Galatians Defection, It's Gravity

So let's read. I'm going to read. The verses are fairly succinct. So I'm going to read all the way through verse 10, actually. And 10 is kind of a transition between the first nine verses and what's going to follow after that. And the topic to follow up next week will be the call to apostleship. But verse 10, I think, is a good transitional verse. And I'll read that today.

So OK, Paul an apostle, not for men, through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. Just to pause there, the important reminder when he's addressing the church, and we need to be reminded that here each and every day, that our Lord Jesus Christ is the focus of everything we do as Christians. And all the brethren who are with me to the churches of Galatia, rest you in 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.

And both Bob Wilford and Miles did a great job covering those first five verses. And of course, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Okay, well, we covered last week, verse six. I 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, but there are some who trouble you and wait to pervert the gospel of Christ. 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. 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 accursed. And I'll pause here a second. So kind of like, I told you no. No, I said no. And we have a new dog, and we're saying no to that dog 150 times a day. Anyway, so Paul's being a little repetitive here. We'll come back to that.

All right, so that's what we have in verse 9. Verse 10 then, for do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? For if I still please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. That's really kind of an important transitional verse that follows by his call to apostleship. Okay, let's see what we have here today. Okay, so let's review last week, which we usually do, and the first point I want to make is Paul marveled, as the verse said, and expressed sincere, I think, disappointment at how the Galatian churches departed from his teaching and to what's called in scripture another gospel. Now, is it another gospel? It's another gospel in terms of the truth of the gospel of grace.

So we need to always remind ourselves of that. Doctrally, and again, what I just said, the truth of grace has been dismissed in this teaching. And we're gonna come back to how specific this dismissal was. And most importantly, this departure was from Christ himself. Again, Christianity has Christ in the name for a good reason, right?

And boy, today there's another gospel that's out there in churches and outside of churches that unfortunately has misled so many people. So we have to think about its application today. So I thought, You know, thinking of my French friend in Quebec who's addressing Sue Ellen's request, c'est dommage, which means really sorry. Really sorry that this had to occur.

So anyway, cute little dog, huh? All right, let's turn to our Satan. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you, then what we preach to you, let him be accursed. All right. So, but even we, in the Greek, is a very strong statement that even if we is one word, it's strong language, it's Allah, and it's a third class conditional, which means it didn't occur. Even if we, or an angel, preach any other gospel, that means we did not preach another gospel. Even if we did, but we didn't. So, except that, Paul did not preach another gospel. He'd be being accusatory of those Judaizers who, in fact, have done so. Why would Paul compare we to an angel from heaven? What do you think? Maybe first, who is we?

Is the team at Galatia there, the apostles? Yeah, let's go back to verse two. We read it this morning. Galatians 1-2, and all the brethren, presumably Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, and others who are with me, da-da-da-da-da-da, the verse continues. But that's we. That's not just Paul, but there's a group of other other apostles, disciples with him who in fact are part of this message. I think he's saying that we're all, he and all the people who are with him are like-minded. Yeah, it could be tens or hundreds or even thousands possibly. Yeah. But I doubt if he's traveling with that number. It'd be a big bus, but I think we're all the same. All right.

So second, why does Paul bring up an angel here in Agalos? You're a messenger from heaven. Why do you think Paul brings an angel up here? Is there any possibility that he's talking about a future problem that may occur if an angel later appears to them? Well, that's possible. Pat, what are your thoughts there? Oh, that's what I was thinking. I think of the Mormons when they say an angel appeared to somebody.

And I'm just wondering if Paul's not warning us about that future event, if an angel appears to somebody with a different gospel. It's wrong. Okay, and we're going to return to that maybe in describing angels, but... And wasn't it in Lystra where they even thought Paul was a god, or they thought Paul had... they worshipped him and he tore his clothes and said, don't worship me, I'm not... Okay, first of all, where do we place angels in terms of scriptural hierarchy? higher than man. By saying angel, he's saying even if the president came, or even if the governor came, or even if a great rock star came.

