Participants: Pr. John Dinzey (Host), Jill Morikone, Pr. Kenny Shelton, Pr. Ronny Shelton, Shelley Quinn
Series Code: SSP
Program Code: SSP000027A
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00:01 The Bible tells us, "In the beginning was the Word
00:03 and the Word was with God and the Word was God." 00:07 It says, "To receive 00:09 with meekness the implanted word, 00:11 which is able to save your souls 00:14 and to be diligent to present yourself 00:16 approved to God rightly dividing 00:18 the Word of truth." 00:20 Join us now for the 3ABN Sabbath School Panel. 00:25 Our study today is "The Gospel of Galatians". 00:32 Hello, and welcome to 3ABN Sabbath School Panel. 00:35 We welcome you to this study of the Book of Galatians 00:38 and we have our Sabbath School Quarterly 00:41 and Book of Galatians. 00:43 We want to encourage you to get yours 00:45 and you can get one absolutely free 00:47 by visiting a web page called 00:49 ABSG.Adventist.org. 00:55 ABSG.Adventist.org. 00:58 That's... 01:00 Stands for. Adult Bible Study Guide. 01:04 Adult Bible Study Guide. And it's absolutely free. 01:06 You download it on to your phone, 01:08 or your tablet, or your computer, 01:10 and you can study and follow along 01:11 with 3ABN Sabbath School Panel. 01:14 We have a distinguished panel of guests. 01:15 Once again, to my left 01:17 we have Sister Jill Morikone is with us. 01:20 Welcome, Jill. Thank you. 01:21 It's a joy to be here. Thank you so much. 01:23 We always enjoy your input 01:24 and we have Sister Shelley Quinn, 01:27 also another Bible student that we're pleased to have you here. 01:31 Thank you and this is a wonderful study. 01:34 Thank you so much. 01:35 We also have Pastor Ronny Shelton with us, 01:38 and we welcome you to the panel. 01:40 Thank you, Brother John. 01:42 And to your left is your brother Kenny Shelton, 01:45 Pastor Kenny Shelton as well as with us, 01:47 and we thank you so much for being a part of it. 01:49 It's a pleasure, thank you. 01:51 Thank you so much. And... 01:53 The Shelton's are well represented. 01:54 Well, the Shelton's are well represented. 01:56 And we want to begin this with prayer 01:59 and we want you to join us in prayer. 02:01 And I would like to ask Pastor Kenny Shelton, 02:03 if you will lead us in prayer, please? 02:06 Merciful Father in heaven, truly we thank You 02:08 for the privilege to study Your word here this morning. 02:11 We thank You for Your love, Your mercy, 02:13 Your longsuffering with us. 02:14 Now we plead for the power of thy Holy Spirit 02:17 to take possession of our hearts and our lives. 02:19 So, Lord, we need to hear from heaven, 02:21 we need to hear Your voice so we pray, 02:23 we'll be emptied of all those things 02:25 so sometimes easily beset us. 02:27 Pray that You would be with each one 02:28 who is watch your views and each one 02:31 who has open the pages of the beautiful book 02:32 called the Bible. 02:34 May the Holy Spirit reveal those things 02:35 that are needed for today's activity. 02:37 We thank You, we give You praise, give You honor, 02:39 and we give You glory, 02:41 and we thank You in Jesus' name. 02:43 Amen. Amen. 02:44 Amen. 02:46 We do give Him glory and we praise the Lord 02:48 for His goodness and mercy. 02:49 And this lesson number two is entitled, 02:53 "Paul's authority and gospel". 02:55 Paul's authority and gospel, 02:57 lesson number two of the quarterly. 02:59 And for this week we have a memory text 03:02 found in Galatians 1:10. 03:05 And if you have your Bible study guide with you, 03:08 we want you to read along with us 03:10 and perhaps we could do 03:11 as we did last time, read it together. 03:13 "For do I now persuade men, or God? 03:17 Or do I seek to please men? 03:20 For if I still please men, I would not be 03:23 a bond servant of Christ." 03:26 Thank you. That's Galatians 1:10. 03:30 So we see here that Paul is telling us 03:34 that he is no longer under the plan to please men. 03:39 His desire is to please God. 03:41 And when you desire to please God, 03:43 sometimes you have to disappoint men. 03:45 It's true. 03:46 So Paul had to face these type of things 03:48 and we all do as we walk this Christian life. 03:52 Now this lesson brings us an interesting illustration 03:56 in Saturday's portion and that is, 03:58 suppose a team of university students 04:02 decided to design a room 04:05 where everyone could be together, 04:07 and share with one another, 04:09 and talk about the different challenges 04:10 of the school, 04:12 and seek to improve the school let's say. 04:15 They left this well-established and working well, 04:19 and then they come back a few years later 04:21 for maybe some one of the anniversaries, 04:23 and then they notice that 04:24 it's been divided into females over here, 04:27 males over here, 04:29 and the different types of nations 04:31 in different little rooms. 04:33 Completely different from what it was first established. 04:36 And they ask, "What is this? What's happened here? 04:38 What's going on?" 04:40 And the students responsible for the change would say, 04:43 "Well, we have authority to do this 04:45 because we've gone back in history 04:47 and we have the authority to make this change." 04:51 And, of course, it completely destroyed the unity 04:54 that was once enjoyed by this design. 04:59 And this is the same thing that Paul was facing 05:02 during the time of the Book of Galatians. 05:05 And there was a large group of people that were saying 05:10 that in order for the gentiles to be a part 05:14 of the Christian faith of believers, 05:16 they must be circumcised. 05:20 And as a matter of fact they had to be... 05:23 In order, to be saved, they said, 05:25 you have to be circumcised. 05:27 Interestingly enough, there are some criteria 05:30 that people have placed in these days 05:32 for being saved that are not biblical. 05:35 And, of course, we'll have to deal with these things 05:37 in the future, but we are looking now 05:40 at what happened during the time of Paul. 05:43 And for this reason, 05:44 Paul wrote the Book of Galatians 05:46 to answer these different beliefs. 05:52 Paul saw this as an attack 05:53 on the essence of the gospel itself, 05:56 and this is why he, 05:59 with the blessing of the Holy Spirit 06:01 wrote the Book of Galatians. 06:03 And interestingly enough 06:05 as you look at the Book of Galatians, 06:07 you will find that there are some things 06:10 that at first glance 06:12 may be difficult to be understood. 06:15 So this is when you go to the Lord in prayer 06:18 and you say, "Lord, bless me with Your Holy Spirit 06:20 that I may understand." 06:22 Because if God used the Holy Spirit to impress Paul 06:27 what to write, then we must ask the Lord to bless us 06:30 with the Holy Spirit that we may understand 06:32 what the message was that God intended 06:35 for the Galatians believer. 06:37 Now this, we see the Book of Galatians, 06:40 we have to understand that this is not just for the Galatians, 06:43 this is a book for us today 06:44 because some of the same principles 06:46 are there of people pulling to one side 06:49 is also alive today. 06:52 So by looking at the principles found 06:53 in the Book of Galatians, 06:55 we may learn something about how to handle difficulties 06:57 even in today's Christian time. 07:01 So let's look at the Book of Galatians 07:05 to see what Paul was telling us. 07:08 In the Book of Galatians 07:10 we have a very interesting verse 07:15 that is described here, we want to invite you 07:17 to read 2 Peter 3:15 and 16. 