Sermon Notes

“Galatians Chapter 1”

By Tom Hanson

September 1^st, 2013

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            Thank you.  Good morning and welcome.  I just want to say what a great worship it’s been this morning.  It reminds me of the scripture that says, unto the edifying of itself every part worketh together... (Ephesians 4:16).  There’s so much that goes on.  We have, and we enjoy every Sunday that we have together that God gives us.  I am just overwhelmed by the greatness of God in our lives, the ministry that God has given us.  My name is Tom Hanson, for those of you that don’t know me, and I was asked by Parrish and Andy, the great leaders that we have in this great fellowship here in Waukegan Illinois, to lead us on into perfection.  Only God is perfect, but let us let Him lead us, today.  I thank God for the testimonies this morning. 

            I’ve really got to get into this message.  We’ve only got so much time.  You can’t look at your clocks this morning, because the football season doesn’t start until next week, and, even then, the Lord would still expect us to give Him all the glory. Brother Parrish has asked us to start off this time of sanctification...  The theme for this month is “The Book of Galatians,” and Brother Parrish has asked me to start off with Chapter 1 today. 

            A little history of the church at Galatia:  It’s a church that Paul started.  Paul used to persecute the church, and, waste the church, and he was a very big menace to the church.  God changed his life, and God changed his heart.  It was only because of a little bit of knowledge that Paul was lacking, and this changed his life.  A little bit of knowledge is all it takes to wind up going in a completely different direction than God would have to go.  If it hadn’t been for a little bit of a message that Jesus gave Paul, one day on a trip to a city where he was going to fulfill what he thought was God’s will, he would never have been able to do what God gave him the ability to do.  Paul knew that he had never had this information, this great message of Jesus Christ.  We know that he took it to heart, and he was sensitive to anybody else’s ignorance.  Insufficient knowledge is something that he would have understood; it’s something that he would have cared about.  “That is the problem that I had:  A little bit of a lack of knowledge.”  Paul got that lack of knowledge problem taken care of, and he became the apostle to the Gentiles.  His apostleship was very important.  This was not an opportunity which had been given to anyone else in the world until, by the power of Jesus Christ, the door was opened to the whole world.  If you wanted to get saved up until that time, you would have had to have gone to Israel, and you would have had to have committed yourself to them, and to the God of Israel, Who would only reside in this particular Promised Land.  There was provisions made in the Word of God for people to come in if they wanted to come in, but not many people did.  They were who they were, and they didn’t grow up with this kind of an unction.  We have some examples; we have one great example, the example of Ruth. Ruth came in and she said, “Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” (Ruth 1:16)  She ended up being the grandmother of David, who was the forefather of Jesus in the flesh.  I’m so thankful that we have even the example of God’s ability to include people from around the world.  Moab is where Ruth was from, traditional enemies of Israel, but she saw something that she didn’t see in her country.  She saw a God that she didn’t see being worshipped in her country, and she made up her mind to go to where this great God was being worshipped.  The change that ended up happening is that God decided, through His Son, His great Son, Jesus Christ, He allowed this Gospel to be preached and spread to the whole world.  We don’t have to go to Israel anymore; Israel comes to us.  Why? because God said He would seek such to worship Him (John 4:23-24).  There was a time, even a few thousand years ago, when we wouldn’t have been able to get to Heaven.  We wouldn’t have been able to do what we do right now, we would have had to have moved.  That’s how fortunate we are that God moved to us.  He gave this message to faithful messengers, who brought it to us.

            That’s where Galatia come is.  Galatia was allowed this great privilege, this great honor, to be invited to this great wedding that will take place in the sky.  This great wedding that unites us with Jesus Christ; this wedding that we can go to.

