Good day and welcome to Tuesday. I specifically know it as Taco Tuesday, but you may call it by another name. I hope that your day excites you. A day in the Lord is a day we’re called to rejoice in. I have many personal friends that are undergoing great struggles and trials right now. Some cancer, some relationship strife, some struggling with personal purpose. I’m praying for you all, that through these struggles, Jesus raises you up to a higher plane. A plateau that is so high above your trials that all you can focus on is His glorious presence. Rejoice in the Lord always; and again, I say rejoice. (Phil. 4:4)
Here we are in Thanksgiving week. One of the busiest travel weeks of the year. Its estimated that 44 million people will be travelling this week. 90% by car and the remainder by air. Thanksgiving became a national holiday in 1863 (during the Civil War) when good ol’ Abraham Lincoln declared it one. Although it dates back much farther, the American observation of Thanksgiving reaches back to the first North American settlers. Food was so scarce their first year that only 60 people lived out of 500. Perseverance and learning the local agriculture systems from the Natives helped the settlers to survive through the next year. As you can imagine, this was a great cause for Thanksgiving to God for sparing their lives in this new land.
In our lifetimes, Thanksgiving has morphed into a somewhat secular celebration of family, food and football. It seems odd to me that you can truly offer thanks without acknowledging God and His mercies and grace towards us. Wherever and whomever you observe Thanksgiving with on Thursday, I pray that the entire event is one centered around our loving, giving, grace-filled and merciful God.
Well, it’s always a great day when we get to start a new book in God’s Word. We finished up 2 Corinthians yesterday so today we move directly onto the next book in the New Testament, Galatians. This book is authored by Paul and as you probably guessed it’s written to the church in Pompeii. I’m just kidding, it’s of course written to the church at Galatia, just wanted to see if you were paying attention.
This book is really to several “churches” in the region of Galatia (Gal 1:2) versus 1 and 2 Corinthians that was written to one specific church in that city. Galatia was a large region and Paul had planted many churches around the area. Paul had been to Galatia on all three of his missionary journeys and it’s believed he wrote this letter around 57AD as he was staying in Ephesus.
The old saying that good things come in small packages is so true with this book. It’s only 6 chapters long, but this book has sparked massive transformation in the church throughout the years. This was Martin Luther’s favorite epistle and he claimed “I am wedded to it.” He used it as the masthead of the Reformation in 1518. Also, John Wesley started preaching from this book when he started his revival in England in 1701. Although not lengthy, the book of Galatians lays out one of the strongest declarations and defenses of the doctrine of justification by faith in Scripture. Check out this quote from McGee’s commentary, Thru the Bible:
“In a sense I believe this epistle has been the backbone and background for every great spiritual movement and revival that has taken place in the past nineteen hundred years. And, it will be the backbone for other revivals. I would like to see the Spirit of God move in our land today. I would like to hear the epistle to the Galatians declared to America. I believe it would revolutionize lives.”
So let’s look at chapter 1. Paul cruised through Galatia and started several churches. They were built on nothing less than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel has 3 factual components, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After Paul had established the churches and continued on in His missionary journeys, others came behind him. They came to the churches and presented a different gospel. A Gospel that did not detract but added to the message of the Gospel.
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” (Gal 1:6-7)
You see the Judaizers were coming to the church and not denying the gospel but adding to it. They had seen Jesus die on the cross and then they had seen him alive again, they COULD NOT deny Jesus. They could not deny the facts, but they could alter the doctrine of it. They told the churches sure, they needed to trust in Christ, but the Mosaic laws were still necessary. Their message was heresy, you need Christ, but He was not enough, you needed to still “do” to be saved.
Paul is addressing one of the oldest heresies known and it is still with us today, it is adding something to the gospel of grace. It is ‘doing’ something rather than simply believing something. It is Faith plus something rather than faith plus nothing. Every cult has something for you “to do” in order to be saved. Not with Jesus, He has done it all, there is nothing we can possibly offer, add to it, or “do” to make it more complete.
Satan is called the “god of this World” (2 Cor 4:4a) and “that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19b) Satan is in control of this world and His goal is to either deter of completely halt the giving out of God’s Word. It is his biggest nemesis. You see, in his craftiness he will not just lambast God’s Word. He will quietly and discreetly try to change it or alter it. Alter it just enough to pervert it. And how will he get this done. Through people of course. Through false teachers and through people that are ignorant of the one true Gospel. Paul’s message here is one we need today more than ever.
So how do we defend against false teaching? Well first of all, you need to really know you’re subject. When Marge & I were in China in July, we had a blast communicating with the students. They taught us some Chinese and we taught them some additional English words as well as some Spanish ones too. You have to trust when you do this. Some of the kids thought it was funny to teach a few of us words that didn’t mean what they told us it meant. (Ex: Instead of asking for a book you were really asking for a goat....it is pretty funny) You see, I knew absolutely nothing about their language so I was completely defenseless against being led astray by false information.
The point. You’d better know God’s Word. The general consensus of many Christians today is that it’s their Pastor’s job to be an expert on the Bible ‘for them.’ I mean he’s paid to learn the bible and teach me all he knows about it right? Well, yes that’s kinda true, but let me ask you this. The average Pastor spends 20-25 hours preparing and studying for a 40 minute Sunday Sermon. How in the world can he teach you all that he has learned in that short time? Not happening. And of course, it also depends on other variables such as are you going to church every Sunday and if so are you even paying attention? Are you taking notes? Are you following up the lesson with your own study time on the topic?
I heard it said this way by a Pastor friend in Kihei, Maui. “I spend all my time mining for the nuggets of gold in God’s Word and people show up on Sunday and want to see the gold, but the true reward is in the digging.” You see the process is the reward. “It’s not the destination but the journey.”
Every morning I spend 2 hours or so studying God’s Word in order to write the 5MC. And every morning I agonize over what to include and what to exclude. I try to keep the writings between 6,000 and 9,000 words but my friends, God blesses me with so much every morning I can’t share it all with you! You see, my prayer for you and the 5 minute challenge is that you will spend daily time in God’s Word and not only get the gold, but also get to do the “blessed digging.”
With enough digging time, you will be quite the adversary for Satan. He will still come calling but maybe not as often as he will on those that are ignorant to the Holy, powerful Word of God.
Prepare yourselves today with the Word of God. Refuse to let anything come between you and His Word. It is Life.
I’m praying for you all.
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