07:20 And I would like to ask one of our panel members 07:22 to read 2 Peter 3:15 and 16. 07:26 Sister Shelley, if you will help us 07:27 with those verses. 07:29 Certainly, 2 Peter 3:15 and 16, 07:34 I'm getting there but pages are sticking. 07:40 2 Peter 3:15 and 16 says this, 07:43 "And consider that the longsuffering 07:45 of our Lord is salvation 07:47 as also our beloved brother Paul, 07:50 according to the wisdom given to him, 07:52 has written to you, as also in all his epistles, 07:56 speaking in them of these things, 07:59 in which are some things hard to understand, 08:02 which untaught and unstable people twist 08:07 to their own destruction, 08:09 as they do also the rest of the Scriptures." 08:12 Thank you so much. 08:13 So we see here two scriptures that we could spend 08:16 the rest of the time talking about 08:20 during the time that we are allowed it. 08:23 Now this is interesting because it says 08:25 that the longsuffering or patience 08:28 of the Lord is our salvation. 08:29 God is interested in our salvation, 08:31 so here in the Book of Galatians 08:32 we find a message of salvation for us. 08:35 And now Peter states that Saul, 08:42 Paul was given wisdom, wisdom from above to write. 08:48 However, it says there are certain people 08:51 were taking the things of Paul and twisting them 08:55 and bringing a different understanding 08:58 other than that which was intended. 09:02 So it says that they do this to their destruction. 09:05 If they did this in those days, the people that twist 09:09 the scriptures today are doing it 09:11 to their own destruction. 09:12 Amen. 09:14 And we are grateful to the Lord Jesus Christ 09:16 that said to us that the Holy Spirit 09:18 will guide us into all truth. 09:21 And this is what we want from the Lord 09:23 as we go into the Book of Galatians 09:25 for the Lord to guide us into all truth. 09:28 And we're now into Sunday, the Paul, the letter writer, 09:34 and when you study the letters of Paul, 09:37 you will notice that 09:38 there is always a nice greeting. 09:40 And he says who he is, he says he's a servant of Christ. 09:45 And when you look at the letters of Paul, 09:48 people thought it was a unique style of writing, 09:52 but discoveries have been made and that really identify 09:57 that Paul's letter was very common in those days. 10:00 And so I like to discuss these things with you 10:04 and we have in Paul's writing 10:09 the different aspects of his letters 10:12 and so let's go to those now. 10:15 In Paul's writings, you will find that... 10:20 Getting my notes here. 10:22 In Paul's writing, you will find that 10:23 he had a format of a greeting. 10:25 He first greeted the people, he told them who he was 10:28 and as he did this, 10:31 you will find then he stated a problem. 10:34 In the Book of Galatians, he brings a problem that was, 10:37 that surfaced among them 10:38 and he begins to address this problem 10:40 so that the believers understand 10:42 what is God's desire, 10:43 what is God's will concerning these things. 10:46 And it's interesting the wording that Paul chooses, 10:50 he's writing to them as a father to his children, 10:53 with like fatherly care. 10:56 Now he uses some strong language 10:58 in Galatians as well, he uses, "Who has bewitched you?" 11:02 There you have so soon fallen from grace, 11:05 so he's trying to catch your attention. 11:06 Wait a minute, this is the guy that helps us understand 11:09 the way of the Lord. 11:11 So what happened to us? Where did we go wrong? 11:14 So they read the letter of Paul with great interest to see 11:18 what does Paul want to tell us. 11:20 He brought us light, what does he want to tell us 11:24 that we need to understand. 11:25 So I believe the Book of Galatians 11:27 was a great blessing to the people of Galatia. 11:30 It helped them understand 11:31 the truth that God wanted them to bring out. 11:35 And, of course, we have to see 11:38 that there was a battle going on 11:40 between those that wanted them to be circumcised 11:42 and those that wanted them to continue following the faith 11:47 that was delivered to the Jews. 11:49 Now, I'd like to bring something out 11:51 that I believe is interesting. 11:52 When John the Baptist was preaching, 11:54 he said concerning Jesus, "Behold, the Lamb of God..." 11:58 That what? 11:59 "Taketh away the sins of the world." 12:02 Now this to the people, "What did he say? 12:05 What did he mean?" 12:06 Because they were saying that Jesus is the Lamb of God 12:10 that takes away the sin of the world. 12:12 They were accustomed to bringing a lamb 12:15 so they could have their sins forgiven, 12:17 but now John the Baptist is saying 12:19 something different than they heard. 12:21 So I believe God was already bringing them a light. 12:25 Yes. 12:26 God gives us light one step at a time to lead us 12:29 to a greater light. 12:31 So what God gave to the Jews through Moses 12:34 and to the prophets was light, but there was greater light 12:38 that was coming that if they accepted 12:41 the light they had and embraced it, 12:44 by the time that Jesus came on the scene, 12:47 they were looking at the sacrifices having merit 12:49 in themselves 12:51 and not that they were a symbol of the Christ that was to come, 12:55 the seed that was promised. 12:57 So the light that they received, 13:02 embracing it and understanding it fully. 13:04 When greater light would come, they would embrace it 13:06 as many did because we see that 13:09 when Peter preached his first sermon 13:11 3,000 accepted. 13:14 And so God today wants to do the same thing, 13:19 He did for those... 13:20 The people in those times, the Jews 13:22 and the gentile of those days. 13:25 We have in the Book of Galatians a book 13:26 that needs to be studied. 13:28 A book that deserves our attention, 13:30 a book that should not be brushed aside as a book 13:33 that doesn't have information for us today. 13:36 It is a book that deserves everyone's attention 13:39 and prayerful study. 13:40 So, Jill. Amen. 13:41 Amen. 13:43 I agree with you, Pastor John, 13:44 and because the Book of Galatians 13:45 contains the elements, the truth, 13:47 the gospel of righteousness by faith. 13:49 Amen. 13:51 And if we don't know how to come to Jesus. 13:53 If we don't know how to come into right relationship, 13:55 then where would we be? 13:57 It's all about salvation. 13:58 And my part is Monday, Paul's calling, 14:01 and it's interesting you brought this up, 14:03 Brother Johnny, how Paul addresses 14:06 or his greeting or salutation for the beginning 14:10 of each one of his 13 epistles that he wrote. 14:13 And they're all just slightly different. 14:15 I have here underneath my notes here 14:18 some letters from my husband Greg. 14:23 So this first one is written in 1999. 14:27 And I want you to... 14:29 I'm not gonna read you to the letter 14:30 because these are personal 14:32 and we don't wanna spread that around. 14:33 But if you look at the greeting, 14:35 the opening, you notice a difference, a progression. 14:39 This one's written in 99 and it says, "Dear, Jill." 14:42 Okay. That's my name. 14:44 Ninety nine it says, "Dear, Jill." 14:46 Now this one is postmark 2001. 14:49 Well, two years. Two years. 14:52 You open it says, "To my dear, Jilly." 