             Galatia is in modern-day Turkey, North of Israel.  I was trying to figure out the distance, and it’s a ways.  You have to go across the Mediterranean Sea to get to Galatia.  There was a region there; it was probably the size of a medium-sized state.  There were churches that had sprung up that had jumped at this marvelous opportunity.  Only God could have known that there were people all around the world that were ready to jump at His message.  You can understand, too, that Israel may have been like an only son that suddenly has a younger sibling, and is used to having all the attention at the table with his Father and his God; thousands of people at the table sharing the attention.  Maybe he was a little hurt.  He was like, “Man, who are you?  I used to get all the attention.  Don’t you know that I’m the older brother?  Don’t you understand that I have feelings, too?  Don’t you get it?”  People that have a peace with God, that have a walk with God, are welcoming whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely (Revelation 22:17).  Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)  He said, “My yoke is easy.” (Matthew 11:30)  You couldn’t ask for more:  Believe and be baptized (Mark 16:16), it’ easy.  People are always looking for shortcuts.  If you tell them this is the shortest way, they will look for a way that is shorter, quicker, more efficient, but in God’s world, that’s not acceptable.  Believe and be baptized today for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38).  The remission of sins:  Where are you going to find that?  Who’s going to give you that?  Jesus died for those sins, and He made a way for us. 

            In the first part of Galatians, verse 1 through 5, Paul gives us an introduction.  6 through 12 in this gold mine of Galatians, I find a particular diamond that I want to take out.  Verses 6 through 12 we’re going to use as the basis for the message this morning.  In verses 13 through 24, Paul will just talk (not that it’s a small thing) about his conversion; he will share his testimony, as he does throughout the letters that he writes.  He is talking to churches that he has started, that he has established. 

Galatians 1:6  I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

            Imagine that, he’s marveling, and not that’s he happy about it.  He’s marveling that they are so soon removed.  I’m sure he had some thoughts about what he needed to reteach; what did he need to do so that these people would be solid in the faith, that they would move not, to his disappointment, to his dismay, to his hurt.  Who called us? God Himself, by His Spirit.  This wasn’t Paul’s message.  He said, “You are baptized in the name of who? in the name of Jesus.”  That’s in a different place. 

Galatians 1:7  Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

            Whenever I read this, I always think of King Ahab, saying to Elijah, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” and Elijah said, “It’s not me, it’s you that troubleth Israel.” (1 Kings, 18:17-18)  Ahab went on to meet his reward, which happened to be a miserable destruction; that will happen to people who don’t follow God. 

            He said that they would pervert the Gospel of Christ.  Would turn it around, corrupt it, change it from its perfection into something that it isn’t.  They would try to add a little detail here and there.  How dare you touch the Word of God?  How dare you come in and change a word, and ounce, anything?  How dare you?  “I went to the cross…  I spoke the world into existence…”  I don’t have enough time to go into that. 

Galatians 1:8  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

            You can’t be any worse off than to be accursed; that’s as bad as it gets.

Galatians 1:9  As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

            They received one Gospel; they’re not to receive another.  I am not even attempting to say that I can do Paul justice here.  Paul was used to getting his hands dirty.  He was used to cleaning shop.  He was used to making things right.  He understood the importance of following directions.  He got where he was in his previous occupation (he went from being a minister of the Pharisees to being a minister of the Gospel) by being diligent, zealous, obedient, and fearless.  He’s telling them, “Listen, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”  Paul knows what’s going on here. 

Galatians 1:10-12       For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.  But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.  For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

            It reminds me of when Jesus asked, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” (Matthew 16:13)  Peter said, “Thou art the Christ,” (Matthew 16:16) and Jesus said, “…flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” 

            Paul is writing a letter for a purpose.  It’s not just to say hello (but he does say hello, and he lets people know that he can be cordial).  He identifies a problem here, and that is that these people, that he is in charge of, have been removed from the only thing that can save them, in fact, the only reason hat they re even communicating: this Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is what he has to correct.  Later on, we’re going to get the details; details are essential.  The Bible says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 2:5)  We have to learn to let this mind be in us, to be lowly in heart.  We have to learn to be meek.  Jesus said that He learned obedience through the things that He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).  Sometimes we just have to stay in the learning phase; we have to be lifetime learners with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Paul wasn’t beyond that.  He didn’t hate these Galatians, he just knew that there was a problem.  He has to take care of it; the urgency is there.  If he doesn’t take it to heart, and if he doesn’t treat it with importance, then who is going to?  God would have a whole line of people that He could call on to take care of that, but Paul knew that he was on God’s time.  Paul wasn’t there just to do his own will; God had some work to do. 

