Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB00013B
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00:07 Welcome back to Books of the Book and we have been
00:09 studying the book of Galatians and we are in Galatians 00:11 Chapter 6 and I want to look again at verse 12. 00:16 The apostle Paul is making a point that these false 00:20 teachers who had seduced the Galatian church wanted 00:24 "to compel them to be circumcised only that they may 00:27 "not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. " 00:30 We are talking about the tendency Jim, that we have 00:35 to want to avoid living in such a way that draws out 00:39 the opposition of the world. 00:40 We talked about in 1 Timothy, sorry 2 Timothy 3:12 00:44 where it says all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall 00:48 suffer persecution and I think there are probably a 00:51 our viewers that are aware, I have talked and read many 00:55 articles from many different denominations and 00:58 nondenominational churches that have recognized a 01:02 tendency in recent years that Christianity has become 01:06 more and more secularized. 01:08 The reason is because, we will say we are just trying 01:12 to be more accessible to the world. 01:15 Trying to reach the postmodern world and these types 01:19 of things, but I fear the reality is just exactly what 01:22 Paul is saying here, we do not want to suffer 01:24 persecution for our belief. 01:25 So some of the things that have happened is social 01:28 drinking has become more acceptable in the Christian 01:31 world where it used to be that drinking was something 01:34 a Christian when do, they didn't smoke, they didn't 01:36 drink and now they say that was back in the old days. 01:38 It's a lot easier when you are out to work with someone 01:41 to just do what they are doing and you can justify 01:44 that by saying I'm just trying to fit in and you 01:47 avoid the persecution. 01:49 That's right, and secular music, rock concerts, and 01:53 there's Christian rock today and things like that 01:57 honestly has concerned the number of people because 02:01 it used to be these things were considered only 02:05 secular and worldly and now they are finding their way 02:10 into the church and again I fear whether it be fashionable 02:14 dress, or whatever it happens to be. 02:18 It is a desire to avoid that persecution that comes from 02:25 being different from the world. 02:27 This is what Paul ascribes this false teaching of the 02:31 Galatians, these false teachers, these Judaizing teachers 02:35 that is what he ascribes it to. 02:37 Their desire to really avoid the offense of the cross. 02:40 That is exactly right, and then right after saying that 02:43 in verse 12, which is where we have been reading. 02:46 It says that they try to compel you to be circumcised 02:48 only that they may not suffer persecution. 02:51 In verse 13 it says, "for not even those who are 02:54 "circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you " 02:57 circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. " 02:59 He is trying to help them to see, be careful who you are 03:04 trusting here, back in the days of Jesus he said to those 03:09 who are at that time following and yet critically 03:12 analyzing his ministry, he said to speak about the law 03:16 of Moses yet none of you keeps the law. 03:20 Why is it that you try to kill me? 03:22 They were in the process of planning to kill the 03:25 Son of God and yet they were promoting themselves as 03:28 law keepers and so here that is what the 03:30 apostle Paul is saying. 03:32 These people that you are trusting are pushing 03:35 circumcision, but they are not keeping the law themselves. 03:38 There are various different ways that we could look at 03:41 that, but is just another point to show that this idea 03:44 is that circumcision was a substitute for obedience. 03:47 That is what was really happening with these false 03:50 teachers. - that's right and I think that is an 03:52 important point that our viewers need to understand. 03:56 The concept from so many is that these Galatians were 04:01 wanting to go with this gospel of circumcision, 04:03 they were obedient. 04:06 And repeatedly Paul has brought out that they were 04:08 everything but obedient, they did not keep the law. 04:11 He makes that point very clear here, they were not 04:14 law keepers because they were trusting in the flesh. 