Radio Broadcast Monday 07/29/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Galatians P1 (07-29-24)

Welcome to The Study of the Book of Galatians

~ Join us as we begin our study on the letter to the Galatians. The letter to the Galatians, was written by the Apostle Paul and sent to the churches in the providence of Galatia. This letter would have been read by people in those churches, not buildings, but churches (believers who met together in homes), and were learning more about Jesus and the Truth of the New Covenant we live in today and understanding the difference between law and grace. And Paul, a straight shooter, tells it like it is, unlike most people today who are timid of telling it like it is. And when there is a troubling issue going on in the early church, he doesn’t mince words. He tells them as clear as day as to what is going on. And it has to do with the key message of Law and Grace.

Today, most have fallen under Satan’s spell of not wanting to rock the boat so-to-speak, and yet most churches are preaching another gospel message which is no gospel at all, exactly as Satan’s wants. And people think nothing of it, of sitting week after week being taught Satan’s lies, by Satan’s transformed ministers, as though they are ministers of righteousness. And many are getting so side tracked on other churchy issues, that they don’t even focus on the very foundation of what Jesus did on the cross, or the New Covenant that we live under today and think nothing of promoting these evil people. And since most don’t teach the finality of the cross (for most of these cemetery seminary taught pastors are dead lost), and will not teach that forgiveness has been dealt with once and for ALL at the Cross, people simply promote Satan’s false ministers of righteousness (self righteousness) that are spreading the lies of Satan big time, and the people would much rather focus on what man says about things than what the Word of God says and what the Word of God means. And when you point out to them, that they are promoting false ministers, they get angry as a stirred hornets nest, because they have such and such on a pedestal, and they don’t like for their idols to be exposed.

And be not surprised, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15

As we have said numerous times, don’t believe what anyone says and don’t even trust in your own understanding of things, but verify for yourself in the word of God to see if what is being said is so. Be a Berean today. Verify for yourself and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you ALL Truth. Learn the truth of the Word of God, and be bold for the very foundation of Jesus and what he did on the cross. Don’t let religionists and Satan whisper in your ear, “don’t rock the boat” for that is nothing more than being wishy-washy in the proclamation of TRUTH. Be bold as Paul, who also prayed for boldness from the Holy Spirit to proclaim the gospel boldly as he should, especially as he faced head-on collisions with all types of people that didn’t want Paul to proclaim Truth. “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will boldly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it fearlessly, as I should.” ^{Ephesians 6:19-20}

Paul, an apostle—not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, the One having raised Him out from the dead— and all the brothers with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the One having given Himself for our sins, so that He might deliver us out of the evil age having come presently, according to the will our God and Father, to whom be the glory to the ages of the ages. Amen.

I am amazed that so quickly you are deserting from the One having called you in the grace of Christ to another gospel, which is not another, except there are some who are troubling you and are desiring to pervert the gospel of Christ.

But even if we or an angel out of heaven should preach a gospel to you contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let him be accursed! As we have said before, even now I say again: If anyone is preaching a gospel to you contrary to what you received, let him be accursed! ^{Galatians 1:1-9}

Pray to God:

Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”

~ “And so one of the books that he wrote was the book of Galatians, a wonderful treatise that was dealing with the problem that had crept into the church, and that was or not, crept at the minute he went into a place and preached the grace of God, the Judaizers came right in behind him, trying to put them right back under legalism. So it wasn’t something that crept in. It was something that jumped in immediately and and yet the apostle Paul, bravely and tenaciously continued to proclaim not only the grace of God, but that you cannot commingle law and grace.

Bible Study Booklets

Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the letter to the Galatians. Available for download the complete series on the Book of Galatians. The Letter to the Galatians is key to understanding Law and Grace, the new covenant, and being one in Christ Jesus.

