Podcasts about judaizer

'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)   Ethiopia is still a Christian nation, surrounded by Islamic states. The late Emperor Haile Selasse's name means, in Ethiopian, "Power of the Trinity."

Title: In All Things Charity Text: Acts 15:22-35 FCF: We often struggle using our freedom to serve one another. Prop: Because God unifies His church on truth and love, we must celebrate a liberty that is used to love and serve one another. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Acts 15. In a moment we'll read starting in verse 22 from the English Standard Version. You can follow along in the pew bible or in whatever version you prefer. I want to extend my thanks to Gary Montgomery for filling in for me while I was away. I was blessed by his sermons and I hope you were too. As we turn our attention back to the book of Acts, we are in the midst of a controversy of the highest order. It centers on 1 question with two applications. What place does the ceremonial law of Moses have in Christ's church? And in answering that question we must look both before and after salvation. I've included some review already in the main portion of the sermon today so we won't go deeper at the moment. But suffice it to say, this controversy threatened to rip the church apart. But today we will see the Divinely guided and glorious end of this controversy. And I hope it brings us much joy and encouragement. Please stand with me to give honor to and to focus on the reading of the word of God. Invocation: Father, we seek Your face today as Your true children. We are united together today because of the truth that You have revealed to us and the love with which You have loved us. We are bound together as one body because of what You have done and who You are making us to be. Now we ask that You would teach us again Your ways. Instruct us again from Your Word. That we might remain in unity and love. We ask this for the sake of the Lord Jesus, Your beloved Son, whose reward we are. Amen. Transition: Today is a long sermon. One needing your attention and my haste and clarity. Let us dive into it without further delay. I.) God actively unifies His church on truth and love, so we must use our liberty to love and serve one another. (22-29) a. [Slide 2] 22 - Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, 23 with the following letter: i. We mentioned last time that James is somewhat of the leading figure in the church of Jerusalem. He is the half-brother of Jesus the Messiah and was a devout Jew who potentially was a member of the Pharisee party represented at this council. Perhaps even the leader of the Pharisee party. ii. When he, in verse 19, stated “Therefore, I judge…” The word judge there could simply be his opinion, but given the status he has among everyone there and after hearing much discussion on these matters it is perhaps appropriate to see the judgment of James to be the official position of the council itself. iii. Which would mean that he is decreeing what the decision is or should be by summarizing all that was discussed and agreed upon. iv. But let us remind ourselves what James had judged. 1. James agreed with Peter that there should be no burden of following the ceremonial law of Moses placed on any disciple of Christ. Either before conversion or after. 2. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ. And sanctification is by grace, through faith in Christ. That doesn't mean we do nothing. But it does mean that our effort, work, and choices are not the thing that saves us, but are the result of being saved by God. In this way, it is God alone who saves and keeps His people. 3. But James suggested some concessions to be given for the sake of church fellowship between the Jew and Gentile Christians. 4. These concessions are given because the law of Moses has been taught for hundreds of years in these cities. And Jews (Christians and non-Christians alike) have been taught for hundreds of years to dutifully keep the ceremonial law. 5. Therefore, to not add unnecessary hindrances to the church and the gospel call to the Jews, the Gentiles should seek to accommodate the Jews in their daily lifestyles. What were these concessions? a. Keeping themselves unpolluted from paganism and idolatry. b. Preparing their food by draining the blood first. And even not using blood in their cooking. Especially when hosting Jewish Christians in their homes. c. And abstaining from sexual immorality. There are several explanations for this one. I concluded that this also had to do with purity laws surrounding sexual intimacy. You can always go back and listen to the last sermon for a fuller discussion on that. v. After that bit of review, I'd like to call your attention to the words in today's text… “it seemed good to”. 1. Although it may escape our notice, when Luke penned this there was an established style adopted by those in authority for passing along written decrees that would be binding on subordinates. 2. In that style, in order to be noble, instead of saying something like “We decree” or “We command” it would read… “It seems good to us”. 3. It certainly meant “we decree.” There was no room for debate or dispute. The subordinate was obligated to follow what was written after it… but it was a nice way of saying it. 4. In that sense then, Luke is not recording a hum drum decision where everyone left feeling good about what was decided. Instead, Luke is recording for us an official churchwide decision. vi. But what do they come together to decide? 1. Notice that the apostles, Elders, and the church do not decide together to adopt James' opinion as the decision of the council. 2. In fact, what “seemed good to them”, meaning the apostles, elders, and the church, is only associated with what James said in the sense that what he said needed to be communicated to others. 3. They did not decide on what should be done, but how it should be presented. vii. Why are they concerned with how it should be presented? 1. Well, if the council sent word by Paul and Barnabas that all that they had been saying was right, Paul and Barnabas could be accused of selectively reporting the facts. 2. This is an intensely difficult matter with several moving pieces that the apostles and elders of the church of Jerusalem along with several representatives from Antioch and Cilicia had discussed at length. 3. It must be reported accurately, thoroughly, clearly and concisely. viii. So how do the apostles, the elders, and the church insure this happens? 1. First, they will send a letter that is a clear, concise and offers an official decree on the matter affective for the whole church worldwide. 2. But to be thorough, they will send two men along with Paul and Barnabas to report on what transpired at the council. So who are these men and why are they sending them in particular? a. Judas Barsabbas, which means Judas son of the Sabbath and Silas. b. Now we know nothing of Judas Barsabbas except for his name and we know a great deal about Silas since he will be a companion of Paul's for a good portion of the rest of this book. c. But here is what I think they are doing in appointing these two men. i. We know from this verse that each man was a leading man among the brothers. ii. We know from later in this text that each of these men were prophets. iii. Judas Barsabbas is most certainly a Jewish name and perhaps a nickname marking out his devotion to the Sabbath. iv. Silas, as we will learn, is a Roman citizen, suggesting he is a Hellenized Jew. He also has a Latin name mentioned in scripture, Silvanus. v. I think the apostles, the elders, and the church chose 1 representative from the Pharisee Party and 1 Hellenized Jew to go and represent to the Gentiles of Antioch of Syria and Cilicia, all that had transpired and the unity that had been achieved. vi. To report to them that one party did not defeat the other. Instead, they came to a unified conclusion. ix. And what was that conclusion? They summarize it in a letter. b. [Slide 3] 23b - “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. i. This follows the style of official decrees of this time. ii. The first step is to introduce the governing or authoritative party from which the decree is being handed down. iii. The brothers, both the apostles and elders, are this governing body. It is interesting to note that the “whole church” is not included in this letter. Only the apostles and the Elders have the authority to issue a decree like the one that follows. iv. Notice also that right away the apostles and elders affirm that the Gentile Christians in these cities are brothers. v. Immediately some comfort and peace would fall on the Gentile Christians knowing that they are considered brothers, even though they have not been circumcised and even though they are not keeping the ceremonial law of Moses. c. [Slide 4] 24 - Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, i. Another typical element in a decree style letter is to include the word here translated “since.” 1. This Greek word means inasmuch or forasmuch – it is the reason for the decree. It is to review the prehistory of the decree in order to justify the need for submission to the decree. 2. Here the apostles and elders use this to explain the reason the council had met and for the decision they have reached. ii. The apostles and Elders admit that the reason for the council was because of some who were of their number. 1. The Judaizers were part of the elders of Jerusalem and probably a subdivision of the Pharisee party. 2. Therefore, they were involved in the leadership of the church. 3. No doubt this is why the Judaizer's false gospel was so readily received by the churches in southern Galatia and even in Antioch of Syria and Cilicia. iii. But the apostles and elders assure their Gentile brothers, that these men were not instructed to teach what they did. Instead, they “have gone out from us”. 1. While this phrase could simply mean that they left Jerusalem to spread their false teaching… 2. I see a correlation here with what John says in I John about a similar group who were preaching another gospel. He said there, “they have gone out from us because they were not of us.” 3. Here I see the admission of the apostles and elders that these Judaizers were apostates who have shipwrecked their faith. iv. But they did not stop at their own faith. In fact, they attempted to shipwreck these poor gentile believers too. 1. The language here is that of war. It is to pillage and it is to rip open and dump out. 2. The apostles and elders recognize that the Judaizers' empty words of a graceless gospel has ravaged them and threw them for a loop. v. So, what have they decided in light of this? d. [Slide 5] 25 - It has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. i. Here is the first decision of this council given in this letter. We know it is an official decree of the council because of the words… “it has seemed good to us” ii. Skipping the words between the commas for now, we see that the decision was to send Judas and Silas with Paul and Barnabas to them. iii. Men who were tasked not only to give them this letter, but to report to them what they have seen and heard. iv. Paul and Barnabas are said to be both “beloved” and also those who have risked or suffered much for the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. v. Although subtle this also hints at the decision of the council. The apostles and elders of Jerusalem did not see Paul and Barnabas as their opponents. Instead, they are beloved and faithful witnesses of Christ even to their own great personal risk. vi. Coming back to the words between the commas, how are we to interpret this? vii. Were the apostles and Elders of one accord to send these men or were they of one accord in something else? viii. It seems best to understand this phrase as referring to the decision listed in verse 28-29. They came to one accord on the matter that necessitated the council. Having done this they also decided to send these four men to report all that had transpired and to deliver the letter. ix. Afterall, there is no reason to send these men if they did not come to an agreement. x. In essence what this is saying is “Since we came to a unified decision, we also decided to send it to you by word of mouth and by letter in the hands of four trustworthy men.” xi. But what was this unified decision? e. [Slide 6] 28 - 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” i. Here is the second decree or decision that the apostles and elders had come to as indicated by the words “it seemed good to.” ii. However, this one is a little different. This one has a little more authority, doesn't it? iii. The Apostles and Elders understood that their agreement was from the Lord. If you wonder why they might come to such a conclusion, consider Matthew 18 and how when two or three are gathered and agree on a decision as weighty as church discipline, Jesus says “what you bind on earth has been bound in heaven.” Meaning that God uses unanimity or being of one mind to verify to us His will. iv. But what was His will? 1. That no greater burden will be laid on the Gentiles except for these requirements. a. What is meant by this word “requirements”? b. We must tread the line carefully here to get the correct force of these concessions. i. They are not optional. They are not suggestions. They are commands. 1. Because they are from the Holy Spirit 2. Because they are called requirements or necessary things 3. And because this is an official decree document from the apostles and elders 4. We cannot conclude that these are mere suggestions for harmonious living for the Gentiles of that day. 5. Instead, these are commands that must be obeyed. ii. On the opposite side though, we also cannot say that these are enduring commands for all time in every place for all Christians world without end. Why? 1. These requirements were forged in the fire of this controversy where the church was made up of Gentiles and Jews and bringing those cultures together in Christ posed many cross-culture challenges. 2. So, if the controversy or cultural challenges disappear … what should then happen to the requirements? They should disappear too. 3. And this is exactly what we see in the New Testament. 4. As the church is less mixed and more Gentile, all these requirements begin to loosen until Paul writes in one of his last letters in I Timothy 4 that all food is good for eating so long as it is received in thanksgiving. 5. Since these concessions are hyper-contextual, meaning our situation no longer requires them… does that mean we should cut this section out of our bible? 6. Of course not… Because the principle for these rules endures. 7. It is harmony, unity, and loving one another so much that we are willing to give up comforts and habits in our lives to be at peace with one another. 2. Although this decision does put these 4 requirements on the Gentile Christians, it also removes the weight of the whole ceremonial law in the process. a. They have been saved by grace, through faith, in Christ alone. And that is enough. b. They need not do anything more to be saved and they need not keep the ceremonial law to be a part of the church. Even the requirements are not to be part of the church. They are to make sure they don't hurt or harm others in the church. v. Notice finally that the letter ends with the exhortation that if they keep themselves from these things, they will do well. They will prosper. The church will be unified. vi. Overall, as far as “decree” letters go… this is extremely humble and extremely freeing. There are some things the Gentile Christians need to submit to - but for the most part… this would read like the emancipation proclamation. f. [Slide 7] Summary of the Point: Luke shows The Holy Spirit Himself, among these men, bringing them into one accord. And we can rest assured that this is not an odd occurrence. Instead, we can know that God actively unifies His church on truth and love. What is the response to such a faithful God? How should we, His church, respond to a God who is actively unifying us around truth and love? We need look no further than to what the apostles and elders were commanding the Gentiles to do. They determined to lay no greater burden on them… liberty. But only these few requirements… charity. I am appropriately reminded of what the apostle Paul said in his letter that immediately preceded this council - “You were called to freedom brothers; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13) This is essentially what the apostles and elders told the Gentiles of Antioch of Syria and Cilicia. And it is the application for us. You are free. Use your freedom to love and serve each other. Even if that means giving up liberties to maintain peace and unity. Transition: [Slide 8 (blank)] So, having heard the decision of the council and the two decrees given and having read the letter to these churches, the only question we have is, how will such a decision be received? Will they complain and bemoan the 4 restrictions on their freedoms? Or will they use liberty to love and serve each other? Let's look. II.) God actively unifies His church on truth and love, we must rejoice in our liberty and mutual love. (30-35) a. [Slide 9] 30 - So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. i. We see Judas, Silas, Paul and Barnabas obeying the decision of the apostles, elders, and the church as a whole, to send them to these churches with this letter and to report in word what has been done. ii. They gather the congregation together and read the letter. Probably reading it publicly to all and providing enough copies for it to be read privately. b. [Slide 10] 31 - And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. i. And there you have it. ii. A few accommodations, a few restrictions, a few concessions could not overturn the great desire of the Gentile Christians to be united as one church. They gladly bore a few simple accommodations while being free of circumcision and keeping the whole ceremonial law. iii. They rejoiced that grace was enough. iv. That faith was enough. v. That Christ was enough. vi. They rejoiced that they did not need to add works to be saved or to keep their status of saved. vii. They rejoiced that they did not need to be Jews to be part of the church. viii. They rejoiced that they could be united in one body with a few simple accommodations to promote unity with their Jewish brothers and sisters. c. [Slide 11] 32 - And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. i. No doubt these many words were made up of a first-hand account of the council's proceedings. ii. But perhaps it did not end there. iii. Since they were prophets, perhaps the Word of the Lord flowed freely from them as they preached. iv. One preacher who was a Jew, perhaps even of the Pharisee Party, with a high regard for the the ceremonial law and the other a Hellenized Jew and Roman citizen – both of them preaching to the church a great message of the Lord. v. There can be no more fitting end to this remarkable story of unity in the church. d. [Slide 12] 33 - And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. i. Not only did they speak at length but they stayed at length too. ii. Both Judas and Silas spend a good deal of time there in Antioch, associating and celebrating with the united church. iii. This controversy had no doubt been brewing for a better part of a decade. iv. To see it finally and certainly dealt with would have been a great and wonderful time. v. Of course we know that the Judaizers continued their opposition. But now the church knew them for what they were… wolves in sheep's clothing, but finally unmasked. vi. And the church was able to cast them out without also throwing out the Jews who loved the ceremonial law of God. vii. After this Judas and Silas went back to Jerusalem. e. [Slide 13] 34 - [But it seemed good to Silas to remain there.] i. If you haven't noticed yet, Verse 34 does not appear in the ESV. No they did not skip it on accident. ii. [Slide 14] Other translations have verse 34 reading something to the effect of, “But it seemed good to Silas to remain there.” iii. Why has the ESV omitted verse 34? Well, the real question is actually why do we have verse 34 in any version at all? iv. Verse 34 appears in a few late date manuscripts but as you look at manuscripts closer in date to the original text of Luke, this little sentence disappears. v. Perhaps a scribe or commentator felt uneasy about Silas leaving and then in verse 40 being called to go with Paul departing from Antioch. vi. To undo this – the scribe added a note, perhaps even a true statement, that Silas remained. vii. [Slide 15] Nevertheless, this verse is probably not original to Luke. viii. Did Silas stay or not? We don't know. It seems from verse 33 that he did depart and go back to Jerusalem. ix. But this is no contradiction with what happens later. We have no idea how much time elapses from this event and what happens later in this chapter. f. [Slide 16] 35 - But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. i. Paul and Barnabas are actively preaching and teaching the word of God to the church in Antioch, as they prepare for their next missionary journey – which is where we will go next week. ii. But for now – before we get to the unfortunate events that conclude chapter 15, let us rest here. g. [Slide 17] Summary of the Point: Again, we see the Lord bringing unity to His church through truth and love. In our last point we saw our need to use our liberty to promote unity and love among the body of Christ. But here we see a second application borne from God's active role in unifying His church in truth and love. And that is joy. It is celebration. We ought to be lifted up in praise and thanksgiving that the church is unified. We ought not only to strive for it but revel in it when it is achieved. The Gentiles knew from now on that they had a place in the church without having to become Jews first. And they also knew that they must be sensitive to their Jewish brothers and their purity laws. But for the sake of truth and love – this is a burden gladly borne and joyously received. When is the last time you rejoiced over a compromise where no one got everything they wanted but everyone remained united? We must be this kind of people. Those who celebrate unity around truth and love. Conclusion: So CBC, what have we learned today and how then shall we live? Doctrinal Takeaway: [Slide 18] The overarching principle that permeates this section is the role God plays in unifying His church through truth and love. In the Essentials to faith and practice we see God unify them and even dividing them from those who are not the same. In the Non-Essentials like the ceremonial law we see Peter and James without forcing the Jews to stop observing the ceremonial law, simultaneously not impose it upon any disciple. And in all of this we see the heart of charity extended to all seeking to not lay unnecessary burdens on either Jewish or Gentile Christians. It is not unity at all costs… but it is unity without selfishness. It is unity around truth and also around selfless unconditional love. To love one another as Christ has loved us and has given Himself for us. And what a comfort to know that God actively works to do all of this. What is the response of His church? Quite simply we must use our freedoms to love and serve one another and rejoice heartily when unity is achieved or preserved. Even if that means we don't get our way. But let me apply this in some more tangible ways today. 1.) [Slide 19] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must believe that God is actively unifying His church around truth and love. a. It is estimated that as of February 2024 there are more than 47,000 Christian denominations globally. b. With a number like that it is difficult to see how God is unifying His church. c. But as with many things we have to define what we mean by unifying in order to truly understand what God is doing. d. We can look at a number like that and be quite forlorn thinking that the church is divided and shattered. e. But let me issue some counter points. f. Unity cannot mean that we all see everything exactly the same way. That isn't what was happening here in Acts 15. The Pharisee Party stated very clearly that they thought the Gentile Christians ought to live out the ceremonial laws of Moses. But Paul and others said that they were not bound. g. So who won? Well, both of them. How? Because unity does not depend on everyone seeing everything exactly the same. h. Unity doesn't even mean that we live the same. The Jerusalem church continued to look very Jewish and continued to adhere to the ceremonial laws of Moses. We know that because later in Acts we see them doing just that. i. But the church in Antioch of Syria and Cilicia looked quite different. Even some Jews were casting off the ceremonial laws. j. Yet they were still united. k. We can see that 47,000 number and be deceived that the church is quite divided. But in reality, of that 47,000 there are really only two denominations. i. The true church of God and everyone else. ii. The true church of God is not united by ecclesiological organizations but by truth and by love. l. Now certainly of that 47,000 there are those who should not be included because they reject the ancient creeds of the church or they do not hold to the 5 solas of the reformation. Although our world calls them Christian denominations – they are not truly so. m. But of the 47,000 that are actually denominations that adhere to the ancient creeds and confess the core tenants of the gospel we have much more in common with one another than we have not in common. n. I just finished reading George Whitefield's biography. Whitefield although Anglican, began the Methodist movement, loved the Wesleys even though he disagreed with them on some doctrinal aspects of soteriology, preached in Baptist churches even though he didn't believe in credo-baptism, preached in Presbyterian churches even though He rejected their church government style, spoke highly of a couple other denominations that if I mentioned you wouldn't know them… o. What is my point? p. My point is that that 47,000 number is quite deceptive. q. It seems that Christ's church is fractured. But when you take a microscope to it, this is not so. r. God is uniting His church in truth and love. And just because our denomination's name is different and we have some different beliefs, doesn't mean we are divided. We are more the same than we are different because the gospel by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone… is intact. 2.) [Slide 20] Refutation: “What lies must we cast down” or “What do we naturally believe, or have been taught to believe, that this passage shows is false?” We must deny that unified decisions of godly leaders have little to no bearing on what we should do. a. There is a tendency in Christendom to assign either too much or too little weight to the decisions of men. b. Too much weight and you elevate men's traditions and decisions to the point that they are on the same level as the scriptures. i. This is a doctrine that plagues the Roman Catholic Church. ii. No my friends, when the council of Trent said that anyone who believes that justification is by faith alone is anathema… it does not make it so… lest they cast Paul himself from heaven for saying so in Romans. c. But we may yet pendulum swing the other way too where we place too little weight on godly men's decisions that they are considered little more than mild suggestions. i. Such is true in many American churches where even if every single church leader voted to give benevolent funds to a needy family or send a missionary to Africa, the congregation with the same number plus one could reject such a call. d. We must strike the balance between these. e. When God qualifies and calls a group of men to be the spiritual leaders of a church and the church membership willfully enters covenant with those men to pray for, honor, and submit to their godly leadership… and that body of godly leaders are united to do something… the church must take such a decision as much more than a suggestion. f. It ought to weigh heavy on the hearts of the church. g. I'm not talking about unqualified submission. I'm not talking about never voicing concerns. For Elders cannot Lord their authority over the church. h. But think of the Gentiles in Antioch of Syria. i. Do you think that those concessions that the church commanded them to make were received without reservation by all of them? Don't you think there were probably a few gentiles there who were like… awe man! I want my blood pudding! j. But listen… when all your elders say we are of one mind on this matter… that ought to weigh heavy on you. k. I have the luxury of saying this now because as it stands there is no major decision coming down the pike from the Elders that is going to be difficult for you all to stomach.