04:16 So he builds on that in verse 14 where he says, 04:21 "but God forbid that I should boast except" because 04:26 they were boasting in the flesh, but he says, 04:29 "God for bit that I should boast except in the 04:31 "cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has 04:35 "been crucified to me, and I to the world. " 04:39 That's powerful, and this verse is an allusion to an 04:44 Old Testament verse in the book of Jeremiah and 04:48 maybe we can turn there to Jeremiah 9:23 because the 04:52 apostle Paul seems to be taking the language directly 04:56 from Jeremiah and in verse 23 of Jeremiah 9 is says, 05:00 "thus says the Lord: let not the wise man glory in his 05:04 "wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, 05:07 "nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him 05:11 "who glories glory in this, that he understands and 05:14 "knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising loving- 05:17 "kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. 05:20 "For in these I delight, says the Lord. " 05:23 So that is a very clear parallel where he said I am 05:26 not going to glory anything, the apostle Paul said. 05:29 Except for the cross of Jesus Christ and here he is 05:32 drawing from the fact that back in the book of Jeremiah 05:36 it tells us not to glory in wisdom, or might, or riches, 05:40 but only to glory in knowing Me. 05:43 That is a powerful thought, in other words the cross of 05:46 Jesus Christ is how we come to know God. 05:50 It is through the cross that we find out that Jesus Christ 05:54 wants a personal relationship with us. 05:56 That He is willing to give His life for us. 05:58 The love of God is revealed through the cross of Christ. 06:01 So if we want to know God intimately, we find that in the 06:05 cross and if we can know and understand God, that is what 06:08 we should glory in. 06:09 All of these other things are given to us by God which is 06:13 why many times those who are wise, those who are mighty, 06:17 those who are rich are not the ones who come in through 06:21 the Gospel and there is one verse or passage in the 06:24 New Testament that touches on this. 06:26 I thought maybe I could just read that together with you. 06:29 1 Corinthians, so if you go to the New Testament Mark, 06:33 Luke, Matthew, John, Acts, Romans and 1 Corinthians. 06:37 In Corinthians 1:26 it says, "for you see your calling" 06:41 this is the apostle Paul again, "for you see your calling 06:44 "brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, 06:48 "not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God 06:51 "has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to 06:54 "shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of 06:57 "the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 07:01 "and the base things" that word base means insignificant, 07:04 insignificant things, " of the world and the things which 07:07 "our despised God has chosen, and the things which are 07:10 "not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no 07:13 "flesh should glory in His presence. 07:16 God wants us recognize our need and so those who end up 07:21 being called, He calls everyone but those that respond 07:26 to call end up being those who recognize that they are 07:30 not the smartest, not the richest, not the most popular. 07:34 In many people's eyes they may be insignificant, but they 07:38 seem to be the ones who respond to the call to come to the 07:42 Gospel feast because they won't glory in the presence 07:46 of God, and God needs all the glory to come to Him 07:50 because He is the one who has provided all these things 07:54 for us, if we take glory for ourselves, if we have some 07:57 sort of sense that we are greater or better than others 08:01 then we can never truly understand what the cross of 08:05 Jesus Christ means to us. 08:06 You know Jim that is the thing about this. 08:09 When we are talking about not boasting in anything 08:13 that is in us, it is hard for us sometimes to constantly 08:18 admit that in my flesh dwells no good thing. 08:22 Then we tend to want to think that we are worthless in 08:25 God's sight and it is a strange dichotomy where God wants 08:29 us to realize this is your fallen condition. 08:31 But I love you where you are and I am going to do for you 08:35 what you can't do for yourself. 08:36 I believe the apostle Paul really magnifies that point 08:41 in 2 Corinthians 12, and here Paul sharing his own experience 08:46 and this is one of the most precious passages. 08:48 It is one of the most encouraging passages to me in 08:50 Scripture, this has been a blessing in my experience and 08:53 probably many of our viewers. 08:54 It says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, Jesus is speaking to Paul 09:00 I have read letters here in my Bible. 09:02 It says, "and He said to me, My grace is sufficient for 09:05 "you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. 