Bob Weppler: Hello church family.
Bob Weppler: Perfect segue, mike, All right.
Bob Weppler: So tonight we are looking at the Book of Galatians.
Bob Weppler: It is the fourth book as far as the canon order.
Bob Weppler: It's actually Paul's first book.
Bob Weppler: It's his first one.
Bob Weppler: He would write a total of 13 books.
Bob Weppler: And you've got Romans.
Bob Weppler: And you've got the two letters to Corinth preceding this letter, likely written in 49 AD.
Bob Weppler: Okay, shortly after Paul's first missionary journey and shortly before the Jerusalem Council.
Bob Weppler: Okay, and this is all covered in Acts 13, 14, and 15.
Bob Weppler: To whom is it written?
Bob Weppler: It is written to the churches plural churches in Galatia.
Bob Weppler: Galatia is a province, not a city.
Bob Weppler: It is largely a Gentile region.
Bob Weppler: Why did Paul write?
Bob Weppler: Well, apparently his brand new Christians have come under the influence of false teaching.
Bob Weppler: The teachers were undermining the central New Testament doctrine of justification by faith.
Bob Weppler: These agitators were described by Paul as false brothers.
Bob Weppler: They identified themselves as Jewish Christians and taught that the new Gentile converts needed to be circumcised and needed to follow certain ceremonial customs of the Mosaic law.
Bob Weppler: Paul rightfully saw this as a big problem.
Bob Weppler: The apostle needed to re-educate them in their understanding of the true gospel.
Bob Weppler: Anything added to the true gospel nullifies the gospel.
Bob Weppler: So he writes a persuasive letter in the form of an argument Paul is attacking.
Bob Weppler: Error.
Bob Weppler: It's Paul versus the agitators.
Bob Weppler: What is at stake is the gospel.
Bob Weppler: It's important to note here.
Bob Weppler: What is not at stake the souls of the Galatian believers.
Bob Weppler: They are scared and dwelled.
Bob Weppler: They are saved and they always will be.
Bob Weppler: However, as new disciples, their witness for Christ had to be true and accurate.
Bob Weppler: False witness will not grow the church.
Bob Weppler: Paul is well aware that this letter is going to be read aloud in a public forum, typically in a synagogue, a marketplace perhaps.
Bob Weppler: So not only are the new Gentile believers listening, but so are the agitators.
Bob Weppler: The primary theme here is justification by faith.
Bob Weppler: The secondary theme freedom in Christ versus slavery and obligation to the law.
Bob Weppler: Paul must convince the Galatians of one the dangers of legalism.
Bob Weppler: What is legalism?
Bob Weppler: It's a system.
Bob Weppler: It's a religious system of rules, regulations, traditions.
Bob Weppler: Adherence to the Mosaic law will cast them into religious slavery.
Bob Weppler: Adherence will take their focus off of the person and work of Christ.
Bob Weppler: And two, he must convince the Galatians that because they are spirit and dwell, they have freedom in Christ and unity in Christ.
Bob Weppler: There's five sections to the book.
Bob Weppler: The first three sections, an introduction, a narrative and a transition section set up the fourth and most important section of the book, which is the argument.
Bob Weppler: And lastly, there's a concluding section.
Bob Weppler: So before we open God's word, let's go to him in prayer.
Bob Weppler: Heavenly Father, we are so grateful to be opening your word.
Bob Weppler: Please illuminate your word for us.
Bob Weppler: Please help us to observe, interpret and, most importantly, father, help us to apply your precious word to our lives.
Bob Weppler: In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
Bob Weppler: So the introduction is the first nine verses of the letter.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 1-1.
Bob Weppler: Paul, an apostle, not from men or by men, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with him to the churches in Galatia, raised him in peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.
Bob Weppler: To him be all the glory forever and ever.
Bob Weppler: Amen.
Bob Weppler: You guys notice anything missing here?
