Mighty Lord, Foolish Galatians

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Oh Lord Jesus, we thank you that we are saved by your grace alone through faith alone and That it has nothing to do with our works our thinking our lifestyles
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But it has got everything to do with the efficacious and meritorious work of King Jesus we are honored to proclaim
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Christ today and him crucified and to think about What you want us to learn from the book of Galatians over the next several weeks?
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Sanctify us I pray by your word For those who do not know you I pray that you would save them to the praise of your glory and As believers help us to be encouraged refreshed and to love you more as a result of Paul's teaching to the
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Galatians in Christ's name I pray Amen, can you tell me if you've heard of these?
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names before Martian mar CIO n not the alien
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Tertullian Augustin John chrysostom Martin Luther John Calvin origin
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Lightfoot Anybody heard any of these names before a couple of you have good
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Can you tell me what is common about these people or what what brings them together if there is anything
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Yes the smart This the smart answer from mr. Zook they were
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Christians good. What else can you tell me about those men? I'll tell you the names again.
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You can think through it Martian Tertullian Augustin John chrysostom
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Martin Luther John Calvin Origin and Lightfoot good.
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They were father early fathers of the church or fathers of the early church. Very good. What else?
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Mark good Christian thinkers theologians
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Very good, but they had one very big thing in common.
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Do you want to say something? That's okay They're one very important thing in common.
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They all came to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through one book in the Bible Any idea which book that could be?
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Galatians Galatians it had a profound impact on the lives of these men.
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There's some big names there and All of them not that they did not read the other parts of Scripture.
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Not at all, but they were They loved the justification of faith by faith alone.
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They loved that doctrine and They got their introduction to Christ and the
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New Testament theology through the book of Galatians So it had a profound impact on these men
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I want to talk really briefly about Martin Luther Now, you know many of many of you know, he was born in 1483 and died in 1546.
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Does anyone anybody know what? Where was he a professor which University and what was he teaching?
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Which University did he teach at? Wittenberg he was a professor of biblical exegesis at the
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University of Wittenberg and He loved Galatians so much that most of his lectures and most of his most of his lectures were around the book of Galatians He loved it.
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He wrote several commentaries on it One of those commentaries would later become the manifesto of the
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Protestant Reformation Needless to say he loved the book Luther also loved the book because it was a continual source of strength to him and A reminder of his fallible nature and his sin
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Do you know what Luther called Galatians? If you've anybody has done a biography of Martin Luther before a red one
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Steve Lawson has written a magnificent Biography about Luther and Calvin and I strongly recommend you read it
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Did you have a question? Yes Yes, yes
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Luther called Galatians Amongst other things my Katie my Catherine because his wife's name was
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Katie one bond Wait, no one Bora. Sorry, you'd correct myself
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He he loved the book so much. It was as beloved to him as his own bride He also called it my own epistle
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Now knowing what you know about Luther not being Lutheran historians Why do you think he loved the book of Galatians?
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Yes, he was saved as he was reading that book But why did he like that book so much?
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Good. What specifically about the Catholic Church? Very good. Very good.
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Who was Luther? What was his? What what was he before he got saved?
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He was a Catholic monk and when the monks Lived a very monkish life.
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There you go. They they prided themselves in self -denial Denying the world staying away from the world
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And they hurt themselves often physically and emotionally In order to quieten their conscience
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Their conscience was accusing them of their sin and showing their guilt Luther was one person who was constantly tormented by his guilt
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I believe all believers. I know I was before I got saved many of you were tormented by The law and the word of god as you read it and your own guilty conscience trying to work out your own
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Trying to work out your salvation not in the way. Paul said it but trying to earn salvation by doing something good
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But also to quieten your guilty consciences Luther did everything he could to quieten his conscience
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All kinds of monkish behavior all ways of self -denial he was very very good at it
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But he couldn't he couldn't He was frustrated and disappointed
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After all his monkish behavior and efforts of self -denial. He could not escape his guilty conscience
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He was so tormented. He was desperate for relief Desperate that's when he started reading
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Paul's epistle to the galatians He saw for the very first time the necessity for christ's substitutionary work
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He saw the need for covering that his sins needed to be completely covered the term atonement
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Which he thought was his works His adherence to catholic laws his adherence to the catholic church
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That's when he discovered galatians and galatians 2 15 to 21, which is a theme of the book
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And he later called the doctrine of justification the most important doctrine in the whole bible
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Justification by faith alone in christ alone was to luther the most important doctrine in the entire bible
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He was relieved For the first time he experienced mercy forgiveness
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The person and work of christ was sufficient God justifies the ungodly not by works
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Not by money Not by giving money to the catholic church Not by any adherence to the law or man -made rules
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But through the life death and resurrection of jesus christ As far as martin luther was concerned
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We can say the rest is history Luther became one of the most foremost thinkers
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And preachers in the reformation period In fact, if you listen and if you read some of his sermons he directly uses the papists
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As an analogy to the judaizers in galatia consistently
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Who are papists? Not a term we use regularly, but something that we should still know in 2019.