09:11 "Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my 09:18 "infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. " 09:22 So the idea here is that you could say, sometimes people 09:26 say I'm not worth anything, I'm not good at anything. 09:29 Praise the Lord because now I can boast in the fact that 09:33 in my weakness God's strength is made perfect. 09:37 He goes on in verse 10 to say, "if therefore I take 09:41 "pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, 09:44 "in persecutions, in distress, for Christ's sake. 09:47 "For when I am weak, then I am strong. " 09:51 Why? Because when I am weak I recognize my need of 09:54 Christ and cling more firmly to Him. 09:57 Right, and when that power of Christ is resting upon 09:59 him it can't be denied. 10:03 The power of a changed life, taking someone who 10:07 is weak, taking someone who is sinful, taking someone 10:12 with none of this high exalted stature in the eyes of 10:17 the world, is the very evidence of Christ's power than 10:21 the Gospel of Christ is worth all the world to us. 10:25 So it is very weakness that we have that causes Christ 10:28 to be uplifted. - that is right! 10:30 You know I think we need to go back briefly, to Jeremiah 10:34 Chapter 9 where you recall that we were looking at a 10:38 passage where the apostle Paul seemed to be drawing his 10:42 language from and we talked in verse 23 and 24 about 10:46 how we shouldn't glory in wisdom, or might, or riches, 10:50 and then in verse 24 it said we should glory in the fact 10:54 that we understand and know Him. 10:56 But then notice verse 25, and the apostle Paul I believe 11:00 purposefully is drawing the language out of this passage 11:04 because his hearers probably knew exactly 11:06 where this was going. 11:08 At least the Jewish Christians in that day would recognize 11:12 exactly what that language was coming from. 11:15 Jeremiah 9:25, "we hope the days are coming, says the 11:18 "Lord that I will punish all who are circumcised 11:22 "with the uncircumcised. " 11:24 Now what that means is that the apostle Paul was drawing 11:28 language that was connected with circumcision. 11:30 It was the exact issue that he was dealing with in Galatia 11:33 He was essentially saying you can't glory in circumcision. 11:36 Here there was no distinction made even back here in 11:40 Jeremiah. -well he says further in the next verse 26, 11:42 "for these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house 11:45 "of Israel are uncircumcised in heart. " 11:47 That's right, that's right so again circumcision is 11:50 nothing, uncircumcision is nothing, keeping the 11:53 Commandments of God is what matters. 11:55 It is interesting sometimes when people hear Galatians 11:58 I have met people who have made this point that when you 12:00 want to talk about the importance of obeying God you 12:03 are teaching a Christ plus something gospel. 12:06 We have already gone over Galatians Chapter 3 of where 12:09 it says the Gospel is the schoolmaster to lead us unto 12:12 Christ, you take the law out and you don't need Christ. 12:15 You don't need the Gospel, what is the good news for a 12:18 person who is not condemned by the law of God? 12:20 The whole idea is that the law and the Gospel go hand-in- 12:23 hand so the price plus some thing gospel, no the Gospel is 12:26 the answer to the condemnation that comes from law. 12:29 If we are justified by faith, we know that faith 12:32 establishes the law, so there is no adding the law to 12:36 Christ because the law is embodied in Christ. 12:38 If you have Christ in the heart than the law is going to 12:41 be lived out in our life. 12:43 You know Jim, Paul hits the heart of the matter in 12:45 Philippians 3:3 where he writes, "for we are the 12:48 "circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice 12:51 "in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. " 12:54 That is an excellent verse. 12:56 You know we have come to the end of our study of the 12:59 book of Galatians and I can't think of no better way to 13:01 conclude what the apostle Paul was trying to tell those 13:04 believers, rejoice in Christ Jesus and that is the heart 13:07 of the Gospel and these believers have begun to put 13:10 confidence in the flesh and sought to live the Christian 13:13 life without a union with Christ. 13:16 But what that union with Christ then the Spirit of God 13:19 comes in and being born of the Spirit of God we can 13:22 live out the law that they were so zealously trying to 13:25 keep but never could. 13:27 Thank you for joining us and may God bless you! |
Revised 2014-12-17