Facing the Wolves

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Don Filcek; Galatians 2:1-10 Facing the Wolves

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Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan where you can grow in faith community and service
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We're currently studying Galatians in a series called off the chain finding freedom in Galatians.
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Here's Pastor Don Filsack But this morning we're going to be back in the book of Galatians We've been going through that we finished
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Galatians chapter 1 over the last couple Well really the last month and then last week
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We took a week off and we had a missionary couple that were here from Costa Rica sharing about their ministry among law enforcement down there
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They're from the Kalamazoo area and then we're back in the book of Galatians this morning looking at what God has
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For us. This is God's Word to us this morning from this amazing letter that was written by the
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Apostle Paul Now a little bit about Paul Most all of us probably have at least heard of the
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Apostle Paul But kind of understanding what his missionary journey was like he was a missionary.
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He was a church planter He went around the areas of Rome in different districts Starting churches proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ and wherever people believed
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So he would he would go into a place and look for connection points to their culture He'd go into the marketplace. He'd go into the synagogue he'd go into places where he could his voice could be heard and he would speak and he would proclaim the gospel and people would believe and He would leave a church behind He would try to provide some structure for them and some guidance and direction for them to move forward and then he would move on to another area
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So that's the way that that's the way that Paul rolled and the letter of Galatians was written to a cluster of churches
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That he started in what is now modern -day South Central, Turkey It was a
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Roman district called Galatia and that's who the letter that we're looking at was written to so he's
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Started churches in five different towns throughout the district of Galatia He's left them and now he's writing a letter back to them in his absence because some things have happened
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And so that kind of sets the stage for what we're looking at when we come to Galatians chapter 2 this morning We we know that shortly after Paul left
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Some new teachers came in behind him into that district into those churches in Galatia and began to question the authority of Paul they began to ask questions of them like who does
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Paul think he is that he could come in and discredit thousands of years of Jewish history and law and say you don't need to follow the law anymore, but all you need is
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Jesus Christ Right, that's what he basically that's what Paul was coming in and saying and now these people are coming in and following up after him calling him into question saying on what authority has he done this and Even questioning the truthfulness of the gospel.
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Is that really enough? These teachers were telling everyone that they themselves were followers of Jesus Christ And that they were coming to finish off the work that Paul had started
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He had only brought them partway according to these false teachers He said they said
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Paul's only brought you part of the way by explaining that Jesus Christ died to forgive your sins
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But now they began to say that you also need to follow the law of Moses in order to be saved
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Is that is that clear? Are you understanding what these these false teachers are kind of coming in trying to mop up Paul's work and say well
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He started something but you need more You need what we have to offer and how many of you know that that's kind of a contemporary issue that you can find
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That there are people who purport to be spiritual authorities that are going to tell you that you need to you need to Dance to the beat of their drum.
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You need to jump through their religious hoops You need to do things their way in order to be okay with God and we're going to talk about what is the only
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Must in the Christian life as we go through this text this morning But grace is so amazingly simple that I think we have a tendency inside ourselves to even question it
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Right, like how many of you know that if if grace is real if we really are saved as in it is a gift from God you can't earn it.
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You don't deserve it, but he gives it freely to anybody who believes by faith Then that opens you up for some criticism, right?
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Like how many of you have something a question in your mind that comes to your mind when you think of salvation by grace?
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Does that mean that I can? Live any way that I want does that mean
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I'm free to do whatever I want if Jesus saved me He's forgiven the sins of my past He's forgiven the sins of my present and he's forgiven the sins of my future and he has saved me
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I mean think about what the word saved means He saved me unto eternal life that I might live with him perfect.
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Holy righteous on the new earth with him forever Awesome, right if he saved me in that way then wait
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Can't I do whatever I want? And I want to point out to you that if the gospel that you proclaim does not open you to that type of criticism
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Then I'm not confident you're proclaiming the gospel because Paul was I want to point out Paul they questioned
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Paul on this Okay, they were literally Saying well wait if you are saying that we are saved by grace and grace alone
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Then shouldn't we just go sinning go on sinning more so that grace may abound all the more and he says
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By no means how can we who died to sin still live in it? So there is a there is a sense in which
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God is progressing us. He's moving us along in this Christian life It's a word called sanctification by his spirit not by laws not by rules not by regulations
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But by his spirit bringing to light this word in our lives, but it is solely completely 100 % by Grace, and that is the point all of that.
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I kind of got off on a little side note there Which is really the main point so that shouldn't be a side note
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But the gospel of grace is simply this we are messed up broken people Individually, this is true.
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If you look inside your own heart, it doesn't take long for you to get there. Does it we're messed up We're broken. We don't meet our own.
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We don't even meet our own standards, but corporately it's true I'm confident of what the what the Word of God speaks because I take my faith that you guys are broken, too
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Now I get a chance to see that from time to time as well But how many of you know that you run into a stranger at the mall, you know one thing about them
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They're sinful. They're broken inside. They're not what they were made to be They're not what they're meant to be and that's just true of all of us
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Our willful rebellion against our Creator has had devastating effects on our personal lives on our interpersonal
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Relationships and the reality is that no amount of rules or regulations can truly correct our hearts
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And if you've been there tried that Like how many how many rules does it take to get my heart, right?
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Doesn't I could try all I want and rules are not going to take care of it as a matter of fact I find in my own life and I know that different people have different experiences
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But the more that I legislate my own heart the more rules that I make around myself
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The more I have a tendency to look for loopholes to those rules and regulations Anybody else relate to that?
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I'm alone. Okay, there's there's one person who relates to that But when I see a speed limit sign,
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I think that it's for everybody else It's like I don't I'll set you know, I set my my my cruise control five over right because that's just you know
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Those those rules are for somebody else or I see it and I'm like, oh that they didn't really mean that That's not what they meant.
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I know the spirit of the law, right? The spirit of it is just drive safe Right It's a suggested speed limit, that's right.
