WWUTT 1752 Beware the Enslavers (Galatians 2:1-10)

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There are many false teachers out there who try to tell us you have to do all of these things in order to be a

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Christian. But it is not by our work that we are saved. It is by the finished work of Christ, when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ, that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in the book of Galatians, Chapter 2. If you want to open up your

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Bible and join with me there, I'll be reading from the English Standard Version, Galatians 2, 1 -10.

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This is the Word of the Lord, through the Apostle Paul, writing to the churches in Galatia. Then, after fourteen years,

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I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation, and 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 that I was not running or had not run in vain.

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But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.

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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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And from those who seemed to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me, God shows no partiality, those

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I say who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the 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. And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, received the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the

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Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing

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I was eager to do. So the purpose of this particular section, these ten verses here, is to demonstrate that the gospel

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Paul preached was the same one that the other twelve apostles preached.

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Just because Paul had not been with Jesus for three years during his earthly ministry, or he had not yet met the apostles who had taught all these things to him, yet he proclaimed the same gospel.

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And the only way, the only way Paul would have known that gospel and to proclaim it accurately, all the things that were being taught by the twelve apostles, the only way

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Paul would have known that is if it were given to him by Christ. And so, Paul had received and so he preached.

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This is very autobiographical here, there's some deep theology that we have to draw out of this, but mostly

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Paul is demonstrating that he would not cower to those people who are trying to force law upon him, and because of his courage and boldness in the gospel, the

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Galatians can know that it is not by our keeping of the law that we are saved, but by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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So at the start here, chapter two, verse one, Paul says, after 14 years,

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I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas. So we can see here the length of Paul's ministry, how long it's been going on, it's been well over a decade now.

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So after 14 years, he goes back to Jerusalem, he takes Titus along with him.

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Now, Titus was a Greek. This is the same Titus that Paul wrote the letter to, you know, the letter of Titus that we have after first and second

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Timothy. So we have what are called the pastoral letters, first and second Timothy and Titus. So this is that same

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Titus. Now Titus being a Greek means that he wasn't circumcised, and Paul did not require

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Titus to be circumcised, because if that were to happen, then it would testify, well, you say that we don't have to follow works in order to be saved, and yet you made

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Titus get circumcised. So how do we know he's saved by faith through the gospel and not through faith and his circumcision?

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So this brings us back to, you know, that main phrase that we've been using as we're going through Galatians together here,

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Jesus plus blank equals everything, or salvation or justification. Now what should be in that blank is nothing.

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It should stay blank. It is by faith in Christ that we are justified. But there are some people that try to put something else in the blank.

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I need this in order to be complete, or I need this in order to be saved. And whatever you put in the blank becomes your salvation.

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It's not Christ, because Christ was apparently insufficient. You needed something else in order to be saved.

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And so you stick something in that blank. Now, as Paul here is talking about Titus not being circumcised, it's so that the

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Gentiles, well, specifically the Galatians here, it's so that they would not be confused by that and think, well, yeah, you say it's by faith and faith alone, and yet you circumcise

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Titus. So if he didn't need to be circumcised, why did you circumcise him? And Paul does not want to lead them to confusion.

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So Titus does not get circumcised. Even though that would be the easy thing to do, we'll just shut up our detractors.

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Doesn't matter one way or the other whether he gets circumcised, but he doesn't want that to be a testimony to those who think that you have to do works and faith in order to be saved.

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So we'll expound upon that as we continue on here. Verse two, Paul says, I went up,

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I went up to Jerusalem because of a revelation, kind of like an Acts 13 where the

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Holy Spirit says, set apart for me Saul and Barnabas, which was Paul.

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So Paul and Barnabas set apart to be sent out on the mission. So in this way, the

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Holy Spirit had communicated to Paul, he wanted him to go back to Jerusalem. Now Paul clarifies here that it was by divine revelation.

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He goes back to Jerusalem so that it would not be assumed he was going to Jerusalem to have his doctrine corrected.

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He checks with the disciples, he says that here with those who are influential to see that what he is teaching is not in vain, but his teaching was not corrected because what he taught actually was the gospel of Christ.

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Let's continue on with that here. So I went up because of a revelation and set before them, though privately before those who seemed influential.

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This would have been like Peter and James, and I think also John, those who would have been the influential people leading the

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Jerusalem church at that time. So he set before them the gospel that I proclaimed among the

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Gentiles in order to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain, meaning that what

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Paul preached was not futile or it wasn't empty, that it actually was leading people to Christ.