Announcer 0:12
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:29
The apostle Paul wrote two thirds of the New Testament that we have in our hands today. He was a remarkable man in all ways, tenacious as a lost person and tenacious as a saved person. He was a radical in his beliefs, and prior to his conversion, was absolutely determined to eradicate this cult called Christianity, or the way, and he was adamant about that in all ways, and chased down Christians and got permission from the leaders to chase them down and bring them back for persecution and ultimately the death of Stephen. And so here was a man who had the passion of a person that you we probably can’t even comprehend, how passionate he was about his belief system, and that was Hebrewism. And then on the road to Damascus, he met the Lord Jesus Christ. Saul saw, why are you persecuting me? Said, who is this? It’s the Lord Jesus that you’re persecuting. And Paul was blinded temporarily at that point, and led back to a point in his life where his eyes were opened, and he could see the clarity of the gospel of Christ, Jesus, and realize that this Messiah that he had studied about all of his life was this man Jesus who met him on the road to Damascus, this man Jesus who was the Lord of Stephen and he held his cloak as they stoned him to death, that this was who this man is. He’s the Messiah, he’s God, and His whole life was turned around, and that same tenacity that he held to persecute Christians was now in the proclamation of Jesus

And I’ve said many times after Jesus, I think Paul’s the next one I want to meet. He is a man of all men. And said to go through the torture, the persecution, the rejection, all of the things that you go through as a result of the proclamation of the Gospel, Paul went through every one of those things. And so you’re going to see insights into the Scripture. As we open up the Scripture, we just finished the book of Romans, we’re going to see insights into this man’s heart as to who he came to know, and that was Jesus, and what he came to know about him and about his love and His grace that we all sit in today and stand in.

And so one of the books that he wrote was the book of Galatians, a wonderful treatise that was dealing with the problem that had crept into the church, and that was or not, crept at the minute he went into a place and preached the grace of God, the Judaizers came right in behind him, trying to put them right back under legalism. So it wasn’t something that crept in. It was something that jumped in immediately and and yet the apostle Paul, bravely and tenaciously continued to proclaim not only the grace of God, but that you cannot commingle law and grace.

When we look at teaching today in the majority of our churches, and I’m sad to say that I wish that that kind of a statement did not have to be said, but it makes no difference whether you’re Catholic or whether you’re Protestant. What you see taught is either total law or a commingling with a little bit of grace. You got the law. Sprinkle in a little Jesus like salt and you’re going to be okay. And to that, Paul was saying such harsh terms as I wish these people would be eternally condemned. He did not take law lightly. He said law had a purpose, and God gave us the law with a purpose, and it was for nothing else except to show us our own sinfulness and to shut our mouths in regard to our self righteousness The only purpose of the law to show you you’re a sinner, so that you would turn to Christ for His salvation. And so he did not take this teaching lightly, as we do today. We kind of go into churches that kind of blend a little law and a little grace and say, Oh, well, that’s nice. We need a little both, and we put up with that. Now we’re boy, we’re tough on the sinner, but the legless and nice people. That wasn’t Paul, that wasn’t Paul at all. Paul loved the sinner. He hated the self righteous. He hated the attitude of self righteousness. So we’re going to see as he attacks this problem in the province of Galatia, and the churches that were held there in Galatia. He’s going to attack that problem of legalism and of the commingling of law and grace. It would be very appropriate for today’s church, not only in this country, but all over the world, because it doesn’t make any difference where you go today. If you go into Korea and you go to the Korean churches, you’re going to see the flourishing of legalism. If you go into Europe, you’re going to see the flourishing of legalism. You go over to Russia, where the churches are now able to meet absolutely commingling of legalism continual. So it’s not just here, it’s all over.

Why is that so? Because Satan’s all over and because his team is all over, and he’s ensuring that this message does not get out that we’re trying so hard to proclaim. And so when I’m proclaiming as others do. And it’s not that all people are in that shape, because they’re not. There are many marvelous ministers today who are proclaiming the truth and the grace of God. But I want to tell you, it’s a minority and it’s a remnant of people. And if this message is ever going to prevail in this so called World of Christianity, it’s going to have to do so as people who have been touched by the message of grace, not sit there saying that’s a nice message, but someone whose heart has been touched by Jesus, who are willing to stand up and give their time and treasure and talents to see this message proclaimed and continued. Otherwise it goes by the wayside. You say, How come this message isn’t more prevalent than what it is? For that reason, it has not been supported with the tenacity of heart that the apostle Paul had, where he said, I don’t care who likes me or who doesn’t. This is truth, and I’m going to proclaim it. When you do proclaim it, you have people who say, Oh, you’re just egotistical, or you’re just dogmatic, or you think you know it all, and not everybody believes this way. And you say, I know not everybody believes this way, but if what they believe isn’t backed up by scripture, then you shouldn’t be listening to what they believed.

