(Episode #21): Study on Galatians: Not fame of the pulpit, but Truth of the Gospel: Gal 1:8-24

What is The Gospel with Prince John?

This podcast is purposefully crafted to serve as a reminder for born-again believers about our identity in Christ. It seeks to deepen our comprehension of the profound power and potential inherent in the Gospel that has been entrusted to us. In this show, we will delve into various contemporary challenges confronting believers and provide biblical insights to diagnose these issues.

[00:00:00] In the book of Galatians, Paul is preaching the message of Liberty saying that a lot of people come up with legalism, even in your churches saying that it is the gospel, and trying to put you back into bondage. So let's get into it.

Continuing from verse eight. Gal 1:8-9, it says,

but even if an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you. He is to be accursed, as we have said before. So I say again now, If any man is preaching to you, a gospel contrary to what, you have received.

He is to be accursed.

So you can see how serious Paul is regarding the distortion of the gospel. Like we saw in the last episode, you can not just say,

oh, it's just a matter of adding some good rules and regulations,[00:01:00] like

Jesus plus wearing white

Jesus plus no ornaments.

So it's like, if you do that, you live a holy life.

But Paul is saying here that if any one preaches a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you.

He is to be a accursed.

He says that no matter, how popular that preacher is. That person might be famous. The person might be anointed man of God, it doesn't matter. What matters is, what is he preaching? Is he going against the word of God? If you, like the Bereans, go to the word of God and see is he preaching the gospel or is he distorting the gospel. If that is the case, you won't be tossed around with every wave of doctrine. But for that, you need to spend time on the word. You need to look into what is being said. Not just looking at some of these [00:02:00] commentaries. Get into the word of God. It doesn't matter, even if you take a few hours looking at one verse, but get into the word of God and try to understand the word of God.

In verse 10, it says

am I now seeking the favor of men or of God. OR am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ.

You see the message of grace was not popular back in the day and it's not even popular right now. Preachers who even say that they believe in grace, they emphasize on a do-it gospel. And it's much more popular. And like I said, at the first episode, if someone tells you that you have to climb 3000 steps in order to get blessed, we would happily do it. Yes, it would be painful, but at the same time we would happily do it because we would feel that we have earned it. When we preach, whatever is given the Bible that you have been blessed already, and Christ has already blessed you, and that

you are justified. You're crucified. You are [00:03:00] saved. And you're purified already. You don't need anybody to purify you again. It makes people uncomfortable. So am I seeking the favor of men or of God is what paul asks. People believe that they need to do a lot of things to sustain their salvation. And if you say anything contrary to it, trust me, you will get ridiculed. You will be the butt of all jokes, but you have to take a stand that am I seeking the favor of men or of God. Am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ. Your friends might not like what you're saying.

When I go to different conferences , I see these books lined up and these books are about 10 ways to keep your anointing 10 ways to have the power of God coming in your life, and you see all these are about what you need to do. It is not about trusting in the finished work of Christ. And these, if you flip through the pages, you can see, you need to [00:04:00] spend time. You need to have a powerful prayer life. It's about what you should do in order for the gospel to work. But that is not what the Bible says. If Paul was here, he would get, super mad about this.

The self-improvement gospel, which is being preached from pulpit to pulpit really sounds good. It sounds right. It sounds amazing. the physical realm, things like that work because you work harder, train harder and you get fit, right. If you put more effort, you get more fit. So it is natural to think that the spiritual realm is similar to the natural realm, but it is far from the truth .

In the spiritual realm with Christ has done everything that pertains to life and godliness. And if you're still looking for a blessing, you don't believe Eph 1:3 where it says you have blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. I've had friends who run from place to place saying that they need to be blessed. They need that special [00:05:00] anointing and that Special holy spirit. They called these different anointings different names and I've had conversations with them. I've asked, why do you do this? Don't you know, That you are blessed with every spiritual blessing. Don't, you know, that Christ has given you all the blessings. But they don't feel comfortable in accepting that. Why? There is nothing external that you can look forward to. Right? The onus is on us. The responsibility is on us, right?

It is about it is on us to start living in it, to start walking in it. It may not be easy. But if someone says , oh, spend 10 days fasting. And on the 11th day, you will get the powerful anointing, the shadow ministry, where you'll you walk and your shadow will fall on this person. And there'll be power of God manifesting. And you will be gladly doing it because it is something that you can do not resting, but you can [00:06:00] do in order to get something. That's what the problem was with the church in Galicia, people started to put these laws these ideas of self-improvement into the gospel. And even though it had an appearance of good. It created problems there.

In Galatians one verse 11 to 14, you see for I would have, you know, brethren that the gospel, which was preached by me is not according to man. For, I neither received from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. So Paul is saying here. That this gospel, which he received, he received directly from Jesus Christ. Then he goes on to say in verse 13, For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries [00:07:00] among my country, men. Being more, extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.

Paul makes a change in his life. He was very zealous about what he wanted. He knew, he thought. Ju the ju he thought that his way of life, his former manner of life and Judaism was the right way. He thought that he could earn salvation through his good works. It is commendable that Paul when he got to know the truth. He decided to stick by it and even though he was extremely popular in his former way of life. He turned around.

I know a lot of people when you preach the word they accept it and the more popular they are, the more well-known they are. They're like, okay, now I won't change. Come on. I mean, what's the point of changing now? I know what you're saying is the truth. But what's the point of changing now because this would [00:08:00] affect my ministry. They will stand by the different gospel because they don't want nothing to come between their ministry.