Bob Weppler: What is typical of a letter that Paul writes to the churches?
Bob Weppler: There's no commendation, there's no offer of thanksgiving to God the Father for the spiritual growth of readers.
Bob Weppler: Paul is going to plunge straight into the rhetoric, verse 6.
Bob Weppler: I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel.
Bob Weppler: Not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
Bob Weppler: But even if an angel, even if we are an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse, be on him.
Bob Weppler: As we have said before, I now say again if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse, be on him.
Bob Weppler: Now.
Bob Weppler: Remember, this letter is going to be read in a public forum.
Bob Weppler: So with this shocking statement, paul is both shaming the Galatian believers and cursing the agitators.
Bob Weppler: In Paul's view, turning to a different gospel is tantamount to turning away from God himself.
Bob Weppler: One thing is for sure Paul has everyone's attention.
Bob Weppler: Next is our narrative section.
Bob Weppler: This starts in verse 111 and runs through verse 214.
Bob Weppler: So in the next 27 verses, paul provides one, a narrative account of what has happened leading up to this letter and two, an explanation of the nature of his argument.
Bob Weppler: In this section, paul presents his life and his actions as an example for the Galatians to imitate.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 111.
Bob Weppler: I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin, for I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by revelation of Jesus Christ.
Bob Weppler: Paul is saying I received the gospel from the Lord Jesus himself.
Bob Weppler: How could this message I conveyed to you have anything missing?
Bob Weppler: How could it not be 100% accurate and truthful?
Bob Weppler: In this section, paul is going to provide different types of behavior Behavior that he wants the Galatians to adopt and behavior that he wants them to shun, to avoid.
Bob Weppler: The apostle explains his former life as a Jewish zealot entrenched in the customs and traditions and rituals of Judaism.
Bob Weppler: This behavior is to be shunned.
Bob Weppler: He then writes of his commission to preach to the Gentiles, as well as his actions over a three-year period.
Bob Weppler: This is the behavior to be adopted, to be imitated.
Bob Weppler: What was Paul doing during this three-year period?
Bob Weppler: He wasn't consulting with the other apostles or the leaders of the Jerusalem church.
Bob Weppler: He wasn't listening to people.
Bob Weppler: Paul was in a barren wilderness.
Bob Weppler: Paul was preparing himself for ministry with no distractions being made.
Bob Weppler: Ready to be a messenger to the Gentiles by the Lord Jesus himself.
Bob Weppler: Did Paul get the gospel right?
Bob Weppler: Verse 123,.
Bob Weppler: They simply kept hearing he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.
Bob Weppler: And they glorified God because of me.
Bob Weppler: Yeah, he got it right.
Bob Weppler: 14 years go by, paul, barnabas and a Greek named Titus go up to Jerusalem to meet with the leaders of the church.
Bob Weppler: Why the same problem had arisen in Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas were pastoring the church.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 2-2.
Bob Weppler: I went up according to a revelation and presented to them the gospel I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those recognized as leaders.
Bob Weppler: I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running in vain.
Bob Weppler: But not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
Bob Weppler: This matter arose because the false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us.
Bob Weppler: But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you.
Bob Weppler: Now.
Bob Weppler: This is obviously an example for them to adopt.
Bob Weppler: Don't give in.
Bob Weppler: Then did the leaders of the Jewish Christian church compel Titus, the newly converted Gentile, to get circumcised?
Bob Weppler: No, so neither should they.
Bob Weppler: Paul is showing him that these men who are claiming to be Jewish Christians are nothing but agitators, spies, infiltrators.
Bob Weppler: They are false.
Bob Weppler: Don't listen to their distorted gospel.
Bob Weppler: Don't add works to faith.
Bob Weppler: Don't add to their distorted gospel.
Bob Weppler: Don't add works to faith.
Bob Weppler: Don't add anything to the gospel of saving grace.
Bob Weppler: The last part of this narrative section presents a shocking story that takes place in Antioch, verse 2, 11.
