got to understand that when we fall down, we've got to get up. And we don't have time for pity parties and just groveling in the dust. Get up. Get up. His friends drag him out of the city thinking he's dead. But the disciples gather around him, and I'm assuming they're praying. It doesn't say that in verse 20. But they gather around him, and he just gets up Walks away. Next day, he's in Derby, another town. That's another day. All right, so he got beat up. So he got stoned. He's not dead. Until you're dead, you don't quit. Isn't that the truth from God? Until we're dead, we don't quit. Somebody comes against us, we go to God. We don't come back against Him, we're gonna get ourselves all kinds of problems. Just handle these things in the spirit. Revenge is not a part of it. He didn't go back and start rebuking these people. He's just shake that dust off and move on. He's already done what he needed to do there. Preaches the Gospel in Derby. Makes disciples there. Goes back to Lystra. Iconic man. And at the places where he's already been persecuted, chased out, stolen, he goes back. He goes back. Why? Because there's disciples there that need strengthening. He's not going to be stopped. And He tells them, you need to be strong in the faith. It's going to take a lot of trouble to enter the Kingdom of God. We must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God. That doesn't mean that's how you get saved. See, the Kingdom of God already came into them when Christ came into them, when the Holy Spirit comes into them. The Kingdom of God, that is, righteousness and peace and joy and the Holy Ghost, that's in you now. But, later on, We who are kingdom people are going to enter a real, physical, visible kingdom on earth. And from the time that the kingdom comes into you, till the time that you enter the kingdom, there's going to be a lot of trouble. That's the kind of thing he's talking about there. Well, he can't keep coming back and forth through here, so he asks God to have elders, to show him who the elders are, who the more mature people are, the ones who have caught on to this thing a little more. We're not talking rich, we're not talking powerful, we're not talking super-experienced at this point. He finds men who just seem to have gotten a hold of it and are sticking with it. And he prays with fasting and then has to just give them over to the Lord. He's got more work to do. He says, guys, I'm leaving you here. This will be your job. You take over. I can't stay here forever. I've got work to do. So he moves on to Pisidia. now, they're in Pamphylia, in Perga, in Attali, just moves on, preaching, preaching, preaching, and back to Antioch, where they had begun the other Antioch, and you mentioned there's two Antiochs here, you know, Antioch in Syria, close to Israel, and Antioch in Pisidia, which is a part of Asia Minor, where he had another trouble, and now he's back to where he started, the Antioch of Syria, He gathers the church there together, and there's a big report of everything that God has done, and how God's opened the door, and people getting saved, and we just have a revival. It's just been so wonderful. I want you to pray for these new Christians. Oh, wow. That's how the church got rolling. Well, what was Saul's first ministry? Well, he was a prophet teacher. in Antioch. That was what he did first. He stayed there, I forget exactly how long, but he stayed there a while. Got his feet wet teaching, getting used to things, understanding what it was, letting the power of God flow through him. Seeing what it was like to pray and have your prayers answered. Seeing what it was like to see people healed. And God did many, many things for him there to get him ready for the rest of his trip. How did the early church function? Verse number 28. I'm back on the sheet again. Well, the Holy Spirit ruled. People ministered. People fasted. But the Holy Spirit was doing the work. He called people to various works. The church agreed with that. It just flowed that way. It was just obvious who the leaders were. We didn't have to have seminars on these sort of things. The Holy Spirit would speak to somebody. The elders would agree. It just went on like that. It was a Spirit-led church. We have things like that in the world today. We really do. It's not prevalent. It's not everywhere in the church. Probably not too many places. But it's there. I've seen a little of it. Name the members of the first missionary team. That would be Barnabas and Saul and John Mark. After the Bar Jesus incident, who left the group? John Mark. Now I put it that way. But I'm not implying that the Bar Jesus incident was the reason he left. We're not really told why he left, just that he left. And in his first missionary sermon, where was Paul, what day was it, and what was the response? Well, he was in Antioch, Pisidia. It was the Sabbath, and Gentiles were interested. 32, the next Saturday, who showed up, and what was the Jewish response? Well, the whole city, mainly Gentiles. And there was envy and opposition. 33, where did the apostles get the idea of shaking dust off their feet? And why did they do this in Antioch? Well, from Jesus. Because they were expelled by important women and men, Jews. 34, who got saved and who caused trouble in Iconium? Again, it was Jews and Gentiles. And the unbelieving Jews caused trouble. It's the same pattern. 