Okay, a Canadian hockey player, right? Frozen pond. Anyway, okay, right. Could be anybody. But, you know, angels are referenced in so many ways scripturally. And I think this is an interesting kind of hook. Not too good, did it? What happened there? I put it in different colors and everything. We can see it. We can read it.

So seraphim, cherubim, ministering spirits, which is by the way what it means here, agalos is a ministering spirit, sons of God, sons of the mighty, heavenly hosts, holy ones, holy watchers, rulers, heavenly beings. So you know the topic of angels would be you know, Christianity 201. I mean, you know, this is a complicated topic. We're not going to go there. But this agalos relates to a messenger from heaven. And ultimately, I think we need to think hierarchically where angels are placed in reference to man. Well, we're going to get there.

Marilyn, you're asking a very good question. So here, because angels are an authority that is the highest possible next to that of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and they're often used to exaggerate a point. And so if you look at all these references in scripture, which sometimes there are different words for angels. And I really didn't want to spend a lecture on angels today, but anyway, Paul's looking for a messenger from God who might have also been teaching another gospel.

And Marilyn, you're right, could be a fallen angel. We're going to come back to that in a second. But we're going to see the fallen angels are kind of trapped in right now. They don't have any power. Now we can have demonic influences, but those influences are not necessarily angels that are fallen. We'll see that scripturally.

Well, don't we typically put more credence in what angels say than any man? You know, because there's so much more, there's so much more brilliant than we are. We're smarter than we are. So, Jim, tell us what you think, who is the angel and how can we identify them?

Yeah, that's difficult. Well, if we think in scripture, you know, angels were used by God like the birth of Christ. Okay, they're messengers. So you could say, well, God sent me an angel, and this is a different gospel I got, so it's all good. But Paul's totally refuting that. He says, no, I have the truth. I mean, his is a pretty incredible statement. God has given me the truth. Well, was Paul himself considered possibly an angel? Well, let's skip ahead to chapter 4, verse 14. So, Jim, I think, you know, you've opened up the door that we could discuss for hours.

How do angels show up today? Well, the true angels show up in God's direction. I mean, there are certain angels like Michael, etc., and Gabriel that God had a specific purpose for. But angels are about us, are they not? explanation of God and his will for the body that relate to human existence.

And so Paul's just saying, you received me as an angel. In other words, maybe he was perceived as an angel. Okay. But I think we, you know, again, we could spend the whole hour trying to figure out Have we been exposed to angels in our water? Bob, don't you think Galatians 4.14, he's not really considering himself an angel, but just a messenger? No, but he was perceived as an angel. That's what I'm saying. During my trial in the flesh, You didn't despise or reject me, you received me as an angel, and an angel was somehow superior and more God-like than Paul himself. Well, he's trying to put that argument to rest. He said, you know, angels, you know, God has chosen to get the gospel out, and you know, he's focusing on his message as a message that is the true gospel.

And I think we need to be reminded that angels were beings made by God before our world was even created. and render service for the sake of those who would inherit salvation. The angels are for us, except that other breed, as Marilyn kind of alluded to.

You know, Habakkuk 114, are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? So that is kind of raised, and that was to Israel, right? But ultimately, it's for us today that the angels are there as ministering spirits to enhance our growth and development during good times and also during trials and tribulations.

That's actually Hebrews 114. Yeah, I was wondering about that. Yeah, that's Hebrews, my bad. That's my mistake. My bad, it's Hebrews. That's amazing. Yeah, you're right. It's hard about typing. Well, if you notice, in many of the records today, angels wore Old Testament. So anyway, that's just wrong. It's Hebrews.

Thanks, Jim. Third, from where else would an angel come, other than from the Lord, in terms of the body? Well, there are fallen angels. But what power has God given them? Zero. And Jude addresses his study. Jude says, and the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, he's reserved an everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

And this is just kind of the picture of these angels. OK, I say, Bob, doesn't that just refer to a certain class of angels or certain class of demons? There are demons, including Satan, that do have a lot of power. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I agree. Only only the power that they have is permitted by God. Right. That's right. Well, that's true. But in terms of their ultimate fate, clearly, what Jude states is clear, is that they're in everlasting change under darkness. And so if they have influence, there's nothing permanent about it, right?

