Paul’s Letter to the Gauls (Galatians) – Intro

Paul leaves town for a few days and comes back. Everything has changed. They’re having this big farewell banquet for Simon Peter. Paul walks in and finds out things are not good at all. You’ll hear what happened in a minute.  It’s bad enough that Paul says, “Hey, you’re from Jerusalem. You brought a problem up here to us. It’s not our problem. It’s your problem. We’re all going back down to Jerusalem, and we’re going to meet with the leaders and get this thing straightened out.”

Now, this is very interesting for Paul because he’s been trying to get to Jerusalem ever since he was converted. In fact, he has made it to Jerusalem on two other occasions, trying to go down there and testify publicly to those people about his conversion. The church in Jerusalem has never seen his face. The first time he went down, people in Jerusalem were trying to kill him, and he stayed in Simon Peter’s home for 15 days. The second time he went down, he went down to deliver grain. About the time he got there, Herod Antipas had James beheaded, and all the other apostles in the entire church ran out of town. The apostles went into hiding. Paul didn’t meet anybody; he just delivered the grain. Now, at last, he’s going to Jerusalem. Things are at peace. He’s going down there and meeting these people, and they’re going to meet him.

They get to Jerusalem, and this is a pretty heavy meeting. Those Jews who came up to Antioch caused a lot of problems there. What Paul does not know is that these Judaizers, these Jewish legalists, begin to see that Paul and Barnabas and the gospel of grace are winning. It’s tilting this way. They hear Paul and Barnabas recount the story of the birth of these four churches up in Galatia. At that moment, a group of these Jewish Judaizers, legalists, didn’t wait for the conference to end in Jerusalem. They leave and head for Galatia. They’re coming to you. They’re coming up to talk to you.

Now, how many Christians have you ever met outside your town? Do you know a whole lot? Not much. You don’t know about Jerusalem. You don’t know about Antioch. You know about Paul and Barnabas; that’s all you know. You don’t know about Peter. You don’t know about these men. You don’t know anything from nothing. You had a very simple, primitive gospel preached to you. In four months, your church was raised up. Man, that must have been some gospel, saints. You are now four years old in Christ, and you’re not doing badly. In fact, you’re doing great right on up until these Jews arrive.

Now, when you read volume three and volume four of The Early Church (Revolution), you’re going to meet a man over and over again. He’s never mentioned in the Bible by name in the New Testament. He’s Paul’s greatest enemy. I gave him a name in the book so you can keep up with him. He’s one of the Jews who went to your town. His name is Drachma Blastinius. I worked on that name for 15 years, trying to come up with the worst possible name I could think of. Drachma Blastinius. You’re not supposed to like him; that’s the whole point. He is Simon Lagree. He is Ichabod Crane. He is Uriah Heep, Scrooge, and Senator Cranston all rolled into one. Okay, you got him. Do you see what he looks like? That’s what I want you to see when you see him. Senator Cranston, I apologize, but you do look really unusual. Can you see this guy? Oh, he is a very unhappy person, but he is one of the most brilliant men of the first century, and he is as dedicated to his gospel as Paul is to his. He will give his life to preach what he preaches with all the zeal that Paul does. In fact, there is no rival in the first century in zeal and dedication, ability and willingness to suffer anything as is Blastinius. He is Paul’s rival and will be throughout Paul’s entire life, and he has come and visited you. Are you clear? Are you with me?  You and I are going to get our first peek, us modern-day Christians, at what this book to the Galatians is one incredible piece of Christian literature, saints.

Now then, they come up here, and I want you to know what they say. This is Blastinius, and he’s got two or three people with it. I want to make sure you’re clear. Are you clear? What’s going on? We’re in Galatia. You got visitors. Wow. Some more Christians. Jiminy. Amen. Hallelujah. Yeah. Invite them in for your meals. Oh, they’re so warm and outgoing. They preach. Oh, Blastinius can out-preach Paul; he can out-preach Barnabas. Beautiful gospel. Everybody loves it. Oh, this is wonderful. Why don’t we have some more visitors from down there? Been there a few weeks. Everybody loves him. He’s home. They trust him. And then he (Blastinius) says: Oh, by the way, this brother Paul. Yeah. You know, Paul, I’ve met him. Yes. Yes. Yes. We met. Do you know much about him? Oh. Oh yes, that’s true. He had persecuted the church; in fact, that’s what we know about him. He persecuted the Christian believers. Did he ever tell you about Simon Peter? Oh, you’ve heard about Simon Peter. Are you aware that Simon Peter was appointed by Jesus Christ as the chief apostle? He’s the one we all look to and respect. We all follow him. He is more or less the Christian leader of this age. You never heard about the conflict between Peter and Paul. You didn’t know that one day, in the midst of a gathering, Paul walked in and insulted Simon Peter to his face. Don’t you know that?

