Today’s message is from Galatians 1:1-10. The book of Galatians was written by the apostle Paul to the churches in Galatia. Paul, himself, had established these churches. (Really, I should say that God established the churches, but he did it through Paul.) Galatia was in the central part of what is now Turkey. This letter to the Galatians is a letter of rebuke. False teachers had come to the churches in Galatia with a teaching that was very destructive. Paul was rebuking them for easily accepting the false teaching.

Two weeks ago we finished the book of 2 Peter. In 2 Peter, the apostle Peter was also warning the churches about false teachers. In that case the false teachers were basically teaching that Christians were free to live self-centered and sinful lives. They were teaching these things not because they necessarily thought they were true, but because they cared not at all for Jesus, but were only interested in their own selfish gain.

The false teachers that the apostle Paul is writing about to the Galatians that were causing so much trouble in the Galatian churches were teaching that you had to become a Jew and keep the law of Moses before you could be a Christian. And we’ll see as we go through the book of Galatians just how destructive that sort of teaching, the teaching that you have to something besides accept God grace to be saved, can be.

Now let’s read the passage. Remember, as always, as we read, that we are reading the word of God. It’s “living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as to divide soul, spirit, joints, and marrow; it is a judge of the ideas and thoughts of the heart.” (Heb.~4:12)

Also, as always, I exhort you to read your Bibles every day. It’s the way we know God. It’s the way we know Jesus. And it’s not just like reading about the president of the United States or about some celebrity, or about some heroic person from history. The Holy Spirit is there to make the words alive. The Lord is there with you as you read. When you read the word of God, it’s God speaking to you. (That’s for those who believe in Jesus and have crossed over from death to life or for those who are seeking him, not for others.) (How many of you read your Bibles outside of Sunday morning and Wednesday evening Bible study?)

³Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁶I 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— ⁷not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! ⁹As we have said before, I now say again: if anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him! ¹⁰For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ. (Galatians~1:1-10)

Verses 1 through 5 in today’s passage are the address and greeting part of the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches. These verses are not just a formality. They are part of God’s teaching through the apostle Paul. So we need to pay attention. Verses 1 and 2 say, “Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead—and all the brothers who are with me...” Paul identifies himself as an apostle. That’s where his authority to teach the word of God comes from.

An apostle is someone who is sent on a mission to represent the person who sent him. An apostle doesn’t just choose to be an apostle on his own. Someone has to appoint him to the job. The apostles in the Bible were not appointed or sent by men, but by God. Paul definitely didn’t choose to be an apostle of Jesus. He was chosen by Jesus.

Do you remember the story? Paul was a proud Pharisee, a member of the strictest sect of the Jewish religion. (The humble Pharisees were definitely in the minority.) Paul had been trying to stamp out the church, to wipe it off the face of the earth. He was on his way to Damascus with authority from the high priest in Jerusalem to arrest any believers he found in Damascus. While he was on his way, Jesus knocked him to the ground and blinded him and asked him why he was persecuting him. Paul said, “Who are you Lord.” Jesus answered, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.” Paul had to be led by the hand by those who were with him to Damascus to a certain Christian man, Ananias, who would pray for him. After Ananias prayed for Paul, he received his sight back and he served Jesus from then on. (How many of us have to have some traumatic experience happen to us before turn to Christ?)

Verse 1 in today’s passage says, “Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead...” If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, we would still be dead in our sins and transgression. (1 Cor. 15:12-19) Not only that, but to be saved, we need to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead: “This is the message of faith that we proclaim: If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom. 10:8c, 9) Do you think it’s important to believe and to know that Jesus was raised from the dead? It sure is! (And, by the way, the other part is, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’...” Do you acknowledge that Jesus is Lord? That’s necessary, too.)

Let’s look at verses 3 through 5: “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” This is also part of Paul’s greeting. What can we learn from it?

“Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ...” We know what grace is. It’s God favor. It’s his unmerited favor—his favor that we don’t deserve at all. It’s a gift. And we know what peace is. Peace is the absence of fighting. But it’s more than that. There is also peace that is inside of you. It’s the absence of anxiety, stress and anger—even when you are in the midst of all kinds of trouble. It’s the supernatural peace that can only come from God. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians~4:4-7) Real peace can only come through God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, a lot of the time when we are saying goodbye, we say, “God bless you.” I said that the apostle Paul’s greeting was not a formality. When we say, “God bless you,” sometimes it’s a formality. Why do we say, “God bless you,” when someone sneezes? Well, that’s just what you say. I read somewhere that they used to think that when you sneezed you were sneezing out an evil spirit, so it would be appropriate to say, “God bless you.” We still say it today. But isn’t it appropriate to ask God to bless those around us, anyway. It’s a prayer to God. “Through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” Do you do it? Do you ask God to give his grace and peace to those around you? Let’s do it!

“Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age...” The reason, the only reason that we can have God’s grace and peace is that our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age. Except for that gift, except for that sacrifice, we would be under God’s wrath and candidates for hell as every one of us once was.

Also, Jesus Christ gave himself up for us to rescue us from this present evil age. The apostle Paul referred to the age in which he was living as “this present evil age”. That age is still going on. And, if anything, it a lot more evil than when Paul referred to it as “this present evil age.” Just think about the situation in this country where a majority of people describe themselves as Christian: abortions—over 40 million of them in the last 37 years; sexual immorality, which was illegal at one time in the State of Ohio but is now promoted as every one’s right! (Any kind of sex outside of marriage was illegal in Ohio until around 35 years ago—within the lifetime of some of us here. Did you know that?)

And we, as a nation, are trying to outlaw God. There’s the theory of evolution. It’s promoted as a scientific theory in our schools. The theory of evolution is based on the assumption that random chance is the only possible explanation for the origin and development of life. Any theory that requires the intervention of God has to be thrown out. It’s called unscientific. The rest of the theory is just speculation about how life could have come about by evolution. There is nothing whatsoever scientific about it. Real scientists say that evolution is scientifically impossible. (You can ask me about it later. I’m a scientist. You can ask me about anything else I say while I’m up here, too. Maybe I need to be corrected.) Evolution is like a religion. You have to accept it by faith.

Then there are the continual attempts to replace God with the government. The government provides for you. You bring your prayers and petitions to the government instead of to God. (And if you want extreme examples of where replacing God with the government can lead, consider Hitler and Stalin and Chairman Mao, and now Kim Il what’s his name in North Korea.) The reality is that God provides. He has designed things so that, while he provides enough for everyone, we have to help each other. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s God’s command. (Lev. 19:18) The apostle Paul says of God the Father in verse 5, “...to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” It’s God who provides, not the government. And it’s God who provides eternal life.

Now, actually, I don’t think the majority of people in this country support the things I’ve been talking about. abortion, evolution, socialism. Various poles show that they don’t. But as a nation, we vote for the people who do support these things and who appoint judges to office who support them as well. Be careful how you vote.

Let’s look at verses 6 and 7 in today’s passage: “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—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the gospel of Christ.”

This is certainly a rebuke. They are turning away from the true gospel to something different. And as I already mentioned, it’s the idea that you have to become a Jew before you can be a Christian. You have to observe the Jewish law. The people who taught this are usually referred to as “Judaizers”. Paul is going to spend most of the book of Galatians arguing against their teachings. In Galatians 5:2 he says, “Take note! I, Paul, tell you that if you get circumcised (the first step, at least for men, to become a Jew), Christ will not benefit you at all.” If Christ is of no benefit to you at all, you are dead in your sins and headed for hell. And that’s serious, much more serious than anything else that can happen to you.

But, in fact, being circumcised and following the Jewish law does not necessarily make Christ of no value to you. What the apostle Paul is talking bout is believing that you have to follow the Jewish law in order to be saved. That’s what makes Christ of no value to you.

But this is much broader than following or not following Jewish customs and practices. What it’s really about is believing that you are saved by performing the right rituals obeying the law of Moses rather than being saved by grace.