14:55 Oh, oh... Oh. 14:56 So you can see just in the salutation 14:59 or in the greeting there is a little bit 15:01 of a progression would you say in relationship. 15:04 Now this one, the front of it says, 15:08 "Precious little piglet." 15:10 That's his nickname for me. 15:12 "Sweet little piglet, beautiful little piglet." 15:16 Now this is a pretty nice letter 15:17 you can see why I kept it. 15:19 You open it up... 15:21 This is in 2002, 15:22 this is the year we got married. 15:23 This is shortly before... 15:25 It says, "To my one and only..." 15:27 See the progression, dear, Jill, to my dear, Jilly, 15:33 to my one and only. 15:36 So when you look at Paul's greetings 15:39 his opening salutation, 15:41 it gives you just a picture of his... 15:43 You could even say relationship 15:46 with the people that he's writing to. 15:49 And he always mentions the sender 15:51 who he's sending the letter to, and the recipient, 15:54 who the letter is been addressed to, 15:56 and then he always gives his name as well. 15:57 Now it's interesting if you look, I did a little, 16:00 we won't work all this up. 16:01 But if you look at the different epistles of Paul, 16:04 the Book of Corinthians say 1 Corinthians, he says, 16:08 "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ 16:11 through the will of God." 16:12 In 2 Corinthians, he says, "An apostle of Jesus Christ 16:16 by the will of God." 16:18 Romans says, "Servant of Jesus Christ, 16:20 called to be an apostle." 16:22 Do you notice his greeting, 16:23 every time he mentions the word apostle? 16:27 In Ephesians, "An apostle of Jesus Christ." 16:30 Colossians, "Apostle of Jesus Christ 16:32 by the will of God." 16:34 Now in Philemon he writes, "A prisoner of Jesus Christ." 16:37 And we know this is the pastoral, 16:39 the prison epistles written from prison. 16:42 Philippians, "Servants of Jesus Christ." 16:46 1 Timothy, he goes back to apostle, 16:48 "Apostle of Jesus Christ." 16:50 Titus, "Servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ." 16:54 In 2 Timothy, "Apostle of Jesus Christ 16:56 by the will of God." 16:57 Now each one of these, he just makes 16:59 a blanket statement you could say, 17:02 like it's understood. 17:03 Everyone reading the letter would know Paul is an apostle, 17:06 he doesn't explain, he doesn't go into it, 17:09 it's simply, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ. 17:12 Now Galatians is a little different. 17:14 Let's look at Galatians 1:1. 17:18 And he always defends his apostleship in this book. 17:23 We know that this book was probably, definitely, 17:26 probably the first one that Paul had written. 17:30 And one of the first books written in the New Testament 17:32 and he defends his apostleship. 17:35 Verse 1, "Paul, an apostle not from men nor through man, 17:41 but through Jesus Christ and God the Father 17:45 who raised him from the dead." 17:47 Verse 2, "And all the brethren who are with me." 17:49 So he's saying, I'm not just writing for me, 17:51 but I'm writing from all the brethren. 17:52 But you notice he didn't just run by it, 17:55 he didn't just say, 17:56 "Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ. 17:58 Now I'm gonna give you my letter, 17:59 I'm gonna write to you." 18:01 He says, "I'm not an apostle from men nor through men." 18:05 You know what that indicates to me that some in Galatians, 18:08 some people maybe pockets, maybe some other Judaizers 18:11 who were saying, "You had o be circumcised 18:13 in order to be saved." 18:15 Maybe some of these people were questioning 18:18 his apostolic authority and he's saying, 18:21 "My apostolic authority, 18:22 my apostleship does not come from the will of man." 18:26 It does not come... 18:28 Acts 13, when the church leaders 18:31 laid hands on him and Barnabas 18:33 and set them apart from ministry. 18:35 Now obviously that was a recognition 18:38 of the call of God on his life, but he's saying, 18:40 "It didn't come from that, 18:41 it didn't come from Ananias who, you know, 18:46 baptized was with me at the beginning, 18:47 it didn't come from that. 18:49 My authority came from the Lord Jesus Christ." 18:51 Amen. 18:53 And as we go through Galatians 1, 18:54 he references his time, 18:57 his road on the way to Damascus, 18:59 and how he met and saw the Lord Jesus Christ. 19:03 His apostolic authority lay from God. 19:08 He saw Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus 19:11 and that's when he had his conversion experience. 19:13 And that's when God first called him to be His disciple, 19:18 His apostle to the gentiles. 19:21 You know, you wonder why maybe they had an issue 19:23 with his apostolic authority, 19:26 maybe they didn't like some of the things, 19:27 can we say this? 19:29 Some of the things he was teaching, right. 19:31 Maybe they had an issue with salvation by grace 19:35 through faith because they said, 19:36 "Salvation comes by grace plus works, 19:40 you got to be circumcised to you have to have 19:42 that grace and works." 19:43 Then maybe they didn't like 19:45 the concept of justification by faith. 19:47 For whatever reason at the beginning of his letter, 19:50 he opens up and says, "I'm an apostle 19:53 and I'm called by the Lord Jesus Christ." 19:56 I think it's so important 19:58 as we look at even the church today, 20:01 so many times we could be making decisions 20:07 not based on the Word of God but based on what a man says, 20:12 instead of the inherent Word of God. 20:15 You know, you see today, in today's culture we see it 20:18 within our church and outside the church 20:20 and other Christian dominations. 20:22 We see ways where the authority of scripture, 20:24 the authority of the Word of God 20:26 is being undermined. 20:28 It's true. 20:29 May be a six-day literal creation week 20:32 and people say it took a 1,000 years 20:36 for the first day. 20:37 And then a 1,000 years for the second day, 20:40 instead of the Word of God says in the beginning. 20:43 It says, "And the evening and the morning 20:45 were the first day." 20:46 And then the second day, etcetera. 20:48 Maybe sometimes we see it people questioning 20:51 the reality of the sanctuary in heaven and saying, 20:55 "I'm not sure if there is a heavenly sanctuary." 20:58 Instead of basing our doctrine and belief 21:01 on the authority of scripture, 21:03 the authority of the Word of God, 21:05 we see it today in righteousness by faith. 21:07 And to be honest with you, I came out of that. 21:11 My upbringing was such... 21:13 Came out of righteousness by faith? 21:15 No, I came out of righteousness by works. 21:17 Okay. 21:18 So my upbringing was such that, yes, 21:21 I'm saved by grace through faith, 21:23 but I have to combine my works with that 21:26 in order to somehow earn salvation. 21:30 Instead of knowing that, 21:32 if I accept the Lord Jesus Christ 21:35 as my personal savior that at that moment 21:39 I stand before Him justified, and clothed, and forgiven, 21:44 and then He empowers me. 21:45 Of course, we're not laying aside the works, 21:47 but He empowers me then to walk as He walked 21:51 when He was on this earth. 21:53 But we see those ditches maybe saying, 21:55 "Okay, we don't believe in righteousness by faith, 21:58 we believe in righteousness by works," 21:59 which is what I was taught. 