The Problem with Galations

The problem with Galatians

Introduction

Good morning Church! While reading my bible the other day, I came across some scripture that sparked something in me. Our society in general has been substituting feelings for truth. Declaring that what they feel is truth. Which is so dangerous simply because feelings change. But here is the truth. Truth never changes. Guess what else never changes? Scripture! Scripture never changes. Hebrews says this in Chapter 13, verse 8. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." God is the same yesterday, today and forever. That is good news! That is reliable news! That is news that will never change!

The problem that we are dealing with today is similar to what the churches in Galatia were experiencing. They were experiencing a change in truth that was being taught by false teachers. Nowadays we are hearing the argument about science this and science that and in that very same sentence, declaring the complete opposite by basing truth off of feelings and declaring that to be science. It just doesn’t make sense and that is what we are going to tackle today. Let’s pray.

Now, the church in Galatia had some serious problems that needed to be corrected. Thats what I want to focus on today. The reason why Paul had to write this letter is quite simple really. It is the Jesus plus something gospel. False teachers brought this idea that incorporated the old religious teachings and then tacked on Jesus. They were teaching that we had to still depend on the law for salvation. This teaching is not only wrong but super dangerous. This teaching could have prevented so many from actually receiving the gift of salvation. This teaching was teaching that you had to earn or behave in such a way to achieve salvation. Which is so so wrong. While yes, when you are born again, there will be change in you from the inside out, but that is a side effect of salvation, not the reason for salvation.

With everything going on today, we can see that this sort of foolishness has been going on for quite some time. While today’s challenges are similar, we can compare it to what the churches in Galatia were experiencing and then learn from and adhere to Pauls correction and teaching! So with that, let’s see what the great apostle Paul has to say. Lets turn to the book of Galatians 1:3-10

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,  to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.  I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—  which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!  As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!  Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

And one more. Galatians  3:1–3, 13-14 “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? / 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

Wow! That is powerful!! So why did the Apostle Paul have to write this?

Let me give you a little background. The churches in Galatia were planted on Pauls first missionary journey. The problems that they were experiencing was this. False teachers. These were men that were coming into the community and teaching something other than the truth. They were teaching in such a way that would have avoided persecution from the religious elite. They were teaching in a way that would make both sides happy. How? They were teaching Jesus but they were twisting it and adding more. These false teachers were trying to, and succeeding at, teaching the people in Galatia that you needed Jesus PLUS following the old jewish laws in order to gain salvation. They were teaching Jesus plus the need to get circumcised. This was bad because it was getting away from what Jesus actually taught. They were teaching that you basically had to "earn" your way to being a christian. We know and scripture tells us that this is not true. Our salvation is based solely on this,

“We are justified by God, by grace alone; on the basis of Christ’s blood and righteousness alone; through the means of faith alone; for the ultimate glory of God alone and as taught with final and decisive authority in Scripture alone.”

Scripture says this in Galatians 2:16 "know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified."

That's something that is so solid in truth that it will never, ever change. No matter what or who tries to teach differently. Scripture says that even if an angel from heaven taught differently, let it be cursed. Thats a big deal you guys. That shows the power of scripture. The thing to remember is this, We couldn't earn salvation even if we tried. As a matter of fact, only 1 person on earth from the beginning of time was able to hold up the law in its entirety. And that person is Jesus Christ. And that's it. Scripture also says that if we try to obtain righteousness through obedience to the law, we would have to uphold the law in its entirety for our entire life! Which is, once again, impossible. Jesus's death on the cross is what made our righteousness possible. In this age, in the generations since the Holy Spirit came down to dwell in all followers of Christ, We have had the power of the Holy Spirit to live in His guidance and power.

This is, once again, very good news! God gave us a helper to live inside of us so that we can live the lives that God has planned for us. So we can live our lives the way God has intended and not the way the world wants. Not by letting our feelings and emotions become and guide our truth. Not having to be slaves to sin.

