GALATIANS:
INTRODUCTION
There is much confusion in the Body of Christ today, and the cause of this confusion must rest squarely upon the men in the pulpit. This confusion is caused by pastors not expounding on the writings of our one-and-onlyapostle to the us Gentiles–the apostle Paul.
A large portion of the problem of the confusion emanates from the fact that the pastors themselves do not really understand that we gentile believers have only one apostle. Again this ignorance comes from the fact that these pastors do not get past the book of Acts in their studies, or they know nothing about expository preaching. They just send off for their already prepared (by someone else) textual or topical sermonettes, and quickly look them over and then stick them in their Bible on Sunday morning before going to their pulpit, and they themselves do not study the New Testament doctrinal books—the Pauline Epistles, i.e., the letters (epistles) written by the apostle Paul.
I have heard pastors complain that they are losing their people to these Messianic-Jewish Congregations. I told one of these complaining pastors, “Why shouldn't they go to some Jewish speaker? They get the same kind of Jewish teaching from you that they get from a rabbi. All you ever preach from is the Law, and never from our own apostle. You are constantly mixing Law and Grace; that is, if you ever really get into grace. As a result, your people are trying to act like Jewish Fourth-Fifth Decade believers of the First Century and not like Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians of the Sixth-Seventh Decades; i.e., converts of Paul.”
I must applaud a statement made by Pastor Mark Wilkerson, of Maranatha Baptist Church, of Rantoul, Illinois, who said that the Book of Romans is the Constitution and By-Laws of the New Testament Faith. It is in the Book of Romans that we find every major doctrine of the New Testament Church, but sadly this book is grossly neglected by most pastors. They are too busy attempting to get their people to be like Fourth Decade Jewish Christians of the then Jewish church, instead of getting them to become Sixth/Seventh Decades Gentile Christians who were led to the Lord by the ministry of the apostle Paul, the one-and-only apostle to the gentiles (see Galatians 2:8)..
It was to Paul (not to John, Matthew or Peter) that Christ revealed, what up to that time had been a “mystery” (a “hidden thing), this thing called the Church. In Galatians 2:8-9 we see that only to Paul was given the ministry to us gentiles (the “heathen”) and James, Cephas (Peter) and John were apostles to the “circumcision” (the Jews). This was also confirmed at the Jerusalem conference as is recorded in Acts 15:22-25. Pastors, please understand this point! Up to the time of Paul the Doctrines of the Church were unknown.
It was to him, to Paul, that Christ revealed how He wanted His church to operate. We find this information in Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. We find Christ’s warning to those who fall away into false doctrines in Paul’s letters to the Galatians and Corinthians. We see Christ’s pure instruction in the doctrines of the Christian faith in Paul’s letter to the Romans. The pastor-teachers must get hold of this fact! These are not just Paul’s words! These are the words of Christ Himself, as given by the Holy Spirit through the inspired pen of Paul—“…He (the Holy Spirit) shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear (from Christ) that shall He speak…He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine (Christ’s) and shall show it to you” (John 16:14-15). And that is just what He has done! Christ, through the inspiring ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the writing ministry of the apostle Paul, has revealed to us the “mystery” of the New Testament Church.
We might be able to sum up the problem as this: The Reason for the Confusion of the Believers (the Sheep) is because of the Confusion of the Shepherds. The solution of the problem is this: The Pauline Epistles. The shepherds (the pastor-teachers) must get out of the Age of the Law and get into the Church Age; the Age of Grace. They must themselves study, and teach, the epistles of the one-and-only apostle to the gentiles, the apostle Paul. This we will be doing in our study of this Epistle to the Galatians and the other writings of our apostle Paul.