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I think that now I think you guys are with me. Um But here's what Paul wrote in Romans 8 3 through 4 and This is how he relates law and grace
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For God has done if you're if you're taking notes jot that down. You can look at it later You don't need to turn to it now, but Romans 8 3 through 4
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For God has done what the law Weakened by the flesh that is sinful desire when
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Paul talks of flesh. He's not talking about skin He's talking about our sinful desires that still reside within us still in us after we're saved
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It's still there fighting against the spirit, but for God has done what the law Weakened through the flesh could not do there's something that the law couldn't do that.
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God has done for us By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin
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He condemns sin in the flesh that is Jesus died for us is what he's getting at In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us
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Who walk not according to the flesh? We don't walk anymore according to sinful desires but according to the
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Spirit and So as we come to this text this morning and then come to worship,
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I'm gonna read the text in Galatians Now the bands gonna come and lead us in worship. I want us to reflect on the simplicity of grace
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That we who once were far off from God Have been brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ That we who justly and rightly deserve
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Condemnation have been granted the glory of new life and Jesus and the promise of eternity with him
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That's what I want us to be thinking about as we sing songs to him this morning So I want you to open your Bibles to Galatians 2 1 through 10
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We're gonna read this text together. You take the Bible out in the seat back in front of you It's easy to find it's page 832 in that Bible.
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It's probably not 832 in your Bible if you brought your own But if you don't own a copy of the
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Bible I want you to take the one that's in the seat back in front of you home with you But let's dive into Galatians 2 and we'll read the first 10 verses.
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Let's jump in The words of Paul and ultimately the words of God to us this morning then after 14 years
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I that's Paul went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas taking Titus along with me I went up because of a revelation and set and set before them though privately before those who seemed influential the gospel that I proclaim
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Among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain But even
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Titus who was with me was not forced to be circumcised though. He was Greek a Greek Yeah 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
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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.
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God shows no partiality those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me On the contrary when they saw that I had been in trouble 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 Perceived the grace that was given to me
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They gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised
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Only they asked us to remember the poor the very thing that I was eager to do.
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Let's pray father I thank you so much for your grace and as we
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Dive into this text and we understand and seek to understand the history of what's going on here this trip to Jerusalem we could we could be come so fascinated with the the points or the history or the little nuances of ancient
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Greek and Roman history that we could miss the point father I pray that your spirit would speak into our hearts truth this morning that where we need conviction you would convict that where we need
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Encouragement you would encourage that where we need to experience your compassion We would experience compassion and father where we
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Where our hearts need to be moved to rejoice that we would be moved by your spirit to genuinely rejoice as we sing these songs
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I asked that the words that we see on the screen Would come through our eyes into our heart into our mind and would actually impact our lives
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That we would genuinely be worshiping you not just singing some songs together. I ask this in Jesus name.
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Amen Our text picks up in the middle of a short biography of Paul So really we got that started in back in chapter 1 and it's just kind of carrying on that short biography and the purpose of that biography in the text is really to defend his calling to ministry and To ultimately say that the gospel that he received was not one that was made up, but he received it straight from Jesus Christ himself in chapter 1 he had clearly explained that both his calling and The message of the gospel that he proclaims to the
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Gentiles came straight from an encounter with Jesus Christ remember Paul in the book of Acts We see that Paul was a person who was opposing the
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Church of God with four with a ferocious Attitude towards the church a destructive attitude towards the church.
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He wanted to see it destroyed We saw earlier in in Galatians chapter 1 and he says as much
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I wanted to see the Church of Christ decimated and Then he encountered on the road to Damascus.
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He was going there to persecute Christians and Jesus Christ himself in his glory Appeared to him in a bright light blinded him
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Shared the gospel with him and called him into ministry to the Gentiles and so he received straight from Jesus Christ both his calling
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Which was ultimately his authority and the good news itself his conversion experience and his calling into ministry both happened from Jesus Christ himself
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So no mere human had taught him the gospel no mere human had loaned him their authority but those were both granted by Jesus Christ and he was commanded to proclaim his message to the
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Gentiles by Jesus Christ and At the end of chapter 1 Paul was traveling around following up on that calling we saw him and he was a was traveling around the district of Cilicia, which was eastern
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Turkey and Syria kind of associated with modern -day Syria and Beirut up in the northern part north of Israel and He was traveling around that area
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Proclaiming the gospel and we saw at the very end of chapter 1 that many in the churches were
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Rejoicing because the one who sought the destruction of the church was now traveling around building up the church.
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He had had this Conversion if you will a complete life change where Paul was weren't running one was running hard against Christ he met
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Christ and he began a 180 and Just with that same tenacity that same passion that same drive
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He's now building the church and everybody was rejoicing because of the change that had happened in Paul's life
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Most scholars figure that if you if you look at verse 1 then after 14 years, so you got some time frame here
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He's given a biography He's writing to them about what had happened in the past on the 14 years
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Paul mentions in verse 1 are counted from his Conversion experience and that fits well into the timeline of his life
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So if you're here to line out the different events and different activities that happen in Paul's life 14 years from his conversion.
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He's gonna take a trip down to Jerusalem. We're gonna read about that He's gonna tell us about that trip to Jerusalem and why it's important Paul hadn't only spent a total of 15 days in Jerusalem as a believer prior to the account that we're gonna see here
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So only 15 days and he had only ever met Peter and James Now and then and then he's gonna have spent 14 years in gospel ministry after that now
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How many of you kind of have in your mind like Paul knew the Apostles really well, right? Paul and the Apostles just hung out and knew each other and I mean, wouldn't you naturally think that he spent 14 years in ministry?
