Galatians: The Grace Of Christ Part 1 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Galatians: The Grace Of Christ Part 1 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Galatians: The Grace of Christ Part 1 from Pastors Lawson & Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, you’ll gain a better understanding of our equation Jesus + Nothing = Everything.

Galatians: The Grace Of Christ Part 1 Transcript

Welcome friends to the broadcast. I am so glad that you are connected with us today and tuned in. I have my son, Aaron, on the broadcast. We are teaching “Galatians, The Grace of Christ”, and you don’t want to miss this program, praise God. We’re gonna be talking a little bit about the revelation of grace just like we did last week, but Aaron has some great revelation on this subject, and you don’t wanna miss it. God is good. Amen? And you know what? Stay tuned. You’ll hear some good news that will free you. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re here with us today, and I have my son here, and we’re sharing on “Galatians, The Grace of Christ”. And what a marvelous message that Paul preaches here in the Book of Galatians. We really hear the heart of the gospel, which is Jesus plus nothing. And when you understand the true gospel equation, Jesus plus nothing equals everything. And if we have to add something to Jesus, it’s like saying that Jesus is not enough. But the problem that Paul began to address in the churches of Galatia was they had started out believing the pure gospel, which is Jesus plus nothing. But then, they begin to add to Jesus and specifically, circumcision or law-keeping. So if you have to add something to Jesus, again, it’s like saying Jesus is not enough. So when you understand this true equation of the gospel, in Galatians chapter five, Paul says, “If you didn’t have to be circumcised, then Christ shall profit you nothing.” So Jesus plus circumcision, Jesus plus law-keeping, Jesus plus anything equals nothing. But Jesus plus nothing equals everything. He really gets into this in Galatians chapter one, verse six, and in the first couple of chapters, he’s really talking about the problem of religion. And there’s a lot of difference between religion and true Christianity. Religion, I define as a set of beliefs and a system of works. True Christianity is a relationship with God through Christ. So, when we understand the difference between religion and true Christianity, the truth really is that our relationship with God is based on our faith in Jesus. And so, he makes a statement in Galatians chapter one, verse six, and he says, “I marvel that ye are so soon from removed from Him who called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel.” And it’s so easy for people to start out, just simply believing Jesus, but then begin to add different things to Him. And he says, “This is not another gospel,” in verse seven, “but there be some who trouble you who would pervert the gospel of Christ.” So when you begin to add things to Jesus, it becomes a perversion of the gospel. And Paul goes on and makes a statement here and says, “But though, we or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached, let him be accursed.” And that’s very, very strong language, but he wants to emphasize it. So he says, again, in verse nine, “As I said before, so I say now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than ye have received, let him be accursed.” So, you know, we need to be aware of moving away from Jesus or beginning to add other things to Jesus. Aaron, what are some of the things that people seem to add to Jesus?

Well, I think a lot of people try to add various things. It really is up to their opinion. Oftentimes, if you were just to go out on the street and ask an average person, “What makes someone a good person?” That’s really what just a very simple definition of righteousness is. It’s right standing before God. What makes you a good person? People will say all types of things. They’ll say, “Well, giving to the poor, or you’re kind to other people. You help other people. You don’t do certain things. Maybe you don’t do drugs, maybe you don’t, you know, or maybe you, even in today’s world, they’ll say, you get certain shots, you know, to protect your neighbor if you really love your neighbor.” Like they define that as goodness. And even the church, we sometimes try to add things that

[Pastor Lawson] Jesus

to Jesus, Like it might just be going to church, tithing. And I’m not saying these are bad things, but if you’re saying this is dependent on your salvation or dependent upon you receiving from God, it’s, the only way you receive from God is through faith in Jesus. So if you say you have to do this to receive from God, then you’re adding something to Jesus.