Bob Weppler: But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned, for he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James.
Bob Weppler: However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself because he feared those from the circumcision party.
Bob Weppler: Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy.
Bob Weppler: But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone if you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?
Bob Weppler: Cephas is Peter, the Apostle.
Bob Weppler: That is his Greek name.
Bob Weppler: Let's take a step back here.
Bob Weppler: Okay, this is Peter.
Bob Weppler: This is arguably the leader of the apostles.
Bob Weppler: When we read the Gospels, whose name is first Peter?
Bob Weppler: Okay, paul is going right after Peter.
Bob Weppler: Paul certainly doesn't feel inferior to Peter, Not at all.
Bob Weppler: So at first Peter shows unity and fellowship with the Gentiles.
Bob Weppler: But when the Torah observers show up, he ditches the Gentiles and joins them.
Bob Weppler: The circumcision part.
Bob Weppler: Is Peter a good witness for Christ?
Bob Weppler: No, the Apostle Peter has been entrusted with the gospel message for the Jews.
Bob Weppler: His actions are in conflict with the character of his calling.
Bob Weppler: His actions are an example of what the Galatian believers are to shun, to avoid, to steer clear of.
Bob Weppler: So Paul opposes him to his face.
Bob Weppler: Paul wants the converted Gentiles to not be afraid to confront these false teachers, to not only reject the agitators but confront them to their face.
Bob Weppler: If Paul wasn't afraid to confront Peter, they shouldn't be afraid to confront the agitators.
Bob Weppler: Next we have our third section, which is the transition.
Bob Weppler: It's only seven verses.
Bob Weppler: It begins in 2.15.
Bob Weppler: So the next seven verses sum up the content in the previous section and they look forward.
Bob Weppler: They look forward to the verses, the central theme, okay, which is justification by grace, through faith.
Bob Weppler: And let's go to verse 215.
Bob Weppler: Verse 215.
Bob Weppler: We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.
Bob Weppler: And yet, because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Christ Jesus, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus.
Bob Weppler: This was so we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.
Bob Weppler: What do we observe in this passage?
Bob Weppler: Justified three times Faith in Christ juxtaposed with works of the law.
Bob Weppler: There it is Justified, not guilty, saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.
Bob Weppler: Nothing more needs to be done.
Bob Weppler: Now Paul gets personal.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 219.
Bob Weppler: Verse 219, for through the law I die to the law so that I might live for God.
Bob Weppler: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live the life.
Bob Weppler: I now live in the body.
Bob Weppler: I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Bob Weppler: I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
Bob Weppler: Paul dies not only to the law but to the customs and traditions he had previously served.
Bob Weppler: The apostle is saying here that in order for him to live for God, he had to die to the law.
Bob Weppler: Paul is saying Jesus died for me.
Bob Weppler: He wants them to see the intimacy of the connection between the Savior's death and the believer's life.
Bob Weppler: It is Paul's complete and total identity with Christ that must be imitated by the Galatian believers.
Bob Weppler: Section 4.
Bob Weppler: This is the argument in seven parts.
Bob Weppler: This is going to encompass chapters 3, 4, and 5, as well as half of chapter 6.
Bob Weppler: So part one of the argument an appeal to the faith of Abraham.
Bob Weppler: In the next 18 verses, paul introduces his audience to the following very important words for this entire argument Spirit, righteousness, son, heir, blessing, seed, promise, covenant and inheritance.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 3-1.
Bob Weppler: You foolish Galatians who cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
Bob Weppler: I only want to learn this from you Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard?
Bob Weppler: Are you so foolish, after beginning by the Spirit and now finishing by the flesh, do you experience so much for nothing?
Bob Weppler: If in fact it was for nothing, so then does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?
Bob Weppler: The point of this appeal is that Paul takes the reception of the Holy Spirit as irrefutable evidence that God has accepted these Galatian believers, these Galatian Gentiles.
