False Converts Moved In Early On

Transcript

GR 2076
02/26/2017
False Converts Moved in Early On
Galatians 1:1; Acts 15
Gil Rugh

Galatians chapter 1- we are going to go there and you can put something in your Bible then we are going to go back to Acts chapter 13 and 14 just to set the setting; so the context of the churches in Galatia. In chapters 13 and 14 in the book of Acts we have the recording of the first missionary journey and this is where Paul and Barnabas evangelize the churches of Galatia.

Why don’t you put that map up there if you would, Steve? This is the map of the first missionary journey. We didn’t have this last week. You can see how they leave from Antioch and you have an idea where we are. You see Jerusalem down in the right hand corner where it says Judea and just above it, maybe a little hard to read from back there is Jerusalem and then we are up in Antioch where the arrows are, Syrian Antioch because you can see it is the region of Syria. It is about 250 plus miles from Jerusalem up to Antioch there that Paul and Barnabas will leave if you come back to Acts chapter 13 from Antioch, having been appointed by the Holy Spirit to this ministry. So the leaders there, godly men, prophets are told by the Spirit that this is His will.

So now you have the undertaking of what God said would be Paul’s life ministry when he was saved in chapter 9 and he would carry the Gospel out. So they start out and they go to Cyprus and we noted in Acts chapter 4, verse 35. We are told that this was where Barnabas was from. He was a Cyprian, Joseph by name, a Levite, of the priestly family. Designated to have care of the matters related to the worship of Israel but he is traveling with Paul. So they cross over Cyprus, the blue line is their leaving and the red line is their return. They come back up into what is now Turkey and that whole region there, we have Asia, Galatia, Cappadocia and so on, Cilicia. That is all now modern day Turkey as you are aware. At the top of this map, we couldn’t get it all on but it is the Black Sea. That whole region there is in modern day Turkey. If you look up where the name Galatia is toward the top, you will see just to the left of Galatia Ankara and that is the capital of modern day Turkey. We are in southern Galatia and that is where Paul’s ministry takes place. You will remember he travels here. He goes to Antioch coming up there just in the area called Asia that was divided then; that is Pisidian Antioch because of its being close to the region of Pisidia which distinguishes it from Assyrian Antioch where Paul left.

They travel through these cities and when they get to Derbe then they retrace their steps. Now what happens in this ministry is there is intense opposition from the Jews and we find that the diaspora has occurred and Jews have been scattered and are in different parts of the world. There is a strong Jewish population in what we call Gentile areas because you can see we are outside the region of Judea and the area of Israel but there is still strong Jewish population here and the Jews become an obstacle to Paul and his ministry.

Look down in chapter 13, verse 44 as they are in these cities: “The next Sabbath nearly the whole city attended to hear the Word of the Lord but when the Jews saw the crowds they are filled with jealousy. They began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, were blaspheming.” So Paul said “Since you Jews repudiate this and in effect judge yourselves unworthy of the salvation God has provided, we will turn to the Gentiles.” And so you have that reaching out to the Gentiles. It won’t change Paul’s pattern. It will still be as he goes to a new city he will focus on the synagogue because that is a great starting place. You have Jews there with their background in the Old Testament that Paul can use to show that Christ is the fulfillment. You have Gentiles who have become converts to Judaism which are ripe to hear the plan that God has for the church which will be Jew and Gentile joined together.

So in verse 50 of chapter 13: “The Jews incited the devout women. Leading men they instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas.” So they travel on to another city. They go to Iconium and so chapter 4 opens up with that and they are having great impact. They went to the synagogue at the end of verse 1 of chapter 14: “A large number of people believed both the Jews and Greeks but the Jews who disbelieved were disobedient (they did not believe), stirred up the minds of the Gentiles, embittered them against the brethren.” So you have this conflict.

You come down to verse 19. “The Jews from Antioch and Iconium,” they followed Paul in these travels. Some come and they stir up the trouble. They won over the crowds. “They stoned Paul, dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead” but God miraculously raises him up. He goes into the city then verse 21: “They had preached the Gospel to that city, made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, Antioch” so then they are retracing their steps on that map and they will return to Syrian Antioch where they originated and that is how chapter 14 ends.

