Paul’s Letter to the Gauls (Galatians) Chapter 1

Who are you? That’s right. You’re what? Phrygians, right. You’re mostly slaves or sons of slaves. By the way, the word slave appears in this book a great deal. I think he was writing at a level people could understand. Now then, Blastinius just recently left here, Drachma Blastinius, and even more recently, you have received this letter from Paul. It is addressed to you concerning the problems that Blastinus’ visit has created. But what I want you to understand as we look through chapter one is that Paul answers the charges. Well, actually, I would say he puts the record straight about what really happened regarding some of the tales Blastinius has told about him, but before he does, he has an opening. The book opens, and the opening of Galatians is often neglected, because starting about verse five or six there’s so much fun there you can’t wait to get to it, but remember that from the very first moment that he opens the scripture, or starts writing this, his thoughts are filled with all he’s going to say and they are reflected even in the opening. Well, let’s talk to the Lord for a minute.

Under Your blood, dear Lord, and by Your grace and through Your cross, Father, in Your Son, we come to You, and we’re safe in such a situation as that. We thank You for the cleansing the blood of Christ has given us. And this morning we exalt in our high estate with You. Now open our eyes to how much higher it is than we realize and set men free, Lord Jesus, to You. Open all our eyes and may Christ be glorified. Amen.

Galatians 1:1 – Paul, one sent, not by men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.  Alright, it sounds like a salutation written to you, but it establishes something immediately. Now, what is established? Well, it establishes that Paul is an apostle. I’m going to skip over that part. He’s going to establish that really well before it’s over with. It establishes the origin of the gospel. Now, what is the origin of the gospel? God the Father is the origin of the gospel. Do you know what else He is? He’s the middle of the gospel. And do you know what else He is? He’s the end of the gospel.

Now, I know it’s morning, and you look like you’re sound asleep. Why don’t you just wave at me? Would you wave? Especially those of you back there. Alright, you are awake. You are conscious. This is the whole point. We can go home, saints. Who originated your salvation? God. God, when? Who knows when? Way back there, but on the day that you were converted, who originated? Where is the origin of your salvation? God. You did not take the first step. That’s right; you were provoked by God to salvation. He caused you to call on His name, and immediately thereafter, He left you all on your own to work like the dickens, to stay that way, and to keep in good favor with Him. No! He is also in the middle. He is the sustainer of your salvation, and Paul establishes this. The Father initiated His Son’s coming. He is the one who chose you on the day of conversion. He was the provocation of your salvation, and it is really up to Him, and to Him alone, to keep you saved.

Now, Paul is already boiling mad, even as he writes this part right here. I, Paul, and all the brothers who are with me, to the gatherings in Galatia. Grace is yours. Where’d it come from? Say it. Look at it. Where’d it come from? And the peace you have in your heart, if you’ve got any left after what Blastinius has done to you, where did it come from? God the Father. How will that peace remain? By sustaining a good relationship with the Lord. No, He alone sustains the peace as well as the grace in you and will to the end. All spiritual experience originates with the Lord. All spiritual experience is maintained by the Lord, and all spiritual experience ends with the Lord. Yesterday, you were very, very dry and needed the Lord. You sat down with Him, and you knew you needed a touch from God. Your heart was just broken, and you came before Him, and He met you. Now, do you do like the Shinto, who beats his two sticks together until his little god comes out of his little house and meets him? Did you get God there? Let me tell you something: God could have left you high and dry yesterday if He wanted to. It was out of His own provocation that He came and met you in your time of need, and you didn’t earn it. That’s my point. You didn’t trick Him into coming. You didn’t merit His favor into coming. He came because He is the originator of everything there is about your faith, and you’re going to discover that from one end to the other.

By the way, Paul will close this letter the same way He ends it with the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ from God the Father. That’s where it starts, saint. That’s where it ends. Alright. Who gave Himself up for our sins that He might deliver us out of this present age according to the will of our God and our Father. To him be glory forevermore. Amen. Will you repeat that with me? To Him be glory forevermore. Amen. Glory, peace, and grace are His. They stretch from one end to the other.

