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

Do you have any kids? Those of you who are not married, you’ll have to ignore us for a minute. How many of you have kids? Let me see your hands. Alright, they’re stinkers, aren’t they? But look, think about it. That little child…just think about that little child. All the pain, headache, heartache that kid’s causing you, none of it is particularly sin. It’s just aggravation. Is that not true? It’s just aggravation. Some of it is sin, huh? Yeah. But yeah, the older they get…Can you think of anything that you say that any one of your kids would do that would cause you to disown them? I can’t conceive of anything. I think I saw you shake your head this way. Heathen. Heathen. Gentile. Heathen. If you, sinful, fallen heathen Gentiles, would not disown your own kids, how much more will God hold you, His sons and daughters? Yeah. Say amen. Say amen. Do you think he holds you less?

I saw a cartoon, and I thought of us and what we think God’s like. It had about six or eight frames, and this is really a good picture of a Christian’s typical… at least, you Galatians… view of God. The first frame shows this very disgruntled man opening the door, looking out, and putting his hand out like that. Then he closes the door. A little while later, he comes out, looks up in the sky, and puts his hand out, still disgruntled and very angry. About four or five frames show him opening the door, extending his hand, looking around, closing the door, and going back into the house. Finally, it’s very late in the evening. He opens the door, walks out on the porch, puts his hand out, and it’s snowing, and this wicked smile comes over his face. Then, in the last frame, he throws the door open, and he orders his daughter out of the house.

Well, think about it. Are you following me at all? You’re not following me. Okay, sister, let’s talk about it. What are you not following? That God waits for the very worst possible moments under the very worst possible conditions. You’ve done something that displeases Him, and in the snow and rain and sleet, He orders you out of the house, making sure that you’re penniless and without a coat. I think that this is a typical impression that we have of our Lord. Well, I do not know exactly what Paul of Tarsus preached to you, but he said that if an angel comes down and preaches anything different, or if a man comes and preaches anything different to you, let him go to hell. And those were Paul’s own words, not mine. Let him be cursed. Let him be damned. Let him be cut off. Let him be anathema. Alright, we’ll go on from there.

By the way, what verse am I in? Verse 7. It’s really not the gospel; it is a distortion of the gospel. Verses 9-10. As we have said before and to say again, let him be damned if he preaches such a thing. For now, am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Do you realize what he’s done here? He’s lost his temper. He just plain flat lost his temper. He is sitting there hurt and injured because Blastinius said, “Oh, Paul is a man pleaser. He carries the favor of men. I find this interesting because Blastinius is teaching that you carry the favor of God. And he says Paul is a pleaser, and he’s preaching a gospel that is basically a God pleaser. Paul is really hot under the collar about this. So, he loses his temper and says he does not know who this person is. Now this is the fascinating thing. He and Blastinius are going to cross paths for the next 10 to 15 years. Blastinius will come and visit every church Paul ever founded, but this is the first time this man has ever been in his life, and he has not yet learned his name. He does not know who he is.

Now, the next book Paul writes is to the Thessalonians. He knows his name. When he writes the letters to the Corinthians, he knows who that man is, and he calls that man; he refers to him distinctly. He refers to him as a he, not as an it. By the way, if you want to read this, you can read it in Our Mission (Now entitled Climb the Highest Mountain). It’s a study of the passage. He makes it very clear that he knows who the person is who came to Corinth and troubled them, and he calls that man, that person, his thorn in the flesh, whom God gave him to keep him humble. Blastinius is Paul’s thorn. He follows him throughout his life, but Paul doesn’t know who he is right here. All he knows is this man has destroyed the gospel of the grace of God, and he comes on now shooting out of every cannon, and he just plain flat what you and I would say cusses. Now that’s not true. He didn’t do it, but if we say things like this in our language, according to our social codes and standards, it is usually considered to be swearing. To him, it was not. He said, “Let the man be damned.” Then he stopped and said, “Now, does that sound like a man pleaser? Thank you. That doesn’t sound like a man pleaser. That doesn’t sound like somebody who’s trying to get along with people to curry their favor, and that’s what that passage says. No, he goes on to say, and he’s still…all these things are just tight in him, and they’re about to explode. No, I tell you for sure that if I were going to be a man pleaser, I sure wouldn’t follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Alright, the following two verses I would like to read. Verses 11-12. For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, where did Paul get his gospel? From God. Where’d he get it from? Jesus Christ. I’m going to say yes to that, but it’s a fascinating sentence. I agree with you 100%, but this sentence can be translated in two different ways. I think they’re both correct. This is written in the middle voice. Now, I want to impress you with my understanding of Greek. I know this because I had two years of Greek, but I also know it because I read it in a commentary. It’s written in the middle voice. Well, I don’t really know. I said I read it in a commentary. I’m going to explain right now. He says, “I receive my gospel as a revelation from Jesus Christ.” But the middle voice also implies what the revelation he received was. Now, what was the revelation of his gospel? That’s exactly correct. His revelation was Jesus Christ. In other words, the revelation not only came from the Lord Jesus Christ when it got to him, but the revelation was Jesus Christ.