Well, I think it was the most malevolent angels that he has actually reserved in chains of darkness right now. He wanted to keep those people out of the way, and they're powerless. Well, presumably in the text if he said if angels preach another gospel, so theoretically they could be part of what Bob just indicated, right? These angels that are in darkness there in Jude 1, 6, and this is controversial, doesn't it have something to do with the flood? Oh, no, you never heard of it. Yeah, I didn't bring it back into context. It could be.

All right, but the day will come when fallen angels may exercise some power, and that's projected by Paul in Thessalonians, where he says, let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition. So clearly, I mean, they will be very active during that period after Christ is, and raptures at church. So during the Great Tribulation period. Notice that such an age of preaching of the gospel will be equally accursed as Paul and the brethren.

So, you know, if this were to happen, which it didn't, ultimately that would be the outcome. So accursed or as anathema, one devoted to the direst woes of strong sense anathema. So that's not good, right? No. And he's going to say it twice, actually. Ultimately, all unbelievers, right?

And so first Corinthians 16.22, if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Oh Lord, come, our Maranatha. And ultimately, do you think that these Judaizers at this time based their position on circumcision alone after the earlier teachings of Peter, do you think, or were there more? Do you think circumcision was the only issue here?

I think it was the whole law. But circumcision continues to be brought up, does it not? And Paul will continue to bring it up as the text continues in the book of Galatians. And of course 1 Peter talks a lot about circumcision, etc. So ultimately I think it probably does relate. Don't you think circumcision was more just kind of in reference to the whole law.

I mean circumcision was what they said, but it was all about the whole law. That was just a representative. I think the two main points of that day with the Jews was circumcision and the Sabbath. Right. But then tied up into that, of course, is the rest of the law, right? So if you're going to bring that aspect of the law forward, you're opening the door to everything else that exists under the law. And of course, we know that there's nothing about the law that has any merit in terms of the church, although I think today we fall short.

So do you think those who preached another gospel, meaning a legal-based gospel, were ultimately separated? Were they unbelievers or were they simply at the time set apart? What are the thoughts there? I think they were just confused believers, some of them, but some of them were actually unbelievers.

Yeah, I think there's a mixture probably here. So if you were preaching another, think about the church today, in fact, another gospel being preached in many mainline churches, perhaps even some evangelical churches, many of them in fact covered in theology. Does that indicate that We have the same mix of people, probably. We tend to have the same problems that Paul talks about today.

Okay, so then some of them may not be saved. I know, right? Some are saved. So, once again, we have a mixture. Again, people are saved, but confused, like Bob said, and it's not good teaching that we're going to learn about. The week brother in the main service shortly in terms of these gatherings, though, these people are not set apart. They're, they're really part of the kind of the theme of the teaching and preaching. They're getting. You know, it seems unbelievable in our church and Holly hills.

That we would have people like that, but it's possible. that we have believers who want to justify what they do in their Christian life with what they do, as opposed to faith and grace. But, of course, what we do is Holy Spirit manifested in the new natures, right? And that's really, again, I keep mentioning as it returns to James in this message. I mean, how we walk really is a witness to those around us that brings glory to God, right? I don't know if we have any of those, but I talked to Wayne. Wayne, can we talk to you after class? Yet for us in By His Endless Mercy, the true message is based on mercy, grace, and love, not law.

And our position. I think that's what most people don't have a clue about. It's our position, where we're seated with Him. They don't understand that at all. It's like, totally, they're oblivious to that. I think it's just part of it. There's quite a few things... Just bad teaching. Exactly, exactly. Well, I think the condition is really contingent on the position, is it not?

So many people, I think, you know, today's Hungry Heart, I don't know if people have read that, but I think it really kind of deals with the fact that this lack of reckoning is ultimately due to the fact that we think that this flesh and the old nature can still be improved.