35. Why did Paul stay a long time in Iconium? Because he had to counter the poison that the Jews were spreading. 36. What caused the citizens of Lystra to think that Paul and Barnabas should be worshipped? Well, there was the healing of a crippled man. 37. By whom was Paul stoned? The Jews from Antioch and Iconium. 38. In the absence of apostles, who led the early churches. That would be the elders. And that is true still today. Number 39. After the return to Antioch, to what city was Paul called and why? We haven't got there quite yet, but that would be Jerusalem. And that was to address the Judaizing question. Now let me read to you the first five verses. I'll give you the first five verses of Acts 15. We're going to stop in Acts right there. Because when we start talking about this Judaizing question, There's no better place to go than to the Book of Galatians, and we'll talk about an intro to that in just a minute. But first, Acts chapter 15, verses 1-5. Certain men, we don't know who they were, came down from Judea. Judea, you know, is up in the hills. So anywhere you go from Judea is down. And they started teaching brothers, you've got to be circumcised. These were evidently believers. Unless you're circumcised, you can't be saved. So they're already into the Christian church, but they're teaching everybody that part of the Christian message is to obey the old law. Paul and Barnabas wouldn't have anything to do with that. So they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others should go back up to Jerusalem. These guys came to where Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch. But now, Barnabas, since they had such a fight with him, they decided, we better go to Jerusalem and find out what this is all about. Because they still believed in the authority of the apostles. And the apostles were the authority until they died. And then the elders were the authority. That's how it was, and that's how it is. There's nothing else that God intimates should happen between then and now. The apostles. that the elders, of course, the apostles are still the authority in one sense in that every true elder of the Lord in his church is going to appeal to the apostles for any situation that comes up in his church. So the apostles still rule. They're the elders who speak the word of the apostles. If they're good elders. If they're not good elders, they don't even know the word. And they are not true elders. Anyway, they go up to Jerusalem to settle this question with the church that's there. authority figures that are there. And they pass through Phoenicia and Samaria. On their way they're visiting people and telling what God has been doing. And that word just spreads. Because people talk about that. People talk. People talk. Joy to all the brethren. And they got to Jerusalem. They were received by the church and the apostles and the elders. And they report there. But this is when the Pharisees stand up. And they say, I'm sorry you guys. Don't want to put a damper on things, You've got to circumcise these believers. And boy, the joy just went right down. You've got to circumcise these new believers. They can't just be told to live like the Gentiles. They've got to be like Jews. Now, we're going to stop there, although technically we could read that whole 15th chapter. Should we? Let me see. No, we're going to read the rest of Acts 15 in Lesson 42. It'll be kind of redundant in a way, but let's do Galatians now. Galatians and Acts 15 go together. The Galatian people originally lived in Gaul. That's why they're called Galatians. Seriously, not making that up now. Gaul being a part of France today, remember. These people conflicted with Rome when they were in France, and so they had to migrate to Asia Minor, present-day Turkey. Paul had evangelized these Gentile people on the first journey, it is believed, and was writing in response to a report that Judaizers, that's those who professed Jesus but held up the law for salvation too, Judaizers had infiltrated the church. This is the first major doctrinal problem of the church that had to be dealt with. There is a sense in which it's a problem today. But anyway, in Galatians you'll find Christ to be the one who has set them free from the curse of the law, as we find Christ in every book of the Bible. This is probably written between 49 and 56 AD, making it perhaps the second book to be written. In Syrian Antioch, it was the first of Paul's letters just after the Council of Jerusalem that's recorded in Acts 15, which is again why we perhaps should have read Acts 15 first. They had the council. Then Paul writes his letter with the authority of that council behind him. So let's go to the text of Galatians before we go to the questions. Galatians chapter 1. That's right before Ephesians. And we started chapter 1 about Paul telling why he is an apostle. He's very clear here. He wants people to know the people he's writing to, especially these Judaizers, that he received everything he's received from God. That's what he tells them very clearly in the first verse. Read it. Paul and all the brothers are with me to the churches of Galatia. He wants this to be spread around. Blessings on you. That's the first few verses. That's pretty much what you would find in most of Paul's letters. Most of all the letters. Some greeting, some blessing. But the issue, he gets right to the issue after the the