22:01 Or all we need is grace, 22:04 all we need is righteousness by faith, 22:06 and we don't need to walk in victory over sin. 22:10 Maybe we base our walk, our relationship with God 22:14 based off of how I feel instead of going by 22:18 what the Word of God says. 22:20 We even see today the authority of scripture 22:23 being questioned with marriage saying, 22:26 "It doesn't matter, marriage isn't really 22:28 one man and one woman, 22:29 marriage is just simply as long as you love each other, 22:33 that's all that really matters." 22:34 So we see the authority of scripture is so important 22:38 and Paul lays that down right at the very beginning, 22:41 when he says, "I am calling, 22:43 the letter I'm about to write to you Galatians 22:46 is because God has called me. 22:48 I'm not writing of my own authority 22:50 or of any man, but I'm writing 22:52 because God has called me to do that." 22:55 Amen, and amen. 22:57 You know, it's interesting to me 22:59 when we were saying what Peter's comment 23:03 about Paul's writings, he said, 23:05 "It's difficult for some to misunderstand." 23:08 He didn't say he misunderstood it, 23:10 but he refers to Paul's writings as scripture. 23:13 Right. 23:15 So it was recognized right from the very beginning 23:18 and usually when we've got people 23:21 who are twisting scriptures 23:23 what happens is they will take a scripture, 23:26 and put it out of place, and they hold on to that, 23:29 and they think they've got justification 23:30 for their teaching, yet they're not looking 23:33 at the broad picture. 23:34 Okay. 23:36 So I have Tuesday, 23:37 Paul's gospel in addition to defending his apostleship. 23:43 What Paul does in the very beginning 23:46 is he's emphasizing grace and peace. 23:48 Let's look at Galatians 1:3. 23:50 He says, "Grace to you and peace from God the Father, 23:56 and our Lord Jesus Christ." 23:58 He begins his letters, Ephesians, Philippians, 24:01 Colossians with the same words, grace and peace. 24:06 Did you know that Paul uses the word grace over 100 times 24:11 and that is in the New Testament more than 24:15 half of the New Testament use of the word grace 24:19 belongs to Paul. 24:20 There is about a 170 times where grace is used. 24:23 But in God's language of love, 24:25 there is no weightier word than grace. 24:29 This is covenant commitment. 24:30 Do you know what the Old Testament equivalent 24:33 for grace was? 24:35 I didn't know this to most recently 24:37 and I cannot believe it, 24:39 but I was studying in the Hebrew, 24:41 "hesed" is the Old Testament 24:46 equivalent of grace. 24:48 It's used 240 times in the Old Testament 24:52 and its translated loving kindness, 24:54 steadfast love, grace, mercy, 24:56 faithfulness, goodness, and devotion. 24:58 But let me give you an incredible definition 25:01 that I found and this is from the dictionary 25:05 of the Old Testament wisdom writings in poetry, it says, 25:10 "The Hebrew word has said cannot be translated 25:14 by one English word. 25:16 It is a covenant term wrapping up in itself 25:20 all the positive attributes of God. 25:23 Love, covenant, faithfulness, mercy, grace, kindness, 25:29 loyalty, in short, acts of devotion 25:33 and loving kindness that go beyond 25:37 the requirements of duty." 25:39 So "hesed" really in the Old Testament 240 times, 25:43 that's like grace and agape. 25:46 The grace of God 25:48 and the unconditional love of God all wrapped up into one. 25:52 It's such a beautiful word, 25:53 but grace was not a common place 25:56 greeting of the day. 25:57 What the Greek authors if they were writing, 26:01 they would use the word greetings, 26:03 which is charan. 26:05 But Paul uses grace, which is charis, 26:08 and then he adds the typical Jewish blessing 26:12 or greeting of peace. 26:14 So this wasn't just a pleasantry, 26:17 what he was doing is summing up 26:18 really his whole gospel message, 26:20 the grace didn't come from Paul, 26:23 it came from God the Father. 26:25 And he thought that this word grace 26:29 if he used it over a 100 times, 26:31 it had such noteworthy value to him 26:34 that it became his customary blessing. 26:36 And basically when he affirmed grace over someone 26:40 as he did usually at the beginning of his 26:43 and at the end of his letters, 26:46 it was like he was pronouncing all the some of God's blessings 26:51 on the people through this affirmation of grace. 26:55 So to me what's wonderful about Paul's life 26:59 is that here he was the former persecutor 27:03 of Christians, now he has, he said, 27:07 he was, you know, he said, 27:08 he's the self-proclaimed chief of sinners, 27:11 but now he is God's ambassador for grace, 27:18 isn't that amazing? 27:20 Here's a man who was doing everything he could 27:23 to work his way into the Kingdom of God. 27:26 Now he is the ambassador of grace 27:29 because once he met the master of grace, 27:32 it had life altering effect on him. 27:34 You know, Shelley, I wonder 27:35 if that was a challenge for him, 27:37 as you said he was so forceful against the word. 27:39 Sure. 27:41 Was it whenever he became transformed 27:44 from Saul to Paul. 27:46 I wonder if it was a challenge everyday for him 27:49 to stay under that grace or did he want to go out there 27:51 with the big stick and whip people into action 27:54 into the change. 27:55 You know, what I'm saying, he was so forceful, 27:57 so forceful the way he was. 27:59 What an interesting comment because I didn't grow up 28:01 in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 28:02 but I grew up in "a New Testament church" 28:05 that was so performance oriented. 28:07 You had to do this, you had to do that, 28:09 if I didn't do everything right and be just perfect, 28:11 I wasn't accepted by God. 28:13 And so I grew up with that even when God started teaching me 28:18 the truth about grace, the beautiful thing about 28:21 the Sabbath which is... 28:22 Did you know the Sabbath is the sign 28:24 of the everlasting covenant of grace? 28:26 Because God says, "It's a sign that He is the one 28:31 who will sanctify you." 28:32 So every now and then 28:34 when I come time for the Sabbath, 28:35 it's just kind of like, "Oh, thank you, Lord." 28:39 I realize I was getting off on to that performance mentality, 28:43 I bet Paul did, I wonder if he did. 28:46 But what is the definition for grace? 28:49 Unmerited favor. 28:50 Unmerited favor, what does it mean? 28:52 It means the unearned, undeserved gifts of God. 28:56 That's right. 28:57 But listen to the most prominent meaning of grace 29:02 is an act of favor or goodwill gift from God. 29:06 Strong's Concordance says, 29:08 "Grace is the divine influence upon the heart 29:13 and its reflections in the life." 29:16 See, you've got to understand the gifts of grace 29:20 to understand the effects of grace. 29:22 What was the greatest gift God ever gave to mankind? 29:25 God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. 29:28 So Jesus Christ and His merit are gift of grace. 29:33 The Holy Spirit is a gift of grace. 29:36 The Holy Scriptures are the gift of grace. 29:39 So what we have when you look at grace, I want to give you... 29:43 This is my definition of grace because in the Lord 29:48 as I was studying through this years ago, 29:51 I believe God really showed me this, 29:53 "Divine grace is the unearned, undeserved gifts, 29:57 bestowed by a God of infinite love, 30:01 which provide His divine assistance 30:05 and supernatural power unto salvation. 