Now, those of you who are back here sleeping. Saints, I’m going to drill this to you again and again and again. The center of your faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. The middle of your faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the circumference of your faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel isn’t grace. It isn’t mercy. It isn’t peaceful. Your salvation is Jesus Christ, but your maintenance is also Jesus Christ. Wonderful. And so, in writing it, he said two things. My gospel did not come from men. Blastinius would agree with that. Blastinius said, “Nobody ever taught Paul of Tarsus,” implying he thought it up for himself. Paul says, “You’re right. I did not get my gospel from men. I got my revelation: Jesus Christ. My gospel is by revelation: Jesus Christ. My gospel, and the revelation of my gospel, is from Jesus Christ, and it is Jesus Christ.

You Galatians hear this. Blastinius has done you a great disservice. He has, for a moment, taken from you the only hope you have. Not only as a lost man but as a Christian, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m going to try to explain that to you. If there is anything else except the Lord Jesus Christ, if, in fact, it is on the basis of merit, you are influencing God in any faith, way, shape, form, or manner that will cut you off from the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t mean cutting you off as if you’re losing your salvation. Forget that. I’m not talking about the believer’s security or any of those things; we’re talking about an experiential failure. Only two things can happen to you if you shift away from Jesus Christ. Two things.

If you set for yourself an ethical code of any kind, if you set for yourself or if you allow anyone else to set for you an ethical code, you have therein pinned your hope, whether you know it or not, to that ethical code. You have shifted from Christ to some sort of ethic. Even if it’s so small and so short, you have shifted away from Christ, and one of two things will happen. Now listen and see if you would like either of these things to happen to you. One, you will try to do that thing. Oh, I will tell you exactly what will happen. You will succeed…for about three or four weeks. This is one of the great privileges of being a Christian, where we’re endowed with a “forgetter.” Most of you forgot those two or three weeks. Remember those two or three weeks? I have prayed every morning for the last three weeks. Thank God there are three years instead of three weeks, but if you really get attached to this ethical code, I’ll tell you exactly where you must end up. You must end up in despair and hopelessness. That’s where you’ve got to end up because I have got something to tell you. You aren’t ever going to get up and pray every morning for three years. If you can do that, we’ll stuff you and put you in a museum. You will end in despair because you have pinned your Christian life on Christ plus some kind of code.

This concept of the law did not end with the Jews. It lives and breathes today. Now, that’s one of the things that can happen to you, and the other one is as bad or worse. Are you listening? Please listen. This is important. You will delude yourself into thinking that you have lived by your code. I didn’t say you live by it. You will delude yourself, trick yourself, fool yourself into believing you have done it, and you will become insufferably conceited. And please don’t come and join the gathering where I meet. Those are the only two choices that you have. You will end up in despair, or you will become an insufferable cad who believes that he has attained. And frankly, I don’t know which one of you to have more pity on. I do too. I have pity for the brother in despair. The other brother can just go ahead and live in his delusion.

Now, which one of those choices do you want? You’re going to end up in despair. You’ll end up an insufferable, conceited human being that none of us can bear. Who is doing great damage to everybody else? Or would you like to make Jesus Christ the beginning, the end, and the middle? Those are really the only choices you have. Those are your three choices. God and nature and the very sphere of creation, the very bloodstream of the universe, allow you no other choices. For sure, you cannot live up to any standard that you will set for yourself. I don’t care what it is—even the most anemic one. Somewhere along the line, my dear friend, there’ll be something you cannot do. You Galatians are going to have to make your choice. Make your choice. Galatians, make your choice.

Now, then, Paul goes about setting…he’s got two stories out on him, and he’s going to set them straight. I’m going to take the one about Peter first because it happened first, then I’m going to talk to you about the one about Jerusalem. Well, Blastinius has told two stories about Paul. We referred to him last night. One of them was that he didn’t come from Jerusalem. And the other one is that he confronted the great apostle Peter in a very ugly scene. I want to tell you the story of Simon Peter and Paul at Antioch, and this is what happened. We’re going to look at it really closely. Simon Peter is working great miracles, preaching grace. Somewhere in their past, either that week or those 15 days when Paul was in hiding 14 years ago, when he first got converted, he and Peter had a conversation in which they both agreed. You kind of confess it to one another. I never did live up to the law, did you? No, I never did live up to the law here. Couldn’t do it. They both had told one another that and rejoiced in the fact that they could not live up to the standard they had set for themselves and had been taught by their forefathers. They both knew that. And here’s Simon Peter in power, preaching the gospel, and in comes some folks from Jerusalem, the mother church. Hey, remember that, would you? The mother church from which all things must come. Jerusalem has had a great influx of Pharisees, Sadducees, and all sorts of religious scribes and so forth, and it seems to have tilted the church just a little bit, maybe a whole lot. Peter’s preaching, these people come in, they’re really nice. By the way, one of them is Blastinius. Paul has never met him before. They shake hands, say, “Praise God, and they’re all sitting around there enjoying. These men are going into the homes, preaching in the evening, and telling stories about the church in Jerusalem to the saints in Antioch. And it’s just delightful.