And that’s what Paul began to address. And they were specifically talking about law-keeping, right, or circumcision. But the challenge is, if you’re gonna be justified by the law, you gotta keep the whole law. And nobody ever has kept the whole law and talking about, you’re talking about goodness. Jesus said, there’s none good, except God. And the only way you can really be right with God is again, by faith in Jesus, so they moved away from Jesus. So if you move away from grace, you’re really moving away from Jesus. And this is a perversion of the gospel. Paul says, “There’s no other gospel”. And they really begin to do this in the Book of Galatians because they were trying to please these religious Jewish leaders. And I’m very opinionated. I am not doing things here in our church to please people. And you know what? I’ve lost some people that I liked that were good friends, that were very good supporters, so on and so forth, because ultimately, I’m not here to please people. I’m here to please Jesus. And I learned that lesson long ago. And I’ve never really tried to please people. I’m ultimately trying to please Jesus. Of course, I’m not trying to make enemies. I don’t think any of us wanna make enemies, but at the same point in time, we better live to please Jesus Christ, and,

I like what he says too about, “I don’t care if an angel came from heaven and told someone-

Yeah.

to preach that. You know, and I’m always a little wary when people are preaching from their personal revelation. If things aren’t lining up with scripture, you should be really careful. If things aren’t lining up with scripture. And sometimes, people get really overly spiritual and they say, “Well, an angel, I saw this angelic vision and they told me to do this.” And if things aren’t lining up with scripture, it’s,

We know that cults,

yeah,

whole cults have been started over an angelic vision and over different things. It’s scripture plus something, you know, it’s good that we keep the word of God central. Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.” And the word of God is central to the truth. And I think what made Paul such a good minister of the gospel, he talks later in Galatians chapter one, how he received this gospel by revelation. But he had this foundation of the scripture, and he studied at the feet of Gamaliel, who was one of the greatest Jewish teachers of the law. And he was a pharisee. He was brought up that you dot every I, you cross every T, you believe everything that the law says. So this really laid a foundation in his life for the gospel to work. So when he began to get a revelation of who Jesus really was, and when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, his life was transformed immediately. But there had been a foundation laid for years and years, and years. And it’s interesting when you study in the Book of Acts, how they brought different things to Gamaliel, who was still a leader among the Jews. And Gamaliel, said, you know what? “If this thing’s of God, you can’t stop it.” So, you know, beware what you fight against.

Well, and Paul was an expert at the law. He was probably more, he was a better law-keeper than any of the other apostles of his time, better than Peter, James, John. Paul said, “Concerning the law, I kept it, I was blameless.” But the thing that he realized about the law, the law does not have the power to save someone. The law does not have the power to change someone’s heart, to transform someone’s nature.

The law wasn’t given to say this. The law was given to show us our sin, to show us how far we really fell short. So when Jesus came, we’d give up and believe on Him. The Bible says here in Galatians chapter three, that the law was our school master to bring us under Christ. That “And if righteousness came by the law,” he makes this statement, “then Christ died in vain.” So we, the law, nobody ever kept the law perfectly, except for Jesus.

Yeah.

And then, the religious leaders, really, the legalistic people really didn’t like that. Now, so the first problem was they were moving away from Jesus. So to move away from the gospel of grace, the message of grace is to move away from Jesus. Now, the second problem was they really, if they’re doing that, they had no real revelation of who Jesus was. And Paul begins to talk about this, and he says in verse 10, “Do I now persuade men or do I seek to please men for if I yet, please men, I would 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 didn’t receive it of man, neither was I taught it.” This is verse 12 of Galatians chapter one, “but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” So Paul had a revelation of who Jesus was. And he goes on and says in verse, he talks about how he was zealous of the tradition, how he persecuted the church. I mean, he is very zealous for God, but people can be zealous for God and be absolutely wrong. And he says in verse 15 and 16, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood.” So he went out in the desert, and he was in the desert for about three-and-a-half years and really began to get revelation. You know, I believe God took this knowledge of the Old Testament that he had and began to reveal. You can see Jesus all through the Old Testament. I know when you studied biblical Hebrew, Aaron, at Rice University with the doctors of religion. You told me, “Daddy, you can see the grace of God all over the Old Testament.”

That’s true. Yeah. The Bible points to Jesus, Genesis to Revelation, all points to Jesus. It all,

Amen.

God’s heart has always been the same. He’s always been a gracious, loving, merciful, good God.

Right.

In the Old Testament and New Testament and Jesus just puts a face on who God really is.

And you know, some people think when you get a revelation of grace, that you don’t need to preach anything from the Old Testament. And you know, when you go to Galatians chapter three, the scripture says that God preached the gospel before to Abraham. When he said to Abraham, when he said, “In you, all nations of the earth will be blessed.” He preached the grace of God. And that’s in Genesis chapter 12. And so,

Well, the New Testament quotes the Old Testament over and over again, you know? Genesis is quoted, Isaiah’s quoted, Zechariah’s quoted,

Yeah.

you know?