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Who's a what's a papist gary? Followers of the pope actually they were not just followers of the pope.
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They were They were worshippers of the pope And subsequently as they worshipped the pope they also denied christ and they denied the headship of christ
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And and luther with a strong attitude Had no issue in calling out the papists and comparing them to the judaizers in galatia
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Strong, I would say Luther loved this book He was a constant source of strength to him and no doubt a force behind the reformation a force behind the protestant reformation
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In fact, if you attended or you listened to I think it was last year's shepherds conference, which was dealing with the 500 years of reformation.
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Maybe last year two years ago There was a lot of messages around galatians and a lot of seminars around the book of galatians
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Any other reformer who had a signal who Loved the book of galatians And used it in their sermons at and around that time period any other reformer?
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I didn't mention his name Yeah, john calvin He he was he had He was strongly influenced by the book of galatians
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By the person of christ as depicted in the in the book of galatians in the sufficiency of christ and the difference between Being justified by christ's work and by faith in christ versus being justified by works of the law
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If you are a new believer and you're struggling to understand new testament theology This is a great book to start
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It introduces not just christ It introduces grace law freedom from the law
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It talks about justification. It talks about sanctification. It talks about salvation by faith alone in christ alone
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And if it had a profound impact on so many early church fathers It is bound to have an impact on you as a new believer, too
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In fact, if you read as a new believer matthew mark luke john and axe my suggestion is
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It's galatian should be your next place to stop and start It is a fabulous book to learn new testament theology
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If you're a seasoned Believer It's still a wonderful book for you
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Because when you look at legalism and normism, which we'll get into when you look at the grace of god in your life
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You can't but give him praise You can't but be encouraged and refreshed as to what christ has done
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How he fulfilled the law and the freedom we have in christ In fact martin luther in studying the book of galatians in his study
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One day screamed while his wife was in the other room freedom I don't know what my wife would do if I screamed freedom
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In the middle when she was cooking her when she was playing with the kids. I have no idea what she would do but she but katie
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Luther's wife came running in and he ended up explaining the whole of galatians 2 15 21 to her
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That's I don't think she expected a sermon that day, but she got one So as we get into the book of galatians
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It's important to understand the political climate In jerusalem at that time. Yes, I said it in jerusalem not in galatia
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But in jerusalem where the judaizers are about to come from they're about to attack christ
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Attack the gospel and attack the apostleship of paul So what do you know about the political climate in jerusalem at that time?
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Yes Right. Very good. There's a there is what just happened. This is paul's resurrection
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Did the jews and the nation just lose their identity They lost their identity didn't they everything they believed about the law now post christ resurrection
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Everything has changed So as a result of this there was a rise of jewish nationalism
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And you see that even when paul is talking about peter later in chapter 2 verse 11 to 14 we see what's going on there with nationalism, but What is nationalism?
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Can anybody can anybody define nationalism? josh Good fervor for one country patriotic feeling
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Anything that's got to do with national interests or efforts in a good way Right. What is an extreme form of nationalism?
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Sorry, who said that? fascism Who said that sorry revolution
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Yes. Yes, right an extreme form of Nationalism is defined as what we call xenophobia
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Okay, what is phobia an irrational fear of something? Not just any fear of something.
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It's an irrational fear of something xenophobia is an intense or irrational fear or dislike of people from other countries and as jews lost their identity, they not only became increasingly afraid of What christ had done they became increasingly
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They hated The gentiles even more it was a very strong dislike And so it's important to keep in mind
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How nationalism and xenophobia kind of played its part even in the life of the judaesis at that time?
