Why Preaching Another Gospel Brings a Curse — Galatians 1 Explained

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say, time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Les Feldick. Okay, good to have everybody, and we're going to pick right up where we left off at the end of our last program, which is in Galatians chapter 1, and we stopped at verse 7. And again for those of you joining us on television, we certainly appreciate all your letters, we appreciate your financial help, which of course is necessary. We have to pay for airtime, nobody underwrites us. But the main thrust we like to make is to get people to study the Word of God on their own because it's the fastest way you can spend an evening at home. Turn off that stupid television and get something that will really, well everything but me. No I don't feel that way. I couldn't help but notice when I was watching the Super Bowl the other night, and they brought in clips of some of these sitcoms, and of course I don't watch them. Iris and I haven't had television on a weekday night in years because we're traveling every night anyway. But when I saw just a few of those previews of some of the sitcoms, I thought how in the world can intelligent people sit there and watch that kind of stuff? It's a free country, and we can't legislate morality, I've said that from day one. But turn that thing off, and get your Bible in a concordance that's about all you really need, and start studying. Just study. Chase these themes down from cover to cover, because the amazing thing of this Book is it all fits. Now we were just talking at break time, and there are a lot of people who think it contradicts in places. No it doesn't contradict, it's just the vast difference between Law and Grace. In fact I guess I better put it on the board. It's high time that we get a fresh view of this again, because you want to remember that when God called Moses up into the mountain back in Exodus, He gave the Law to Moses, and Moses took it down the mountain, and gave it to the nation of Israel. And so Israel came under the Law, not the rest of the world, just Israel. But as Romans 3 says, all the world came under the condemnation power of the Law, and proved that no one is righteous, no not one. But so far as the word I like to use, I know it's more or less mundane, but the modus operandi, in other words the mode of operation of the Law was given only to Israel. Then as we get into Galatians and Paul's account of his apostleship, now we find that Paul is the central character, and to that man was revealed these doctrines, not of Law but of Grace. And Grace is not confined to the nation of Israel, but it is primarily to the Gentiles, but it's also including the Jew. A Jew can be saved as well as a Gentile, but it is primarily God's time of calling out Gentiles from amongst the unbelieving world. Now then Paul's message as we saw in our study of the first two letters of the Corinthians, was to the pagan world, and he could come in to these abject pagan people with nothing but the Gospel of the Grace of God, and they would come out of their paganism, and they became believers, or as we normally like to use the term, although it certainly lost it's efficacy, Christians. Because you see today almost anybody and anything can be called a Christian. But here we have in verse 7, which wasn't another Gospel that they were bringing, but it would be a perversion of the Gospel of Christ. Now whenever we talk about the Gospel of Christ, we have to go back to where it is most explicitly laid out, and that is as most of you here in the studio know anyway, 1 Corinthians 15. This is the clearest explanation of Paul's Gospel that you can find anywhere. Now he'll refer to it as the Gospel of the Grace of God, the Gospel of God, My Gospel, as we saw a couple of programs ago, the Gospel according to the revelation of the mysteries, but it's this Gospel, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 1-4. And we'll look at it again, and again, and again. I Corinthians 15. Now remember in the last program we pointed out, how did Paul address even the carnal church at Corinth, the saints, to those that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, even the Corinthians. So he said, "...by this Gospel ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you." Not what Peter and the twelve in Jerusalem have, but what I preached unto you. Now verse 3. "...I preached unto you, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins." But he didn't stay dead. After three days and three nights, you know what happened. He was buried, and he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. In other words, long before the world of the universe was ever created, God already had the whole scheme of things laid out. He wasn't caught by surprise. The whole human experience was pre-planned, and the plan of redemption was already in place long before Adam was ever created. And here it is, how that Christ died, was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures. It was prophesied, and now all man has to do for salvation is to believe it. And we're going to see that so clearly as we move on through this little letter to the Galatians. Galatians chapter 1. Now we'll move into verse 8. Galatians 1. Oh the horrors that are going to befall people who are guilty of what Paul is talking about in verse 8. I shudder to think of what they're one day going to have to experience, because look what He says, verse 8 of Galatians 1, "...though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, and if they preach anything other than that unto you, let him be