Bob Weppler: In other words, you have the Spirit indwelling you.
Bob Weppler: Why are you thinking of submitting to the Mosaic law?
Bob Weppler: Verse five just like Abraham, who believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness?
Bob Weppler: What is true of Abraham is true of the Galatians?
Bob Weppler: Right standing with God comes through faith alone Verse 7,.
Bob Weppler: You know that that those who have faith, these are Abraham's sons.
Bob Weppler: Now, the scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaim the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying all the nations will be blessed through you.
Bob Weppler: Consequently, those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith.
Bob Weppler: So in this passage, in the next several, he's going to go to the Old Testament seven times.
Bob Weppler: Paul uses Abraham to make the positive point that the Galatians already received and will continue to receive the divine blessings, the divine blessings they need on the basis of faith, just as Abraham did.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 14.
Bob Weppler: The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised spirit through faith.
Bob Weppler: Part two, an appeal to family ties.
Bob Weppler: You're a son and an heir.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 319.
Bob Weppler: Why then was the law given?
Bob Weppler: It was added for the sake of transgressions, until the seed to whom the promise was made would come.
Bob Weppler: Paul is saying that the law served as a temporary measure to set apart God's chosen people.
Bob Weppler: The purpose was to keep them under custody until the arrival of Jesus the sake of transgressions.
Bob Weppler: What does that mean?
Bob Weppler: Ultimately, the law will cause everyone who is subject to it to recognize their inability to keep it.
Bob Weppler: This negative effect of the law should convince the transgressor, the rebel, the sinner, of their need for God's mercy, their need for a savior Verse 322.
Bob Weppler: A Savior Verse 322.
Bob Weppler: But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin's power so that the promise might be given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ for those who believe.
Bob Weppler: Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed.
Bob Weppler: The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.
Bob Weppler: But since faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for through faith, you are sons of God in Christ Jesus.
Bob Weppler: So this designation in Christ Jesus, so this designation sons of God, was seen in Jewish circles as something that should be solely predicated for Israel, israel alone.
Bob Weppler: They were the physical descendants of Abraham, making them sons of God.
Bob Weppler: Okay, the point that Paul is making in this passage is that the Gentiles.
Bob Weppler: The Gentiles can now enjoy a title that was exclusively for the Jews, and this status as sons of God is solely based on faith in the finished work of Christ.
Bob Weppler: Look at verse 4-4.
Bob Weppler: When the time came to completion, god sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoptions as sons.
Bob Weppler: And because you are sons, god sent the spirit of the son into our hearts, crying Abba Father, so you are no longer a slave but a son.
Bob Weppler: And if a son, then God made you an heir.
Bob Weppler: Notice the word sent, the word sent.
Bob Weppler: Sending of the Son and sending of the Spirit of the Son were two parts of one purpose.
Bob Weppler: Both are part of God, the Father's saving grace.
Bob Weppler: Both, in both instances, the Father is the sender, the Holy Spirit is the one who forms Christ in the believer.
Bob Weppler: The Holy Spirit conforms the believer to the image of the Son, because the believer is an adopted son, like the begotten son.
Bob Weppler: The believer is part of the family, not a slave, but a son, and if a son an heir, and if an heir an inheritance awaits.
Bob Weppler: Part three, an appeal to emotions.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 4-8.
Bob Weppler: But in the past, since you didn't know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not God's.
Bob Weppler: But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements?
Bob Weppler: Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?
Bob Weppler: You are observing special days, months, seasons, years.
Bob Weppler: I'm fearful for you.
Bob Weppler: So perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.
Bob Weppler: Fear is perhaps the most powerful motivator.
Bob Weppler: Paul is telling the Galatians that conforming to Jewish customs is as worthless as their former worship of pagan gods.
Bob Weppler: It will enslave them again Two times.