30:08 Amen. Amen. 30:10 See, God's heart wells with love for us 30:13 and then His grace as I see God showed me this 30:16 that it comes down by His grace pipeline, 30:19 we tap into that by... 30:24 Faith is the faucet, that's how we tap in 30:27 to God's grace pipeline. 30:28 And then prayer is the handle that opens the faith faucet. 30:32 Trust is the foundation for prayer, 30:35 and love is the foundation for trust, 30:37 so it's kind of like this whole circle. 30:40 The more we recognize how God loves us, 30:42 the more we love Him, we only love Him 30:44 because He first loved us, right? 30:46 So then the more we love Him, the more we trust Him, 30:50 we get into His Word, we know Him. 30:52 The greater our relationship, then the more we prayed 30:55 by the prayer of faith and tap into the grace pipeline. 31:00 So let's look at Galatians 1:1-6. 31:03 I've only got short time. 31:04 But in Galatians 1, here is Paul's opponents 31:09 are trumpeting salvation by faith 31:12 plus conformity to the law. 31:15 And now he gives a masterful response 31:19 that's gonna prove to the contrary. 31:21 Galatians 1:1, 31:23 "Paul, an apostle not from men through man, 31:26 but through Jesus Christ and God the Father 31:29 who raised him from the dead." 31:31 So right here he's talking about a risen Savior. 31:35 "And all the brethren who are with me, 31:36 to the churches of Galatia, grace to you 31:40 and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 31:44 who gave Himself for our sins." 31:47 There he's showing, 31:48 he's a substitutionary sacrifice 31:51 that He might deliver us from this present evil age. 31:56 So there he's showing us, it's Jesus came to deliver us 31:59 from the power of sin 32:02 according to the will of our God and Father. 32:07 So in just a few short words, he has summed up 32:10 the essence of the gospel right here. 32:13 That the central truth of the gospel 32:16 as salvation rests fully on Jesus Christ. 32:21 It's what he accomplished for us through His death 32:24 and through His resurrection. 32:27 And what that did for us? 32:29 Christ's death and resurrection did for us 32:32 something that we could never do for ourselves. 32:35 It broke the power of sin. Yes. 32:37 It broke the power of evil. Amen. 32:40 So as he's reflecting on this wonderful news 32:44 that the grace and peace that God gives us in Christ. 32:48 He then in verse 5, Paul just breaks out 32:51 into spontaneous praise, he says, 32:54 "To whom be glory forever and ever. 32:58 Amen." 33:00 And then he says, "I marvel Galatians 33:05 that you are turning away so soon from Him 33:08 who called you in the grace of Christ, 33:11 to a different gospel." 33:13 And any other gospel is not a gospel at all, 33:18 it's not good news at all. 33:20 That's true. 33:22 You know, and as I look at Wednesday's part 33:25 where our topic is no other gospel. 33:29 I think about the salutation we talked about 33:32 how Paul would introduce his letters. 33:36 And I compare that with to say that the governor 33:41 is going to send out a letter to the state employees 33:44 and at the top he's got his name 33:46 and he's got his title. 33:48 You know, this is who I am, 33:49 this is the authority that I have... 33:51 Absolutely. 33:52 And so that's what Paul was doing, 33:54 he was giving his qualifications. 33:55 Amen. 33:56 That he didn't get his power and elected body, you know, 34:00 but God had brought him to power. 34:03 And so these are his qualifications 34:04 his name and... 34:06 So in that salutation he always then said, 34:10 and I think God for you 34:12 because you've been such a blessing, 34:13 you've been so faithful, 34:15 and all of the other salutations. 34:18 But now we're gonna again to Galatians 1, 34:20 he changed very quickly on that, 34:22 his forceful personality that he has. 34:26 He says, "You know, enough with the niceties, 34:28 you've got a problem here and we need to address it." 34:30 Amen. 34:31 You know, he just really got down as they say 34:33 where the rubber meets the road. 34:35 You know, let's talk about the problems here. 34:38 And so this salutation was so different than the others 34:40 that he had, because he had something so strongly, 34:43 so forcefully on his mind. 34:46 And as we read there in Galatians 1:6 34:51 as you touched on, Shelley, he said, 34:54 "I marvel that you are turning away 34:56 so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, 35:00 to a different gospel." 35:03 Now he wasn't saying that there is another gospel, 35:07 he's just saying you've turned away from the gospel. 35:10 There's only one gospel, there's nothing else, 35:12 there's no place that we can turn. 35:14 There is the only one, so he wasn't saying 35:16 there is another gospel that you can turn to, 35:18 but he was saying, "I can't believe 35:20 that you've left the word so readily so quickly." 35:23 Amen. 35:24 And although Paul addressed all kinds of local challenges 35:28 and problems in the letters to his churches. 35:30 That's what he was doing. 35:31 Us, you know, we would just jump on a plane or a train 35:34 and we'd go over there and see those people, 35:36 but travel was so slow then, you know, 35:39 he would write letters to the churches 35:41 and send them here and send them there. 35:42 Aren't we glad he did? Aren't we glad? 35:44 Yeah. Amen. 35:45 You know, and you wonder how quick 35:47 was that communication or how slow was it? 35:49 The problem may have really gotten out of hand 35:51 before he actually heard about it 35:54 and addressed the situation. 35:55 So in this particular one in Galatians 1, 35:58 he comes on rather strongly. 36:00 Yes. That's how he deals with. 36:01 He says, "We don't have time, you know, to pamper." 36:06 So the situation in Galatia is so upsetting 36:10 that Paul omits the thanksgiving entirely 36:13 where he normally would praise people first. 36:15 I've heard it said before, Kenny, you know, 36:16 you've got to get him smiling 36:18 before you kick him in the teeth. 36:19 Yeah. Have you heard that? 36:21 Yeah. 36:22 I've also heard to when they... 36:24 Is like when your children, sometimes they need corrected. 36:26 Yeah. 36:27 You know, you start out and you can get many times 36:29 but you're talking about getting down to it 36:31 is you tell them you love them when you have the belt toss, 36:36 and you getting ready to use it, you tell them, 36:38 you love them, and have prayer with them, 36:40 and then you beat the daylights out of them. 36:42 We heard that this is gonna hurt you worse than me. 36:44 It's been me. But we never did believe it. 36:46 Well, get a good spanking. Yeah. 36:48 But so that's kind of the way Paul did 36:49 in our human thinking is your children, 36:52 you love them, you tell them you love them, 36:53 greet him first and tell him how much you love him. 36:55 But you still have a problem you mentioned. 36:57 Yes. 36:59 And you have to deal with that issue, get down to it. 37:01 It's got to be dealt with. Yes. 37:03 So that's what he did. 37:04 His strong personality was not inclined 37:08 by the Lord's leading to lets them things pass. 37:11 This is serious and it needs to be dealt with. 37:12 Yes. 37:14 And, of course, we're talking again, 37:15 we're getting back into the circumcision part of it. 37:18 And he says, "Why is that 37:20 you're pushing this on the gentiles?" 