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And he'd only met Peter and James And so what we're gonna see in our account is his actual meeting with the other
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Apostles with the others who were doing the same type of ministry as him just in a different venue in a different way
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And it's it's important to Paul's defense because people remember are coming into Galatia challenging his authority
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Challenging his message. He says I had already spent 14 years in ministry before I ever got together with the
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Apostles It's not like we cooked up a story together I had already been in ministry for 14 years before I even met most of them
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Are you getting kind of part of his defense here? That's what he's saying to them in essence through this story But his verse 2 makes clear
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Paul received a revelation from God. Look at the text It says I went up because of a revelation and then set before them the gospel that I was proclaiming to the
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Gentiles There was a revelation from God a dream a vision and audible voice I the text doesn't tell us and I mean he kind of would like to have that happen from time to time
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Like for God to just kind of like appear to you and tell you what to do with your day I've mentioned many times that I would just love to have that happen.
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I haven't had that happen yet But he was confident and I think that's that's kind of the point
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I don't really know like what would God have to do to make you confident that it was him wanting you to do something? I can't answer that question
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I don't really even know but think about that Paul was confident that he was supposed to go to Jerusalem. It's like you got to go and he's like, okay,
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I'm going I'm gonna go down to Jerusalem Now actually I say go down the text says go up to Jerusalem and if you if you were to look at a map where he's coming from is
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Antioch up here in the north and he's gonna Go down by the map to Jerusalem.
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Why does the text say he's gonna go up to Jerusalem? It has to do with elevation It's kind of interesting to note that in ancient in ancient histories and in ancient documents they talked in terms of elevation you went up to a city because it was higher in elevation because how many of you know that if you were walking places
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Going up makes a difference, right? So that was first and foremost in their mind. We don't think about going
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We don't think I thought about how many you can tell you How many of you can tell whether you go up or down to Kalamazoo?
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I guarantee if you walked it a lot You would begin to know whether you were going up or down to Kalamazoo But that's that's the way that the culture was that's the way they wrote and on top of that They didn't have maps like we have it's not like they just pulled out their
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GPS or pull out a map and north is this way And south is this way? so that that explains why they are why he mentions going up to Jerusalem, but He takes along with him two friends
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He takes Barnabas who's an older friend who was one of the first people to welcome him as a believer
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How many of you know that that would've been a scary thing for Barnabas, right? Like here is Paul who has been persecuting killing slaughtering murdering
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Christians how many of you would just be real quick to give a hug and say welcome brother I'm glad you're a Christian now. You know what
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I'm saying? I mean, that would be pretty tough Barnabas was a tough one tough cookie for him to do that He was older than Paul.
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He was Longer in the faith than Paul And then Paul also says took along a younger
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Greek convert named Titus and we're gonna talk about Titus here in a minute But in Jerusalem, he is going down there
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We see in the text to seek a private audience with the church leaders now This shouldn't be confused with a much more public
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Jerusalem Council that happens in Acts chapter 15 You can kind of correspond different things and Acts versus You know the book of Galatians and try to put together a life of Paul and it fits
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But this is not the Jerusalem Council But it's interesting to note that a couple of times Paul highlights in this text here that he meets with those who seemed
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Influential now, do you see that in the text? It starts in verse 2. He mentions it again down in let's see a couple a couple other verses verse 9
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All throughout this is kind of this notion that they seemed influential now You might think okay
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Was it that they they thought themselves higher more highly thought of themselves more highly than they ought and they were acting influential
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And he was like, well, they just kind of perceived themselves to be influenced I don't think he's being derogatory towards the other apostles and be like well, they thought themselves
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I think what we're seeing here is actually Paul didn't know who was in charge Like that's how that's how literally ignorant
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Paul was of the church in Jerusalem He's like I went and I met with the ones who seemed like they were the ones in charge
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Are you getting what I'm saying? And I think it actually speaks to the fact that those in Jerusalem were not Claiming authority.
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They were not like wearing special robes and all you know I am the chief of the church in Jerusalem or you know, do you get what
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I'm saying? If they were clamoring for authority, he wouldn't had to say they seemed like they were the ones in charge Well, obviously by what they were wearing they were in charge.
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Are you getting what I'm saying? So I think that's what you're getting There is literally and understand it Paul is meeting with these people for the first time and he's like I'm going down to Jerusalem God told me to I'm gonna proclaim
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Share the gospel that I've been preaching for the last 14 years with them. Make sure we're like on the same page and stuff
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But he's meeting with those that seemed to be Influential he didn't know them very well.
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He's meeting them for the first time And in this gathering of those who seem to an influential
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Paul lays out the gospel that he's been Proclaiming to the Gentiles like I said for the past 14 years.
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He's preached it in Arabia. He's preached it in Cilicia He's preached it in Syria And I don't think for a moment that Paul questioned whether or not his gospel was correct
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He's just got to go back to chapter 1 to figure that out, right? If you go back to chapter 1, it's not like he's sitting there scratching his head going
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I need confirmation I'm afraid that I'm leading people astray That's not Paul if you study anything of Paul and scriptures, you know, he's pretty confident dude, okay
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He's not like oh, please validate me He was he was doing all right So that's not what's going on.
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But then we have to just kind of figure out why is he even doing this thing? why is he going down to Jerusalem for this validation because He had spoken so directly that there was only one gospel and that his gospel is correct back in chapter 1 that he even said
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That if anybody came in and proclaimed a gospel different than the one that he proclaimed in Galatia Let them be condemned.
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Do you remember him saying that back in chapter 1 and those of you were here pretty strong statements? And so he is sure that his gospel is the right gospel.
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So why go down there? Why why? Talk to the leaders in Jerusalem. It appears as though he's trying to make this
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Like get some confidence or something So what is this running in vain that he's talking about at the end of verse 2 is what
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I what I want to get at I think to Paul running in vain what was for him to be doing something apart from The Jerusalem Church that would end up dividing
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Christianity into two different religions. You see he's out proclaiming to who? Gentiles who are the
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Apostles in Jerusalem proclaiming the gospel to? Jews and What's gonna happen if the two of those groups never get back never get together?