And that's a fallacy. the new life shows up by God's grace, working through the power of the Holy Spirit through the new man, and that's your position. And again, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for he hath made him who knew no sin, that he made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. You know, I think that that helps me a lot, thinking that my position is in heaven, and my citizenship is in heaven. And because God sees me as righteous, when I fall short, it's just the fellowship with him that's left behind. He sees each and every one of us as righteous.

Isn't that incredible? And I think this other gospel took that important truth of position that Margaret said away. And without position, I think it's tough to understand how your condition really gets changed. Hey, Mike? Yes, Howard. Bob, I'm sorry.

Just a thought here that we are Christ alive in us, and it is him that the Holy Spirit is revealing through us. Just adding that to what you've been saying. And again, the third review point of last week is Christ has been left behind. Christ himself is left behind by law when ultimately this other gospel is being taught. All right, Galatians 5, or 313, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.

This term of curse is a pretty strong term. So we were all under that curse, and he's been made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. And it's interesting to reflect on the crucifixion, how relevant it is for being a curse. And so, I mean, the reference to him is specifically to him in terms of him hanging on a tree and bringing the curse of the entire world on himself.

So we are no longer accursed by his great mercy, grace, and love for us. Notice curse of the law and God's grace is anything and everything but law, right? Grace has no room for law as part of it. And the curse of the law is, I mean if you think about it and Paul's going to get in this later in Galatians, what was the purpose of the law?

The schoolmaster. The schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, right? So anybody that brings another gospel into this really does not have an understanding of ultimately the fact that sins were not only forgiven, but in fact the old nature, the sin nature was crucified. Of course we know this well here, but I think much of Christianity doesn't understand that principle.

So I thought I'd give you a little quick. Tangles up, right? Well, it's really it's really hard to look at this verse and say much beyond what's already been said, 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. What amazes me, he's he's elevating his word. with the disciples, he puts it to a plane, he says, this is it. You can't, I mean, that's an incredible, by a man, that's an incredible statement. So I think it reflects the title of the lesson, it's gravity, the impact of another gospel. Last week we described it, but this week it's nature we described it. This week we're looking at how important it is in terms of being accursed.

If you think of all the preachers who are preaching law, I mean it just seems like a terrible outcome. And a curse, does that mean they're cursed forever and going to hell? No, it just means that what they're preaching makes them a curse because of the cross and everything it represents. But you know what has always been crazy for me is when we read these verses What do they think when they read these verses?

I mean, you know, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. I don't know. Well, somehow they think their gospel of law mixed with grace is the right thing. They delude themselves thinking, well, you've got to have a little law with grace. You just can't have pure grace. You can't do that. You've got to have a little law in there to make it. But I think another fault is the fact that many believers think that the old nature somehow can be improved. Right, exactly.

And I think that's one thing that we have doctrinally so soundly presented here. The sin nature never changes. It's always there, but we reckon it to be crucified, buried, and we're risen in newness of life. And that's what Paul's saying again. As we've said before, this is the message. And the sin nature never changes. I often say, as the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, gets brighter, our sin nature gets more revealed for what it really is. What lousy sinners and deeply seeded in sin we are.

Say, Bob, the people that are reading this, they're probably thinking that Paul is really upset. And he's gone off his rocker. They're probably thinking, oh, he's just saying this off off the cuff. He doesn't really mean it. But when he repeats it the 2nd time, that's right. Why is Paul so repetitive? Well, I think you're going there, Bob.

And here I. If somebody's writing the same thing on the board repeatedly, and you remember your grade school years where you did something wrong, you had to write it about 10 times or 20 times. I had to do that a lot. Maybe that reflects my sin nature, but anyway. With I will not.

I hear Noah a lot around with our new dog right now. Margaret says that a lot. Okay, so Galatians 5, 2 and 3, Indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every, again, he testifies again to every man who becomes circumcised that he's a debtor to keep the whole law. So that reflects on what we discussed before. I think it does go far beyond circumcision. Because any Jew who would say you have to be circumcised, as Peter did initially, ultimately then you put yourself under the whole cloak of the law.