You see, Paul says I was wrong. I can say a lot of things. But Over the years I have. Over the years, I have found that I've been wrong in a lot of things. I remember, I never used to be like this. But I'm glad that my friend Edward, that one day when I was attending church. So he asked me a question. It was a very simple question. He asked me is it God's will to heal right now? So I said, it could be God's will right now, but God has a specific timing. And Edward. In his style, he responded. And I had to be very honest. I was offended by it, but the good thing that happened was that I wanted to prove him wrong. And I went back. I took everything that I could learn, everything that I could, [00:09:00] and all my Bible school material was and everything. And I went through the passages, the verses and everything, which he gave as well and within a few days, it was very humbling to admit that I was wrong. I understood. That, what I understood about healing was not right. I understood that what I understood about a lot of things were not right. And it was very humbling because I had preached to some people by then. It changed the way I looked at things thereafter. Then I tried to learn myself and I made a decision that I'm not going to take it Just because someone tells me or just because the Bible school tells me that this is so. I'm going to look at the Bible for myself and I'm going to learn by myself. I'm going to verify what is being taught. Ever since that has been the case. It is humility to say that I was wrong. But not humility to say I was wrong when you know you were right. You don't just [00:10:00] have to agree with people just like that, but you need to check of whatever is being taught is true or not.

So continuing in 15th verse. It says, but when God. Who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb had called me through grace was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among Gentiles. I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood.

A quick thought would be that we are predestined. But this is not talking about predestination, but rather it's talking about God choosing people for his purposes and ministry. And we see this throughout the old Testament that God chose people for as ministry. He chose Moses for ministry chose Samuel for ministry . Paul was chosen. Yes, but so were the disciples. It is not a doctrine of salvation here, but choosing to minister, choosing to be disciples. But it says here that he did not consult with flesh and blood.

Continuing to read verse 17 and 18. [00:11:00] I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus. Then three years later. I went up to Jerusalem, to come become acquainted, with Cephas. That's Peter. And stayed with him 15 days. But I did not see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

So Paul is trying to make a statement here. He's trying to say that. I did not adulterate or modify the gospel that I received. But rather I received it from the Lord. And in Gal 1:20-24. Now in what I'm writing to, you assure you before God that I'm not lying. That I went to the regions of Syria and cilicia. I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ, but only they kept hearing he who once persecuted us as know now preaching the faith, [00:12:00] but she once tried to destroy. And they were glorifying God, because of me.

You see what Paul is saying here? Paul is trying to say. That what he got from God is the true gospel. He is giving an introduction on his masterpiece on grace. He's saying that this is something which he got from the Lord. And his teaching wasn't popular. if you go throughout his writings, Paul was always against adding legalism to the gospel. In the church in Corinth. Yes. He was hard on the people there, yes, he, gave them a verbal bashing there. But always when it comes to adding the law or adding the certain things to do, and is when the problem comes . It's when you say that yes, I'm justified by faith, but to remain justified, you have to wear white. That is a problem there that is adding the law. So you might say I'm justified by faith, [00:13:00] but to sustain my justification. I need to stop wearing ornaments, and I know a lot of people do that.

there are people Who would say that your holiness is demonstrated by you not sleeping enough and you praying for hours and they choose to pray during the night not in the mornings Because they're making a sacrifice for the lord and they will try to stay awake and they will say even that god is telling them to stay awake but it's rather their flesh telling them. See what is happening here the jesus plus Something Jesus plus white clothes jesus plus removing jewelry jesus plus wearing a tux to be on stage Jesus plus wearing a tie to show your holy jesus plus all these things Right?

There's no jesus plus There's only jesus It says that you are justified [00:14:00] by faith alone By faith alone That is the true gospel That you are justified You have been crucified with him You're no longer a sinner. You're no longer under the jurisdiction of law You're saved by grace.

So, what is the application here? It is important to understand that we stand for the truth. I've seen more often than not. People don't necessarily want to hear the truth. They just want to be, but an in place where they're comfortable. Even if they're attending churches, it's not about what church preaches the actual truth. A lot of people just go by the traditions, their family used to attend this sort of a church. So I attend it, so there's more fellowship in this church. So I go there. How many of us really want to attend a place or church or a fellowship or a group of believers who stand with the truth? How many of us want to stand for that? You see, Paul was facing that even in the beginning [00:15:00] of his ministry, you could see that there were a lot of people who were preaching and they were popular preachers, infiltrating the churches, that's moved, talk their way into the churches. And they were saying things that you need to do something extra on top of what the gospel is. But Paul had his struggles. Paul did not have a lot of people following him. Now one thing which I have understood is that over the years, it doesn't matter what the response. What's important as a child of God is to preach the truth. Because not always, people will follow you. And sometimes there are a lot of these cheesy things which are said that, okay, "if it is the truth, then people will follow you". Not necessarily God doesn't violate people's will, God, the holy spirit would touch people's hearts. The, he will, he will try to persuade them, but it's up to them. If they are interested in a church where it talks about condemnation, about what they have to do, the 10 things for which you will get 12 things for [00:16:00] this 12, 15 things for this, where they read up from a commentary without any life in the preaching and the go by traditions rather than the word of God, people are just so happy to just, just be there rather than knowing and understanding the truth. If that thirst for the word of God is not there. Why are we even there? Don't go after traditions Stand for the word of god today.