            There’s two points here, and then I’m going to move on.  1) The Galatians were removed because they had a lack of knowledge.  It was as simple as that.  There was something that they didn’t know.  The specifics were that there were some people who crept into Galatia, Old Testament teachers, who were teaching the covenant of circumcision given to Abraham.  They were also teaching about the blood sacrifices in Mosaic Law to be sanctified in Israel, which, in their proper time, were important, they were essential.  Moses and Abraham were pillars in the church, but, they weren’t Jesus Christ.  Jesus came along and established a whole New Testament.  The Old Testament now is null and void; the Old Testament is done away.  The New Testament is what we must follow.  Jesus is the New Testament.  There’s a whole lot in that.  People were coming in and teaching old covenants, and it sounded good.  The Galatians would have been vulnerable to that; they didn’t know what they didn’t  know.  They were new in the faith.  They didn’t have all the knowledge.  They knew that they were gloriously baptized into Jesus—what a testimony that must have been!  What a Bible study they must have receives from Paul!—that had to be a glorious experience; they came to know Christ.  Churches are springing up; they’re growing in Jesus.  Paul didn’t teach them any other way, he taught them Jesus Christ.  Some people came in, some spiritual con-artists, some spiritual counterfeiters, they came in and said, “Look, this is the same Gospel.”  They don’t want you to get a close look, because then it doesn’t hold together. 

            The Galatians were already removed; they were already deceived.  It’s not only about the Galatians this morning, it’s about us as well.  We can find ourselves floundering sometimes in our walk with God.  We can find ourselves not necessarily where we need to be.  We may find ourselves need to correct some things, adjust some things, to go back to some things, as Parrish so brilliantly said, by the power of God.  God said go back to your first love (Revelation 2:4-5).  That’s not the easiest thing for a man to say, we’re not that comfortable using the word love.  This is not about something on the surface of this earth.  We’re talking about God Almighty; He asked us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30), to call on Him (Romans 10:13), and to endure unto the end (Matthew 24:13), we shall be saved.  I will do that.  Oh, God, help me to do this exactly as You said.  Let me not change one thing about this great Gospel.  Jesus taught particularly hard message one day, and a lot of people walked away.  It was just like—bam!—they’re gone.  They were no longer throwing Palm branches at Him; they were no longer washing His feet with their tears…  Which was a great, great, great example of truth in reality…  but there was a time when they all walked away from Him, and he turned to Peter and said, “Will ye also go away?” and Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”  He didn’t say, “Only You, and Moses, and Abraham have the words…”  He said, “Only You.”  When Jesus gave the Great Commission:

Matthew 28:19-20      Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you

            All nations.  Boom.  Now it’s open to everybody.  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Abraham and Moses and Daniel Joel and Jeremiah and Isaiah and everybody have commanded…  No, He didn’t say that.  He said His Holy name.  The name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  That’s not a bad name to hang your hat on.  Would you say that might be the Name Above All Names?  The heavenly family in Heaven and in earth is named after this great name, Jesus.  Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy name.  And Jesus came, teaching them, “Teach all nations, whatsoever I… I… I… I…”  Who’s the ‘I’ there? Jesus.  You can’t forget it.  We weren’t meant to forget it. We weren’t meant to slip off of it.  The Galatians weren’t meant to be removed from it.  There’s still a work in Galatia.  There’s still a work in Israel, because faithful people got the message and kept it.  When they got off a little bit—sometimes we need to know a specific turn.  Help us, Jesus, we’re just people!  God will direct our paths.  We just have to do what He asks us to do.  That’s all we need.  That’s salvation. 

