"Fighting for the Faith" Galatians 1:1-6

How do make myself right with God?  Do I need to attend the right church regularly, get baptized, take communion?  Do I need to follow all of the 10 commandments, and the strict calendar and dietary laws of the Old Testament? 

If you typed the question, "How do Christians believe you have to do to be saved from Hell,"  into your internet search engine, you would find all of those answers, and many more.

This is the question that divided the Protestants from the Catholics.  And today it divides many who call themselves "Christian."

But if we look at Scripture, the answer is very plain.  In fact, the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to a group of churches in Galatia, that answers that question emphatically.  His answer is that "by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

We are saved entirely because of God's favor toward us.  We didn't and can't earn our salvation.  "Nothing to the cross I bring, only to the cross I cling."

Join us on this journey through Paul's fight for the gospel of grace.

Transcript

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once again this is PV viable alive. And this morning we're going to be considering the first of a series of sermons and the book of Galatians, The Epistle of Paul to the church's Andalasia. This is a sermon Siri's that I started at my church, part View Baptist Church, in which talked Kansas, and I'm sharing it with you as I shared it with them on Sunday mornings. So if you want to come and be a part of our service, we meet at 10:50 a.m. On Sunday mornings. If you want to turn in your Bibles, you can turn to Galatians chapter one and we're going to this morning. Be looking at versus one through six. Paul writes Paul an apostle not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God, the father who raised him from the dead and all the brethren who are with me to the churches of DeLay, Sha Grace to you and peace from God, the father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and father to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And then I want you to take note that very abruptly Paul's tone changes. He says. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel That's versus one through six. Those of versus that we're going to be considering today And the outlined around, which you could place those vs is this. We're going to introduce the Book of Galatians. We're gonna talk about the history behind the Book of Galatians. We're gonna talk about the spirit of the letter and then its central message. And the central message is this that we need to stand for the truth. The Book of Galatians is a letter that Paul wrote to several churches that he started and they turned away from the truth that he taught them. And so I'm entitling this sermon fighting for the truth. And we're gonna be looking a great deal of Paul because this letter deals extensively with Paul and who he is. And the truth that he stands for have a great deal of admiration for Paul for his stand. Because today in our society it seems as though nobody stands for the truth. Nobody wants anybody else to stay in for the truth. There are several sayings about the truth. There's a song, that country song that was out a few years ago. You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything. And the thing I noted about that is it just says You got to stand for something. Pick something again. Even in the VeggieTales videos, which my kids grew up on Christian based animation films, they've got a song that says You've got to stand up for what you believe in now The next words in the song are believe in God, but I think most people take those first words toe, heart. They say, I'm going to stand up for what I believe in. It can be believe in God. I don't believe in God. Believe in many gods, believe in whatever truth is your truth. You have your truth. I have my truth. There is no universal truth and my words or my truth. I am my own person, kind of interesting the time that we're living in, even at the school where I teach, we're doing a curriculum to reintroduce values to education. It's a curious thing. Years ago, we decided we had to take values out of education, and now, because kids don't seem to have any, we want to put them back. But the values that they're reintroducing are based around the concept that a child or any person should discover their own values. In fact, that's what our discussion is to be about in this time with the students. They need to discover their own values and their values are those things that matter to them most, and it doesn't label them as good or bad. Now they try and steer them toward what they consider good. But what what do you think is most important? What do you value and why? And of course, they list some things possible values like compassion, courage, creativity, curiosity, empathy, friendliness, generosity, hard work, helping others, honesty, humor, integrity, kindness and several other values as well. You might note that nowhere in there are they encouraged to value the truth because there is no truth. When I find interesting is as I teach this, and I heavily emphasize those values that should be held up like honesty and helping others responsibility. When we discuss it and I'm supposed to ask the questions, what do you value? I say, Well, you know, you you should value hard work now these air middle schoolers. So you halfway expect this, but their reply as well. No, I don't value that because I want to have fun. I say, You know, you oughta value empathy and friendliness and helping others and they say, Well, no, I don't value that. I value getting revenge on those who have hurt me, and it's difficult in that context to say no, you have the wrong values and these are the right ones because in the context of public school, we're not teaching that there is something called the Truth. And even in the church, kind of especially in the church there made