accursed." Now that's a horribly strong word. Now he's not just talking about maybe ending up 15 or 20 years in prison. He's not just talking about even maybe capital punishment. Paul is talking about an eternal separation from God. An eternal doom to these people who are corrupting and perverting the pure gospel of grace. That's enough to scare anybody. Now verse 9, and again whenever you see the Scripture, whether it's Paul or Moses or the Prophets or the Gospels, I don't care where it is, but when there is a repetition, take note. It's there for the purpose of getting our attention. So here in 2 verses he says, "...but though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel, let him be accursed." Now verse 9, "...as we said before, so say I now again, if any..." Now the word man is italicized, so he already made reference to an angel. So he says, "...if any preach any other gospel unto you, than that ye have received that is from the lips of this apostle, let him be accursed." Now Paul wasn't talking there out of meanness, or out of envy of some other minister. He was writing by inspiration of the Spirit, and the Spirit is making the emphasis that if we adulterate and pervert the true gospel, we are in danger of being accursed. Now apostasy is a terrible thing. Most people don't even know what apostasy means. In fact I've had well meaning people and I don't say this in ridicule, because I know I was there once upon a time myself. What is apostasy? Is that something that the apostles taught? Well no, it has nothing to do with the apostles. Apostasy is turning the back on the revealed truth of Scripture. That's what apostasy is. It's turning our back on the revealed truths of Scripture. I remember I think I shared it on the program, and I know I did in some of the classes here in Oklahoma. Someone had sent me a little booklet by the old radio pastor J. Vernon McGee, who has now gone on to be with the Lord. And the little booklet was copyrighted in I think 1971, and he was rehearsing a conversation that he and the man at that time, I think it was Dr. Sweeting or Culbertson, I don't remember which one, who was president of Moody Bible Institute in 1971. Moody people will know who it was, but anyhow they were in a Bible conference out in LA, and so J. Vernon McGee was rehearsing it in his little message. And he said during the course of that week of Bible conference, he and Dr. Sweeting and a couple other well known theologians were visiting, and this president of Moody made this statement. Now remember the time element. It was 1971, and that man made the statement that he could never envision the apostasy of the Church at that time. He had no idea the Church would be into such apostasy short of being in the tribulation. Now that's 20 some years ago. What would he think today? Oh they couldn't handle it. But see we've been just programmed to see all this creeping in, and we just sort of roll with it. But listen we are in such a state of apostasy that it's alarming, and why can't these people see what these verses say? They are under the condemnation of being accursed for perverting the Gospel. Now Paul says, do I persuade men or God? Who is he serving? Well certainly not men, because Paul like me didn't draw a salary. Paul said he didn't have to be beholden to anybody. If he needed some money, he went out and sewed some tents. So he didn't have to worry about losing his pay, and he didn't have to serve men. So here he is, do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. You can't serve both. You cannot please God and mammon, is what I think Jesus even said. But listen this apostle says, there is no way. I am out here suffering imprisonment, suffering beatings, suffering shipwreck, suffering cold, and heat, and nakedness, all the things we studied back there in the Corinthian letters. He said, I didn't do that just to be serving men, but he did it because he was the bond slave of Jesus Christ. Now that reminds me of a verse in Ephesians chapter 3, starting at verse 1. And this of course is the whole motivation of this apostle. Now back in the Old Testament everything was for Israel's benefit, but this man's apostleship is for our benefit as Gentiles. Now if you have heard of the dispensation or the administration of the grace of God, which is given me to you, just like I got it on the board. God revealed to the apostle Paul these doctrines of grace, and what did he do with it? Not like Moses did to Israel and Israel alone, but Paul takes it primarily to the Gentiles. Now granted he went to the Jew first didn't he? He would always go to the synagogue of the Jew to make his opening, and they'd reject it down the street to the So this is what he's making reference to, that he was given the grace of God, and he gave it to us as Gentiles. Now let's come back to Galatians chapter 1, and again verse 10. If I pleased men I couldn't be that bond slave of Christ, it would be utterly impossible. Now as you move on to verse 11, I wish that people would study Galatians 1 and 2 until they almost know it from memory, and know the content of these two chapters like you do your name and address, and it'll just blow away all the dust and the cobwebs of confusion. This just opens it all up. Galatians 1 and 2 verse 11, I certify that the gospel which is preached of me is not after man. I'll repeat myself once more, what is he claiming? Apostleship! Authority! Not because of any relationship with the twelve, and he's totally broken with his Jewish past, and now he is the bond slave of the resurrected and ascended Lord. Verse 12. Galatians 1 and 2, "...for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, that