As I have said previously, this is Paul’s first letter, or first epistle, that he writes in his ministry.  And the subject of this letter is to write the Galatians a defense of his apostleship, and a defense of his gospel and the doctrine of justification by faith.  Now we have looked at his autobiographical details in chapter one in which Paul defended his apostleship.  He did that by explaining his conversion on the road to Damascus, and how the Lord Jesus spoke to him directly. Then we read that immediately following his conversion, he did not immediately confer with

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The epistle to the Galatians is Paul’s first letter to the churches. And perhaps due in a large part to being his first epistle, he spends a large portion of this letter defending his apostleship, and his gospel. We get something like a summary of his biography in the first couple of chapters, at least the part of his history that has to do with coming to Christ and the beginning of his ministry. And that was necessary then because there were false teachers that had crept into the churches of Galatia that Paul had started, and they were undermining

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Well, having finished up 2 Timothy last week, we are beginning a new book, which is Galatians. I think I preached through Galatians on Wednesday evenings maybe around 10 years ago. However, I can’t find my notes on it, so this will be like starting from scratch for me. But in 2 Timothy, we had what many believe to be the last words that the apostle Paul wrote before he was martyred. In Galatians, we have what many believe to be the first epistle that Paul wrote. Galatians was probably written very early in Paul’s ministry. The chances are that

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The word of God is not just all theology, but also very practical. And by the same token, the church is not just all doctrine, but also fellowship. In Second Timothy, Paul has written extensively about doctrine, the need for sound doctrine, and warned about false teachers, wolves in sheep’s clothing that will ravage the sheep. He has urged Timothy to stir up the gift that is in him, to study the word, to preach the gospel, to stand firm and to persevere. Now his epistle is almost over. But before he closes his letter, he gives a few personal,

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Today we are looking at the last chapter that Paul ever wrote, and writing what we might call his own epitaph. An epitaph is a statement written about a person who has died, which often says something about the person’s legacy. You know, important people, such as President’s, are always concerned about their legacy, what history will say about them. I think it’s indicative of their own sense of self importance that they are so concerned about it that they build libraries in their own honor to try to mold people’s opinion. So an epitaph is written on a tombstone.

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Last week we studied a rather grim message that Paul gave Timothy regarding the last days. And as a reminder, the last days is a phrase that refers to the time period between Christ’s first appearing and His second coming. It is sometimes called the church age, which is the age Timothy was living in, and which we are living in. Obviously, we are living in the latter days of the last days, but we don’t know how much longer there is until Christ comes back. But I say it was a grim message because Paul said there would be

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As a surfer, I look forward to hurricane season with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. Hurricane season can bring epic waves to the East Coast, which are for the most part much better than the normal summer fare. But at the same time, those hurricanes are best enjoyed when they are hundreds of miles offshore. When they get close to land, or make landfall, they can be extremely dangerous. We are now in hurricane season, and the waves we have this morning are the result of Hurricane Earl which is churning away somewhere off the coast of Greenland this

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In the previous section which we looked at last week, Paul said in his admonition to Timothy that he was to be like a strong warrior, that he should be unafraid of making the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of the gospel. As a warrior for the kingdom of God, he should not shrink back from affliction, persecution or even death, because of the eternal glory that awaited him. Today in this next passage, Paul changes analogies, saying that Timothy needed to be a workman that was not ashamed. And he uses yet another analogy, he was to be a

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I have read many commentaries, and listened to very many sermons by preachers who for the most part I admire, who seem to deride Timothy as a weak man, a timid man, a fearful man.  And they say such things with such certainty and conviction, that I suppose I have been prone to almost believe them.  I say almost, because I don’t really believe them.  They say that poor Timmy was young and timid and being fearful and shy had caused him to have poor digestion and a continually upset stomach. I said in our previous study I am not

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