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And why they attacked paul and the gospel so much There was a rising trend in the jewish nationalism at the time
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It had a direct impact on the jerusalem apostles and on the galatians the judaizers
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Who are they and what did they do? Who are the judaizers? We hear about them a lot
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Who are they? Where are they from? Yes, so the judaizers were they
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They kind of liked christ on the outside, that's the way we look at it But they did not believe in any way that christ was sufficient
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Either for justification or for sanctification. In fact, one of the tenants of the judaizers was that There's no way you can be holy or godly without following jewish law mosaic law
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That's what made them so vehement. They were judaizers. They they loved to spread
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Jewish law and jewish living throughout the nations Which is why it was so difficult for them to understand
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The gospel the law -free gospel and how it was even meant for the gentiles
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So what did the judaizers do they attacked paul? They attacked his message And they did not like the way that he was omitting jewish law from the gospel
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They didn't like the fact that they were omit he was omitting circumcision and that he didn't even mention circumcision in his gospel message
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This really angered the nationalistic judaizers And it really annoyed them
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Now many judaizers in galatia claimed that they were believers They claimed to believe in the lordship of christ.
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They claimed to believe in the resurrection They even did this they claimed to believe in the authority of the jerusalem apostles
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In fact, they go on to say that paul you're not Standing in line with what the jerusalem apostles are preaching
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You're deceiving others. You're not speaking the truth and they kept in in they kept insisting that unless You have jewish law
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That there's no way Humanity can be kept in check. How do you restrain a society?
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How do you restrain? The way people think and live it is through jewish law and there's no other way
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There's no other way So what is paul doing?
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What is paul's message? Is paul's message different from peter Why are the judaizers
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Accusing paul of preaching another gospel other than what peter and the jerusalem apostles teach
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We're going to look at that but one Way, it's different Is that paul leaves out circumcision and jewish law of any kind consistently from his proclamation?
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consistently And the judaizers hated him and hated him for his law -free gospel
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The next question as we dive into why even study the book of galatians Do you think the judaizers and their false gospel had any impact on the galatians?
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This would be allowed. Yes. This is the part where bbc Waves and say yes Right. Why else would paul write the epistle?
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The epistle In fact in galatians 1 6 to 7 he says that he accused them of believing a different gospel.
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That's no gospel at all So galatia is being affected by false teaching from within And just to make matters worse there was something going on in the culture of galatia
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That was starting to affect the people inside the church as well There's false teaching inside the church
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There's something happening outside the church what's happening outside the church Hint this is galatia hint roman gentile, but what was happening outside of the judaizers outside of the church
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Good, but that is still in the church. That is still judaizers. That's still religion. So I like it. You're very good
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That's the big point in galatians. Don't get me wrong But what's happening outside the church is this whole thing of libertinism?
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Have you heard that term before and what is libertinism and what effect is it having on the people of galatian the church in galatia?
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Anybody know what libertinism is josh? Yes, free thinkers.
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That's what their you know, quote unquote term was it's the act of being a libertine That is a free thinker, especially when it came to religious matters
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Not only was the false gospel affecting the galatians. Now you have the culture Dictating terms to them and they didn't know what to do
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The culture was extremely libertine in their thinking they were unrestrained and uncontrolled
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And they and the galatians were starting to get heavily influenced by what was happening outside of them
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So they had to deal with the strict rules of the gospel Right, which is false.
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Jesus is saying. Hey, you have to follow these stringent jewish laws and rules Including circumcision you have to come back under the under the torah
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And then on the other side They're dealing with the libertine mindset every time they leave their little churches
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And they had to deal with the libertine mindset which said do whatever you want. There's no restriction on you
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Go think any way you want and go act any way you want If you were a pastor and and in paul's time in the book at the time of galatians,
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I think you'd be really stressed And probably bald Paul was right in galatians 3 -1 when he called them when he called the galatians foolish foolish
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Because now they had nothing to stand on Now they were getting tossed to and fro in every direction both within the church and outside the church
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So they needed to be brought back Just like you and I need to need to be regularly reminded of what the true gospel is
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And what is the difference between legalism and normism? And how a life lived out just by rules is eventually going to fall back into legalism
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It eventually is going to fall back to legalism And why is pastor mike?