Bob Weppler: In this part of the argument, paul shames the Galatians.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 11 again.
Bob Weppler: Perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.
Bob Weppler: Let's go down to verse 20.
Bob Weppler: Verse 20.
Bob Weppler: I'd like to be with you right now and change my tone of voice, because I don't know what to do about you.
Bob Weppler: So, mixed in with these negative emotional appeals, he has a positive appeal.
Bob Weppler: Verse 12,.
Bob Weppler: I beg you, brothers and sisters, because, as I am, become as I am, for I also have become as you are, you have not wronged me.
Bob Weppler: Paul is emphatically calling on the new believers to imitate him.
Bob Weppler: Imitate him.
Bob Weppler: It's an appeal to unity.
Bob Weppler: Like Paul, they must reject the seduction of the agitators.
Bob Weppler: Without unity between Paul and the churches of Galatia, the unity in the Galatian churches will disintegrate.
Bob Weppler: Most importantly, their unity through their love of Christ becomes totally compromised.
Bob Weppler: Adding works of the law to saving grace dilutes grace Works, weaken the believer's love for Jesus.
Bob Weppler: Also, it would be detrimental to their loving relationship with Paul.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 19,.
Bob Weppler: Verse 19.
Bob Weppler: My children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you.
Bob Weppler: This is called rhetorical impersonation.
Bob Weppler: He is presenting the Galatians as his children and himself as his mother, as their mother, who gave them spiritual birth.
Bob Weppler: He wants the Galatians to understand just how much he cares for them.
Bob Weppler: His labor pain should have ended when they accepted the gospel and were born again, but due to their confusion, he has to go through these labor pains all over again.
Bob Weppler: Part four an appeal to freedom.
Bob Weppler: An appeal to freedom, verse 421.
Bob Weppler: Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don't you hear the law?
Bob Weppler: For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman.
Bob Weppler: Here Paul is going to reach back into the Old Testament again.
Bob Weppler: Using figurative language, he contrasts two covenants the Mosaic covenant and the Abrahamic covenant.
Bob Weppler: The child of Hagar the slave woman represents slavery under the law, which is the foundation of the Mosaic covenant.
Bob Weppler: The child of Sarah, abraham's wife, represents freedom through the promise, which is the foundation of the Abrahamic covenant.
Bob Weppler: Paul is stressing to the Galatians that they received the promise and the inheritance in the same way that Isaac did, through divine intervention, not by submitting to the law.
Bob Weppler: Paul has identified the agitators in Galatia with Hagar the slave woman, and himself with Sarah the free woman.
Bob Weppler: Let's take a look at verse 431.
Bob Weppler: 431.
Bob Weppler: Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave, but of the free woman.
Bob Weppler: 431.
Bob Weppler: This secondary theme of freedom versus slavery has been well announced and introduced.
Bob Weppler: Now Paul's going to pursue this.
Bob Weppler: Paul must explain what freedom amounts to in the Christian life, how freedom should be used, and we're going to see this in part five.
Bob Weppler: Part five All you need is love and appeal to the law.
Bob Weppler: Well, because Jesus fulfilled the law, let's look at five.
Bob Weppler: One For freedom.
Bob Weppler: Christ set us free.
Bob Weppler: Stand firm, then.
Bob Weppler: Don't submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Bob Weppler: Take note I, paul, am telling you that if you get yourself circumcised, christ will not benefit you at all.
Bob Weppler: Again, I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to do the entire law.
Bob Weppler: You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ.
Bob Weppler: You have fallen from grace, for we eagerly await, through the spirit, by faith, the hope of righteousness.
Bob Weppler: For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything.
Bob Weppler: What matters is faith working through love.
Bob Weppler: What's Paul's message?
Bob Weppler: Don't listen to these men who are trying to make you Jewish.
Bob Weppler: Jewish customs and rituals don't matter.
Bob Weppler: What matters Faith working through love.