(Blastinius continues) Well, oh. Oh, you want to hear more of the story. Oh, well, I really don’t want to talk about Paul. I mean, you know, he’s a good brother. I’m sure he means well. It was horrible. Here is this man whom we hardly know other than the fact that he persecuted God’s people. Walks in and rebukes Simon Peter to his face over the gospel. While I’m talking to you about this, I feel you need to be warned. You see, when the Lord ascended, he told the 12 disciples and all of the believers at that time to go to Jerusalem, and since that time, the gospel has always emanated from Jerusalem. All of it. All the work has gone out from there. All the gospel has been preached from there. This has kept the gospel pure, but Paul has come from Antioch. Did you not know that he has never even come to Jerusalem? Never been there. I mean, the last time he was there, he was killing Christians, and he’s never returned. I’m so sorry to tell you this. I am really so sorry to tell you these things about Paul of Tarsus. Paul, you see, is a man pleaser, and he is just preaching to you a gospel that’s just the barest of gospel, and he’s done that because he wished to have a good standing with you. He’s left out some of the main parts of the gospel. You mean you mean? Yes. Yes. They don’t know. We don’t know all of the gospel. Oh, much more. The best. The best…Cornelius. So, he says, you know I have had a burden since I’ve been here to tell you the rest of the gospel. Oh, well, yes, we’ll have to have a meeting now to tell you the rest of the gospel.

Now, brethren, it was on Mount Sinai that God gave to Moses the law. The law was given to God’s people, the Jews, and the symbol of the Jewish faith is circumcision. It is necessary that you obey the commandments given by Moses and be circumcised in order for the gospel to be effective. Yes, Blastinius. What is circumcision? And who is Moses? And so, he begins to tell them about circumcision, and all these dear…you dear Christians, you really want to get circumcised, and you want to find out what the law is and start obeying it so you can truly, truly, truly be a Christian. Isn’t that true? Absolutely. No question about it. Say amen.

Alright. So, we have some Galatian heathen getting circumcised. They don’t even know what’s going on. They start obeying the Ten Commandments. Boy, I mean, they’re into them, and they’re into all the other laws. Pretty soon, they’re figuring out calendar dates. Now, let’s see. Saturday, that’s the day we rest. What day is Saturday? That’s Oh. Oh, that one. Okay. Alright. Sabbath day. Is that what they call it? We called it Sabbath. Let’s see now. On the third Saturday of the seventh month after the new moon, that’s the Sabbath. That’s probably around Julius. Yeah, somewhere around Julius. That’s July. Now, after the second day, on the third Sabbath, a season begins, and from that time, for the next six weeks, when we pray, we have to stand on our left foot. Now then, somebody listen, let’s get this thing down. There’s a new moon, the first new moon; no, the second new moon. The second new moon after the third Sabbath, and four days late…somebody got that out on a chart. Well, I don’t understand this. And then what do we do during that time? So, they begin…you begin to observe seasons. You’re now meeting on Saturday. You’re now…many of you circumcised. You’re really getting into the law. Somebody writes Paul a letter. Dear skunk… yeah, really. Maybe he gets two letters. Dear reprobate, you lied to us. You didn’t tell us the whole gospel. What’s this you did to Simon Peter? You have never even been to Jerusalem. Most people out there don’t even know you. You lied to us. Yeah. Another one writes and says, “Well, there are some really weird things going on around here. Could you come back and talk to us?”

Now, Paul receives this letter from Galatia and decides to write to them. So, he sits down. As a man from a well-to-do family, he can read and has been trained to read, but he hires a writer… possibly. We don’t really know. There is some evidence that he hired a writer. And so, he’s hot. Or is he angry? Is your friend Paul angry? He’s blowing steam out of both ears, blowing fire out of his nostrils. The book indicates it. Now, I’m going to stop here and tell you something. I’m going to tell you why I picked this to talk to you. I’ve already told you one thing. I want you to start with the most basic look at the gospel that is humanly possible. This is the most primitive, earliest, most ancient possible view we can get of the Christian faith, and to me, it is remarkable how deep it is to people who cannot read and write. How incredible, how powerful, and how liberating it is.

I’m going to explain something to you. You’re now living in the first century. It’s 50 AD. You have just been Judaized, legalized. You have just been turned into followers of the law. Or is it the 20th century? And have you, as a believer, unwittingly fallen into the same problem, just with a different setting and a different age? Alright, the letter by Paul is one of the most radical pieces of Christian literature ever penned. In fact, I can guarantee you something, that whenever it is preached, it frightens everybody, and especially preachers. It is so liberating and so liberal in its view that you can’t really believe a man in his right mind would make some of the statements he made. You can’t really believe it. Men today will hardly touch this book in its raw, basic meaning. I told you about all these commentaries I’ve got. It’s so much fun to read these guys, and they’re trying to keep up with Paul in their commentaries, and they can’t. Every one of them will say, “Now, we have to be a little careful here because after all, there is a standard of conduct by which we have to live.” Sometimes, some of the most legalistic stuff you could hope to read is in commentaries on the book of Galatians.

Now, brothers and sisters, every once in a while, a radical, a real first-class radical, needs to come along and present the gospel from a really wild radical view. We couldn’t find anybody like that. So, I volunteered to substitute, and when I go through the book of Galatians, I can feel it, too. I’m tempted. Gene, don’t say this. These people…you don’t know what these people are going to do if they hear what Paul had to say. I’m going to say it; last time I’m ever going to speak on this subject, and I’m going to say it without qualification, and I’m not going to try to save you from its radical nature. Now watch me from this day, or this moment, this hour, throughout the rest of the week: the Greek Roman culture itself was so abysmal, derelict in morals. But here’s the point.