Welcome to another
episode of Books of the Book.
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My name is Pastor Mark
Howard and I am the Pastor
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of the Global Seventh-day
Adventist church in Globals
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Michigan and also the director
of Emmanuel Institute, a
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training school of evangelism
in the Michigan Conference of
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Seventh-day
Adventist and I am your host,
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and I am here with my brother.
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Yes, and my name is
Pastor Jim Howard and I Pastor
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the Detroit Metropolitan
Seventh-day Adventist church as
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well as the South Lyons
Seventh-day Adventist church
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in Michigan and we are
excited to be talking to you
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today about the
book of Galatians.
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Last time we gave a little
bit of an opening and talked
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about the central theme of
the book of Galatians which
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is the gospel not
just one of many gospels,
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but the everlasting gospel.
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The apostle Paul has
some very strong words in the
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beginning of the book of
Galatians that helps us to
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understand that it's
very important to him that
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we get the gospel right.
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What we need to do is jump
right in to understand what
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he had to say.
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That's right, so we are
going to turn into our Bibles
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to the book of
Galatians Chapter 1.
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If you have trouble finding
it you are going to go to the
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New Testament and go through
the Gospels Matthew, Mark
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Luke, John and you'll come
to Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians
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2 Corinthians then you
will find the book of Galatians.
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There in Galatians
1:6 and the Bible says,
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"I marvel," here is
the apostle Paul writing
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this "I marvel that you
are turning away so soon from
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"Him who called to in the
grace of Christ, to a different
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"gospel, which is not
another; but there are some who
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"trouble you and want to
pervert the gospel of Christ.
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"But even if we, or an
angel from heaven, preach any
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"other gospel to you than
what we have preached to you,
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"let him be accursed."
Verse 9 says, "as we have said
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"before, so now I say again,
if anyone preaches any other
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"gospel to you than
what you have received,
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"let him be accursed." -
wow those are strong words.
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Yeah, and if you understood
the Greek word there is
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anathema, which means to
cut off with out any hope of
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salvation, very
strong language he is using.
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So Paul is being very emphatic
here about the idea of any
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other gospel than what
he has already preached.
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So he is making it clear
that there is only one gospel.
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The challenge for us as we
are stumbling into the book of
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Galatians is that this
is a letter he wrote to this
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church in Galatia and he
gives this nice little greeting.
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Grace and peace to you and
then he says I can't believe
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you guys, so for the
reader we are coming into this.
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- what happened? - yeah
what did we stumble into here?
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The reality is it is hard
for us to grasp where he is
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going without getting a
little bit of the background of
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this story, what
call forth this letter.
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So that is what we
are going to do today.
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We are going to try to get
some background on what called
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forth a letter to
the Galatian church.
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Okay, well maybe will we
should do is within the book
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of Galatians first see if
we can find some signs, some
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hints as to what
this background entails.
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We already know it involves
the gospel being perverted.
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But there is a certain
aspect of that we find out when
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we look at Galatians Chapter 2.
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So let's look at
Galatians 2:1 together.
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We are going to read
for a few verses here.
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It says, "then after 14 years
I went up again to Jerusalem
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"with Barnabas, and
also took Titus me."
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Now we are picking up in
the middle of a description
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the apostle Paul is
giving as to how he first was
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converted and his apostleship
as he was called into.
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- you might highlight here
that after 14 years he shared
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earlier than that, after his
conversion there were 3 years
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in verse 18 that after
his conversion he went up to
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Jerusalem and
then 14 more years.
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It was 17 years since the
conversion of Paul that he
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shares this story and
that will come into play as we
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go on a little bit more.
- That's right, good point.
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As we look at Chapter 2
and verse 1 again it says that
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he went up to Jerusalem
after 14 years which is really
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after 17 years
from his conversion.
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It says, "I went up by
revelation, and communicated to
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"them that gospel which I
preach among the Gentiles, but
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"privately to those who
were of reputation, lest by any
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"means I might run, or
had run, in vain. Yet not even
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"Titus who was with me,
being a Greek, was compelled to
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"be circumcised. And
this occurred because of false
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"brethren secretly brought
in (who came in by stealth
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"to spy out our liberty
which we have in Christ Jesus,
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"that they might bring us
into bondage), to whom we did
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"not yield submission even
for an hour, that truth of the
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"gospel might
continue with you."