Then the next chapter, chapters 15 and that’s crucial. You can appreciate it in light of what we just saw on the first missionary journey, the opposition from the Jews. Now there were unbelieving Jews who got unbelieving Gentiles to join with them in opposing Paul’s ministry but when we come to chapter 15 there has been a subtle adjustment and now we are going to have an attack against Paul and his message from within if you will, the group of professing believers. So chapter 15 verse 1 says, “Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, ‘unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses you cannot be saved.’”

Now just note, if you put that map back up – this is a bigger map you can see it. Jerusalem is down off the map now in the bottom right remember, 250 miles south of Antioch but it says, “Men came down from Judea.” Well you can see we usually talk about if you are going north you are going up but in the Bible you always go up to Jerusalem and down from Jerusalem so they came down from Judea even though you are going north because when you leave Judea where Jerusalem is centered you go down no matter which direction you go and you also read in this when they leave Antioch and go as we would say, ‘down to Jerusalem,’ the Bible says they went up to Jerusalem even though they are going south because you just keep that in mind. In the Bible when you are leaving Jerusalem or Judea the region where Jerusalem is you are always doing down. It doesn’t matter if you are traveling north and when you are going to travel to Jerusalem you are going up. It doesn’t matter whether you are going south you are still going up to Jerusalem.

So “men came down from Judea and they began teaching the brethren.” And what is confusing here is now we are going to have an attack from within by Jews who are claiming to be believers but they are saying it is not enough to believe in Christ. You must also be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses. So down in verse 5: “But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed.” Now whether their faith was genuine or not the point is they made a profession of faith so now you have opposition coming from within the realm of professing believers which can be confusing because here are Pharisees like Paul had been a Pharisee. To profess your faith in Jesus as the Messiah of Israel puts you in trouble with the leaders of the nation but these are Pharisees who have said they believe in Jesus. They believe. “They stood up saying, ‘it is necessary to circumcise them and direct them to observe the Law of Moses.’”

So what has happened when we get to verse 5, they have decided that they have debated this up at Antioch when these Jews came to Antioch from Judea and were saying you have to observe the Law of Moses they couldn’t resolve the debate.

Now remember this is new material. Remember in Acts chapter 10 even Peter wouldn’t have gone to a house of a Gentile to share the Gospel with him if he didn’t get direct revelation from God in a vision and then when he did, the believing leadership of the church in Jerusalem in chapter 11 called him on the carpet to give an explanation why he would go and eat with Gentiles.

You see so this idea of the Gospel being carried out so there is this transition from many of the Jews thinking well now what has happened is it is just going to be a continuum of the Mosaic Law but now we understand the Messiah had to come and die but now we can fulfill all that the law requires and we still have to keep the law and you have this mixture going on and these who have professed faith are often not true believers. We will say more about that in a moment.

So in chapter 15 they have come up to Jerusalem so we call this the Jerusalem conference because remember when the persecution that started under Paul before his conversion after the stoning of Stephen, the believers were scattered out from Jerusalem and that region but the Apostles stayed headquartered there so this becomes the mother church in Jerusalem where the apostles, the original followers of Christ, those 12, were joined together, Mathias had replaced Judas in Acts chapter 1. So they are the recognized leaders.

So they go up there seeking input because Paul and Barnabas are standing for this but who is Paul and who is Barnabas? Are we going to accept their authority over other believing Pharisees who say you have to keep the law. So this is the resolve of that.

Verse 6 says, “And the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stands up.” And that is not a surprise. He always seems to be ready to step up and he is a natural because he is the one that God chose to carry the Gospel to the Gentiles first of all in Acts chapter 10, the house of Cornelius. “So Peter stood and said to them, ‘Brethren you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the Word of the Gospel and believe. God who knows the heart, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.”

The point being he preached the Gospel. They heard it and believed. They had clear manifestation of having received the Spirit but they had not been circumcised. They had not joined in the requirements of the law so how can you say you need to keep the law? “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers no we have been able to bear?” What are you doing? You are trying to go back into bondage. We could never keep the law remember. We Jews, our fathers and these are you know going back into Jewish history couldn’t keep the law. They all know it has brought them into constant condemnation but “We believe we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus.” He is talking here about, “We Jews are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they, Gentiles, also are.” So there is no difference. Jews and Gentiles are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus. The hearts, at the end of verse 9 of the Gentiles in Acts 10 were cleansed by faith. So everybody kept silent and then they were open to hear more from Paul and Barnabas how Gentiles were saved when they believed throughout the churches in Galatia.