is by man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Now let's go back to I Corinthians chapter 15, where we just left off with the clearest explanation of the Gospel. Now starting at verse 5, and so he was seen of Cephas, and he was seen of Peter, and then of the twelve. Now that is not a contradiction in terms, I've had to explain this to people, and there's a good time to stop and explain this. If he was seen by Peter, then there should only be how many left? Eleven. So why does he use twelve? Well the word twelve was used as a generalized term for a group of people. Just like you would use the term the Sanhedrin, or the seventy. Now that was just a term that applied to that general group of people. Now the same way with the twelve, even though Paul only had reference to the eleven others, yet he could still rightfully call them the twelve. Now that happens in a couple of other places, and that's why I'm making a point of it. It says the twelve, when we know that there weren't all twelve of them there. And he was seen of Peter, then of the twelve, or the rest of that group, and after that he was seen of over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, which remember is now about 60 AD, about 30-31 years after the crucifixion, which means all these people could have been in their twenties or thirties, and they're still alive. Then verse 7. And after that he was seen of James, and then of all the apostles. Now verse 8. And last of all he was seen of me also, as one of course who was born out of or ahead of the time. Now let's go all the way back to Acts chapter 22. I want you to see why the Apostle Paul is making such a big deal over his having seen and heard all these things from the resurrected Christ. Now I'm always trying to get people to see that if you stay in the Gospels, and there's nothing wrong with reading the Gospels, but that was Christ before the work of the cross. That was before the atoning blood had been shed, and it was under the Law. Everything he said was in accordance with the Judaic legal system, nothing of the Gospel of Grace. And Peter carries it on in the early ministry of Acts. But this Apostle, now all he talks about is the crucified, buried and risen Lord, who is now ascended to glory. Oh what a difference! In fact I was just pointing out to someone in break time, and a lot of people don't understand these things. You take the little Jewish epistles at the end of our New Testament. James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1 and 2 John, Jude and Revelation. Do you know what? The word Cross is not even mentioned. You won't see the word cross in those little Jewish epistles, because for them it was not the pinnacle of information like it is with Paul. Paul says, we preach Christ crucified, and that's all he knows is the work of the cross. And it's because he saw Him in resurrection power, he saw Him in His ascension. Acts 22 and verse 17. And it came to pass, that when I was come again to Jerusalem, and even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance, and I saw Him saying unto me, Make haste, get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue those that believed on thee. And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and I kept, or held, the raiment of them that slew him, and he, the resurrected, ascended Lord now, and he said unto me, Depart from Jerusalem, for I will send thee far hence to the Gentiles." See how clear that is? Now if you'll come back to Galatians chapter 1, and verse 12. Galatians 1. He is by Holy Spirit inspiration distancing himself from the twelve apostles of Israel, Peter, James, and John, to keep his apostleship pure from any of the legalism of Judaism, which of course Peter, James, and John were the epitome. Verse 12. Galatians 1. He says, I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, who now is in glory. So it had to be through some kind of a communication process between the Lord and this apostle. Verse 13. Galatians 1. He says, You have heard of my manner of life, or my lifestyle in times past in the Jews religion. Now stop. Why did the Holy Spirit inspire the apostle Paul to use that term for Judaism? Well that's what it had become. It had become watered down over the last 1500 years from the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, and the establishing of the priesthood of Israel, and all of the sacrificial worships. It was pure, that was Law, but as Israel progressed up through 1500 years, what happened to it? Oh it just got watered down, it got degenerated, and finally you know what the Law was? 613 rules and regulations. One of which of course was they could only walk so many furlongs on the Sabbath day, and all these stipulations. That's what the Law had become, and it was now a religion. There was no saving power in the Judaism of Christ's day. Now there were a few bonafide believers, we know there were. Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, and Joseph and Mary no doubt were. But oh it was precious few Jews that were true believers when Christ came to Israel. Oh but they were what? Religious? Oh you bet they were religious. They kept the feast days, and they practiced the sacrifice. Now I have a hard time believing this, but Josephus claimed that at the time of Christ, one million animals were sacrificed every year. Now my mathematics tells me that's a bunch of animals every day of the year. But whether it was that many or something less than that, don't ever lose sight of the fact that the Jews religion of Christ's day was to the hilt a practicing of those 613 with less felting.