many who have abandoned the truth. There was a barn, a study about the state of the church in 2020. They asked the leaders of the church what their concerns were regarding the church in the coming years, and the number one concern out of the 22 listed WAAS watered down gospel teachings. A lot of the leadership of the Church are concerned about that because their membership and even some in other churches, have taken the truth and made it a truth. We don't want to tell people that their truth is not the truth. We don't want to tell people that their faith is wrong, but we're starting in the letter of Paul to the Galatians, and that was kind of a long introduction to this letter because this letter specifically addresses that issue. Paul is writing to a group of churches who have abandoned the truth, and he's not afraid to say you have abandoned the truth for a lie. He's not afraid to say that if they don't get back to the truth, they are going to be condemned. He's not afraid to say that those that are teaching you this lie are condemned. He's not afraid to call them out as deceivers. Well, that's kind of the introduction to the Book of Galatians. And now let's look a moment at the context. Let me remind you where we are in our study of the New Testament in our church. We started years ago, or I should say, I started years ago, teaching through the new testament with the Book of Matthew the Gospel of Matthew. And then we progress from there to Mark Luke John. And then when I got to the Book of Acts, I decided I wanted to do something different and interweave into the story of the church, which the Book of Acts is the story of the church. I wanted to interweave into it the letters that the Apostles wrote at the Times when those letters were written and in the context of the things that were being discussed and that the churches were wrestling with in that period. So we will go a little while and acts, and then we would go to, For instance, we started in James. When we finished James, we came back toe acts and then went for a little while, and the point in acts where we departed again from the book was the Jerusalem Council. The Jerusalem Council is in acts Chapter 15 and it was a gathering of all of the chief leaders, the apostles and elders of the church to discuss the question on whether or not Gentile believers had to be circumcised, whether they had to follow the mosaic law in order to be saved. And the reason why they had to get together was that Judy Eyes Er's That's kind of AH official title, given through the centuries for ah group of individuals, Jewish individuals who were calling themselves Christian but who were going from one gentile church to another, saying to them that they had to. In addition to having faith in Jesus Christ, they had to be circumcised. They had to follow the mosaic law in order to be saved. And so these Judy Eyes er's were traveling around following Paul and Barnabas Pollen. Barnabus were the chief missionaries to the Gentile churches. They were following them and they're telling the Gentiles they had add these things. It was faith plus something else. And that was the entire reason for the gathering of the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. And what we discovered in acts and Chapter 15 was that this group considered it. It was Peter and Paul Barnabus and James and other elders and leaders, and there were also some of the Faris ease who had believed in Jesus. They were all gathered together, and they all agreed at the end of this gathering that gentiles Onley needed grace through faith, plus nothing. They did give them some encouragement about doing some things and or I should say, not doing some things that would be offensive to the Jews that would hurt their fellowship, like eating things sacrificed to idols and and eating blood and and and those things. But the essential message. Waas you. You don't have to be circumcised. You don't have to follow the mosaic Law. And Paul and Barnabas were given a letter stating that, and then they were sent out to go back to these gentile churches and convey that message to them. In the first place they went was to Antioch. That was the first Gentile church, and there was an initial reaction. It was a wonderful initial reaction were told about it in acts, Chapter 15 verse 30 where it says so. When they were sent off, they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter. When they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement. Goes on to say Who else was with them. Judas, a Silas were also there, exhorting into strengthening The brethren with many words, says they stayed there for a little time. And then those two were sent back with greetings from the Brethren to the apostles. Silas remained there. Paul and Barnabas remained for a while, teaching and preaching the word of God. And so then Chapter 15 concludes with Paul taking Silas and Barnabus taking John Mark. And they split up going their separate ways to continue their missionary work. And it says in Chapter 16 Verse four. And as they went through the cities, they went through these gentile cities. They delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. So they're going to these churches delivering this message. So we're leaving the book of Acts because what Paul encountered when he came to the churches in the region of Galicia, when he came to these people to whom he had preached the good news grace through faith, plus nothing, he'd return to Jerusalem to fight for that doctrine in the Jerusalem Council. Now he's returning to these churches to deliver the news that salvation is by grace through faith, plus nothing. But what he discovers is that many of the churches have bought the lie or are buying it or are fighting about it. Some of those churches have new leadership, and what he's discovered to his surprise, is that leadership, maybe even be some teachers from among the Judy eyes, Er's. And what's most astounding is that he found