This Galatian region is of tremendous importance because this is when the Gospel now is being carried out in a determined way to Gentile places. Now it is going to confront Jews but these are Gentile cities and Gentile parts of the world. We have left Israel. They are Jews that we have confronted in chapters 13 and 14 living in Gentile cities.

James stands up then, he is the leader in the church. This is the half-brother of Christ who wrote the book of James. James the brother of John had been executed by Herod back in chapter 12. This is the James and he becomes a key figure in the church at Jerusalem. Peter will now pass from the scene. Not that he is going to die but he is doesn’t come up now anymore in the book of Acts. We are switching now to Paul. Peter has been the dominant figure early on in Acts, especially through the first 10 and 11 chapters but then Paul becomes the dominant figure and Peter’s ministry goes on as we know from his epistles but Paul becomes the key figure.

James just instructs them in verse 19: “Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles. We write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.” Verse 28: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials” that are laid out in the preceding verses. And he repeats what we have just read.

The point is the Gentiles don’t have to do these things that would be especially difficult and repulsive to Jews. The point is not to get in the face of the Jews and you know, give me a good bloody piece of meat so I can make a statement to the Jews. You don’t have to do those things. As far as having to be circumcised, having to keep the law, no. But really what we would see and later developed by Paul in his letters, principles of liberty. It is a good thing not to you know, to abstain from things sacrificed to idols. Paul will have to deal with that with the Gentile church, Corinth in chapters 8 – 10 of that letter and with the Romans in chapter 14 and foods.

So we have liberty but you don’t have to flaunt the liberty. But no, you can’t require circumcision, you can’t require keeping the law but be sensitive and they just pick out these key things. You know the goal is not to keep Jews from responding but to keep things clear.

So you have the Jerusalem conference. That is key. We will come to that again in chapter 2 of Galatians. Now what we have here and why we have spent this time, we talk about the Judaizers that plagued Paul through his ministry and the book of Galatians is written with them as the opponents. Other portions of the New Testament you have to deal with the Judaizers, Jews who profess faith but are saying you must keep the law and the confusing thing – before you leave Acts 15 is verse 5: “Some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up saying…” it gets confusing. You have Jews here who declare their commitment to Christ that they have believed in Him, they believe He is the Messiah and so on but they say that is not enough. You must keep the law, be circumcised, keep the Mosaic Law and it is a constant cause of confusion among believers because you can see, well God gave the law to Moses, why would He just now be done with that? And these Jews are not willing to recognize that Israel has been put under judgment and God is no longer dealing with in His work of salvation in the world through the nation Israel, the church but it is remembering that is what a Judaizer is, someone who has claimed to believe in Christ.

Anytime we confront someone today who says they believe in Christ, they seem to have a testimony of that but then they are saying or doing things that are contrary. We are confused and then people will say is a Roman Catholic saved or not because they believe in the death and resurrection of Christ, they believe in the virgin birth and we run into this with others. Well now it is confusing. Well you can understand the early church is going to be confusing.

Okay, come over to Galatians. One of Satan’s tactics always has been to infiltrate the church with false believers. Remember 2 Corinthians 11. Satan masquerades as an angel of light. We shouldn’t be surprised that his workers also masquerade as angels of light. So this is the work of the devil early on to move some of his servants, Jews to profess faith in Christ, step out, bear the abuse that will come from regular Jews who won’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. Now have those who will take the suffering that comes from that kind of identification but have never truly trusted Christ. So they have a corrupted Gospel and that is what Paul is going to deal with.

Remember in Acts chapter 20 Paul told the elders from Ephesus “From among your own selves men will arise speaking traverse things.” “From among your own selves,” those who have professed to be believers, those who have been accepted in the church as believers.

I told you to come back to Galatians. If you are there keep on going to Colossians since in our study of Laodicea we talk about the letter to the Colossians. Will you put up that map again, Steve, is that easy to find? Let’s see, go to the next one. That may be a little clearer. I think you can still see Colossae over there to the left. So you see the kind of problem we are having because in the letter Paul writes to the Colossians he has to deal with Judaizing heresies and they are also going to be permeating in the churches in Galatia and you can see there is a certain proximity even though obviously you will spread this out. You have long trips but you realize this region has been corrupted by this kind of teaching.