Bob Weppler: The consummation of faith is found in doing loving works of charity, servitude, sacrifice.
Bob Weppler: These loving works are evidence of salvation, not the means of it.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 13, 513.
Bob Weppler: For you will call to be free, brothers and sisters, only don't use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.
Bob Weppler: For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement love your neighbor as yourself.
Bob Weppler: And who is the greatest example of this?
Bob Weppler: The Lord Jesus, christ himself.
Bob Weppler: The life and teaching of Christ is the ground of Paul's teaching.
Bob Weppler: At this juncture of the argument here he is saying to the believers Jesus fulfilled the entire law.
Bob Weppler: Focus on him, follow his example, love like he loves.
Bob Weppler: Love like he loves.
Bob Weppler: Part six, an appeal to the Holy Spirit.
Bob Weppler: Verse 516.
Bob Weppler: I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.
Bob Weppler: Paul's greatest fear, his greatest fear, is that the Galatians are in danger of submitting to the Mosaic law.
Bob Weppler: They're right on the cusp, which is why this letter is so incredibly urgent.
Bob Weppler: The apostle is saying here that they don't need the law to marshal their behavior.
Bob Weppler: Why?
Bob Weppler: Because the spirit indwells them.
Bob Weppler: The spirit will guide you, but only if they yield to the spirit.
Bob Weppler: In the spirit-led battle against the sinful inclinations of the flesh, the Galatians have all the direction they need with the spirit.
Bob Weppler: They simply need to yield.
Bob Weppler: In verses 19 through 23, we have the 19 vices that Paul refers to as the works of the flesh, contrasted with the nine virtues that Paul calls the fruit of the spirit.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 24.
Bob Weppler: Now, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Bob Weppler: If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit.
Bob Weppler: Paul is saying you belong to Christ, bear his image, yield to the spirit.
Bob Weppler: The spirit will empower you and you will not capitulate to the desires of the flesh.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 18.
Bob Weppler: Let's go back to verse 18.
Bob Weppler: But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.
Bob Weppler: In other words, walk in the spirit.
Bob Weppler: Model Jesus.
Bob Weppler: He has already fulfilled the law.
Bob Weppler: And then, lastly, an appeal to the law of Christ.
Bob Weppler: The law of Christ, verse 6-1.
Bob Weppler: Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you, who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves, so that you also won't be tempted.
Bob Weppler: Carry one another's burdens.
Bob Weppler: In this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Bob Weppler: What Paul has in mind here is that Jesus is the ultimate burden bearer.
Bob Weppler: A pattern of burden bearing and self-giving is seen as the essence of what our Lord was all about.
Bob Weppler: This is at the heart of what Paul means when he speaks of the law of Christ.
Bob Weppler: To bear one another's burdens was a fulfillment of Christ's law.
Bob Weppler: Why?
Bob Weppler: Because this amounted to taking up one's cross and following the pattern of Christ's life, in other words, being a good disciple, heeding his teaching, self-sacrificial behavior.
Bob Weppler: Verse 9.
Bob Weppler: Argument complete.
Bob Weppler: Now for Paul's summary.
Bob Weppler: There's no final greeting here, no prayer requests, no expression of joy.
Bob Weppler: This was not a friendly, lighthearted letter.
Bob Weppler: It was a polemic.
Bob Weppler: It was an attack.
Bob Weppler: It was an attack against false teachers.
Bob Weppler: It was an attack against hypocrites Verse 13,.
Bob Weppler: For even the circumcised don't keep the law themselves, yet they want you to be circumcised in order to boast about their flesh.
Bob Weppler: It is interesting to note in Paul's concluding message, there is no mention, no mention at all, of the two themes that ran throughout the entire argument Justification by faith and freedom versus slavery.
Bob Weppler: So what are Paul's parting words going to be?
Bob Weppler: Verse 14.
Bob Weppler: But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Bob Weppler: The world has been crucified.