that some of these gentiles listening to the Judy eyes er's were changing their diets to kosher. They were observing the Sabbath day. They were changing the way they dressed in accord with the standards of the Old Testament about you, not mixed fabrics and so on. And some were considering or had even gone so far as to be circumcised. It's a strange circumstance. It would be like leaving our church to stay for a year or so with the family in another part of the country if you left our church and then came back after a time period and walked into the door on Sunday morning and found a new pastor. And not only did you find a new pastor, but you found out that our church had changed from being a Southern Baptist church to, for example, 1/7 Day Adventist Church. You're not familiar with seven day Adventists. They they follow the Sabbath Day rules, and they have a number of Old Testament mosaic laws that they still believe are necessary or even worse. They got into a great deal of legalism in the church, telling people what they couldn't couldn't wear to church, whether or not they had their hair cut, right or whatever other things they would deem to be necessary for a person, Salvation. And what would be startling is that most of the same people that you knew and love were still there. So it wouldn't be Aziz, though Ah, new crowd had come in. It was that your friends and family had abandoned entirely the gospel of grace and chosen to follow a legalistic path. We'll ensure the church's Andalasia were a mess. Every place that Paul went, he encountered confused, sometimes abstinent, new legal ist and worse. They were questioning him. They were saying, What qualifies you to tell us how to be saved? You're not one of the original apostles. Every church he went to, he was experiencing some measure of this attitude, and these changes well after a physically, emotionally and spiritually draining trip. When he got a breather, he sat down and penned this letter to all the relation churches. Now, with that context in mind, let's read Chapter one versus one through six. Again, Paul gives his typical introduction Paul an apostle, not from men or through man. He says that in particular remember because they're challenging his authority. He's saying I wasn't chosen as apostle from men or through man, but through Jesus Christ. I got my apostle ship straight from Jesus Christ and God, the father who raised him from the dead and all the brethren who are with me to the churches of Delay Sha. Then we get a couple of verses which are kind of this is what I wish for you section He does this and practically all of his letters he says in verse Three Grace to You and Peace from God, the father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age. He wants them to understand grace, not law. And he wants them to be at peace. Not in all this inner turmoil about their salvation according to the will of our God and father, to whom be glory forever. and ever Amen. Now he has all the pleasantries out of the way. Then abruptly, he jumps into the purpose for the letter. And I say abruptly, because this letter is different than any other letter that he's written any church in the New Testament. There's no commendation. There's no section here, a the beginning where he says, Hi, how are y'all? How's the family doing? There's no place where he says, You know, I've been hearing some good thing about you guys, and I want to encourage you. Every other letter that Paul writes has some sort of commendation in it. I mean, even in Corinth, the letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes. I thank my God, always concerning you, for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ, Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of crisis confirmed in you so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our lower Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, he points out some things that are encouraging about them that are going right. And if you know anything about the church in Corinth, you know, there wasn't a whole lot going right there, and there's a whole lot going wrong. But in the churches of Google Asia, he jumps right into verse six. No commendation, he says. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him, who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel. I am amazed that you have turned away from what I taught you just a matter of months and maybe even a year or so go. And this is why I've entitled this book fighting for the truth. This letter is called by some Paul's polemic against legalism and a polemic is a strong verbal or written attack on someone or something. This is not just a letter making clear some doctrine or correcting some small error. Paul gets very personal in this letter. Paul gets very animated in this letter, and it's because these churches have abandoned the truth and not just any truth. This is Capital T capital, our capital, U Capital T Capital H Truth. This is the truth that saves, and they're leaving it for the lie that dams and the lie that dams is that you're saved by grace through faith, plus some kind of works, regardless of what works were referring to. If, if there's any teaching going on in your church that says you have to believe in Jesus, you had to put your faith and trust in him and follow him. And once you have come to faith, then in order to hold on to your faith, well, you know you got to be baptized, you gotta be baptized or it really didn't take. There's nothing wrong with baptism. It's an active obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. But it does not save you. It is just an act that demonstrates that you are saved. You are desire ing and trying to obey Jesus Christ, and so it's evidence for your salvation. But it does not save you, or somebody says you've got to continue to take the Lord's Table or mass or go to confession, or you will lose your salvation or it continues to save you, or it applies Jesus blood to you in some