            That’s the first point:  The Galatians were removed because of a lack of knowledge.  Paul understood that a lack of knowledge can destroy your life. 

            The second point is (if you’re going to stop at chapter 1, you would have to say) the Galatians were removed because of a lack of commitment.  They didn’t have the heart.  You can’t tell me, Galatians—I’m just going to step in and say that the Lord Jesus Christ has told us to be baptized in His name.  We are now invited to be part of a wedding.  A glorious invitation has been extended to us.  This was meant to be a love relationship; it wasn’t meant to be details first and love second.  It should have been a love commitment first and details second.  No matter what people try to tell you, you know that they’re trying to rip you off.  Wherever you go, if some stranger comes up and starts talking to you, you need to realize that they may be trying to rip you off.  They ripped off the Galatians.  They made it sound good; the Galatians fell for it.  If they would have been totally absorbed in Jesus Christ, totally committed like we need to be—if we’re not totally absorbed in Jesus Christ and committed to this marriage that He’s offered for us to go to, we could easily be talked out of our salvation, too, and blame it on those deceivers.  “Those people came in and they deceived us, Paul.”  Well, first of all, why did you let them?  Why did you even let yourself be removed? 

            Those are the two points that I got out of Galatians chapter 1, and I just want to close with Matthew 22 this morning.  It’s a parable that Jesus gave us.  The reason that I want to go here is because you can’t expect to know everything; you never will know everything, but knowledge is important.  Knowledge will help build up our spiritual man.  Lack of knowledge will destroy us (Hosea 4:6).  We have to keep it in perspective.  This relationship needs to be first, and it needs to be personal, and it needs to be between each one of us and our God.  He doesn’t get distracted, ever, from each one of us.  He’s never been distracted from me or you at any time in our lives.  We’ve been distracted from Him, perhaps, at various times, but He has never been distracted from us, and He never will be.  He’s just looking for people that will be faithful, that love Him.  We didn’t come to Jesus because of the details.  We came to Him because we admire the creation that He made; we admire the promise of the hope that we could be with Him forever.  There’s a Heaven beyond the heavens.  Already I’m amazed at the gloriousness of the creation of God, but there’s more.  He wants us to go there.  That’s what drew us all.  That’s what attracted us to this great God.  So what if it’s baptism in Jesus’ name?  I would have tried to do anything He asked me to do, but it was something simple.  Go, be baptized.  That took away all my sins; that lifted off from me a weight that I can’t even describe.  It’s something that I could never have gotten clear of, but God gave me a new start.  Again, it was because of His love for me, first, and all I could do was respond.  That’s all we can do.  We can point back to the Book of Galatians; we make mistakes and He will teach and correct, just as He did throughout the Book of Galatians.  He will help us to realize—you can read this over and over and get proficient in the difference between the Old and the New Testament, and the details of this majestic machine, this glorious Gospel that God has given us.  What I’m trying to get to today, though is that if we keep it in a relationship, we can keep it very simple…

Matthew 22:1  And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,

            First of all, He’s talking to them in parables.  He’s in Israel; He’s probably in Jerusalem, and He’s talking to these people in parables.  He’s not Mister Rogers talking to the children (not that the children don’t need to be talked to).  He is talking to His people, and He is expecting them to get it.  Parables are essential.  They are cleverly designed stories where Jesus would use the parables, and it would be His way of discerning who’s really listening to His Word, and were willing to accept His concepts, and those who were just not.  The whole difference would be if you got the parables or you didn’t.  They were just stories told in the language of the day, but they contained all the elements of the Kingdom of God that you could have ever asked for.  So Jesus is teaching a parable.  The people that are with Him are people that have learned to follow Him.  He is emerging slowly but surely as the Son of God.  He is the great prophet and Messiah, and people are starting to believe it, and understand it, and truly rejoice in it.  They are getting this.  They are the most fortunate people in the world.  “This King is real; He’s come to us.  I don’t care where everybody else is today; I’m with Jesus.  I’m listening to His story.  Don’t tell me about anything else; I don’t need to know, and, guess what? this is more important.”  Jesus had arrived, and people are beginning to understand that.  Jesus is letting out more and more of His true identity. 