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Now, Paul knew that it was. He wasn't getting confirmation from the apostles that what he was preaching was actually apostolic.

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He already knew that it was, for he had spent time in Arabia with Jesus. But this was before others that it could be confirmed before their very eyes because they did not see the risen

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Lord. They didn't have the vision of Christ from heaven saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

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Like Paul did. So this is confirmation before them that they would know the gospel that Paul proclaimed was the same one that the other apostles were proclaiming.

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It was no different because it came from Christ. The twelve apostles received it from Christ. Paul had received it from Christ.

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So it is able to be verified right there in the presence of many witnesses that Paul is an authentic apostle, having seen the risen

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Lord and been appointed to this by Christ and what he preached was from Christ. Verse three,

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Paul says, but even Titus, who was who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a

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Greek. Paul wasn't going to have Titus circumcised, nor were the rest of the apostles, because they knew.

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And again, you're talking the apostles, the twelve apostles. These men are all Jews. The twelve Paul, they're all

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Jews. The Jewish teachers are saying that Paul is a false teacher.

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And so if they send Paul with with his Greek buddies, Paul, who is preaching the gospel to Gentiles, and if they send

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Paul and his Greek buddies back to the other apostles, maybe they'll correct Paul's thinking. They'll make

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Titus get circumcised. And boom, there you have it. Just like what we've been saying from the very beginning, that you have to be circumcised in order to be saved.

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That's what the Jewish teachers were teaching. And we have that right at the beginning of Acts 15.

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Hang on, I'm trying to trying to turn back there so I can read it to you exactly. And I didn't have this

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Mark Acts 15, verse one. But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised, according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

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And after Paul and Barnabas had no small discussion and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others who were appointed to go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and the elders, they went about this question.

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OK, so that's what we have there in the first two verses of Acts 15. Then you have the Jerusalem Council that takes place and all of this.

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So here Paul comes to those apostles and it's not to have his teaching corrected.

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It's rather to have it affirmed in the presence of many witnesses that what Paul proclaimed was truly from Christ.

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Now, he verified his apostleship with many miraculous signs. We know that Paul did that as well.

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But again, this is to show the community that the apostles are, the unity that they have in Christ Jesus and that their message is all the same.

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Titus is with him. He's not required to be circumcised because if he were the other 12 apostles, of course, you know, the men that are leading the

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Jerusalem church there, Peter and James, they're not even requiring Titus to be circumcised because they know if they were to do that, everybody's going to see that as well.

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Apparently the Judaizers are right. Apparently you do have to be circumcised in order to be saved.

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So even Titus was not required. The leaders of the Jerusalem church, those men who were devout

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Jews, even they did not require Titus to be circumcised.

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Verse four, 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, meaning these false brothers were brought in.

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They were invited in. They secretly came in. They were not supposed to be there.

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This is supposed to be a private meeting among those who are genuinely Christian. But these are false teachers that have come into their midst in order to bring us into slavery.

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What does Paul mean by that? In order to bring us into the requirements of the law that you have to do this in order to be saved, you know,

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Charles Finney, who was very famous in the 19th century for what we call decisional evangelism.

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We can thank him for the altar call. Finney believed that you did have to do something in order to be saved.

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Like Christ, righteousness is not imputed to you by faith in Jesus.

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You're not justified. Jesus can only be righteous for Jesus, but he can't be righteous for you, even though this is what

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Scripture says, like Second Corinthians 521. For our sake, he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him, the righteousness of Jesus Christ that is given to us.

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We are justified by faith in Jesus. Finney said, No, you're not. Finney said,

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You've got to actually do holiness. You actually have to do the right things to make yourself acceptable to God.

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You can make yourself holy by your own actions and by your own works. And Scripture says,

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No, you cannot. Even your best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy God. Isaiah 64, six or in Romans chapter eight, whoever does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him and that they are not capable of keeping the law.

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Indeed, they cannot. No one can do what the law requires. In Romans, Paul says the law brought death.

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No one was able to keep the requirement of the law. The law was powerless to save.

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Rather, what it did was it revealed that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all need a

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Savior. And that Savior is that Savior is Christ who actually kept the law perfectly.

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Jesus was the only man who was without sin. We cannot come into the presence of God by our own righteousness.

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Jesus is our access to God. Hebrews talks about that. So anyway, so Finney was all for this decisional evangelism, and he was all for sanctification preceding justification.

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Whereas what Scripture teaches is we are justified and then we're sanctified. Justification is the event.

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Sanctification is the process. But Finney taught, No, you have to grow in sanctification before you can be justified.