Paul says that the Galatians are turning to a different gospel—quickly turning to a different gospel. And, really Paul says, it isn’t a gospel at all. There is only one gospel. It’s the gospel of the grace of Christ. It’s the gospel of God’s gift and favor through Jesus. (And “gospel” by the way means “good news”. It’s the translation of the Greek word “evangelion” which means—“good news”. (It sounds like the word “evangelism” doesn’t it? There’s a good reason for that.) The word “gospel” is a contraction of the old English words “god spel”, which according to expert sources (the internet, in this case) means—“good news”.)

The gospel is the good news, the good news that Christ died for out sins and that he rose again, and that through faith in him, we will rise from the dead, too, and be free from sin. That’s good news.

The Judaizers were teaching that you had to keep the law of Moses to be saved. And, actually, the word of God says that if you keep God’s law you will be saved. The Lord says (in Deut. 18:5), “Keep My statutes and ordinances; a person will live if he does them. I am the Lord.” So how many people have been saved by keeping the Lord’s statutes and ordinances? The answer is - - - zero. How many people have actually kept the Lord’s statutes and ordinances? The answer is one. And he wasn’t saved by keeping the Lord’s statutes and ordinances because he was never lost. It’s by his obedience that we are saved. So the different gospel is really no gospel at all. In reality, it’s the “bad news” not the “good” news.

And, you know, this different “gospel” is exactly the “gospel” by which the apostle Paul was trying to save himself before he was squashed by Jesus. (Isn’t Jesus merciful?) Paul wasn’t able to do it either—to keep the Lord’s statutes and ordinances. Paul says that he had trouble with the tenth commandment: “Do not covet.” Paul envied what other people had. My guess (and it’s only a guess) is that it didn’t have to do with material possessions, but that he wanted to be more perfect than anyone else in keeping the law. (If you don’t think anyone can be “more perfect”, well, he wanted to be closer to perfect”. Have you ever heard the expression “holier than thou”?) Paul probably looked very good on the outside, but God sees our hearts. (And remember that!) The “different gospel” is a religion of pride. And we know that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5)

(Have you heard me say some of these things before—maybe about Paul’s pride or covetousness? If you have, well, they are worth repeating. I always tell you to read the Bible over and over again. If you haven’t, well it’s even more important for me to keep repeating them.)

Let’s look at verses 8 and 9: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: if anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!”

We have the gospel. We have the word of God. We know that we are saved by grace through faith so that no one can boast. It’s a gift from God. There is nothing we can do to earn it. All we have to do is to accept it. Ephesians, 2:8, 9 says, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.” (“Works” are what the Judaizers were promoting.)

Did you know that we are saved by grace and not by works? Paul says, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: if anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!” That’s a very strong condemnation! The way you know whether a different gospel is being preached is by knowing what the true gospel is. You know what the true gospel is by reading the word of God. And I’m telling you, you can listen to me or to some preacher on the radio or somewhere else that’s much better than I am in expressing these things, but it’s no substitute for reading the word of God!

Let’s look at verse 10. The apostle Paul says, “For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.” Pleasing people, although he may not have realized it at the time, was exactly what Paul had been doing before he had his encounter with Jesus on the way to Damascus. I think it’s safe to say that he wanted people to look at him and think how great he was—maybe even to envy him. We need to learn to do things to please God rather than to please people.

And note that “pleasing” people is a lot different from blessing them. It’s pleasing to God when you bless people. And pleasing people can be more than the obvious thing of trying to make yourself look good (better than you actually are) to others. It can be not wanting to “speak the truth in love” to someone who needs to hear the truth, but you are afraid of offending him. It can be anything where your first motive is other than to please God. Jesus did quite a bit of rebuking and correcting, but he never flattered anyone. Flattering is a sin. (“One who rebukes a person will later find more favor than one who flatters with his tongue.” –Proverbs~28:23) But encouraging is good.

Remember that what we’ve been talking about—what the apostle Paul is talking about—is not just about thinking you need to keep the Jewish laws and rituals to be saved, but about thinking you can earn your salvation by what you do.