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You're gonna eventually end up with two different religions two different two different perspectives on how to approach God right one is a
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Jewish brand of Christianity where you still have to keep the law and Circumcision and dietary laws and all that kind of stuff and the other one's gonna be a
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Gentile brand of Christianity And that's what I believe Paul meant when he said I didn't want to run in vain
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I didn't want my run to be different than your run and for us to be opposing each other So that's what he sees this trip in Jerusalem primarily not about him getting validation of his message not about his gospel gaining authority
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But about unity happening you seeing that That's what he's getting at in this is he wants to see things come together
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To Paul his ministry would be a failure if the believers in Jerusalem never fully recognized the believers outside of Jerusalem as brothers and sisters in Christ So after carefully laying out the message he had been sharing with the
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Gentiles Paul used Titus he brought Titus along as a visual example Okay Here's a case study of a of a convert who was a
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Gentile who was raised a pagan and when I say a pagan I mean just somebody who worshipped Idols and false gods and worshipped probably the whole
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Roman Group of gods and maybe a couple Greek ones mixed in there and that was his lifestyle both parents
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Would have had idols in the house and he has now come to faith in Christ with no
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Jewish background whatsoever Very little understanding of the Old Testament very little understanding of the law
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Titus comes from the town of Antioch of Syria so just again the city where where Paul was sent out from and He was a full -blooded
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Greek and Paul is going to point out to the Galatians That the leaders of the church in Jerusalem did not even require this former pagan
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Greek dude who came to faith in Christ they didn't even require him to be circumcised despite the fact that he was
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Greek Now all of a sudden circumcision just showed up in the text, and it's like what okay?
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Why does that why does that get in there um sometimes? I wonder why God didn't just give him a nose ring or a gauge in their ear or something like that You know
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I'm but but circumcision is a serious theme in the Bible that That dates back to the very first Jew okay, so that's what you need to understand what that's really about Because it appears in the text and it appears throughout the
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New Testament in Paul's argumentation. It's like what is that doing there? So just a real quick history lesson here
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There was a guy named Abram now when we talk about pagans we talk about people who worship idols literally physical idols
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I'm talking about I won't I like to use the word pagan for somebody who's gonna bow down to something made out of stone or Or wood or silver or gold
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I mean literally bowing to these things that was Abram's culture That was his name Abram great father
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Okay, and he was raised in an area where they knew nothing of the
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God of the Bible It was all paganism it was all the worship of idols all the worship of trees and stars and rocks and The Sun and the moon, and that's where Abram was brought up But God appeared to Abram Changed his name to Abraham From great father to father of many for a reason because he's gonna make a promise to him now
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How did God appear to Abram? Anybody ever just kind of scratch your head on what that meeting looked like The text doesn't really tell us very clearly if he appeared in a physical form if he
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Again shown like a bright light or whatever, but God appears to Abram changes his name and gives him a promise
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He says if you will let me be your God and follow me covenant Relationship kind of two sides of a of an agreement if you'll follow me and let me be your
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God Then I will give you three things. I will make you a great nation I will give you many many offspring now
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You know the story Abram Sarah Sarah was really old infertile, and I'm having a baby
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But he says you're gonna have you're gonna have a lot of offspring like the whole stars of the sky thing sand of the seashore
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That's what your offspring's gonna be like and not only that but because you're gonna I'm gonna make you a great nation You're gonna need a land and so I'm gonna give you a good land
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Which is Israel and we talked about that when we went through the book of Joshua a couple years ago We walked through that and it was about the giving of the land and the fulfillment of God's promise to his people
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But there was a third promise That one of your offspring I said your offspring
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God's talking to Abram You're your offspring is gonna be like the stars of the sky But one of them is going to be a blessing to all peoples to all nations
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Does anybody have a guess of what the name of that one offspring was? Jesus that promise given to Abraham way back early in the book of Genesis one of the most
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Just something awesome about the the meeting between God and Abraham is if you read the Bible if you were to read big chunks
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And I actually read through the Bible in 30 days one time a couple years ago And yeah, how many of you know you have to read a lot in one day if you're gonna read through the
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Bible in 30 I'm sorry, not 30 days 90 days But still you have to read like 30 chapters a day to get through it and when you read big chunks of Scripture like that You get some flow that is awesome and amazing and I'm not a
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I don't tend to be a real touchy -feely guy But by the time that I got to the meeting between Abraham and God in Genesis 12
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I was moved I Was moved because you see the darkness of the result of the fall and man being wicked to man and Noah and the flood and all
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Of the evil and then it's like but God breaks in and makes a covenant with us
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He takes the initiative and meets with Abram, and it's awesome And it's just like wow you didn't give up on us, and that's what's going on there
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But part of that one of the signs of that covenant promise given later in Genesis 17 is circumcision
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It's part of that covenant every male that was willing to come under the old covenant relationship with God in the
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Old Testament Was to be circumcised and so one of the logical questions the reason that carries over into the
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New Testament The reason that word appears here in our text is that a very logical reasonable question
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Facing the early church was whether or not a follower of Jesus Christ must be circumcised
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Can you understand why they would be asking that question the covenant given to Abraham was a covenant signed and sealed by circumcision okay, so Like do we need that and you have a person like Titus who was raised in a
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Greek home never circumcised now He's a follower of Jesus Christ does he need to go back to that old law
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Are you seeing how the questions are starting to form? It's a reasonable question but To even ask the question
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Must a person be circumcised must a person keep the dietary law must a person just fill in the blank must a person do this
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To be okay with God Misses the point of grace
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It's a completely misguided question and That is why Paul is on the attack in the book of Galatians.
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That is the one thing he cannot stand That's the one thing that is going to get a rise out of Paul quicker than anything is
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Suggesting that the cross of Jesus Christ is not enough that there are other musts in The Christian life and the new covenant there is only one must
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There's only one thing that you need only one must and that is
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Belief there's different ways to say it belief trust or faith in Jesus Christ That is the must in the
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Christian life and the only one in order to be okay with God now I'm talking about true faith.