Now, I’m going to take just a minute to do this because some of you are not familiar with this. Somebody tall hand me one of these, would you? Brad, come steal one of these things right quickly, would you? Thank you. Alright, that’s great. I needed a bulletin board, and I’ve got it. Alright, there it is. You see? We’ll return it. I want you to imagine something that cannot be imagined. I want you to imagine God. This is God, but actually, you can’t do that because before He created, He was all there was. Then He created eternity. That goes on inside of Him. Eternity is in God. In fact, saints, everything is in God. Absolutely everything is in God. There’s nothing that is outside of God. Everything is in Him. He did all of His creation within Himself. It’s inside Him. So, He created eternity, then He made beings that were spiritual in the other realm. Then He made time. Now here’s the beginning of time. Can you see the beginning of time right there? There’s the beginning of time, and there’s the end of time. Do you see the end of time? Now, time has a beginning and an end. It’s not like eternity. It’s a straight line. Eternity, we symbolize a circle. There’s time beginning. There’s time. Now, where’s the beginning of time? Where? Say it. I want to hear you say it because it’ll help you. In God. Where’s the end of time? Do you know what you just said? You said I don’t know if you know this or not, but what you said was that when God created time, He was at the beginning and the end of it at the same moment. Do you understand that? No, you don’t understand that, and you never will understand it because you’re caught in it.

When He said, “I am the beginning and the end,” He literally meant that the very first thing that happened in creation was God. And the very last thing there will ever be in creation is God. In fact, the very first thing in creation was Christ. The very last thing in creation was Christ, but both of those events have already taken place because they took place in Him. He is outside of the finite. He is in the infinity. He is not bound by time and space. You are bound by time and space. He is not. He has not only seen the end but also been there. He was there the moment He created space time, because space time is in Him. Now, that will drive a predestinarian stark raving mad. It will also drive an Arminian stark raving mad. He’s outside of theology, saints. You and I can’t understand that, but if you can look at that and understand how utterly established you are in your Lord. For your Lord…concentrates much more on the beginning, or He concentrates on visiting the middle, that’s where we are right now, in the middle, but actually your Lord’s greater concentration is at the end, that’s right. In fact (laughter)…those of you listening on tape, these people are making fun of me here. Hey, listen. I’ve got a little pride left here. I don’t have much hair left, but I got a little pride left. Those of you who thought I was bald, I’ve got a few up there waving just to prove I’m not. No, actually, probably the Lord called you before the foundation of the world by inspecting the end of the ages, and He found you there. He found you there in His grace and said, “Wonderful.” Then He calls you, and then He redeems you because He knew at the very end you were glorified, totally, utterly glorified.

Gene, that’s crazy. I don’t believe that. I don’t either, because in fact He was in both places at once. But that’s how established you are in Christ. You are not sitting here hanging by a spider’s thread. There is a great establishment in you. Now, the very next verse, he says, “I’m amazed that you, you Galatians, could be so quickly taken away from the gospel by a man who is preaching that which is not a gospel.” Now, in essence, what did Blastinius teach you? The law. Alright, but in essence, what’s the real reason he came? What does it boil down to? Works? Alright, bondage. Absolutely. What? Conformity. Excellent. I love these. Separation. Religion. Wonderful. I’ll take them all. That’s great. Did you hear all of those? Let’s do them again. Bondage, separation, law, legalism, religion, works, independence, self-righteousness, conformity, and now I’ll add one more. The greatest tragedy of all: he was teaching them to try to merit and to gain what they already had. I want to repeat that: he was seeking to get them, to obtain from God by individual personal merit, that which they already had, and that is the tragedy.

There is something basic in all of us when we are lost. We need a gospel that is centered on ourselves so desperately. It is our nature to earn our salvation, and after we get converted, the same basic thing remains. And that is to keep in favor with God by something that we ourselves do. God will have none of that. Listen, saints; He already got you scoped out. He knows what you do not know. You can’t. You already are clear that you couldn’t save yourself, but what you’re not clear on, perhaps, probably, almost certainly, I’m going to pretend you don’t. After all, you’re Galatians. I’m certain you don’t. You’re confused on this point: that your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ is also not dependent on your self-effort. As sure as your salvation is centered on Christ and centered in God, so is your walk centered on Christ and centered in God. You don’t have any idea how determined He is to make Himself the center and the circumference and the content of your faith.

I’m going to try to illustrate this just a little bit. I’m probably going to do this several times. You’re going to forgive me for being a little personal here. I’m just going to do this. I had two daughters; I never knew what a son was. I had no idea what it was like to have a son. I’m privileged this year to have my grandson at my home. Now, I know lots of people adore that kid, but I can tell you two people in this room who think he hung the moon, and that’s Mike, and that’s me. Now, Mike, is there anything on earth Nathaniel could possibly do to cause you to disown him? I thought a lot about that, him running around the house. I learned so much about boys. I discovered one thing. I can locate him anytime I want to. All I have to do is follow his clothes. There’s a shoe. There’s a sock. There’s another shoe. There’s another sock. Oh, there’s a shirt. Alright, he’s down that way. He never puts anything away. My two daughters…just never had to clean up after them. This kid is just all over the place. I tell you, I love that little boy. It is inconceivable that he could do anything that could cause me to disown him, and He doesn’t even belong to me. He’s my grandson, not my son. It’s inconceivable.