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And pastor steve and every person who's preached on this pulpit in the last 10 years so focused on the person and work of christ
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And why are they not giving us 25 things to do after we leave from church? Because a life that is driven by rules and not regenerate by the holy spirit and not
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Depending on the lord jesus christ and not looking to christ Is a life that denies the power and sufficiency of christ and the gospel
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And that's why we proclaim christ And that's why the apostle paul is so annoyed with the galatians
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Let's dive into the book Can someone read? galatians 2 15 to 21
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Before I look at galatians 1 I wanted to just set the theme in our minds
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So we understand what the apostle paul is going to talk about galatians 2 15 to 21
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The theme and the word that should stick out to you as you read and think on those verses is freedom freedom in christ jesus
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Now, I don't know about you But when I read that in that section I was worried because there's too much doctrine packed in six verses.
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There's just too much doctrine But paul knew that So, you know what he does in chapter 3 verse 1 to chapter 4 verse 11 he expands on those seven verses
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He gives us more detail into what each verse means and how it affects the believer
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So he doesn't just leave us with here you go. Here's a theme Here's a massively highly packed condensed version of the gospel with freedom in christ jesus and just leave us there
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He gives us a lot of information from chapter 3 verse 1 to 4 verse 11
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So I we will get to that in a few in next week but if we look at If we keep the theme in mind and that is justification by faith alone and freedom in the lord.
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Jesus christ And we look at galatians chapter 1 verse 1 to 5
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He gives a very he gives a beautiful introduction Paul an apostle not from men nor through man, but through jesus christ and god the father who raised him from the dead
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Grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord Jesus christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age
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According to the will of our god and father to him whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen Now in that five verses again, there's a lot of doctrine that's packed in In this very introduction.
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He is setting the theme of the book and he's telling us how we should be thinking as we look at this book
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But what is the first thing he does After saying that I paul what is the next thing that he does in his introduction?
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What's the next thing that he does? In that very first verse Yes He defends his apostleship
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I think that gives us an idea that he has to defend his apostleship because it's being attacked by the judaizers He is stating here that he was not sent by another but he's sent by god he's commissioned by christ
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And even though he uses and his apostleship and defends it elsewhere in the new testament it is crucial in the book of galatians because it affects the very message that he had left with the galatians and The message about the lord jesus christ and his salvation and it completely
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Completely destroyed his apostleship. That's that was the role of the judaizers. So first and foremost he begins by defending his apostleship
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There used to be this thing where They were called jewish salaias where they were picked jewish rulers would pick certain men and commission them to go and represent them to Parts around jerusalem, okay
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The jewish ruler will give them a task to do and these they're called salaias They would go and they would speak about the ruler.
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They would work on behalf of the ruler It was a short time assignment. It was a very short term assignment
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You you did it for a few days or a few weeks and then you were done then the salaia was released He could go and do
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Anything he wanted the language paul is using here When he's saying he's an apostle is to differentiate himself from these salaias and say that his mission
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Commission given to him by the lord. Jesus christ was not short term It was a long -term assignment all the way to the end of their lives
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How did each of these apostles die they all died Bearing witness about the lord.
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Jesus christ. Did they keep their assignments? By the grace of god they did there was nothing short term or temporary about their assignments
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The apostles were completely different from the salaias and they had a message to proclaim and a message to proclaim till they died
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Now after he gives this short defense of his apostleship. He can't wait but get to this powerful saving work of christ
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He talks about that. He talks about how The saints the believers even in galatia have been converted by the work of the lord.
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Jesus christ And then he goes on to talk about Grace and peace come from the father and the son
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Why is he saying this because even in his mind as he's about to defend christ he's reminding them that christ
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The son and the father the almighty god are one that they are the same that you can't differentiate between the two that christ
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Has an exalted place in the universe And even in the very mind of god
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Even in the very mind of paul Judaizers did not have a high high place for christ for the judaizers christ was not sufficient not preeminent not supreme
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That was clear to paul and at the very beginning of his epistle He exalts christ and the work of christ
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To illustrate where he is going and of course He ends his introduction in verse 5 by a doxology
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He can't hold back He can't hold back God gets the glory
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For paul being chosen as an apostle. Amen Amen God gets the glory For the salvation of the galatians and for paul and for all sinners everywhere god gets the glory
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So it is praise and worship belongs to no one else but to the almighty god And even in his doxology, he makes that very very clear
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Now What happens usually after an introductory section by paul
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The introductory section is over one one to five galatians one In other books what happens after he has an introductory section larry
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Yes He usually gives a commendation thanksgiving Good And prayer.