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I'm talking about a true understanding of what Jesus Christ has done but faith in the sacrifice Faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only must
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Faith in what Jesus Christ has done for you that whole thing all the other goodies come later things like a new heart a
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Changed life obedience joy peace patience kindness goodness
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Faithfulness all of these things those things come later But faith is the one must are you hearing me?
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That is the must but even in this private gathering in Jerusalem, so they get together and Paul mate
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Paul's making a point they didn't even require Titus to be circumcised like the leaders of the Jerusalem Church whose primary focus was
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Jews didn't even add that to Titus They were okay with him He's saying that to the
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Galatians to get the point across because somebody is coming in behind Paul and saying y 'all you
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Gentiles need to get Circumcised they need to start following the law and following the dietary laws and no more bacon and things like that.
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Ah Um So even at that private gathering in Jerusalem some false brothers who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ notice the phrase that's used in the text false brothers
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Okay there they look like in verse 4. They look like believers They look like brothers and sisters in Christ, but they are not
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They claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, but Paul identifies them ultimately in turn he doesn't use the term here, but he does elsewhere wolves among the sheep and that illustration of a flock with wolves there and The words used in verse 4 are pretty strong words.
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They came in secretly They slipped in as I was interacting with Kyle about that this week
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He said they kind of it's kind of the the picture he had in his mind is that the Indiana Jones their way in Did anybody didn't know that maybe
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I could the walls coming down and he's like I gotta get my whip and it's like and he just gets under just at the last second like they slipped in and their motive given in the text the reason that they're in the meeting the reasons that they even showed up to this private meeting is
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Given it's to spy out
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Paul's freedom Spy out Paul's freedom. So here's the picture in a nutshell
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Paul comes to Jerusalem By a revelation from God God says go to Jerusalem. He goes to Jerusalem.
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He takes Barnabas takes Titus To have a private meeting with the church elders and the
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Apostles some False brothers sneak in to spy out Paul's freedom in Christ to kind of see what does he think he's free to do?
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with the intention To bring Paul back into slavery to the law.
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Look at the text. It's in there. That's their goal They have an agenda for Paul They have an a desired outcome for this apostle of Jesus Christ that he would come under the law come under rules
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Come under regulations and now they want Paul to dance to their tune To look like them to dress like them to act like them to be like them so that then they're sure that he's okay with God Can you that would never happen in America?
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What it? That couldn't happen in our church. Could it? Huh? This highlights a nasty reality
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There are some that go to church There are some who would seek to lead the church there are some who may even pastor churches
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Who are not truly brothers in Christ? Who would actually seek?
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to enslave people to a specific way of life to specific musts in the
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Christian walk You must wear a suit or you must wear shorts
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You must have an organ or you must have drums you must read from the
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King James Version of the Bible or You must read from the English Standard Version of the
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Bible or the NIV or whatever is You must not drink alcohol Right how many of you can think of some musts that have been added to the
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Christian life some things that have been Been included in there that are that are just maybe a little different than the word faith in Jesus Christ and his cross for salvation
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And you've heard some of those musts You must speak in tongues you must take Holy Communion you must you must you must and All of those things are extras right good sometimes good things
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You must not go to R -rated movies. You must not whatever I Fear that there are many who would call themselves
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Christians Who have either missed? The only must that there is in other words they have not really trusted in Jesus Christ at all they've never really seen that as the the primary thing
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But equally there are many who have added a lot of extra musts Which is the very thing
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Paul was writing to the Galatians to oppose those who would come in and seek to add extra things
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You know it's it's easy to add extra things right I? I think it's easier to add extra things to others, and it's easier to add extra things to others that I'm already doing okay at Yeah, I mean really can you relate to that like I've got this down.
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I'm doing okay with my media intake here I'm not going to R -rated movies, so guess what you better not and I'm gonna hold you to it
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Are you getting what it's very easy to add laws and rules and regulations to others? Especially those things that we're we're doing okay with So that's what's going on in Galatians They're adding things things that were already true of them of course these false brothers come in to Galatia They're already doing okay with these things.
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They've already been circumcised. They're already keeping the dietary laws. Are you getting what I'm saying? They're already doing it so you better too and Paul is opposing that That is why he has been so utterly clear that there is only one
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Gospel and it is the gospel that saves us and it is the gospel that is to define the way we live the gospel of grace through Jesus Christ is the source of salvation the gospel of Jesus Christ is the
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Means of salvation the gospel of Jesus Christ is the method of improvement in our lives
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The gospel of grace through Jesus Christ is the cause of our ultimate righteousness The only reason we will one day stand before God blameless is because of Jesus Christ shed blood for us.
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That's it It's the only way that I'm gonna be right in God's eyes when
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I stand before him If I don't have the blood of Jesus Christ covering me, I'm in a lot of trouble. It's my only hope
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It's the only place I know to turn because I can't jump through enough hoops. I can't make it happen
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It's like like I've used this phrase before and I think it's mystified people But pull yourself up by the bootstraps does that mean anything to any of you or is that just kind of like confusing?
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You know, but it's I mean you picture like the fireman's boots with the straps on them now picture yourself
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Just grabbing a hold of those handles and picking yourself up to heaven. That's not just gonna happen. Is it? It's no way to climb a tree
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You're not gonna get to the top by grabbing the bootstraps and pulling yourself up, right? It just doesn't work We can't oppose our own weight and our own weight is our own sin and our own responsibility
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We needed a Savior praise God that he provided one We ought to rejoice
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Just rejoice that there is a way that has been made Whatever is in our lives that does not flow first and foremost out of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ really is of no worth
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It's really not of worth It doesn't flow out of faith in that Paul would not give into the enslavement for even one moment
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The text tells us he sees salvation in terms of freedom in Christ here in the text
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And so in verse 5 he says to them. We did not yield in submission even for a moment and he saw that and he saw that to compromise and go back to laws like Circumcision and dietary laws would fly in the face of the truth of the gospel
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It would add must where there is only one must and that is faith and out of his heart's desire to protect the
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Galatians and their gospel he's saying these things and In verse 6 we get to the final conclusion of the council that was gathered that day
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It says at the end of verse 6 again. He talks about you know, those who? Seem to be influential and he kind of goes into detail
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God shows no partiality and he's acknowledging that even though these seem to be The leaders he's not necessarily deferring to them.