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So there is some very
sinister schemes he is talking
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about here and in the
heart of it in verse 3 is this
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statement that not even
Titus who was with him, being a
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Greek, that is not a Jew
was compelled to be circumcised.
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He almost draws that out of
nowhere as if they would know
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what he was talking about.
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But we don't exactly know,
fortunately for us this story
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where he says after 14 years
I went up again to Jerusalem
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we have a record of.
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- that's right we
have that account.
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That's right and it is in
Acts 15 so let's look there
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and it will give us a little
bit better idea of what the
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background is to the
apostle Paul writing this letter
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to the Galatian church.
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Acts 15:1 it says, "and certain
main came down from Judea
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"and taught the brethren,
unless you are circumcised
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"according to the custom of
Moses, you cannot be saved."
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Okay now we are getting a
little bit of a hint of why
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he was bringing up circumcision
in Galatians Chapter 2.
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He was saying that not
even Titus a Greek was compelled
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to be circumcised.
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Apparently these men were
saying that you needed to be,
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but he didn't feel that
was true. - that's right!
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Now in verse 5, if you
keep moving it reiterates,
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"but some of the sect of
Pharisees who believed," now
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the Pharisees who believed
would represent Pharisees
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the Jewish religious leaders
who accepted Jesus Christ
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was the Messiah.
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They were Pharisees
who believed, but it says,
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"they rose up saying, it is
necessary to circumcised them,
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"and to command them
to keep the law of Moses."
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Okay I will interject here,
I have had people read this
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and say well it is very
obvious what is happening here.
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They are wanting these new
believers to be circumcised
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to keep the Ten Commandments
and that is how they read
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that in there and I want to
emphasize that this term law of
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Moses you can do a search,
for example I am reading in
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the New King James version.
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There are 22 occurrences in
the whole New King James version
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of this term law of Moses.
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They never refer exclusively
to the Ten Commandments,
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but to what we call Penitiff?
or the Torah, the first 5 books
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of the Bible which
were written by Moses.
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Instruction that
came through Moses.
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So it wasn't just
dealing specifically with the
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Ten Commandments,
obviously here the issue is
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circumcision, which isn't
part of the Ten Commandments.
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It is the broader
picture of the instruction that
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God gave through Moses.
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One example of that we
find in the book of Exodus
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Chapter 12 and maybe we
ought to look at that just to
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get an idea of where
these guys might be coming from.
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The second book of the
Bible, Genesis then Exodus.
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Exodus 12:48, in Exodus
12:48 the instruction given when
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you look at verse 43 it says,
"and the Lord said to Moses
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"an Aaron," so Lord gives
us instruction and Moses has
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written it out and
in verse 48 he says,
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"and when a stranger dwells
with you and wants to keep
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"the Passover to the
Lord, let all his males be
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"circumcised, and then
let him come near and keep it,
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"and he shall be a
native of the land.
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"For no uncircumcised
person shall eat it."
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Of course this is in
the book of the law of Moses
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as these Pharisees believed
were reading text like the
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one in Exodus and saying
it said in Exodus if a Gentile
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wants to be part of us,
he has to be circumcised.
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That's right, and I think
for us to look at this and draw
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a conclusion it is difficult
when we don't really know
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the background of how
circumcision came to be in the
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first place, so at the
risk of going back to the
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beginning we really need
to go back to the beginning
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here and find out what it
is that prompted God to give
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the right of circumcision.
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So what we need to do is
go back to the father of the
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Jews, Abraham, we
would go back to Genesis 12.
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Of course we are going to
Abraham because Abraham was
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the one whom the right
of circumcision was given.
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So we are going to go
back and find out why.
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That is right, so we go
back to Genesis 12 we find a
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little bit about what
God was promising to Abraham.
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It says in Genesis 12:1,
"now the Lord had said to
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"Abraham; get out of
your country, from your family
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"and from your father's
house, to a land that I will
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"show you. I will make you
a great nation; I will bless
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"you and make your name
great; and you shall be a
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"blessing. I will
bless those who bless you,
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"and I will curse him who
curses you; and in you all the
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"families of the
earth shall be blessed."
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Now in order to make a
great nation from Abraham.
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In order for all the families
of the earth to be blessed
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through him, he
needs descendents.
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It took a little while
and nothing was happening.
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His wife Sarai was not
pregnant and some roughly
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10 years later we come
to Chapter 15 and still the
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promise had not been fulfilled.
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Well at some point it became
evident, even prior to this
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just a new verses before
in Chapter 11:30 it said,
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"but Sarai was
barren; she had no Child."