Matthew 22:2  The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,

            A certain king—well, that’s God—made a marriage fro His Son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus tells us that the Lamb of God—which is Jesus—is going to be in a great wedding with the bride—which is the church, made of the Saints, whose righteousness is of Me, sayeth the Lord.  The Lord is Jesus Christ.  The garments of the righteous were made white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelations 7:14).

Matthew 22:3  And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.

            He didn’t send any E-mails; He didn’t make any phone calls… He sent His servants with His personal invitation.  I’m sure they were on there best behavior; I’m sure they knew exactly where to go and what to say.  I’m sure they understood the importance of this; they served a great King and they were proud to serve Him.  They people they invited would not come.  As I was preparing for this message, I understood that was terrible.  Most people, if they want to get married privately, then they get married privately.  If they don’t want anybody else to come to their wedding that’s their choice.  If they want to have a small wedding, that’s their choice.  This is a great King—these people got  message from God, and they would not come.  If you were an editor, and somebody gave you this short story, you might change it.  You might say, “Oh, the people aren’t ready for this.”  You’re two sentences in, and, already, they’re not coming?  Where’s this going?  Well, Jesus knew where it was going.  He’s not talking about some enigma wrapped in a mystery; He’s not talking about  Rubik’s Cube; He’s telling a parable—get it!  Figure it out, otherwise it’s on you.  This will save your soul.  That’s what He’s telling me:  “Figure it out, Tom Hanson, otherwise, there’s a problem.”  He sent forth His servants, and they wouldn’t come.  It’s what it doesn’t say, there.  He doesn’t throw a fit.  “I can’t believe it; they didn’t come.  They didn’t come?”  He doesn’t do any of that.  He’s a King; He’s bigger than that.  He’s not going to get irritated at every fly that lands in His ointment.  He’ll get rid of it. 

            He sent out other servants (Matthew 22:4)… So now He’s got to go to that expense:  teach them, train them, “Come on, get this message out there.”  He had to make arrangements for their lodging.  He had to do all of that.

Matthew 22:4  Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner …

            Notice He did not say, “You’re invited to the wedding, but, when this is over, I’m going to get ahold of you; you’re in trouble.” 

Matthew 22:4  …Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.

            Come on, let’s go.  there’s a deadline.  “The food is ready; the place is ready.  It’s my son’s marriage; let’s go.”

Matthew 22:5  But they made light of it…

            When I see that, I think of Jezebel.  As wicked as she could be—and she was the top of the food chain of wickedness—when she went for wickedness, she could really go for it.  Believe me, her pleasure was not satisfied; she went higher and higher in wickedness.  She did it as though it were a light thing. 

Matthew 22:5  But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

            He went to his farm, and that’s the consumer economy.  That’s the supply and the demand; the producers and the consumers.  That’s the buyers and the sellers.  This is more than just a story; that’s the world.  They made light of it, and went their way.  In other words, to their own living, their own concerns, their own interests.  Their own lives were of more interest than the invitation to this wedding.  In terms of Galatia, with respect to Jesus Christ, they had other things to do.  That was the wrong decision, but they even went farther than that.

Matthew 22:6  And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

            Now, only God is going to put that in the story.  They slew them.  They went past that line; they didn’t just treat them rudely, dishonestly, disrespectfully (if you go down the list of “dis-” you can find a lot of words that you can add to it), but they did these things to these servants.  These great servants, these obedient servants that never complained; you never see them arguing with God; they just did what they were asked to do.  So they went to the farm or to their merchandise, and the remnant slew the servants. 

