458-2 NO OTHER GOSPELDecember 17, 1978
Henry F. Kulp
Galatians 1: 1 - 5 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Last week we told you there were three things that Paul had to prove in the book of Galatians.
#1 was his apostleship,
#2 was his message of grace without the law.
#3 was that he was going to the Gentiles. This is the heart of Galatians.
1/ Verse 1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)
Paul was an apostle, not of men, neither by men. We spent a great deal of time showing you the word, apostle, last Sunday. Now we want to look at it in a little different light. Paul, an apostle not of man. Of is the preposition ORP- O and it means a preposition of ultimate source.
The negative in front of it means, not from men. In other words, a group is plural—men are not the source—God appointed him an apostle, and it was the resurrected Christ that did so. All spiritual gifts are appointed by God. He is the provider of them.
2/ That group of men happened to be in Jerusalem. And what Paul is saying, those who were in authority, in Jerusalem did not appoint him an apostle.
3/ Then neither by man. This is DEE-AH plus the genitive case and so it means, not by a special man—someone who holds a high position. One man, no matter what his position may be, cannot appoint another man to be an apostle. Of course, I am sure, this is referring to Peter who was the head of the Twelve.
4/ This immediately shows the folly of apostolic succession. That the Twelve had passed on the authority to others. According to this verse, this is completely impossible. Each one who is an apostle is appointed by God, and in this case it is the resurrected Saviour, the glorified Saviour at the right hand of God the Father, who appointed Paul an apostle of the Gentiles.
5/ It was not until about 500 years after the Church had been founded that it was established that the Twelve were to have successors, called apostolic succession, and this was by Gregory the Great. But here the Holy Spirit shows the folly of that teaching.
6/ Maybe I can give you just a little illustration. Because I believe I have the gift of pastor-teacher, I cannot perpetuate this gift and make sure that my son, David, has it—it doesn’t work that way. So it is not BY THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF MAN, BUT BY THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF CHRIST. For in this verse we read, By Jesus Christ, and again, this is DEE-AH plus the accusative, so we must be appointed individually by God. Take the gift of pastor-teacher. The gift of evangelist or any other gifts of Romans 12. They are given by the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation, and there is no succession in these gifts.
7/ Notice it is by Jesus Christ and God the Father. It is well for us at this point to notice that the Father and the Son always work in unison and Paul always puts Christ on equality with the Father. I know there are many modernists who claim that Jesus Christ never said He was on equality with the Father. They say He was just a man who was exalted to the place of the Son of God.
John 5: 18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
Here we read that Jesus Christ said that God was His Father, and He made Himself equal with God, and the Jews knew what He meant. He used a term that meant, I am the only Son of God, and that is why they crucified Him finally. They crucified Him for blasphemy because He said, I am the Son of God and I am equal with God.
8/ Mathew 27: 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Here Christ addresses the Father as My God. How could He do this if He is God Himself, if He is equal with God? We could understand if He would say, My Father, but He says, My God. So God was His God, even though He was God.
Hebrews 1: 8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
Here we have a remarkable statement in our study. It is God the Father speaking, and He is speaking to the Son—and He says to the Son, Thy throne, O, God. God calls the Son, God—you will notice, they address each other as God. So Paul didn’t need to deify Jesus Christ, God did that.
9/ Verse 2 And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:
This is an important verse, He talks all about the brethren, and this refers to the Pauline team. This reminds us that no man serves God by himself. We do not do it of ourselves. It is true that some believers are more prominent than others. In each and every generation there are those who receive more attention and publicity than others, but they always have to have others working with them. No one can serve God by himself. It is a cooperative ministry.
I Corinthians 3: 5 - 8 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
10/ Believe me, there are no great believers. Any pastor, any missionary, any evangelist has to work with other people, and it is team work that counts. If you look at the Pauline team, you know that Timothy was one, Silas was another, Luke was another—Luke was a great administrator, but he was also a medical doctor. If any man ever needed a doctor, it was Paul, he was sick constantly. Then there was Titus. He was a great trouble shooter of the Pauline team. Paul sent him to Corinth after Apollos walked out. Then sent him to the Island of Crete, and the book of Titus is Paul’s advice to Titus how to handle the people of Crete. Just take a second with Timothy, He was a young Bible teacher. He assisted Paul in Bible teaching, and you realize he got training on the job. He was an on the job trainee, and there was Tychicus and others. But we have to see that getting the Gospel out is a matter of team work.
