Part XCVI on Galatians Study

II Corinthians 12:9
"...My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
So it was in that weakness with this affliction of the flesh when Paul thought he was unfit to go into these pagan sophisticated people, especially when he was in a place like Mars Hill when he was among all the big wheel philosophers, and here he is with this affliction that was not very nice to look at. So he must have pleaded with the Lord to please take this away from him so at best people would not be turned off by what they saw. But God says, "Paul, that's not the name of the game. The name of the game is your message and the power of My Spirit."


If folks would just ask and seek the Lord the Holy Spirit He would open up the Scriptures so they would know what the Bible says, and know it forward and backwards not through their individual sufficiency but rather His sufficiency then when this counterfeit stuff comes along they'll see it right away. So that's really our main purpose for helping reveal the Scriptures. Prayerfully then they'll be able to separate the Scriptures between Law and Grace. Separate what was written to the Hebrews and what's written to the One Body of Christ. And be able to separate the writings of Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles and the rest of the Scriptures. Then we'll be able to see the Scriptures we can claim for your own, and the Bible will become exciting and just open up to us.

Now in Galatians chapter 4:15 we'll just pick up where we left off. Remember that the Book of Galatians is Paul proving that we're not under the Law, but rather we're under Grace. And Galatians is appropriate for us today. We think after we finish that you'll agree with us that we're totally under that beautiful freedom of Grace.


Galatians 4:15
"Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me."
Now what's Paul saying? That there was such a bond of affection between these pagan Galatians who had come under Paul's Gospel, and the transforming power of it. These Galatians loved the man in spite of his physical inadequacies, and they would have given their healthy eyes to replace his sickly ones. Let's turn to II Thessalonians for a moment and we think this is typical of all of Paul's converts with the exception of some of the Jewish believers. Whenever Paul went into a pagan community it was all steeped in idolatry, but when they heard his true Gospel message here are the results – we as true believers are due the same results for God promises them to us.


I Thessalonians 1:9
"For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God."
Now doesn't that say it all? He came into this strange city with no fanfare, no trumpeting introducing him and he merely began to confront people with the Gospel of the Grace of God, how that Christ had died for their sins, and had been raised from the dead. And they believed it, they received the illumination of it and they turned from their idols to the True and Living God. Now in Galatians it was the same way. They had entered into such a joy of their salvation realizing that it was all of Grace.

And then just like it happens all the time today, we see it over and over how that when we have a new believer who comes under the power of the True Gospel. They come away from all this other stuff, and they enter into God's true salvation by Grace, what happens? Oh they start getting bombarded with all of the pressure to come back to all that other stuff. We had a phone call from a man who was just beside himself because he'd come out of this false teaching, he had seen the truth of the Word the way we reveal it, and believed it for salvation. But oh, the constant pressure to come back to where he was before. Listen this is not new. The Galatians were under the same thing. Paul had told them that they were in such a state of blessedness, that they would have plucked out their own eyes for him...and now -



Galatians 4:16
"Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?"
Can we show what the truth did? Turn to II Timothy chapter 1 for a moment. Now listen if you think you get discouraged sometimes and wonder why you or us or anybody else cannot have the results that we'd like to have, listen it's always been that way, and that's why we don't get discouraged. My lands, when you come to Noah's flood with probably a few billion that were on the earth at that time, how many were saved? Eight! You get to Jesus at the end of His 3 years of ministry in the area of Jerusalem and how many true believers were there? 120. Just 120 people. Hey that's next to nothing. That's the way it's been all the way up through Scripture. So here again, look what happened to these converts that Paul had brought out of paganism and Judaism. Now remember Galatia was in Asia Minor. Always remember geography when you read Scripture because geography and history all fit together with the overall working of the Holy Spirit. So look what happened here in II Timothy.