fashion, or it will reduce the number of years that you have to be in purgatory. All those things are damnable lies. You are saved by grace through faith, plus nothing. And that's what Paul is fighting for. Now that's the introduction. The context now auto talk. Just a moment about the spirit of this letter. The spirit of this letter, as I've already mentioned, is very terse, very pointed. Paul is very angry. Look at Verse six and Chapter one, he says. I'm marvel that you're turning away so soon from him, who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. In other words, you're turning to something that's not even good news. Gospel means good news, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. And he goes on to say, But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed, strong language. I'm pronouncing a curse on those who are teaching you that you have to add works to your faith 1st 9 as we have said before, So now I say again If anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. He processed the same thing again just to make sure they got the point. Add to that. This has got to be one of the most vehement statements in Scripture, Paul says in Chapter five of Galatians versus 11 through 12. And I brethren. If I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. And then verse 12. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off. Say, what is he talking about? Well, I'm not going to get into any deep explanation here. But remember that he is referring to a group of people who are running around telling Gentiles that they need to be circumcised. And now he's saying, I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off. That's how passionate ball is about this message. That really is the tone of this book. He's saying, We gotta stand for the truth now just to give you a little bit of an outline for the Book of Galatians. It could be broken down really into three parts. The first part is Paul standing up for his apostle ship. It's necessary that he stand up for his apostle ship because he's the one bringing them the truth. So they need to believe him, and he needs to demonstrate to them that he is indeed an apostle of Jesus Christ. His message came from Jesus Christ, and we find that in 1st 1 through Chapter two, Verse 21. A statement about that is in verse 11 of Chapter One. But I make known to you brethren that the gospel, which was preached by me, is not according to man, for I neither received it from man or was taught it. But it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. He's standing up for his apostle ship, having come from Jesus Christ now the second part. The second part of the outline of this book is his standing for the gospel that we are saved by grace. And that is in Chapter three, verse one through four, Verse 31. It says in verse, one of Chapter 30 foolish Galatians who has Bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain and in Chapter four, verse nine. But now, after you have known God or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage? It's trying to convince them that the way they have gone is error. And the third part of the epistle to the Galatians is about living by grace. He's standing up for spiritual freedom. Some might say, Well, you know you're saved by grace, but then you got to keep the law to maintain your faith. Paul goes into some detail about how you live this Christian life. Chapter five, Verse five says stand fast, therefore, in the liberty, by which crisis made us free and do not be entangled again without yoke of bondage. And then in verse 16 I say, Then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. In other words, he's saying we live by the spirit of God, not by some external code for 17 for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish was indicating is that there are things that we don't do as Christians. It's not that we have embraced lawlessness is that we live by the spirit, not by the letter of the law. We follow the guidance of the spirit in our lives, alongside of the word of God, to let us know how to live in love for God and in love for our neighbor and our fellow man and for other believers, well, that was the introduction, the context, the spirit of the letter. Now about the central message. The central message is stand for the truth. And that's why this epistle is as relevant today as it ever Waas really even more so because Jesus is preached all around the world today and Frankly, most of that preaching is half truth. Truth with a mixture of error and the worst error that is preached is the one that condemns a person to hell. That is the error that adds something to salvation. You have to worship on Saturday as opposed to Sunday, or you will be condemned a red, a little illustration about Satan and his deceptions. It said that once the devil with walking along with one of his co works and they saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny. And so the cohort said to Satan, What did he find? Satan replied, Oh, he found a piece of the truth. So the cohort replied, Well, doesn't bother you that he found a piece of the truth, Satan replied, No, I'll see to it that he makes a religion out of it, and that's the basic place where churches are around the world. There's so much error. And in some churches, though, they may have the truth As part of their doctrinal statement. They overlay it with so much legalism that the people of the church don't know out is that there really saved was the solution. The solution for us is along with Paul that we stand up not for what we believe in, but for the truth. I want to conclude this message this morning by talking to you about what our relationship to the truth is. And of course, we find what our relationship to the truth is in the Bible. The number of things I want to tell you. Number one is the Bible tells us that truth comes from God. Someone 19 1 60 says the entirety of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous judgments endures forever. And the Scripture also tells us that Jesus Christ is the embodiment of truth, John, 1 14 says. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. So the first principle is that truth comes from God. Second thing we learned from Scripture is that truth is a singularity. There are not multiple truths. We don't each have our own truth, Ephesians 1 13 says in him. You also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed you were sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise. The words the truth is what you heard in the Gospel of Salvation. John, 14 6 Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. So truth is a singularity. There's only one brand of it. There are no generics that will do that will get you the same product. At the end of the day, there are no substitutes. The third thing about our relationship truth is that we are responsible to hunt for it, to thirst for it. So I'm 86. 11 Salma says. Teach me your way. Oh Lord, I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. Someone 1929 to 31 says, removed from me the way of lying and grant me your law graciously. I have chosen the way of truth. Your judgments I have laid before me. I clean to your testimonies. Oh Lord, do not put me to shame the fourth principle about our relationship. Truth is, this truth cannot be found by men as much as individuals in our society. and around the world think that they can discover wisdom or truth verities in life. Scripture tells us that man cannot find the truth on his own. Isaiah, 59 4 describes the nation of Israel, and these were people that were literally handed a revelation from God. But it says no one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies. They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. Jeremiah 51 describes the same circumstance for those that are called the Children of Israel, he says, run to and froze through the streets of Jerusalem. See now and know and seek in her open places. If you confined a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth, and I will pardon her, God essentially says, You go down there and look and find anybody that's seeking the truth, and I'll pardon the whole lot of you. But the obvious truth was that nobody I was looking for it. Jose, a Chapter four verse one says here the word of the Lord, you Children of Israel for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land there is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. Not only did he not find anybody who's seeking the truth, you can't even find the truth there. So the fourth principle from Scripture is we can't find it on our own. Nobody's even looking for it. The fifth truth is we have to approach God through it. It is the truth that will set us free. It says In John 8 32 you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Someone 45 18 says the Lord is near to all who call upon him to all who call upon him. In truth, Isaiah, 26 to open the gates that the righteous nation, which keeps the truth, may enter in the six principle that Scripture teaches us about our relationship to the truth is it is our job to stand for it and proclaim it. Ephesians 4 25 Therefore putting away lying, let each of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members, one with another. And in Galatians, this is emphasized over and over again that we need to stand up for the truth. Relations to five to whom we did not yield submission e from for an hour that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you. Paul is saying we stood up for the truth. We didn't yield to these people regulations to 14. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter before them all, if you being a Jew, live in the manner of gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel gentiles to live as Jews? Paul says. I even stood up to Peter Galatians 310 flu escalations. Who has to be wished you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among us crucified in Galatians 4 16 Have I therefore become your enemy? Because I tell you the truth. And 57 you ran well, who hindered you from obeying the truth were called on to stand up for the first. We have to find it, and we find it in Scripture in God's Revelation, not in a search within ourselves or search of all the truths of the world. We find it in the word of God and then we are responsible to learn it and stand for it. Include with this one of the ways in which I tried to do that in the context of our church, as I teach the youth in Sunday school class and I also teach them on Wednesday evening Bible study. And on Wednesday evening, I handed them a number of weeks ago, a list of topics. Things that I thought they would be interested in in regard to what the Bible said. And they were all all kinds of topics on that list. Climate change and demons, angels, ghost, UFOs and even politics and a number of topics. I had them write them according to the ones that they would like to most here about. And then from that point forward, every lesson that I did on Wednesday evenings was about some topic and and what the Scripture has to say about it. Well, here's the point behind that. Sometimes we in the church are afraid to stand for the truth. Scripture address is a great number of the issues that are world throws at us every day. Sometimes we're just oblivious to the fact that there there's something we can learn from the word of God about something a simple as climate change, for example. But we, as believers, need to be ready to give an answer about our faith. We need to be prepared. We need to be ready to stand for the truth. And the greatest truth that we should be standing for is this one that Paul addresses here. That we're saved by grace through faith, not of works. Lest any man should boast. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your truth. In the word of God, I pray you would and light in our hearts with it. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.