Welcome to Books of the
Book, I am Pastor Mark Howard
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Pastor of the Emmanuel
Institute of evangelism for the
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Michigan Conference of
Seventh-day Adventist as well
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as the Pastor for the Gobels
Seventh-day Adventist church
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in Gobels Michigan and
I am here at my co-host,
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my brother Jim.
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Yes, my name is Jim Howard
and I am the Pastor of the
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Detroit Metropolitan
Seventh-day Adventist Church and
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South Lyon Church
Seventh-day Adventist Church
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both in Michigan.
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And we have been studying
the book of Galatians, we are
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actually going to conclude
our study today in Galatians
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Chapter 6 and it has been
fantastic message the apostle
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Paul has been delivering
here about the one and
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only true gospel.
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Jim, he caps it off with
his heart appeal to the Galatian
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believers, this
church he raised up.
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We are going to Galatians
Chapter 6 and if you have your
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Bible nearby go ahead and
grab it and turn with us in
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your Bible to the New
Testament book of Galatians.
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You go to the New Testament
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
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Acts, Romans, 1 and 2
Corinthians and then Galatians.
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We are going to Galatians
Chapter 6 and we're going to
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start in verse 11.
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Galatians 6:11 the apostle
Paul says, "see what large
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"letters I have written
to you with my own hand!"
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Initially as we read that
Jim, it doesn't communicate
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a lot, what is he talking about?
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- what are these
large letters? - Right!
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So he's writing something and
was he boasting in his writing?
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When we realized what the
background is here it really
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tells us a lot
about the apostle Paul.
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You see Paul had a challenge
of some sort, evidently
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with his eye sight and if
we go back to 2 Corinthians
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in Chapter 12
Paul talks about having
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a thorn in the flesh. - right!
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Most scholars believe
that that thorn in the flesh
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had something to do with
his impaired eyesight after
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viewing the Lord Jesus glorified
on the road to Damascus.
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We pick up a little bit
of that idea in the book of
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Galatians 4:15 where he
was talking about the Galatian
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believers and how much they
had at one time been willing
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to sacrifice for him.
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He says in Galatians 4:15,
"what then was the blessing you
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"enjoyed? For I bear you
witness, that if possible,
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"you would have plucked
out your own eyes and given
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"then to me. " So the
idea was there was something
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with his eyes
that were impaired.
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Something else that we
find is that Paul often had his
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letters written by a
scribe, but then he would sign
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them with his own hand.
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For example 1 Corinthians
16:21, if we turn there we
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see, notice it says
here, "the salutation with my
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"own hand-Paul's. "
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In other words he would
have somebody else write the
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letter and then he would
sign it, evidently because
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with his in paired
eyesight it was harder for him,
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he didn't have glasses so
when he was trying to write
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these things out it was
hard for him to focus on what
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he was writing, so
someone else would write and
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he would sign it. - just
to give the authenticity!
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- just to give an authenticity.
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So when we coming into
Galatians 6:11 and he says,
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"see with what large
letters I have written to you. "
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In other words in order
for him to see what he was
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writing, he had
to write really big.
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His point to the
Galatians is that I have not had
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somebody else write this
letter, I'm not just signing it.
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I myself have
written this whole letter.
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It's communicating
to us the burden that
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Paul had for these people.
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If we continue there in
Galatians 6:12, he starts
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entering deeper
into this appeal.
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It says, "as many as
desire to make a good showing in
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"the flesh, these would
compel you to be circumcised. "
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He's talking about these
Judaizing Christians and the
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theme of our discussion through-
out the study of Galatians
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who came in with a perverted
gospel in which they said
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you can believe in Jesus
Christ but if you really want
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to be saved you will
have to be circumcised.
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Circumcision became somewhat
of a substitute for faith
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in Christ, a
substitute of genuine obedience.
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Then he says, "these
who will compel you to be
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"circumcised, only that
they may not suffer persecution
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"for the cross of Christ.
For not even those who are
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"circumcised keep the
law, but they desired to have
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"you circumcised that
they may boast in your flesh. "
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Right here in verse 12
it says, as many as desire
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"to make a showing in the flesh.
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These Judaizing
Christians who are deceiving the
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Galatians believers that
Paul had brought in through the
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gospel, their motives
were not totally pure.
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They make a good showing
in the flesh, it gives you
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a sense of reputation.
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There was something
about it that it wasn't for the
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believers themselves, but
something they were trying
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to do for themselves.
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That is totally
contrary to the spirit of Christ
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because we learn in Philippians
that Jesus made Himself
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of no reputation, when
He came to this earth Jesus
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didn't come to be
born into a palaces.
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He was willing at
every stage to be considered
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something different than
He was, falsely represented.
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All sorts of things, and
that was because reputation
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was not what was
most important to Jesus,
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it was character,
it was saving souls,
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reaching out to people.
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These Judaizers didn't really
have, the apostle Paul was
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telling them, look these
guys do not have your best
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interest in mind, they are
just doing this for themselves.
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You know Jim, you use at
work Judaizers and just for the
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benefit of our viewers, a
Judaizers means that they are
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trying to bring
people into the Jewish faith.
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Now it is true that
the apostle Paul would have
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considered himself a faithful
Jew because he had really
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adhere to the Jews but
the Jewish religion of his day
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the religion itself was a
substitute for following Christ.
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What was interesting was in
order to avoid the persecution
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what they were really trying
to do was retain their old
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unspiritual life and then
they were trying to bring others
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into that old unspiritual life.
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So they wouldn't
suffer persecution.
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They had formed their own
religion and it is interesting
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how sometimes people will
get on some hobbyhorse, their
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own pet idea and they like
the feeling they get when they
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can get other
people on that pet idea.