talk in the first five verses, he goes to the issue. I am just so shocked that you're turning away from Christ already, from His grace already. I don't believe this. After the work that we spent on you, after all that I went through for you in Galatia, I got stoned for you. I can't believe this. You're going to some different gospel. It's not another gospel, but you think it is. Let me tell you something, Galatians verse 8. I don't care if some angel from heaven comes to your church next Sunday or Saturday and preaches some other gospel to you, it's an accursed gospel, if it's any different from what I gave to you. I'll say it again, and he says it again in verse 9. Verse 10. Am I trying to persuade people? Am I trying to change God's mind? No. I'm not trying to please anybody, persuade anybody. I don't have anything to prove to anyone. I wouldn't be a servant of Christ if I was trying to please people. I'm telling you what I received. Verse 11. And people didn't give it to me. They came to the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, you know all about me, starting with verse 13. He tells all about himself. Let me tell you about myself. You hear how I was trying to destroy the church? You heard that, didn't you? You heard that I was the best Jew in town, verse 14. I was so zealous. More so than people before me and my peers. But God chose me to be zealous for Him, and He called me. He revealed His own Son in me, and I just had to obey. I didn't go over to Peter and all these other people and ask them for permission to do this. God told me what to do. God spoke to me. I don't need permission from men. The message I have is from God. I didn't go to Jerusalem, no, no. I went out to Arabia, in the desert, with God. And He filled me in on all the details. I have received from the Lord the things I'm giving you. Three years later, I went up to see Jerusalem. Went up to see Peter. After I already got myself together in the Lord, of course I won a fellowship with the brothers. Stayed a couple weeks with him. But, you know, I didn't go to the other apostles. I wasn't looking for some popularity thing. I did see James. Notice he calls James an apostle here. The apostle James is dead. He's talking about this other James, the Lord's brother, who is alive and filling in as an apostle. Be careful with that. I understand. But he seems to be in the leadership of the church above Paul, or at least before Paul. So these men who are on the first tier of leadership are being called apostles. Now, verse 20. I'm not lying. Verse 21. Then I went over to Syria and went to Tbilisi and did some preaching here and checking out here and doing this and that. But the churches in Judea, they hardly even knew me. And so I said, I want you to know where I'm getting my authority. It's not from Jerusalem. It's from heaven. So all they knew down in Jerusalem was that this guy that used to persecute the church was now one of us. And they were rejoicing. They heard about it. And the few guys that did know me, They talked me up, and they began to glorify God in me. Go to chapter 2, 14 years later. 14 years later. That's when I went back to Jerusalem. And Barnabas too. And Titus came with me. That's a Greek believer. A Gentile convert. I took Titus with me. God told me to go there. God told me to talk with him, and I did, verse 2. And I told him the Gospel, which I preach among the Gentiles. And I'm very careful. I use wisdom. when I'm preaching among the Gentiles. I don't want to run in vain. I'm very careful how I present it. And I want you to know that even Titus, this Gentile, this Gentile Christian, was not asked to be circumcised. All know. But this thing of, this demand of circumcision, this demand that people keep the law and be savers for it, it came because of some false brothers. some false brothers. Let's see what it was. I'm telling them straight up, this is wrong. This is false. They came in and they looked at us with all of our liberty and joined the Lord so much and they just had to put something on us. They had to slow us down. They wanted to bring us into bondage. Well, that sounds familiar, doesn't it? But let's stick to just the circumcision issue here. And we didn't yield to them one moment, verse 5. We didn't listen to them at all. that the truth of the gospel could stay with you. From those who seem to be something, well, there were some men that seemed official, you know, the official leaders, all the official leaders, verse 6 and 7, 8, they were with me. Now, I'm calling them official leaders to you because they really did seem to be important. It looks like what Paul is seeing here is that they've become a little stuffy already. The apostles have maybe elevated themselves a little too much already. Power does that to a person, you know. Paul buffeted his body daily lest he would be a castaway. He didn't want pride to enter into his life. I don't know what's happening here, but these men seem to impress Paul as a little too much in charge. And he says, you know, these guys were, they were the leaders, but they were on my side. James, Peter, John, who seemed to be pillars, they realized that God had given me grace. And they were so excited about what God was doing in my life that they believed that we should go to the dentist just like they had gone to the Jews. All they asked was that we take up offerings for the poor, and I