In the Old Testament, Jesus is concealed-

Proverbs, Psalms,

right?

Yeah.

But in the New Testament, He’s revealed, He is the Word made flesh and of His glory. We see the grace of God. We see the glory of God in Jesus. And so, Paul got this revelation, “Hey, it’s not us. It’s not our performance, it’s not our works.” And he could preach this better than anybody because he was a pharisee, a pharisee circumcised, the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin, concerning the righteousness of the law. He said, “I was blameless and yet, he did not know God.” And, but he met God on the road to Damascus.

Yeah. And I think if he’s preaching this so adamantly like I’m marveled that you are turning away that you’re being removed from the purity of the gospel, this message of grace and adding things to Jesus. If it happened then, it can happen today. There’s nothing new under the sun. And even if you look at church history, this is kind of what is repeated itself throughout church history. And this is what Martin Luther really was concerned about was at the time the church was adding.

Right.

Adding to Jesus,

To Jesus.

You have to do something in addition to being just, he’s saying was “You’re justified by faith”. You know, he was upset at the time, the church was saying that people

could buy their salvation.

Right.

You could buy your grandpa’s salvation. But really, the same thing happens even today. You know, a few years ago, when I was going to school in Houston, I just turned on Christian television late at night, and there was a minister saying, “If you give $535 right now in honor of Isaiah 53:5, you’ll receive your healing if you send me $535 right now.”

[Pastor Lawson] That’s just terrible.

Healing is a part of salvation. That is a part, that you receive salvation through grace alone. You can’t purchase salvation. You can’t purchase any aspect of salvation.

[Preacher Lawson] Right.

Jesus never once said, “If you give me a certain dollar amount, then you’ll receive your healing.”

[Pastor Lawson] That’s ridiculous.

But that’s the same exact thing. That’s it’s-

Right.

and it’s perverse. I like that word that Paul used. It’s actually very perverse.

I’ve seen aspects of it and it’s just terrible.

Mm-hmm.

Now, there are sometimes when people take a great step of faith and give a gift that somehow, but that’s their faith. It’s not because they gave this gift, it’s because they believed, right? They sowed a seed.

Yeah.

And, they received blessings, but it’s not because we gave, it’s not because we’ve prayed. It’s not because we read our Bible. It’s not because we went to church. It’s because of Jesus. It’s because of the grace of God. Well, we’re gonna come back right after this break, and we’re gonna continue to share just a little bit on Galatians chapter two on the consistent problem of religion, which Paul is addressing here. And that really gets us to move into the full gospel. And the gospel is the message of Jesus, again, “Plus nothing equals everything.” We’ll be back right after this short break. Bless You. Friends, I wanna tell you about our grace package. I received “The Revelation of Grace” in Andrew Wommack’s ministry in 1994, after I’d been pastoring for six years. It revolutionized my life, and it’s helped me in so many different ways. I actually have been called to preach and filled with the Holy Spirit in Andrew’s ministry, 16 years prior to that. But when I received a “Revelation of Grace”, it changed me. We’ve also included a great teaching from my son, Aaron Perdue, on “The Abundance of Grace,” a single CD on “Entangled”, a great message on grace from Aaron and my series on “Galatians, The Grace of Christ”. You don’t wanna miss this teaching. Just like it’s revolutionized my life, it will revolutionize yours. You can share this with your friends. If you don’t wanna call in and get this, you can actually listen to these free on our website at charischristiancenter.com. We wanna get the word to you. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed tuned. We’ve been sharing from Galatians, and we were in chapter one talking about the persistent problem of religion, and that’s moving away from Jesus, or moving away from grace. And to move away from grace is to move away from Jesus according to Galatians chapter one, verse six. We talked about the other thing was they had no revelation. Paul, before he got saved, had no revelation of the gospel. But when he got a revelation of who Jesus was and what Jesus did, he gave up on his law-keeping for righteousness. And he put his total faith in Jesus. The next thing that we really see as a problem was religious tradition. And Paul talks about in chapter two, “After 14 years, I went again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me. I went up by revelation and communicated with him.” This is verse two, Galatians two, “The gospel, which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest any means, I had run in vain. But neither Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.” So Paul took Titus with him, and Titus was a Greek believer. And so, Paul said, “No, you don’t need to be circumcised. You’re not saved by circumcision.” And he says, but that because of false brethren unawares who came in privately to spy out our liberty.” So man, here they are peeking under the stalls at the bathroom. That’s what it’d be like to see if Titus were circumcised or peeking around the tree to see, you know, religion will make you crazy? It’ll make you do crazy things. “That they might bring us into bondage.”