That gets pretty challenging, doesn't it? said before, and I think Bob kind of related this, is in a Greek term polygol, which means to say before or predict, as Weiss would say, who claims that verse 9 does not relate to 8, but refers to when he was with them before. So the issue is, is he saying this again because it's reflecting on verse 8? Well, Weiss says no. He's really thinking about when he was there before.

When was that? Well, his first missionary journey, right? He went through Galatia. So this letter is not being written when, you know, when he's actually there, but he's reflecting back on the fact that I said this to you before, but I'm not sure I agree with Uist. I mean, I think he's repeating it here again now for the purpose of not reflecting just back, but he could be.

How about both? Yeah, I mean, why? I mean, so, And the if here is first class conditional, meaning since. So let's go back and look at the verse again. As we have said before, so I say again, since anyone preaches it. So it's happening. It's going on right now. So remember, third class is what if, subjective, maybe, maybe not, or it didn't happen. And first is it could go either way. Or it did go. Since is a better translation.

So it's one thing to think about with this. Preaches is indicative, but it's a factual. Hey, you're preaching this other gospel. So nothing surprising about this. And received indicates that it's been appropriated to oneself. It's not only that you hear it, but receiving it means you accepted this as another truth. And you're putting that into practice in your day-to-day walk.

So I kind of like the way Wiest has changed this verse around to maybe make it a little bit more telling in terms of exactly what it's saying. Even as we have said on a previous occasion, again, that's what he claims. Indeed, now again I'm saying if, as is the case, anyone preaches a gospel to you which goes beyond that to which he took so eagerly and hospitably to your hearts, let him be accursed." Kind of an interesting paraphrase and restatement of what Paul is trying to get across to the churches in Galatia.

One thing I was noticing there, on the first time it's, we are an angel from heaven, and then the other time it's any man. There's kind of one difference. Yeah, that's good. It's specific. Yeah, a little bit different. Well, he's covering all the bases, right? It doesn't matter who else. It can be an angel. It can be any man. He's excluding everything else but the word he's giving to us, which exalts. If anyone preaches. Yeah, good. That is a difference. Thank you, Patty. That's great.

And I just thought I'd end by This is the only picture I could find on him, but Alessandro Wiest, 1893 to December 27, 1961. That's the only picture. Actually, that's the first. I've never seen a picture of him, actually. I know, I haven't either. I kind of wondered if there weren't audio of him preaching somewhere. I haven't searched to see the case.

It'd be interesting to see if there... Since he didn't die until 61, it's possible. I'm sure there's audio. There should be some. I know, I know, you can listen to Chaffer, Lewis Perry Chaffer, you can find him, audios of him preaching, so, probably so. Okay, then I'm gonna read verse 10 again, and we'll close.

For do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? For if I seek to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. So, you know, he's reflecting on this experience of bringing them the true gospel and not having them be misled by, quote, another gospel, a gospel that's legally chaste. Other thoughts on defection of the truth?

For example, in Manitoba. Wow, 1,800,000 thoughts. Interesting. OK. Jeff, would you close us in on that? Sure. Father, thank you for the grace that you've bestowed on us. It's just amazing that we can know the truth and that we're seated in heaven right now. We thank you for reminding us of all these things, and we just thank you for the way you cause us to grow. All right, this in Jesus' name, amen. You know, prayer reminds me of the truth will set you free, right? What do we mean by the freedom that the truth brings? Do you have the freedom to do whatever you want? No. What's the freedom? Freedom from or freedom to?

To serve God. To know Him. Okay. And freedom from our old sin nature. That's good. I like that. Okay, so I would interpret it in two ways. One is it's the freedom from the penalty of sin. Okay. But the other thing is that Christ said himself, when I set you free, you will be free indeed. And I think maybe you can oversee that and see that because God sees us as righteous, it's to lead a life without the power of sin. So that freedom, the truth brings freedom, and that freedom's related to the penalty and the power of sin and the like. And of course, the freedom is of our eternal existence.

But you know, I think the verb tenses of salvation are so critically important. I was saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved. I'm here because I want to learn how to be saved on an ongoing basis. And I think that gives us a freedom that when people are under law, they don't have. Because they're performing to meet some standard, which no longer before God exists.