Part III on Galatians Study

Galatians 1:4a
"Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us (He's the one that is delivering us from) this present evil world,..."    Remember the wickedness that was in place in the Roman Empire and in fact the nation of Israel. Its just beyond our comprehension. We think we're all aware that historians have bemoaned the fact that America is going down the same road that Rome and indeed the Hebrews went. Just as sure as Rome and the nation of Israel rotted from within so we Americans are doing the same thing (Ezekiel 44). The more we read of Israels and Roman history the more we know what they're talking about. Do you know that Rome was almost totally given over to the welfare system. The only people who worked were the captive of their military excursions, and they just used them as slaves. The Roman, true citizens, did nothing; and in order to satisfy all their leisure hours they had to concoct something to keep themselves satisfied, and that gave rise to the coliseum, and the lions, feeding of the Christians, the gladiators, and all the rest. It also then gave rise to their implacable immorality, it was beyond description. All the idols of pagan gods and goddess' at every turn all kinds of debauchery imaginable. Now reading on into verse 6, and here we find Paul getting to the heart of the matter of why he is writing this letter. Remember he's gotten word that these Galatian believers composed of Hebrews and Gentiles are being besieged by the Judaizers who want to bring them back under the Law of Moses. To practice circumcision, to practice Temple worship or whatever was applicable. So Paul says:

Galatians 1:6
"I marvel (I can't comprehend, I'm surprised and astonished) that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:"  Paul couldn't comprehend how these people,  who had turned from Judaism and idols to the Living God, and now they're not satisfied with just Grace, now they're being hoodwinked to go under the bondage of religious legalism. Paul tells them that they are moving from the Grace of Christ into another gospel. This is exactly what has happened over the past 1800 plus years sense just before Constantine and the Roman Catholic church took hold. But what does the next verse say? 

Galatians 1:7
"Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert (change it into something which it absolutely it is not) the gospel of Christ."   

Oh it's not really another gospel, it's not something totally different, but it's a perversion. Now what is a perversion? Something that has been fooled with. It is no longer pure, so this is what has happened here. They hadn't just turned their back on Christianity as we call it, they hadn't turned their back on Christ, but they had turned their back on Paul's Gospel of pure Grace that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again and our believing and trusting that we're identified as being IN Christ, that plus nothing for salvation.   The moving from the station of the first covenant (under which Saul lived) into the power of the second, the promised better and Eternal or Everlasting. They were now believing these Judaizers that, yes, maybe they did have to practice the Levitical Law. So they are now bending in that direction and this is the purpose of the letter.We're not under Law, we're under Grace, and even today this is the heart cry. "Why can't people see that we're not under anything legalistic form of religion, we're under Grace!" And Grace is simply the fact that there is nothing that we can do to merit acceptance with, we're bankrupt before, God. The only thing that we can do is BELIEVE, receive and trust! The Truth as revealed in Christ. For Christ is the evidence of a Living Covenant, He's pardon the phrase Covenant Man our Canaan land.


If we really get a love for the Word, then reading the Bible is not enough, we are going to end up studying it. But if we really want to get what we need out of it we must study, and that's what the Scripture says:


II Timothy 2:15
"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."  Know what is Law and what is Grace, and don't mix the two, and the only way we will ever be able to do that is study and ask the Holy Spirit's help. So we like folks to know that all we're trying to do is emphasize the study of God's Word. We just have a heart for people to be taught from the Word and to be taught how the Word is divided, and delineated and we don't mean the Old from the New Testament. Once we learn how to rightly divide the Word the whole Bible will just open up to us. But we're not to attempt this on our own we need the author's help, we need the Holy Spirit. Now instead of going right on into Galatians, we would like to review and that we would digress now and review how everything unfolds and how it all fits and how everything rests on that which has gone before. So, consequently, it is hard to understand the Church Age and why God is dealing with us the way He is unless we see where it all begin. 

People just say,"Tell me, Who in the world is Jesus Christ?" Now the first time it shook me up. We thought how in the world could anybody ask a question like that? But now after some thought all we ask is, "Why don't more people ask that very question?" Because most people don't know Who He is. Oh, they know He was born at Bethlehem, they know He went through a crucifixion, but to really know Who Christ is and how He came on the scene - many people haven't a clue. And if we want to get someone interested in the Word of God, learn the difference between what the disciples and early Jewish believers understood compared to what we are now to understand as Church Age believers. Because God interrupted His original program for the Nation of Israel, and turned to the Gentiles instead.

So as far as the Scriptures are concerned, let's begin with the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis chapter 12. If Adam was created at 4004 BC (and most chronology pretty much agree on that), then from Adam to the call of Abraham or Abram as he was first known in Genesis 12, covers 2000 years. Now we don't put a lot of emphasis on that in this particular lesson because eleven chapters of Genesis covers that whole 2000 year span. And many of the early fathers talked together and knew each other thou we don't see that clearly in scripture. For example Abram knew and talked with Noah he learned from Noah and Shem and yes even Eber. So come over to Genesis 12, and here we will read for a moment. Here we have that Covenant that God made with Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees, so Abram was a Syrian, although God used him to begin the Hebrew or Jewish race. Anyway God made a special Covenant with him and here it is beginning with verse 1.

Genesis 12:1
"Now (in Haran) the LORD had said (back in chapter 11) unto Abram, (for your own advantage)`Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will (first a separation or crisis then a future) shew thee: 2. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing 3. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee (through a lineage of people that would come from this man) shall all families of the earth be blessed.'" (Hebrews 11:8-10; Galatians 3:8)

This Abrahamic Covenant is given to the man who would be the father of a race of people who had never been on the face of the earth before. They came out of Adam, and Noah and the three sons (more particularly Shem and Eber), but God institutes now by His Sovereignty a new race or nation of people that we have come to know as the nation of Israel. So the Hebrews (Jews) came as a result of this Covenant made with this one man. This Covenant promises a nation of people (actually two groups, one being the Hebrews and the other a special or set apart group made up of Gentiles), and implied is that we can't have a nation of people functioning and operating unless they are in their own geographical area, a homeland. And it's also implied that if we have a nation of people and they are in a geographical area, we can not have law and order and an economy unless we have a government. (Man at first had no government, this was introduced some time after the flood.Through Noah.)

So those are the three main tenants of the Abrahamic Covenant. That God will make of this one man a nation of people, put them in their own geographical area of land, and then at some future date, He and the person of God in the flesh would be their King. And that is the promise of the Messiah, and the redeemer. Now with the 2000 BC call of Abraham we have God dealing for the next 2000 years up to Christ's first advent with the Herbews only, and, of course, there are always a few exceptions. We have called this whole period of time from Abraham until we get out here to the Church Age, when the Jewish program is interrupted, the period of prophecy, the prophetic program, or the Old Testament program, where the nation was caroled within the framework of the Levitical Law to hold them in check as a separated people and we'll see how it was interrupted. But when we say that it is a program of prophecy, we want us to turn the page here in Genesis to chapter 15. We like to make these things as plain as we possibly can. True prophecy is telling the future, as we understand in the Old Testament, and is almost always when God made a promise, He put it in a time frame. Now that's how explicit God is when He tells the future. God will name the day, and He will name the number of years that will be involved in that particular process. Now, here in Genesis 15, Abraham is now in the scene and he's going to have children. The first one, Ishmael, was not according to God's plan, but never the less in Genesis 15 here we have what we call a real example of true prophecy. Look at verses 4-6 and 13.