And I believe that what we’re teaching is backed up by Scripture. And the reason I believe that is that’s the only book I have, because I am not a reader. I’m not a commentary reader. I don’t read other people’s books. I wouldn’t even read mine had I not written them. I’m very serious about that. I’m not a reader. The only book that I have consumed in my life is this Bible that I hold in my hand, and that’s when I knew it was of God, because I don’t like to read. Now, some people love to read. Just love it. They’ll read anything you give them. I’ll read nothing you give me. I don’t like to read. Like to listen. I don’t like to read. I didn’t like to read in college. I don’t know how I got through, but I did. But I’m saying to say, Do I really enjoy reading? No, I really don’t. And I can remember in my early days of being a Christian, where I absorbed myself in this Bible. I never had seen truth in my life until I opened up this Bible and was absorbed in it. And this young seminary student came to the door one day selling a commentary, which was about $5 about that thick, big thing, but then you had to buy another volume for about 25 it was another Bible that got that for about five. Well, I bought the other Bible. It was, it was, and it was not a Bible, but it was like a concordance I bought that he said, Well, now you can get this other one for like, you know, two or $5 except this big book, said, don’t want it. Said you don’t want it. No, I don’t want it. How come? Because I don’t want to read a commentary. Why don’t you want to read a commentary? Well, because it appears to me that a commentary is a comment from man, and if whoever wrote that commentary got it from God, I got the same God living in me, and I just soon him give it to me direct. I don’t like to eat chewed up food. Now Bob Davis’ guide, he doesn’t mind doing that. He can get the teeth in his mouth. Now, again, does everyone function that way? No. Am I saying that’s where everyone should function? No, I’m just saying that uniquely, that’s how God put it in my heart.

And so I have felt, and I still to this day, feel that way, that a commentary is merely a comment of men. Commentary a comment of men in regard to what they feel God has taught them in regard to interpretation. And I feel like that, if God has given you a comment on interpretation, it has to be bought backed up by Scripture. And if he’s given me a comment on scripture, it’s got to be backed up by Scripture. And sometimes there might be a disagreement, so we have to take a look where? Into the scripture to see if there is evidence enough in what you believe to keep teaching what you think. And I’ll do the same thing. For years and years and years. I don’t do that much anymore. Maybe I should, but for years and years and years, when someone would call with a question that I was not really 100% sure of on radio, I would go back and read through the entire New Testament. And I’ve read through the New Testament, I don’t know how many hundreds of times, except Revelation. I stopped. I didn’t read through Revelation. Now some people think, well, you should have probably true, but I don’t get much out of that. Maybe one of these days I will seem to be a lot of people who teach on it that that seem like they know what it says. I’m not 100% sure of the content of Revelation, but I’d go through and read through to be sure that that question was being answered in context of the entirety of the New Testament. And so that’s the way I learned the Scripture. I learned by studying and I learned by going back with every question and trying to answer that question in light of the totality of all of the Scripture. When I did that, I came to conclusions that the gospels were different sometimes than what Paul was teaching. I said, that cannot be true. The Bible doesn’t contradict itself. How can that be? How can Jesus say in a prayer, forgive your sins and forgive as your Father in heaven forgives you, forgive your brother. And if you don’t forgive your brother in heaven or other brother here on Earth, your Father in heaven will not forgive you. How do you match that up with Paul, who writes God was in Christ, reconciling the whole world unto Himself, not counting their sins against you. How do you reconcile that? How do you deal with that? Well, I tell you with one of the two. You read over it real fast, and if you’re teaching, you talk a little louder toward one of them, but there’s still that gnawing deal down inside your gut that says, This is not right. It cannot be. And one day you’re studying through the book of Hebrews, and you see a new covenant. Where’d that come from? Now, of course, we’ve taken the Lord’s supper for years, haven’t we, and we’ve drank the cup of the New Covenant after we’ve confessed our sins and begged God to forgive us, when the New Covenant is you’re already forgiven. But we don’t know what it is. We’ve heard the term, but we don’t know what it is. We don’t know the meaning of what we are hearing. And if you don’t know the meaning, then your faith is merely in what someone said, rather than what it means into what they said. You start learning about a new covenant, a covenant of grace that was ushered in at the day that Jesus Christ went to a cross and died and became your Lord and your Savior.