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Yes, he gives prayer. He thanks god for his saving work He thanks god for the people that he is writing to like corinthians or colossians.
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He thanks god for them He has a little prayer for them there's a little commendation there for them, right that's the that's the way he usually does it
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But what happens in galatians? starts with a rebuke
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Actually, he doesn't just start with the rebuke. This is the longest rebuke section in the whole of the bible It starts in chapter 1 verse 6 and goes all the way to chapter 4 verse 11
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This is pretty long and substantial rebuke He is agitated why he's indignant why why is he so Some preachers use the word he's in righteous anger
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Why larry? right
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He they are abandoning the gospel. They heard the gospel from the judaizers
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Which attacked christ and said that christ is a good place to start but let's get some law in there
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It's going to make you feel better it's going to help you so they quickly abandoned the law free gospel
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They quickly abandoned the the fact that there's total freedom in christ and that it is for freedom that christ has set us free
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And they're quickly going back into the cage the cage of judaism the cage of um, you know law abiding life
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Paul is indignant He's agitated And and he's on top of that He realizes that jesus christ is attacked
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That his lord his savior is attacked That his work on the cross his resurrection his sufficiency his preeminence
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Everything is brought into question And paul is indignant Yes on top of that the gospel is attacked on top of that his apostleship is attacked
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If i'm galatians right now and paul is standing in front of me I would be running
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Because this is an angry paul This is a rebuking paul and what's interesting is even when he ends the book in six
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He really doesn't have anything good to say about the galatians He has no good commendation for this group of people in fact when he sends in 617
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He he literally says I know things will be good for you. I know you will follow praise be to god and and ends the book
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It's almost like he's done While trusting in the lord He's shocked at how quickly they turned away as larry said
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He's shocked at the confused confusing state of mind that they're in Which will happen if you get the gospel mixed up And he questioned the sufficiency of christ and how he freed us from the jewish law
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But it was a different gospel that they were turning to And it was not it had nothing to do with the sufficient work of jesus christ
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In 67 he has this to say that i'm astonished that you are so quickly Deserting him who called you in the grace of christ and are turning to a different gospel
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Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of christ notice
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He's using a plurality of errorists here. He's not just saying one judaizer. He's saying there there's a plurality here
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And they're all attacking and distorting the truth And the word that he uses here the greek that he uses to the for to confuse to say confuse here was regularly used about in context with the greco -roman political agitators
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Who are political agitators? You don't have much of a problem here right now, but in other parts of the world, you know, there might be
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Who what what is a political agitator or who is a political agitator? Sorry A lobbyist, how does a lobbyist cause trouble?
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Trouble cause confusion agitate Yes, very good.
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They may say something that the people normally understand or know or take wes Yes, yes, a lot of them are also called activists
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That's they try to agitate the ruling authorities And get a group of people behind them usually to overthrow that political system or ruler it was the greek word used here to mention the word confuse was
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Commonly used in the new testament wherever you see the word trouble stop and think about what it means
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While it was used outside of the bible to talk about political agitators in the bible it's it's used to talk about mental and spiritual agitation
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So the false gospel and the fall and the judaizers Were preaching a gospel and were talking in a manner that was causing
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Mental and spiritual agitation among the galatians There was they were on there was unrest
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They were confused Paul uses the same word trouble in 5 10 galatians 5 10
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I have confidence in the lord that you will take no other view and the one who is troubling you agitating you
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Will bear the penalty whoever he is And in 6 17 he literally ends by saying this from now on let no one cause me trouble
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Agitate me spiritually mentally that no one troubled me Again, he's annoyed remember.
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He's literally like enough For I bear on my body the marks of jesus
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As he goes on paul states that even if even if I came to you and preach another gospel
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Don't listen to me. Even if an angel comes to you and gives you another gospel. What was the word he used let him be
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Accursed what is the meaning of the word accursed? What does that mean Damned yes
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Another one. Oh, sorry. Okay. No problem is to go to hell.