The Importance of Baptism  (audio) David Eells (8/11/24)  There is a great disconnect in the church today concerning baptism and it is so important! If a person just looked at the Scriptures and read all the verses, you'd know this. When I first became born-again the first thing that the Lord began to impress us to look at was baptism. So we looked up every verse concerning baptism and printed them out. With them all written out on pages before us, we just knew, “Yep, we have to do it. There is no choice. We have to do this.” So we looked for a church to do it.  Well, a lot of Christians today don't read their Bible, so they just wouldn't know unless the preacher emphasized what the scripture emphasizes. We noticed in the Bible, that as soon as someone believed, the next emphasis was to be filled with the Spirit. Once in a while, being filled with the Spirit got ahead of the baptism, but baptism was right there always when someone first believed. And there's a reason for that. It's because it's important. Some churches do not even mention it, as though it's not important.   So, I thought we'd look at a few scriptures and study what the importance of baptism is. Remember, it's not just what they say about baptism, it's the emphasis they put on it and that should be our emphasis too. I mean, if it's that important to Jesus and the apostles, we don't care that others don't think it's important. It should be just as important to us as it was to Jesus and the apostles.  I'd like to start in Acts 22. Well, you remember how Paul was converted and then got himself in trouble with the religious folks and he was recounting to them about his conversion in Act 22:12-14 And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well reported of by all the Jews that dwelt there, 13 came unto me, and standing by me said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And in that very hour I looked upon him. 14 And he said, The God of our fathers hath appointed thee to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth.  As important as Paul was to the Lord and to God's plan, he still needed to be baptized. 15 For thou shalt be a witness for him unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. 16 And now why tarriest thou? (I.e., What are you waiting for?) arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on his name. (Amen. Do you hear that? He is saying, What are you waiting for? Get baptized and wash away your sins. That sounds very important, doesn't it?)  So baptism has a key work in doing this. People argue about what is that work. But I think we can cover that a little bit today. So yes, baptism is important in washing away thy sins. It is an act of faith that God recognizes and it's our obedience to our Lord. You know, faith without works is dead. Some people say they have faith, but they don't have works. So, obedience is important in the Kingdom.   Well, it says in 1Pe 3:19-21 in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, (Speaking of Jesus.) 20 that aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water: 21 which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, (That sounds very important, doesn't it?) not the putting away of the filth of the flesh (In other words, it's not the water washing your skin, that makes you clean), but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ; It is through the resurrection gift of Jesus Christ given to us and it is given to us through baptism, as we'll see in Romans chapter 6. When we come up out of the water, we claim His resurrection life.   So you see, baptism is very important. You know, tell your children; tell your lost loved ones, “Yeah, believing in Jesus is important, and so is baptism.” It's a command from God and any command from God is important. Sad to say, but some people don't read their Bible to find out these things and the poor preachers don't know enough either.  Another great example is in Act 16:25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns unto God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison-house were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened: and every one's bands were loosed. 27 And the jailor, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 29 And he called for lights and sprang in, and, trembling for fear, fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?   31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house. 32 And they spake the word of the Lord unto him, with all that were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night, (And that's just how important it was. Most people today would make excuses; they would say, “Well, wait till the preacher preaches on baptism. Next month I think we're going to have a baptism…”, and so on. Well, they thought it was so important that in the middle of the night, they were going to go and baptize this person because you have to start your Christian walk with baptism as an act of faith. It's an act of faith that gives you the good confession that you make before Satan and before the world that now you don't live, Christ lives in you.) and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, immediately. This shows how important baptism is. I've done the same thing in the middle of the night. When people believed, we started looking for a pool in the middle of the night. And it's just that important to God. Our emphasis needs to be God's emphasis in this regard. Jesus said in Mar.16:16  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned. Now it says in 1Co 10:1 For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; Look at that, “all of them” It must have been important to do that right? God wants to show us through this type and shadow that it's also important to us. So what can we say? We're warned not to add to or take away from the words of the Book, or He'll take away our part in the tree of life. We're warned to obey, just as they did.  So it's important because it says in 1Co 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. (We are a many membered body of Christ.) 13 For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, (Baptized into the body! My goodness, that makes baptism very, very important. We're talking about one body, and we're supposed to be a member of it. Some people say this is “spirit baptism”. Folks, the overwhelming majority of Christianity out there have never been spirit baptized, so none of them would be in the body. No, this is talking about being baptized into Christ, which is what the baptism verses say. It never says that about spirit baptism.   Now we all need spirit baptism too, because as we just read, Moses and the children of Israel were baptized in the cloud and in the sea. And that represents our spirit baptism and water baptism. We're just saying what the Bible says. Now some people say, “Oh, David, you're preaching baptismal regeneration.” I don't care what you call it, I'm just saying what the Bible says. It doesn't matter what you call it. Regeneration is not something you do when you step over a line somewhere. Regeneration is something that's carried out in your life as you repent and believe.)  It goes on to say, 13 For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit. Wow, sounds kind of important, doesn't it! Many people are missing God on this regard here. There's a lot of people I've run into that have been Christians for a long time and yet they haven't been baptized. And God's even brought it to their attention, but they just hardened their conscience against it because nobody else around them thought to be baptized. We're not following the people around us, folks. We're following the living Word of God. We dare not follow men. They have been so foolish over the years and they've forgotten baptism and you can see how very important it is! We need to tremble before the Lord.   It sounds pretty important in Mark 16:15-16, the Great Commission. Well, if He sent them out to do this, we have to go do the same thing. If we talked to somebody about salvation, baptism is supposed to be a part of it, every time; immediately as we just read. If a person gets saved and they don't want to get baptized, well, we'll find out what the Bible has to say about that.   Here's the good word in Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned. Notice, He said two things here. “He that believeth and is baptized”, So it's not just believing, it's actions that go with that believing. Baptism is the New Testament sign of the Covenant. The sealing of the Covenant. Just as circumcision was the sealing of the Covenant in the Old Testament, according to the apostle Paul. And so, He said, preach the Good News to them. And then those that believe it and are baptized shall be saved.  Well, now I'm just going to say a few words about this before we go on. I know a lot of you out there may have been sprinkled and they call it baptism. But really, not anywhere in the scriptures is there sprinkling when dealing with baptism. There is a word, rhantizō, which means sprinkling, like sprinkling of the blood. However, the word baptism is the only one that's used for baptism, and we're told in Vines, it says it's a process of immersion, which means submersion and emergence. And submersion is going under and emergence is coming up. And it comes from the word baptō, which means to dip or plunge beneath, which is exactly true. Strong's, for instance, says that to make overwhelmed. In other words, he says, fully wet. And it's from the word baptō which means to cover completely with fluid, Strong's says.   So, it's a pretty strong emphasis on being plunged beneath, the waters. There is no such thing as “sprinkling” in baptism. And there's no such thing as sprinkling babies in the scriptures, because the Bible says, repent and believe and repent and be baptized. We'll look at that in just a minute. So babies don't repent and they haven't done much that they're held guilty for. Basically, if you've only been sprinkled, you need to get baptized. Who can baptize you? Well, our examples in scripture are men who baptize. Can women baptize? The scripture doesn't say.  It has to be done. I would say in most cases people say, “Well, go find a preacher.” Well, that's a possibility to go to a church to get somebody to baptize you, but most preachers don't believe it is necessary and may put you off until they have more people who want to be baptized. Baptism is very important concerning your faith. It's an act of faith.   People think it's just joining a church. Well, it's joining the Church. It's being baptized into the body of Christ. But it's not talking about joining a local assembly. And it's not just a thing of naught, you know, it actually has an effect upon you. I've seen people that couldn't overcome certain sins until they got baptized because they just weren't obeying; they weren't washing away their sins. I mean, it's an act of faith for you, that you believe your sins are washed away when you get baptized, and we will study this.  No, there's no such thing as infant baptism or sprinkling. Because obviously sprinkling is dead wrong and even the dead church used to teach that. And if I remember correctly, it was Constantine who ordained sprinkling as baptism because on his death bed he just wanted to be baptized. He thought if he was baptized just before he died he would be okay, which was totally false. So, he got sprinkled over and over until he died. Silly stuff that people want; they want some kind of magic to make sure they can get into the Kingdom of heaven. But without repentance and faith you just get wet when you get baptized. Notice this progression: Act 2:38  And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Just obey the scriptures and you will be safe. Trust in men and you will not. Now let's look at Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name (Now listen to this. You're not baptizing someone in a name, you're baptizing them into the name. You know, when you get married, you wives out there, you took on the name, right? And thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. When you take His name, you need have faith to live up to it.  God's given principles whereby you can do that if you believe the gospel. Baptizing them literally, it says into the name, so it's not talking about using a name over someone. It's talking about baptizing you into the name of someone. Who is that? Well, this is the only place in the Bible that uses this term, so you need to understand it in regards to the other places in the Bible where it says being baptized into the name of Jesus. Because some people think these are formulas. And then they pick and choose which formula they think is the right one. But that's phony, and it's wrong. There is no scripture that contends with other scriptures. It all fits together. So therefore we need to understand how “this and that” go together.   Well, it says you baptize them into the name, that is, …baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Notice that if you understand your English here, there's only one name here. It's baptizing them into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and notice also that Father is not “a name” and Son is not “a name” either, and neither is Holy Spirit “a name”. Those aren't names. He's telling you to baptize them into the Name. So what is this name?  Let me read the next verse first in Mat. 28:20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Notice that we not only baptize, we tell them to obey everything Scripture says. But when they baptize into the name, what is the name? Some people nowadays are very confused about what the name is. I just want to point out to you one thing that's very important to you Judaizer out there. That is, you folks who want to go back and be Jews. Now the Lord was so fed up with the Jews that He wrote the New Testament in Greek, and we have absolute proof of that. The Old Testament Hebrew has a numeric pattern that won't let you add a letter or take a letter in the original Hebrew without ruining the Hebrew pattern in the text. And we've written about that, if you'd like to go and read it. This book is available on our website, The Numeric English New Testament. Here's a link: NGNT  And here's why God put His signature in all of the scriptures. So in the Old Testament He used the Hebrew and in the New Testament, He used the Greek. That's a fact, because the New Testament Hebrew texts that are out there don't have a numeric pattern in them. And I'm talking about not just the pattern here and there, like you can find in War and Peace, which have little bits and pieces of things that accidentally come up to have a little bit of a numeric pattern with just a few letters. I'm talking about every letter of every word being a part of a numeric pattern and that's in both the Old Testament Hebrew and the New Testament Greek. So when you talk about “name” in the New Testament, you're talking about the word, onoma and it means character, authority, and nature. In the Old Testament, it's the word Shem, it was the chosen lineage back after Noah, because he took the name. He was the name. So in the New Testament, when you're baptized into the Name, you're baptized into the nature, character and authority of Jesus. We'll see that even more as we go on. So, it's into the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit which is spoken here. These three agree it's only one name, Jesus.  Act 4:12  And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.    Also, I want to point this out to you that are caught up in the Judaizer thing. I'm going to read Jer 3:17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations (Gentiles) shall be gathered unto it, to the name of Jehovah, (Notice that the name of the Lord is synonymous here with gathering unto Jerusalem, and the apostle Paul said that “you have come unto the Heavenly City, the New Jerusalem”, meaning those Christians then who were baptized and filled with the spirit, and believe what the Word of God said. This is talking about Gentiles coming to it. Now, so this is not the Old Testament Jerusalem, but the New Testament, born-again Heavenly Jerusalem that he said we had come to. And all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord. Now we know the name of the Lord in the New Testament. That is my own new name.) We'll talk more about that in just a minute.   So going on here, … shall be gathered unto it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. (Now, so this is a born-again experience because they were certainly stubborn!) Jer 3:18 In those days the house of Judah (You know, by the way, folks, I got to tell you that just as there were 12 tribes back then, there's 12 today. Many have received that revelation from the Word. And there is a Judah; Judah was first. Judah means praise, and Judah represents the spirit-filled people.) … the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance unto your fathers.   19 But I said, How I will put thee among the children (This is the true children of God here), and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of the nations! and I said, Ye shall call me My Father, and shall not turn away from following me. Now, these Gentiles that came to the Jerusalem, he said, “you shall call me my Father.” And Jesus taught in the New Testament for us to call Him, My Father! All you need do is get out your concordance and look up the word. It'll be two pages. Father. Father. Father. Father.  This is the relationship the Lord wants us to have with Him in the New Testament. Not an Old Testament name that is not in the New Testament or covenant. The only thing you can see Jesus calling Him is, Father. Amen. He said it again in Jer 3:4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth? So forget all these Jewish names. You're not Jews, at least most of you aren't. And even if you were, you've got a New Covenant and the anointing is in the Greek. The New Testament Greek has the numeric pattern, which is God's signature. So, the name of the Lord; what is the name of the Lord? Jesus. Why does He say of the Father? Because it's the same nature, character and authority in the whole family; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is the same name. You understand? We're not talking about a title, here. We're talking about the nature, character and authority that's passed on from generation to generation. Now in the natural you inherited a name from your parents and in the spiritual you inherited a name from your spiritual parent, so we have to pay attention to that. We inherited the blood of Jesus. He is called “Everlasting Father” in Isa 9:6. Neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit have blood. So if you want to see this, for instance, you look in Gen 3:22 And Jehovah, or Yahweh, as some people say, or other names they put in here. But the truth is, that was what was in the Tetragrammaton, which is YH, or VH if you hold to the Jewish, or WH if you hold to the English translation YHWH, and YHVH. Now how can you baptize somebody in the name of YHWH when you can't even pronounce it? Because that's not what it's telling you to do. It's telling you the name, the nature, character and authority. And Jehovah God, Yahweh Elohim, it is translated in this Bible. Yahweh or YHWH, Elohim; and did you know Elohim is plural, never singular?   And so He says, Behold, the man is become as one of us (So we're talking about why YHWH is plural here. Who is he talking about? “…has become as one of us.” The Lord and the Angels know, in fact all through Genesis, He uses this terminology. I'll just point this out to you. So YHWH or YHVH, if you prefer, that's plural. Yes, it is in Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, (Oh my goodness. Now you know He's talking about God, right?) after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish… so on and so forth. And we see in Genesis, by the way, we see that Jehovah God translated from YHWH, Elohim is used quite often. For instance, Gen 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Jehovah God (YHWH Elohim, so He's plural, the family name.) made earth and heaven.   And here's another example. Gen 2:7 And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground,… So there's the name. However, not in the New Testament, because now it was written in the New Testament as Greek, you understand? For instance, in the Greek it's something like, Iésous, and Spanish it's Jesús “hay-SOOS”. Some Jews use Yeshua, but that doesn't come from the Greek, it comes from the Hebrew. There's no numeric pattern in the Hebrew NT. It's in the Greek. Some people say, “Oh, you can't use ‘Jesus'.” Well, why not? I've been using the name of Jesus to cast out demons and see miracles for over 50 years now. And you know what? He works. He doesn't care if I use the name Jesus. So they're just trying to drag you back under the Law and into the Old Covenant, which the Bible says passed away in Christ. Now, not one jot or tittle will pass away until all is fulfilled, because the Law is the letter that has to be made spirit, and that's the fulfillment. The New Testament is a fulfillment of the Old Testament. But God didn't make the Old Testament with you, He only made it with the Jews. Psa 147:19-20  He showeth his word unto Jacob, His statutes and his ordinances unto Israel.  20  He hath not dealt so with any nation; And as for his ordinances, they have not known them. Praise ye Jehovah. So the Lord turned away from their covenant and language. All but a remnant rebelled up unto the end. We know they even crucified the Christ, and they crucified the prophets and the apostles. So does that mean they can't be saved? Nope, we're supposed to be believing for a remnant of them to come into the New Covenant and of course, the Lord will do that. Oh, praise be to God!  So we understand that the Lord accepts these names in the New Testament, the transliteration of Iésous is Jesus into English, and He certainly answers to that. And if you go to Spanish and use Jesús, He will answer to that, and if any other translation He will answer that. Because it's not the word that you're speaking over someone. Notice you're not baptizing them in a bucket of Jesus. You are baptizing them into the Name and the Name is His nature, character and authority. Praise God!  So we see that we are also to do all in the name as it says in Col 3:17 And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. It's not that you have to “say” the name to do it in the name. You do it in the nature, character and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the scripture says. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is a name. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not a name. They have a name, they have a nature, character and authority, and it's always the same. But it's not that you speak, “the Father, Son, Holy Spirit” over someone and there's something magical about that or a particular formula of doing it. It's that they're baptized into the Name.  Now Jesus is a name and everywhere else in the Bible it uses the name Jesus because you're baptized into His death, burial, and resurrection. That's what baptism is. So if you want to say the name of Jesus, that's fine. It's still not a formula to say over someone. I hope you understand that because we are ambassadors for Christ, as it says in 2 Co 5:20. It means we are sent forth to do and to speak with authority in His name. Do you have to “say” His name every time you do anything? No, but you have to be in His name. The scripture says you “do all in the name.” In the name means, in the nature, character and authority. That's what it means. It doesn't mean, “say” the name. Now, can you say the name of Jesus? Yes, I do it all the time because I want everybody to know who Jesus is. And it's His authority, it's His power! Praise be to God. But I'm an ambassador on behalf of Christ to this world from His Kingdom and I'm coming to the Kingdom of this world. And so everything that I do in His name has authority you see. I hope you understand that.   And I'll point out something else to you in Acts chapter 2. We see here that Peter is preaching the Gospel to these Jews, and they were convicted of their sin, so we read Act 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? 38 And Peter said unto them, (This is a very important answer here. Thousands were converted here you see) Repent ye, and be baptized (Babies can't do that. Now just understand babies don't need to be baptized. Those that need to repent need to be baptized.) …Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you (Did he say, “some of you”, or “if you want to?” No. Did he say, “you need to and another doesn't?” No, every one of you.) in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.   Maybe that's why some people don't get the Holy Spirit, because they're not even being obedient unto baptism. Well, that's clear. Notice, he said “every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.” And can you say the name of Jesus Christ? Definitely you can, you know, because it is a name; Father, Son and Holy Spirit is not a name. There's just one name there, you understand one nature, one character and one authority. And we're baptized into Jesus Christ. So if you're going to say the name, you need to say the proper name here. It is the name. It's Jesus. It means “Jehovah is salvation,” or “YHWH is salvation.”  So who was in Jesus? The Father! The Father was in Jesus. In fact, let me just read to you, Joh 5:43 I am come in my Father's name, (Oh, praise the Lord! So, what did that mean? Was the Father's name, Jesus? That's kind of the oneness doctrine. Generally it's the oneness doctrine or Trinity doctrine and neither one of them are quite right. Because if you just read the scriptures, you don't have to make up formulas that don't quite fit anything, and neither one of them do, actually.) But notice, He said, I am come in my Father's name and you received me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. Now, what did He mean by this? He came in His Father's, nature, character and authority. Another person can come in their own nature, character and authority, and they will listen to them, but they won't listen to somebody who is an ambassador of Christ. That's what He was saying. 44 How can ye believe, who receive glory one of another, and the glory that cometh from the only God ye seek not?   Let's look at Act 4:7 And when they had set them in the midst, (The Jewish were calling the apostles on the carpet. The Sanhedrin really didn't have any authority from God. They had failed and gone their own way.) they inquired, By what power, or in what name, (Not by what name, it's in what name. We have to do all in the name, in the nature, character, and authority of Jesus. You can say things using the name or “by the name” and nothing will happen. Have you ever noticed? But if you do something in the name, well then the authority of heaven is behind you because you're an ambassador for the Kingdom.) By what power, or in what name, have ye done this? 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders, (We have the same problem today.) 9 if we this day are examined concerning a good deed done to an impotent man, by what means this man is made whole; 10 be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ (In the name, not by the name) in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even in him doth this man stand here before you whole.   11 He is the stone which was set at nought of you the builders, (And this is still happening today.) which was made the head of the corner. 12 And in none other is there salvation: (Can you “say” the name of Jesus and still not have salvation? Of course, and a lot of other things you won't have if the only thing you're doing is “saying in the name of Jesus,” you'll be without a lot. But you can't do anything in the name and not see results. You're in the nature character and authority of Jesus Christ.) for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein (not “whereby”) we must be saved. (That's what it says in the original, “wherein.” Salvation is in Him.” And to have salvation, you must abide in Him. If you don't abide in Him, you're cast forth as a branch and picked up and thrown into the fire.)  Another example is in Gal 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ (There it is again. We're baptized into the body. Doesn't that make it very, very important? Absolutely. So why aren't people doing this? Well, because they don't mind just filling churches up with people that tithe, then they come and listen and they become “cookie cutter Christians.) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. (So when you're being baptized into the nature, character and authority of Jesus, you are putting on His acts. What you put on represents your actions, or works. Is the fruit of the Spirit those actions? Yes, of course it is. The fruit of the Spirit is the manifestation of being in Christ. We are first in Christ by faith. You accept everything that Christ gave you, and your faith is accounted as righteousness. But while you walk in that faith, God's going to be manifesting it. And if you don't see any of it manifesting, guess what? It's not faith in what the scripture has to say. Because there's definitely always going to be fruit of faith in what the scripture has to say.)   28 There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one man (man was added in there) in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise. Baptism is very, very important. You see that? Glory be to God! It's the truth.  Let's read another one. Let's go to Col 2:11 in whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; (How were we circumcised? We as Gentiles don't' get circumcised as Paul said in Galatians chapter 5. If you trust in circumcision, you are separated from Christ. You're not, naturally speaking, but if you do it in order to be justified, you're separated from Christ. Circumcision has a different meaning in the New Testament.) 12 having been buried with him in baptism,… (We see here that circumcision in the New Testament is baptism. How do you fulfill Old Testament circumcision? “Having been buried with him in baptism.” Cutting off the flesh from sowing our seed has the same meaning as cutting off the flesh man in baptism.     He tells you very plainly in Galatians that seeking to be justified by the works of the Law, Christ won't profit you anything. In Gal 5:2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. (You're not to go back under the Law. You're supposed to be obeying what it points to.) 4 Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love.   And all the rest of the Law is the same way. It's all a type and shadow of something in the New Testament, and all you need to do is start reading the New Testament and you'll find out what it is. In this case, circumcision equates to baptism. Now, if you were in the Old Testament and you didn't get circumcised, you were cut off. Now, if you're in the New Testament, you don't have to get circumcised because you have a New Covenant, but there is also a baptism that equates to circumcision, which is the sign of the Covenant. Let me explain that to you. Let's go back and read Genesis 17 and we'll see the type and the shadow of what baptism was, and we'll see how important it is!   Gen 17:10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee: every male among you shall be circumcised. (So, that's the sign of that Covenant. And what is the sign of the New Testament covenant? Baptism.) 11 And ye shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of a covenant betwixt me and you. 12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any foreigner that is not of thy seed. 13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.   So some people say, “Oh it's everlasting!” Well, yeah but except for one thing, it's being interpreted when you come into the New Testament. You're still keeping it, but you're keeping it because you're keeping the Spirit, not the letter. You're actually fulfilling it with baptism. If you get circumcised in the New Testament and you're not fulfilling it, you're going back to keeping the Law. But if you understand that it's being translated from letter understanding to spiritual understanding, you get the real understanding. The letter kills but the spirit gives life, according to what the apostle Paul said.  Every jot and tittle of the Old Testament must be fulfilled in the New. Now continuing 14 And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. So that was true about circumcision if you are under the Old Covenant. Now that you're under the New Covenant, this shows the importance of baptism! So let's look at Romans now. Rom 4:8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin. 9 Is this blessing then pronounced upon the circumcision, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say, To Abraham his faith was reckoned for righteousness. 10 How then was it reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision: (Because he was reckoned righteous by his faith before he got circumcised. Is it same truth for baptism? Yes. He was reckoned righteous, not righteous, but reckoned righteous.  We are also reckoned as righteous when we obey the commandments on baptism. Now, I want to also say this regarding, opportunity. See, some people say, “Oh, the thief on the cross, he wasn't baptized, so we don't have to be.” No, wait a minute, the thief on the cross had no opportunity to be baptized. The Bible says also, you need to pay attention to this. Speaking of baptism Paul said, We become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall also be of his resurrection. (Rom 6:5) Now the thief was united with him in the likeness of his death. So he fulfilled what baptism and Romans 6 says, because if he “died with Christ, we shall also be raised with him”. He died with Christ, so he fulfilled it in that way. So now, you are not like the thief on the cross. You have opportunity to obey this word. If you have faith without works, how can that faith save you? You say, “Do we have to do this? Do we have to do that?” If you're just trying to get your toe in the door, you've got nothing. You have not yet become a disciple of Jesus Christ. What do I have to do? You have to do everything He tells you. Because He bought you with a price. You are not your own. You have the privilege to do everything He and His apostles told you to do in this New Covenant.   And the proof as we read on here is in verse Rom 4:11 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision: (So faith came and works came and those works of obedience sealed what he received by faith.) that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them; (So when you believe, righteousness is reckoned unto you, but if you don't obey, you're not getting sealed. If you believe without obedience, that's faith without works. James said, Can that faith save him? No. Why do you become a disciple of Christ and don't do what He says? “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say?” How can you call him Lord if you don't do what He says? It just can't be.   So their argument about the thief doesn't count for them because they have opportunity, and he didn't. Of course, if a person dies after becoming a believer, and they had no knowledge of a need for baptism and there was no opportunity, I believe their faith would be “accounted as righteousness”. But when you have opportunity, you need to do it. Notice that all through the Book of Acts, when they baptized people, they did it immediately. Why? Because it was important! It was an act of faith that washed away sin. Wow! You see, it's important!  So let's go on to look at the baptism chapter, Romans 6. It's so good, so full of power! Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? (Well, there's a lot of people that believe that. A lot of dead religion out there that believes that. The “Once saved, always saved” love that. They don't understand what grace is, grace also brings obedience.) 2 God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? (That should be our attitude towards sin. We've been made free from sin. Why should we serve it anymore?) 3 Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (Yes, many people get baptized and they are ignorant. They don't even know what it's for. They just think it's a ceremony so they can join a church. It's a ceremony, all right. But it's one that acts by faith and causes you to enter the church. The church, not a local building.)   …we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (So therefore if you were baptized into Jesus, you're dead. You're dead to sin. How shall you any longer live therein, he says. Do you believe that you're dead to sin? Or do you believe you're always going to be a sinner, like most preachers say? They're like the spies with the bad report. By the way, if you listen to them you won't enter the promised land. It says this very plainly. You were baptized into his death, you're dead by faith when you get baptized, you're dead to sin. You don't have to serve it anymore.)  4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: (Now if you're not being buried, it's not baptism. If you're being splashed in the face, that's not baptism. It says buried and that's what baptism is. The only difference here is, he's using water instead of dirt. When a person dies they're buried in dirt. But we die when we are buried in water, representing the washing of the Word of God, which puts to death the fleshly life. Every day that you walk in the water of the Word, it washes you clean. The water of the Word is to put to death your old man. When you obey the word, the old man who wants his own way dies. This is a type of being buried in the Word of God. Being overwhelmed as we studied what Strong's says about baptism. When you're overwhelmed by the washing of the water with the word, it's washing you clean. If you're ignoring God's word, don't bother getting baptized. Don't waste God's time and yours. You're committing to the death of self when you go down into the waters of baptism and you reckon it to be done. We're told how to do this. 4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. (Now why do we get baptized into death? So that we get resurrected to walk in newness of life. You can see here that it's not just a ceremony. Notice the condition.) 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, (baptism) we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; (Notice the condition to have His resurrection life is going down in baptism by faith. Well, have you noticed there's good promises that come with baptism? Why are you tarrying? What are you waiting for? Get baptized and claim Jesus' new life and you will have it. That's why I'm sharing this with you today. What's the benefit of baptism through faith? The benefit of entering into the body of Christ. The benefit of washing away thy sins. People will try to pick this apart but I am just saying what the Bible says here. If they emphasized this and thought it was so important that they would bring people down in the middle of the night and dunk them, then you ought to do the same thing. You ought to not go on in your Christian life and not be baptized. You're taking a chance, aren't you? Yes, and you have opportunity. You're not thief on the cross.)   Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, (So you see the purpose of baptism? That the body of sin is done away since the old man was crucified with Him. This is just awesome! Praise be to God!) …that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; (The purpose of baptism is so we are no longer in bondage to sin! What about the preachers out there that say you're always going to be in bondage to sin. Well, they're separating the people from the benefits of the Kingdom! They don't know what the Bible says, and they have no faith.) 7 for he that hath died is justified from sin. (When you go down and you come up, and you believe that your old man was crucified with Christ and buried, you're justified from sin, which means accounted righteous from sin. Is there an advantage here to baptism? I'd say so. Would you like to be justified or accounted righteous from sin?)  8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; 9 knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; (So that's part of eternal life. It's part of the obedience you do with your faith to receive eternal life.) death no more hath dominion over him. (So now think about this, baptism is an act of faith which is fulfilled the rest of your Christian life. It can be just getting wet if you are not holding to faith in the purposes we have looked at. See when the Lord tells you in His Word to do something, what He's telling you is for your own good that you may prosper in the fruit of His Kingdom. Rom 8:11-13  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.  12  So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh:  13  for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Your spiritual man must be obeying this word, and disobeying the flesh-man. The flesh says, “No, I don't want to do that.” And the Spirit-man says, “It doesn't matter; I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ and I will walk in His steps. I have the authority to do it because you are dead. Therefore, I can do this.”   I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It says who strengthens me in all things. When God gives you a command to “resist not him that is evil”, for instance, and “love your enemy”, for instance and so on, and you ignore it because you think nobody else does it? Or you ignore it because you don't want to do it? Then the water of the Word is not putting to death your old man. Don't waste God's time. Don't take His name in vain. Your baptism means nothing. Do people get baptized for nothing? Yes, they do because they're not planning on walking in it. In fact, quite often “they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies”, speaking the lies of the Pharisees and dead religion.)   So going on to Rom 6:10 For the death that he died, he died unto sin once: but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Amen. When you went down in those waters, friend, you died. When you came up, that's Jesus, that's not you anymore! When you go down in the water, the “old you” died under those waters. It's the same thing with the Word of God. You read this Word in order to be a disciple of Jesus, which is a learner and a follower. And it puts to death your own life in the water of the Word. You have the ability to do it because you received this by an act of faith at baptism. You're “calling the things that be not as though they were.” Jesus said, “all things whatsoever you pray and ask for believe that you received them and you shall have them”. So what happened at baptism? You believe you received it, God gives you the power to walk it out. You're walking out your baptism as you read this Word daily.   It should be the most important thing in your life, to read this Word. Do you love Jesus? Well, it'll be proven if you do. If you love Him, He said you would keep His commandments. There's no salvation if you don't love Him. The Bible says if you don't love Him, the Father won't love you. There's no salvation if you don't love Him.  Verse says 11 Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, (Which means, consider it done. This is faith. This is totally contrary to what's being taught in most churches. They're taking away your faith. They teach you to walk by sight, and that you're always going to be a sinner saved by grace. No, grace saves; it really saves so they're liars.) 11 Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. (Oh, praise God! You're alive unto God. You are now alive in Jesus! Now you can follow Him. You're baptized and your old flesh is dead. But the flesh is going to say, “No I'm not.” And the devil's going to say, “No, you're not.” But you say by faith, “Yes, I am.” When the devil tempts you, you tell him, “You can't tempt me because the one you can tempt was the one who died back there in those waters of baptism”. Jesus did that against the devil. He used the Word. He slapped the devil right in the face every time he tried tempting Him, He said, “It is written.” He was using the water of the Word. You got to fight the good fight of faith here. You need to see the “new man” Who is Christ in you, in the mirror and you will be changed into His image from glory to glory. Amen.)   Rom 6:11 Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. (What power will this faith give you?) 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof: (So how do you not let sin reign? You use verse 11, you are dead to sin and alive unto God. You use your faith in this verse and you can do verse 12. Now can you see why baptism is so important and it needs to be at the beginning of your Christian walk?) 13 neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; (Now you don't want to go and foolishly tempt yourself either. You don't want to hang around with drug users or sit and watch T.V. and all that garbage available these days in the Media.   Don't put yourself into a position so that you're presenting your members to sin.) but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (You say, God, here I am! I'm alive from the dead and Jesus lives in me. How do you do this? Don't put yourself in a position to be tempted. When you're tempted, the first thing you feel is the old man's power. Now, if you're not doing it on purpose, you might receive grace from God, but if you're purposely going because you desire these things, you're presenting your members as instruments of unrighteousness.   Be not deceived, evil companionships corrupt good morals. (1Co.15:33) That's why when there's a little leaven in the church, you cast it out because a little leaven, leavens the whole lump. You don't want to fellowship somebody that's going to feed your soul through the devil. Ministers, you are commanded in 1Co. 5 to cast them out. You have to obey the Word of God if you want a holy church!) 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace. (So, if you are truly under grace through faith sin has no power over you. Grace is not permission to sin; its power over sin.  See if you're under the Law, you're going to a place where you won't receive any help from God. Remember the Old Covenant was a type and a shadow of the new. The Law was the letter, and “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life”. The spirit is given to those who receive grace through faith.)  So he goes on to say, Rom 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid. (We know that sin no longer has power over us and we don't have to sin. That wasn't true under the Law, because the Law could not make perfect. That's why God saw need for a New Covenant based on better promises. You believe and reckon yourself to be dead to sin and that He will rise up in you and He will do the work. That's what grace is, it's the unmerited favor of God.) 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (You can obey the flesh if you want, you're free! You never were free before you came into faith. You can still go back and serve your flesh if you want to. Or you can obey Jesus Christ calling upon the Lord to give you grace and His help. He wants to help you. He wants you to overcome.)  Going on in verse 17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, (Notice: You're no longer a sinner.) ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; (So we need to be overcome by the truth that sets free! There's no power under the Law. Faith gives power. People always want to do something so that they can feel justified. But that's self-righteousness, and that's not going to work and the Lord won't permit it.) 18 and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. (Do you believe it? Because you have to believe it before you can receive it. We no longer live in sin. We need to see it put on Jesus on the cross. Like the serpent on the pole in the wilderness. Everyone who got their eyes on the serpent on the pole were healed of the snake bite, which is sin. Now anything under the curse is the snake bite. But when we see the curse put on Jesus we can be free of it. It already happened back there at the cross.   You apply what you received at the cross at your baptism. If you haven't been baptized, you need this act of faith. There's something about humans that we're able to apply things when we do things. In other words, your faith becomes effectual when you act it out. Faith without works is dead. Now one of our works is baptism. Is that a work that saves you? It's a work of God. He saves you, His work saves you. By grace have you been saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works; (that's your works), lest any man should boast, for in Christ Jesus, were we created for good works. (Eph 2:8-10) Oh, praise God!   Back to Rom 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. 20 For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. (So when you were a servant of sin, you had no ability to be righteous.) 21 What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. (You know, if you're not ashamed, the end of those things is death; remember that.) 22 But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification,   (I will say it again, the reason you get baptized first is so you can look back at that and say, “It was done.” And every time you're tempted, you tell the devil it was done. Every time your flesh tempts you, you tell it, “It's done, you're dead. You have no authority over me anymore.”) and the end eternal life. (Notice and the end eternal life. So you're claiming eternal life by faith. How do you get manifestly eternal life? Well, he's telling you to walk in faith and because of that faith, God empowers you to walk in righteousness, and that is eternal life.) 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (It's freely given to you, accept it by faith, stand on the Word of God. Speak faith. Don't let the devil talk you out of it, and don't walk by sight.)  Let's read next 1Ti 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith, (Obviously you can't do verse 11 unless you do verse 12. Fight the good fight of the faith; these things are yours! They've been given to you in Jesus Christ. You were baptized into His nature, character and authority. Fight the good fight of the faith.   Faith is believing you've received something that you can't yet see. He says to Christians;) lay hold on the life eternal, (Notice that you manifestly lay hold of the life eternal by fighting the good fight of faith and laying hold on these attributes. You're laying hold on Jesus Christ.) whereunto thou wast called, and didst confess the good confession in the sight of many witnesses. (Confess means “to speak the same as.” Speak what Jesus Christ says. He said, if you confess me before men, I will confess you before the Father. He says your old man is dead and the new man lives and you've been made free from sin.) 13 I charge thee in the sight of God, who giveth life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession; 14 that thou keep the commandment, without spot, without reproach, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:   He says if you love Me you will keep My commandments. Now you understand that you can keep His commandments by faith. You can't keep them as long as you don't understand. You live in Christ and the old man has passed away. You're a new creature in Christ. Remember your baptism, the one that went down under the water was you and the One that came up out of that water was Jesus Christ. When you devour this Word, it overwhelms your old man and puts him to death. The Word is Jesus Christ. Ask Him to give you a hunger for His Word. So fight the good fight of the faith and lay hold on life eternal!   You're saved from the old man. You're saved from the devil, saved from the world, saved from the curse. That's what the Bible says. It doesn't say you're saved so you can continue on in your sins. We just read Romans 6, right? Oh, this is Good News! It's the Good News that makes you holy; it separates you from this wicked world. It delivers you from the power of Satan and the power of the flesh and the power of circumstances around you. Glory be to God! So lay hold on life eternal. Lay hold on the attributes of Jesus Christ! He set you free!   Okay, let's go to 2Pe 1:2 Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; (We looked at some knowledge today that empowers people to overcome sin.) 3 seeing that his divine power (Your baptism helps you to be able to apply this.) hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life (Life here is Zoē' It's God's life.) and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue; (When you read the Bible, it gives you knowledge of what is yours. God knows if you think it's valuable to read the Bible and get the knowledge that gives you the power of God, godliness, and holiness.)   4 whereby he hath granted unto us (You have to see that He's already given all this to you by faith.) his precious and exceeding great promises (These will give you faith. Are they precious to you? If they are then you're going to spend time with them because they're valuable and because you like to spend time with Jesus.); that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature (The divine nature is Jesus. Faith in your baptism just gave you His divine nature!), having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. (The apostate preachers do not offer escape from lusts.) 5 Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence in your faith, (I put the coma after faith here and not behind diligence because you really don't have any power to be diligent without faith.) supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge; (I've shared before that each one of these attributes of Christ are inside the previous one, and it's inside of faith.)   6 and in your knowledge self-control; and in your self-control patience (If you have patience in your faith, you'll lack nothing James 1:4 says.  When the answer doesn't come immediately, you have to be patient in your faith. He wants your faith to grow so He's going to try you.); and in your patience godliness; 7 and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness love. (That's really the end result because God is love.) 8 For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Notice this, it starts with knowledge and it ends with knowledge too, because you accept the knowledge you walk by faith.   God gives you the gifts of what you read there, and it enables you to gain more knowledge. Why is that? Because we walk in the light as He is in the light. And thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. See it tells you where you're walking and where you should go. So if you will walk in the light that you have, God will put more light in front of you. The more knowledge you get, the more holiness you can have.)  9 For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. (Remember, that old man is dead. He has no power anymore. You don't have those sins anymore. People forget that and they can't bear this fruit that we just talked about.) 10 Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble: 11 for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  (Notice that you should be leaving the kingdom of this world and entering the eternal Kingdom of God where he rules.  Oh Hallelujah! Believe in your baptism, Saints! Glory to God! Thank you, Father! 

A new MP3 sermon from Mission 119 is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Judaizer's Hidden Motives (Gal6) Subtitle: Chappell Hill Bible Fellowship Speaker: Mel McKinney Broadcaster: Mission 119 Event: Sunday Service Date: 6/2/2024 Bible: Galatians 6:11-18 Length: 70 min.

Paul stabs the heart of the Judaizer's argument, revealing the true purpose of the Law.

'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)   Ethiopia is still a Christian nation, surrounded by Islamic states. The late Emperor Haile Selasse's name means, in Ethiopian, "Power of the Trinity."

'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)   Ethiopia is still a Christian nation, surrounded by Islamic states. The late Emperor Haile Selasse's name means, in Ethiopian, "Power of the Trinity."

Bryson Gray, who had me on a few months back to discuss Orthodoxy, comes on for a debate on the subject he finds most compelling - the status of the Law. Bryson describes himself as a "Christian who keeps the Torah" and takes issue with our view. We will have a formal debate on the topic.

Bryson Gray, who had me on a few months back to discuss Orthodoxy, comes on for a debate on the subject he finds most compelling - the status of the Law. Bryson describes himself as a "Christian who keeps the Torah" and takes issue with our view. We will have a formal debate on the topic.

Mark and Jason talk about exiciting show changes plus ask the question that has been on everyone's mind, is co-host Mark a Judaizer?   Roman Catholicism with a Texas Twang! Twitter: tex_cathedra Instagram: texcathedrapodcast email: tradmenpodcast@gmail.com

Today's program: ITW Season 5 Ep# 876: Acts 15:1-5; Galatians 2:1-2, 11-16 - The Judaizer Heresy Threatens The Early Church. Join us today at www.IntoTheWord2020.com or via your favorite podcast platform. Distributed by www.ReSermon.com.

Galatians   Talk 6   Galatians 4:1-31 At the beginning of this chapter Paul picks up on what he has been saying in Chapter 3:23-25 about the temporary nature of the law. He uses a mixture of metaphors to illustrate this.   In 3:23 he sees the law as a jailer keeping us in prison:   23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law (literally, we were being kept under the law), locked up until faith should be revealed.   In 3:24-25 he sees the law as a pedagogue – an entrusted slave who would lead a young child to school. Its purpose was to lead us to faith in Christ:   24 So the law was (our pedagogue) put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the (pedagogue) supervision of the law.   In 4:1-3 he sees the law as a guardian and trustee appointed by a father until the time came for a child to receive its inheritance:    What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.   The point of each of these metaphors is to show that since the coming of Christ the law is no longer needed:   4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.   Note:             God sent his Son at just the right time             He was born under the law so that we could be set free from the law             We are redeemed – bought from slavery under the law               We have the full rights of sons             God has given us his Spirit – if we are led by the Spirit we are not under the law (cf. 5:18) We are heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).   In the light of all this, in 4:8-11 Paul says, Why are you turning back?   8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.   Verses 12-20 reflect Paul's feeling that in deserting his gospel the Galatians were deserting him (cf. 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting…).   The meaning of verse 12 is unclear, but is probably best understood as follows:   Brethren, I beg of you, become as I am [free from the bondage of Jewish ritualism and ordinances], for I also have become as you are [a Gentile]. You did me no wrong [in the days when I first came to you; do not do it now (Amplified Bible).   He reminds them of how well they had received him when he had first come to preach the gospel to them:   13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. 14 Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.  15 What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?   The main point of these verses is Paul's disappointment at the change in the Galatians' attitude towards him. They are rejecting him in favour of those who preach a false gospel. But he warns them that these Judaizers are wrongly motivated:   17 Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you [from us], so that you may be zealous for them.   Paul's motives, however, are pure:   18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you. 19. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!   ·       He is always zealous for them (18) ·       He is agonizing over them (19) ·       He longs to be with them (20).       Note incidentally, that verses 13-14 also shed light on the subject of healing:   ·       Even great Christians (cf. also Epaphroditus, Timothy, Trophimus) get sick ·       They are not always immediately healed ·       God has a purpose in allowing sickness.   In the final part of the chapter (vv. 21-31) Paul uses what is technically known as a rabbinic argument. This is a way of interpreting scripture that he would have learned when he studied under rabbi Gamaliel. His reason for using it here is probably because his Judaizer opponents may well have been familiar with this form of argument and, although it is not something we easily follow today, it would undoubtedly have been understood by them.   But before we look at the argument itself, it will be helpful to remind ourselves of the truth that Paul was seeking to demonstrate by it. We have already seen that Paul's overall purpose in Galatians was to establish that:   ·       no one is saved by obeying the works of the law but by believing the promise of God ·       salvation is by faith alone, not by faith followed by circumcision. ·       the true descendants of Abraham are those who believe as Abraham believed ·       the true Israel is made up of all who believe, whether Jew or Gentile ·       the law enslaves and imprisons people because of their failure to keep it.   Paul now uses an illustration from Genesis to demonstrate these principles. He uses Abraham's two sons to illustrate the difference between the old covenant God made with Israel at Sinai (the law) and the new covenant made with all who are justified by faith in Christ. He points out that:   22. …Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.   Abraham had two sons: Ishmael, whose mother Hagar, was a slave Isaac, whose mother Sarah, was free. (So, by analogy, the spiritual descendants of Abraham are free from the bondage of the law).   23. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.   Ishmael was born naturally Isaac was born supernaturally as a result of God's promise (So Isaac represents us Christians because we are supernaturally born again).   24 These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.   Hagar and Sarah represent two covenants. God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. Paul uses Hagar to stand for Mount Sinai because both she, and the law given at Sinai, produced slavery in their children. And, Paul says, the present city of Jerusalem is also in slavery with her children. So he seems to be saying:   ·       Hagar was in bondage (as Sarah's maidservant) ·       The law puts us in bondage (for reasons he has already given) ·       The (then) present city of Jerusalem was still in bondage (because it had rejected the way of salvation through faith provided by Christ).   BUT 26. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27. For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labour pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband."   By contrast with the earthly Jerusalem, however, is the heavenly Jerusalem (the Messianic kingdom of Christ). She is our mother, and her children are free. What's more, the (spiritual) children descended from Sarah, the barren woman, far outnumber those who are naturally born.   28. Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." (Genesis 21:10)   We Christians are children of promise. We are not naturally born, like Ishmael, but supernaturally born, like Isaac. We are born by the power of the Spirit. Verses 29-30 are a reference back to Genesis 21:9-10. Paul sees Ishmael's mocking Isaac as symbolising the way the Judaizers were persecuting those who believed his message. But the two cannot coexist. There is only one way of salvation. We must be careful not to compromise.   31 Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.   So we are not like Ishmael, born into slavery. We are free from the law, and as Paul will say at the beginning of the next chapter:   It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again with a yoke of slavery.

Today's program: ITW Season 5 Ep# 874: Acts 15:1; Galatians 2:11-14 - The Beginning Of The Judaizer Heresy. Join us today at www.IntoTheWord2020.com or via your favorite podcast platform. Distributed by www.ReSermon.com.

Eric gives us a follow up to our Galatians series finished a few weeks back by looking at the 'Judaizer in Our Minds.'

In this session we examine theological troubling issues that were founded in the days of the early church and continue into the modern era. With an overview of the Judaizer, Gnostics, Arianism and Modalism of the first three centuries to the German Biblical Higher Criticism, Modernism, and the rise of Liberal Christianity of the 19th and 20th centuries we can find commonality from all for the rise of today's Postmodern Theology and Relativism that has infiltrated the church. The division and destruction we are seeing in most mainline denominations as they deviated from Biblical authority and orthodoxy is not anything new and it serves as a warning to those individuals and churches trying to stand and uphold Biblical, evangelical, theology. Thank you for listening to our podcast and we would love for you to subscribe to our page and share with others. Join us for our weekly worship online at www.firstbaptistblowingrock.com or our Youtube page. Contact us at office@firstbaptistblowingrock.com or by phone @ 828-295-7715

Sunday, 9 April 2023   Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus; Acts 15:39   The previous verse revealed Paul's insistence that John Mark should not be taken along with him and Barnabas on the next missionary journey. With that, it now notes, “Then the contention became so sharp.”   The word translated as contention is paroxusmos. This is the first of two times it will be seen in Scripture. It signifies a paroxysm; a provocation that literally jabs someone to the point where he is forced to respond. Words such as provoke, incite, and so on will give the active sense of the matter. The other use of the word is in Hebrews 10:24 where it is used in a positive sense where believers are implored to motivate one another toward love and good works.   As for Paul and Barnabas, one would say something that cut so deeply the other couldn't let it go and responded with his own cutting words. It is the type of argument that leads to words that may never be forgiven and wounds that may never heal. Because of this, it says “that they parted from one another.”   Of this, Matthew Poole dubiously equates this to the parting of Abraham and Lot as is recorded in Genesis 13, claiming they kept the unity of the Spirit. The words now do not bear this out. Their fellowship was torn apart, and the Spirit would have to deal with them individually as they proceeded in their own directions. Because of this, it next says, “And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.”   Barnabas was from Cyprus (Acts 4:36) and it is where he and Paul set forth on the first missionary journey (Acts 13:4). Thus, it is the natural direction that he should go to have the most impact on his next missionary travels. Taking along John Mark shows Barnabas' ability to overlook whatever Paul perceived as a permanent factor of disqualification. This is the last time that Barnabas is mentioned in Acts. The record Luke lays down from this point on, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, is directed to the ministry of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. Any further record of future impact that Barnabas may have had on the church is left to secular history. In Scripture, he will be directly mentioned two more times. The first is in 1 Corinthians 9 –   “My defense to those who examine me is this: 4 Do we have no right to eat and drink? 5 Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working? 7 Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?” 1 Corinthians 9:3-7   He will also be mentioned again in Galatians where Paul notes that he was led astray, just as Peter was, by the Judaizer who came to Antioch. That is an event that probably occurred during the events of Acts 15, although some see it as having occurred during Acts 18, something less likely. Of the events now taking place, John Gill says –   “...thus as soon almost as peace was made in the church, a difference arises among the ministers of the word, who are men of like passions with others; and though it is not easy to say which was to blame most in this contention; perhaps there were faults on both sides, for the best men are not without their failings; yet this affair was overruled by the providence of God, for the spread of his Gospel, and the enlargement of his interest; for when these two great and good men parted from one another, they went to different places, preaching the word of God.”   Life application: Regardless as to whether Paul and Barnabas ever reconciled again or not, the Spirit inspired Luke to record the events in Acts for us to consider what occurred. There was a sharp dispute between two men who had expended themselves for the gospel and who would continue to do so.   This is a fallen world. We all have limitations and buttons are bound to get pushed. When they are, our response may set us at odds with one another, even to the point of never fellowshipping together again. And yet, Paul does not later hint at the events that occurred or claim that Barnabas is not to be trusted. Rather, his comments in 1 Corinthians 9 (noted above) indicate that Barnabas was a trustworthy, selfless worker for the Lord.   Somehow, those in Corinth will hear about Barnabas even if there is no record of him traveling there in Acts. This means that Paul probably spoke well of him to the Corinthians, describing the person he had traveled with on his first missionary journey. In other words, just because they could not agree on working together any longer, Paul continued to speak highly about Barnabas. Let us consider doing this as well should we divide from another over some difference in opinion.   Heavenly Father, we are limited beings. We don't have all the information, we only have so much power and stamina, we may get riled up or offended by events that occur, etc. Because of this, differences are bound to arise between us. When such times come, give us wisdom and discernment in how to handle such things. May we not spitefully hurt others simply because we can. Help us in this, O God. Amen.  

Today's gospel instalment- 04-02-2023-Message Title -s- - 1. Ichabod, the glory has departed, 2..The Ark of God has been captured, 3. The death of Eli and his family-1..The more gospel details the Lord opens, the clearer the text becomes..-2..The story of Eli and his family was a gospel testimony..-3..Eli's family were from the house of Levi, that is, they were a priestly family..-4.. Levi's house mediated the Law and its institutions..-5..But this only for an appointed time as God was moving the needle of time in the revelation of Jesus Christ..-6..The Law and its priesthood were insufficient, incapable, thus unprofitable to a sinner, because it couldnot perfect them before God..-7..The Law is the system of Do THIS , DON'T DO THAT and do it all to PERFECTION and you shall live, or else you are condemned.. -8... And being condemned it didn't have qualified priests or sacrifices to redeem a sinner, then and now.. -9. THUS IT HAD TO BE TAKEN AWAY.. And that is what many religious people struggle with... They don't want the Law to be taken away because they still have not understood what God is saying about what the Law requires. -10..Many professing Christians still have a judaistic approach to the Law, which misses or downplays the SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST ALONE.. -11..The Judaizer can't imagine a person being made complete -Holy and righteous- in another person without putting them under some moralism of the Mosaic Law. Paul called that ANOTHER GOSPEL, which is no gospel.. -12..But we learn in this message that the house of Eli -the house of Levi, the Law- must come to and end... -13. HENCE THE DEATH OF ELI AND HIS HOUSE IN ONE DAY, in the day that the Ark of God was captur

Today's gospel instalment- 04-02-2023-Message Title -s- - 1. Ichabod, the glory has departed, 2..The Ark of God has been captured, 3. The death of Eli and his family-1..The more gospel details the Lord opens, the clearer the text becomes..-2..The story of Eli and his family was a gospel testimony..-3..Eli's family were from the house of Levi, that is, they were a priestly family..-4.. Levi's house mediated the Law and its institutions..-5..But this only for an appointed time as God was moving the needle of time in the revelation of Jesus Christ..-6..The Law and its priesthood were insufficient, incapable, thus unprofitable to a sinner, because it couldnot perfect them before God..-7..The Law is the system of Do THIS , DON'T DO THAT and do it all to PERFECTION and you shall live, or else you are condemned.. -8... And being condemned it didn't have qualified priests or sacrifices to redeem a sinner, then and now.. -9. THUS IT HAD TO BE TAKEN AWAY.. And that is what many religious people struggle with... They don't want the Law to be taken away because they still have not understood what God is saying about what the Law requires. -10..Many professing Christians still have a judaistic approach to the Law, which misses or downplays the SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST ALONE.. -11..The Judaizer can't imagine a person being made complete -Holy and righteous- in another person without putting them under some moralism of the Mosaic Law. Paul called that ANOTHER GOSPEL, which is no gospel.. -12..But we learn in this message that the house of Eli -the house of Levi, the Law- must come to and end... -13. HENCE THE DEATH OF ELI AND HIS HOUSE IN ONE DAY, in the day that the Ark of God was captur

Sunday, 2 April 2023   Now Judas and Silas, themselves being prophets also, exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words. Acts 15:32   The letter from the council has been read to the congregation at Antioch. Having heard it, they rejoiced over its encouragement. With that, it next says, “Now Judas and Silas, themselves being prophets also.”   These are the two men who had been sent from the council to confirm the words of the letter, having accompanied Barnabas and Paul to Antioch. The term “prophets” in this verse is obviously not given in the sense of the Old Testament prophets that foretold the future or spoke forth a new word of the Lord. That may or may not be something they did at other times, but in this context, calling them prophets is tied to what is stated in the next words. It says they “exhorted and strengthened the brethren.” The verb form of the word used in the previous verse, paraklésis, which was translated as “encouragement,” is used here, parakaleó. Thus, it is more appropriately rendered “encouraged.” The other word, translated as “strengthened,” was introduced in Acts 14:22. It signifies to support, confirm, make stronger, etc.   In other words, there had been confusion thrown into the congregation by the events that took place. Trust in the words of Barnabas and Paul may have been diminished because of the Judaizers, something that definitely happened to the church in Galatia as Paul records in his epistle to them. These two prophets, rather than foretelling the word of the Lord, forth-told it.   They gave them encouragement that the message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, apart from any works of the law, was correct. They encouraged the church to stand fast in their faith and even built them up with additional words, strengthening them, as it next says, “with many words.”   Rather, the words in the Greek are singular and should read “with much discourse.” They added either instructional lessons as may be seen today in a Bible study, or they may have spoken forth in the form of a sermon or homily, building the believers up in the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.   Life application: Because the council has wisely sent along Judas and Silas, the decision rendered by it would certainly have gone unchallenged by any Judaizer still lurking around the believers in Antioch. Today, we do not have the apostles around any longer to render such a letter and then send along people to confirm what was said. However, we do have the full, final, and sure word of the apostles and other men who wrote out the word of God for our instruction. There is no need to have Judaizers throw a congregation into upheaval if the congregants are properly instructed in the word of God. Thus, it is imperative to not just give life application sermons and Bible studies that are not based on the Bible. Rather, the word of God is to be opened, analyzed, and explained in detail. If this is not done, the same confusion in the congregation that arose in Antioch, Galatia, and elsewhere is sure to arise in whatever congregation these false teachers come to. Be firm on what the gospel says. Do not give an inch to such cretinous fellows. Instead, proclaim the freedom and liberty that is found in Jesus Christ, not works of law or man that can never profit. Yes, hold fast to the true and only gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.   Glorious God Almighty, how thankful we are for the surety of the word. If we simply read it and properly apply it to our lives, we will not be misdirected by false teachers. You have breathed it out to us, and You want it to be known by us. So, Lord, help us as we open it and study it all our days. Thank You for the surety of the word that You have given to us. Amen.  

Today's gospel instalment: 04/02/2023Message Title (s) : 1. Ichabod, the glory has departed, 2..The Ark of God has been captured, 3. The death of Eli and his family1..The more gospel details the Lord opens, the clearer the text becomes..2..The story of Eli and his family was a gospel testimony..3..Eli's family were from the house of Levi, that is, they were a priestly family..4.. Levi's house mediated the Law and its institutions..5..But this only for an appointed time as God was moving the needle of time in the revelation of Jesus Christ..6..The Law and its priesthood were insufficient, incapable, thus unprofitable to a sinner, because it couldnot perfect them before God..7..The Law is the system of Do THIS , DON'T DO THAT and do it all to PERFECTION and you shall live, or else you are condemned.. 8... And being condemned it didn't have qualified priests or sacrifices to redeem a sinner, then and now.. 9. THUS IT HAD TO BE TAKEN AWAY.. And that is what many religious people struggle with... They don't want the Law to be taken away because they still have not understood what God is saying about what the Law requires. 10..Many professing Christians still have a judaistic approach to the Law, which misses or downplays the SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST ALONE.. 11..The Judaizer can't imagine a person being made complete (Holy and righteous) in another person without putting them under some moralism of the Mosaic Law. Paul called that ANOTHER GOSPEL, which is no gospel.. 12..But we learn in this message that the house of Eli (the house of Levi, the Law) must come to and end... 13. HENCE THE DEATH OF ELI AND HIS HOUSE IN ONE DAY, in the day that the Ark of God was captur

Thursday, 23 March 2023   Then it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren. Acts 15:22   James has just completed his short speech, rendering his decision concerning the matter and explaining why. With that, the narrative now continues, saying, “Then it pleased.”   The word translated as “pleased” gives the sense of forming an opinion by using one's personal perspective. Thus, it more closely reads, “Then it seemed good to the apostles and elders.” The decision had been rendered, and now it needed to be sent out for all the churches to know what that judgment was so that the issue would not cause further dissension.   This was the mutual consensus of the apostles and elders who had gathered together as noted in verse 15:6. But more, the matter was agreeable “with the whole church.” The entire body was mentioned in verse 15:4. They had heard the words of the Pharisees and would be curious about what the council's decision was.   Having heard the decision and the idea of sending that decision out among the churches, the matter seemed good to all in the congregation. This is seen in the next words. It seemed good to all “to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.”   Rather, the clause begins with an aorist participle and should be rendered, “having chosen men out of them, to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.” In other words, the choosing of these men is the prime issue. They chose the men to convey the matter. It was obvious that Paul and Barnabas would be returning to Antioch with the decision. But it is the representatives of the council that would be those who would affirm it to the churches.   This is an important point because if Paul and Barnabas stopped at other churches, or even in their return to the church at Antioch, and conveyed the decision, without someone sent from the council to confirm their words, the Judaizer could follow on their heels and say, “that's not at all what the council said.” If they did this, the matter would be in the same state as when it was first raised.   The choice of the messengers by those in Jerusalem is the primary issue because it will avoid any such dissension. This is not calling the veracity of Paul and Barnabas into question. The decision was rendered in their favor.   Rather, the importance of this is to ensure that those mentioned in verse 15:1 would be silenced. There were “certain men” who came down from Judea. They had obviously gone without approval and their intention was to divide the fellowship and bring in the legalism of law observance. With this understood, the narrative next names those chosen saying, “Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas.”   The first name, Judas called Barsabas is spelled with one final b in some texts and two in others. And so, it is rendered either Barsabbas or Barsabas. If two b's are correct, it is assumed that he may be a brother of the person named in Acts 1:23, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus. If this is so, then Judas, like his brother, could have been a follower of Jesus from early on. If so, he would probably be well-known among the churches. This is speculation, but it is quite possible.   Silas is seen here for the first of quite a few times, both in Acts and in the Epistles. The name Silas could be derived from the Hebrew shaul, the same name as Saul. Thus, it would mean Asked For. Or, it could be related to the Hebrew word salal, meaning to cast up highways. If so, then it would mean Highway Maker.   It cannot be known for certain if one of these words, or some other, is where the name comes from. He is, however, also known for the Latin version of his name, Silvanus, which is found in several epistles of Paul and Peter. Thus, the name could simply be a contraction of that name.   Of these two men, the verse next says that they were “leading men among the brethren.” The verb hégeomai is used. It is one leading the way, going before others as the chief. One can see the root of our word hegemony. They were responsible individuals who would be well respected among those they encountered along the way. In verse 15:32, it will note that they were both prophets and men able to exhort and strengthen others.   Life application: If a commanding general were to have a meeting of his commanders in the field, giving them a decision and sending them back to their troops with the decision, one would expect these men to accurately convey what the general decided. However, if it was known there were spies who were out causing division, they could come along behind the various field commanders and tell the troops that what was conveyed was incorrect.   Thus, sending out known staff from the command to affirm the general's orders might be needed. This would not be done to question the integrity of the various commanders, but to reassure those under the commanders. Today, modern communication makes such a thing less necessary. Face-to-face communication around the world is possible. But the idea remains the same, even in the church.   Obviously, if the church is following the word of God and not books of discipline or other such things, the matter would be less likely to occur. But even varying interpretations of the Bible are as common as cots in a barracks, and so ensuring that what is decided on a matter is properly conveyed to those who will hear it is important.   The devil loves to divide people and congregations, so be aware of this and always do your best to not get caught up in the “he said, she said” mentality. If a matter concerning what someone says arises, check directly with that someone. What may seem small or trifling can cause great dissension.   Heavenly Father, be with us and keep us from divisions and dissensions that are harmful to the fellowship. And, Lord, we pray that those who would otherwise come into the fellowship and purposefully try to tear it apart be kept from us. Give us wisdom and discernment in such things, just in case such people do come. Thank You, O God. Amen. Thursday, 23 March 2023   Then it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren. Acts 15:22   Note: You can listen to today's commentary courtesy of our friends at “Bible in Ten” podcast. (Click Here to listen)   You can also read this commentary, with music, courtesy of our friends at "Discern the Bible" on YouTube. (Click Here to listen), or at Rumble (Click Here to listen).   James has just completed his short speech, rendering his decision concerning the matter and explaining why. With that, the narrative now continues, saying, “Then it pleased.”   The word translated as “pleased” gives the sense of forming an opinion by using one's personal perspective. Thus, it more closely reads, “Then it seemed good to the apostles and elders.” The decision had been rendered, and now it needed to be sent out for all the churches to know what that judgment was so that the issue would not cause further dissension.   This was the mutual consensus of the apostles and elders who had gathered together as noted in verse 15:6. But more, the matter was agreeable “with the whole church.” The entire body was mentioned in verse 15:4. They had heard the words of the Pharisees and would be curious about what the council's decision was.   Having heard the decision and the idea of sending that decision out among the churches, the matter seemed good to all in the congregation. This is seen in the next words. It seemed good to all “to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.”   Rather, the clause begins with an aorist participle and should be rendered, “having chosen men out of them, to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.” In other words, the choosing of these men is the prime issue. They chose the men to convey the matter. It was obvious that Paul and Barnabas would be returning to Antioch with the decision. But it is the representatives of the council that would be those who would affirm it to the churches.   This is an important point because if Paul and Barnabas stopped at other churches, or even in their return to the church at Antioch, and conveyed the decision, without someone sent from the council to confirm their words, the Judaizer could follow on their heels and say, “that's not at all what the council said.” If they did this, the matter would be in the same state as when it was first raised.   The choice of the messengers by those in Jerusalem is the primary issue because it will avoid any such dissension. This is not calling the veracity of Paul and Barnabas into question. The decision was rendered in their favor.   Rather, the importance of this is to ensure that those mentioned in verse 15:1 would be silenced. There were “certain men” who came down from Judea. They had obviously gone without approval and their intention was to divide the fellowship and bring in the legalism of law observance. With this understood, the narrative next names those chosen saying, “Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas.”   The first name, Judas called Barsabas is spelled with one final b in some texts and two in others. And so, it is rendered either Barsabbas or Barsabas. If two b's are correct, it is assumed that he may be a brother of the person named in Acts 1:23, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus. If this is so, then Judas, like his brother, could have been a follower of Jesus from early on. If so, he would probably be well-known among the churches. This is speculation, but it is quite possible.   Silas is seen here for the first of quite a few times, both in Acts and in the Epistles. The name Silas could be derived from the Hebrew shaul, the same name as Saul. Thus, it would mean Asked For. Or, it could be related to the Hebrew word salal, meaning to cast up highways. If so, then it would mean Highway Maker.   It cannot be known for certain if one of these words, or some other, is where the name comes from. He is, however, also known for the Latin version of his name, Silvanus, which is found in several epistles of Paul and Peter. Thus, the name could simply be a contraction of that name.   Of these two men, the verse next says that they were “leading men among the brethren.” The verb hégeomai is used. It is one leading the way, going before others as the chief. One can see the root of our word hegemony. They were responsible individuals who would be well respected among those they encountered along the way. In verse 15:32, it will note that they were both prophets and men able to exhort and strengthen others.   Life application: If a commanding general were to have a meeting of his commanders in the field, giving them a decision and sending them back to their troops with the decision, one would expect these men to accurately convey what the general decided. However, if it was known there were spies who were out causing division, they could come along behind the various field commanders and tell the troops that what was conveyed was incorrect.   Thus, sending out known staff from the command to affirm the general's orders might be needed. This would not be done to question the integrity of the various commanders, but to reassure those under the commanders. Today, modern communication makes such a thing less necessary. Face-to-face communication around the world is possible. But the idea remains the same, even in the church.   Obviously, if the church is following the word of God and not books of discipline or other such things, the matter would be less likely to occur. But even varying interpretations of the Bible are as common as cots in a barracks, and so ensuring that what is decided on a matter is properly conveyed to those who will hear it is important.   The devil loves to divide people and congregations, so be aware of this and always do your best to not get caught up in the “he said, she said” mentality. If a matter concerning what someone says arises, check directly with that someone. What may seem small or trifling can cause great dissension.   Heavenly Father, be with us and keep us from divisions and dissensions that are harmful to the fellowship. And, Lord, we pray that those who would otherwise come into the fellowship and purposefully try to tear it apart be kept from us. Give us wisdom and discernment in such things, just in case such people do come. Thank You, O God. Amen.

Last week we read the first ten verses of Galatians 1, but we only worked through Paul's introduction (1-5). Sunday we pick up with Paul stern and urgent warning in verses 6-10. Paul is amazed by the report that the Galatians are giving ear to false teachers so quickly. He can't believe that they are turning to another gospel. As we learned last week, the false teachers in Galatia were commonly known as Judaizer. They claimed to be Jewish Christians. They preached that Jesus is the messiah, that he really died, and he really rose from the grave. But they said faith in Jesus and his work was not sufficient to save. They taught that to be accepted by God, one must believe in Jesus and be circumcised according to the customs of Moses. They were adding something to the gospel. Paul doesn't tell the Galatians that this "other" gospel is close enough. He doesn't find points of agreement with them. He says that this is a distortion of the gospel and, in fact, it is not another gospel at all! Then, with some of the most harsh language in the New Testament, Paul declares that if anyone, even a heavenly angel, preaches a gospel different than the one the Galatians received, they are accursed. They are under the wrath of God. Paul doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to the gospel. He is adamant that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. Anything added to the gospel is to be considered under God's curse. It doesn't matter who preaches it. Whether it is Paul himself, an angel from heaven, or even our own hearts - we are to reject it. This is what the Galatians should have done. This is why Paul is so astonished to hear they have not. This is what we must do when teachers, friends, preachers, angels, or even our own hearts try to convince us that we must add to Jesus' work. We have everything in Christ. That is the gospel by which we are saved - and that is the gospel we must walk in as we follow Jesus.

In this episode, we continue our look at Paul's defense of his apostleship as he describes his meeting with the leaders in the Jerusalem church. What was their reception of him and the message he preached to the Gentiles? And how does this demolish the Judaizer's false statements about Paul and the true gospel? Order a copy of my book: Signs of the End http://bit.ly/3YsWTTs Music: http://www.purple-planet.com Reunited Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http:creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

GALATIANS 4:21-27 part one, is one of the most difficult passages to interpret in the NT – 2 mothers, 2 Sons, 2 Covenants and 2 cities. Without preaching an analogy, Paul uses literal history to preach the way the false teachers teach (which is to rewrite history through analogy). But Paul teaches without distorting scripture or rewriting history. He uses the false teacher Judaizer method, but Paul is actually literal and historical, to show the Galatians that God provides TRUE FREEDOM through salvation by GRACE ALONE, through FAITH ALONE, in CHRIST ALONE.

Mark and Jason check back in to see how the first week of Advent went. Mark becomes a Judaizer. link to become a member of the Confraternity of St. Peter: https://fssp.com/confraternity-of-saint-peter/   PAX DOMINI SIT SEMPER VOBISCUM!

'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)   Ethiopia is still a Christian nation, surrounded by Islamic states. The late Emperor Haile Selasse's name means, in Ethiopian, "Power of the Trinity."

'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)   Ethiopia is still a Christian nation, surrounded by Islamic states. The late Emperor Haile Selasse's name means, in Ethiopian, "Power of the Trinity."

Scripture and Questions for Study and Reflection: Read Galatians 1.1. In today's passage, Paul is speaking against a false gospel preached by missionaries sometimes referred to as “Judaizers.” Why do you think they were called “Judaizers”? Why does Idleman call the gospel they preach a “Jesus-Plus” gospel?2. Why do you think Paul is so “astonished” at the way the Galatians are receiving the Judaizer's message? In what way is the Gospel Paul preached so much better?3. In this week's study guide, Idleman says, “By returning to the moral aspects of the Law, the Galatians were committing treason against God and the freedom they had received through faith in Jesus Christ.” What does he mean by that? Do you agree? Why/why not?4. Read Romans 8:1-4. How does that relate to today's passage?5. Idleman gives two reasons for the “Lure of Legalism” we all tend to experience now and then. Do you remember those two reasons? Do you agree with them? Which one resonates with you the most?6. Idleman tells a story of a man, with a prodigal daughter, who said, “We raised her in church but we didn't raise her in Christ.” What did he mean by that? How does that story relate to today's passage? Can you relate?7. What are “Embedded Theologies”? In what ways were the Judaizers influenced by embedded theologies? What embedded theologies do you have that might need to be rethought?8. Have you ever acted like a Judaizer? Have you ever tried to put a “Jesus- Plus” theological yoke on someone? If so, when? Why? Has anyone ever tried to do that to you?9. What has happened in Paul's life that makes his testimony about the Gospel so much more believable and powerful?Prayer for the Week:Gracious and loving God, Your grace truly is sufficient. Forgive us for the times we try to earn Your forgiveness or try to make others earn it. Protect us from the lure of legalism. Remind us that Jesus truly is enough. His life, death and resurrection are enough. Through our relationship with Him we are new creations. Through our relationship with Him we are set free. Help us to truly live in that freedom, so that our testimonies might help others do the same. We pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through Galatians with a powerful word about fear of man. In our text, Peter was fearful of the Judaizer's opinion of him and his fear spread to others. Chris shared how destructive fear of man can be for our relationship with Jesus. God's word says that the fear of human opinion disables us but trust in God protects us.

Episode 170 – Paul’s Places – Part 11: Summary 1 Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: I passed on to you what was most important ... Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time … Last of all … I also saw him. 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 3 through 8, New Living Translation ******** VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re very grateful to be able to be with you today. We have been working on a series we call “Paul’s Places” for several weeks now. In fact, this is our 11th lesson in this series. By “Paul,” of course, we’re referring to the Apostle Paul who wrote at least 13 of books contained in the New Testament. Nine of those books are letters Paul wrote to churches that are identified in our Bibles by the names of cities or, in the case of Galatians, a region that would be in modern-day Turkey. Anyone who has missed any of the previous lessons can find them on our website, crystalseabooks.com, or on their favorite podcast app. We started this series for one simple reason – to help people understand that the New Testament documents are historically reliable. So, today we want to begin to summarize some of the major points that we’ve covered during this series. To do that, today In the studio we have RD Fierro, the author of a number of great Christian books and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, what’s on your mind as we begin to summarize our series on “Paul’s Places?” RD: Well, I’d like to first start by thanking our listeners for joining us here today. Then, I’d like to reinforce the point you just made. We wanted to do this series to help listeners begin to understand that the New Testament is historically reasonable and reliable. When it comes to our Bibles, our scripture, two questions are of supreme importance. Do we have a text that we may say with confidence is the text as it was written by the inspired writers almost 2,000 years ago? And if we do, can we be confident in the trustworthiness of the account that the document writer penned? In the case of the New Testament there is an abundance of evidence that the answer to both questions is a resounding “yes.” VK: As we mentioned in our last episode of Anchored by Truth we are now 2,000 years removed from the time that Jesus walked on the earth, performed His miracles, died, and rose again. And we are almost 2,000 years removed from the time when people began hearing about those events and either accepting or rejecting the meaning of what had occurred. And during that 2,000 years a lot has happened. Empires have risen and fallen. Civilizations have changed. Science and technology have lifted people off this planet and to the nearest celestial body. And we have communication and information transfer methods that would have seemed miraculous to most people who walked the earth during Jesus and Paul’s time. And that has created a peculiar danger for us hasn’t it? And that’s what you want to talk about today. RD: Yes. We are so far removed historically from Jesus’ earthly ministry that too often today people forget that the entire Christian faith is based on one historical fact: that Jesus died, rose from the grave, and then ascended into heaven. VK: That’s what we heard about in our opening scripture from 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. Paul says in that passage that he passed on to the church in Corinth what was “most important.” Paul said that this fact is the most important fact for the Christian faith - that “Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day.” So, when we say that the entire Christian faith is dependent on one historical fact we are not making an overstatement. RD: No, we are not. And while I think most Christians have a general understanding of the importance of the resurrection I fear that the passage of those 2,000 years has allowed many to drift into an almost mystical interpretation of it. VK: What do you mean? RD: We have seen lots of movies and television shows filled with special effects that have portrayed various Bible stories. And we’re accustomed to seeing those kinds of productions about all kinds of historical events, not just those contained in the Bible. But when we see these productions we know that Hollywood has injected in a certain amount of romanticism. They take dramatic license for the purpose of making their story-telling more entertaining. Pretty soon it becomes hard for us to think about the real history, especially history that happened 2,000 years ago. So, we allow our perception of a plain historical fact to take on the same tinge of mysticism or fantasy that we know infest so much of contemporary drama. We forget that the resurrection of Jesus is a plain, unvarnished historical event just as real as whether your neighbor’s kid played soccer in high school, whether George Washington was the first president of the United States, or whether you went to the gas station this morning. VK: Well, you may have a point. We live in a culture and a society where entertainment producers, among others, try to blur the lines between fiction and reality. These days it takes a considerable effort to make sure that we sort out truth from lies and distortions. And we are fed plenty of lies by a great many media sources. So, you are concerned that even Christians can lose sight of the reality of the resurrection. What you’re saying is that we have to consciously resist any attempts to mythicize or allegorize the resurrection. We must continually remind ourselves and others that Jesus walked out of a stone tomb just as certainly as we put gas in our car the last time we filled up. RD: Yes. And the letters that Paul sent to the various churches makes that point repeatedly. And in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15 Paul is explicit that if the resurrection did not take place the entire Christian faith is in vain. VK: The Amplified Bible puts it this way in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 14: “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain [useless, amounting to nothing], and your faith is also vain [imaginary, unfounded, devoid of value and benefit--not based on truth].” RD: This is why it is so important that we ensure that we understand and can explain why the New Testament documents, including the Pauline epistles, are reliable historically. 20, 30, or 40 years ago it may or may not have been necessary. But today we are surrounded by nearly continuous claims that we must distrust the Bible except in a precious few areas where – it is grudgingly allowed – that archeology may indicate that the Bible got something right. VK: When, in fact, the exact opposite is true. The New Testament is filled with historical details and overwhelmingly archeology has provided solid support that the New Testament is accurate. And we have tried to bring a few of those details forward in this “Paul’s Places” series – like noting that Paul uses historically accurate terms even incidentally like when he described a Roman soldiers’ armor in Ephesians, chapter 6. RD: Right. In one of our episode on the letters to Ephesus and Colossae we pointed out that Paul used the term “machaira” when he was referring to the “sword of the Spirit.” Like most Greek words “machaira” is very precise. It refers to a relatively short sword that could be up to 19 inches long. One commentator said this about the machaira. “Of all the swords that a Roman soldier could use, this one was the deadliest. Indeed, the ‘machaira’ could be as long as 19 inches, but it was often shorter, resembling a dagger, therefore it was usually used in close combat. It was razor sharp on both sides of the blade and its very end turned upward, causing the point of the blade to be extremely sharp and deadly.” VK: And we pointed out in that episode of Anchored by Truth that that short sword was a perfect weapon for use in the fighting formation that the Roman infantry often used. So, Paul’s use of the term was both historically accurate as well as instructive from a spiritual standpoint. RD: The machaira was used for both offense and defense. So, when Paul said that we needed to adopt the word of God as our “sword” he was teaching a profound truth. We can think back to when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. For each of the three temptations that Satan presented to Jesus, Jesus responded with scripture. In this case all the scriptures that Jesus quoted to Satan came from the book of Deuteronomy. Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 13 and 16 and from chapter 8 verse 3. VK: And for any Christian who tends to think that the Old Testament was no longer relevant after Jesus’ earthly ministry the temptation in the wilderness should settle that question. If Jesus thought well enough to quote the Old Testament to Satan that should make it good enough for us. RD: Absolutely. So, in Satan’s temptation in the wilderness Jesus showed that the word of God is suitable for defense. At other times Jesus showed us that the word of God was suitable for offense. A good example of using the word of God offensively, but respectfully, was when the Pharisees or Sadducees tried to use trick question to trip Jesus up. For instance, when the Sadducees tried to trick Jesus with the question about one woman marrying 7 brothers to deny the reality of life after death Jesus used a quote from Exodus, chapter 3, verse 6 to show them the error in their theology. The Sadducees insisted that there was no such thing as life after death and they denied the authority of the books of the Old Testament except for the Torah – the first five books. So, Jesus pointed out that even in one of the books they accepted, Exodus, God declared he was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What Jesus was illustrating was that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had to be alive because God used the present tense when he spoke of them. So, the point of Paul using the term machaira is … VK: No pun intended... RD: No pun intended – the point of Paul using the word machaira is that Paul simultaneously gave us evidence that he was using a culturally and historically appropriate reference to teach a spiritual truth – that God’s word may be used to deflect Satan’s attacks and temptation and it may also be used when we need to correct spiritual misunderstandings and beliefs no matter how sincerely those beliefs are held. The fact that Paul’s use of such culturally and historically illustrations in his teaching and preaching shows that he wrote and spoke during the time period that immediately followed Jesus’ earthly ministry. This is quite different from what many critics claim. There are times when Bible critics try to claim that the New Testament documents were written hundreds of years after the events they report. VK: You will sometimes hear critics say that the New Testament was created “hundreds of years” after the time period during which Jesus lived. And they will cite the fact that the early church councils that settled the content of the New Testament occurred in the Council of Hippo or the Council of Carthage. The Council of Hippo took place in 393 AD. The Council of Carthage took place in 397 AD. And since 301 AD to 400 AD was “the fourth century” they take some liberties and use the phrase “hundreds of years” after Christ to date the New Testament. RD: And it is true that in the Councils of Hippo and Carthage all 27 books that appear in our New Testament were affirmed as canonical. But that was not when the books, such as the Pauline epistles, were written. The best scholarship demonstrates that Paul’s epistles, as well as those of John and Peter, were written during the latter half of the 1st century AD – mere decades after Christ’s death. And that’s part of what we have been showing throughout this “Paul’s Places” series. VK: For instance, when we did our show on the epistle to the Galatians we pointed out that one of the issues Paul had to address in Galatians was that there was no need for anyone to first become a Jewish convert before becoming a Christian. At that point in the history of the church there was still some confusion, or deliberate distortion, about how to become an authentic Christian. There were agitators in some places that insisted that unless you were willing to follow Jewish requirements and customs that you couldn’t be a Christian. Paul forcefully rebuked this falsehood in the letter he wrote to the Galatians. Paul went so far as to call the Galatians who were being tempted to abandon the true gospel as being “foolish.” RD: Right. There would have been far less need to reject that false proposition – the heresy – that you had to first be a Jew to be a Christian once the church had been around for a few hundred years. There were other heresies that were circulating but by then the Judaizers assertions had largely faded from view. So, if someone had been trying to manufacture a fake epistle and attribute it to Paul in the late 4th century AD it is highly unlikely they would have used the Judaizer heresy as a primary subject of their fake. But in the latter half of the 1st century the stage of the development of the church made Paul’s observations in Galatians relevant. Even more so because from the book of Acts we know that even though Paul had personally preached in Galatia we do not have a record of him spending any lengthy period there. VK: You mean the way he did in Ephesus and Corinth. We are confident from Acts that Paul spent as much as 18 months continuously in Corinth and possibly up to 3 years continuously in Ephesus. RD: Yes. So, when you look within and across Paul’s epistles you see three things very clearly. First, Paul chooses the subjects for his epistles with a specific audience in mind. And he chooses the examples to illustrate his teaching very carefully – examples that will be particularly important to the local congregation with which he is communicating. VK: Such as Paul’s emphasis on the superiority of Christ to all other supposed sources of supernatural power and importance in the book of Ephesians. The temple of the goddess Diana was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and was found in Ephesus. Paul does not demean the local worship of Diana by name but simply asserts that “Christ rules there above all heavenly rulers, authorities, powers, and lords; he has a title superior to all titles of authority in this world and in the next. God put all things under Christ's feet and gave him to the church as supreme Lord over all things.” Those are verses 21 and 22 from chapter 1 of Ephesians from the Good News Translation. RD: And earlier in verses 18 through 20 of that same chapter Paul had said, “I ask that your minds may be opened to see his light, so that you will know what is the hope to which he has called you, how rich are the wonderful blessings he promises his people, and how very great is his power at work in us who believe. This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength which he used when he raised Christ from death and seated him at his right side in the heavenly world.” VK: In other words, Paul was assuring the Ephesians who had given up their worship of the prominent local goddess Diana that they were in fact not giving up anything. To the contrary Paul assures them that they had turned from the lesser to the greater. He assures them that any power they might have hoped to obtain from any goddess their neighbors might be worshipping was more than replaced by the authentic power of the authentic God. This was the power that literally raised Jesus from the dead. RD: Exactly. Now today we can all understand and take comfort from the words that Paul wrote to the Ephesians. The Bible is suitable for all people in all ages in all nations and tribes. But those words would have been particularly poignant and important to a group that had had their whole world rearranged when they first heard the gospel. At any rate the first thing that we will always see was that Paul always addressed specific subjects for his intended audience. He might have addressed a subject because he had received questions about it or he may have known something about the region or culture that necessitated he cover a particular topic. But in all of his epistles Paul always chooses the subjects for his epistles with a specific audience in mind. The second thing we see throughout Paul’s letters is that Paul’s language, subjects, examples, and references are all consistent with a composition date of the 2nd half of the first century AD and consistent with someone who had travelled widely within the Roman Empire. VK: Said differently, there are no anachronisms or historical inaccuracies in the Pauline epistles. When Paul wrote his epistles he wasn’t writing history per se. But as he used examples and analogies in his writing he couldn’t help but mention things that were a part of his readers’ lives and times. So, though he wasn’t writing history Paul couldn’t avoid the historical implications that are present in any letters of the kind he was writing. RD: Yes. For instance in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 32 and 33 Paul describes an incident that occurred shortly after his conversion. Paul says, “In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.” So, in a very off-hand kind of way Paul gives us an opportunity to check his historical accuracy. VK: Most commentators think Paul was converted to Christianity around 34 or 35 AD. Well we know from abundant historical sources that Aretas IV ruled the desert kingdom of Nabatea from 9 BC to 40 AD. In fact, Aretas IV was the most powerful king ever to rule Nabatea. Nabatea included southern Syria, Jordan, the Negev portion of Israel, the Sinai Peninsula and parts of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. His capital city was Petra which is in modern day Jordan. The portion of Syria over which Aretas had control includes Damascus. So, we know that this casual reference of Paul to a king who ruled over a city where his life was endangered is a historically accurate reference. RD: And Aretas had actually interacted with scriptural history in another way. One of Aretas’ daughter married Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas is well known in the gospels as the king who ruled in Galilee during Jesus and John the Baptist’s lifetime. Antipas actually divorced Aretas’ daughter and then married the wife of his half-brother Herod Philip I. John the Baptist denounced this marriage in the gospel of Mark, chapter 6, verse 18. This so enraged the wife that she later was able to get Antipas to order the execution of John the Baptist. Later Aretas attacked Antipas and destroyed his army – a defeat which Josephus said the Jews thought was divine retribution for Antipas’ murder of the Baptizer. VK: In other words, like the gears of a fine watch we see that scripture meshes very well with the history going on around it at the time. Are there any other observations of this type that you would like to make before we close? We don’t have a lot of time. RD: Yes. The third thing you see very clearly in Paul’s epistles is a concentration on Jesus. At times Paul would defend his own ministry but always to demonstrate that he had the qualifications to reveal to them profound truth – truth about Jesus. And Paul always displayed a keen understanding of the Jewish scriptures and how they revealed a picture of Jesus throughout. One reason that Paul may have displayed such a passion for truth and an awareness of scripture is because Paul was a student of Gamaliel. We only see Gamaliel revealed in two places in scripture. In Acts 5:34 and Acts 22:3. In Acts 22:3 Paul describes himself as having sat “at the feet of Gamaliel.” Gamaliel was one of the very few people who earned the title Rabban (“our master, our great one”) as opposed to the title Rabbi (“my master”). VK: And he was the Jewish leader who said in Acts chapter 5 that the Jews should be very careful in their dealings with the disciples after Jesus returned to heaven. His observation to his colleagues was that if the disciples were on a mission from God, fighting with them would be like fighting with God. That’s never a wise proposition. RD: Exactly. In all his letters Paul demonstrated a profound passion for showing how the Jewish scriptures not only foretold the appearance of the Messiah but the implications of that appearance. From Paul we get some of the clearest declarations of Jesus’ divinity and the fact that as the Son of God come in the flesh Jesus has the capability to save anyone who will place their trust in him. In his letters Paul displays a concentration on Jesus but always with a few toward why that is such good news for us – for Jesus’ people. So, again this is an amazing display of how scripture always weaves an awareness of the supernatural realm but brings that awareness into sharp focus for how it gives us better lives. VK: And, as you often say, one of the Bible’s main attributes is that it shows us how heaven and earth fit together. The first verse of the Bible says that, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And the rest of the Bible shows us how those two realms continue to not only exist along side each other but how they interact with one another. At times that interaction is dramatic as when God came to earth in the form of a man. The second person of the Trinity came to earth, walked among us for a little over 30 years, and then finally ascended back to heaven. But that trip was the most important one of all time because it made our eternal salvation possible. RD: Amen. VK: Well, that’s a good place to end for today. This “Paul’s Places” series is all about helping people see more clearly that the Pauline epistles, the letters contained in the New Testament written by the Apostle Paul, are exactly what they claim to be. They are letters written by one of Christianity’s first evangelical preachers to convey important truths to those who had begun to place their trust in Jesus. Those letters most certainly assert Christ’s divinity but far from that assertion being some kind of myth it is backed up by solid historical evidence and testimony. Let’s close with prayer as we always do. Today let’s listen to a prayer of confession for our sins. The Bible tells us that when we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us of those sins. So, confession is not only good for our souls it is a good way to ensure that we may always go boldly into God’s presence to present our needs. ---- PRAYER OF CORPORATE CONFESSION VK: Before we close we’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes in this series or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Opening Bible Quotes from the New Living Translation) 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 3 through 8, New Living Translation paultanner.org/English Docs/SpecialArt/Pauline Chronology.pdf

'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)

'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)

Today we introduce the background to Galatians. Join in your bibles in Acts as we put this New Testament letter into perspective; showing Paul's attempts to combat one of the more rampant problems in the first century. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Galatians 2:15-16 ESV 15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. 15 Tayo mismo ay ipinanganak na mga Judio, at hindi mga Hentil na makasalanan,16 at nalalaman natin na ang tao ay hindi inaaring-ganap sa pamamagitan ng mga gawa ng kautusan, kundi sa pamamagitan ng pananampalataya kay Jesu-Cristo, at tayo ay sumasampalataya kay Cristo Jesus, upang ariing-ganap sa pamamagitan ng pananampalataya kay Cristo, at hindi sa pamamagitan ng mga gawa ng kautusan, sapagkat sa pamamagitan ng mga gawa ng kautusan ay hindi aariing-ganap ang sinumang laman. BEING JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. Although Paul was born a Jew, he didn't take it as an advantage over the Gentiles. The ‘Judaizer company' had insisted that Gentiles should observe the Mosaic law in order to be justified before God. However, Paul had emphasized clearly that they were “to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” Justification simply means the state of being declared righteous before God. It's solely rests by faith upon the sacrifice of Christ at the cross and His resurrection. It's not by observing the law. It's not even observing the law on top of our faith in Christ. In the book of Romans, Paul had exemplified the life of Abraham. He said, “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in[a] him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” [Rom 4:1-5] Was the sacrifice of Christ insufficient for the atonement of our sins? Did He not shout “It is finished” to manifest its completeness or perfection of His sacrifice for our sins? Adding anything to Christ's sacrifice is an insult, is it not? Thus, to be declared righteous before God is by faith upon the grace in Christ alone plus nothing else. And, this could be received by our sincere repentance from sin and trust in Christ. For “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men[c] by which we must be saved.”[Acts 4:12] Have you received Jesus as your Savior as yet? “ We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”[2 Cor 5:20b,21] ------------------------- Visit and FOLLOW Gospel Light Filipino on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram

'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)   Ethiopia is still a Christian nation, surrounded by Islamic states. The late Emperor Haile Selasse's name means, in Ethiopian, "Power of the Trinity."

Paul returns to Antioch certain that he is on the right track in announcing the Kingdom of God to the Gentiles and asking them to simply believe in Jesus with nothing else added. Peter helps assure Paul of his ministry. All is good until Peter comes for a visit. Sadly Peter is followed by others who disagree with the decision reached in Jerusalem. For this Judaizer group Faith in Jesus for the Gentiles must include obedience to the Jewish law of circumcision. Peter is so intimidated By this group he draws back from the Gentiles and is swept into hypocrisy.Do we recognize similar pressures today? And if so, what are we to do?

As Paul punctuates his case for justification by faith alone he reaches for an Old Testament story and a single Greek term. The OT story is taken from the Genesis narrative regarding Abraham's 2 primary sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Paul says these 2 sons represent two different ways of seeking justification, through works or by faith alone. For Paul, Isaac and his mother Sarah illustrate the great theological principle at stake- liberty versus slavery. While the way of Ishmael points to the Judaizer's false gospel and its bondage, the way of Isaac points justification apart from works and its attendant gospel freedom. This message expounds the Biblical meaning of Christian liberty and the solemn calling it presents to every believer to boldly make their stand in it.

'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)   Ethiopia is still a Christian nation, surrounded by Islamic states. The late Emperor Haile Selasse's name means, in Ethiopian, "Power of the Trinity."

J.K. McKee of Messianic Apologetics discusses how the term “Judaizer” is theologically and socially loaded—but how the Scriptures themselves might actually present something different than what is commonly considered. The post Who Were the Judaizers? – Messianic Insider appeared first on Messianic Apologetics.

'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)   Ethiopia is still a Christian nation, surrounded by Islamic states. The late Emperor Haile Selasse's name means, in Ethiopian, "Power of the Trinity."

'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)   Ethiopia is still a Christian nation, surrounded by Islamic states. The late Emperor Haile Selasse's name means, in Ethiopian, "Power of the Trinity."

Here Paul introduces his second illustration to emphasize the distinction between the 'justification by faith alone' gospel and the notion of works enabled salvation. Having introduced the picture of a guardian/child relationship, to represent the telos of the law, he now cites contrasts from the biography of Abraham's 2 sons: Isaac and Ishmael as an allegory of the true gospel vs. the Judaizer's heresy which was infecting Galatia. Sarah was the wife of promise. God had spoken that she would bear a son and thus fulfill God's prophecy to Abraham that he would be the father on many nations. However, Sarah was barren and the promise was slow to materialize, seemingly impossible through her. Jamieson, Faucet, and Brown comment: “After having sufficiently maintained his point by argument, the apostle confirms and illustrates it by an inspired allegorical exposition of historical facts, containing in them general laws and types. Perhaps his reason for using allegory was to confute the Judaizers with their own weapons... Paul meets them with an allegorical exposition – not the word of fancy - but sanctioned by the Holy Spirit. The history of the elect people, like their legal ordinances, had besides the literal, a typical meaning...”

A Judaizer in the Scriptures is not what many today seem to think they are or were. It’s time to unpack the historical context and discover who true “Judaizers” are. https://www.119ministries.com/helping-119/supporting-119/ Follow the above link to partner with 119 Ministries and support ongoing free teaching production: If you would like to discuss this video with us, we invite you to join the discussion on the teaching page found on our website here: http://119ministries.com/judaizers or reach us privately through the Contact Us form on our website: http://119ministries.com/contact-us Thank you so much for your continued and prayerful support. May YHWH bless you and keep you. Shalom

Christians living an up and down Christian life may have fallen for the Judaizer trap. The Apostle Paul delivers a corrected perspective on the past, a short, sweet, and effective course of action for the present, to correct our perspective on the future. Bible teacher and truthforsaints.com author, Andrew Hamilton, discusses Philippians chapter 3 verses 7 through 14 underscoring Paul's attitude toward the past and his mindset for the future and what Paul does to "press on" despite his own successes and failures.

This is the twelfth class on the book of Hebrews. This Bible class was taught at the Pilot Point Church in Pilot Point Texas. The following is the outline of the class. Our Greatest Assurance of Salvation GOD’S WARNING Hebrews Chapter 6:4-8 Hebrews 6(NASB) 1.For in the case of those who have once been enlightened 2. And have tasted of the heavenly gift 3. And have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 4. And have tasted the good word of God 5. And the powers of the age to come, 6. And then have fallen away, 7. It is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. Different categories of falling away 1.Apostate = someone who leaves Christ for another savior 2. Judaizer = someone who wants to hold on to Christ and Judaism 3. Backslider = someone who leaves Christ to go back into the world 4. Unloving Christian = someone who does not love the brethren 5. False teacher = someone who knowingly perverts a gospel tenet about Jesus 6. Lukewarm Christian = don’t care, selfish Christians GOD’S MEMORY – OUR ENCOURAGEMENT Verses 9-12 9But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.10For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. 11And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, 12so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Malachi 3 (NIV) 16Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name. 17“On the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not. Hebrews (NASB) 9But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.10For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. 11And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, 12so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Good Works Ephesians 2:10 - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. James 2:18 - Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. James 2:26 - For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Hebrews 13:16 - But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Hebrews (NASB) 9But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.10For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. 11And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, 12so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Matthew 25 31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. The goats on his left. 34“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40“The King will reply, ‘truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Hebrews (NASB)9But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.10For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. 11And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, 12so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. GREATEST ASSURANCE OF SALVATION Verses 13-20 Hebrews 6 (NASB) 13For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14saying, “I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.” 15And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. 16For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. 17In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, Hebrews 6 (NASB) 13For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14saying, “I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.” 15And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. 16For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. 17In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, Hebrews 6 (NASB) 13For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14saying, “I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.” 15And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. 16For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. 17In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, The heirs of the promise Galatians 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise Hebrews 6 (NASB) 13For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14saying, “I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.” 15And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. 16For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. 17In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, Hebrews 6 (NASB) 17In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, 18so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.19This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, 20where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. 17For it is attested of Him, “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.”  18For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness 19(for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. 20And inasmuch as it was not without an oath 21(for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, “THE LORD HAS SWORN AND WILL NOT CHANGE HIS MIND, ‘YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER’”); Hebrews 6 (NASB) 17In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, 18so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.19This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, 20where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. 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This is the eleventh class on the book of Hebrews. This Bible class was taught at the Pilot Point Church in Pilot Point Texas. The following is the outline of the class. God's Most Frightening Warning Hebrews 6 (NASB) 6 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. 3And this we will do, if God permits. GOD’S WARNING Hebrews Chapter 6:4-8 A 4For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. Hebrews 6(NASB) 4For in the case of those who have once been enlightened 2. and have tasted of the heavenly gift 3. and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 4. 5and have tasted the good word of God 5. and the powers of the age to come, 6. 6and then have fallen away, 7. it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. Hebrews 6(NASB) 4For in the case of those who have once been enlightened 2. and have tasted of the heavenly gift Hebrews 2 (NASB) 9But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Hebrews 6(NASB) For in the case of those who have once been enlightened 2. and have tasted of the heavenly gift 3. and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” Galatians 4:6 4. 5and have tasted the good word of God 5. and the powers of the age to come, 6. 6and then have fallen away, 7. it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. IN CHRIST 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace • EPH 1 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38 4You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. Galatians 5:4 3You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. John 15 Calvinism Hebrews 6(NASB) 4For in the case of those who have once been enlightened 2. and have tasted of the heavenly gift 3. and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 4. 5and have tasted the good word of God 5. and the powers of the age to come, 6. 6and then have fallen away, 7. it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. Different categories of falling away 1.Apostate= someone who leaves Christ for another savior it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame 2. Judaizer= someone who wants to hold on to Christ and Judaism Galatians 5 (NASB) 1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. 2Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 4You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. Different categories of falling away Apostate= someone who leaves Christ for another savior 2. Judaizer= someone who wants to hold on to Christ and Judaism 3. Backslider= someone who leaves Christ to go back into the world 2 Peter 2 (NASB) 20For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. 22It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.” You can restore a Christian caught in sin. Galatians 6:1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Different categories of falling away Apostate= someone who leaves Christ for another savior 2. Judaizer= someone who wants to hold on to Christ and Judaism 3. Backslider= someone who leaves Christ to go back into the world 4. Unloving Christian = someone who does not love the brethren -----1 John3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 1 Corinthians 3(NIV) 16Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. Different categories of falling away Apostate= someone who leaves Christ for another savior 2. Judaizer= someone who wants to hold on to Christ and Judaism 3. Backslider= someone who leaves Christ to go back into the world 4. Unloving Christian = someone who does not love the brethren 5. False teacher = someone who knowingly perverts a gospel tenet about Jesus Galatians (NASB) 8But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! The 5 Great Points of the Gospel: Incarnation 2. Cross 3. Resurrection 4. Ascension 5. Second Coming Different categories of falling away Apostate= someone who leaves Christ for another savior 2. Judaizer= someone who wants to hold on to Christ and Judaism 3. Backslider= someone who leaves Christ to go back into the world 4. Unloving Christian = someone who does not love the brethren 5. False teacher = someone who knowingly perverts a gospel tenet about Jesus 6. Lukewarm Christian = don’t care, selfish Christians Revelation 3:14-19 (NASB) 14“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: • The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the [a] Beginning of the creation of God, says this: • 15‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will [b]spit you out of My mouth. 17Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. IN CHRIST 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace • EPH 1 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38 Hebrews 6(NASB) 4For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.  You can restore a Christian caught in sin. Galatians 6:1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Hebrews 6 (NASB) 6and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. 7For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; 8but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. Subscribe to the podcast: {Apple Podcasts}{Stitcher}{Google Play}{IHeartRadio}

Lewis and Clark Bible Church

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT - There will come a day, and I look forward to that day more and more as time goes on, when this statement will come true, "There will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain." Aren't you yearning for that day? "No more death, mourning, crying and pain." And then, as the verse continues, "For the old order of things has passed away." And the very next verse, Revelation 21:5, says, "Behold, I am making everything new." Isn't that awesome? God is at work, even now, making everything new, transforming everything. Now, I read in a book some time ago, that, "The most powerful single event on Earth is a fully mature hurricane." And the individual who made that statement did a scientific analysis of the energy of a fully mature hurricane, compared it to the power of the nuclear arsenal of the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and found that it was less. "The most powerful single event on the surface of the Earth is a fully mature hurricane." Alright, fine, that's what the scientists, the meteorologists, would tell us. That would put them in their heyday, to be able to say that. But can I add one word? Let's just add one word. The most powerful single physical event on Earth is a mature hurricane. I would say that the most powerful event on Earth is not physical, but spiritual. It is the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then the effect on the heart of an individual under the influence of the Holy Spirit who hears that Gospel, and is transformed from death to life. That is the most powerful moment on Earth." And isn't it interesting that the most powerful physical event on Earth is destructive? But the most powerful spiritual event on Earth is way beyond constructive, it brings life, even eternal life. Isn't that God's way? And so, as we stand on Earth today, and as we look out, and we see all the glory, and the beauty of this physical world. How many of us have been to national parks, or to scenic coastlines, or to mountains, or different places, and you can think, even now, of the images of beauty that flow in. And the Scripture tells us that this world, physically, is under a curse. Because of Adam's sin, the world is groaning in some sense, groaning for liberation from the chains, the bondage that's on this physical order. Because of sin, the world is in bondage to decay and futility. We can see that, not just in hurricanes, but in all of the natural disasters, and erosion, and all of those things, and then we can see it in our own bodies as we age, and we can see it in friends or ourselves as we have dreaded diseases, or even as we face death, we know that the physical creation is groaning and yearning for the new creation. "The most powerful event on earth is not physical, but spiritual. It is the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then the effect on the heart of an individual under the influence of the Holy Spirit who hears that Gospel, and is transformed from death to life." But God is at work in this world, making everything new. And the theologians use this language of "already" and "not yet," and I want to apply that to what I want to talk about, as a centerpiece of my message today, the new creation. There is a sense in which the new creation is already here, and there's a sense in which it's not here yet, and it's already here in the souls of the redeemed. It's already here in the body of Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead. In those ways, it's already here, but in every other way, it's not here yet, but it's coming, and that should make us joyful, amen. Then we should be filled with hope and filled with joy that someday the King seated on His throne will say, "It's finished. There's no more death. Death is gone forever. There's no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain. It's gone. The old things are done." But now, we yearn while we're still in the old order of things, and we still feel physical pain, and we're still seeing people die, and it's still breaking our hearts. And we understand the current events, and we look at this, and we say, "Well, it's not here yet." But still, we should be filled with hope, because the Gospel is at work. It's at work secretly around the world. Jesus told an incredible parable about, the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s like yeast that a woman took in and hid. She encrypted it, she hid the yeast in a large amount of flour, until little by little, secretly, it permeated the whole dough, and the dough rose, and it was ready to bake. So, the Gospel, for 20 centuries, in a hidden, secret way, has been permeating this world and doing its secret work. You can't see it with your eyes, though you can see the fruit of it. You can see the fruit in a Christian's life, in a transformed life, you can see that. But the real work of transformation is internal, it's hidden, it's spiritual, and the power for that transformation is the Gospel. As Paul says in Romans 1:16, "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. First for the Jew, and then for the Gentile." It also says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "If anyone is in Christ, [what?] he is a new creation." The old is gone. Behold, everything has become new. And that's an awesome thing. And so, today, for the last time, I get to preach from the Book of Galatians, the last section of Galatians. I think the clearest, careful articulation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Bible is found in the Book of Romans, but I think the second clearest is here in Galatians. And some of the very same themes that shine, and are elaborated on in Romans, are sketched out a little more briefly here in the Book of Galatians, and so we have a chance to look at it. Again, remember the context of Galatians, why the Apostle Paul wrote it so many centuries ago. Paul was a frontier, trail blazing, church planting apostle to the Gentiles. He resolved to go over the Gospel, had never been proclaimed before, so he wouldn't be building on someone else's foundation, and he was brought in due time to the region of Galatia, modern-day Turkey, and preached the Gospel there. And with tremendous effectiveness too he left behind him a trail of churches there in that region of beautiful, Gospel-centered healthy churches, and he left, and went on with his work. But sometime after he left, some false teachers came, Jewish men who claimed to be followers of Christ, and claimed to be preaching the Gospel of Christ, but they weren't. They were preaching a toxic, poisonous mixture of faith in Jesus, plus obedience to the law of Moses, equals salvation from sin. And so Paul heard about this, was devastated by it, and wrote Galatians back to those churches, to try to win them back to the true gospel. And so in Galatians 1, Paul writes to express his tremendous chagrin, his grief that in such a short amount of time, they've turned their back on the true gospel, and turned to what he calls, "Another gospel, which truly is no gospel at all." Gospel means good news. It's not good news that you can earn your salvation by perfect obedience to the law. How is that good news? It's not. And so he wrote to them saying, "It's no Ggospel at all." And "if even we, or an angel from heaven, if anyone should come to you, and ever preach a different gospel, let him be eternally condemned." And Paul then goes on in Galatians 1, and on into Galatians 2, to give his own history with the gospel, how God worked in his life. You know the incredible story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, and how he was, we would have to say, the least likely convert in the world the day that he was converted, and how God called him out of darkness into light, the light of the resurrected glory of Jesus that met him on the road to Damascus and changed everything for him. And God, at that moment, called him into his service, and gave him instruction in the Gospel. And he wasn't taught the gospel by any man. He wasn't handed it by the apostles. No one told him. It was just Christ, through the Spirit, instructed him in the true gospel, and he began to preach it right away in Damascus, and then after some time, in Arabia, as he had time to meditate on the gospel, and understand more fully its nature, its doctrines, its implications. He was unleashed into Satan's world, and started preaching the gospel with great conviction, and boldness, and power. And yes, he met the apostles in Jerusalem. They shook his hand, gave him the right hand to fellowship. They saw that God was at work in him among the Gentiles, the same way he was at work in them among the Jewish churches, and they were on the same team. They weren't preaching a different message. And then, in the middle of Galatians 2, he makes it very plain what that message is. The heart of the gospel is justification by faith alone apart from works of the law. That's the heart of the Gospel. How can a sinner be made right with God? How can we, who have violated the laws of God, stand holy and blameless in the sight of such a Holy God? His eyes are like blazing fire. His feet are like burnished bronze. We cannot survive Judgment Day without an atoning sacrifice, without forgiveness from Almighty God. And so, in the middle of Galatians 2, he says, "We know. We Jewish believers know. We've come to the conviction that we are not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ alone." It's the only thing. And so to try to mix in the laws of Moses, it's poisonous. And that's what these Judaizers were doing. They were the ones in Acts 15:1-5, you can see what they were saying. "‘The Gentiles must be circumcised, and required to keep the law of Moses,’ and unless you," he said that they would say to the Gentile converts, "Unless you are circumcised, and unless you obey the law of Moses, you cannot be saved. You're going to hell if you don't follow meticulously the ceremonial laws of Moses, all the laws. You will not be saved." Well, Paul says, "We Jewish Christians know that that's not true. We know that a man, a woman, a boy or girl, no one is justified except by simple faith in Jesus." That's the doctrine of justification by faith alone and that's the centerpiece of it. And then, in Galatians 3, and on into 4, he supports this from the Old Testament. He supports it from the example of Abraham, who believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. That's the Gospel. It's been the same all the way through. No sinner has ever been made right by obedience to the law. That's the nature of legalism, by the way. That's what it is. You know you've sinned. You've violated the Law of God. You know that. What do you do about it? Legalism says what you do about it is obey the law. Present and or future obedience to the law will atone for past disobedience to the law. That's legalism. But that cannot be true. It isn't true. And so Paul does an incredible job in Galatians 3 of unfolding how this has been the Gospel all along. Old Testament saints looked ahead to Christ crucified and resurrected. We New Testament saints, we look back by faith to the same. But it's always been the same. Individuals have always been justified by faith apart from works of the law. That's the Gospel. He does an incredible job defending it and unfolding it. Now, the most obvious thing we can think about, is if we're justified by faith in Christ, and not by works, then it doesn't matter how we live, they would say. If we're completely forgiven, apart from works, then we can, as he says in Romans, "Go on sinning, so that grace may increase." He deals with that in Galatians a little differently by talking about the war between the flesh and the spirit. When you become a Christian, you're born again, you're made a new creation by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And the Holy Spirit enters you, you are adopted as a son or daughter of the living God, and you become a temple of the living God. He says in 1 Corinthians 6, that this indwelling Spirit is mighty against wickedness and evil. And he takes that law, the moral Law of God, which is summarized in this way, "Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself, and writes it on your heart, if you're genuinely born again." And then by the power of the Spirit, he works out a whole new kind of life, in which you hate wickedness, you hate evil, you hate violation and transgression of the law, and yet, the whole time, you know you're forgiven, even if you should sin. That's beautiful, that's Christianity. You know you're justified by faith, not by works. When you sin, you don't try to go off and do good works. You go back to the cross, you go back to faith, and repent, and you ask for cleansing. Yet you live an increasingly holy life, in which the fruit of the Spirit is on display in your life. That, dear friends, as I've said, is your best life now. Apologies to anybody that might have used that phrase before, but that is your best life now. That is the fruit of the Spirit, Amen. That's the best you can ever do, doing the works of God, filled with the Spirit, characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. That's what the Spirit works in you, not the wicked acts of the flesh. It's genuine Christianity, that's what he's been saying in Galatians. At some point, I’ll begin today's sermon, so at some point. But that's a summary of the Book of Galatians, that's what Paul has been saying, that's the Gospel. Isn't that good news, that you can and are forgiven, simply by faith, and not by works? It'll never be your works that makes you right with God, but only faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. But now, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, and we're able to live an increasingly holy life, bringing forth fruit, and keeping with repentance, and living a godly life. I. Peace and Mercy Promised to those Who Walk by a Rule (verse 16) Now, here at the end, he's going to back to some of these themes again, one more time, and if you hadn't heard any of the preaching before in Galatians, if this is your first Sunday here, it wouldn't make much sense. Circumcision doesn't mean anything. Uncircumcision, what is that? Well, now you understand what he means by that. The Judaizers, these false teachers were saying, "You had to be circumcised in order to be saved. You have to follow the law of Moses," and now, Paul is going to address that. So let's begin right in the middle, in verse 16, he's going to promise peace and mercy to a category of people in verse 16. Its an infinitely rich treasure, "peace and mercy with God are given to all who follow a certain rule." That's what he says in verse 16, even "to the Israel of God." So how valuable is peace with God? How valuable is that, to know that, not only just that you're at peace with God, and have peaceful feelings in your heart, and your relationship with God? That's a good thing. It's a good thing to have a clear conscience. It's a good thing to be freed from guilt. That's a good thing. It's the better thing for God to be at peace with you. And in the Gospel, if you have been justified by faith in Jesus, you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. God is at peace with you. How awesome is that? And not only that, but he talks about mercy, the mercy of God, which Lamentation says, "God's mercies are new every morning." God continues to lavish mercy on you, to not treat you as your sins deserve, to give you healing of your diseases, to give you blessings that you don't deserve. God just pouring out peace and mercy on you, and that's the blessing, the benediction that he gives, peace and mercy to all who follow a rule, who walk by or live by a certain rule. That's what it literally says, "Peace and mercy to all who walk by this rule." 'Walk' means live your daily life in light of, minute details of how you live your life, how you get up, how you go back down to bed, and everything in between, how you eat, how you dress, how you speak, everything, just how you walk. That's what 'walk' means, how you live, minutely, your daily life. "Peace and mercy to you who walk by a certain rule." Now, the word 'rule' is in the Greek 'kanon,' from which we get the 'canon,' etcetera. It means a rule or measurement of what's right, a certain standard, there's a certain rule that's laid down, this particular rule. Now, what is that rule? Well, you'll have to go back one verse, look at verse 15, "Neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision means anything." Neither one means anything, it doesn't matter. What counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to everyone who walks according to that. That's what he's saying. So those are the Christians, those are the ones who understand that the only thing that matters is a new creation, and peace and mercy to you, if you understand that. This is the rule. And so do you understand that all that matters is a new creation? And the key thing is, how do you understand your standing with God? How do you deal with your sin? What do you do when you feel guilty? When you know you violated the laws of God, what are you reverting to? Are you trusting in... There's basically two religions that are in the world, self-salvation through obeying some moral standard. That's one version. And the other is salvation by sovereign grace, through the finished work of Christ on the cross. Those are the two options. Self-salvation, there are a lot of versions of that. But John MacArthur used an image that I thought was helpful. It's kind of like this, like walking through a supermarket, and there's all these packages, and all of this different colorful trappings, but you open it up, and it's the same tasteless, death-producing sawdust inside each one of those world religions. They're all the same, even though they have different outside packages. It's self-salvation by living according to a certain moral standard that they tell you. But we Christians, we know that that doesn't work. There's no way you can live up to it. There's no way you can use it to atone for past sins. God didn't approve of it. The only law he ever gave to the world, which is approved, is the law of Moses, and he said that it will not save you. All the rest is just man-made laws, and they certainly won't save you. There's only two options: Self-salvation or salvation by grace through faith in Christ. That's it. And if you understand that, and if you have, in fact, been made a new creation by repentance and faith in Christ, you're going to live according to that. You are free to live out that freedom, a freedom from wickedness and evil, a freedom to serve others, and to love, and to be characterized by the fruit of the Spirit. You are going to walk according to that rule, that's salvation. "Peace and mercy to you," that's what he's saying, "Who walk according to the understanding that all that matters is a new creation." II. Glorying in the Flesh (verses 11-13) I've gone to the center, let's go back to the beginning now, and look. Verse 11, "See what large letters I use, as I write to you with my own hand?" Why does he do that? Well, first of all, I believe the Book of Galatians is pouring from Paul's heart like red lava. He is so passionate in this book. You can read all of his Epistles, I don't think you'll find any other Epistle that has as much passion, and as much love, but also, you can sense some frustration. He just says harsh things in it that are surprising sometimes. And I think and scholars tell us that (and you can find it), generally Paul dictated his letters to a secretary who would write it down. I love it when Tertius slips his own name in there in Romans. Who wrote the Book of Romans? "I, Tertius did." Alright. It's real good stuff, isn't it? Well, he... It was Paul that dictated it, but here at the end, it seems like he grabs the pen and he writes in big letters. And they say that probably it's because he had problems with his eyesight, maybe from the scales that fell from his eyes, we don't really know, but it's possible that he had trouble, that this was the thorn in the flesh, or this was the illness that led him to Galatia. He said in Galatians 4 that they would have torn out their eyes to give them to him. So it's an odd statement if he... Well it makes sense if he had some problem with his eyes. So, what he's saying here is, "I'm writing this, so you know I wrote this." This has the mark of authenticity, but more than that, it has the mark of passion. It's like big font here. "This is how I write with my own hand," he says. And then, he makes his final passionate attack on the Judaizers in verses 12-13. Look at it, "Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh." This is one last time to go at these Judaizers. "Those who want to make a good impression outwardly," he calls them. The essence of their message to the Galatians, these Gentile converts, is compulsion to be circumcised. They're trying to compel you to be circumcised, that's the thing. "Unless you are circumcised, you cannot be saved," that's compulsion. It's not an option for them, trying to force them in this matter. That's their doctrine. And these are the ones who are trying to make a good impression outwardly, and we'll talk about that in a moment, but they are glorying in the flesh, they preach the Gospel that they do, which is no Gospel at all, the gospel of works, so that they may glory in the flesh, or glory in your flesh, in particular, alright? They're yearning to boast or to glory in the flesh. Now, the 'flesh' means unaided human effort, self-effort, your own native abilities. They want to boast in that. Now, God hates all of this self-effort toward salvation, he hates it. He's not going to spend eternity listening to it. He will not. As it says in many places, "Let him who boast, boast in the Lord," Amen. We're going to be saved in such a way that we will be completely stripped of all arrogance. All arrogance will be stripped. Zephaniah 3:11 says, "On that day, you will not be put to shame," is Judgment Day, I think. "On that day, you will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me." Wow. What a statement. Why not? Because of the atoning work of Jesus. And then, he says later, in that same verse, "Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill." So, when he's done saving us, we're not to be haughty, we're not to be arrogant, we are to be so humbled, so humbled, and we're to boast in the Lord. Now, what are the goals of these Judaizers? Goal number one is to make a good impression outwardly. That's what they do. They look good on the outside. Do you remember how Jesus, in Matthew 23, says, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like white-washed tombs. You look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, you're full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside, you appear to people as righteous, but inside, you're full of hypocrisy and wickedness." Well, our God, the God of the Bible looks at the heart. And there is no way the external appearance of goodness is going to save you on Judgment Day. There's no way. That's why we say, "What counts is a new creation." You have to be made new from the inside and that's something you cannot do. You could as easily do open heart surgery on yourself, as take out your own heart of stone and give yourself a heart of flesh. They are equally possible, namely they are impossible. You can't transform yourself from the inside, but God can. Amen? But these folks just want to make a good impression on the outside. They're looking good. They're shiny, and moral, and nice, and all of that, but they are wicked inside. Their second motive, he says, is to avoid persecution. Later Paul will get to the marks on His body, but they don't want to be beaten up. And if any one of them should defect from that Pharisaism, that Judaizer tendency, they will get ravaged by the pack of wolves that's going after them, going after Paul, that was making life miserable for him. They don't want that. They don't want to be persecuted for the cross of Christ, and so they preach this Judaizers' doctrine. And he says very plainly in verse 13 that they don't obey the law either, truth be told. Look at it in verse 13, "Not even those who are circumcised obey the law." They're not keeping the law. No one is. No one is keeping the law perfectly. Remember we said that. Remember Galatians 3:10? There it says, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in this book of the law." All the law, all the time, or full condemnation. That's what you get with the law. And no one can survive that. He says in verse 13 here, "Not even those who are circumcised keep the law. "They're all hypocrites. If anyone stands and says, "I am perfectly keeping the law of God," he or she is a hypocrite. It's not true. III. Glorying in the Cross (verse 14) And then, we get to that glorious verse 14 that we talked about last week, "But God forbid, [or may it never be], that I should ever glory or boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." So, Paul, and we talked about this at length last week, so I don't need to go into it much now, but Paul makes this serious pledge, "I pledge, myself, that I will never boast in anything in myself, except this, I'll talk this way. I am, you all know my resume, I am the one whose life led to the crucifixion of Jesus. That's who I am. My actions, my thoughts, my motives led to the death of Jesus. I'll boast in that. Or I'll boast in the fact that Jesus took that punishment from me. That's what I'll start to boast in. There's nothing to boast in about me. There's nothing to talk about. I'm sinful, but Jesus took away my condemnation. So, may I never boast in anything about myself. I'm not going to glory in my flesh. I'm going to glory in Jesus." And we talked about that last week. "By whom [he says] the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I to the world." We didn't talk about that much last week, but what does that mean? Well, basically, because I have been crucified with Christ, Galatians 2:20, because of that union, because I've been transformed in the way I think, I now see the world differently than I ever did before. I see the pleasures, and the powers, and the philosophies, and the possessions of this world differently. That looks like a corpse on a cross to me. It's just disgusting. It's not appealing to me. It's worthless to some degree. That's how the world now looks to me. I don't want anything of that. "If Satan were to offer me," Paul would say, "The whole world, all of its glories, I wouldn't turn away from Christ and from the Gospel to receive it, just as Jesus didn't. The world has been crucified to me. And conversely, I've been crucified to the world. So, when the world looks at me, it looks on me as someone worthless." Now, this is true of Paul and it's more and more true of people who boldly step out to challenge Satan's kingdom. It's not necessarily true of every Christian. We will be increasingly despised the more counter-culturally we stand up for Jesus. The more you step out in faith, the more you boldly preach the Gospel, the more you challenge wickedness in this world, the more the world will hate on you and see you as crucified, as worthless. That's what Paul's saying, but that was true of Paul, for sure. "All that matters," he says, "Is a new creation." "We will be increasingly despised the more counter-culturally we stand up for Jesus." IV. All That Matters: A New Creation (verses 14-15) Look again at verse 15, "Neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation." Now, if you look back, maybe one page, maybe you have to flip in your Bible, but look back at Galatians 5:6. He makes a similar statement there, but it's a little different, similar, but different. There in Galatians 5:6, he says, "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith working through love." We wouldn't look on these as contradictory, but they complement each other. They work together, okay? What counts? Circumcision, uncircumcision doesn't matter. But what matters is faith working through love, faith in Jesus, producing good works. In Galatians 6:15, he says, what counts is a new creation. Friends, it's the same thing, just different ways of saying the same thing. When you hear the Gospel and the Holy Spirit saves you, works in you, transforms you, you are made into a new creation. Your faith is then going to start working out in love. You're going to start loving God with works of love toward God, works of obedience towards His Law. You're going to going to start working out with love toward neighbors, toward brothers and sisters, Christians. You're going to start... It's going to be a life of works, faith working through love. That is the new creation life. I just want to stop and ask. Has that happened to you? Is that characterizing you? Can you honestly say, as you look in the mirror that is the law, you look in the Scripture, "I am a new creation by the sovereign grace of God." Can you honestly say that? Some of you... Most of you should be able to say, "Yes." There's no pride in it, I don't think, pride in it. It's just God did this to you. But has he done it? Maybe you're just a guest, a visitor here today. Maybe you're here for the first time. Maybe you're a college student. Maybe you're a senior adult. You might be a visiting scholar. I don't know who you are. But the question I want to ask is, are you a new creation through belief in Christ? Is faith working itself out in love in your life? Has everything been made new? Like 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Everything's been transformed." Are you a new creation? Have you trusted in Christ? And if not, I plead with you now, repent and believe. Trust in Him. Look to Christ crucified and resurrected. Believe that he died for you, for you personally. And that if he hadn't, you'd deserve hell. But he did, so you don't have to go to hell. You can believe in him and have forgiveness. To me, I think that's the point of the Galatians, indeed of all of Scripture, to take someone from lost, dead in their transgressions and sins, to alive forever in Jesus. Has that happened to you? Now someday… Someday, there will be a finished work in the physical universe. The new creation's coming. Isn't that amazing? Think about it. You can read about it in Revelation 21 and 22, when there'll be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, first described by the Prophet Isaiah. And that's where we're going next, God willing, in preaching. I can't wait. Some of you have been waiting for Isaiah 40 for a long time, so we'll get to it. One dear brother said, when I stopped at Isaiah 39, of all things, said, "You brought us to Christmas Eve, but we didn't get Christmas. When are we going to get Christmas?" Christmas for you, if that's what you mean, is coming, God willing, next week, but we're going very, very soon to this. But in Isaiah 65 and 66, for the first time, we have this phrase, "New Heaven and new Earth." Second Peter calls it, "The home of righteousness." Revelation 21-22 says it's a perfect world, free from all corruption, death, mourning, crying, and pain. Romans 8 says that it is liberated from its bondage to decay. It's going to be beautiful. I believe it'll be very much look like the world we live in now. It's not gonna be some weird sci-fi type place. Sorry to disappoint some of you. But it's going to be like this place, only without the corruption, and the decay, and bondage of sin. And how beautiful will it be? And you will be, if you're redeemed, you will be in resurrection bodies, free from all misery, free from aging, free from death, and you will love being there. And that's where we're heading. That's the end of the new creation and we get there only through faith in Christ. V. An Amazing New Definition of “Israel” (verse 16) Now, I want to finish by looking at this amazing new definition of Israel. He says there, "Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God." I'm going to follow that translation. Some translations give you the sense that there are two different blessings he's given, Peace and mercy to the Christians, and then peace and mercy also to the Israel of God. And that's a possible translation, a possible interpretation. But it would fly in the face of everything he's doing in this book. Hasn't he told us Gentiles that we are children of Abraham? Hasn't he told us that through Christ, all of the promises and the covenants in Abraham are fulfilled in us? Aren't we told in other places that the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile has been destroyed by the body of Christ, and now, all those rules and regulations, including circumcision, that separate us are gone? And now, there's this one new man, that's one new person in Christ, that's Ephesians 2. Haven't we been likened to wild olive branches that are grafted into a cultivated tree through faith in Jesus? And so, I think He's giving a more accurate new covenant definition of Israel as the people of God. Jew or Gentile, doesn't matter, who have repented and believed in Jesus, we are the Israel of God. Jews who are ethnic only, who do not have faith in Christ, are pictured in Romans 11 as having been stripped off, branches stripped off and laying on the ground. Now, if they repent, they can be grafted back in again, for God is able to graft them in. But we, the wild olive shoots... Don't be offended by that. We're all wild olive shoots. We've been grafted into this cultivated tree, nourished from the root system in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What that means for us, as we're about to transition into the Book of Isaiah, is when it makes promises to the House of Israel, and the House of Judah, and when you read that, we can read ourselves in there. Like the promise of a new covenant in Jeremiah, it's very, very plain. He says in Jeremiah, he says, "The time is coming when I'll make a new covenant," listen, "With the House of Israel and with the House of Judah." What am I supposed to do with that as a Gentile? "Well, I'm happy for them, happy that they're going to get a new covenant. Oh, good, yay, Jews. I'm so glad they get a new covenant." No, no, no. We are included. We, through faith in Jesus, are sons and daughters of Abraham. So we can read that with attentiveness, "And this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel. After that time, I'll put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people, and I'll forgive their wickedness, and remember their sins no more." I read all of that coming to me and to you, if you're a Christian. So again and again, we're going to see in Isaiah 40-49, and then beyond, he's going to talk about Jacob, and Israel, and all of that, and we are going to, through the cross, read ourselves into those promises, and find joy in them, Amen. And how sweet is that? That's my understanding of that difficult verse. VI. Final Words from Paul to Us (Verse 17-18) Final words from Paul in verses 17-18, he says, "Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." There's the poignancy there, isn't there? He could take off his shirt and show you scars. Lots of them, not a few. You've read his list of sufferings. Remember in 2 Corinthians 11? "Five times, five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one." Five times, any one of those could have been fatal. Five times! What do you think his back looked like after that? And he said, "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." "I'm healed, but I'm not healed." So there's physical wounding and there's psychological, there's mental wounding that comes from that. Remember how the Lord appears to him in Corinthians and says, "Do not be afraid, keep on speaking, and don't be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack you, and harm you." Why is he saying that? Paul needed to hear that. He got tired of getting beaten up. "Three times," he says, "I was beaten with rods." That's eight beatings, eight. "Once I was stoned and left for dead," that's nine now. Nine times a lash, or a rod, or a stone attacked his body as he stood up for Jesus. I believe people like that, who have suffered like that for Christ, get an incredible reward in heaven. Jesus said, "Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in Heaven." But it's also fulfillment of what the Lord said to Ananias, "I'll show him how much he must suffer for my name." But here he's giving a warning, he said, "I don't want any more trouble from you people. Let no one cause me any more trouble, enough! Because I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." It gives him a moral authority, it challenges me too, and then he finishes with these very familiar words, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers, Amen." Every epistle of Paul begins with, "Grace to you," and ends with, "Grace be with you." It's kinda like you walk into an epistle, you walk into a room of grace, and you're just swimming in grace while you're reading the epistle, and as you go out the exit door at the end, "May grace go with you." What is grace? It's God's settled determination, his determination to do you good who deserve wrath. He's pouring out goodness on you, and grace, and sustaining you. May grace be with you, the grace of our Lord Jesus. VII. Final Applications Alright, what applications can we take from this? Well, briefly, I've already given the number one, come to Christ. Come to Christ. Don't leave here unregenerate. I warn you, don't leave here unregenerate. You don't know how long you'll have to be alive. I warn you, flee to Christ. And if you flee to Christ by repentance, and faith, you will find full forgiveness, not because of your works, but because of what Jesus did for you. Flee to Christ. Secondly, walk, all of you believers, walk by this rule that all that matters is a new creation. More and more meditate on that. May God's power, by His Spirit, be in me to fulfill His Law. I want to walk by that rule. I want to live that kind of life, a Spirit-filled, supernaturally empowered life. I want to be consistently characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, don't you? I want to be that kind of a husband. I want to be that kind of a father. I want to be that kind of a pastor. I want to be that kind of a man, where you interact with me, and you're interacting with the fruit of the Spirit all the time. Now, I'm never going to get to "all the time," but I want it. And I yearn that the new creation life would be flowing through me, and not just in me, I want it in you guys too. I want that flowing in our church. Big picture in Galatians, continue to be vigilant against both legalism and license, fight them both. They're both wicked, they're both corruptions, and so, let's fight legalism. Let's know that we're justified by faith alone, not by works, but let's not take that so-called freedom, that misunderstanding of freedom, and then go sin as much as we want. That's license, neither one. Understand that we are the new Israel. Any Jew or Gentile that believes in Jesus, we're the Israel of God. That's why he says, "Israel of God," not, "Israel according to the flesh," but "the Israel of God." Understand that, and then read those Old Testament promises, as though they're written to you. I love, in Isaiah 43, He says, "When you pass through the fire, I will be with you. When you pass through the waters, they're not going to overwhelm you." I can read that, even though I'm a Gentile, because I'm a believer in Christ. I can't wait to preach those promises to you, but those are sweet promises flowing to you. And then, thank God for all of the courageous suffering, like by Paul, that was done to get you the Gospel. You know how many martyrs, brothers and sisters in Christ died, to get you the pure Gospel and protect it from 20 centuries of Satanic attack? It's one of the great reasons to study church history, to honor our brothers and sisters who died to get us an intact Gospel. But secondly, be willing to suffer yourself, in your lifetime, while you have the relay race, that this Gospel might be passed onto the next generation intact. So praise God for those that suffered and be willing to suffer. And then, finally, grace be with you all. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for the grace that comes to us by studying Galatians. Thank you for all the things that we have learned from Galatians and I pray that we would internalize these lessons. I pray that we would understand the Gospel, that justification is by faith, apart from works of the law, that we would understand the Spirit-filled life that leads to holiness, and joy, and good works. Help us to get those two in the proper order and understanding. And now, be with my brothers and sisters here. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.

Was Arius the ultimate Judas? Was he an arrogant innovator, a devotee of Greek philosophy, a Judaizer, a hater of mysteries, a phony, a snake in the grass? In this episode, we look at Arius and his theology, in (as much as is now possible) in his own words. You can also listen to this episode on youtube. You can also listen to this episode on Stitcher or iTunes (please subscribe, rate, and review us in either or both – directions here). It is also available on YouTube (you can subscribe here). If you would like to upload audio feedback for possible inclusion in a future episode of this podcast, put the audio file here. You can support the trinities podcast by ordering anything through Amazon.com after clicking through one of our links. We get a small % of your purchase, even though your price is not increased. (If you see “trinities” in you url while at Amazon, then we’ll get it.) Some important scholarly sources on Arius: Rowan Williams's Arius: Heresy and Tradition. R.P.C. Hanson's The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God. Maurice Wiles's Archetypal Heresy: Arianism Through the Centuries.  

Pastor Andy Davis preaches on Galatians 3:11-14, explaining the meaning of God's grace and God's wrath, and that in Christ alone we have salvation. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - September 11, 2001 is a day that would burn in our memories for as long as we live. Those of us who were alive at that time and were following the events of that day, saw the Twin Towers struck by Boeing 767s and explode in fire, and then eventually come crashing down to earth. We will never forget the terror of those images in our minds, the terror of such a sight. For many of us, the most horrible aspect of that day was the sight of people throwing themselves from the building in order to escape being burned to death, falling, maybe almost 1,000 feet to certain death. They were not suicidal as they went to their jobs that day, they were not depressed, they were not filled with any hatred of life as they walked through the halls of the 105th floor and turned on their lights, and turned on their computers, and looked out the window at the Manhattan skyline, and at the New York Harbor as they had done many times before. Jumping out of that same window 55 minutes later would never have occurred to them. But when the planes crashed into the Twin Towers, and caused their world around them to be engulfed in smoke, in flame, intense searing heat, billowing smoke, they tried to escape, I'm sure, through the hallway. There was no way to get through there, no way to use the elevators, no way to get to the stairs, they went back to their office and looked out of the window, maybe they shattered the window themselves, maybe it was already shattered by the crash. At least 200 people died that day in that way, they made that terrifying bewildering decision, to jump is better than to stay. One particular photo taken by Richard Drew of the Associated Press was entitled "The Falling Man" was run the next day in the New York Times on page seven, but then because of the outcry against it, saying it had somehow desecrated the memories of those that died, the New York Times never ran such a photo again. On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, Susie Linfield, a journalism professor at NYU, published a story in a New York magazine called "Jumpers," she had this to say: "The jumper photographs make clear to us the utter vulnerability of the victims. Those trapped in the Towers had only two choices- To jump to their deaths or to be incinerated- which is to say they had no choice at all. To moralize either 'choice'- to despise one as cowardly and valorize the other as heroic is to misunderstand both. What the 9/11 victims faced was the absence of options." That last comment stuck in my mind with incredible power, it seemed that these tragic people had no choice, there was no way to escape the searing fire that was engulfing their world. Even more tragic, I think, are the videos of people on the highest floors of the World Trade Center that day, leaning out and waving white pieces of cloth desperate for some kind of savior, smoke billowing out of the windows around them. They could see fire below them as they looked down. And they're just looking for some kind of savior and it's actually very difficult to watch, at least it was for me even 12 years later. Now, these tragic people illustrate the central lesson of today's sermon. They give me an understanding of Jesus Christ is the only savior that there is from the wrath of God. I'm going to make three assertions in this sermon and the world hates all three of them. The first is that this world is facing a future raging inferno of immeasurable heat, of infinite power, and eternal duration, this coming inferno is the just wrath of God against sin. It is a fire that will destroy this entire world in judgment and will consume the enemies of God in hell. Secondly, Christ, Jesus Christ is God's only provision for escape from this coming wrath. Christ's death on the cross is the only way that sinners can be saved from this fire. Thirdly, just as those people had no way to save themselves from the raging inferno, we cannot save ourselves from the coming wrath. Our works cannot make us righteous in the sight of God. Just as there was no way for those tragic people to climb down to safety, there is no way for us to use the law of God to climb up to safety. Oh, how the world hates and fights these three assertions, all three of them. The world says, "There is no coming wrath of God" or "God, if He exists, loves everyone and will rescue everyone from hell, would not send anyone to hell, it's unworthy of God to display anger or wrath," those kinds of things. The world says that Christ is not the only way to heaven and that it's arrogant for us as Christians to claim that he is, that he is the only way to heaven. Third, the world says that we actually can pay for our sins by our good works, righteousness in God's sight can be obtained by observing some kind of law or pattern of morality. Now, these assertions that I've made here are hated and opposed by many in the world today, but these assertions that I've made are taught powerfully in the text that we are going to be looking at today, Galatians 2:21 and then Galatians 3:10-14. I kept as my jump off point, as I was meditating on this, Galatians 2:21. It's a text that captivated my mind and my imagination and my thoughts for much longer than I thought it would be. Galatians 2:21 says, "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing." So I concentrated on the phrase, the grace of God, in Galatians 2:21. We're in the middle here in Galatians, of Paul's train of thought as he's explaining the Gospel of salvation through faith in Christ. The grace of God, then in Galatians 2:21, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the gracious provision that God has made for us sinners. I meditate on what the grace of God saves us from. It saves us mainly from the curse of God, the wrath of God. I concentrate on the significance of Christ becoming a curse for us in Galatians 3:13. I zero in on the idea of setting aside the grace of God. He says, "I do not set aside the grace of God." The word 'set aside' means to nullify, to render as nothing. I just like the translation 'set aside,' I think it's the best translation. How the human race tries to avoid the cross of Christ in various ways, especially by gaining righteousness through the law. I zero in on the logic of the verse, that righteousness cannot be gained any other way. That if righteousness could be gained in some other way, then Christ died for nothing. This is the doctrine of the exclusivity of Christ and of the Gospel. And I'm going to talk about these themes and I'm going to end with the Spirit-filled life, the promise of the Spirit-filled life, which I will not develop in length because it's developed more, later in Galatians. But it's the answer to all of the things that come up as we contemplate these things. These are the four main points of my sermon. First, why the world needs the grace of God: That is the wrath of God. Why does the world need grace? Because of the coming wrath. Secondly, the only way the grace of God comes to the world is through the cross of Christ. Third, how the world sets aside the grace of God, especially through self-righteousness. And then fourth, how the grace of God makes sinners righteous in his sight, first by justification and second through the Spirit-filled life. Those are the four points of the sermon. I. Why the World Needs the Grace of God: The Wrath of God First, why the world needs the grace of God, and that is the wrath of God, this is the reason why. Look at verse 21, "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing." We focus here on the grace of God, what is the grace of God? It's not a theme that's unfolded clearly or emphasized in the Old Testament, it seems as though God was reserving full emphasis on the grace of God for the coming of Jesus into the world. And in some of the translations, the word 'grace' doesn't pop up very often in the Old Testament. But then a river of grace is proclaimed in the New Testament. I like to start at John 1:14: "The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and we have seen His glory. Glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." And then a few verses later in John 1:17, "For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." With the coming of Jesus into the world, we have a dawning of the grace of God flowing to the world, not that there wasn't grace in the Old Testament, certainly there was. But it is by Christ that grace comes. Now, the word 'grace' especially flows through the pen of the Apostle Paul. No biblical writer wrote more about grace than Paul. 86 times, he mentions 'grace', 86 times. He opens all of his epistles the same way, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." So what is grace? We said it before, but I like this definition. Grace is the subtle determination in the heart of God. That's what it is. It starts in the heart, the mind of God, toward us in Christ. Grace is the determination, the subtle determination in the heart of God to do us good, we who deserved to be punished eternally. So those aspects of grace, determination in the heart of God, a river of goodness flowing to us as sinners, despite the fact we deserved wrath and judgment. I think that's grace. "Grace is the determination, the subtle determination in the heart of God, to do us good, we who deserved to be punished eternally." Now, grace is especially for salvation from his wrath in reference to our sins. That's a home base of grace. We're sinners and we deserve wrath and judgment, and God saves us by his grace. Ephesians 1:7-8 says in Jesus, "In Him, we have redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us." We have redemption from sin through the riches of grace. Grace is especially on display in reference to the wrath of God. Romans 3:23-25: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation, through faith in His blood." The word 'propitiation,' if you study it and you understand it in the Greek language, it means the setting aside of the wrath of God by a blood sacrifice. So God's wrath set aside by the sacrifice of Christ, so God's grace is on display in that he does not treat us as our sins deserve. Amen, hallelujah. "He does not treat us as our sins deserve," Psalm 103:10. Now, in Galatians 2:21, the need for grace is seen in the fact that we sinners lack righteousness. Look again at the verse. "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained by the law, Christ died for nothing." So clearly we lack righteousness. We need to gain righteousness. Unless our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teacher of the law, we will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. We lack the necessary righteousness. Why is that? Because we are sinners, we are unrighteous in God's sight. We who lack righteousness, we are, turn it around, unrighteous to God. What is this unrighteousness? It has to do with our sins. We have violated God's laws. We have broken his laws, but friends, it goes infinitely deeper than that. It goes to the very core of our being. I was listening to a John Piper sermon some time ago. He was summarizing all of Romans 1-7, a summarizing of those seven chapters. If I'm not careful, I might lurch off in that direction right now. But he is summarizing and he is zeroing in on this issue of sin. What is sin? And this is what John Piper said: "What makes sin is not first that it hurts people, but that it blasphemes God. This is the ultimate evil and this is the ultimate outrage of the universe. The glory of God is not honored. The holiness of God is not reverenced. The greatness of God is not admired. The power of God is not praised. The truth of God is not sought. The wisdom of God is not esteemed. The beauty of God is not treasured. The goodness of God is not savored. The faithfulness of God is not trusted. The promises of God are not relied upon. The commandments of God are not obeyed. The justice of God is not respected. The wrath of God is not feared. The grace of God is not cherished. The presence of God is not prized. The person of God is not loved. That is sin." The infinite all-glorious Creator of the universe, by whom and for whom all things exist, the one about whom it is said, in him we live and move and have our being, is disregarded, disbelieved, disobeyed and dishonored by everybody in the world apart from Christ. That is the ultimate outrage of the universe. And God is outraged by it. Why? Because God is perfectly holy. He is perfectly holy. It's the most important attribute in the Bible. You could say, "Why would I say that?" Well, it's the only one that's stated three times in a row. There's no other attribute that's stated three times in a row. But in Isaiah 6:3, we have these glorious seraphim and they're calling to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; The whole earth is full of His glory." The holiness of God, theologians tell us, has to do with his separation. God is infinitely above all creation. He is the Creator and we all are creature. And there's an infinite gap between Creator and creature. That's the holiness. And that's why the holy angels, the burning seraphim who never have committed any sin still are crying "Holy, holy, holy" as they cover their faces. Infinite gap between all creation and God. But it also, especially in the Bible, has to do with God's infinite hatred for sin, his separation from all evil. Habakkuk 1:13: God's eyes are too pure to look on evil, he cannot tolerate wrong. It says in 1 John 1:5, “this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in Him, there's no darkness at all.” God hates evil. And he's passionate about that. He's a passionate being and we who are created in his image, we have emotions because he had them first. Now his are pure and perfect, ours are not. But God is a passionate being and he hates all forms of evil with a fiery passion. Listen, Isaiah 30:27 and 28. It says there, "Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke. His lips are full of wrath, His tongue is a consuming fire, His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction." That's our God. And the Bible asserts the universality of sin. There is no one righteous, not even one. Romans 3:9-12: "There's no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They've together become worthless. There's no one who does good, not even one." The Bible tells us the wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God, not merely physical death but the second death in the lake of fire. The Bible teaches this. "The soul who sins shall die," Ezekiel 18:4. Now, in our text today, the wrath of God is expressed in curse language, that's why we're even talking about wrath today, it has to do with curse. Look at verse 10 of Galatians 3, Galatians 3:10, it says there, "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in this book of the Law.'" Now, in the old covenant, the curse of God meant that He was actively opposing you in your life. He was fighting against what you were doing on Earth in the old covenant. That's what the curse meant. God was fighting you, he was opposed to you. He was against your prosperity, he was against your happiness, against your health, against your efforts, what you were trying to do. That's what the curse means. So we have this in Deuteronomy 28:15-19. "If you do not obey the Lord, your God, and if you do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed and the crops of your land. And the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You'll be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out." It actually goes on many verses beyond that. Now, Galatians 3:10 says that the curse comes on those who do not continually obey everything written in the law. So it's all the law, all the time, or you get cursed. That's what the law does. Now, the Old Testament curses, those earthbound curses that I was talking about, they were real curses. They actually happened, things actually occurred physically to the Jews. But they were just symbolic of a far greater curse that's yet to come, far greater curse that's yet to come. The Bible is filled with the doctrine of the wrath of God. The past wrath of God, the present wrath of God, and the future wrath of God. In the past, we have the flood of Noah in which every living thing that had the breath of life in its nostrils perished except what was on the ark. We have Sodom and Gomorrah in which God rained down fiery sulfur, "from the Lord out of the heavens," it specifically says in Genesis 19. And the next day, Abraham looked out over the plains where Sodom and Gomorrah had been just the day before, teeming cities, and there was nothing but dense smoke rising from the plain. These are pictures of the judgment and wrath of God, the past wrath of God. The Bible also asserts the doctrine of God's present wrath. It says in Psalms 7:11: "God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses His wrath every day." Every day. But listen, past and present wrath merely warn of the infinitely more consequential future wrath of God. Any wrath that happens on Earth is just a symbol of the future wrath yet to come. And that wrath is going to be physical. It says in 2 Peter 3:10: "The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the Earth and everything in it will be laid bare." That's the coming wrath of God. But even more terrifying than what God will do to creation is what he will do to his enemies, both angels and humans. And that is the doctrine of hell, the second death, the wrath of God displayed in hell. No one taught more about hell than Jesus. No one said more about the fire that is to come than Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount, he said that, if you are angry in your heart with your brother, you're in danger of the fire of hell. If you look lustfully at a woman, you're in danger of the fire of hell. It's better for you to cut off your right hand or gouge out your right eye and escape going to hell than to have all of your physical equipment and be cast into the eternal fire, and he said plainly, "The fire does not go out, the warm never dies." And he says in Matthew 25 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory and all of the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate the people, one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." And he's going to put the sheep, the believers on his right and the unregenerate on his left. And then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you who are cursed." So there's that word 'curse.' "Depart from me, you are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." This is why the world needs the grace of God and Christ. This is why we need it. But the world sets aside the grace of God. The world sets aside the grace of God concerning this issue of the wrath of God by denying that he has a wrath. Mostly, non-Christians set it aside by not thinking about him and not thinking about it. And they effectively deny that it even exists, that it's coming. Now, picture again those desperate souls leaning out of the upper floors of the World Trade Center on September 11th, and they're waving their white shirts and they're trying desperately for a savior because they can feel the heat, they can smell the smoke. They know it's real. But this fire, they can't see anything. They can't see the flames, they can't smell the smoke, it's as though it's not around, you have to believe or you don't think it's coming. So if you don't have any faith, there's nothing to escape. They don't see the fire, they deny it. Zephaniah 1:12, "They are complacent, thinking the Lord would do nothing either good or bad." Even worse for me though is Christians, so-called. People in the Christian world who deny this doctrine of the wrath of God, who are embarrassed by it, who think it's unworthy of God to have any kind of wrath at all. They think of a higher God, a wrath-free God, an anger-free God. Recently, I was reading about how Keith Getty and Stuart Townend wrote one of the greatest hymns of our time. We're going to close this service by singing it, "In Christ Alone." And then this verse is what they write: "In Christ alone, Who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless babe" [incarnation.] "This gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones he came to save. Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. For every sin on him was laid, here in the death of Christ I live." Well, a Presbyterian denomination, PCUSA, wanted to use that hymn in their hymnal but they just want to change it a little bit. So they contacted Getty and Townend and then asked if they could adjust the lyrics on that verse a little bit. From "Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied," to "Till on that cross as Jesus died, the love of God was magnified." Why would they want to do that? Well, hymnal committee chair, Mary Louise Bringle said this, "The song has been removed from our contents list with deep regret over losing its otherwise poignant and powerful witness. The view on the committee is that the cross is primarily about God's need to assuage God's anger, that if we have that view, it would have a negative effect on the hymnal's ability to form the faith of coming generations." Well, that's very mild, even worse, is Anglican priest Bosco Peters, what he said, "The understanding is that God the Father was angry at us in our sinfulness and that God took out his rage on Christ instead of on us and this now enables God the Father to love us. This understanding is heresy. God doesn't have anger management issues." No, he doesn't. Our God is slow to anger, he doesn't lash out quickly, he never has to regret anything he does and he will not regret the smoke of their torment rising forever and ever. he's not embarrassed about it, he's warned us about it. No, he doesn't have anger management issues but he has anger, he has wrath, and that's why we need the grace of God and we must not set aside the grace of God by denying the wrath of God. Secondly, the only way the grace of God comes into the world is the cross of Christ. II. The Only Way the Grace of God Comes to the World: The Cross of Christ Look again at 2:21, "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing." Christ is the only way that the grace of God comes to this world. Trying to save ourselves by law would be to set aside the grace of God. There is no other way for sinners to be made righteous, do you see how foolish the world is in getting angry about Christ being the only way to be saved? Picture again those poor souls on the upper floors of the World Trade Center, picture this time though an incredibly heroic and courageous rescuer descending perhaps from a rope ladder, hanging from a helicopter, they managed to get close enough to reach out to one of these folks that's waving the white shirt and saying, "Here, I've got you, come on" and the guy recoiling in anger and says, "I want multiple options to get off this floor and I'm not going out until there are many ways for me to get off this burning floor." I think that's how this must look to the holy angels in heaven, as they look down amazed that anyone would not believe in Christ, amazed that we would want multiple ways to get off the burning floor; how foolish. Now, the incarnation itself, the coming of God into the world proved right away we could not save ourselves, just the incarnation, that's why he came. Isaiah 59:15-16: "The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice," no righteousness. He saw that there was no one. He was appalled that there was no one to intervene so his own arm worked salvation for him and his own righteousness sustained him. God looked at the human race, no saviors there, none. So he entered the world himself. Isaiah 59:15-16. So it's poignant at the birth of Christ, but see, even more poignant at the death of Christ and that's where our verse takes us. "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing." This is the very issue that Jesus was settling as he wrestled in prayer in Gethsemane, wasn't it? Didn't he go to Gethsemane, fall on his face before God and sweating great drops of blood, he cried out to his Abba Father, he said, "Abba Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will but as you will?" So Father, is it possible? Is there any other way? The answer is implied, not openly stated because he goes back a second time and says, "My Father, if it is not possible, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done." "No, my Son, there is no other way. No other way." Settled by Jesus in Gethsemane, there is no other way. Christ alone is the incarnate Son of God. He alone died under the wrath of God. He alone satisfied the just penalty for our sins, for the wages in his death. And Christ alone rose from the dead, vindicating sinners like you and me. Christ alone is the Savior. Even more plainly, Jesus became a curse for us. Look at verse 13 of Galatians 3: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.'" Now, this is amazing, not just Jesus was cursed for us, but Jesus became a curse for us. I meditated on this a long time. "Christ alone is the incarnate Son of God. He alone died under the wrath of God. He alone satisfied the just penalty for our sins, for the wages in His death." It's similar to the grammar that we have in another exclusivity verse, John 14:6: Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Do you hear what Jesus said there? Let's hear it on the middle one. "I am the truth." Not merely "I speak the truth" or "I embrace the truth," or "I exemplify the truth." We should all speak the truth. We should all embrace the truth. We should all exemplify the truth. And we may, by the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we can. But Jesus is the only one who can say these words, "I am the truth." "I am the truth. I am the distilled essence of all truth there is in the universe. All roads of truth lead to me. I am the truth." Alright, now take that and bring it to Galatians 3:13: "I am the curse. I am the distilled essence of curse. All curse for the people of God, all curse leads to this one place, the curse of the cross." And go even deeper, what does God curse but that which he hates? The curse of God is the hatred of God. It's God's opposition, it's ground zero of the infinite nuclear strike of God's holy wrath. Christ on the cross was the very essence of everything that God has ever hated or ever would hate, while at the same time being his infinitely beloved Son. It's a mystery we will never be able to understand, but this is the mystery of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus. Jesus was the distilled essence of everything God hates. Sin is utterly disgusting, it's repulsive to God. He hates it with all of his heart. Think of the most repulsive sinner you've ever heard of that later came to faith in Christ. Think of their disgusting actions, how repulsive they are to you. Corrie ten Boom talked about how difficult it was for her to shake the hand of an SS guard that she had known in the concentration camp, how hard that was for her. She was repulsed by what this man had done, the way that he tortured, and even killed, innocent people in the concentration camp. She was repulsed, but let me tell you something: her sense of justice and repulsion is like a flickering candle compared to the sun, the raging sun of God's repulsion. God is far more repulsed at what that SS guard did than Corrie ten Boom. I heard another story years ago, and I've never been able to find it since, but it had to do with a man that Charles Spurgeon led to faith in Christ. This man was an alcoholic, he was addicted to gin. He drank all of his family's money, all of it, for food, clothing, everything, including for medicine. It turned out that his young daughter had a serious but treatable illness, and this man drank the money for the medicine, so that she died. The neighbors were outraged at this story. She had nothing but threadbare rags, and they wanted her buried in a beautiful little dress. So they took an offering, and they took up a collection, and they bought a beautiful dress, and they buried... They clothed this little girl and put her... Put this beautiful clothed girl, this dead girl in a casket where she was to be... In which she was to be buried the next day. That night, this man broke into the undertaker's shop, opened the casket, took the dress off the dead body of his daughter, closed the casket, sold the dress for money, and drank it. He later came to faith in Christ. I have a hard time even telling that story. I picture my own kids. I picture just a father acting like that. What do you do with the repulsion, what do you do with the revulsion? Well I'll tell you what God did. He poured it out on Jesus, instead of on that man. So Jesus became in some sense, the kind of cesspool, the toxic waste dump of everything God ever hated in his elect, in his sheep. Everything he's ever hated in you and me, all of it in one place. And then he poured out the wrath, his just wrath on Jesus. Jesus became a curse for me, and for you. I can't... I almost can't put this into words. How could God perfectly hate and perfectly love Jesus at the same time? But this is what's going on at the cross. A parallel verse, we've already heard it, 2 Corinthians 5:21, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us." Just be sin. He was sin on the cross, so that "in Him, we might become the righteousness of God." Now meditate on this because of this substitution and this exchange, we have become by faith, in Christ, the very essence of everything God loves. We have become the righteousness of God in Christ. That's awesome, that's awesome! And Christ is the only way that that salvation can happen. He is the only way. God did not send his Son into the world to provide one of many paths to heaven. He didn't pour out his wrath on Jesus to provide one of many ways to reach heaven. It's because there was no other way. Now, the world sets aside the grace of God by denying the exclusivity of the cross. We are a weird people. We, post-modern tolerance-loving people, are just weird, and we think weird, especially on this exclusivity issue. "Christ is the only way that salvation can happen. He is the only way. God did not send his son into the world to provide one of many paths to heaven." Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University in 2010, wrote a book, God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World- and Why Their Differences Matter. This is what he said in his introduction, "It has been fashionable to affirm that all religions are beautiful and all are true. This claim is as odd as it is intriguing. No one argues that different economic systems or political regimes are one in the same. Capitalism and Socialism are so obviously at odds that their differences barely bear mentioning. The same goes for democracy and monarchy, yet scholars continue to claim that such different religions as Hinduism and Islam, Christianity and Judaism, by some", [I love this,] "some miracle of the imagination are essentially the same. And this view resounds in the echo chamber of popular culture. Not the least in Dan Brown's multi million dollar franchise The DaVinci Code." It's weird, they're not all the same, they can't be all the same. The pastor of Watts Street Baptist Church right in our own town taught a number of years ago that spiritual truth is like an underwater river and Christianity is just one of many wells that we can use to get down to that water. Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, they're all equally valid ways of drinking that spiritual water. These folks say that it is arrogant for us to claim that Christianity is the only way. That makes no sense to me. Do you struggle with that? Arrogant. Listen, if I invented a new rootbeer in my shop and I came out and told you it is the greatest rootbeer that has ever been made. As a matter of fact, it's the greatest drink that's ever been offered to another human being, that would be arrogant. I didn't invent Christianity, I discovered it or actually, it discovered me. Christ discovered me. How is it arrogant for us to go as missionaries to the ends of the world to say there's only one way for humans to be saved? There's no arrogance here. III. How the World Sets Aside the Grace of God: Self-Righteousness Thirdly, how the world sets aside the grace of God and that is through self-righteousness. Look again in Galatians 2:21. "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing." The number one way that the world sets aside the grace of God is by trying to save ourselves by our good works, by self-righteousness. Self-Righteousness Option #1: Pagan Morality So, the essence of legalism, this Judaizer legalism and all that, is the idea that present or future obedience to the law of God can cover or pay for a past disobedience. The more common way of talking about it is, "My good deeds outweigh my bad." So you've got a bunch of bad deeds, that means you didn't keep the law. Then you have some good deeds, you did keep the law and this can be used to pay for that. That's the basic transaction, the basic idea. So, what is the “law” if righteousness could be gained through the law? Well, Paul means immediately the law of Moses (and we'll get to that), but I want to give you three different levels of law that people use. First is basic pagan morality. The every day life sense of right and wrong. The Greek philosopher mentality. The Aristotle or Plato type of virtue and they define it, that kind of thing. Aristotle said it's the glorious mean, the average... You take outgoing energy, etcetera and the extreme version of that is rashness and the lack of it is cowardice, and the perfect mean right in the middle is courage. And he goes down, Aristotle does this in all these... And the perfect individual goes right down the center in all of these attributes, so he says. The Japanese warrior code used Bushido and they had seven different attributes of virtue. Immanuel Kant had his. Benjamin Franklin, you can look up, he had 13 laws of morality that he tried to follow, 13. Like intemperance, temperance. Eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation. Silence, speak not only what may benefit yourself. Speak only what may benefit yourself or others, avoid trifling conversations. Order, let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time. Etcetera, etcetera, yadda, yadda, yadda. Sorry, Ben Franklin, but there it is. Alright? So this is just common every day pagan morality. So the average every day person that you'll meet in the office tomorrow who says to you, "I'm basically a good person," ask them what they mean by a “good person.” Take the word 'basically' out. I don't know what it means. I think it means, "I'm not a good person." I don't know. Or "I'm kinda a good person." But alright, on what basis? Well, I try... And they're going to lay out some sketch at the law that they've come up with. Okay, but this is setting aside the grace of God. Do you see it? They have invented their own morality, which they try to live up to but don't really. When they do live up to it, they boast about it, when they don't live up to it, they think they can pay for it by the times they do live up to their own moral schemes. And they're forgetting the central and most important command of God. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, will all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength." And they never keep it anyway. The second level of morality is religious morality. And again, that's man-originated as well, with some demonic help. And so the world has set up pagan religions, and they have their own rules and regulations, their own laws that they follow, and people feel good or don't feel good based on whether they keep their religious laws. Followers of Dagon had to avoid stepping on the threshold. Which was one of the funniest laws ever because the reason... Never mind, that's another story, another time. Followers of Moloch had to offer their children as a burnt offering to that demonic god. Followers of Buddha have to seek out enlightenment by following the Noble Eightfold Path. Followers of Allah and Mohammad have to embrace the five pillars of Islam. All of these false religions have their own laws, their own moral systems, but none of them come from God. So they have set aside the grace of God to establish these man-made religions. Concerning Moloch, God said through Jeremiah 7:31: "They have built the high places of Topheth in the valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire- Something I did not command nor did it enter my mind." I didn't tell you to do these things. And so you can't use these laws to become righteous in my sight. Actually repugnant. Now, some of the religious laws are the same as the Ten Commandments. They have to do with basic morality that Romans 2 says is written on their hearts anyway. But their consciences sometimes accuse them, sometimes defend them. They don't keep those moral laws. The highest level of laws, the one that I think Paul means here, and that's the law of God. "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing." This is talking about the perfect law of God that came down from Mt. Sinai, from God himself. This is God's perfect standard of morality. And so it says in Roman 7:12: "So then the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good." But again, Galatians 3:10: "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the Law.'" All the law, all the time or you get cursed. And by the way, if you understand the sentence I'm speaking to you it's already too late. We've already violated it already. And so, therefore, Romans 4:15: "The law brings wrath." That's all. Not salvation. The death of Christ, therefore, settles forever that no one could be made righteous in God's sight by the law. "I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness could be gained by the law, then Christ died for nothing." Now listen, if righteousness could've been gained by the law of God by keeping it, what God would've done from heaven is pointed to the law and said, "Human race, do this. Do this." And not send Jesus. And what would've happened if righteousness could be gained by the law? Some would gain it. They would be spiritual athletes who'd be climbing hand over hand, foot over foot, like this, making it to heaven by their own efforts. And God would have to listen to them for eternity, boasting on their achievements. And so God set it up that we would be saved only by grace. For it says in Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace are you saved through faith and this not out of or from yourself. It is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast." IV. How the Grace of God Makes Sinners Righteous: Justification and the Spirit-Filled Life Fourth. How the grace of God makes sinners righteous. Justification leading to the Spirit-filled life. Justification is plain. It's the gift of righteousness simply because God says so, simply because he declares you to be righteous in Jesus. All you have to do is hear this Gospel, repent, believe, and the full righteousness of Christ will be imputed, credited to you and you will be in God's sight as righteous as Jesus was in God's sight cursed on the cross. How beautiful is that? Oh, Thank God for his grace. Thank God for his grace. Thank God that you can stand before him and say, "Though I was and still am a sinner, I am righteous in your sight through faith in Jesus. Thank you." So look at Galatian 2:16. It said very plainly how sinners are justified. “We know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too had put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law, no one will be justified.” So justification by faith makes sinners positionally righteous in the sight of God. We have become the righteousness of God in Christ. That leads to the promise of the Spirit. The Spirit was promised in the Old Testament. The Spirit himself is a promise of future perfection. And so if you believe in Jesus, you're instantly given the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes and lives in you. Look at verse 14. "He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham"... Notice that word blessing. Not cursed now, blessing. "The blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit." And then the Spirit living inside us leads us to follow the perfect law of God, to love God with all our heart and love our neighbors ourselves, and all of the other commands he wants us to follow. He says, "This is the way. Walk in it." But we're not justified by that walk, we're justified by faith in Christ. The Spirit lives within us and by faith, we step, day after day, later it's going to say in Galatians 5, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Galatians 5:16, "Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." Galatians 5:18, "If you're led by the Spirit, you're not under law." We'll talk much more in the future, God-willing, about the Spirit-filled life. V. Application What applications can we take from this? Well, I want to zero in on this one phrase, "Do not set aside the grace of God." Do not set it aside. First, if you are an unbeliever, you're a non-Christian, you came here today and God brought you here by his sovereign grace. I'm pleading with you, do not set aside the grace of God. There will be no other Savior. No one else has descended from heaven and is sticking out his hand to grab you and pull you off the burning floor. There is going to be no other Savior. He's the only one. Do not set aside the grace of God by thinking you can save yourself by your own works. Your good deeds do not outweigh your bad, they cannot pay for your bad, and they aren't even good. Come to Christ. Trust in him and every day, say to Jesus, "Christ, you are my righteousness. You are my righteousness." Every day, say that him. Secondly, embrace and tremble at the idea of the coming wrath of God. It is coming. We don't smell the smoke, we don't see the flames or feel the heat of the flames, but if you believe the Word of God, there is a coming wrath. Jesus rescues us from the coming wrath. 1 Thessalonians 1:10. The universe is going to be incinerated. The elements will melt in the heat, it is coming. Worse than that, the enemies of God will be consumed forever and ever in fire. Fear, trembling, tremble at it, understand you were rescued from it if you're a Christian. If you're not yet a Christian, danger is hanging over you right now. For us as evangelists, let us be faithful to share in light of that coming wrath. Thirdly, embrace and celebrate in the exclusivity of Christ. This is going to be assaulted over the next part of the century if the Lord doesn't tarry. It's just going to get hotter and hotter in the United States of America. We have to stand firm and not burn pinches of incense to other gods, as though Jesus is just one of many gods. We need to stand firm and say, "He is the only God. He is the only Savior. We worship Christ alone." We need to stand firm on that. We need to preach that salvation is found in no one else, "For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved," Acts 4:12. And then let's preach that Gospel. There is no other Savior. And when people bring up Buddhism, Hinduism, and all that, think of the things we've talked about here in this message. Fourthly, meditate on the concept that Christ became a curse for you. If you've been redeemed through faith in Christ, nothing you face in your life now or will ever face for the rest of eternity can be classified as curse. Nothing. Could be cancer, could be unemployment, could be severe pain, it could be all kinds of things but none of it is curse. Christ sucked curse out of your case and took it on himself. God may discipline you for sin because he loves you. But there's an infinite difference between the discipline of a loving father and a curse of a wrath-filled God. Those are two different things. Don't wait for the other shoe to drop. God has been good to you. He's going to keep being good to you. Nothing but good to you. Some Christians are like, "God's going to get me. I have been so blessed up to now but he's going to get me. He's going to get... " What do you mean by "get you?" "I know I'm not going to hell, but, yeah, this might happen." Look, anything that happens to you is a display of God's love. There is no curse coming for you if you're in Christ. We're done. And fifth and finally, understand that there are two ways to live. You can live by trusting in your own morality through the law or you can live by faith in Christ's shed blood and the power of the Holy Spirit. Two ways to live, law versus grace. Flesh versus spirit, Holy Spirit. Okay, walk by the power of the Spirit and you will not gratify the deeds of the flesh. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank You for the things that we've learned in this very rich text. I pray that You would please strengthen each of us to understand the Word of God. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Galatians 1:11-24, and Paul's divine appointment to preach the gospel. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - One of my favorite moments that we have occasionally here in the church, and the elders are talking about increasing the frequency, is when we hear testimonies from brothers and sisters in Christ of various ways that God is working in their lives and their ministries. Don't you love that? We get it every time there is a baptism, and so we get to hear the incredible story of how God brought that man or woman to faith in Christ. We all rejoice in that, sometimes with applause, I think always with applause at baptism, and we praise God for that. Or there will be other times that people will step up and just talk about their ministry. You just heard me pray for Jack. Isn't that incredible? Two thousand consecutive Monday nights. Sometimes on a December 25th, sometimes inclement weather, incredible faithfulness. Jack mentioned, sometimes on his anniversary. I wonder why he brought that up? But just saying what a godly woman Rita was, to free him up to do that ministry, if in fact he went. I don't know what's wise or not. You just need wisdom from God, should I go or not? But for two thousand nights, individuals have stepped up and ministered, and I think that's incredible. The sharing of testimonies. You see it sometimes at so-called revival meetings, or Billy Graham crusades. You see people getting up and talking about how God brought them to faith in Christ. I just love hearing those stories, don't you? I love hearing of God's faithfulness, whether in converting someone, or using someone in ministry, and you can share in that. For me, it's always seemed to be somewhat of a foretaste of Heaven, of heavenly fellowship. I think a big portion of our time in Heaven will be going back over redemptive history, and what happened, and talking about it, and listening to it. And we are going be free people at that point. We'll be free from time constraints, free from anxieties, free from pride and arrogance, and sharing stories like that, free from pride and arrogance, and not wanting to really listen to someone else's stories. We're going to care intensely about what God has done in someone else's life, because we will be glorified. We will be free from selfishness, and we will be so eager to hear stories of brothers and sisters that lived in different ages and generations, some perhaps a thousand years ago, and how God used them, and what God did to bring them to faith in Christ. I am so eager for that. We are all going be church historians then, friends. Praise God. You may think church history's a bit of a snooze. It isn't, it's thrilling. Amen? Nathan? It is not a snooze. You have a testimony right now on that. It's going to be awesome, because it's God at work in other people's lives. And to God be the glory. In my mind, as I begin this sermon today, I want you to go ahead to verse 24, and just look at it. And I just love what Paul says at the very end of the section, end of Chapter 1, "And they praised God, because of me." Isn't that an awesome statement? "They praised God, because of me." Friends, the only way that can happen is with the Gospel of God's sovereign grace at center place in our understanding, that we know it is only by the sovereign grace of God, that anything good happens in our lives. And so it's not, "They praised me for my courage, and my boldness, and my wisdom, and my discerning sensitivity to understanding what the right things were, and stepping out and doing them." No, no, no. "They praised God, because of me." It gives me something to yearn for and something to live for. I want that to be said of me at the end of my life, that other people had cause to praise God, because of me. And so let us, as members of this church, celebrate sovereign grace. Let's understand that that is what Galatians is all about. But this testimony that we have here in Galatians 1, and that's what it is, this is the testimony of the Apostle Paul, is a testimony unlike any other there's ever been in church history. Paul is a unique individual in church history. His conversion story, his testimony of grace, is different than anyone else's testimony. In some very significant ways, because God had ordained (as he says right in the text), God had willed, even from his mother's womb, even from before the foundation of the world, He had willed to use this man, this Saul of Tarsus, this Apostle Paul, in ways He had chosen to use no one else. And so He brought him though significant things, and transformed him to, God be the Glory, to be an example. And we are going to talk about this from 1 Timothy 1, an example of how if God can save him, He can save anyone. That's really what the story is, but then beyond that, how God chose to use him, to give us much of the theology of salvation that we celebrate week after week. The other Apostles, God used them as eyewitnesses of the Word who became flesh, eyewitnesses of his glory. They told the stories of his miracles, and were there when He broke the bread, and they were eyewitnesses of his resurrection, and all of that. But it's predominantly through Paul that we understand the theology of all the events. We get the facts through the eyewitnesses, but then we get the theology and the significance through the Apostle Paul. And so God willed for this individual, this Paul, to be raised up and converted in a spectacular way. God showed him visions of Christ, and of the truth that He gave to no one else, and Paul wrote them down, and we still read them today. So what we have here, in the section we are looking at today, Galatians 1:11-24, we have Paul's defense for his apostleship. His defense, even more significantly, for his message. He is defending both his message and his apostleship, and he's going say that both his message and his apostleship were of divine, of supernatural origin. He's defending it. Now, the attack made by the Judaizers, the false teachers that came in to Galatia. The Apostle Paul, after he was converted was shaped, trained, and prepared by God himself, by Christ himself, to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. And in the fullness of time, at the right time, he went forth on a missionary journey with Barnabas, and he went through Asia Minor into Galatia, in modern-day Turkey, and he was a church planter there. He led people to Christ and he planted churches. But in a shockingly brief amount of time, after he and Barnabas left, some false teachers came in and infiltrated their ranks. They began teaching a different Gospel, which Paul said, and we looked last time, "Is no Gospel at all." A mixture of Christ plus works, Christ plus law equals salvation. A mixture, which ultimately, when it all boils down, the final analysis goes down to self-salvation. A so-called Gospel of self-salvation is no Gospel at all. So in a shockingly brief amount of time after Paul had planted those churches, they started to turn in their hearts toward a different Gospel, and he's so disappointed, he's so shocked, he's so concerned about them. Later in this epistle, he's going to say that he is in childbirth over them, concerned and laboring for them. And so this section that we're looking at today, verses 11-24, is Paul's defense for his own apostleship, his own life story, his calling. It’s not so much so he can defend himself (we'll get into that), but so that he can defend the message he came to preach, and his right to teach them its implications. That's what he's doing. I. The Link between the Man and the Message Paul is one of the most attacked people in history. It goes on even to this present day. The attack on Paul is a timeless attack on the truth of the Gospel. And so these Judaizers were probably saying lukewarm things about Paul. "He's a good man, but he didn't get the Gospel right. He's a second-hander. He's not one of the first frontline apostles. He listened to those in Jerusalem, got it, but he garbled it, he didn't quite get it right. And now, you need to listen to us, we are the mouthpiece of the true church in Jerusalem. We are the ones who are telling you how you must be saved, through the work of Christ on the cross, yes, but also through the law of Moses, mixing those two together. And the Apostle Paul, a nice guy, I guess, but he's getting it wrong." Well, listen, that attack on Paul is a timeless one. It's an attack on the Gospel. It's a attack on our brains. We 21st century Christians need to be sure that Paul was an apostle, sent not from men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ. And we need to be certain that the things he wrote, the things he taught are true, absolutely true. We need to have absolute confidence that God spoke through Paul. We need to be sure when we sit down to read Romans, or 1 or 2 Corinthians, or 2 Thessalonians, that everything in there is God's own truth, and be confident in that. And so we have to listen to Paul's defense for his own ministry. Paul is under attack, and his defense for himself and his ministry here, is not because he's on some kind of ego trip. It's not because he's insecure and needs some affirmation or needs some assurance. It's not that at all. It's rather that he's trying to defend his right to teach the Gospel, and the Gospel that he actually did preach there in Galatia, that it was the true Gospel. The Book of Acts is filled with attacks on the Apostle Paul. It's just one after the other. As soon as he moves out, as soon as he comes to faith in Christ, and preaches the Gospel there in Damascus, he's persecuted. He's persecuted in Jerusalem. He's persecuted in Asia Minor, when he and Barnabas go out on that missionary journey. It's just in the Book of Acts, it's just one attack after another. The last eight chapters of the Book of Acts is Paul on trial, in one court setting after another, Paul defending himself against one attack after another. The same thing happens, though, in other epistles. We see it in 2 Corinthians, how he defends himself from an attack, from what some people called the 'super apostles.' "We're the extra apostles. We're the super apostles." And so they're questioning Paul on this. And so he has to defend his ministry, which he does vigorously in 2 Corinthians. But here he does it in Galatians 1 and 2. He spends a lot of time defending himself. And I think it's because the Lord knew that Paul would be the key new covenant theologian. He would be the key individual, not the only one, now, we learn new covenant theology from John and from Peter and others as well, but he is the key advocate and articulator of the significance of Christ's death on the cross, and his resurrection, and the significance of Pentecost, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. So he is defending himself, but not for his own sake. Look at verse 10. He is not concerned what people think about him there. He says in verse 10, "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God, or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." He's not doing this because he is trying to please people or have people think well of him. In 1 Thessalonians 2:6, he says the same thing, "We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else." And again in 1 Corinthians 4:3, a very clear statement. He says, "I care very little, if I'm judged by you or by any human court. Actually, I don't even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that doesn't make me innocent. It's the Lord who judges me." The only one I care about is what the Lord thinks about me. Isn't that a strong statement? "I care very little if I'm judged by you or anyone else." And so the issue here, that we're getting at in Galatians 1:11-24, is the link, the fundamental link between the man and his message. There is a link between Paul and the Gospel Paul preached, the Gospel he taught so plainly and clearly. What he wants to do, look at verse 1 and we're going to compare it to verses 11-12, there's a strong link here. Verse 1, "Paul, an apostle, sent not from man, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God, the Father, who raised Him from the dead." That's very similar to verse 11-12, "I want you to know, brothers, that the Gospel I preached, is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ." You see? In Verse 1, he says, "My apostleship came directly from God, from Christ," and then verse 11 and 12, "My message, the Gospel I preach, came directly from God as a revelation of Jesus Christ." So that's the issue. There's a link between his apostleship and his message. "I got my apostleship from God and I got my message from God." To some degree, this makes perfect sense. Now, an apostle is a sent one, a messenger, an ambassador from, let's say, a king to another country, something like that, with an official status to relay a message. Imagine in the Middle Ages, that some herald shows up in royal regalia, he's got the king's crest on his chest, and he's got a scroll that he's waving, and he calls, "Hear ye, hear ye. All you citizens assemble." Everybody comes together, and he pulls out this scroll, and it's marked with a seal, and he waves it in front of them, and then he breaks the seal, and right before he's about to read the proclamation, someone from the crowd calls out, "That man is an impostor. I know who he is. He's a highway robber. He's probably assaulted the genuine messenger of the king and has taken his clothing. We can't trust a word he says." You see the significance of this, don't you? If the messenger is discredited, then the message is discredited. We can't listen to anything that the messenger says if you discredit the messenger. So that's what's going on here. Paul is proving that both his role as an apostle and his message came from the same source. It came from God. There is authority here, authority and truth. He has a right to preach and teach. He has a right to shape their understanding of the Gospel. And the key idea here is that God speaks to us through people. He raises up people and gives them the authority to speak his truth. And we see this fundamentally getting established at Mount Sinai, you remember that? That time when God descended in fire and cloud, when the Jewish nation, having been delivered from bondage in Egypt, having passed through the Red Sea, coming to Mount Sinai, they're assembled at the base of the mountain, that the mountain is trembling, everyone's terrified. God descends in fire and cloud, and He speaks in this terrifyingly loud voice, "I am the Lord, your God, who led you out of Egypt, out of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides me," and gave them the Ten Commandments, verbally spoke to them. "God speaks to us through people. He raises up people and gives them the authority to speak his truth." The people were so terrified by what they heard, that they pleaded with Moses. They said, "Would you please go up the mountain, go up into the cloud, in the fire, and talk to God, and listen to him, and find out what He wants to say to us, and would you please come and tell us, so that we don't hear this great voice anymore, lest we hear it and die?" And God said, "What the people have said is good. It's a good thing. I wish they would always fear me like they fear me right now." And so Moses became the mouthpiece of God to the Jewish nation. He went up, heard from God, came down, and spoke God's Word, and he then opened up the office for the Jewish nation of prophet, that office was opened up, where individuals would hear the voice of God, and they would relay it to the people of God. Moses said in Deuteronomy 18, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers, and you must listen to him, for this is what you asked the Lord, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God, nor see His great fire anymore or we will die.' And the Lord said to me, 'What they say is good. I will raise up a prophet like you, from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.'" Well, that's the office of prophet. And so again and again, the prophets were raised up after Moses was dead and gone. The prophets came, and they would say things like, "Thus says the Lord," and they would speak, and the people had to listen to what they said, and if they didn't, there would be problems, judgment would come. Now, once God had spoken through an individual, like Jeremiah, let's say, and he was established as a prophet of God, and the things he said came true, they would come and ask him, "Is there a word from the Lord today?" They wanted to hear from Him, and he was established in the office of prophet, and they recognized him as a genuine mouthpiece of God, and so the Word of the Lord would come, and they would speak. And so the apostles, the New Testament apostles, were chosen out from all of Jesus' disciples to be with Jesus, and to see Him, and to go with him, and to hear his teachings, and have a close relationship with him, and then eventually to be the foundation of the church, humanly speaking, along with the prophets of the Old Testament. And so it says in Ephesians 2:19-20 that, "God's household, [the church, is] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone." My understanding is that these mouthpieces of God were eventually the foundation of the Bible. The apostles and prophets, to me, equals Bible, the written Word of God. The apostles and prophets, as they testified to Jesus, that's the foundation of the church. That's what the church is built on. And so the apostles are the link that 20 centuries of Christians around the world have to the resurrected Christ. Their eyewitness testimony of Christ's words and deeds, and especially of his death and resurrection, is foundational to our faith. The authority of the apostles and the truth of their message was essential to the future of the church. Now, as the Lord would have it, He was going to raise up yet another man, this Saul of Tarsus, this Paul, to be an apostle, one untimely born, just handled differently. God had a different plan for him, and shaped him, and molded him, and prepared him differently. And you think about all that the Lord intended to give us through Paul. Think of all the things you know about Jesus because Paul wrote Romans. Think about all the things you know about spiritual gifts because he wrote 1 Corinthians, or love, because he wrote 1 Corinthians 13. Think about the specific things you know about the end times, because Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians. There are things that you know about God’s activity before the foundation of the world, because he wrote Romans 8 and Ephesians 1. Think of all of the things that God has given you through Paul. And when you get to heaven, go and find him and thank him, alright? And he'll say, "They glorify God because of me. It's because of God that you have anything good through me." But God willed to give all of this truth, this river of truth through this one individual. So Satan's attack on Paul back then, his time-bound attack back then, is actually an eternal attack on the church. Do you see that? II. Paul’s Main Point: The Supernatural Origin of the Gospel He Preached Paul has to defend his apostleship, not for his own sake, but for ours, and for the Galatian Christians, so that we can understand. And his main point in verse 11-12 is the supernatural origin of the Gospel that he preached. Look at it again, at verse 11-12, "I want you to know, brothers, that the Gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ." This is the supernatural origin of the Gospel that he preached. This Gospel is the power of God for our salvation. And as I pointed out last week, it's not just for the beginning of the Christian life, it's for the rest of the Christian life. As Tim Keller put it beautifully, it's not the ABCs of Christianity, it's the A to Z. And so you're going to be under the ministry of the Gospel the rest of your life. You're not done being saved yet. And so you need to trust this Gospel message right on through, right 'til the end. I love Romans 6:17. We talked about it at the new member weekend a few days ago, and it was just a beautiful time. It’s a verse so rich with doctrine and truth. There it says, "Thanks be to God, that though you used to be slave to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed that form of teaching to which you were entrusted." God entrusted your souls to doctrine. He entrusted your soul to a pattern of teaching and it's for your soul's health that you stay under that Gospel the rest of your life. And so Paul wants you to trust that Gospel right straight through. He wants you to keep trusting that Gospel. Satan wants you to not trust it. He wants to bring doubt, and different thoughts and confusions in, and that he's trying to assault the purity of your understanding of the Gospel. And here in Galatians, he's bringing in this man-made mixture Gospel of works and faith, things that do not go together. And so if Paul's Gospel was defective, it's man-made. But if Paul's Gospel was revealed from heaven, then it's perfect, and it will get you saved. It will finish the saving work in you, right through to heaven. This Gospel can get you to heaven. Praise God for that! It can get you to Heaven! It can forgive all of your sins and it can equip you every moment to fight indwelling sin. If you're entrusted to it, it can get you safely all the way to Heaven, if you keep believing its message. And so he's defending this. The world is filled with man-made Gospels. People are clever. I think they're demoniacally clever, frankly. I think demons are involved. I think Satan's involved, but I think he puts ideas, and thoughts, and visions, and weird thoughts in people's minds, and they come up with new religions. "If Paul's Gospel was defective, it's man-made. But if Paul's Gospel was revealed from heaven, then it's perfect, and it will get you saved. It will finish the saving work in you, right through to heaven." I think Islam is ultimately a man-made religion. Mormonism is a man-made religion. Joseph Smith was a con artist, who was a very clever individual, and I think there's a Satanic input, and the Book of Mormon came from it, and it's a false religion, it's a false Gospel. It's not Christianity. I think Buddhism, Hinduism, these things are man-made religions. They're man-made Gospel. It's no Gospel at all. The true Gospel is heaven sent. It came down from heaven with Jesus. It's a message that God, 1 Corinthians 2:7, "Ordained for our salvation, before time began." It's a message that God worked out, if we can use that language of God, He worked it out, Father, Son and Spirit, before the foundation of the world, before time began, and then proclaimed it little by little in the Old Testament prophets. They little by little let out more and more truth. And the Gospel was proclaimed ahead of time, through the prophets, Romans 1:1-3, and Romans 16:26. This is a Gospel that God announced ahead of time through the prophets. Galatians 4, "When the time had fully come, God sent the Gospel in His Son, Jesus, born of a woman, born under the law." The Gospel is heaven sent. It descended from heaven to Earth. Jesus, in John 6, uses this descending language, "I have come down from heaven." Isn't that powerful, that image? "I have descended. " John 6:38-39 "I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given me, but raise them up at the last day. " "I descended to raise you up." That's what Jesus said. This is the bread of life that descended from heaven like the manna did. This is a Gospel that is heaven sent. It's not anything that man made up. No one could have made this up. CS Lewis makes this point, "The Gospel must be true. No human being could ever have concocted this. Who would have ever thought of this, this Gospel of sovereign grace, contrary to human merit, by the death of the incarnate Son of God and his resurrection?" Who is going come up with that? No individual could have. This is something that we did not concoct. And Paul says in verse 12, "I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ." Now, I'm going to digress. You don't know this, but I'm going to tell you. I'm going to digress from what I wrote here, because I don't really think what I wrote is the best way to say it. I'm going say something a little bit differently. What I do here in my outline here, is talk about how all of us receives the Gospel by revelation. Like Peter, at Caesarea at Philippi, we all have to have Christ directly revealed to our hearts, or we won't be converted. Friends, that's true, but I don't really think that's what Paul is saying here. He's saying, "I'm special," actually. That's what he's saying, "I'm unique. I didn't have the same kind of encounter with the Gospel that average people have." Is there anything wrong with being taught the Gospel by people? No, that's all of us. We should all say, "No, there's nothing wrong.” Thank God, there's nothing wrong. We were, all of us, taught the Gospel by people, but Paul wasn't, not in the same way we are. He got it directly from Jesus. That's what he's claiming here. He's saying in effect, "I am unique." Yes, you have the Gospel revealed to your heart by the Holy Spirit, definitely that's true, but that's off the point of what Paul's saying here. So that outline, put it aside. But truer, yes, in one sense, yes, God revealed Christ to you when you were born again. God revealed Christ to you when you were converted, but God revealed Christ in a special way to this man, Paul. He had a vision of Christ on the road to Damascus. III. Paul’s Evidence: His Supernatural Conversion Paul talks about the transformation that happened with this Gospel, this powerful Gospel that came in his life, and changed everything. Look at verse 13 and 14, he said, "You have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism, beyond many Jews of my own age, and I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers." "I was an expert Jew. I was a zealous Jew. I was a ladder-climbing Jew. I was a competitive Jew. I was looking at my schoolmates and I was getting better grades than them. I was better at memorizing Torah than they were. I was the best Jew on Earth." That's about what he's saying. Paul does a lot of this kind of boasting and it's interesting, but it's true. In Philippians 3:4-6, he says, "If anyone else, [any other Jewish, Judaizer-type person,] thinks he has reasons for confidence in the flesh, I have more." Paul does a lot of this kind of thing, "I'm better than you. Alright, I'll tell you what. Let's just lay out our Jewish credentials here. Let's lay them on the table and I win. I win every time, alright?" What is he talking about? He says, [I was] "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. a Hebrew of Hebrews. In regard to the law, a Pharisee. As for zeal, a persecutor of the church. And as for legalistic righteousness, faultless." In Acts 22:3-4, his testimony goes like this, "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in the city, [Jerusalem]. Under Gamaliel, I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers," and here he's actually a little more humble than usual, "And was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.” I'll be equally zealous as you. "I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women, and throwing them in prison." Why does Paul talk about how much of an expert, excellent Jew he was? First of all, because he's dealing with Judaizers, they are his enemies in this debate. And he's saying, "I understand what you're saying. I understand the law of Moses as well as you do. I understand where all that leads, so I have the credentials to talk law with you," and by the way, he does it on behalf of those who can't. The Galatians are Gentiles. What do they know about all these, the minutiae of the law? They're overwhelmed. They're intimidated by these Jews, who are coming and saying, "You know nothing of the law. Let me tell you unwashed Gentiles how it is." Paul steps forward as our champion, the Gentiles' champion, and says, "Look, I understand the law better than any of these people and I know it doesn't save souls. I know it. I'm able to tell you. I ran that race, it doesn't lead anywhere but hell. I considered my righteousness in that old system garbage. Whatever was to my gain, I considered loss, so that I could gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God, and is by faith." He can speak about all these things. He's our expert. Now, the point Paul is making here is, "That's how I used to live. A radical transformation has come to me." How do you explain that? How do you explain what happened to Saul of Tarsus? What explanation can you give? Well, post-Freud and into our counseling kind of era psych, there are all kinds of people who want to do psychological analysis of Paul. But let's just cut to the chase. Either he was insane or he was radically converted by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A crazy man. You don't do a 180 degree about-face like he did. It's an astonishing conversion, a powerful testimony, and he's not insane. At one point, they claim that he was, in Acts 26:24, "Your great learning has driven you insane." He says, "I'm not crazy. The things I'm saying are true and they are reasonable." God converted Paul because He had a purpose for him. Look at verse 15 and 16, "But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me, so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles." Just stop there. This is an incredible thing. Paul says, "God set me apart from birth for this work. He had been training and preparing me to do this from the time I was born." Actually, if you read Ephesians 1, it was earlier than that. It says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms, with every spiritual blessing in Christ, for He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight." Before time began, before God said, "Let there be light," God had planned all of this. But Paul just says, "From birth, God set me apart from birth and called me by his grace," and that's an amazing statement, really. An amazing statement. He's saying, "Everything that happened to me before I was converted was part of God's plan for me." Isn't that an incredible statement? He's like, "Well, that was all that rebellion." The time he was hating Jesus, all that time, everything that happened, the way he was born, where he was born, the fact that he was a Roman citizen from birth was part of the package. The fact that he was born in Tarsus, but came to Jerusalem to study under Gamaliel, that was part of it. The fact that he was zealous for the law, that was part of it. The fact that he was an expert in the law. The fact that he was a Pharisee, that he considered his legalistic righteousness to be blameless, that was all part of it. The fact that he was so driven and so ambitious was part of it. The fact that he went after the church and persecuted it. He was there with Stephen. You know what I think happened? I think Stephen beat him in a debate. I think if you read between the lines, in Acts 6, Stephen was preaching from the Scriptures, that Jesus was the Christ and no one could refute him. No one could resist him or stand up against his wisdom of the Spirit, by which he spoke, and that includes Jews from the synagogue of Freedmen from Tarsus and Cilicia. I think Paul was there. He was like, "I can't beat this guy, Stephen." And so he was just there when Stephen was killed, and he was giving assent to his death. He was excited that Stephen was dying. And then, in Acts 8, he starts to destroy the church, and he starts to persecute it, and he's going after the church, and he's dragging off men and women, and throwing them in prison. But meanwhile, Stephen's points are working in his brain. And the behavior of these men and women, and the children in these Christian homes, and their tears, and their pain, and their deaths, it seems, because he voted against them, he consented to their deaths, and he was in some sense a murderer. In one sense, a murderer, a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and a violent man. And all of this, Paul's saying, "Is part of God's plan for me," all of it. Wow. And why? Because he was shaping him and preparing him to be the apostle to the Gentiles, and to be a trophy of God's grace that stood for all time. Listen to 1 Timothy 1, "I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service, even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man. I was shown mercy, because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me, abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." I love this verse, this one verse, you ought to memorize this one, 1 Timothy 1:15, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst." Oh, you should memorize that. You should cherish it, whenever you get attacked, or assaulted by Satan, the accuser, or the brethren, and say, "Go back. Yeah, but 1 Timothy 1:15 says, 'Here's a trustworthy saying. Christ came to save sinners like me. Yes, I am a sinner, but He came to save people like me. It's trustworthy and I will trust it. Of whom, I am the worst,'" he said. "But," verse 16, "For that very reason, I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display [put on display], His unlimited patience, as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life." So here's the logic. If God can save Saul of Tarsus, breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, He can save anyone, anytime, just like that. Just like that. Isn't that awesome? Doesn't that encourage you as an evangelist? Doesn't that encourage you as a missionary? Doesn't that encourage you, as you're praying for lost loved ones and co-workers? God can save anyone, anytime, and that's the point. And he says, "It was God's good pleasure to do it." God enjoys doing it. God enjoys saving sinners. I love what Jesus said in Luke 12:32, "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." God enjoys saving you. He delights in it. And so his immediate purpose was so that he might preach. IV. Paul’s Assertion: No One Taught Me This Gospel From the very beginning of Paul’s ministry, right from the calling, Jesus said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" "I'm Jesus, the one you're persecuting. Now, get up, and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." Just right away in his conversion, right away, he's given a work. And so he goes to the synagogues in Damascus right away, and he begins preaching the Gospel. Wouldn't you love to have been there that Saturday or whenever that Sabbath was? He goes in there, "Oh, yeah, I know this guy. He's here to arrest all those Christians, weird people from that weird cult," and he opens his mouth and begins proving from the Scriptures, that Jesus is the Son of God. What a stunned moment. How can we account for this, except by sovereign grace? But after God was pleased to reveal his Son in him, so that he might preach among the Gentiles, he says, "I did not consult any man. I didn't ask anyone. I didn't get trained. I didn't go to school. I didn't go to seminary. I especially didn't go to Jerusalem. I didn't sit at the feet of those who were apostles, before I was. I withdrew at that point. After preaching in Damascus and being let in over the wall in a basket, I went to Arabia." It's a picture of a retreat, maybe even in a desert, like Elijah out in the desert with the ravens bringing him food. Picture that or picture John the Baptist out in the desert, in the years before he began his public ministry. Or picture Jesus being driven by the Spirit out into the desert to be tempted by the Devil for 40 days. There is Paul in Arabia and he's learning the Gospel. So the things he later wrote in Romans, Jesus taught him those things directly, by revelation. And so he was trained, and he says in verse 19, "I saw none of the other apostles, except James, the Lord's brother," and then he asserts, he said, "I'm not lying. I assure you that I'm not lying. And then I went to Syria and Silesia, and those churches in Judea, they hadn't even heard of me. I wasn't a second-hander who learned the Gospel from the apostles in Jerusalem, and then tried it out in the churches there around Judea. They'd never even heard of me." But eventually, they heard that this man, the very man who used to persecute and attack the Gospel, is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy and they praised God, because of me." V. Application What application can we take from this? Well, how about this? How about come to Christ? How about trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? Amen. The Gospel of God's grace is here for you. That's the whole point of Galatians, is so that you will know that this Gospel, the same Gospel that saved Saul of Tarsus, is here today. God sent his Son, born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life, who died on the cross in your place, who God raised from the dead on the third day. If you repent of your sins and trust in him, you will be saved. You will be saved. Trust in him. This is a heaven-sent Gospel. And only a heaven-sent Gospel produces worship and glory to God for its converts. "And they praised God, because so-and-so got converted. They praised God, because aunt so-and-so, or brother so-and-so, or sister so-and-so got converted. They praised God, because my boss was converted." To God be the glory. Only by emphasizing sovereign grace will we understand that the worship and the glory goes to God. Let him who boast, boast in the Lord. "Only by emphasizing sovereign grace will we understand that the worship and the glory goes to God. Let him who boast, boast in the Lord." I would urge you trust Paul and his writings. Be suspicious of anybody who comes alongside, okay? Paul has written on a lot of controversial issues. And again and again, when you get into these controversial issues, like the role of women in ministry, divorce and remarriage, charismatic gifts, various other things, lots of controversial things, many of them in 1 Corinthians. You may wonder why I entrusted 1 Corinthians to the elders, and then left on sabbatical. No, I wouldn't do that to my friends. Go ahead, preach through all the controversial things, get those cleaned up and I'll return in the fall. But so many of those controversial things were entrusted to Paul. And again, and again, when you start getting into him, you hear some effort to discredit Paul, separate him from Jesus, "Jesus had this view of women and Paul had this view." Again and again, this discrediting of Paul, it's just Satan attacking Paul again. Trust everything Paul wrote. It's the Word of God, all of it. And then, finally, if I can enhance, enrich your fellowship, let's share testimonies with each other, okay? Let's share how we came to faith in Christ. The elders want to do that more on Sunday mornings. We're going to be doing that with some of the candidates for elders over the next few weeks. Just praise God for what God's done in these men, in their lives. But we're going to have other testimonies of how God has worked in various people's lives. Find out from those that are suffering severe illness how God is being faithful in this time to give grace. Let's do real fellowship with each other. Let's not go down to current events, and to the weather, and all that. Tonight, at home fellowship, share with each other how God has been gracious to you and what God is doing in your life. That's a foretaste of heaven. Close with me in prayer. Father, I thank you for the Apostle Paul. I thank you for how he defended his calling, how he defended his Gospel ministry. I thank you for the Gospel you gave him to preach, and I thank you for each brother and sister that's here today. God, there's been a burden on my heart this morning, that there might be somebody here today that walked in this place, knowing they're not converted. I want to pray for that person, whether man or woman, boy or girl. I want to pray right now that you would bring conversion by your sovereign grace, just like you did with Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. Bring a transformation in their heart right now, that they would look to Christ and him crucified, not trusting in their own works anymore, but looking to Jesus, and finding forgiveness at the cross. I pray that in Jesus' name, Amen.

Pastor Andy Davis begins a new series in the Book of Galatians and unfolds the dangers of an unbiblical gospel. - Sermon Transcript - I. One Question: What must I do to be saved? Many times in my mind I go back to that incredible account in Acts Chapter 16 when Paul and Silas were in the Philippian jail and they were in chains and being persecuted for preaching the Gospel of Christ, and they were singing praise songs to Jesus, giving glory and praise to God. I think to myself, how much I long for that kind of faith, to be able to face any trial in my life with that kind of supernatural joy, and to be able to understand the root of their joy. It was in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul and Silas knew that even if they were executed for preaching the Gospel, they were going to go to heaven and that they would be perfectly happy. They had every reason to sing and rejoice and delight in the Gospel, but there were also other people listening to them. There were other prisoners that were listening to them and especially there was the Philippian jailer. Suddenly God sent this incredible earthquake and the ground shook and the doors were opened and the chains fell off. The jailer called for lights. He was just about to kill himself because he thought all of his prisoners had run away. And Paul called out a message of life, "Don't harm yourself, we're all here." The jailer called for lights and rushed in and brought Paul and Silas out and fell trembling before them and asked this one question, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Does that question stand over you today? Do you understand the significance of that question? What must I do to be saved? Can you understand the basic underpinnings of that question? There must be something I can do to be saved. There must be some action I can do. There must be some array of good works I can do to stop feeling so guilty before God, and to stop being so terrified of death and of judgment. Is there something I can do about this? Paul and Silas spoke the Gospel message of liberation, of freedom, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” You will be rescued! There's nothing you can do to save yourself. There's nothing you can do to rescue yourself, just believe in Jesus and you will be saved. How powerful is that? How liberating is that message? And that is what I get to preach today, the liberating message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Story of Martin Luther Now, jump ahead almost 15 centuries to the story of Martin Luther, one of my favorite characters from church history. He was an incredible man, but he was, similar to the Philippian jailer, terrified to die. He was a lawyer. He was law student in route to go back to school, when he was caught in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm, and the lightning flashed all around, and he fell down into the mud. He was terrified to die. He was afraid that these lightning bolts were sent by Almighty God to kill him and to usher him into hell. The only thing he had to answer those terrors were the errors of medieval Catholicism. So he cried out in the midst of that mud, rain, lightning, and thunder, "Help me, Saint Anne, I shall become a monk." He cried out to a saint to save him. He made her a promise, that he would become a monk if she would just intercede with God to save his life, and he was good to his promise. He entered a monastery, and there he tried to earn his salvation by extended fasting, by labors, by meditations and long prayers, and by endless confessions to his father confessor. He was just trying to find some way to be delivered from a guilty conscience and from his terror of death, his terror of the wrath of God, that when he died he would be sent to hell and there he would suffer forever and ever in extreme torment. And so he was terrified by these things, and the only thing he could do was try to earn his forgiveness by good works, and he became the most extremely zealous monk there was in Germany. Scrubbing floors like no floors have ever been scrubbed before or probably since. He refused the meager blanket that was assigned to him in his monk's cell there and laid on a cold floor in the midst of a German winter, shivering, thinking that somehow his physical torments there would be a path of escape from the judgments of God. But no matter how hard he worked, no matter how hard he tried, he could not stop the accusations of a guilty conscience and the terror of God behind all that. Just when things were blackest, Luther was entrusted with the responsibility of teaching the Bible at the University of Wittenberg and it saved his life, it saved his soul. For in that Bible, he discovered the Gospel. He realized that the medieval Catholic system, that barter, that exchange of doing good works to pay for bad, the whole thing was corrupt, it was not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He found in the Book of Romans the way out, that the Gospel pointed to the work of Christ crucified and resurrected and a righteousness that is ours by faith in Christ. Now, the Book of Romans was a centerpiece of that discovery, but the Book of Galatians became a treasured and precious source of truth and strength to him. In this brief Epistle, the Apostle Paul is fighting against some people (we'll call them the Judaizers), false teachers, who are trying to mingle the work of Jesus Christ on the cross with law. They're trying to add to the work of Christ. It was Christ plus law equals salvation, that's what they were doing. And in refuting them, the Apostle Paul has given us a timeless message, refuting works righteousness in favor of a Gospel of grace, a Gospel of forgiveness, simply by faith and by the grace of God and by the work of Jesus Christ. Luther delighted in this brief, clear, simple, powerful message of Galatians. He loved it. He said, "The epistle to Galatians is my epistle. It's mine." I'm grateful he's let all of us use it too, amen? But it was his. “It's my epistle.” He said, "To it I am, as it were, in wedlock. I'm married to this book, it is my Katie." That was the name of his wife, "Galatians is my Katie." He loved this message, he loved the simplicity, he loved the liberation from legalism, from thinking that somehow our law-keeping can pay for our sins. He loved that liberation. And Luther said, "There is no middle ground between Christian righteousness and works righteousness. There is no other alternative to Christian righteousness than works righteousness. If you don't build your confidence on the work of Christ, you must build your confidence on your own works, and there's no middle ground between the two of them." Amen. So what must I do to be saved? Believe in Jesus, trust in Jesus. So we come to the liberating message of the Book of Galatians. II. The Liberating Message of Galatians We are going to find in this what some scholars have called "The Magna Carta of Christian freedom." Or others, "The battle cry of the Reformation," "The Christians' Declaration of Independence." We come in the Book of Galatians face-to-face with the Gospel, that's what we have here, the Gospel. Many people wrongly assume or think that the Gospel is just for unbelievers or beginner Christians. They think that, as Tim Keller put it beautifully, the Gospel is the ABCs of the Christian life. Well, he says, it is that, but it's also the A to Z of the Christian life. So again and again we are going to come back to the Gospel message and see how powerful it is for we who are Christians. One of the central observations that Keller makes is one of the most obvious things, Galatians was written to Christians. It was written to people who already believed in Jesus Christ, but they were straying from the simplicity and the clarity of the Gospel message, and they needed to come back again and understand the Gospel. Gospel is for us. The Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation All over the world sin has enslaved people in its power. They are in the chains, just like Paul and Silas were in physical chains, they are in spiritual chains. They are in bondage to sin, in bondage to Satan's power. They are in chains they cannot see and chains they cannot break. The only liberation from this enslavement is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God. Romans 1:16-17 says the Gospel is "the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is from faith to faith. Just as it is written, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’" Picture in your mind Paul and Silas in those physical chains. Then picture sinners, apart from the grace of Christ, at this point not having believed in the Gospel, in the same kind of chains. They are enslaved, they are in prison. Charles Wesley pictured it this way in the hymn And Can It Be, and I just love that verse that talks about salvation in those kinds of terms, that enslavement, the chains, "Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye, [Jesus' eye] diffused a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed thee." That's liberation, Amen. And only the Gospel can set you free. Now, this is not an escape story, we are not talking about an escape story. I love escape stories. I've watched a number of movies that are about great escapes, like The Great Escape, that's one. Seventy-six POWs escaping from a German POW Camp through a 102 meter tunnel. That's a great movie. That's a great story. I've watched a movie about an escape from Alcatraz, how this one guy cleverly finds a way how to get off that island and makes his escape. Clint Eastwood was in that one. Moving on. Then there's Harry Houdini, I watched a movie about him, how he used to do the Chinese water torture thing upside down in a cell of water. But here is the thing with an escape story. In every case, the escape artist is celebrated. Galatians Emphasizes the Liberation by Christ. It is the Epistle of Freedom The Gospel is not about escape, it's about rescue! It's about rescue. And it's right here in Galatians 1 in the verse that you just heard read, in verse 4, Christ "gave himself for our sins to rescue us." Amen. We're going to get into that verse but I just want you to see it's a rescue mission. And the whole thing with rescue is the one being rescued can't deliver themselves. And to God alone be the glory for the deliverance. To God alone be the glory, to Jesus alone. We cannot save ourselves. Self-salvation through law-keeping is no Gospel at all. It does not work, and even if it did we would spend eternity insufferably praising ourselves and glorifying ourselves for our own great escape. Instead we're going to be glorifying Christ for His great rescue of us, His deliverance of us. It's a rescue. And so, we are going to celebrate this Gospel of rescue, this Gospel of liberation for many weeks together in the Book of Galatians. "The Gospel is not about escape, it's about rescue! " Context: The Churches of Galatia, Infiltration of False Teachers Now, let me set some historical context, the Apostle Paul wrote this book. He was an apostle, we are going to talk about his apostleship. He was a church planting missionary who went through various regions, including what we now consider modern-day Turkey, and he went through that area and he planted churches. The name “Galatians” is linked to the word Gaul, linked to the history of France. So there were some Gauls that came apparently from that area and settled in Asia Minor. After terrorizing the Greeks and the Romans they settled there and the Roman Empire made Galatia, the place of the Gauls, a subset of Asia Minor, part of the Roman Empire. Paul visited this region with Barnabas on his first missionary journey. Acts 13 and 14 tells the story of how he planted these churches in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, it tells the whole story about all of that. He was stoned and left for dead by hostile Jewish leaders who followed him from Antioch and Iconium to Lystra and they stoned him and left him for dead. But he wasn't dead. God raised him up out of that pile and he continued to preach. And at the end of that first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas revisited the small churches they had planted. They showed that shepherding heart and that concern for the works that they had done. It was out of that concern that he writes this epistle, because some time after Paul and Barnabas left, some other teachers came along, some false teachers. They were Jews who claimed to believe in Jesus and they believed that a combination of trusting in Christ plus obedience to the laws of Moses equaled salvation. They are who we will call the “Judaizers,” and they were preaching a false Gospel. In so doing, they also undermined the Galatians' confidence in the Apostle Paul as a faithful teacher of the Word. And so they said negative things about Paul. We'll get into what those negative things were, but it seems to me that they were saying that he got his message and his mission from the Apostles in Jerusalem, but he messed it up. They were saying that he didn't get the whole thing correct and so he himself had to be corrected. And they were adding to the message the rest of the ingredients of the recipe of how it is sinners get saved. So they are questioning Paul, undermining him, and saying he is, to some degree, a second hander. That he's not a first-generation leader and his authority is less than that of the Apostles in Jerusalem, and that he wasn't teaching accurately the Gospel. So these Judaizers came and they were telling these Gentiles, these recent converts to Christ, these things and they (the Galatians) had no means with which to fight back. They didn't understand the law of Moses as well as these Jewish people did, and they couldn't resist. So pretty soon after Paul and Barnabas left, they started believing this false Gospel and going off in a wrong direction, and so Paul writes this epistle. So look at Paul's Apostolic greeting. He’s writing to correct their false understanding of the Gospel. He begins in 1:1-2, "Paul, an apostle--sent not from men nor by a man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead--and all the brothers with me, to the churches in Galatia." So it's not written to just one church, like Corinthians (which I think was written to just one church), or one individual, like 1 and 2 Timothy, or Titus. This is written to a region of churches. So he meant for this letter to be read to all of these churches. He calls himself an Apostle here, he's asserting his authority. The Apostle Paul Apostle literally in the Greek means 'sent ones,' an emissary and an ambassador, someone sent out with a mission. Sometimes in the New Testament, the word is used of people like Barnabas or others that were basically the equivalent of missionaries, and so you do see that use. That would be an apostle with a lower case “a.” Then there is this kind of use; Paul is an Apostle we could say, with an upper case “A.” And he is one of those original pillars on which the church was built, or the foundation on which the church was built as it testified to Jesus Christ, eyewitnesses and authoritative teachers of doctrine, that's what Apostle with capital A means. And so he wants them to know that his role as an Apostle, as a teacher of the Gospel, was given him by God Himself. Now, there's nothing wrong with pastors receiving a commissioning from other people to serve. As a matter of fact, that's all we have these days. Churches like you give people like me the right to preach and to teach, generally by a congregational vote. But Paul didn't get his authority and his right to teach or his ministry from any congregational vote or from anybody at all. He got it directly from God through Jesus Christ, and so he has the authority to teach the Gospel, that's what he's claiming here. He was called into his ministry directly by Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. Saul, Paul had been a bitter enemy of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ. He makes his appearance in the Bible as a young man who is consenting to the martyrdom, the killing of Stephen at the end of Acts 7. He then (in Acts 8) begins a career or bitterly persecuting the church, dragging off men and women and throwing them in prison. There are implications that he perhaps may have even killed some of them. He was a violent man, and he at least consented to their deaths, if he didn't actually himself do it. That's the kind of man he was. Meanwhile, he was also an excellent law-abiding Jew who was climbing the ladder of careerism and Judaism. He was getting greater and greater as a Jew and being recognized by the authority figures, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, all of these audiences seeing his greatness and Judaism and his law-keeping. And then he became an emissary from them to persecute the church, even getting letters from the authorities in Jerusalem to go to synagogues in Damascus to persecute the Christians there. And it was while he was on his way to Damascus that suddenly a blinding light from heaven flashed. We're going talk more about this, God willing, next week. But he fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying to him (Acts 9:4-5), "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus." Oh, those words changed his life. "I am Jesus. I am the resurrected one. I am the savior. I am the God of the universe." "Who are you, Lord?" "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now, get up and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do." So from the very beginning his own salvation is linked with his calling to work for Jesus as an apostle. So he did not get his commission from any human beings or from any human source at all. The Lord told Ananias who was sent by Him to baptize Paul, the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer from my name." So he's going to be a messenger to the Jews, but especially to the Gentiles. III. Paul’s Apostolic Greeting And notice what he says. "Paul, an apostle--sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead." And so the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is central to this message, how fitting is it? Do you see how fitting it is for us to finish the Gospel of Matthew and go right over into Galatians. Amen. For us to go right from the account of Jesus' death, burial, resurrection and commissioning of the Apostles into Galatians, which very accurately teaches what message it is that should be preached to the ends of the earth. What Gospel message is it that these Apostles should preach, and that is still with us today. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to everything, and it is God the Father who raised Him from the dead. It was a living Christ, it was a living Jesus that appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and changed his whole life. The resurrection of Christ from the dead was the centerpiece of the Gospel and it was Paul's own joy and hope. Grace and Peace To You Then he says, "Grace and peace to you," it's a standard apostolic greeting. But in Galatians, I think it takes on an extra significance. Later he's going to say that they had fallen away from grace, and we'll talk about that difficult phrase. Basically there's a principle of grace by which we are saved and it's over against law or works, self-righteousness. We are saved by grace. We can't say it enough. We're saved by grace. What is grace? Grace is a disposition in the heart of God toward us. Start there, it's in the heart of God. It's God's attitude toward us. A disposition of love and benevolence and generosity toward us, to lavish on us, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to us who deserved eternal condemnation because we'd broken His laws. So to understand grace, it's in the heart of God. It results in gifts and good things flowing out from God to us. It comes to us through Jesus Christ. We receive it by faith and it's directly contrary to what we deserve. Now, the last part is probably one of the more famous aspects of the definition of grace, unmerited favor. That is so weak and pale compared to the full-blooded understanding of grace. Unmerited favor is when you go find a total stranger and give him a $20 bill. Alright. Friends, eternal life is no $20 bill, and we were not total strangers. We were enemies. We were murderers. We were law breakers and we deserve condemnation, and God is giving us a river of blessings by grace. “Grace and peace to you.” Not by works but by grace we are saved. And in direct opposition, throughout this book they are going to be in direct opposition. You're either going to be saved by grace or you're going to be saved by works/law/self-righteousness. So in Galatians 2:21, he says, "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing." And later he says in Galatians 5:4, "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." The Deliverance of the Gospel Then he gives us a marvelous quick synopsis of the Gospel message. If you know what to look for, these are sweet, sweet words and they're in the hymn, one of the verses of the hymn that we just sang. I leaned over to Christy, I said, "Do you realize that the rescue theme and Christ interposed his blood?" That's right from Galatians 1:3-4, it's beautiful. Look what it says, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," verse 4, "Who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father to whom be glory forever and ever, amen." That's a very brief, quick summary of the Gospel message. It focuses on Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who gave Himself for our sins. This is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. Jesus interposed His precious blood. He stepped in between us and the lightning strike of the wrath of God. He took that strike for us. On the cross He died in our place. He interposed His precious blood, He laid down his life, He gave Himself. Why? For our sins. The Gospel is incredible. The Gospel tells us it was far worse than you could've possibly imagined about yourself and the answer is far more glorious and the future is far brighter than you possibly could have imagined for yourself. It's really, really bad news and really, really good news. The really bad news is we were sinners, we were violators of the law of God and God's wrath was against us because of that written code that stood against us and was opposed to us. Jesus took that guilt on Himself. He took the condemnation that those sins deserve. He died in our place. He did it, it says, “to rescue us from the present evil age.” As I've said very plainly, we could not save ourselves. This is about rescue. We could not rescue ourselves, and so God sent His Son with deliverance and He rescued us, it says, from this present or the present evil age. Well, this is something that can only really be seen by faith, you can only see it with eyes of faith, this evil age that we live in. But many verses talk about it, don't they? Colossians 1:13, says, "He, God the Father, has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us or brought us into the Kingdom of the beloved Son." That's a rescue mission. Jesus was sent by the Father to take us up out of Satan's dark kingdom and bring us into the beloved Kingdom of Christ. And so Ephesians 2:1-3 talks about how it was for us before we were Christians. It says, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live." You were living dead spiritually. You were the living dead. You were dead in your transgressions and sins as you lived. As you walked, it says, "And followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air." That's Satan. He is "the ruler of the kingdom in the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath”. But God, because of His great, rich mercy and grace to us in Christ, delivered us and rescued us by Jesus' blood. Amen? Hallelujah. That's the rescue. We were enslaved to Satan's kingdom and could not save ourselves. So God sent His Son to rescue us from this present evil age. We are free now, we're free! We are free sons and daughters of the living God. We are free. We're free from sin, we're free from the law and its power to condemn us and send us to hell. We're free from hell itself, we're free from condemnation. But that freedom is not to be used for lust. It's not to be used for evil. We are now free to serve God as Jesus did. And Paul is going to get into that in Galatians 5. It's not freedom in the libertarian sense, it's a freedom to please God, and now we can do it by the Spirit. That is not a message of self-salvation, is it? That's a rescue in which Jesus has freed us, and so, therefore, to God be the glory, amen? "We were enslaved to Satan's kingdom and could not save ourselves. So God sent His Son to rescue us from this present evil age. We are free now, we're free!" To God be the Glory Look what it says, "According to the will of our God and Father to whom be glory forever and ever, amen." In self-salvation, you get the credit, you get the glory. You rescued yourself. But in salvation by grace, God gets the glory and we are going to go up there in Heaven when we're done and we're going praise Him forever and ever for saving us. It's good to do it now, don't you think? Just thank Him, say, "Thank you for saving me. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your grace. I didn't deserve it. Thank you." Then Paul turns and it's like night and day here, or really day and night, praising God for the glory and then we go into bitter astonishment here. IV. Paul’s Bitter Astonishment Verses 6-7, "I am astonished that you were so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all." Paul's usual pattern is warm thanksgiving and greetings. He thanks God for the Ephesians. He thanks God for the Philippians, richly and warmly thanks God for them. He thanks God for the Thessalonians and all the ways that God worked in their lives. He even thanks God for the Corinthians, for goodness' sakes. They were a messed up church. They had all kinds of problems, every problem you can have in pastoral ministry, the Corinthians had. They were all there and yet he thanks God. Listen to this, 1 Corinthians 1:4-6, "I always thanked God for you because of His grace given to you in Christ Jesus, for in Him you have been enriched in every way in, all your speaking, in all your knowledge, because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you." Galatians didn't get that. Galatians didn't get any box with a ribbon handed. No gift. They get, "I am astonished at you." Why? Why so different? Why does he treat the Galatians so differently than everyone else? Well, because they're turning away from the Gospel itself and he is in deep concern about them. He's not sure if they genuinely, finally turned away from the Gospel of grace. If so, he says, "Then you aren't really Christians," and this is incredibly grievous to him. He is astonished. He says that they are so "quickly deserting the one who called them by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different Gospel, which is no Gospel at all." There's two issues here. There's a sense of sadness, a sense of shock for him, a sense of bitter disappointment. You could say, "Well, it's personal. He did all that work and it's turned out so badly." I don't deny that that might have been in his mind, but that's not what's motivating him to write here. Oh, it is personal, but it's not about Paul. It's about God. You're abandoning God, the one who called you. You're turning your back on Him. And what's so amazing is that it's happened so quickly. This isn't second and third generation now. This isn't your grandkids. This is you. I don't get the sense of decades here. I get the sense of months, if not a couple years. After such a short time they have turned their backs on God and on the Gospel of grace. And they're turning to what he calls "a different Gospel which is no Gospel at all." What does he mean by that? The word 'gospel' means good news. How is it good news that you can save yourself if you're perfectly obedient to the law of God? How is that good news? That's bad news. As a matter of fact, it's a yoke, that it says at the Jerusalem Council neither we nor our ancestors were ever able to bear. No one can bear it. You must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Can you bear that yoke? It's a crushing burden. It's no good news, it's no Gospel, it's no good news here, it's no Gospel at all. Grace and law are opposites. The law couldn't save. We looked at that in the Book of Hebrews a year or so ago. The law held no salvation. There was no cleansing of the conscience from law. There was no way it could deliver anyone from sin. And so Paul then utters a curse on the false teachers in verses 7-9. Look at verse 7, "Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion, are trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ." Trying to reverse the Gospel. "They're trying to revise it, which means to reverse it," says Tim Keller. I love that image. They're turning away from the full Gospel here. They're turning away from the truth and they're being thrown into confusion. There are some people that are confusing you. Now, isn't it beautiful, the clarity of mind that saving faith brings. Suddenly you can see things. You understand who God is. You understand the world that God made. You know how you fit into it. You understand your sins. You get it all. You see it clearly. That's why I think John 9, that man born blind that Jesus spits and makes mud and then he washes and he can see, is not just a physical miracle, an actual miracle, but it's a metaphor, a spiritual image of our own salvation. John Newton thought it so when he wrote Amazing Grace. "How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I can see". But now these false teachers come and things are confusing, they're throwing you into confusion. Satan is the god of confusion. And things aren't so clear anymore. Now they don't understand and now they're depressed and discouraged. Later he's going say, "What happened to all your joy? Remember how happy you were. You're not happy anymore." V. Paul’s Curse on the False Teachers Confusion has come in and so Paul utters a curse on them or on anyone that preaches a false Gospel. "Even if we or an angel from Heaven should preach a Gospel other than the one we preach to you, let him be eternally condemned." What an incredible statement. Let him go to hell forever and ever. Let him burn in hell forever, if he comes and preaches a false Gospel. He reaches for a lofty language, "Even if an angel from Heaven should come." Radiant, shining like lightning, like the angel that came and rolled back the stone and sat on it and his appearance was like lightning. If you ever saw an angel like that come and he stands in all this radiant glory and he preaches a Gospel other than the one we preach to you, let him be eternally condemned. Because Satan, you know, he can masquerade as an angel of light. He can do that, and so his messengers can look like servants of righteousness too. Paul uses that language. So even if you get a bright shining angel telling you another Gospel, let him be eternally condemned. But he actually adds himself to that. "If I should come back later in two or three years and say, 'I think I've come to a new understanding of the Gospel. I've got a whole new way of understanding this and I start... I realize now the way that we harmonize the Old Testament and the New Testament is Christ plus law equals salvation.' If you ever hear me say that, then let me be eternally condemned." Doesn't matter who says it. What matters is that the Gospel itself can never be changed. And he says it again. He repeats it. He says, "I've already said. So now I say again if anyone is preaching to you a Gospel other than the one you accepted, let him be eternally condemned." It doesn't matter. So he says it twice. Paul's ultimate goal here is to please God and not men. He said, "I'm not trying to be popular here." I wonder if the Judaizers said that about him. "Paul's just trying to make it easy, easy believeism, don't have to keep any of these laws, he's got a big following in every Gentile city he goes. He's just trying to be popular." VI. Paul’s Ultimate Goal: To Please God Paul says, "No, I'm not, I'm trying to be faithful, trying to be faithful to the God who gave me this Gospel, that's what I'm trying to be. Am I now trying to please men or God? Am I trying to win the approval of men?" Now, that is such a temptation, isn't it? Do you feel that pull on your hearts? Trying to please people, trying to please human, a human audience. The irony with whole Judaizer-legalism thing is, the shoe is on the other foot. They're living for a human audience. They're living for the Sanhedrin or the Pharisees, with legalists that taught them their legalism to try to please them. There's always a human audience with legalism, always. "So I'm not trying to please men, but I'm trying to please God. If I were trying to please men I would not be a servant of Christ." That's his ultimate goal. VII. Application Now, what applications can we take from this beginning as we begin to look at Galatians? First, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a gift from heaven to us. You've heard it preached this morning, how God sent His Son, Jesus, who lived a sinless life perfectly obedient to the law we could not keep. He kept it perfectly, and he is offering to you and to me a gift, a free gift of perfect righteousness, like a beautiful robe. He's just saying, "Here, put this on. It's my righteousness. I get all the credit, but you get the glory and the beauty and the salvation that comes. Put it on and you give me all that nasty, wicked sin and I will take the wrath and the punishment that that sin deserves." That's the exchange of the Gospel. Trust in Him, trust. Don't leave this place unconverted, unconvinced, because there is no other message. If you reject this Christ righteousness gift, the only thing left to you is your own works righteousness and it will not save you. Trust in Him. And if you've already trusted in Christ and been a Christian for years, understand what I said a number of minutes ago, the Gospel is still for you. "It's not the ABCs," as Tim Keller said. I love this, "It's the A to Z." Again and again you're going to come back to this, I am forgiven in Jesus. I'm forgiven in Christ. I can't use my good works to calm my conscience. That is such a thing we struggle with, right? Whenever you're guilty, whenever you violate God's law in some way and you are guilty and you've done something sinful, works righteousness says, "God demands some kind of works, a list of things and once you do those seven things you can start feeling good about yourself again." That's works righteousness. Throw it away. It is wickedness. You come back again to the cross, you come back again to Jesus and say, "I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner, you know who I am. Thanks be to God that you saved me by your grace. Forgive me, cleanse me, renew me and restore me." And then when He does that, get up and walk in the power of the Spirit and serve God in righteousness and holiness, and live in that pattern the rest of your lives. We have a lot more to say in Galatians, but we'll stop right here. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for the things that we have learned. We thank you for the Gospel message. We thank you for the power of the Gospel to transform us. I thank you for the example of the Apostle Paul in preaching it to us. God, I pray that we would realize there's no middle ground between Christ's righteousness and self-righteousness. I pray that we would embrace by faith the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and embrace by faith the gift of perfect righteousness and embrace by faith the gift of the Holy Spirit who empowers us now to walk in newness of life. Help us to understand this true Gospel we pray in Jesus' name.