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Bob George 14:28
And I saw the difference between the old and the new, and how the old has been replaced now with a new covenant, and we live today and stand today in the grace of God that has done what? Replaced the law of God to who? Believers, not for unbelievers. They are still under the law of sin and death. Are they not? But when we have been released from that law of sin and death, we now live under the law of Life. And the Old Covenant goes to the old to the to the lost, and the new covenant is where we, as saved, live. Now you go back with that understanding, and you study the book of Galatians. Now you know what Paul means. So why don’t we go into the book and see if we can shed some light on it.

Galatians 1:1. Paul, an apostle, sent not from men nor by man. Paul is saying, I was not sent to do what I’m doing by anyone except Jesus Christ. I was not ordained by men. I don’t have any ordinate ordination papers. I did not graduate from cemetery seminary, excuse me, and so I don’t have a degree. It’s amazing how impressed we get with these degrees. And of course, if we don’t earn one, then we get honorary doctor’s degrees, and then insist people call you doctor. It is sickening, but we love degrees and titles, don’t we? Paul says, I don’t have a title from anybody there isn’t anybody that told me to go, come to you there when they wanted sent me to you. I don’t have any degrees that you’d be interested in. Gentiles. I came to you sent by God and by God alone. And folks, I love what major Ian Thomas said. He said, These people come down and say, Oh, I’m called to preach. Said, No, you’re not. You’re not called to anyone except Jesus Christ. Now he may send you to preach, but you’re not called to preach. You’re called to Jesus, and then Jesus sends you to minister wherever he wants to send you. And there are many people who are called to preach, and unfortunately, never been called to Jesus yet, and they’re all over the place. And I could name you some funny stories about that, but we think I’m called to preach.

When Amy and I had the big blowout that we had, that was a big blowout, and after it cooled off a little bit, we went out walking in the hills there of Whittier, California, and I said to her, honey, sometimes I feel like I ought to go be a preacher. Now I just come from the bar feeling I’m called to be a preacher. Well, that’s pretty good qualification for it. Amy’s comment was, well, why don’t you go be one? I didn’t realize I was being called unto Jesus. I wasn’t being called to preach or to go be a preacher. I was being called to him. Didn’t know it until later. So the first calling and the only calling of God is come onto me, and then I’ll send you where I want to send you. So you’re not called to preach. You’re called to Jesus. And a lot of people get the idea I’m called to preach, and so don’t, don’t tell me to wash windows. I’m a preacher. Don’t tell me to paint a room. I’m a preacher. And now I get up and preach. That’s all I do. I just preach. No one cares whether I preach or not, but I preach. Very few people are listening, but I preach, and folks, that’s a misconception that is totally in the Word of God, in the Church of Jesus Christ today, people called to preach instead of called to serve. Jesus served, whether he preached or not, he served people in love, and that’s what he called us to do, serve people in love. So he’s saying to them, I wasn’t sent to you by any man, nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God, the Father who raised him, Jesus from the dead, and all the brothers with me to the churches of Galatia.