So we come to Colossians chapter 2, look at verse 8, just breaking in here. “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ.” Verse 9: “For Christ is all the fullness of deity dwelling in bodily form. In Him you have been made complete.” Note verse 11: “In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, the removal of the body of flesh.” Remember that is what the Old Testament prophets said God required of Israel. You need the circumcision of the heart, the removal of the sin but you note the comparison with circumcision here. You have had the circumcision that is necessary, spiritual circumcision because in having to deal with those requiring physical.

Come down to verse 14: “Having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us.” That is the issue of the law and all that the law required but it provided no enablement.

Come down to verse 16: “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink in respect to a festival or new moon or Sabbath Day, things which are a mere shadow of what it to come. The substance belongs to Christ.” See how he is having to explain to these Colossians – don’t get drawn into Judaism. That could never bring about salvation. It never brought salvation to one single Jew in the 1,500 years when Moses received the law down to the coming of Christ. People were always saved by faith because of God’s gracious provision.

So here, verse 18: “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head,” that’s Christ. Verse 20: “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world.” And that expression – we are going to see that in the book of Galatians referring to the law, the ABC’s. That was just like the shadow. From the beginning that was to prepare them for the coming of Christ. They have got it as part of the substance necessary for salvation and then you have all these decrees. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, verse 21. They have the appearance of something good but they have no substance.

So now you can come back to Galatians chapter 1. You see Paul writes this letter, very important letter because he is dealing with a very important issue. We don’t have Judaizers but we have to deal with the same issue and the issue, what is the Gospel? What must we believe? In Galatians chapter 1 these people claim to be teaching the Gospel, look at verse 6, Galatians 1: “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another.” We will do the details of this when we come here. “Only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the Gospel of Christ.” You see they are not directly denying the Gospel; just like we read in Acts 15. They were believers in that sense, “We believe Christ is the Messiah, He died, He was raised from the dead.” But they are distorting that Gospel and saying it is not a complete Gospel, it is not a sufficient Gospel. That is when Paul goes on to pronounce a curse for anyone who averts the Gospel of God’s grace, distorting the Gospel. You see it is not these who are offering one of the temple worship gods, or idol worship or that. These are those who come in with the Gospel but it is not the Gospel because it has been corrupted.

We get down into chapter 2 and I think Paul is dealing here with what happens at the Jerusalem conference in Acts 15. Verse 4: “It was because of the false brethren,” so note here. They were false brethren, “Secretly brought in who have sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ in order to bring us into bondage but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour so that the truth of the Gospel would remain with you.” That is the battle that is being fought, being fought from the beginning that is being fought down to today.

Paul did not accept their claim to be true believers even though they had much in common. I am a Pharisee in my background, here Pharisees. I believe that Jesus is the Messiah. You say that you believe He is the Messiah. I believe He died and was raised from the dead. You say you believe He died. I believe that if you believe that truth you will be saved. They say, “No you won’t. You have to now be circumcised and keep the law.” You can see some people would say, “We rid more friends that way. Why are we battling over this? We have the whole world against us. At least we had some Jews who agree on some of the basics.” We don’t agree on anything that matters. If you don’t agree on the content of the Gospel and the way of salvation what do you have? And this will become an issue not only of salvation but of sanctification. Not only how are you saved but how do you live the Christian life.

When you come to chapter 3, verse 2: “This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit are you now perfected by the flesh.” Alright we get the point. We are saved by faith alone but now to live a godly life you have to keep the Mosaic Law. No, you are not saved by the law. You are not sanctified by the law. It is a work of God’s grace.

Paul, by the time we get to the end of Galatians, chapter 6, he will say what the problem is. Verse 12: “Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh, try to compel you to be circumcised simply so they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.” Because now we have got this compromised middle that well, you know, we are going to be teaching the law. We are going to be teaching circumcision. We are going to be teaching the central role of the nation Israel and the requirements of Israel’s law, why? They are looking to avoid persecution. So now we can be followers of Christ and not get so severely dealt with by the Jews which is always the case, and with the Romans in the pagan religion.