Paul probably intentionally took Titus with him, just as an example of someone. “Look, what God has done in this man’s life.” You know, Paul even writes a letter to Titus and one of the pastoral letters is written to Titus.”

Amen.

And he took Titus just as an example of what God is doing in the Gentile peoples.

Yeah. And Paul says, “Listen, we didn’t, these were false brethren. They were brought in unaware. They came in privately to spy out our liberty.” And he says, “We did not give place to them not for an hour that the truth of the gospel might continue.” We’re not giving into legalism, we’re not giving into religion, we’re not giving into false doctrine. And he says, “We’re not gonna put up with this.” And so, “When they saw,” in verse seven, “that the gospel of uncircumcision was committed to me.” so Paul, he wanted to minister the Jews, but was not really received. But when he went to the Gentiles, he had major breakthrough. And, so, you need to see where your fruit is. But he says, “As the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter, for he that worked effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision of the Jews was mighty and me towards the Gentiles.” So there was a grace on us, right? Who are we called to? And you can a lot of times, tell the grace on you by what happens when you go out and start ministering, start doing different things. You can tell what gifting you have. And he says in verse nine, “When James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go to the heathen, and they to the circumcision. Only they, that we would remember the poor, the same, which I was forward to do.” He says, but look at this in verse 11, and this is another problem of religion. “But when Peter was come, the Antioch, I withstood into the face because he was to be blamed. For because certain before, when certain people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they were come, when these Jewish leaders came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them, which were of the circumcision.” So here’s some of the problems that religion presents. Hypocrisy, right? Withdraw, separation, fear of men, and dissension. And so, Paul addressed this. He rebuked Peter face-to-face and said, “Listen, this is not the gospel. This isn’t, we’re not to play favorites, this isn’t God. You know, that one day you’re eating with the Gentiles, but then, when these Jewish leaders come, all of a sudden you won’t have fellowship. And boy, God does not play favorites.

And this is after Peter actually had revelation from God about God’s heart to minister to the Gentiles, you know? When you look at the story of Cornelius, right? Cornelius was an Italian,

[Pastor Lawson] Right.

a gentile who loved God, and God wanted to save him and wanted Peter to preach the gospel to him, to fill him with the Holy Spirit. And Peter had this revelation of all these unclean animals coming down and God saying, “You know, rise and eat.” And it really bothered him.

anything unclean.

But then, someone came and got Peter and took him to Cornelius, and there Cornelius and his whole household was saved, filled with Holy Spirit.

Right.

Prayed in tongues, you know, God.

Yeah. And so, as Peter was preaching Jesus, you know, this thing was so phenomenal when they, God gave Cornelius in a vision, told him what to do, and he sent two men. And then another one joined him. And three people, God spoke to Peter when he is up there on the roof, praying by the sea, and said, “Hey, there’s three men that seek you at the door, you go with them and doubt nothing.” So it was supernatural. So he goes over there and preaches Jesus, and as he’s preaching Jesus, the Holy Ghost fell on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. So they were saved because they believed Paul’s preaching, right? And then, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. And Peter said, how can we forbid water to these that are received the Holy Ghost, like understanding that God accepted the Gentiles.

So it’s interesting that even, this is probably just a few years later, Peter is kind of changing his tune towards the Gentile people here in Antioch. And Paul probably heard that story about what happened to Cornelius and said, “Hey, what’s going on here?” You were the person who was first there.

[Pastor Lawson] Yeah.

When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles, and now, you’re treating them like second-class citizens. There are no second-class citizens in heaven.