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It's just that they are in that position that are in that office But they added those who seemed influential added nothing to him
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They had nothing to Paul's message they added nothing to his methods They did not give him a a couple of suggestions of things that he might want to tell them or to tweak in his gospel
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Because it's wrong. He says no they didn't add anything to me They did not tack on circumcision.
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They did not suggest dietary laws They did not require that he preached the giving of 10 % They didn't require church attendance
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They didn't tell him that he must proclaim that his followers keep daily devotions None of those things the gospel of grace was affirmed as Sufficient the cross of Christ was held up as enough to save us
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It's a beautifully simple message that I think is so often lost because we want to complicate it
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It's got to be harder than that, right? And we know our own sinfulness. It's got man It's got to be some hoops to jump through here somewhere
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Right because we kind of like to earn things on our own, right? We like to be able to pat ourselves on the back and say I have accomplished and this is one place where it just takes
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Complete and utter humility as us laying it all down at the feet of Christ and saying I really am not
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Able to do this on my own. I can't keep these laws. I can't keep these rules I can't keep these regulations. As a matter of fact, that's what the law is intended to do
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That's what it does best is prove our inability if you really think about it, that's what the law does
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The Old Testament law Matter of fact on the contrary.
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They didn't it's not just that they didn't add anything to Paul's gospel, but he says on the contrary
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Not only did they not add anything but James Peter and John who were three very prominent leaders in the
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Jerusalem Church He actually refers to them as pillars They actually confirmed his ministry through in verse 9
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Extending the right hand of fellowship now that sounds like a handshake right and it may well have been
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Handshake extended the right hand of fellowship. They shook his hand, but it's so much more than just a handshake what they are What they did formally in essence was to recognize his partnership in ministry
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This was a significant symbol of their acceptance of Paul as one of them
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They're just saying yeah, you've been preaching this for 14 years. You're preaching the same thing that we're preaching You're preaching it to Gentiles.
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We're preaching it to Jews. Awesome. We're unified on this Pretty important point in the history of the church that's going on here the unity of Gentiles and Jews together in the body of Christ It's pretty significant what's going on in Jerusalem in our text what he's recounting and he's welcomed
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Recognizes one of them with the same message but a different target audience Those gathered saw that Paul was called to the
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Gentiles but Peter to the Jews and that's what we get in the next couple of verses here There are certainly not two different Gospels, there's not a gospel for Jews and a gospel for Gentiles There's not a gospel for Muslims and a gospel for Hindus and a gospel for Christians and a are you getting what
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I'm saying? there's one gospel it is a multicultural countercultural
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Understanding that that rubs against the grain of all human cultures, but it is truth in all human cultures
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There's one message Peter was called to reach his own people.
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So there's two different callings. It's one gospel There's two different callings we see in the text Peter was called to reach his own people
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While Paul was called to reach those outside of his natural sphere of influence
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So Peter naturally rolls with Jews. That's who he hangs with.
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Those are his people. Okay, you get what I'm saying and Paul naturally rolls with No trick you
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Jews he was raised a Jew that's where he rolls. That's that's his that's his lifeblood
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That's where he moves freely and that's where he feels most comfortable is in a Jewish context Have you ever thought about that?
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Paul was a Jew. He was trained by the prominent Jewish rabbi of the day Gamaliel He was steeped in Judaism.
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He was just oozing out of his pores When he came to faith in Christ Those were the people that he was most comfortable with so what's
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God's business calling him to the Gentiles, right? Are you seeing what I'm saying? Paul Paul's calling was cross -cultural.
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He was called to go outside of his comfort zone I am guessing that Paul if he ever ate bacon
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Had a gag reflex when he saw it That he had to push it down and work to keep it down.
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Okay, think about that Anything that was anti against the Jewish dietary laws
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I'm sure he struggled with and God called him how what a sense of humor
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God called him to the Gentiles Okay, are you getting what I'm saying?
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Do you see the distinction in Peter's call Peter kind of gets it gets the nice deal He gets to kind of stay in the culture that he's
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Comfortable with and moves in and gets to just look for natural ways to share the gospel Paul Called out among his brothers to go out
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To another group to learn their way of life and to learn inroads to proclaim the gospel to them two different callings one gospel and I think that we're gonna get there here in a minute regarding application.
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Okay? So the gospel that Paul had preached for 14 years here in our text is upheld it's confirmed in Jerusalem by those who were called the pillars in the church and Paul himself was welcomed as a minister alongside of them.
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Hey, you're one of us Awesome. We love your work. We recognize you have a different calling but the same gospel welcome brother verse 10
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Shows one suggestion that they had for Paul and although Paul says they added nothing to him It looks like they added something but they didn't really because he was already doing it
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So I think he's fair and justified and saying they didn't really add anything to me that I wasn't already doing They just kind of commended me and said make sure you keep doing what you're doing
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And that is ministry to the poor Paul was already caring for the poor consistently and regularly so in essence they encourage him to continue to bring the message to the poor as well and You might kind of go.
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Well, what's that? Like that just seems like Just like something that's just interjected there, right? Like what's this?
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Why I mentioned the poor just in this this grandiose unity of the church and everything coming together
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And it had a lot to do with their culture during that time It's ironic problems can easily arise in the church when we make it appear as though the gospel is only for the wealthy
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And the council rules that there's no room for that kind of favoritism James talks about in his epistle the not showing favoritism to those who are well -to -do
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But in their culture and in their era There were these traveling religious leaders as a matter of fact most rabbis most traveling religious leaders made their money off of getting into a public
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Forum kind of like the guy with the violin and it's a subway or whatever open the hat
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You know put the hat down and make your money by playing your music they would get up they would speak words of wisdom and they would charge a fee or a price and people would get to stand and listen to their grandiose words and so that was commonplace at the time and What I really think is that the brothers in Jerusalem are actually saying don't don't do that.