Matthew 22:7  But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

            Don’t mistake the mercy of God for weakness.  That’s what I get from that.  He gave them a second chance.  He gave them a second invitation, but once they did Him the way that they did Him, He destroyed them.  He did give them any if’s and’s or but’s.  You don’t see Him calling together a council.  You don’t see Him seeking a lot of advice.  Sometimes safety is in a lot of advice, and it’s a wise man that will seek advice, if the situation calls for it.  But, in this case, no, “I’m the King; they did this to Me and to My servants,” and He went and destroyed them.  In verse eight, He is saying to His servants (who had to have been—their awareness was on high alert.  I’m sure they understood the urgency):

Matthew 22:8  Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

            Another big point:  If they would have gone, they would have been worthy.  So many times in this emotionally charged world, people come in and they say, “Oh, well I’m just not worthy enough.”  I’m not trying to put people down, but that doesn’t make people worthy or not worthy.  “Yes,” makes you worthy, “No,” makes you not worthy.  It’s a simple as that.  It was the “No,” that made these people not worthy. 

Matthew 22:9  Go ye therefore into the highways…

            Now it’s not just a single location.  Now it’s the highways.  Highways go everywhere.  They did that; they went to the highways.

Matthew 22:9  Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

            So now it’s anybody.

Matthew 22:10            So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good…

            So that’s what drew me into the message today, because now the servants are not picking a certain group that had been asked to come.  Now they’re asking everybody:  “Come in.  Yeah, come on in, I don’t care.  It doesn’t matter.  Get in.  Let’s go; you’ve got a chance to go to the marriage.”  This is where, if the Galatians could fall, then we could fall.  God wants this.  This is such a great invitation.  This is a great opportunity.  The Galatians jumped at it.  They understood, “I’m not getting invited to a wedding except by my own family, maybe, and now, a King is inviting me to a wedding?  Oh, yes, I’ll be there.  I’m on my way.  Thank you so much.” 

Matthew 22:10            So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

            When they came through that door, they were no longer bad or good, they were guests.  They are now guests of the Almighty God.  That’s the difference when you come to Christ:  All of that is gone; you are no longer bad or good, you are a guest.  It’s a higher calling than whatever you would have achieved in this world.  God will bless your work in this world, but this is the work that will get us to Heaven.  This is the invitation that will get us to Heaven.

Matthew 22:11            And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

            He didn’t see the good or the bad.  Nobody’s so good that they don’t need Christ, and nobody’s so bad that God isn’t going to take them.  Didn’t Jesus prove that in His life?  Haven’t we seen that in our ministry?  There was a man with AIDS in Norfolk when I first got saved.  Somebody had compassion on that man and ministered to him, and shared with him this great Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He cried out and he got saved; he got baptized.  We weren’t like, “Oh, I can’t get my hands dirty.”  Jesus got His hands dirty for every one of us.  When the doctor comes in after a birth, he doesn’t say, “Look what you did to my hands, they’re all dirty.”  He comes in with a new child; he says, “You’ve got a great son,” or, “You’ve got a great daughter, here.”  He doesn’t say, “I can’t believe that you did this to me; you got my hands dirty,” no.  We’re in ministry, and Jesus was proving what ministry is.  He ministered to everybody.  Everybody deserved a chance in Jesus’ eyes.  Whosoever will, let him come. 

A personal testimony:  When I was in the Navy with Kevin and Alonzo, great brothers on the ship at the time, we were in France, way back when I started.  We knew that Jesus would not turn His back on anyone, that He would receive everybody.  We heard that there was a leper colony in France, so when we got there, we went.  I remember sitting with these people, they had this disease.  His terrible disease had taken its toll on every one of them; not just physically.  Emotionally, you could see that they were going through a loneliness.  Just the fact that some people came in and sat with them spoke beyond the language barrier.  We didn’t speak French.  We had another language speaking from our hearts that we care.  We can’t do much, but we can let you know that we understand.  But for the Grace of God, there go I.  Except for a few circumstances, the situation could be reversed. 