37:23 He says circumcision is nothing, 37:27 neither is male nor female 37:29 and he goes into neither is race, 37:31 neither is black or white, he said some of these things 37:33 you're trying to push on the gentiles 37:35 then they amount to hill of beans. 37:37 That's right. 37:38 Because they are not related to salvation 37:41 but he corrects them quickly, 37:42 Paul does not hold back anything. 37:44 Yes. He doesn't hold it back. 37:46 You know, I wonder why God called him, that's part of it. 37:49 Yes. 37:50 He's not a man that runs from the issues. 37:52 Good. 37:53 His personality is strong enough 37:55 that he will take the bull by the horns when necessary. 37:57 Amen. Yes. 37:59 And so he tells them, "I can't believe 38:03 that you are leaving the gospel so quickly." 38:06 And some of the original language points to the fact 38:10 that he's talking about deserting. 38:12 You know, we think about in the service a guy's gone AWOL. 38:15 You know, he's away without leave. 38:18 In other words he has deserted the troops. 38:20 Yeah. 38:22 And that's not gonna be good, you know, 38:23 but that's the connotations there of the original words 38:26 when he talks about, "Don't leave the gospel," 38:28 here he says. 38:30 It's like a soldier deserting the battle 38:33 and he's run to hide. 38:36 Verse 6 it talked about that. 38:39 And there he says, "I can't believe 38:41 that you've left so quickly." 38:42 You know, and I don't know how much time passed, 38:44 does anybody of us know how much time has passed? 38:47 But whatever it was he says, "You left very quickly." 38:50 I wonder what sort of hardships caused them to leave, 38:54 any thoughts. 38:55 I mean, we could apply this to today 38:56 in our churches, can we? 38:58 You know, the Judaizers when they should have... 39:00 I heard Dwight Nelson in a sermon say 39:04 that a seminary student had come to him to say 39:07 they were concerned about teaching some people 39:09 who would come to Andrews University. 39:12 Where they weren't invited by Andrews, 39:13 they weren't invited by the church, 39:17 they had been invited by students, 39:19 and these teachers were showing up 39:22 talking about the perfection, 39:23 talking about all of this obedience, 39:25 and in making it grace plus works. 39:29 And Dwight Nelson says, "We ought to be 39:33 really concerned about this." 39:35 But what happened, just think about the influence that has. 39:38 These are young Christians, they're gentiles, 39:41 so here they've heard Paul's message, 39:43 somebody comes along and says, 39:45 "Hey, he's not really an apostle, 39:48 there are 11 apostles who are still back here. 39:51 You know, we come from the mother church Jerusalem, 39:53 here we come, and this is what you've got to do." 39:56 So these people probably feared for their own salvation, 39:59 they thought they're learning more, 40:02 they didn't realize they had heard the full gospel. 40:05 Sometimes our church get so oriented, 40:09 works oriented that we wonder 40:11 how far are you gonna to take this? 40:14 When I first pastored the church was in Arkansas 40:17 and I met with the Arkansas, Louisiana Conference President. 40:20 And he said, "I've got two churches, 40:22 I want you to visit these two churches and decide 40:24 which one that you would accept. 40:26 Bless his heart. Yeah. 40:28 He gave me a choice. 40:29 And I did, I went to see them both, you know. 40:31 But he said, "I'll give you these quick synopses 40:34 of the two churches." 40:36 He said, "This one down in certain place 40:38 there in Arkansas," he said, 40:40 "If you go to potluck dinner there," 40:41 he said, "You may see fried chicken on the table." 40:44 He said, "But if you go to the other one 40:46 that I'm sending you to, he said, survey them." 40:50 He said, "When you go to the potluck dinner, 40:52 the fellowship lunch," he said, 40:53 "It will not only be vegetarian, 40:55 it will be vegan vegetarian." 40:57 Go on. 40:58 You know, and I remember and that's the church 41:00 I ended up at, you know. 41:01 I can remember talking to Brother Jim Gilley about it 41:05 before I ever went there and Jim said, 41:07 "You being a Shelton, he said, 41:09 I think you should go to the conservative church." 41:11 So that's where I ended up in Decatur, Arkansas. 41:15 But anyway when we went to that church, 41:17 they were exactly right on the fellowship lunches, 41:20 there was signs on everyone that said vegan or not vegan, 41:23 all the food was labeled on the table, you know. 41:27 And I can remember one time giving the sermon there 41:30 and not naming any names but I gave a sermon on grace. 41:34 And when I got done we're shaking hands, 41:36 one of the elders passed me and he said, 41:38 "You should have told them the rest of the story." 41:40 And I said, "What rest of the story?" 41:43 You know, I said, "We are saved by grace." 41:45 He said, "You should have told them about works." 41:48 And sometimes we get caught up into that so much 41:52 that it's grace plus works that's only get us there. 41:55 Sometimes, you know, that's the road we go down, 41:58 but we find it really that the apostle says, 42:01 "That we are saved by grace through faith. 42:05 It is a gift of God, not of works, 42:09 lest of any us should boast." 42:10 Amen. 42:12 You know, and once you've been brought up that way, 42:14 we were brought up in that sort of a Church, 42:17 rather strict, you know, rather conservative. 42:20 And sometimes it's hard to get any other thinking, 42:22 you know, that we too one day 42:25 when we look at how it's really done, 42:27 we say, you know, we are saved by grace 42:29 and not by our works. 42:31 And any time we throw in works into the equation 42:33 what have we done, we polluted the equation, haven't we? 42:37 Yes, but I do. 42:38 I wanna say this, we're saved by grace through faith 42:43 for the good works. 42:44 Ephesians 2:10 says that, 42:46 "God prepared in advance for us to do." 42:49 In Hebrew 7:20 it talks about, 42:53 "Jesus becoming a priest by oath." 42:57 And then in verse 22 it says, 42:59 "He is our surety of the new covenant." 43:04 Which that word means, He is our guarantor. 43:08 Christ guaranties all of God's promises are ours through Him. 43:12 Yes and amen. 43:14 But He also guaranties God that... 43:18 It's not us but that He will work in us to will 43:21 and to do His good pleasure. 43:23 So that we don't obey to be saved. 43:26 Yes. 43:28 But when Christ lives in our heart, 43:31 we walk in obedience, 43:32 so there's nothing to do with salvation, 43:34 it's our expression, 43:36 our response of joy and appreciation. 43:40 And we can say in closing out this section, 43:41 we are saved by works, His works. 43:43 Amen. Not my own. 43:45 Brother? No, I mean, that's good. 43:46 We need a balance. 43:48 You know, sometime in Adventism 43:50 is very difficult to get a balance 43:52 because faith and works do go together, 43:56 Paul made that very plain. 43:57 But again not as a means of salvation. 43:59 That's right. 44:01 In Adventism we're some of the worst 44:03 in the whole world, 44:04 you know, I was raised one, I am one, 44:06 even though we've had people who say, 44:07 "Well, you're not a real Seventh-day Adventist." 44:09 And I say, "Somebody get off the platform know about me." 44:12 And I'll first right back with them. 44:13 There is a platform that we have to stand 44:15 on platform of truth. 44:17 And if we're not standing on that platform of truth, 44:19 we're down inspecting all the little pegs down 44:21 in bottom we're in trouble. 