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Don't do that Paul Don't don't be charging for it. Don't be that kind of guy who's seeking after money in ministry
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Because it was very common. It was a cultural issue of the day that they're addressing here But I think it's a cultural issue that it carries over to us as well
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Are we making sure that our gospel is for everybody and I don't mean that of course
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I don't I don't doubt that anybody in here who saved would by their mouth declare that the gospel is for all people regardless of economic
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Standing but then the question is what about our lives? There's a difference between what we believe sometimes and what our lives portray and are we willing to go to the least of these those who are struggling those who are suffering and Do we give them the same?
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Place in our ministry you hearing what I'm saying So, how do we practice that? So Paul furthers his defense here in our text to the
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Galatians by saying that the Apostles were were not the source Back in chapter 1 they were not the source of his message or authority, but they did agree with him.
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They did confirm both there are a couple of things that stood out to me as I tried to bridge the gap this past week in my study between Ancient Middle Eastern culture and Roman culture and 2012 where we live and that is that Paul's words are like crazy contemporary
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It's like some sometimes I think it feels like Paul walked around America visited some of our churches and then sat down and wrote right
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Is it's just crazy how much these things are they just naturally flow over into where we live
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And the first is that the council identifies that there is one gospel, but different callings that still stands today
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All of us in this room who have been saved by grace are called to proclaim the gospel
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Raise your hand if you agree with that all who are in Christ are called to proclaim the gospel good
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I saw a lot of hands Some like Peter Some like Peter in the text are called to stay planted where you are
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Peter stayed in Jerusalem to reach out to a familiar culture to hang with people you already relate to and to proclaim the gospel in creative ways to Your immediate sphere of influence many of you know you have a sphere of influence
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You have people that are above you that you can have influence on people that are below you people that are around you beside you neighbors friends co -workers
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Family when I say sphere of influence I'm talking about the the area that you naturally have people listening to you or interacting with you
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And I would suggest that all of us are to be doing this all of us are to be proclaiming the glory of Christ Not out of not because pastor
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Don stood up on Sunday morning and told you to But because the abundance of God's grace flows out of your life and gratitude.
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I Don't I don't want you to go out and and do my bidding this week I want you to go out because Jesus Christ has radically saved you because you were bound for in Eternity in punishment in hell, and he saved you by the cross of Christ, and if that doesn't produce joy
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Are you getting it? Are you understanding it and then out of that joy? We should be moved out to Boldness with that message because if we've really been saved like that and we know people who haven't been saved like that Where is our love in that equation?
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What does love do? Love would proclaim that truth, right? But I would suggest that there are others here in this room
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You're not off the hook But you are called to be more like Paul, so maybe you're more on the hook
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You may not even know it yet But I believe by faith that God is going to raise up some from even here among us
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To go out from Matawan To go out to a different culture to go out to different people some some not so far
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Some may eventually be raised up to go out and plan another church like recast the re you don't see it up here
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Our core values are reproducing community authenticity simplicity and truth We didn't put reproducing on there just because we didn't want that to be the first thing you saw when you got on Walked in might be misunderstood a little bit
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But that reproducing part of it is that our desire our hearts desires start other churches and that God would
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From the time that we first met. I've been keeping my eyes open for the person who's gonna come to me and say I Believe that God is leading me to plant a church.
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I believe I'm the one I'm waiting for that I'm still waiting for that to happen and then we'll walk through that process and we might confirm it or deny it
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I don't know but at that point we'll walk through a process together I'm looking forward to that that Notion that we might send a team to Three Rivers that we might send a team to Battle Creek that we might send a team
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To another town or another state to start another work to start another church, and that's our that's our hearts desire
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But others might be called like Ryan and Gretchen wrought we saw them last week living an awesome life
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He had opportunities the FBI was knocking on his door giving him job opportunities He was being promoted.
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He had the potential to be promoted to lieutenant at KPS down here Just tons of opportunities knocking on his door and by the calling of God He walked away from that to go share the gospel with authorities and police officers in Costa Rica awesome amazing
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That kind of calling that sense of sense of calling on his life that he acknowledged what he was made to do and where he was most fulfilled in the
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Lord There is one gospel, but different callings, and I would encourage you to look at your life closely and consider
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Which way you've been built? and I don't want you to think about it in the notion and in the type of the type of flippant kind of thinking that You'd have an answer by the time you walk out of here.
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I Want you to put some serious thought into it because I would dare say that all of us 100 % of the people in this room would be pretty quick to identify yourself as a
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Peter Because we swim pretty well in this culture like like, right like this just seems pretty natural the flow of American life and the things that we have here and the
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Structures in place and the way we were raised and it just you don't get what I'm saying It takes some significant introspection to look at the gifts the talents the abilities
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The resources that God has given me the way that he's designed me. Could it be you?
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Could it be you that he is calling to be a Paul The second observation from the text is the reality of wolves
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Paul literally people rather were literally spying on Paul They were literally looking at his life and looking for opportunities to enslave him into religious activity
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And the only way I know to avoid counterfeit Gospels is to study and know the true good news to be in this
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Book now We're in the middle of talking about the gospel of grace and I'm gonna tell you to go read your Bibles this week, right?
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And how many of you know that you can read your Bibles for a good motivation? You can read your Bibles for a bad motivation you can read it because I told you to or I could stand up here with the two by four and slug you upside the head and say
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Beat the sheep and get them to read their Bibles this week, right? That's not that's not what
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I'm saying Again all of our life needs to flow out of gratitude for the cross.
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Everything flows out of faith by grace through Jesus Christ and so How are you gonna know this week if you encounter falsehood?