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So it became now that they
thought sooner or later she
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might become fertile, but
the reality is, as time goes
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on as you said,
there's no descendents.
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Hope gets less and less
and I think that is where they
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were here when we get
to Chapter 15 of Genesis.
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It says in verse 1, "after
these things the word of the
00:11:02.02\00:11:05.73
"Lord came to Abram in a vision,
saying, do not be afraid,
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"Abram." He sensed his
fear, "I am your shield, you're
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"exceedingly great reward."
00:11:13.60\00:11:14.94
That is a powerful
verse of Scripture.
00:11:14.97\00:11:16.64
He was promising that He
Himself would be his reward.
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But he continues in verse
2 and says, "Lord God, what
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"will You give me, seeing
I go childless, and the heir
00:11:23.41\00:11:26.88
"of my house is Eliezer of
Damascus? Then Abrams said,
00:11:26.92\00:11:30.05
"look, You have given me
no offspring; indeed one born
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"in my house is my heir.
And behold the word of the
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"Lord came to him, saying,
this one shall not be your
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"heir, but one who
will come from your own body
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"shall be your heir. Then
He brought him outside and
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"said, looking out toward
heaven, and count the stars
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"if you are able to
number them. And He said to him,
00:11:47.57\00:11:49.97
"so shall your descendents be."
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So here is this promise,
Abram I told you 10 years ago
00:11:52.47\00:11:55.68
and I'm telling you
again, you are going to have a
00:11:55.71\00:11:58.88
descendent through which
all the families of the earth
00:11:58.91\00:12:02.12
will be blessed.
00:12:02.15\00:12:03.49
- which is an incredible
promise, it says the stars
00:12:03.52\00:12:05.15
of heaven, - and at
the time there was nobody.
00:12:05.19\00:12:08.02
So verse 6 gives us a very
important verse of Scripture
00:12:08.06\00:12:12.79
that will touch on later
in Galatians as an important
00:12:12.86\00:12:17.53
part of the Gospel.
00:12:17.60\00:12:18.93
In verse 6 it says,
"and he", which is Abram,
00:12:18.97\00:12:22.07
"believed in the Lord,
and he accounted it to him
00:12:22.10\00:12:25.51
"for righteousness." So
this is a powerful verse.
00:12:25.54\00:12:28.91
Abraham still
believed the promise.
00:12:28.94\00:12:31.48
God had said that this
heir would come from your own
00:12:31.51\00:12:36.12
body, but he didn't say he
would come from Sarai's body.
00:12:36.15\00:12:41.76
So Sarai said well, this
is not working out I am still
00:12:41.79\00:12:47.23
barren and devised a plan
that Hagar, her maidservant,
00:12:47.30\00:12:52.37
would be the one through
whom Abram would ultimately
00:12:52.43\00:12:56.50
have descendents and so
they devised this plan to
00:12:56.54\00:13:00.64
fulfill the promise of God.
00:13:00.68\00:13:02.34
They almost sensed that
since it wasn't being fulfilled
00:13:02.38\00:13:05.98
they needed to give the
Lord a hand, if you will.
00:13:06.01\00:13:08.08
They would make sure descendent
was born in the house.
00:13:08.12\00:13:12.05
Absolutely and so of
course a descendent was born.
00:13:12.09\00:13:16.29
His name was Ishmael and
Abraham and Sarai and Hagar
00:13:16.32\00:13:19.39
thought they had accomplished
the will of God through
00:13:19.43\00:13:22.43
their own devising.
00:13:22.46\00:13:23.80
Ishmael grew and for years
and years they were resting
00:13:23.83\00:13:27.54
content that the promise
of God had been fulfilled.
00:13:27.57\00:13:31.54
Until we come to
Chapter 17 in Genesis.
00:13:31.57\00:13:35.61
I'm looking at our time
here and it looks like we need
00:13:35.64\00:13:38.68
to take a little break
before we dive right in.
00:13:38.71\00:13:40.55
So we are going to break
and when we come back we're
00:13:40.58\00:13:44.09
going to dive in to Genesis
Chapter 17 and we are going
00:13:44.12\00:13:47.32
to see what happens with
that descendent and the right
00:13:47.39\00:13:51.03
of circumcision then
being imposed upon Abraham and
00:13:51.06\00:13:55.13
his descendents. Stay
with us we will be right back!
00:13:55.16\00:13:59.27