Amen. Amen. So he addresses this. He said, you know, Barnabas also got carried away with this dissimulation, it’s crazy in verse 14. But he goes on and says, “If God saved us by faith, then we’re not gonna go back and try to keep the law.” And he says in verse 16, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus, even as we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law, shall know flesh be justified.” Thank God we are not saved by our works. We are not saved by keeping the law. We’re not saved by how much we pray or how much we give, or how kind we are to our neighbors. You know what? We’re saved by faith in Jesus. I love something Andrew Wommack said last week, you know, when we were sharing on the “Revelation of Grace,” he said, “Who wants to be the best sinner in hell?” Man, and that is so true. And really, he goes down and makes this statement in verse 18, “If I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” And what he’s really saying is, “Listen, I destroyed law-keeping for salvation when I believed on Jesus.” So I’m not gonna go back to the law to try to be justified, now that I believed on Jesus.

Well, he even said his own law-keeping that he was very proud of for a long time. He said, “It’s like filthy rags.”

It’s nothing.

He said, “I’ve destroyed it.” That’s what I consider my personal righteousness-

Yeah.

apart from Jesus.

So he goes right on down in verse 19 and says, “I threw the law, am dead to the law, that I might live to God.” And you know, he talks about this identification with Jesus. I’m crucified with Christ, and he’s really saying, “I’m dead to the law.” You know, we need to die to sin, die to self, die to the law, and die to the world when you look at the scripture. But when he says this, “I died to the law.” What he’s saying is, “I am not trusting the law. I am not trusting my performance for righteousness.” He said, “Nevertheless, I live, but Christ lives in me in verse 20 and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” So I put my faith in Jesus and Jesus is living His life big in me. He finishes in verse 21 and says, “I do not frustrate the grace of God, because if righteousness came by the law, Christ died in vain.” And so, it is not our performance that saved us. It is not our law-keeping, it is faith in Jesus and faith in Jesus alone that saves us. And so, he addresses the problem, and the problem is adding something to Jesus. And it causes all kind of problems when you start adding all this performance to Jesus. It is destructive and so, thank God for Jesus. Thank God for what Jesus has done, and we can just completely trust Jesus.

That’s awesome.

Amen? Praise God. Aaron, share a little bit before we go off the air.

Yeah, I just think, yeah, it’s just the grace of God will free you. That’s just how you move deeper and deeper into things of God. It’s by trusting in Jesus and Him alone. And the thing about law-keeping, the thing about religion is usually, it’s not to please God, it’s to please people.

Yes.

And that’s what happened here with Peter and Barnabas. You know, what was going on at Antioch, it was all about pleasing people.

Right.

And it’s not your job to please other people.

Right.

It’s not your job to make other people happy, your job is to serve God. You know, God spoke something to me about a year ago that just really helped set me free. And He told me it’s not my job to make other people happy.

Yeah.

You know, I wanna be a good pastor. I wanna be a good husband, a good father, but it’s not my job to make other people happy.

Amen. And you know what? If Jesus don’t make you happy, nobody’s gonna make you happy.

That’s true.

And we have to live to please Jesus Christ. I trust that you’ve enjoyed the broadcast today. And if you need prayer or want product, or wanna become a partner and help us share this marvelous message of grace around the world, just give us a call today. We would love to hear from you.

[Presenter] What is grace? What is the purpose of the law? And how do you appropriate God’s grace in your life? Get answers to all these questions and more with “The Grace Package”. You’ll receive “The Abundance of Grace”, “The Revelation of Grace”, “Galatians, The Grace of Christ”, and “Entangled” CD series, all for $39. When you call 719-418-4000 or visit charischristiancenter.com.

Hi ladies, I am so excited to invite you to our “Rejoice Women’s Conference”, February 9th through the 11th. This is an event for women 13 and up. It’s time to rejoice.

Not only are you gonna have a lot of fun and laugh a lot, you are also gonna experience the power of God when you see signs, wonders, and miracles.

[Barbara Perdue] Amen. We’re gonna have a lot of fun. We have Cathy Duplantis coming, so make plans and register today.

[Presenter] Thanks for watching “Grace For Today”. This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer, or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000 or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/Give. You could write us at P.O. Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on “Grace for Today”.

More Episodes

Free Confession Cards

Free Confession Cards

As you believe and speak God’s word over your life, you will activate God’s promises! God wants you to live in His financial provision, health, and identity! Order your confession cards as our gift!

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.