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How is the Holy Spirit gonna bring to mind truth? How's that gonna happen? It's only gonna be as much as you've known in here
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It's only gonna be as much as we study this and know this this is the raw material That the
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Spirit uses to bring truth into our life and to bring it at the right time Are you getting what
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I'm saying? So the more you know this the more open you are to God's working through the
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Holy Spirit in your life to convict you To say no to sin when it crops up to say yes to opportunities to proclaim the truth to others
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Are you getting what I'm saying? So this is the only way that I know and I'm gonna tell you I saw an illustration one time
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It was pretty good. It was at a church camp, but um It was it was a kid and he was he had a box of brain flakes
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You know just really bland cereal and it's like when I first started reading the Bible It just kind of felt like brain flakes But eventually it just got into like some crazy awesome cereal like like Lucky Charms or something like that My kids have been on like this crazy
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Cereal kick lately and their dad once in a while gets it for him Their mom doesn't tend to do that so much
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But I mean if my kids I'm at the grocery store with the kids and they're asking for cereal How can that be wrong, you know, but I mean they're getting like these heavy
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Do you know they have fruity pebbles with marshmallows in it now? It's like wow Maybe I get it for the kids.
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They have a they have a little bit of it But I mean, you know what I'm saying? It's like it's like the best of both worlds It's like Lucky Charms and and I'm telling you honestly
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I say this with all sincerity. It's not like I've arrived It's not like I'm at some spiritual pinnacle or I've arrived at the summit.
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I delight in God's Word and That has not always been true in my life But I delight in it.
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I enjoy it I get up in the morning and I read it and I take it in I miss it when I don't and I'm not gonna
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I'm not gonna tell you I do it seven seven days a week every you know every week of the year But I but I miss it when it when
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I'm not there and I'm telling you, you know, we run through dry spells, right? and sometimes you're reading through the
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Bible and you get to Leviticus and it's like I But even then I'm just I'm just delighted to be in his word
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Even even if it's just kind of figuring out like sometimes the application seems like week after week in Leviticus God Thank you that I'm no longer under this law
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Like you know what I'm saying? Like if that's the only application I get out of it for a couple of weeks at end That's still awesome. Thank you for Jesus Thank you for the cross that saves me from trying to cross every
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T and dot every I But I delight in it and It's the place that we turn for truth for the
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Spirit to grab a hold of our lives in here To be in the word is the only hope we have that we will not be swept away and enslaved by those who would seek to add to the grace of God and Equally, it's the only way we can avoid becoming
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Those who would sweep others away Studying the
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Word of God knowing the Word of God reading the Word of God And I want you to carefully consider this question today
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Are you a wolf? Are you a wolf? I don't want anybody to raise their hand Please don't raise your hand
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Tell me you can come up and talk with me later if you're if you're actually seriously wrestling with and you're thinking about it I'm serious But here's the question that you have to ask yourself
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I mean these wolves by the way were identified as false false brothers They were they were not in the faith, but they were in the church
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They were not in the faith, but they looked like they were in the faith And that's a question that we all have to wrestle with I can't give you the answer that you can come to me and tell
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Me the patterns of life and the patterns of things that you see in your life And I can just tell you all I can tell you is
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I mean here's what God's Word says wrestle with it Work it out for yourself and understand it and his spirit will confer with your spirit
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But where are your opinions strong because this is what makes wolves. Let me explain to you Pick a topic that's that's not clearly delineated in Scripture like musical style for example
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Just use that as an illustration. Do you have strong opinions about that? Where you have strong opinions about gray areas as where you are leaning towards being a wolf
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About clothes about dress about styles about different things like that But like I said about alcohol or about music or or whatever it might be where are your opinions the strongest?
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Because that is where you are more prone to To wrap your rules around everybody else.
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Do you understand what I'm saying? Where are the gray issues in life that we have freedom in Christ?
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Centered around and then you kind of have just you know, I think we really do need an organ I think we really have to have drums and if the drums go away, then we're just not doing worship like we should
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Are you getting what I'm saying? Can you identify those things in your life and I encourage you to think through that because we can begin to be like those
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Galatians or like those false brothers that slipped into the meeting in Jerusalem and Begin to hold others to our standards based on our preferences or our strong opinions
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So beware, I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't have strong opinions But it's where those are is going to be your tendency to become wolf like Where your tendency because you have strong opinions strong convictions.
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I'm gonna use strong convictions can be a good thing They can be really beneficial to us right can be really good for your own spiritual growth, maybe
01:00:07
But when you apply those to others and that's going to be what you want to apply to others I don't go see R -rated movies. So, you know, nobody else should or whatever and boy, that's just a rotten thing in our society and nobody should do it and eventually that becomes rules for others
01:00:25
Paul did not even give a moment of consideration to those who sought to push aside the grace of Jesus Christ As this letter continues to unfold we go through this in the next several weeks
01:00:35
It's going to be clear what a radical grace we have in Jesus Christ. It just keeps getting more and more that way We are no longer slaves to the law.
01:00:43
We are no longer slaves to sin but we have been set free to live for God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and We who have been saved by the grace of God now live our lives by faith and not by law
01:00:59
My prayer is that we all grow in faith. We grow in community We grow in service as we study his word
01:01:05
We believe his word and by the power of the Spirit go out from this place and act
01:01:12
Upon his word. Let's pray and Kyle's gonna come and lead us in communion Father I thank you so much for grace.
01:01:20
I I'm a sinner. I don't I don't deserve your promise of heaven your your forgiveness the new life that you've granted to me
01:01:28
Father you have based on just a free gift And so I praise you for the cross of Christ today.
01:01:34
I ask that you would help us to go out from this place rejoicing in the awesome provision of salvation that you've given to us and Father I pray that you would help us to to genuinely put the time and the energy into thinking about our calling
01:01:48
Are we more like Peter? Are we more like Paul and to think about those areas? We have strong opinions and to give those over to you and recognize that those are your grace to us for our lives but maybe not so wise to hold others to the same standard help us to be discerning people as we look into your word and Let your spirit guide and direct us and I ask that you would guide and direct us into delight and joy of your word that that that scripture would would be more like a bowl of lucky charms and less like a