was into that too. That's what I was definitely for. So we were going along pretty well there until, well, we had this problem. I was in Antioch, and this is Paul talking. I was in Antioch, verse 11, and one day Peter came up, And I watched Peter for a while, and I watched his life. And I loved Peter, but you know what? I had to just stand up against him because he was doing something wrong. What was it? Well, he was sitting down with Gentiles when he was there by himself. You know, I gotta say, he was enjoying it. He didn't mind it at all. God had already appeared to him, you know? God had appeared to Peter. Remember the sheet? He'd already shared, and Peter already believed that with all of his, he knew that, but when he saw another Jew coming, when he saw some Jews coming down from Jerusalem, he stopped fellowshipping with the Gentiles. And when he stopped fellowshipping with the Gentiles, Barnabas couldn't either. And a bunch of other Jews couldn't either. And suddenly, there was hypocrisy going on. I realized, this is wrong. I said, look, Peter, if you can live with Gentiles and live like they do and eat like they do when you're on your own, nobody's looking, And you, as a Jew, start living like a Gentile. Why are you asking Jews, excuse me, why are you asking Gentiles to live like anything other than Gentiles? Why do they have to live like you? If you can live like them. If their lifestyle is okay and God, why can't you enjoy it? You're being a hypocrite, Peter. A toad into its face. Peter, you're a hypocrite. In verses 15 on, the rest of that chapter, some heavy teaching, very difficult to understand about the preeminence of the gospel, the justification by faith and not by the works of the law. And we are not going to go back, he says, verse 18. We're not going to go back. I'm not going to build again the things which I destroyed. The law. The law. Moses' law. We're putting that down. We're saying no. We're lifting up the grace of Christ now. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And that's what we're putting up. The law is gone. It's done. It's nailed to His cross. I'm not going to build that back up again. Through the law, I died. Verse 19. Through the law, I died through the law. It was the law that brought me up to the point where I understood that I didn't need the law, that the law couldn't save me. So the law itself killed me. It was the law that killed me. And I died to it. But I wasn't dead forever, because now I can live to God. I've been crucified with Christ. When He died up there, He said, It is finished. The law is finished. It's all finished. The program of God is finished. Salvation is here. And I'm up there with Him. I'm crucified with Him. My old life is dead. It's not me living anymore. Christ's living in me. The life, this is a classic verse, isn't it? Galatians 2.20. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, gave Himself for me. I'm not going to put aside the grace of God. This was not good. Well, let's go to Galatians 1 and 2 questions on the answer sheet. Question sheet number one. With what devil curse does Paul begin his comments to the Galatians? Curse on anyone preaching another gospel. And that curse stands today. Islam, Mormonism, doesn't matter about your angels. Your gospel is no gospel and it's cursed. Your religion is not God's religion. It is cursed. And any variation from the truth inside of Christianity or out is cursed. That's what Paul said. I'll stand with him. Number two, where did Paul receive the full teaching of the Lord? In an Arabian desert, by the Lord himself. Number three, was it necessary to be in the original twelve to be an apostle of some sort? No. James was one. Number four, before the Judean Jews ever met Paul, what did they know about him? That he had persecuted the Church of God, but he was now preaching the gospel. Five, what was Paul's attitude toward big name brothers? He says they seemed to be pillars, but in his eyes only truth should be elevated. Not Paul, not Peter, not Apollos, but Jesus. Number six, why did Paul confront Peter? Because he had private fellowship with Gentiles, but he would never have it publicly. He was being hypocritical, two-faced. Summarize the point Paul makes to Peter. Well, we can't resurrect the law. Let it die, and stop asking Gentiles to keep what we could never keep. It didn't save us. Why do we want it to go into their minds? Yes, everything they need in Christ, they'll receive. Everything, every law of God that they need is going to be in Christ. They'll receive the right teaching. But to say we're saved by keeping the law, that's got to go. How are we saved? Well, let's move on to chapter three. Foolish Galatians. These are his babies. These are his children in the faith. He's calling them fools, saying you're bewitched. Don't you see what's happening to them? Verse 2, you started out in the Spirit, didn't you? If you started out in the Spirit, how is it now that you're going to continue on by the flesh? That is, trying to keep the law. Anytime you try to do something for God, you're in the flesh. That's right. Get in the Spirit, that is, pray. Oh, pray and pray and pray until you're just flowing in God and God is in you and you're lifted up to walk with Him and you believe in God. And then do what comes out of that. Don't try to be good. Try to stay close to God and God will be good through you. Have