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It makes them this guru
over the masses, we are all in
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this club and it gives
them a clubhouse mentality.
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It seems that that was
what was going on here.
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- You're right,
you're exactly right.
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There is another
passage in Galatians where the
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apostle Paul's specifically
talks about the motivation
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behind these false teachers.
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In Galatians 4:17 he
says, "they zealously court you,
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"but for no good; yes, they
want to exclude you, that you
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"maybe zealous for them. "
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So what they were doing
was trying to find followers.
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You know a lot of times
the reason people try to find
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someone to follow them is
because if they are not in a
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right position and they
want to justify themselves,
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if they can get a whole
bunch of other people to agree
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with them that it helps
to validate where they are.
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It also gives them a greater
sense of power and influence
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and there is all sorts of
false motivations that can come
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when we are trying to
gain followers after ourselves.
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Well let me interject this,
I want you to hold the thought
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but this may be
confusing to the readers.
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It says they would zealously
exclude you, so what you
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have been talking
about is including them.
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The point he is making is
that they were trying to bring
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them in but the idea of
excluding, some translations
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will say including because
it is like, well they don't
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seem to be trying to exclude
but the point that is being
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made here is again back
to the clubhouse mentality.
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It is like you have to do
this and this to be part of
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this club, and so what
they do is they exclude people
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who, if you're not going
to be circumcised you can't
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be part of our club.
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By excluding certain people
it vaunts them up, but then
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they exclude, his wording
is they zealously court you
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and then they want
to exclude you that
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you maybe zealous for them.
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It's a strange phenomenon
that is part of human nature,
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when we are excluded from
something, the carnal nature
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seems to want to do it all more.
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If I can't have it,
what I can't have it?
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I want to be a part of
that, I want to be part of this
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elite group and that is
what he is commenting on here
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about excluding them, but
false teachers are excluding
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ultimately because they
want these Galatians to be
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desired to be
enamored with their ways
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of thinking and their religion.
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The other thing that
strikes me here is that they
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zealously court you, so
you have this picture of
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courtship where even
though they are excluding, they
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also when you have false
teachers involved, there is
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usually some
flattering going on.
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You know when you're courting
somebody there is a sense
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in which you are wanting
them, I can see you having
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some great potential with us.
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So they court and give
them a sense that they could
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really be special if
they were circumcised.
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They are trying to allure
them into this, but it is not
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for the benefit
of these believers,
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it is for their own benefit.
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Now one thing the apostle
Paul says that is kind of
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interesting here though is
right after verse 17 it says,
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"but it is good to be
zealous in a good thing always,
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"and not only when
I'm present with you. "
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He said it's good to
be zealous, so even though
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they were zealous in a wrong
way, the apostle Paul wants
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to make the point that it
is a good thing to be zealous.
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One of the biggest problems
that we have in the Christian
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Church is complacency, laziness.
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We seem to forget the
devil is one of the hardest
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workers out there, and he
is zealously doing his work.
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He has got his representatives
who are zealously doing
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their work and
he doesn't sit back.
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- incidentally Paul was
one of those representatives.
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- that's right, he was.
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So when we sit back and just
ignore that and say oh well,
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the Lord will
take care of it all.
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If we ignore the obvious
problems that are existing,
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ignore our own need to be
spreading the gospel as we
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talked about last time,
restoring those who are in need
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of help in winning those who are
in need of being won, then the
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Devil is going to, because
of his zealousness, he is
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going to gain battles, he
will not win the ultimate war
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but he is going to gain
battles that we could have won
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if we hadn't been
sleeping on the job.
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That is exactly
right, so the apostle Paul is
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I was mentioning head
that zeal, Jesus Himself
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The Bible said in the
story of the cleansing of the
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temple and John chapter
2, that it applies the text
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from the Old Testament
Word says David had written
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zeal, for thy
house is eating me up.
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In other words Jesus was
zealous for the cause of God.
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The problem is that
these people were zealous for
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the wrong thing for sure.
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So we are going to go
into verse 12 and continue on.
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Well, you had gone into
verse 12 about the circumcision.
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Notice the language here,
"these will compel you to be
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"circumcised, only that
they may not suffer persecution
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"for the cross of Christ. "
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So this is interesting,
they are wanting to compel this
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circumcision for the purpose
of not suffering persecution
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and this is fascinating to
me just looking at this from
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the perspective of
Christianity today.
00:12:19.90\00:12:21.94
The tendency today of many
Christians is to not want to
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be that different
from the world around us.
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And we come up with
reasons, we say well we wouldn't
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reach as many people
if we were so different.
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But I'm afraid that the
real reason is we really
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don't want to
suffer that persecution.
00:12:40.36\00:12:42.89
You know the Bible tells
us in 2 Timothy 3:12 if you
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want to turn
there, 2 Timothy 3:12
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The apostle Paul tells
this young apprentice, "yes,
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"and all who desire to
live godly in Christ Jesus
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"will suffer persecution. "
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You suffer
persecution when you live godly.
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One of the challenges
with these Judaizing teachers
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was they really
didn't want to live godly.
00:13:10.92\00:13:13.12
They wanted a religion
where they had a few outward
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things they could subscribe
to that would help them
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to be able to avoid
totally living godly.
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I'm looking at our clock
and saying I want to really
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dig into this, but
we need to take a break.
00:13:29.97\00:13:32.21
So we are great go
ahead and do that and when we
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come back we are really
going to dig into this idea
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of avoiding this persecution
for the cross of Christ.
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How we as Christians
need to be faithful to Christ
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no matter what, stay tuned!
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