The problem the Romans had with Christianity was not that it was another religion. You know when they conquered people they just put the god of the people they conquered in their pantheon as great. The problem with Christianity was it says we are the only religion. Now wait a minute, wait a minute. That is not acceptable. So here with the Jews you get you know, here Paul says is the problem. They are trying to fit in with the Jews, avoid persecution but it’s for selfish reasons.

Alright, now we are ready to go to verse 1, Galatians chapter 1, verse 1. Remember these Galatians getting the letter had this context. We have to be sure we have it. “Paul, an apostle not sent from men or through the agency of man but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him for the dead and all the brethren who are with me to the churches of Galatia.” We have to begin right away. This is a harsh letter and no introductory comments, no warm greetings. Remember he had been to these churches. He establishes the church, he had revisited the churches but this is serious business. We are going to launch right into it.

At first he has to establish his authority because two ways the devil works. He attacks the credibility of the messenger and he attacks the purity of the message and they go hand in hand because if he discredits Paul he discredits the message of Paul. If he discredits the message of Paul he discredits the character of Paul. So it is not so complicated. You attack the messenger, you attack his message.

So Paul starts out, “I am an apostle.” I am a genuine representative appointed by God. “Not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.” I don’t come here with papers from the apostles in Jerusalem. I don’t come here because important men have said Paul is someone to be listened to. I am writing to you because God appointed me an apostle.

Three or four requirements of an apostle (we have been through these a number of times), number 1 he was an eye witness of the resurrection. He had seen Christ after His resurrection from the dead, I Corinthians chapter 9, verse 1. Paul said to the Corinthians, “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” Remember on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9 he had a personal confrontation with the risen Christ. In Acts chapter 1 when they were going to appoint a replacement for Judas. The twelve were a special unique group as you are aware. They thought it was necessary to appoint a replacement for Judas. I think that was the direction of the Holy Spirit for them in light of Acts 1. He had to be someone who could be an eye-witness of the resurrection. He had seen Christ after the resurrection from the dead.

Come back to Acts chapter 10, verse 40. Peter is preaching at the house of Cornelius and presenting the Gospel. He has gone through a summary of the life of Christ, the death of Christ at the end of verse 39: “They put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. God raised Him up on the third day and gr anted that He should become visible.” Note, “Not to all people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God that is, to us, who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He ordered s to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.” So they are saying here and there were others who saw the resurrected Christ like 500 at once that Paul talked about in I Corinthians 15 but these 12 have a unique role and will be used of God to bring new truth to believers to establish the church, to testify Christ is alive. Not because someone told me but because I saw Him after He was raised from the dead. So that is Peter’s claim. That is Paul’s claim.

Come to I Corinthians 15 and you have here some of those that had appearances in I Corinthians chapter 15. He said in verse 6 “There were 500,” the verse I just referred to “at one time.” But he mentions then specifically “Cephas, the twelve, James, all the apostles.” They had that repeated time with Christ remember in the 40 days after His resurrection before the ascension in Acts chapter 1. “Last of all as the one untimely born He appeared to me also and I am the least of the apostles.” In the sense I was one who persecuted Christ. These other apostles, those 12 they were those who followed Him and were faithful to Him from the beginning, I was a persecutor. That is what he means by the least. Not that he sees himself as having less authority and less power. Paul asserts that clearly but I am not worthy but it is God’s grace that has put me in this position.

So he was an eye-witness. This means of course that there were no apostles. Some of the error that infiltrates the church comes from the church just ignoring what God says. So we have the modern day apostolic movement claiming that there have been apostles raised up in these last days and they are the authoritative leaders of the church broadly and there are books written on it and books interviewing these apostles and man who has been self-appointed to appoint apostles and what happens to the Scripture? Well now we have men who are bringing us new revelation and that goes on. But you had to be an eye-witness.

Secondly, your ministry had to be accompanied by miracle, 2 Corinthians 12:12, “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all signs and wonder and miracles.” Miracles were an evidence. How do you know these men are true, genuine? Well God validates them with the power that ordinary people don’t have. Genuine miracles not the hocus pocus miracles that false teachers come with.

Acts chapter 5, verse 12 says, “At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people.” You see the apostles are being singled out. Paul said his ministry in Romans 15:19 “Was carried out in the power of signs and wonders.” We think, “oh we would like to have that. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. We ought to have the same power.” No. That doesn’t mean He always does the same thing in the same way. He is not walking the earth today in a physical body. You can’t go to Jerusalem and talk to Him. You can’t observe Him doing miracles. He doesn’t do the same thing. People just pull out a verse as thought that settles it. It doesn’t settle it. He had a special purpose at a special time. He is validating the ministry and message of these apostles.

So they were eye-witnesses of the resurrection. They performed miracles that validated that ministry and they received their message directly from God and that is what Paul will declare in Galatians chapter 1 that he received his message from God. Verse 11 of chapter 1 of Galatians: “I would have you know brethren the Gospel which was preached by me was not according to man. I neither received it from man nor was I taught it. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” It is not a different Gospel than the other apostles preached but Paul making clear he received it directly from Christ even as the other apostles had. So they received revelation.

In Ephesians chapter 3 Paul says “The revelation concerning the church was revealed to him.” Now there was information about the church. Paul wasn’t even saved when the church began in Acts 2 and he was just saved in Acts 9 and then in Acts 10 Peter carries the Gospel to Gentiles but the understanding of God’s work in building the church comprised of Jew and Gentile and obliterating the distinction between Jews and Gentiles making a new body that is not revealed until Paul. He said it was a mystery hidden before but now revealed through him. And Peter where we studied his epistles said that he learned some of these things from Paul; so revelation being given to these men.

Turn over to Hebrews chapter 2 and we will be about done. Hebrews chapter 2, the warning – “You better listen to this message,” verse 2: “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we don’t drift away from it. For if the words spoken through angels proved unalterable” (that’s the Mosaic Law given through the mediation of angels on Mount Sinai to Moses) every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty “how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was first spoken through the Lord it was confirmed to us by those that heard.” Now note: “God testifying with them both by signs and wonders, by various miracles, by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His will.” So we know this message is true. It is the message that Christ preached. It was the message that was confirmed and validated by the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. That is why all of these movements that come and supposedly they claim that they have supernatural power is undermining confidence in the finality of the revelation God has given. We don’t need miracles today. We have the completed Word of God and if they don’t believe what the Word of God says they won’t believe no matter what the miracle. Jesus said “If they don’t believe Moses and the prophets they won’t believe if one is raised from the dead.” And that was validated.

So we are not in the need for additional revelation or additional power in that sense. So what are we doing today? I don’t have anything new to bring to you. All I have is what has been revealed. That is true of all the teaching that goes on. We are teaching the Word. Now it may be new to people who never heard it but it is not new revelation because there is no new revelation. It is complete. It is done.

I say “Well boy, if I could you know, do a mighty miracle of healing,” no. Because the people who wouldn’t believe the Word of God didn’t believe after Christ was raised from the dead. The Jewish leaders didn’t believe even when the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb said, “Well tell this lie. He fell asleep and they came and stole His body.” Well of course, they are in a box because if you say, “Well, no, He just disappeared,” they are going to be executed because nobody believes that. So they don’t believe. So we don’t need more power. We need more Word and that will stir opposition.

Now Paul, the fourth thing you had to be directly appointed by Christ and that is what he is saying in verse 1. “It wasn’t by men, the agency of men, it’s by the appointment of God.”

We will pick up and look through these. We see something of the issues being dealt with that will keep coming up through Galatians. The devil will be attacking the message, we saw that as he tried to corrupt it. He will be attacking the messenger, Paul. So Paul will be defending himself, his apostleship. He will be defending his message, salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The attacks of the devil don’t change. So we hold on to the truth and we live accordingly.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your Word. Lord we are blessed even beyond what the early church had. We have the revelation completed, the Galatian churches didn’t have. The blessing and benefit of the revelation that You would bring in later times through Paul, through John, through Peter. Lord now we have a fuller completed understanding. Lord we live in a day when each of us is privileged to have this completed revelation in our possession. May we take it to heart. May we hold it fast individually and as a church. May we stand for it. May we be faithful with it in the face of opposition, persecution if it comes in the way we live and in what we teach. Bless us in the week ahead. We pray that as the Gospel goes out in various times and in various places the Spirit might use it to convict hearts and to bring people to salvation in Christ. In His name we pray, amen.