Bob Weppler: To me through the cross and I to the world.
Bob Weppler: For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing.
Bob Weppler: What matters instead is a new creation.
Bob Weppler: The apostle wants the Galatians to envision Christ hanging on the cross for them.
Bob Weppler: Paul believes that the death and resurrection of Jesus changed the world.
Bob Weppler: The new age has dawned, the age of grace.
Bob Weppler: What matters is that new creation.
Bob Weppler: The Holy Spirit that indwells them testifies to it.
Bob Weppler: Adherence to Jewish customs is the past.
Bob Weppler: It is irrelevant.
Bob Weppler: It's a new age.
Bob Weppler: Job once asked the question how can a person be justified before God?
Bob Weppler: Every false religion has the same wrong answer Human effort.
Bob Weppler: Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians to attack this falsehood.
Bob Weppler: About 1500 years later, a Catholic priest, an Augustinian monk, named Martin Luther, would come to salvation.
Bob Weppler: While teaching the book of Galatians, luther knew he was a sinner.
Bob Weppler: He failed at every attempt to please God through his own efforts.
Bob Weppler: Believing in church tradition, he had become a religious slave.
Bob Weppler: Purgatory was his future, if that exists.
Bob Weppler: Feelings of depression were his present reality.
Bob Weppler: One day, while teaching Galatians, the most famous reformist uncovered the answer to Job's question.
Bob Weppler: We are justified by God's grace through faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Bob Weppler: For Luther, good news at last.
Bob Weppler: He would write this the epistle to the Galatians is my epistle.
Bob Weppler: I have betrothed myself to it.
Bob Weppler: It is my Katie.
Bob Weppler: Katie was his wife's name.
Bob Weppler: Luther would lecture on Galatians many times throughout his life.
Bob Weppler: In 1535, he wrote this we have taken it upon ourselves, in the Lord's name, to lecture on the epistle of Paul to the Galatians once more.
Bob Weppler: This is not because we want to teach something new or unknown.
Bob Weppler: It is because, as I often warn you, there is a clear and present danger that the devil may take from us the pure doctrine of faith and may substitute for it the doctrines of works and of human traditions.
Bob Weppler: The clear and present danger that Luther speaks of is ever present today.
Bob Weppler: Sadly, in spite of Paul's efforts and the efforts of so many throughout the centuries, the true gospel is not the message that is being preached in most pulpits.
Bob Weppler: Today, we, as Christians, are truly blessed.
Bob Weppler: Today we, as Christians, are truly blessed.
Bob Weppler: God saw to it that the gospel of saving grace somehow, in some way, got to us.
Bob Weppler: We received it and everything changed.
Bob Weppler: Like Paul, we were crucified with Christ.
Bob Weppler: We no longer live, but Christ lives in us through the spirit of Christ.
Bob Weppler: So let's do as Paul suggests.
Bob Weppler: Let's walk in the spirit, by yielding to the spirit.
Bob Weppler: This will enable us to follow the example of Christ, to love like Jesus loved, to bear each other's burdens.
Bob Weppler: This will show the heart of Jesus to a lost world that truly needs to experience him.
Bob Weppler: Let's pray.
Bob Weppler: Oh Father, thank you for your word, thank you for Paul, thank you for his servitude, thank you for all of his letters, thank you for this amazing letter that we could so easily apply to our lives.
Bob Weppler: Father, there are so many out there.
Bob Weppler: Our ministry field, our missionary field, is right outside this door.
Bob Weppler: Help us, father, please open doors for us so that we could share the gospel with so many that are just stuck in this religious slavery that Paul and Luther speak of and knew.
Bob Weppler: So, father, please help us.
Bob Weppler: Help us to be bold and share the gospel.
Bob Weppler: Be with us, father, as we go out into the world.
Bob Weppler: Help us to be salt and light.
Bob Weppler: In Jesus' name, we pray.
Bob Weppler: Amen.