Now again, to the churches of Galatia. Were these churches of Galatia, buildings down on the corner of walk and don’t walk with steeples and stained glass? Were that, was that what he’s talking about? No, there weren’t any buildings like that back then. What was he talking about? The church who met in homes. We just talked about that, didn’t we in Romans, the church that’s people who met in homes, the home isn’t the church, the church could have been meeting under a tree. You don’t call the tree a church. People who were gathered together for the study of the apostles teaching and for fellowship and for prayer. That was the Church of Jesus Christ, people who met daily in those days, daily for the apostles teaching and for fellowship and prayer. It was not an entertainment center. It was not a place that you go to meet friends so that you might find a husband or wife someday. It was a place where you went for one purpose only, to learn the apostles teaching to fellowship with people of like mind and to pray together. Now, isn’t that complicated? And that was the church, not in buildings, in homes. There were no buildings, just homes where people met in. So when he says that I am preaching, I’m writing to the churches in Galatia, he was talking about all of the different homes where people were meeting in, because in a city of any magnitude at all, distance certainly was a problem in those days. They didn’t have Volkswagens to go to church in or anything else they you had to either walk or you went by mule. But the matter, the fact of the matter, is that they met in homes in different parts of the city, and so he was writing to those homes and to a leader in that home who would be called a teacher could be called a pastor and an elder in those days, was not someone in this setting. It was a person in Galatia who went from home to home to home to be sure that the teaching was online and true and in line with what had been taught by them, by Jesus and the apostles. That was what an elder was. Now today, in most churches, you become an elder by the size of your pocketbook, and then, after a while, you run the church, and so but in those days, an elder was merely a man who was mature in the Lord. He was not a new Christian. He said, Don’t make new Christians into this kind of leadership, a mature person who knew the word of God, who understood the meaning of the word of God, whose life expressed Jesus, and that man would be named to go around and to check up on these different homes. And obviously you’d do the same in your own wherever you happen to be meeting. But the main job was that of supervision.

Now he says to those people, Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age. Now was that back then? Yes. Is it now? Absolutely. Is this age of ours evil? Or is it not? I mean friends, I cannot believe what’s going on in the world today. I mean, I’m ready to go back to the 50s. I cannot believe it. You have the promotion of every perverse action on the face of the earth. You have denominations debating whether they should allow homosexual pastors. Why would you be debating that? I mean, why don’t you debate whether you ought to have adultery pastors or pedophile pastors? What’s the debate about? And we’re debating those in denominational churches who call themselves Christians. You have every type of sin going on under the sun flaunted in front of us every day of our lives, and we’re expected to sit back and never give in to any of them. Any of you can sit here today and say you’ve never given into any of them? Any hands, no arms. It’s out there, folks, it’s out there in abundance.

The young people today that are going to schools are going to school in a totally different atmosphere than when any of us who are over 50 ever went to. When I grew up, the biggest discipline problems in school was chewing gun and gun and running in the halls. Today you’d be running in the halls to keep somebody from shooting you. I mean, it’s it’s just a different world in which we live. And yet, guys, everybody says, oh, man, if God doesn’t condemn America, he’s gonna have to apologize for Sodom and Gomorrah. Have you heard that one? We haven’t even come close to Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet, now we’re trying. But when you know the sin that was taking place back in. Paul’s days in the heathenistic countries of Greece, in Turkey, in these places, we haven’t even seen sin yet because it was rampant, much more so even than it is today. We just see more of it because of media.

So he says that he has rescued you and me from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now Paul is saying, I’m astonished now he’s going to start meddling. I’ve complimented you now I’m going to start meddling. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all.

Now, folks, again, this letter was going into the province of Galatia, into many, many different home studies. And so this gospel that was different than what Paul had preached was spreading all over. It was everywhere. And Paul is saying that I am absolutely astonished that you people are so quickly deserting the one who called you and Who’s that, Jesus. They’re deserting Jesus and are turning to a different gospel, which he says is no gospel at all. Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. Folks, you know what evil is? A perversion of good, that’s all it is, a perversion of good. God comes in with the good and evil comes and perverts the good into something else. Did God in His scripture, and when God hung on a cross, did he die for just some of your sins, or did he die for all of them? Then how could you come up with a scripture, or how could you come up with a gospel that says, then you can lose your salvation?

Announcer 27:11
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