I remember one time, we had a funeral for a gang member.  Nobody would do the funeral.  That’s the kind of church that I grew up in.  Christian Fellowship.  We didn’t turn our backs on people.  We didn’t say, “Oh, I’m sorry.”  This gang-member, no other church in town would do the funeral; we did it.  God blessed it and kept us.  I remember a man and a woman that killed a lot of people, and they were caught.  They were convicted and sentenced to die.  Because some people in this ministry had the compassion in their prison ministry work shared the Gospel with those people, those people came to know Christ.  It was very uncomfortable; there were a lot of hurt feelings involved because of the devastation that they caused.  We made arrangements with the prison administration, and we went in and we baptized them in Jesus’ name.  They did what they could do to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they were executed for their crimes.  I worked at a funeral home at that time, and Pastor Paine called me up and asked me if I would talk to the director of the funeral home, to see if we could make arrangements.  Nobody else would bury them.  The funeral director was very gracious; he said yes, he would, and they had a funeral service for them.  Just the funeral director and Pastor Paine.  That was it, nobody else, and they buried the man.  Sometimes you just have to say, “Well, it’s a little uncomfortable; I’m not feeling comfortable right now.”  Obviously, it’s a little uncomfortable right now, when life comes across us, but that doesn’t mean that we get removed from the Gospel of Christ.  Life seasons us; God seasons us.  That’s where the Galatians were in need of some experience.  That’s okay, Paul will go in and teach.  Paul would give them the instruction that they needed.  They would respond.

When we see people coming today—Jesus said, “Whosoever will, let him come.”—it’s not a popularity contest.  It’s not an influence peddling racket.  Whosoever will, let him come, and take of the river of life freely (Revelation 22:17).  God will take you from where you’re at to where you need to be.  There will be changes needed; everybody needs to do that.  We’ve all had to make changes and adhere to the corrections that God has made in our lives.  If these people in Galatia had been allowed to change the rules, where would it end?  It would just be a man-made ministry, made up of rules that men would make.  That would change the whole complexion.  These redwoods and Sequoias were just little seeds.  You never know if it’s an evil seed, but it grows up and it becomes a big beam in the church’s eye.  That’s something to consider; you’ve got to look, you’ve got to consider.  Don’t let people change this Gospel.  People come in rejoicing; I need to be thankful for the fact that I was received.  People didn’t reject me and throw me out, and they could have.  They didn’t; they let me come in, and they let me hear this Gospel.  They allowed me to grow in this Gospel with Jesus Christ.  That’s what I get out of the Book of Galatians.

Matthew 22:11-12      And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

            It’s been said that, even at this point, the King was still prodding him, maybe there was something he could have said, but he was speechless.  Jesus didn’t answer Pilate a word when he was in the judgment hall.  Jesus wasn’t speechless, He could have talked this King down for eternity, but He had a bigger mission.  He wasn’t going to engage in etiquette, some petty question and answer, Jesus was on to a bigger mission.  He didn’t answer Pilate a word, but he wasn’t speechless; this man was speechless.  Everybody else made it to the wedding; everybody else had time to put on a wedding garment.  We’ve never been told about this wedding garment before.  It was obviously a requirement, and expectation, and this man came in without a wedding garment.  The King spotted him, and had him thrown out into outer darkness, it was that serious.  We can’t just come to church.  You can’t just hear the Word of God, you’ve got to put on Christ.  Baptism is where that happens.  He will give you a garment; He’s got garments forever.  Just come to Jesus and receive this wedding garment; sit in this wedding and you’re going to be just as good as anybody else.  You may have to come down a few notches if you think you’re so good; after all, this man thought he was good enough that he didn’t need a wedding garment…  “Don’t you know who I am?”  Well, guess what? that wasn’t good enough; he had to come to Christ.  He had to be right with Christ.

            The Galatians were removed, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the month, to finding out how Paul corrects them and works with them.  Let us remember today that we, too, could find ourselves in that spot.  Let’s not leave our first love.  Let’s just go back and remember that it’s love for You first, it’s respect and honor for You first.  The details are important; help me to learn them.  Give me a sound mind.  Give me a clean heart.  Restore unto me a right spirit and the joy of Thy salvation. 

            Thank you for your time and your patience this morning.  God bless you.

              Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd