Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Okay, let's pray and we will get started. Help us to grow in the knowledge of your dear

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Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and to remain firm in the confession of His blessed Word.

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Give us the love to be of one mind and to serve one another in Christ. Then we will not be afraid of that which is disagreeable, nor of the rage of the arsonist

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Satan, whose torch is almost extinguished. Dear Father, guard us so that His craftiness may not take the place of our pure faith.

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Grant that our cross and sufferings may lead to a blessed and sure hope of the coming of our

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Savior, Jesus Christ, for whom we wait daily. Amen. All right, we are in Genesis 12, if you want to turn there.

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But real quick, any questions that percolated up or anything you wanted to kind of discuss in light of current events or things like that?

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Did everyone note the great breaking of the Eighth Commandment in the Kavanaugh hearings this week?

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Always fun how that works out, right? Well, the claim is that, without any evidence whatsoever, just a claim that there may have been sexual assault, an attempted sexual assault on the part of Kavanaugh.

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But no evidence. When he was in high school. When he was in high school.

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So he's forgiven for it. In high school. I didn't catch that part. High school. So what did he, cat howl at a girl in the 1970s?

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What happened, you know, here? Early 80s. Well, yeah, see then, he's guilty.

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I mean, have you ever watched the news and asked yourself, which commandment is being broken here? It's a fun game to play.

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If you want to learn the Ten Commandments, you learn pretty quick. You know, each and every news story, there's usually at least one breaking of the commandments.

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Oftentimes multiple breakings. And so you can ask yourself, all right, which of the Ten Commandments is being addressed in this story?

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You know, thou shalt not steal. You know, thou shalt not covet. You know, the commercials always have to do with coveting.

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So, all right.

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Let's head back into Genesis 12 then. And last week we began this kind of seminal work that we're doing in this very, very vital portion of Scripture.

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In fact, understanding Abraham is critical.

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Now, what we're going to do, I'm going to read out just a little bit here, and we'll talk about this some more.

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We're going to spend some time in the New Testament very shortly though. So, here's what it says. Again, Genesis 12, 1.

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Yahweh said to Abram. And notice it says Abram, not Abraham. His name will be changed later.

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Go from your country and your kindred, your father's house, to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

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I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

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So, here we've got this promise that God has made that in Abram all of the families of the earth will be blessed.

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And we know, having read the back of the book, that that is fulfilled in Christ.

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Christ, the descendant of Abraham, who is the one who is the Messiah, who bled and died for our sins, who also is a descendant of David, who is also a descendant of Abraham, and he is the king of Israel, who will sit on the throne of David forever.

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Pretty good stuff. So, the blessings for all the families of the earth then comes to the seed of Abraham, who is

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Christ. And now, we'll continue on with the story. So, Abraham went. So, the

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Lord told him to go to the promised land. We took a look at the real promised land, what that is pointing to, is the actual eternal life on the new earth.

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As Yahweh had told him and Lot went with him, Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.

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That doesn't sound like fun. So, notice Abram is not retiring and spending his twilight years in Florida.

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So, Abram took Sarai, his wife, Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.

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When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Morah, at the time the

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Canaanites were in the land. And then Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring

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I will give this land. I need to look at something in the Hebrew here.

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Yep, it's singular. Okay, so this is a little bit of a note here. And we'll see this in the

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New Testament, but I want you to note here, it says, To your offspring, singular, it does not say,

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To your offsprings, and that's kind of vital in Hebrew, you would talk about multiple offsprings.

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So, To your offspring I will give this land. So, this is a promise, oddly enough, of the

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Messiah, not the people of Israel. So, he built there an altar to Yahweh, who had appeared to him, and from there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west,

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Ai on the east, and there he built an altar to Yahweh, and called upon the name of Yahweh.

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Now, this is an important bit here. By setting up an altar to Yahweh, and calling upon the name of Yahweh, what is

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Abram really setting up? Church. So, we're going to note that Abram is a man of faith, and he is, well, leading his family in worship.

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They are worshipers of God. So, worship is a vital part of this. So, seeing that he has set up an altar is not a throwaway piece of data.

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This helps us understand, then, that as we're looking at Abraham, you're looking at the visible church on earth at the time.

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He is an open worshiper of the one true God. So, Abram journeyed on, still going toward the

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Negev. Now, this next story is crazy -go -nuts, is the best way I could put it. So, here we have

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Abram, the great man of faith. Remember our text this morning about the father of the demoniac kid who says,

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I believe, help my unbelief? You're going to note that Abram also has some pretty wobbly faith, and he himself is a sinner.

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He does some pretty sketchy stuff here. And God is going to have to intervene because what he's about to do, and what he does, is...

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This is really awful. So, Genesis 12 .10. Now, there was famine in the land.

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So, as soon as Abram arrives in the land of Canaan, the land of promise, there's a famine.

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So, Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. And when he was about to enter

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Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance. And when the

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Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife, then they will kill me, but they will let you live.

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So, note, God has promised Abraham these things. He's promised these things to him. And so, they're going down to Egypt, and he's saying, oh,

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I'm toast, I'm dead. As if God's not able to protect him. And so, he's going to scheme here.

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He's going to take matters into his own hand. And so, say you're my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.

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So, we're going to put up a ruse here. You pretend to be my sister. You're a good -looking woman, and I don't want to die at the hand of the

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Egyptians, so you just say you're a sister, and they'll let me live. What could possibly go wrong with this plan?

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So, when Abraham entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. So, this is one of the things we know about Sarai.

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She was a very beautiful woman. So, when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

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Whoops. Okay. Taken into Pharaoh's house.

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This has to do with marriage stuff. This isn't because they thought that she'd make an interesting dinner guest.

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So, literally, this plan is going really badly, really quick, because you're going to note now, we've got a problem, because Sarai, if, you know...

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Yeah. Yeah. Wow. The consequences. Okay, that's all I can say. I'm just having a hard time thinking about it and saying it.

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Okay? No. She's kind of stuck at this point, you know?

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And so, for her sake, Pharaoh dealt well with Abraham, and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

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Oh, my. This sounds like wedding gifts to me. You know what

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I'm saying? You know? And so, okay. And Abraham has accepted all of this stuff.

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And how are you going to get out of this? Okay? Because her chastity is about to be destroyed, is the best way

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I can put it. Her fidelity to her husband is about to be smashed if God does not intervene at this point.

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And, you know, consider, I mean, Abraham here, the great man of faith, seems to be displaying very little faith.

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And this plan of his is just terrible. So the Lord steps in, and he afflicted

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Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abraham's wife. Now, a little bit of note here.

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The typology is almost parallel. And when we talk about typology, the typology of the

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Exodus, this is interesting. All right. So, let me make sure

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I don't lose this. In the Bible, Egypt equals the world.

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Or you can even talk about Egypt being the world slash the dominion of Satan.

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And so, in this part of the Old Testament, Egypt almost becomes like a symbol, a symbol of the world, the dominion of the devil.

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And the ultimate, you know, kind of pinnacle focus of the dominion of the devil, then, is going to be

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Pharaoh. And Pharaoh is a living god -king.

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He's a god -king on earth. So he's like the ultimate false god. Almost kind of like a stand -in for the

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Antichrist. Okay. A king, a government official demanding worship. You know, that's kind of how this works.

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Now, later in the Old Testament, the focus switches from Egypt to what country? Babylon.

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Yep, Babylon. All right. So, it'll later kind of devolve into Babylon.

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And Babylon then becomes the focus of not only the last part of the

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Old Testament, same typology, but Babylon becomes the focus of the book of Revelation.

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So, Babylon is synonymous with Egypt. They're kind of interchangeable concepts. And so, you're going to note here that, this is where it gets interesting, that Pharaoh has taken the bride.

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He doesn't have a legitimate claim on the bride, right? And God has sent plagues on Pharaoh in order to save the bride.

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You see it? In Egypt, then, in Exodus, the bride switches from Sarah to the children of Israel.

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The children of Israel are in slavery, oppressed in Egypt under the dominion of Satan and the god -king

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Pharaoh. And God sends plagues in order to release the children of Israel from being under the dominion in the house of Pharaoh.

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And if the typology then holds true, so you've got bride, slaves, and we, then, were born under the dominion of darkness, the true devil himself.

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And Christ himself has set us free from slavery to sin, death, and the devil and washed us in the

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Red Sea in baptism. You kind of see how the typology all works together. So, this is where we're beginning to see these major themes and motifs in the

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Old Testament that will get expanded out in later portions of the Old Testament.

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But you can already begin to see it kind of in microcosm form. Does that make sense? If it doesn't, you can say no.

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Well, so, Pharaoh seems to put 2 and 2 together. Just remember, 2 plus 2 does not equal 22.

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And so, Pharaoh has kind of done the math on this. So, there's plagues that are afflicting Pharaoh's house and the plagues are of such a nature that he believes that this is the hand of God that is against him.

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So, Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this you have done to me?

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Why did you not tell me she was your wife? Why did you say she's my sister so that I took her for my wife?

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Uh -oh. You see that? He actually, I mean, Sarah got hits to Pharaoh, man.

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Okay. Plans have had to change. The bridal registry, you've got to send all the gifts back and stuff.

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This is really awful. So, Pharaoh gave men orders concerning Abram.

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They sent him away with his wife and all that he had. Wow. Wow.

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So, Pharaoh didn't even ask for any of that stuff back. Go ahead, just keep the camels. Keep them all.

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It's a very fascinating little story. But, what is this telling me? Abram's a sinner.

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Abram's just as screwed up as the rest of us. Right? Alright.

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Story continues. So, Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and lot with him into the

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Negev. Now, Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.

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And by the way, every scam televangelist knows this verse by heart. Okay. Because, well look,

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Abram was rich so God wants you to be rich too. No, it doesn't work that way.

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So, he journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel. Bethel, by the way, means the house of God. To the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai.

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And to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the

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Lord, upon Yahweh. So, you're going to note, once again, he's back in the Promised Land.

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He sets up church. He sets up a place of worship. Abraham is a man of faith and that faith results in the worship of the one true

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God. Now, Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.

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And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.

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At that time, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land. So then

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Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife between you and me and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen for we are kinsmen.

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Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then

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I will go to the right. If you take the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the

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Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar.

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This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the

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Jordan Valley and Lot journeyed east, thus they separated from each other.

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So Lot picks the best place. It's like, you choose, Lot, whichever way you go,

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I'll go the opposite way. And Lot goes... Alright, this is the best neighborhood right over here.

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And so Lot takes the best neighborhood, basically kind of leaving Abram with whatever's left.

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That's interesting. What does this tell you about Abram? What does this tell you about Lot? Now each of them had faith, but also each of them had their own sinful failings.

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So Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as...

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And you just hear the music changing. Dun, dun, dun. Sodom.

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So he moved to San Francisco. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against Yahweh.

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Now, man, there's a book of the ancient world.

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It's not scriptural, but it's rather fascinating. The name of it is the Book of Jasher.

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And the Book of Jasher describes in graphic detail the sinful behavior of the people of Sodom.

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You've heard of the Burning Man Festival? Okay. You know, kind of free sex, drugs, rock and roll.

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According to the Book of Jasher, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had an annual festival in the wilderness that was...

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When you just hear the details, it sounds a lot like Burning Man, but our Burning Man is rated

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PG, theirs was rated X. Okay? That's what we're talking about here.

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That's the nature of what's going on. And they were notorious for mistreating visitors from people who were sojourners coming through their area.

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And that's another thing. They were notorious for horribly treating their guests, is the best way to put it.

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So Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot had separated, Lift up your eyes. Look from the place where you are.

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Northward, southward, eastward, and westward. So you're going to note that God has Abram look at all four compass points and says,

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For all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your offspring, singular, not offsprings, forever.

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So despite the fact that Lot picked the best neighborhood in town, yeah, but not the best inhabitants, shall we say, right?

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As far as like, you know, taking care of flocks and herds and stuff like that, he picked the best property.

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But yet God says, Take a look. Look east, west, north, south. All directions.

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I'm giving to you and to your offspring, regardless of what Lot has done here.

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And I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring shall also, can also be counted.

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Rise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land. For I give it to you.

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Saber moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron.

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And there he built an altar to Yahweh. So over and again, wherever he moves, he builds an altar, sets up church, sets up a place of worship.

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He is a worshiper of the one true God. Now, all of that then, huh?

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Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Offspring. Yeah. Now, what we're going to do now is we're going to take a little bit of a diversion.

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We're going to do a little bit of New Testament work to help us understand how to properly understand

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Abram. And so to do this, we're going to work our way through an epistle that isn't very long and we may not get all the way through it today, but that's okay.

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Turn over to the book of Galatians. Galatians. It's in the

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New Testament and one of the ways I remember Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.

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Those are Paul's letters. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. You remember it. God eats popcorn. You haven't heard that?

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Well, now you have. Yeah. It's right after Romans.

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All right. Now, a little bit of a story here so we can get our context. The Apostle Paul went through parts of Asia Minor and on several different missionary journeys and where this is at is in modern -day

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Turkey. And Paul preached the gospel. People were brought to penitent faith in Christ through the miraculous regenerative working of God, the

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Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the word and the gospel. And after Paul left, there were a group of people.

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We call them the Judaizers who came in after him and they went and really kind of threw the people into turmoil.

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And so a lot of the people who were believers in Jesus in this region, the region of Galatia, they were

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Gentiles. They were not raised as Jews. They were full -blown Gentiles, which means the men who were

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Christians, who were converted through the preaching of Paul, they were not circumcised.

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They were not circumcised at all. And so the Judaizers came in behind Paul and their story went something like this.

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You know, that Apostle Paul, we're not exactly sure why they call him an Apostle because he didn't spend any time with Jesus with Peter and James and John while Jesus was alive on earth and doing

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His earthly ministry. He never spent any time with Jesus. He never went on a boat trip with Jesus on the

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Sea of Galilee. He's a guy who was later, he claims that he saw

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Jesus and became an Apostle. But that Paul, he didn't tell you the whole truth about Christianity.

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You see, if you want to be saved, then there's a slight cosmetic medical procedure that we're going to have to perform on the men here.

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And if you don't do this procedure, you cannot be saved. That was their argument.

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And so Paul writes this letter to the churches in Galatia who had been listening to the

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Judaizers and this is his response regarding all of this.

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And this is his, you're going to note, this is a sharply worded, terse, in your face kind of letter.

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This is not Paul coddling. This is Paul really strongly, firmly pushing back and even rebuking.

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So here's what it says. Paul, an Apostle. First words out of his mouth.

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And it's two words. Paulus Apostolos. Okay? So he immediately puts forward his apostolic credentials.

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Paul, an Apostle. Not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the

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Father who raised him from the dead and all the brothers who are with me. So those who are challenging his apostolic authority, he just comes right out and says,

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I'm not Apostle by men. Jesus made me an Apostle. That's right, he's an

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Apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, which kind of begs the question, what is an

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Apostle? Witness is not quite there.

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Messenger is close. Alright? Now in the ancient world, Apostles, that was a common term.

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So, you know, this is the days before the internet. This is the days before the telephone and fax machines and things like this.

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Right, exactly. So if I were, oftentimes it would be the wealthy who would have

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Apostles. So if I were a wealthy landowner and I needed somebody to go to Antioch and do business for me, right?

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I would have an emissary or an envoy, an official who was sent by me with authority to conduct business in my name, as if I'm the one conducting business with that person through that other guy, through an intermediary, you got it?

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So Apostles were, you know, so they were people who were, they were the sent ones.

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In fact, the Greek word apostolos means sent one. Okay? So I would send

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Miles, I'm sending you to Antioch, I need you to go buy me an Aston Martin from the

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Sultan of Tasmania, all right? And I've given you authority to purchase this car on my behalf.

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So he heads out there on a camel, okay? And he comes back with the

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Aston Martin and it's procured in my name by him as if I'm the one doing business, he's doing it in my name.

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Does that make sense? So when somebody says, I'm an Apostle, first question out of somebody's mouth in the ancient world would be, who sent you?

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Okay? So who sent you? And so note, Paul says, I'm an Apostle not from men but through Jesus Christ.

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He is an Apostle of Jesus Christ. That's a small group. That's a very small group.

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No one alive today is one of these. Okay? So, to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our

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God and Father to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now, we dispense with the pleasantries and get right to business.

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Hope you're sitting down. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting

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Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different Gospel, not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the

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Gospel of Christ. That doesn't sound good. Right? So he's disturbed.

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He's astonished. He's claiming the people in the churches in Galatia are literally abandoning and deserting

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Jesus. And then he says these words. And understand this. In the ancient world, in Greek at this time, there were no spaces between words and there was no upper and lower case letters.

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All the letters were all uppercase and all of the words were squished together in what would look kind of like one run -on sentence.

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So spacing between words was a later invention in language. And he didn't have the ability to bold, to italicize, or to underline.

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Those were not standard conventions at that point. So if you wanted to make your point, when the writing was at this level, the way you did it is you repeated yourself.

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Today, what we would do if we were really trying to let somebody know that we're getting their attention, we might write in all caps.

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Or we might bold a certain sentence and then underline it and put an exclamation point on it.

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This is the point I'm trying to make. Well, Paul didn't have any of those later literary inventions.

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So in order for him to make his point, he has to make it several times.

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So watch what he says. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be...

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And the Greek word here is anathema. Anathema, which literally means damned.

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As we have said before, so now I say it again. If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be anathema.

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Accursed, damned. That's pretty strong language. And so by the virtue of the fact he says it not once, he says it twice.

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All right? This is one of the ways that we understand then that one of the things that puts you outside of the

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Christian faith is if you have invented and preached your own gospel.

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Right? Oh, all over the place. Okay, which of course begs the question, it's like, where can we find the gospel laid out for us succinctly so we know what it is, right?

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Now, I'm going to answer that question in just a minute. But I want to read out a little bit more.

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So you're going to note here that somebody who preaches a gospel that's contrary to the one that Paul preached, he's damned.

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Anyone preaching a gospel contrary to the one they had received, which is the one that Paul preached, again, they fall under that anathema.

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Strong language. So somebody believing a false gospel is not a

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Christian. We believe they're heretics and they're outside of the Christian faith.

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Now, let me read out a little bit more and then I'll show you where we're going to find this. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God?

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Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

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Now watch what he says next. I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.

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For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

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Okay. So let's consider the implications of what's being said here.

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And then immediately I have to ask you, what is the gospel that Paul preached?

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Where can we find it succinctly laid out for us? Okay. Now, hang on a second here.

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I need, okay.

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Okay. So Paul's gospel.

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We know that Paul is an apostle because Christ sent him. This is what he claims.

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Where did he get his gospel? Okay. So on the road to Damascus, he may not have gotten the gospel there.

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Okay. Maybe. Okay. Okay. So who told

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Paul the gospel that he preached? No. Okay. Jesus.

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Okay. We just read it. Listen again. Verse 11 of Galatians 1. I would have you know, brothers, the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.

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I did not receive it from any man, nor was

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I taught it. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

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So Paul's gospel, he got it via direct revelation.

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From whom? Revelation from Christ.

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Okay. So Paul's gospel. He gets it directly from Jesus.

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To preach a gospel different than this gospel puts you under anathema, a curse, a damnation.

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So this is non -negotiable theology. But if you were to ask the average

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Christian today, what is the gospel that Paul received via direct revelation?

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What exactly were the words? What did he say it was? Would they be able to pull up a passage and tell you, here's what

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Paul's gospel was? Can you? Huh? Nope.

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Nope, not Romans. It's a good guess though.

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Really good guess. Very good guess. In fact, Romans does a good job of like unpacking the gospel that he received.

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You all know where it is? All right. 1 Corinthians 15. Let's take a look at it.

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And you'll see how Paul writes in this chapter that unmistakably we know what we're dealing with here.

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1 Corinthians 15. I'll start in verse 1. 1

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Corinthians 15, verse 1. Now, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel

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I preached to you. Aha! See, here it is. We're not left in the dark.

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Which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

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Now, listen to what he says then in verse 3. For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what

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I also, what? Received. Who did he receive it from?

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Jesus. All right, this is why your cross references are important. Are you ready? Here's his gospel.

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Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. He was buried and He was raised on the third day in accordance with the

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Scriptures. He appeared to Cephas, to the twelve, and then He appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.

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Then He appeared to James and to all the apostles, and last of all, to one untimely born, He appeared also to me.

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If you were to say what Paul's gospel is then in its most succinct form, Christ died for our sins in accordance with the

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Scriptures. He was buried and raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. That's the gospel.

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What does that sound like, by the way? Listen to the, I mean, just the format.

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The format. Huh? Yes, exactly. It sounds exactly like a creed.

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The creeds that we have, the apostles and Nicene Creed, are built off this.

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Christ died for our sins, was buried and raised on the third day according to the

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Scriptures, via direct revelation from Jesus Christ.

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That's the gospel. To preach something different than this or contrary to this puts you under a curse.

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Alright? So, come back then to Galatians 1. So, Paul is literally claiming that the

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Judaizers are preaching a gospel contrary. They are preaching a different gospel.

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Their gospel is not a gospel of Christ died for our sins. Their gospel is a, you need a snip -snip procedure in order to be saved.

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Okay? They're adding works to grace.

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And that's why they're falling under this condemnation. So, coming back then to Galatians 1, verse 11,

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I would have you know the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. I did not receive it from any man, nor was

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I taught it. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how

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I persecuted the church of God violently and I tried to destroy it.

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And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was

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I for the traditions of my fathers. But when He who had set me apart before I was born, who called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal

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His Son to me in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.

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Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went away into Arabia and returned to Damascus again.

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So note, He recognizes in the way He's talking. Peter, James, John, these guys were apostles before I was, but He's talking about Himself as if He were part of that group.

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Right? Now a little bit of a note here. How many tribes of Israel were there?

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Twelve. How many names for the twelve tribes of Israel? Huh? If we were to list out the names of the tribes of Israel, okay?

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There's one tribe that's split into two. The half -tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh.

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So note, there are twelve tribes, thirteen names. How many apostles are there?

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Twelve. How many named apostles are there? Thirteen.

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You see how it kind of works that way? It's a bit weird. So here we've got this strange fellow that comes out of nowhere,

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Paul, who didn't hang out with Jesus, but he's an eyewitness of the resurrection, and Jesus chose to reveal the

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Gospel to him via direct revelation, and he recognizes he's an apostle like the other apostles.

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Very strange, you know? It's weird how that works. Twelve tribes, thirteen names.

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Twelve apostles, thirteen names. I don't know why. God likes doing things

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His own way, right? When they get older, that's when they roll out.

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Yeah. There's a whole group within the charismatic churches today, and I refer to them as the

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New Apostolic Reformation. That's a term they came up with for themselves, though, by the way. And they claim that somewhere in the late 90s, early 2000s, that God restored apostles on earth.

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And there are people running around the airwaves and the landscape claiming to be apostles.

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And these people are nuttier than fruitcakes. So, I mean, it's just...

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If you ever watch my YouTube channel, which I don't recommend unless you're drinking...

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Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's wow. It's just nuts, the stuff

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I'm covering. All right, so let's continue then. So after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit

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Cephas, that's Peter, and I remained with him for 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except for James, the

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Lord's, what's it say, brother? Yeah, so much for the perpetual virginity of Mary, right?

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In what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie. So then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

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They were only hearing it said, that he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith that he once tried to destroy.

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So they glorified God because of me. Chapter 2. So then after 14 years,

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I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.

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And I went up because of a revelation set before them, though privately before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the

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Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me,

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Titus was a Greek -born Christian convert, even though Titus was with me, he was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a

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Greek. So we went to go see the big guys, the big guns. We saw

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Peter, we saw James, we saw John, and privately laid out the gospel that I'm preaching.

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Titus was with me. And Titus had not had the snip -snip procedure done. And after meeting with the big guns, the guys who hung out with Jesus, they didn't say to Titus, Whoa, slow down there, partner.

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We need to talk to you about that cosmetic procedure now. They didn't do any of that. And that's kind of his point.

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But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers, secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery, to them we did not yield in submission, even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

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Now this is a vital piece of all of this. And believe it or not, this has everything to do with Abraham.

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But all of that being said, note here, we are warned by Christ in the gospels, and we see in practice then with the apostolic ministry, that already in the earliest part of Christianity, there were false brothers who had slipped in.

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They were spying out the freedom they have in Christ. And what was the thing that they were attacking? The gospel itself.

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And they were sent by the devil to drag people back into slavery. And notice this, as Christians and as Americans, we kind of work from the idea, this is kind of how we work.

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So two people are having a sharp dispute. Party A, they are demanding this.

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And they hate Party B. And Party B is demanding that Party A do this.

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And so what happens is a peacemaker comes in, and sits down and talks to Party A. And then they go and talk to Party B.

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And then they go back to Party A. And then they go back to Party B. And then they come up with a compromise.

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Okay? So that everybody can have a little bit. Because if we give only what

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Party A wants, then Party B loses. Okay? And if we give

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Party B what they want, then Party A loses. So they want to find a way to create what they call what?

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A win -win situation. Right? Notice that when it comes to the truth of the

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Gospel, it's all or nothing. It is win or lose.

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And note that the Apostle Paul is not interested in compromise. And he says, for the sake of preserving the

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Gospel among you, we did not yield to them in submission, even for a moment.

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Yeah. And submission is a fascinating word here. We refuse to bend the knee.

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We will not submit. We don't recognize your authority. We don't recognize your

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Gospel. We will not compromise. It's absolutely all or nothing. Win, lose, it's the whole hill of beans.

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And this sounds really foreign to us today, doesn't it? Well, that Apostle Paul, doesn't he care about the feelings of these

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Judaizers? Doesn't he understand he's hurting their feelings? He's saying that their religion is worthless.

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How could you say such a thing? These are human beings created in the image of God. They have feelings.

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Now, funny enough, that is a caricature of actual arguments that people make today, is it not?

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Okay? So Paul here is having none of the compromise. He's declared that those who believe and teach a contrary

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Gospel or a different Gospel are damned. He refuses to yield in submission for a moment so that the

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Gospel might be preserved for these people. And from those who seem to be influential, he's telling this story, what they were makes no difference to me.

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God shows no partiality. Those, I say, who seemed influential, they added nothing, nothing to me.

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On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the

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Gospel, and that's what the Gospel is, it's a trust. I've been entrusted with the Gospel to the circumcised just as Peter had been entrusted with the

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Gospel to the circumcised, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the

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Gentiles. So when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave me the right hand of fellowship and to Barnabas and me that we should go to the

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Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing that I was eager to do, which is kind of the ongoing legacy of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

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Because we read in the Gospels that Jesus literally kept a collection bag for the purpose of providing financial assistance to those who were in abject poverty.

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That was part of Jesus' ministry. And so you're going to note that even the apostles are remembering this.

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And it's not a command in the sense of, in order to be a Christian you have to give to the poor.

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No, you do remember the poor in your good works. You can always keep an eye out for them because they were the very ones who

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Christ sought out and ministered to. So that's the end of that story.

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And now he fast forwards a little bit. So when Cephas came to Antioch, so Peter went on a journey.

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He comes to Antioch, where Paul is, and it says this, I opposed

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Peter to his face because he stood condemned.

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Whoa, wait a second. I thought the Pope was infallible, right?

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Isn't Peter the first Pope? At least that's how the story goes, right?

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So here's the infallible Pope, and Paul is opposing him to his face because he stood condemned.

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And here's the reason. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the

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Gentiles. Let me help you out here. He was having bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches. Okay?

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James and the other guys weren't around, and so they said, Would you like a sandwich? And he went, Sure, what are you having?

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Bacon? Okay. Right? So he's eating with the

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Gentiles. He's eating what's put in front of him, and he's treating them like they are brothers in Christ.

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Right? But remember the Judaism that Peter grows up in.

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The Judaism that Peter grows up in, Gentiles are wicked. They are evil.

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You can't eat with them. They are sinners. And so he's behaving like a

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Christian at first, but then some of the boys he grew up with in Israel who had some of those prejudices that they were still shaking off.

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Here's what it says. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back, and he separated himself, fearing, listen, the circumcision party.

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Uh -huh. Uh -oh. Uh -oh. So no more bacon for Peter, and he's not going to sit down with you

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Gentiles. And so the rest of the Jews, they acted hypocritically along with him, so that even

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Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. Tell me about the weakness and sinfulness of even

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Jesus' apostles. Okay? So here's the apostle Paul, who literally has zero tact.

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Okay? This guy did not go to finishing school. So... He would never drink his tea with his pinky out or anything like that.

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So here's what it says. When I saw their conduct was not in step with the truth of the what? Of the gospel. I said to Cephas in front of them all,

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Hey, Peter, if though you a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the

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Gentiles to live like Jews? Oh, boy. Oh, man. Did he really go there?

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He went there in public in front of them all. He didn't do this privately. He did this in front of everybody.

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So... And we ourselves, we're Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

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So we have also believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.

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And here it comes. By works of the law, no one will be justified.

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That's a big sentence. Let's unpack it and then we'll end there for today.

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I'm on verse, the end of 16, chapter two.

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By works of the law, no one will be justified. Okay.

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Big word justified. Dikaiao in Greek. What does it mean?

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Say it out loud so I can hear you. Just as if I never sinned.

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That's a good way of explaining it, but that's not exactly its meaning.

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Okay. Dikaiao. Let me help you out. It's a court term.

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Okay. So in the ancient world, if you were drug into Roman court and you had to appear before the magistrate or the prefect or whatever, you're drug into Roman court and somebody has accused you of stealing their sheep.

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Right? So you are being accused of being a sheep stealer. So there you are. You stand before the judge and they present their side.

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You present your evidence and your side. And the judge, the magistrate, he has to make a verdict.

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Okay. So you present your case. And while you are arguing your case, the stolen sheep comes walking in and eating the grass just outside the courtroom.

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And the judge sees this. And what does he say? Here's what he says. Dikaiao. Not guilty.

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Okay. Not guilty. Dikaiao or justified. It's a court term. And so you would be declared to be not guilty.

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You're in the right. You're the righteous one. Okay. That's the picture.

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So by works of the law, and in this case, law, you can almost say

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Torah. By works of the Torah. The law. The keeping of the

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Mosaic covenant. By works of the Torah. No one will be Dikaiao.

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No one's justified. No one's declared righteous. No one is said to be not guilty. How many people on all of planet earth from the time of Adam and Eve until the very last person draws their last breath on the day of Jesus' return in glory, how many of those people are saved, declared righteous by keeping the law?

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According to this sentence. Zero. Not one.

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You see it? The Judaizers were saying, if you don't submit to the

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Torah and have that little procedure and keep the Mosaic feast days, you can't be saved.

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They're saying salvation by works of the law. That's a different gospel altogether. Alright. We'll end there today and we'll pick up starting at verse 17 in Galatians 2 next week.