44:23 We need to be just studying and reading the word. 44:25 Well, anyway Thursday's lesson is the origin of Paul's gospel. 44:29 I thought it was very interesting 44:30 because it again reiterates some of the things 44:32 we've talked about last week's lesson 44:34 and in this week's lesson. 44:36 It starts out with troublemakers. 44:38 And I don't know if any of you here been 44:40 called the troublemaker, I have. 44:42 And probably... 44:44 Listen, if you follow Jesus Christ 44:47 and you preach the message that God has given you, 44:51 this church to give to the world 44:53 you will be at one time 44:54 or the other labeled a trouble maker 44:56 and you don't know what you're talking about. 44:58 Look what they called Jesus, 45:00 look what they called the disciple, 45:01 look what they did to Paul. 45:02 So I said, "Paul, you're a trouble maker 45:04 and all you want to do basically 45:05 you want to get along with everybody, 45:07 you want the approval of everybody else." 45:09 You know, this guy is most unlikely one 45:13 in the world as far as I'm concerned 45:14 that worried about compromising with somebody 45:16 when it comes to the gospel. 45:18 Yeah. 45:19 He didn't worry about the approval of men, 45:21 he's worried about the approval of God. 45:23 So what did Paul do? 45:25 He confronted everybody's talked about it, legalism, 45:28 he confronted it in the Galatians church 45:31 and he was hit hard on every side. 45:34 He never but they came back around and they said, 45:37 "Man, you wanna compromise 45:38 and you're not really giving the gospel." 45:41 They said things about him that were not true, 45:43 which in Adventism 45:44 if you're preaching the real truth, 45:46 people will say things that really are not true. 45:49 And so we had to be known for sure go back to the word, 45:51 see what it says and stay in it. 45:53 I'm sure Paul did it. 45:54 I think, Pastor John, I think, Dinzey, 45:57 I think you mentioned one time about 45:59 and the changing of the gospel. 46:02 Paul basically said one time, 46:04 "I'm shocked that you've changed gospel, 46:08 you've changed leaders, you've accepted a salvation 46:12 that talks about here by works." 46:14 Another word there he said, "Who conned you? 46:17 Who gave you some, you know, theological slide of hand 46:21 that somehow they took you off the mark?" 46:26 Somebody mentioned foolish. 46:28 He said, "Why would you get upfront, 46:30 you're preaching bunch of foolish people?" 46:32 Well, everybody get up and leave I guess. 46:34 You know, but again he came down 46:36 and he cleared the terms and this is being said 46:39 because they confronted him as one 46:41 who wanted to compromise, who just wanted to get along 46:44 and wanted approval of other folks. 46:47 Somebody mentioned here, he said, 46:48 "Who has bewitched you?" 46:51 In other words, the devil got a hold of you. 46:52 Devil's got hold and changed things here. 46:55 Who's maligned you? 46:56 Who's given you this false information? 46:59 And so he's calling us back to the one 47:01 and only gospel of Jesus Christ. 47:04 If anyone in the world you see was not worried 47:06 about the approval of others, it was Paul. 47:09 How could we say? 47:10 If you allow me to 2 Corinthians 11, 47:13 I know I can't read it because of our time verses like 47:15 23 through 28. 47:18 It goes in here Paul saying here, "Okay, why?" 47:21 He said, "Five times I got 39 lashes." 47:26 None of us want it one time, let alone five, 47:29 if you got it one time, you say, 47:30 "No, I'm gonna avoid it the rest of the time." 47:32 Some of things you've been through in life, 47:34 you didn't realize how difficult it was 47:36 until you went through it, and then you said, 47:39 "I don't wanna go through that." 47:41 you know, and then he talks about here he said, 47:44 "Three times I was beaten with rods." 47:46 Why? 47:47 Because he wouldn't comprise the truth. 47:49 Yes. 47:50 He suffered because he loved Jesus, 47:52 he loved the truth. 47:53 He said, "There was dangers from robbers, 47:55 I've been stoned." 47:57 He even said there is dangers from... 47:59 He talks about the gentiles, the danger from the wilderness. 48:03 False brethren and he said hunger and thirst. 48:06 So he went through all of these things 48:08 because part of his gospel was, He had to preach and teach 48:11 what God ask him to give to the world 48:14 and to the gentiles. 48:15 And he did that, thank God for that. 48:17 I thought about this, I thought interesting. 48:20 You know, at first Paul was on what? 48:22 His, a trip to destroy. 48:25 That's what he did, I'm going on mission, 48:26 I'm going to destroy. 48:28 Conversion came, he's gonna go give the gospel 48:30 of Jesus Christ, he's gonna give life, 48:33 or he been given death as it were before. 48:35 And then we see there that he... 48:37 People who heard him were convinced 48:41 that there was a power that accompanied his words. 48:44 Like there should be with any over here 48:46 who's preaching or teaching, 48:48 there should be an anointing of the Holy Spirit upon 48:50 what he said is not just how, 48:52 you know, smart we are 48:54 and how we wanna make things rhythm 48:55 and rhyme and carry on. 48:57 But it's what said in simplicity 49:00 that the Holy Spirit takes and you feel it inside, 49:03 that is the truth walk in it. 49:05 Preaching and teaching 49:07 the real gospel of Jesus Christ will do... 49:10 To me this is very simple 49:12 but it will do one or two things. 49:13 If you're really preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, 49:16 you will find that it will change your life completely, 49:19 number one. 49:20 It will change your life completely. 49:21 If you do not accept that change 49:24 and go in that direction, you will turn on the gospel, 49:27 you'll turn on Jesus Christ, you'll turn on the messenger, 49:31 and you'll try to crucify the messenger along with it 49:33 or his character or her character 49:35 whatever it might be. 49:36 So it will makes you look little bit better 49:38 and nullify what they just tried 49:40 to bring across as is truth. 49:43 The Jews hated Paul just exactly 49:47 the way they hated Jesus Christ. 49:48 Their hate went on by dislike, they hated him. 49:52 And it became so bad so quickly, 49:54 there's a word, Paul had to scoot doodle. 49:56 Yeah. He had to leave town. 49:58 He had to get out of the town. 50:00 Jesus did two, three times. Exactly. 50:01 He was run out of town, you know as it were 50:04 because he was doing what? 50:06 Because he was preaching 50:07 the real gospel of Jesus Christ. 50:10 That's what happened to him. 50:12 Now it wasn't so bad necessarily, 50:15 it gave him time that we talked about before to reflect, 50:18 it gave him time to pray, it gave him time 50:21 to commune with God to search his own heart, 50:25 to see where the changes need to take place. 50:27 Remember, and someone brought this out 50:29 part of the lesson, he was not chosen by man, 50:34 he was chosen by God. 50:37 And you know what? 50:38 When God chooses you, you cannot be defeated, 50:41 you cannot be defeated. 50:43 If God chooses you to do something 50:44 and you're faithful to Him, no matter what man says, 50:46 no matter what man does, 50:48 no matter how they try to blackball you... 50:50 And people will do that even among ourself. 