you suffered so many things in vain? the one who supplies the Spirit to you. Is he doing this by the law? Me, Paul. I've been praying for you that the Holy Spirit will be upon you. Is that from the law? Is there any connection between what I'm doing with the law of Moses? No, there's no connection. Abraham, look at Abraham. He believed God long before there was any law. But God counted that faith to him for righteousness. That's what we want for you today. There was faith before there was Moses. Faith before law. And it was in Abraham that the promise came that in him all the nations would be blessed. That's Christ. That Christ is going to come. The promise came before the law. Before the law. And we're going to be blessed with Abraham. Anybody that's under the works of the law is under a curse. You're trying to be saved? By keeping the law, you're under a curse. You can't do it. That no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident. The just shall live by his faith. That's what it says in Habakkuk. That's what it says here. God saves people by faith. The law is not a faith. It's a matter of doing, doing, doing. And you can't do it all. You'd be cursed trying. We want the blessing of Abraham, verse 14, to come on the Gentiles in Christ Jesus. That we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Is that the promise that the Spirit gave or is that the Spirit Himself? Doesn't matter. I take it all. Everything that the Spirit gave in the Old Testament, I want. And the Spirit Himself, I want. The promise of the Spirit comes to us not from keeping the law, but through faith. Well, verse 15, even humanly speaking, Paul says, when you make a deal, you don't add to it. When you make a covenant of some sort, it's firm. You shake hands and that's it. It's sealed. And so a promise was given, verse 16. Here's the promise, to your seed who is Christ. And the law, the law came along later, but the law doesn't add to it. The law doesn't take away from it. Not at all. So what's the law for, verse 19? What's it in there for? You got faith before the law? You got grace and faith after the law? What's the law for? Well, since the gospel came first, we've got to have a reason for the law. It was to restrain people. It's just because of transgressions. In one sense, it was to multiply transgression so people would know. People would know that they had sinned. There has to be something written that you transgress against so you know you need a Savior. It was a, as he says at the bottom of my page, it was a tutor, verse 24. It was a school teacher. When people broke the law over and over again, they finally realized, finally dawned on them that they have any sense at all. I cannot keep this law. I'm in trouble. I cannot ever please God. I'm always going to keep falling back into my sin. What am I going to do? Well, the law taught us that. So thank God for the law. It was pure, it was holy, it was good, but it's not our savior. And the promise came first. The gospel actually came first. For you are all sons of God, through faith in Christ Jesus, as many of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Now, we're assuming this is believing baptism. We're assuming that it's not a baptism for salvation, but because of salvation. And so, people come to Jesus Christ, and yes, I'm calling it water baptism. I call most baptism in the Bible water baptism. spiritualizing the text and trying to explain it away. It's always going to be there. Water baptism is always going to be there. It's all right. It doesn't save us, except in the sense that Peter said. Baptism does save us, in the sense that it is a testimony, just like the rain that came down in Noah's day was a testimony that the truth had been preached and that there was salvation inside that ark, but the ark was the safety. You have safety of Christ, and the water is a testimony. And if you come to Christ and Christ is in you, then you were baptized into Christ. And as many of you have done that whole thing, Christ is on you and in you. You put Him on. And it's not a matter of Jew and Greek and slave and free and male. It's all Christ now. It's all Christ. Quit thinking law. Just think Christ. You're Abraham Seed. Think about the promise. Not about what you can't do anymore, but what you can do. What God's going to do through you now. What He's going to give to you. What He promised in Christ. Number eight, back in the questions, please. How are we saved? And how do we, quote, stay saved? Well, salvation is of the Spirit. It's of grace through the whole thing. That's how we are in Christ all the time. Who are the two sons of Abraham and recipients of the blessings promised to Abraham? Well, those of faith. Note the New King James verse uses descendants in Genesis 15.5. That's the source verse for 3.16, but uses seed in 3.16. And the King James version uses seed in both. I think it's very important that you see that the King James version is probably very important there. It says seed in both, so there's no confusion in there. What point does Paul make about the timing of the law? Well, the covenant with Abraham came first, but the law came 430 years later. First things first. First things are important. Number 11, if there was already a promise, then why do we need a law? For restraint and for especially to teach us our need of Christ. By the way, I'm simplifying these things. I