11/ Many times when the churches do not go forth, they remain very small, it is because the work depends on one person within the assembly. It is sad, so many people ask me, why don’t certain churches ever get anywhere, and usually it is not because they do not have someone who can teach or preach. It is because they lack someone to help.
12/ Then notice the phrase—unto the churches of Galatia, The word churches is DATIVE PLURAL OF ADVANTAGE. It is to the advantage of Christianity to have organized local churches. I have to say bring that principle out, because so many are convinced that the local church is not necessary, but that is not what God says.
13/ It is true that many local churches have gone liberal, have distorted the Word of God, and that is why I constantly say, be careful of the church you go to—the one you choose, for it will have a great bearing upon your family.
14/ Anyone who is Bible taught, knows there are two kinds of churches in the Pauline epistles. The church universal is the name given to the church worldwide. The local church, the Body of Christ made up of saved and unsaved.
15/ What is the advantage of the local church? There are a few REASONS—
#1 It is for the teaching of the Word of God. That is its main purpose. We can study for ourselves, but without leadership, we can go into all sorts of sects.
#2 It is for worship. Provide a place for worship. We can worship, again, by ourselves, but the local assembly is where we can worship in a group and where the spiritual gifts can be used.
#3 It is a place of fellowship with other believers, and this is very important, that you fellowship with those of like precious faith. If you constantly fellowship with unbelievers you will soon lose your testimony and become like them.
#4 It is a place of evangelism. It is a place from which evangelism goes forth. The local church is to get people so they will go out into the highways and byways, to their job, among the folks who live in their neighborhood, and witness for Jesus Christ.
16/ Verse 3 Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
Notice the order, grace comes before peace. You cannot have peace before grace. You have to be saved by grace before you have peace, with God. Peace is always the result of grace, it never precedes it. I am sure you have seen tombstones that read, Rest in Peace, and when I see them, I always think—I hope that person was saved by grace, or they cannot have peace.
17/ Verse 4, 5 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
And now we come to the key of God’s plan. The key is the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross of Calvary.
18/ For our sin—the preposition “for” is a preposition of substitution. He gave Himself as our substitute for our sins, and literally this means, ON BEHALF OF. He gave Himself on the behalf of our sins.
19/ That, introduces the purpose clause—that He might deliver us. IT IS SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD and it means that this deliverance is only potential, depending on whether we believe in Jesus Christ and His death for our salvation. This portion of Scripture shows the volition of man. Man does have a choice, the potential is there, but he must believe.
20/ Then we are to see that it means to rescue. To pluck someone from out of the burning, as it were.
21/ So this tells us that the organizations which are trying to change the world, to improve this world, are all useless. The only solution to the world’s condition is a personal solution. To be rescued from this world, by faith in Jesus Christ. It is necessary to see that Satan is the ruler of this present evil age, and he will continue to be the ruler of this present evil age until the second coming of Jesus Christ. So therefore all other solutions, other than being rescued from it, are valueless.
22/ If we want to solve the problems of this present age, there is only one way to do it. Get rid of Satan. See that he is in the bottomless pit, bound and chained so that he cannot cause the problems that are here. Let us show you how foolish it is to try to improve this world. When our president Jimmy Carter got Sadat and Begin together in 1978 down in Camp David, the word came out that there had been a peace treaty worked out, and everyone was rejoicing, but just last week, Secretary Cyrus Vance came home and said it has no chance of working. There can be no peace.
23/ Then notice, the will of God. It is God’s will that we be rescued from this present evil age—through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
24/ John 14: 30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
Jesus Christ says, the prince of this world cometh and he hath nothing in Me. Satan is the prince of this age.
II Corinthians 4: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
He is the god of this age. He controls it and we cannot be part of anything that Satan controls. We have been rescued from it by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
AMEN
Ref: 12/17/1978 / 458-2 NO OTHER GOSPEL / 12/05/2020
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