Believe in Jesus = God's Acceptance and desire for obedience

Are we children of blessing and of Sarah or are we children of slavery and Hagar?

If keeping the Law is not enough to make someone right with God, then what good is it?  What is the purpose of the Commandments?  Join us as we discover the connection between the Law of God and the Promise of God. _______________________________________________ Scriptures and Keywords:   Galatians 3:1-22, Law, Promise, Commandments, Paul, Galatia, Moses, Judaizer

We are beginning a new series on the Epistle to the Galatians. It is a letter written by the Apostle Paul around 50 AD. It is addressed to the people in the Roman Province of Galatia (modern day Turkey). Galatians is best known for the clear presentation of the Gospel it presents and I have entitled this series: The Gospel, Pure and Simple. In Galatians Paul addresses the first doctrinal crisis of the Early Church. After he had visited Galatia and established churches in many of its cities, teachers claiming to be from the Lord's half-brother James had begun to teach the Galatians that they must follow the Old Testament rules regarding the ceremonial law in order to be truly saved. For example, circumcision and dietary regulations were stressed as just as important as faith in Jesus as their savior. In other words the Christians in Galatia were being told that they must also be Jewish. Paul was very upset with this teaching because he recognized that it would make Christianity simply another sect of Judaism. In fact, this understanding of "the faith" would in fact negate the Gospel. Paul defends his theology in Galatians but he is also forced to defend his apostleship and his character since the "Judaizers" (false teachers) attacked his integrity in order to undermine his teaching of the Gospel. Overall, Galatians reminds us of the tremendous freedom we have in Christ. Freedom that comes from the inside out and freedom that is not imposed by manmade rules and regulations. The letter also reminds us of how easy it is to add to the Gospel things that we think are important but yet things that in fact negate the power of the Gospel to transform lives. Questions for Discussion: 1. Slide 2. Can you think of world religions that end up controlling people? Think of some examples. Why do people use religion this way? 2. Slide 3-5. What make people most vulnerable to false teaching? What did the Galatians lack that we have today that helps us avoid such pitfalls? What do you think of the accusation that the Gospel leads to immorality? Does this seem like a strange thing to believe? Why? 3. Slide 11. Why is Paul so upset with the Galatians? 4. Slide 12-13. Why does Paul say he was sent by God? What incident is he referring to? (Acts 9:1-5) 5. Slide 14-18. Why is Paul so adamant? What is at stake here? Discuss this statement: "Grace plus anything, is not the Gospel." 6. Slide 19-20 How do we stop from wrapping the Gospel in our cultural garb? Can we prevent that from happening? How? What are the cultural issues that you face when sharing the Gospel in your context?

We are beginning a new series on the Epistle to the Galatians. It is a letter written by the Apostle Paul around 50 AD. It is addressed to the people in the Roman Province of Galatia (modern day Turkey). Galatians is best known for the clear presentation of the Gospel it presents and I have entitled this series: The Gospel, Pure and Simple. In Galatians Paul addresses the first doctrinal crisis of the Early Church. After he had visited Galatia and established churches in many of its cities, teachers claiming to be from the Lord's half-brother James had begun to teach the Galatians that they must follow the Old Testament rules regarding the ceremonial law in order to be truly saved. For example, circumcision and dietary regulations were stressed as just as important as faith in Jesus as their savior. In other words the Christians in Galatia were being told that they must also be Jewish. Paul was very upset with this teaching because he recognized that it would make Christianity simply another sect of Judaism. In fact, this understanding of "the faith" would in fact negate the Gospel. Paul defends his theology in Galatians but he is also forced to defend his apostleship and his character since the "Judaizers" (false teachers) attacked his integrity in order to undermine his teaching of the Gospel. Overall, Galatians reminds us of the tremendous freedom we have in Christ. Freedom that comes from the inside out and freedom that is not imposed by manmade rules and regulations. The letter also reminds us of how easy it is to add to the Gospel things that we think are important but yet things that in fact negate the power of the Gospel to transform lives. Questions for Discussion: 1. Slide 2. Can you think of world religions that end up controlling people? Think of some examples. Why do people use religion this way? 2. Slide 3-5. What make people most vulnerable to false teaching? What did the Galatians lack that we have today that helps us avoid such pitfalls? What do you think of the accusation that the Gospel leads to immorality? Does this seem like a strange thing to believe? Why? 3. Slide 11. Why is Paul so upset with the Galatians? 4. Slide 12-13. Why does Paul say he was sent by God? What incident is he referring to? (Acts 9:1-5) 5. Slide 14-18. Why is Paul so adamant? What is at stake here? Discuss this statement: "Grace plus anything, is not the Gospel." 6. Slide 19-20 How do we stop from wrapping the Gospel in our cultural garb? Can we prevent that from happening? How? What are the cultural issues that you face when sharing the Gospel in your context?

Pastor Ryan teaches on Paul's letter to the Galatians in keeping the Church from the Judaizer theology that was creeping in. Paul uses three ways to draw the Church back: he indites them, interrogates them, and illustrates to them.

Paul writes to the Galatians in defense of the Gospel. Pastor Ryan teaches on the heart of Paul toward the Church and his defense of the Gospel against the Judaizers' theology. Paul makes three points on the Gospel: it is approved by the Apostles, attacked by the enemy, and applied by Paul personally

sermon transcript Introduction Genesis 21 is a celebration text as God has fulfilled His promise to Abraham and Sarah by giving them Isaac. We live in a world that is used to broken promises. We live among people who break their promises, but God does not do that. God makes promises and He keeps them. In 1897, Charles Parsons wanted to meet George Müller, the man that God had used to bless and to provide for thousands of orphans. Müller received him cordially into his study, and they sat down and began to talk. Parsons asked what was the secret of his success. Müller’s answer was straight forward. The secret was entrusting the faithfulness of God to his promises. God makes promises and God keeps them. Müller took those promises at face value. Parsons asked “You have always found the Lord faithful to His promise?” Müller answered: “Always. He has never failed me! For nearly seventy years every need in connection with this work has been supplied. The orphans from the first until now have numbered nine thousand five hundred, but they have never [lacked] a meal. Never! Hundreds of times we have commenced the day without a penny in hand, but our Heavenly Father has sent supplies by the moment they were actually required. There never was a time when there was no wholesome meal. During all these years I have been enabled to trust in the living God, and in Him alone. One million four hundred thousand pounds have been sent to me in answer to prayer.” Müller’s life verse, Psalm 81:10, says, “I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” He took that promise to God daily. One Puritan said, “Show God His promises... God is fond of His handwriting!” So we take the promises of God and say, “This is the thing you promised to do.” He likes to look at what He has written, and He is always faithful to keep it. We do not keep our promises — the Scripture says in Psalm 116:11, “…All men are liars.” We break our promises, but God never does. The Old Testament Account: Promises Kept The Birth of Isaac (vs. 1-8) In Genesis 21:1-8, at last, God has kept his promise. The fact that God did as he had promised is strongly emphasized in the text. Verses 1-2 say, “Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised [the repetition gives emphasis — As he had said, what he had promised]. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.” That is the third time in two verses. Clearly God is emphasizing this fact, “I keep my promises. The thing I said I would do, I have now done.” God had made many promises concerning Isaac and concerning Abraham’s offspring. Genesis 12:1-3: “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’” Genesis 12:7: “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’” Genesis 13:14-16: “The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, ‘Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.’” Abraham asked, “Lord, what can you give me, because I have no child, and Eliezer of Damascus is my heir.” Genesis 15:4-5: “Then the word of the LORD came to him: ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” Genesis 17:16 is more specific after Abraham had taken matters into his own hands and had Ishmael by Hagar. God clarified and focused: “My promise is for Sarah.” “I will bless [Sarah] and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” Genesis 17:19: “Then God said, ‘Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.’” Genesis 17:21: “But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” Genesis 18:10, “Then the LORD said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.’” Sarah overheard that and began laughing. Genesis 18:14: “Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.” God spoke concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, revealing his will to Abraham. Genesis 18:18-19: “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” In those ten different passages, God made the same promise again and again. Now at last, God could say triumphantly, “The Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. The Lord brought about a son for Abraham in his old age, just as he had promised.” He told us three times in two verses, “I did what I promised.” In this way, their faith was vindicated. God’s promise overcomes all obstacles. Paul wrote about Abraham, who believed the Lord and trusted in this promise. Romans 4:19 says, “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead — since he was about a hundred years old — and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” Abraham’s faith was vindicated, and so was Sarah’s. Hebrews 11:11 (ESV) says, “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.” Both Abraham and Sarah were trusting in God for this promise, and their faith was vindicated. The issue was not biology but theology. God had closed up Sarah’s womb, purposely keeping it barren for 90 years, in order to bring about a supernatural child of the promise. He wanted to do a miracle. It was not in vitro fertilization. It was not wonder drugs that produce quintuplets or any of the kind of things that we see today. It was not a matter of biology, not at all. This was a supernatural act of God himself. This was a miracle baby. This was Isaac. The timeless lesson is playing: God can do anything. Our God can do anything. There is nothing he cannot do. He is a powerful God; He is a sovereign king. What he has promised, he will most certainly bring to pass. Why does this matter for us? Someday we will die. Whether peacefully or not, when I breathe my last breath, I will do so trusting God’s promise to raise me from the dead, that in Christ all my sins are forgiven, and that my life is not now over, that my body is not all there is, that evolution is a lie, that I will live even after I die. I believe that promise. Genesis 21 is written for us, that we might trust in the promise of God that he will raise us from the dead. Romans 4:17 says, “As it is written: 'I have made you a father of many nations.’ He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed — the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” God speaks into nothing, and he creates. In this case, he created a baby, miracle Isaac. As a result, in a dim reflection of God’s faithfulness, Abraham was faithful. He obeyed God’s command to circumcise his son. Genesis 21:4: “When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.” Abraham was faithful to his promise as well to obey God’s commands, one of which was circumcision on the eighth day. We desire as children of God to respond in the same way. To be God-like, we keep our word. In verses 6-8, we see the joy and wonder and celebration at God’s victory. Genesis 21:6 says, “Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.’” Isaac’s name means laughter. It was a celebration, a time of joy. This laughter is not the laughter of unbelief that Sarah gave when she heard God’s promise, nor was it the mocking laughter from Ishmael when he mocked Isaac. No, this was a laugh of joy. This is the way we will laugh when we see Christ face-to-face. It is a laugh of celebration. Sarah also reacted in wonder at the details of the fulfillment. Verse 7: “And she added, ‘Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’” She is in amazement that she is nursing a little boy at age 90. Next in the text — I find this in real life too, that the children grow quickly — soon, it was time for him to be weaned. That is a mixed thing, part of the joy and the pain of parenting, preparing children to be independent, getting them ready to not need you anymore. You do not want your kids when they are 70 and you are 90 asking, “What’s for dinner, mom?” By then, they should be on their own. That is good parenting. You are preparing them to be independent, but it hurts when they make those steps more and more away from you. It is a mixture. This is the very thing that happened. Abraham gave a feast. They celebrated the little boy as he was weaned with a big feast. In verse 8, “The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.” But that feast was the occasion of a danger being uncovered — the danger of Ishmael. At that feast, Ishmael, probably 15 years old, mocked the little boy. He laughed at him, made fun of him. It was a mocking laughter, not a laughter of joy or of faith or of celebration at God’s faithfulness. It was a mocking laugh. The Expulsion of Ishmael (vs. 9-21) In verses 9-21, we have the account of the expulsion of Ishmael. It says, “But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking and she said to Abraham, ‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.’” Ishmael’s expulsion is rather shocking. Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Sarah’s maid servant Hagar. In Genesis 16, when Sarah saw that she could not have children, her womb was barren, she gave her maid servant to her husband to sleep with her, which was the custom at the time. Hagar gave birth to a son, Ishmael. This was not the will of the Lord; it did not follow God's pattern for marriage, and it caused nothing but trouble. After Hagar had run away when Sarah treated her harshly, she did not want to go back. “Then the angel of the LORD told her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her.’ The angel added, 'I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.’ The angel of the LORD also said to her: 'You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.’” (Genesis 16:9-12) God also spoke two prophecies concerning Ishmael to Abraham. God made it clear that it would be through Sarah that the child of promise would be born and they would name him Isaac. Abraham’s first thought is, “What about Ishmael?” Genesis 17:18-21 says, “And Abraham said to God, ‘If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!’ [He is concerned for his son.] Then God said, ‘Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.’” God made clear prophecies concerning Ishmael to both Abraham and Hagar. Why, then, was Ishmael cast out? I see five reasons in the text. First and simply, he mocked; he laughed. Verse 9 says, “But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking.” Even though his name means laughter, the mocking is not connected to Isaac’s name. It is not a play on words, but ridicule. Paul calls it persecution. In Galatians 4:29, he said, “At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit.” This was a serious matter. By this time, Ishmael would have been 15 years old. He was laughing at Isaac’s weaning feast, making fun of it, mocking. Second, Ishmael was cast out because Sarah wanted him out, as well as Hagar. Sarah perceived a threat to Isaac and to her own position in the family. And Sarah, like many mothers at that time, derived her significance from the role of her son as heir. She saw what things would be like down the road, so she was furious when she heard about this mockery. She went to Abraham, Verse 10, “…and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” Sarah did not use Hagar’s name but denigrated her position entirely. “That slave woman and her son,” she said. She also believed the clear statement that God had made to Abraham in Genesis 17:10: “…for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” The third reason was the threat that he posed to Isaac’s role as heir. Some things you have to nip in the bud. I was reading recently in MIT’s review magazine of ongoing technology about cancer detection at a very early stage. They are able to detect it through certain technologies far earlier than they ever could before, at the molecular level, and tag these cancer cells before they accumulate into a tumor. This would be powerful for treatment, especially if the detection could be done inexpensively. The issue is that tumors are best caught early. The earlier you can get the cancer, the better. Ishmael was a cancer in the household waiting to happen, and the issue would have been a rivalry over the succession to the throne, so to speak. Who would be the heir? Ishmael being so much older than Isaac perhaps would have had some kind of an advantage. The history of Europe, for example, is a history of wars of succession. One son claiming and then the other son claiming and both got their armies together to fight a war over it. It is not good for the country. Alexander Dumas’ classic, The Man in the Iron Mask, is about this. Louis XIV in the story had twin sons, who looked identical. When they grew to a certain age, the rightful heir was taken away and put in a hideous iron mask so that nobody could look at his face and see who he was. All of this to prevent a civil war in France that would have destroyed the country. In the same way, Ishmael was a threat to Isaac. He blurred the distinction of who it was through whom the covenant would be made and the promise would come. Fourth, Abraham needed it done. Such a thing would have happened because of the affection that Abraham had for Ishmael. In Genesis 17, after the promise came concerning Sarah and Isaac, wonderful good news, Abraham’s instinctive reaction was, “What about Ishmael?” That was a significant problem, and God wanted clarity on this matter. In the incredible passage in the next chapter, Genesis 22, when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, He said “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and offer him a sacrifice.” That was God’s word to Abraham. Did God forget Ishmael? No, never. He did not forget. Clearly, it was going to be through Isaac and Abraham was not crystal clear on that. Some clarity needed to happen. Finally, Ishmael was cast out because God commanded it. Verse 12 says, “But God said to him, ‘Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’” Whatever Sarah’s motives were, whatever was going on in Abraham’s heart, all of that was secondary to the clear fact God wanted it done, so he cast Ishmael out. Abraham obeyed immediately. Verse 14, “Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.” In effect, God was saying, “From this point forward, let me take care of Ishmael. He is no longer your responsibility. I will be a father to the fatherless, I will care for him.” How did God provide for Ishmael and Hagar? The harshness of the desert is certain death if there is not provision. If you do not know what you are doing or where to go, especially with a little one, like in this case, it can be deadly. Sweltering heat, hidden canyons, very cold nights because the sand absorbs so little heat, wild beasts, poisonous snakes all make it a dangerous place. Hagar took her teenage son as far as they could go, lay him under a tree, and she went off a distance of about a bow shot, probably so that she would not have to listen to him crying. It is remarkable that the mother was so far away, she could not hear the son God heard his cries. Verse 17-19 says, “God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.’” [That is twice in the same verse — God hears.] Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.’ [That is a promise.] Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.” The word of God was life to Hagar and Ishmael in the desert. Before the word came, they were both dying. God spoke to Hagar, and when she believed the word, life came again. With that word came the promise concerning Ishmael to make him into a great nation. He had a future; he would not die that day. God’s faithfulness is clear, even when Hagar had left him and gone off and his father had sent him out at the command of God. Here is this boy without father or mother, but God heard, God saw, God knew. Psalm 27:10 says, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.” Isaiah 49:15 says, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” That is the faithfulness of God. He was faithful to the promise He made to Ishmael. He restated his multiple past promises to Abraham and Hagar. In Genesis 16:10, God spoke to Hagar: “The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” He would be a wild donkey of a man, living in the desert, and he would be the father of twelve nations of desert dwelling tribes. God said to Abraham in Genesis 17:20 “And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.” It is reiterated to both father and mother. In verse 13, God told Abraham, “I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.” He was saying, “I care about Ishmael. I will do it. You cannot anymore, Abraham; you must send him away. I will be faithful to my promise to Ishmael.” Concerning Hagar, verse 18 “Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” These are promises kept. I want to highlight how different these are from Isaac’s promises. Abraham was told that he would have descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth and the stars of the sky. I consider this a paradigm for the two types of descendants of Abraham. He has both dusty descendants and celestial or starry descendants. The dusty descendants have dusty blessings and dusty futures. The starry descendants have starry promises, starry blessings and starry futures. Ishmael was a child of the dust, and Isaac, a child of the starry promise. Ishmael’s future was that he would roam free like a wild donkey and live in the desert and that his mother would find a wife for him from Egypt. That was her home land. He became good with a bow and arrow, a skillful archer. He had 12 sons. He enjoyed eating goat meat around a fire, sitting with his sons, laughing and telling jokes, shooting his arrows, living a dusty kind of life. He was a wild donkey of a man. Every one of those good things was a blessing from God, for God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Even though he is a dusty person and has dusty blessings, every one of those dusty blessings comes from God himself. Isaac, on the other hand, had celestial blessings waiting for him. He would sit at the table with God eternally, in the very presence of God — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the feast in the kingdom. Concerning the starry descendants of Abraham, Daniel 12:3 says, “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” Philippians 2:15 says, “…so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.” Jesus said, after one of his parables, in Matthew 13:43, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” The New Testament Significance: An Allegory of the Spirit-Filled Life (Galatians 4) The Galatian Controversy The New Testament gives us the significance of this. Galatians 4 tells how the Apostle Paul applies this story. By way of context, the Apostle Paul planted a church in Galatia. These were Gentiles, rejected by the physical descendants of Abraham, but not every physical descendant from Abraham is one of the starry children. It is amazing and wonderful that Gentiles can become starry children of Abraham by faith. By faith in Christ, we can be among those starry children of Abraham while those who are actually physically descended from Abraham, even if they are Jews, who do not believe the promise, are dusty. Paul planted a church in Galatia. He preached the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ, but then along came the Judaizer party to Galatia, saying, “Unless you meticulously obey the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Acts 15:1 says, “Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: ‘Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.’” The Apostle Paul says the gospel that they preached was no gospel at all. Galatians 1:8: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” It was a very serious matter. We Are Sons, Not Slaves He gets to the crux of the matter in Galatians 4:4-7: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” He is saying, Galatian Christians, you are children of God by faith. You are heirs of the kingdom. Why would you want to live like a slave? That is his point in Galatians 4, but he makes it with an allegory. Galatians 4:21-31 says, “Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?” [Note that he calls Genesis 21 the law.] For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: ‘Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.’ Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. [He is saying “You are Isaac, all who have trusted in Christ are the children of promise.”] At that time, the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. [The Judaizers are speaking against the Gospel of free grace, focusing instead on legalism and slavery. They are not speaking adoption and inheritance but a lie. The dusty child born in the ordinary way persecuted the child born by power of the Spirit. So it is today.] But what does the Scripture say? ‘Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.’ Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.” Paul’s Central Lesson: Live As Sons, Not Slaves Let me make it very straightforward and simple: There are two ways to live in this world. You can live a dusty life or a life of celestial blessings — like the dust or like the stars. You can live the Ishmael life, born in the ordinary way, or you can live the Isaac life, born only by the power of the Spirit. Those are the only two ways to live. Later, the analogy will be Jacob and Esau. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. What do the dusty people live for? They live for earthly blessings — for comforts, lusts, power, money. They live for today. “Let us eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” and we can add biblically, “And go to hell.” It is a life that ends in destruction. That is the life of Ishmael, the dusty life. Or you can live as a child of the promise. You can live as an adopted son or daughter of God. You can trust in the promises of God and know that what is happening in you cannot be explained normally — it is supernatural. It is the power of the Spirit, as Jesus said: “Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” [John 3:6] “You must be born again, Nicodemus.” Being a physical descendant of Abraham, even if you are a Jew, descended physically from Jacob, does not matter. What matters is being born again. You must be like Isaac, a child born only by the supernatural power of God. In Galatians 5, Paul explains what that life is like. The life in the flesh is characterized by “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” [Galatians 5:19-21] That is the Ishmael life. Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” This is the Spirit-filled, Isaac life, and God will make those who live like that perfect in the end. Application Trust in Christ Alone Which kind of life are you living? Are you like Ishmael or are you like Isaac? Are you bound for the dust? Dust represents death. God said to Adam, “For dust you are and to dust you will return.” Is your future dust in the grave, or is it to be made like the stars of the sky? Is it to be conformed to the glory of God? The whole issue is whether you believe the promise of God or not. Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness. You must simply believe a promise. Jesus spoke a treasured promise in his words to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” That question determines your destiny. If you say, “Yes, Lord, I believe the promises of God. I trust in you. You have resurrecting power. You can call dead things to life. You can create in me something that was not there before, I believe you. I can be transformed by the power of the Spirit,” then you will spend eternity with God in Heaven, not by your own strength or power, not by obeying legalistically a bunch of laws and rules and regulations, but by the power of the Spirit. He who began a good work in you, by the Spirit, will most certainly complete it also by the Spirit, and you will be like Isaac, a child of promise. That is the central application. Trust in Christ, believe in him. Celebrate what He has accomplished in Christ. Have Total Confidence in a Promise-Keeping God Like George Müller, step out in faith on some promises of God. What promises of God are you trusting in concerning the Kingdom of God today? Are you trusting in God for anything today so that God must be faithful to a promise (or in Müller’s case, some orphans do not eat). Are you stepping out in faith to trust God for some promises? Are you believing in Him? I stand before you today as a messenger of promises, but also as a believer of them. I love the promises of God. That is my only hope and it is your only hope too. Trust in his promises. He is a faithful promise keeping God.