have to keep saying this every once in a while. Bible survey. This is not in-depth. Oh, there are depths in this book. And I was trying to get it out as I was reading. And some of it I still can't quite get. Very difficult with the Apostle. But I sure get a whole lot more than I did the first time I ever read this book. And you keep digging. And you keep digging. And you'll get it. You'll get it. It'll come home one day. If you want it. And then chapter 3, verses 26-29. class, gender, it's all done away with when we put on what? When we put on Christ. Let's move on quickly to at least begin chapter 4. The heir. There really shouldn't have been a break there. It really shouldn't have stopped. We are heirs according to the promise. We are going to inherit something. But until we knew Christ, we were just little children. Like slaves. Household servants. Doing what we had to do. But now, now we're not just servants anymore, we really are children. Well, we really are growing up. Verse 3, when we were children, we were embonded in the elements of the world, but now the fullness of the time has come. We had such a childlike understanding of everything, almost a servant understanding of everything. But God sent Jesus, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. He lived and died a good Jew. Born under that system. But in the middle of all of that, He redeemed us. He actually said it is finished. He ended the law Himself. Everything that the law pointed to came to an end in Christ. And now we can receive the doctrine as true sons. And because you're sons, God sends the Spirit into you, and you just start talking, Father. When you pray, it's just normal now to say, Father, Father. He's your Father now. You believe you're calling out to your Father, not to your slave master anymore. No, you're a part of this thing now. You're really one of His. You were under the law until the time appointed. You were heirs all along. You didn't know you were an heir, but you were. Now Christ has revealed that you're in air. That you've got something wonderful to look forward to. Verse 8. When you didn't know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or have known by God, why are you turning again to all this ugly stuff? Now he's talking to a Gentile church here. You didn't know God. And so you just served Zeus and all this stuff out there, and you did all kinds of weird stuff. and you observed all the days and the rituals and all those things. So now, you're coming to Christ, and here you are turning to ritual again to save you. No! Don't let the Judaizers fool you. This is different than what you had before. It's not a matter of rituals and works saving you anymore like you had before. And they couldn't promise anything because of your flesh, but no! Look, guys, I worked hard. Don't let me think that I worked in vain when I was working with you. Please, become as I am. Hey, I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, but I am not now. I'm rejected by them. Become like me. You know, when I was with you, verse 13, this physical infirmity that I had, I had it. I was in such pain, such weakness, but I kept preaching. Big fight here breaks out among believers. What was Paul's physical infirmity? I don't know. I don't care. I could give you speculation, but the Bible doesn't tell us. It only gives clues. Sometimes it really looks like epileptic seizures. Here it looks like his eyes. Other times it looks like just the literal beating by an angel. Nobody could even see the angel, but Paul was being beaten. I don't know. I don't know. Let's go fight about it. But I had this trial in the flesh, and you didn't despise me. You received me as God. You accepted me. Why are you not accepting me now? What was the blessing you had? You would have given me your own eyes. That's why some people think it was their eyes. Now I've told you the truth, and you don't like me anymore? Come on, guys. I've been telling you the truth from the beginning. I'm not lying to you now. Don't you understand? They want you, those Judaizers, so they can glory in you. They can go back to Jerusalem and say, look what we did. It's like four skins of the Philistines, you know? We went after the enemy and we made them true Jews. Oh, zeal is good, Paul says, but you gotta be zealous in a good thing, verse 18. And not just when I'm there. Come on, guys. Get back to the truth. Children, verse 19, I'm laboring. Don't you feel it? Don't you feel the pain in me? I want Christ to be formed in you. I'm not going to rest nights until I know that you're walking with God. I'm very concerned about you. Stop right there at the end of verse 20 for this time. A couple more questions. The childhood or servanthood of our faith And the collective faith of God's people was when we were what? Under the law. That's 13. Number 14. To what foolishness were the Galatians returning? The elements of the world. Rules. Keep this day. Eat this. And so on. What was Paul's infirmity? We just talked about that. I won't even answer number 15. I'll let you guess on that one. And number 16. That's where we'll stop this time. Number 16 and verse 21. We're deep into the heart of the New Testament now. The very basics, the very basics of the faith are at stake here. I hope you're listening. I hope you're enjoying your faith in Jesus Christ. It's been good to share with you today. God bless you.