50:53 We'll try to blackball somebody else 50:54 that's doing actually a good work. 50:57 I'll be careful with this, and we need to mind 50:58 our own business and stay in tune with God 51:00 and do what He ask us to do and let everybody else 51:03 kind of match up where God has you. 51:04 Now talking about that calling, Brother. 51:07 Jesus actually made these statements, 51:08 when He's talking about disciples. 51:10 He said, "Don't you know, He said, you didn't choose me, 51:12 I chose you." 51:14 Yes. Right. 51:15 Jesus chose those who were going to be disciples. 51:16 Amen. Yes. 51:18 And so the calling is on the person 51:19 you're talking about. 51:20 It's on the person. 51:22 And bless his heart, Paul assumed. 51:24 This one time Paul assumed. 51:25 He assumed when conversion came 51:27 that his family and friends were going to just love him. 51:32 How many of us, you assumed when you accepted the truth, 51:36 you're joyful with it, but family and friends 51:38 and everybody gonna love it. 51:40 They're gonna be happy because you did. 51:42 They weren't happy, you know, the apostles weren't happy, 51:45 the disciples were happy to begin with 51:47 because they just couldn't believe 51:48 what was taken place 51:51 and when he preached with power, 51:53 he had to flee like from Damascus. 51:55 He had to as it run for flee. 51:57 Of course, God would had it all certainly in the plan. 52:00 He went to Jerusalem and then what he did do? 52:03 No one want to accept him so I go to Jerusalem, 52:05 I meet up with my brothers, I meet up with the disciples, 52:07 they'll love me. 52:09 Well, they didn't love him either. 52:10 I mean, you talk about rejection. 52:13 Think about it, you're follower Jesus Christ, I guarantee you, 52:16 you'll have to face rejection. 52:18 Yeah. 52:20 I guarantee you, you'll have to face times that you feel 52:22 and you know better. 52:24 And I know better that you're almost all alone. 52:28 That you're worried about maybe where's the other 7,000, 52:30 you just... 52:31 It's just that's the way it is sometimes you get that feeling 52:34 and I think God reminds me sometime that's the way 52:36 it will be more is to come before I come. 52:38 Amen. 52:40 There maybe no one else, 52:41 there will be cold to warm at... 52:43 I have to gain warmness from the coldness of others 52:47 as it were. 52:48 So the time is coming we have to be able 52:49 to face that everybody is not going to pad us on the back, 52:53 not everybody is gonna love you, 52:54 not everybody is gonna appreciate the work 52:56 that God has called you to do. 52:58 But make sure God has called you, 52:59 make sure you do what God has asked you to do. 53:02 Remember, He went to Jerusalem, 53:05 they didn't want to deal With him either. 53:07 So what did he do? You think he just gave up. 53:09 You know, man of comprise and man what? 53:11 Absolutely. 53:13 That word did not entered Paul's mind, 53:15 I'm a giver up and I'm just gonna quit. 53:17 He never did it. 53:18 I wish we had time, we don't have. 53:20 Galatians 1:6-9. 53:21 As somebody mentioned here quickly another gospel. 53:25 Remember, if it's not the true gospel, 53:26 it is a false gospel. 53:28 There is no such thing as I got a gospel, 53:30 he's got a gospel, 53:31 she's got a gospel, we all have a gospel. 53:33 To me there is no such thing. 53:35 There is one gospel of Jesus Christ and the truth 53:38 and Paul stayed right with that all together. 53:41 There is no gospel as were the gospel 53:44 that doesn't have the good news in it, 53:46 good news of salvation. 53:47 Not of works but salvation 53:49 through grace through Jesus Christ. 53:51 And we need to get that if anybody does, 53:53 Adventist need to get that through our head 53:55 even including the seventh day Sabbath, 53:58 you know, it is kind of, 53:59 if we keep it, we're gonna be safe. 54:00 That's still work orientated. 54:02 That's right. Yeah. 54:03 But praise the God for the word. 54:05 Thank God for the obedience to that. 54:06 So... Go ahead. 54:08 You know, I just had to say one thing 54:09 that is interesting because here he says 54:11 in verse 11 and 12, 54:13 he didn't receive this gospel from man, 54:16 he didn't have to go study under a man. 54:18 He got it as direct revelation from Jesus Christ 54:21 and then he makes this statement 54:24 where he says, "If anybody, even an angel 54:27 from heaven comes and preaches any other gospel to you, 54:32 let him be accursed." 54:34 That's pretty strong language. Yes, it is. 54:36 That's pretty strong language. Amen and beautiful. 54:38 It is very strong language. 54:39 You know, as Paul brings 54:45 this message to the Galatians. 54:48 We see here that he is, as it was mentioned 54:51 he's bringing to the people that he is an apostle 54:54 not by men but by God. 54:57 And so interestingly enough in those days 55:01 they were trying everything they could 55:02 to discredit the true gospel. 55:04 Yes. 55:06 And so what we have here is that there were false teachers, 55:10 they could not contradict the doctrine of Paul 55:13 because it was biblically sound. 55:16 So then they attack something. 55:18 "Well, wait a minute, who are you? 55:19 You're not the one of the apostles." 55:22 So he is saying, "I am an apostle 55:25 not because of men but by God." 55:27 Amen. 55:28 And so this is a powerful thing to understand 55:31 that when he knows his credentials come from God 55:35 what the people are saying should not lead Paul astray, 55:40 he maintains a firm hold on the truth of the Lord. 55:44 Amen. 55:45 And I praise the Lord that the way that Shelley said it, 55:49 that if others bring you another gospel, 55:52 even if it's an angel, 55:54 because he taught them the true gospel. 55:55 Even if it's an angel, he said, 55:57 "Don't believe it, don't accept it." 55:59 And as it was mentioned every wind of doctrine 56:02 will be blowing and it is important 56:05 for God's children in these last days 56:07 to be savviest or understand what the Bible says 56:14 because it is able to make us wise unto salvation. 56:17 Yes. 56:18 So put away those little other devices 56:21 that are not the gospel, those fictitious stories, 56:27 and the novels, and the comic books, 56:30 and get to real Bible study. 56:32 Amen. 56:33 In the Book of Galatians we have a powerful message 56:36 for all of us. 56:37 And Paul is bringing... 56:39 I like to bring this verse once again, 56:41 "Paul an apostle not of men, 56:42 neither by men but by Jesus Christ 56:44 and God the Father who raised him from the dead." 56:47 Brothers and sisters, we encourage you 56:49 to get the Bible Study Guide. 56:51 It's the Adult Bible Study Guide, 56:53 you can go to ABSG, that's what it stands for, 56:56 Adult Bible study Guide, 56:57 ABSG.Adventist.org, 57:01 and there you can download for free 57:04 and I and I like that. 57:05 For free this Bible study so that you can have it 57:08 in your home, Galatians, and this is a study 57:11 that we will be continuing. 57:13 I think this is lesson number two. 57:15 There are 11 more and we want you to blessed 57:17 and we hope you have been blessed 57:19 during this program because this is our prayer, 57:21 we all pray a lot, study a lot to bring this to you. 57:26 And we encourage you to do the same 57:27 that as you study God's Word, you will get closer to Jesus 57:30 and understand that it is He who has called you 57:32 and He wants you to follow Jesus 57:34 with all of your heart. 57:36 Amen. |
Revised 2024-06-10