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Yes Yes, essentially what paul is saying and again, he's saying it in a very cogent way, but he's still saying it
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Is let that let the judicial wrath of god Come upon that person
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That's the language he's using here If you preach another gospel or if you say if you spread another gospel, that is not true
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The charge that paul is handing out against is Against these people And against those who preach against the fall against christ is not a light one
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He is praying And wishing that the judicial wrath of god will come upon that person
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And I don't think that's going to be a lot of fun Why does he say this?
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Why does he use such strong language amen if you fail to Submit to the christ and the gospel you fail you you fail to submit to the one god
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And his holiness and his standards Very good. Amen.
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You can't be saved apart from the work of christ and the gospel message What else
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Why is he saying this? Why is paul saying this? Because the judaizers were saying that you could be saved
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That you could be saved by following the law and that you could also grow in godly living and the only way you could grow in godly living is if you
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Were circumcised and you did add the torah into your daily living I don't know if you get the chance to listen to preachers around the country when
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I say preachers. I meant false preachers Do you ever get the sense when you listen to these men and women by the way that They want the gospel to derive power from themselves
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And they don't want to They have their message. They don't want their message or their preaching to derive power from the word of god or from the gospel
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You ever get that? When you listen to preaching whether in whether it's in a unitarian church in cambridge
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Or whether it's in austin's church in texas These preachers want their experiences
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To dictate what the gospel is And they don't want the gospel itself
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To to give them the power to preach or to talk about christ in churches today
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It is the charisma and the likability of the of the preacher that seems to be the power of the gospel
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There is an astounding number of young preachers in churches today I'm, not blaming young preachers.
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I'm not looking down on them but most of these young guys in their 20s
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Who are not surrounded by? Any older men as a matter of fact, there are some churches will not allow you to be an elder if you're over 40
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None of these guys preach the gospel of jesus christ or care about the power of the word of god
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They would rather talk about their experiences their health the size of their houses
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Rather than the life death and resurrection of jesus christ Here's what paul is saying
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No, man, none of his experiences not even the apostle paul can give any credence or power to the message of the gospel
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No man gives any credence to the gospel message the power comes from god and god alone
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In fact, it is the power and truth of the law -free gospel which is centered on the person of christ
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That is the life of the preacher And that is the power behind his message And it's not the other way around And in verse 10 he's continuing.
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He's still angry. He's still annoyed at the accusations that he's getting towards him For now am
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I seeking the approval of man or of god or am I trying to please man? If I were trying to please man,
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I would not be a servant of christ anybody know what's going on here Remember we're still in the autobiography section of paul, which is chapter 1 verse 6 to chapter 2 verse 14
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Why is paul saying am I trying to be a man pleaser as well as a god pleaser why is he saying this?
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josh Yes, he was doing
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He what was he doing? He was Accusing him when you look at context and when you look at history
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The judaizers judaizers were saying that when paul went to the jews He preached the gospel with circumcision
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Then when he went to the gentiles he preached the gospel without circumcision That's a pretty strong accusation against someone like paul, isn't it?
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And paul fires back Actually, the next few verses is all about that Talking about who commissioned him talking about the power of the gospel apart from the law
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Talking about how christ fulfilled the law and how the believer is set free in christ But when
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I preached this message a few months ago At the end of this message a woman came to me and asked me
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Is an older woman she asked me wait Isn't doesn't paul say in first corinthians 10 32 to 33 that Um I try to please everyone in everything
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So what's going on here? Why is paul not trying to be a man pleaser here? How would you respond
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I I did respond to that but how do how would you respond If someone asks you hey, shouldn't paul be pleasing to everyone for the sake of the gospel?
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How is That different from what he says in galatians 1 good. What was paul trying to say in galatians 1 versus galatians?
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For those of you looking for it. It's first corinthians 10 32 to 33 where i'll read what he's i'll read what paul says
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Give no offense first corinthians 10 32 to 33 give no offense to jews or greek or to the church of god
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Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do not seeking my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved
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Excellent very good. Yes almost how she said bob.
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Oh, sorry. Did you finish? excellent paul never Compromised on the veracity of the gospel of jesus christ.