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That's like what the Judaizers are teaching here as well. There are these works that you must do in order to be acceptable in the eyes of God.

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They're false brothers. They're teaching falsely. They're not allowed to be there. But they had snuck in in order to bring the people into slavery, slavery unto the law, which does not have the power to save.

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It does not have the power to set you free. Paul is going to expound upon that further as we go through Galatians.

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But at least saying this much for now in his story of confirmation from the other apostles that what he proclaimed was the true gospel is the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

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And Paul says in verse five to them, to those false teachers, 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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Because again, the easy thing would be to do, hey, to shut them up. Why not just have Titus go ahead and get circumcised?

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Why not? I mean, it doesn't save him. We know that. But at least these guys won't go on about what it is that they're saying as long as we have him circumcised.

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But no, they did not yield in submission even for a moment.

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They weren't going to let that happen to Titus. For not only was it going to be painful to Titus, but it was not going to go well doctrinally for those people that needed to hear our salvation is only by faith in Christ.

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It is trusting in him for our salvation, not in our works, but in the completed work of Christ.

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So verse six, and from those who seem to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me.

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God shows no partiality. Paul still talking about, you know, like Peter and James here, those

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I say who seemed influential added nothing to me. There wasn't any doctrine that I needed to have corrected.

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They confirm that everything that I preach, all that I proclaim came from Christ.

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It is the true gospel. Verse seven, on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised.

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And then the parenthetical reference, verse eight, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised work also through me for mine to the

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

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Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing that I was eager to do.

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The majority of people that were coming to faith in Jesus Christ were poor. And you had the situation, too, of those

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Jews that had gone from their homes in other places in the Roman Empire. They went from their homes to Jerusalem for Pentecost.

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And then at Pentecost, they heard the gospel and were saved. And the church was started there. And they just stayed there at Jerusalem.

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According to what we have in Acts 2, of course, that was Pentecost. And then after the persecution of the church began, many were kind of scattered around and they went out into other cities or they returned to their homes and shared the gospel there.

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And then churches were planted. And then, of course, you have Paul's missionary journeys, him going around and preaching the gospel, planted churches.

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But there were some places he had not been where churches had been planted, like Rome, like Colossae.

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Those two letters, Romans and Colossians, Paul wrote to churches that he had not yet visited.

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So there were some that went out from Pentecost and then they planted churches in some other places.

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But those that remained there in Jerusalem, they left everything that they had behind. So they had nothing.

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They were poor. And then you had the daily distribution of food, as talked about in Acts 2 and Acts 4 and other places where the poor were being taken care of.

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When Christians were being persecuted, when you had Gentiles who were leaving the worship of false gods to worship

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Jesus Christ, they would lose their livelihood. They would lose, like even their family would ostracize them or disown them.

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And they were left poor and destitute as a result of that. So hence another reason why Paul had this eagerness to preach to the poor.

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There were many Christians who were poor because of this gospel. They lost their jobs and everything else.

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Now, by the grace of God, by his providence, there were many rich people who became Christians as well.

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We read about wealthy persons like Lydia, for example, or Philemon even. There were those who were wealthy who came into this faith of Christ because that's the

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Holy Spirit, the work of the Spirit of God in the heart of a person to turn them from sin to worshiping

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Jesus Christ. Rich or poor, politically influential or having no influence at all, the

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Holy Spirit was saving all kinds. Hence why Paul says in 1 Timothy 2 that prayers be lifted up for all kinds of people, for kings and all who are in high positions.

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But no matter the kind of position or no matter the influence that a person had, as Paul said in 2

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Timothy 3, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

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Here, Paul has talked about a persecution. As they were trying to encourage the saints with the truth of the gospel, there's these false brothers who secretly slip in to bring them back into slavery.

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Anything that is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ is slavery. Jesus said in John 8, 32, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.

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And in verse 36, if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

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We are set free not by our works, but by the work that Christ has done.

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And God has imputed, he has given to us all of the blessings, all of the measures of his grace by faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

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Not by our works, but the work of Christ alone. And you don't have to make yourself right before you come to God.

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You come as you are and he makes you right. And then for the rest of your life, you grow in holiness, in sanctification to be made more like Jesus.

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As Paul is going to say when we get to Galatians 2, 20, And we'll pick up with our study of Galatians 2 tomorrow.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word that we have read today, and may we trust not in our own work or in our own ability to be right before you, but you make us right by faith in our

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Savior, Jesus Christ. Teach us to walk in all his ways. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.