We don't have to be afraid of our faith. We don't have to be embarrassed by it. The churches in Galatia seemingly took the easy way out by coming into agreement with a teaching that made the human side happy and avoiding ridicule. We have to remember that we still have false teaching and teachers today.

There are so many things that are being accepted today by the church that shouldn’t be, in an effort to be "loving" and "accepting" and "politically correct." Now, by accepting I mean saying that sin is ok and approved of by God. While yes, all are welcome, saying that sin is ok is wrong. There are also other things being taught within the church that, on the outside, seem ok. But when you start to dig into scripture, these things that you once may have believed and were taught, is false.

We have the faith movement. The health, wealth, happiness movement. The prosperity gospel. All these different things sound wonderful on the outside but teaches completely wrong theology which can and will lead to doubts in your faith if you have faith at all. Faith movement is where we supposedly have the ability to declare things with our mouth as though we are God and expect it to come to pass. I will not use any names but looking in the mirror and telling yourself that you will be wealthy will not make you wealthy. Telling yourself that you are a good person will not make you a good person. Some other examples are Giving money to preachers that say, "with this seed that you give, you will be blessed ten fold of what you gave." Or that God wants you to be healthy, wealthy and happy.

There are so many more examples. But I dare you to explain to the Apostle Paul that God wanted him healthy, wealthy and happy. That God didn't want Paul to experience those hardships and that if he was, it was his fault for not having faith. Its ludicrous to think these things. Look at all that Paul went through. 2 Corinthians 11:24-28

“Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

He also had suffered a sickness of some kind and instead of healing him, God would say that His grace is sufficient. Now, Paul who considered himself to be the least of all the apostles, was he healthy, wealthy, and happy? Do we think that Paul, because of his constant struggles, doubted his faith or lacked faith because of his trials?

But yet, we follow teachings and teachers that seemingly proclaim that we must be better than the Apostle Paul because we "deserve" to be the above mentioned things. Some are taught and many fall to this teaching that because we believe in Jesus, we deserve to have happiness. We deserve to have wealth. We deserve to have complete healing from everything. We deserve to not have struggles. This just doesn't make any sense. It's just not biblical. We are promised trials and tribulations. We are promised to be hated by the world because the world first hated Jesus. We must wake up to this. I know and understand that there are some pretty big churches and movements that have fallen into this trap, but that's all it is. A trap. It's false.

We also have other false teachings within the church. So what do we have today? We have spiritual gifting. What we have today are spiritual gifts that God can give to any one at any time to accomplish anything that God so wills. This is why when we hear someone say that they are a prophet, we need to be careful. We need to look at what the prophetic gift is supposed to be and then test the message from there. The role of a prophet isn’t to predict wealth in your future. These kinds of acts are emotionally driven and chips away at our standing. People experience these intense emotional feelings and claim that it must be from God and then tell everyone that their “word” is from God and then who can argue? And with it being a gift, it can’t be taught. Why do I say this? It’s because it’s being widely taught and accepted. Its easy to fall prey to all this because it's all shiny and pretty. It's an attention grabber. The problem is that it takes the reverence of spiritual gifts and makes it cheap because of people's misuse and misunderstanding of scripture.

This same thing applies to those that claim to be an Apostle. See, there is also a difference between an office of Apostle and a missionary. The word apostle means sent forth in greek. Well that's what a missionary is! If one were a true apostle today, holding the office of an Apostle, you would expect them walking into hospitals because like Peter, even their shadows would heal people. 1 Corinthians 12:12 says this. "Paul said, “I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles”.

People like to use the title of apostle because it sounds authoritative. The title garners peoples attention and when they speak, they expect the people to obey. It’s just so dangerous. This is why I feel that I MUST share this.

In closing, my message all boils down to this. We MUST be aware of what scripture says. We MUST be aware of theology. We MUST be aware of these things so that when the time comes, we are able to decipher what is true and what is not. Because unless we become students of His word, we run the very real risk of being led astray. And as being one of your pastors, shepherds, I just can't let that happen to one of the flock. Amen!