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He never backed down from it Not not once before I say anything. That's about excellent
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Excellent in in galatians essentially saying I would never choose to please men Over god,
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I would never choose that he wouldn't change the gospel message and the sufficiency of christ to please somebody
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Now later in galatians chapter 2 verse 11 to 14, he rebukes peter and peter did exactly that He confused
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Are those around him by the way he acted? But in corinthians, he's talking about how can
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I get down to a level where I can be equal with anybody to preach the gospel? to them And that my status or my situation should not affect the listening of another person.
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That's what he's saying. How can I? Preach teach in a manner that another person can listen to Amen, very excellent.
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Very good point Was paul's message unique as we wrap up here was paul's message unique?
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Was it different from the apostles from the jerusalem apostles? Was there any uniqueness to it?
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Amen, amen Right, the fundamentals of the gospel were never different But he was charged with something that the other men were not explicitly commissioned to do that was take the gospel to the gentiles
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And for that he had to explicitly omit The jewish law not that the apostles didn't not that the jerusalem apostles didn't but there was a leaning a moving away from The law that was very intentional with the apostle paul
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And in proclaiming the whole truth about the lord jesus christ paul Life in christ apart from any adherence to the mosaic law, that's where it was different.
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There's no mosaic law There's no adherence to the mosaic law in any manner He goes on to talk about freedom
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Did paul not care about the message of the jerusalem apostles? No That's what the judaizers are accusing him of that You're going away from what the jerusalem apostles told you and you get your authority from the jerusalem apostles
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And now you're going away from them that paul not listened to them. No In in in john 1527
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Jesus christ told the disciples about their witnessing This is what he said and you will also bear witness because you have been with me from the very beginning
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The apostle paul knew the disciple knew the ministry of the disciples. He never stayed away from them
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He depended on the other apostles Immensely and we can see that throughout his letters But when you look at acts chapter 9 and his conversion, which he talks about in galatians 1 13 to 17
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He did have a specific message And that had nothing to do with the mosaic law It was god's direct direct call.
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It was christ's direct charge And what paul is saying here in galatians 1 is I didn't get this charge from the jerusalem apostles.
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I didn't consult anyone I got it directly from the lord. Jesus christ
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And in verse 18 to 24, he goes into specifics. He even ends verse chapter 1 by saying this
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I met the apostles 14 years after my conversion So then how can you say that I got any authority from the jerusalem apostles?
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It's hard to argue with the facts It's hard to argue with that He even states that the believers in syria and cilicia who did not know him
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Praised god When they heard the apostle paul preach giving more credence to his message as we close
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That was galatians chapter 1 and just introduction. It's a beautiful book that exalts the lord.
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Jesus christ and the uselessness of the law Because of what christ has accomplished
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To many of us even when we are preaching We find it hard to stop talking about our experiences and what we see and hear and what we've done over the last 30 years and how much bible we read and And all the movements that we're a part of right?
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We like to talk about that. It's become a part of the message now the gospel is you you can see more and more because as my wife and I we were in dc for a vacation and it's it's
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Unbelievable to see the boards out there Which says if you're not if you're pro choice
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In order to believe in order to be a christian you need to be pro choice In order to believe be a christian.
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You need to vote for trump I'm, sorry The apostle paul will have a problem with that no matter what your emotional state of mind is when you think about these things
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For the second you start to add law to the work of christ You are abandoning the work of christ and abandoning the freedom the lord jesus christ and what he's accomplished for us
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So let's preach the gospel The way the apostle paul did it Submitting to the word of god and submitting to the lordship of christ.
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There's no other power in anything else. We say or do And that's what the apostle paul is begging us to get to Any comments before I pray and close
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Let's pray Well, lord jesus christ we continue to marvel at the sufficient person and work of christ
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There is none seated at the right hand of god the father but christ alone And it is him we worship
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And it is to him we come in prayer and in praise And we thank you lord for your mercy and for your amazing grace
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And for the freedom we have in christ jesus No more bondage to sin no more bondage to the law
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But full freedom and dependence on the lord jesus christ We pray that you would save any here who does not know your name
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Granting them repentance and granting them saving faith And we pray that to those you have shown such great mercy and redeemed
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Would you help us to lean on you more depend on you more in prayer? through evangelism
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And continually through your word I pray that you bless the rest of our ministry today and that you would be honored and glorified