The Underlying Issue in Our Salvation

Transcript

GR 2115
03/11/2018
The Underlying Issue in Our Salvation
Galatians 06:11-18
Gil Rugh

We’re going to the Book of Galatians, chapter 6 in your bibles. Galatians chapter 6 moves toward the close of this great letter of the Apostle Paul, written to the churches that he established on his first missionary journey. And he did revisit them at a later occasion but you would think that these churches have a special place in his heart, because they were those of his initial journeying for Christ. Carrying the gospel out into the Gentile world and I’m sure they were precious to his heart but the letter to the Galatians is not a warm letter. You don’t get that sense of closeness with them. It becomes evident again when we come to the end of chapter 6 verses 11 to 18 really form the conclusion to the letter. We often talk about the introduction to the letter then the conclusion. The introduction to Galatians, if you want to come back again to chapter 1, encompassed the first five verses and we noted then that they are very brief, to the point. Not really anything personally addressed to them, no personal references. They’re brethren. He’s writing, with the brethren who are with him, to the churches at Galatia. He gets right to the point, which is going to be the issue in the letter, and that is the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Verse three; “grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” No thanking God for things regarding them, no reference to his ministry with them in this introduction and then he goes directly, “the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins, so that He might rescue us from this present evil age.” That’s at the heart of the letter and this is the will of God the Father, and then we are immediately into the body of the letter and it’s a confrontation. “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him, the One who gave Himself for us, for our sins that He might rescue us.” Now I’m amazed that you are so quickly deserting that One, so it’s rather abrupt and that introduction focused on what is the heart of the letter, the finished work of Christ.

Now when we come over to chapter 6 verse 11, Paul is ready to draw this letter to a conclusion and it’s a rather firm direct conclusion. There’s no personal greetings, no expression of thanks for ministry there. It really is going to be a review of the main points of the letter to remind them, you can tell this is a great burden with Paul, because if they lose their grip on the gospel, they’re lost. What do they have? And we’ve noted in the letter a concern Paul has, did you really understand the gospel that you professed to believe? Was my ministry there to no effect, was it in vain and we saw he goes back and forth. He comes back and he expresses a confidence in them, he calls them brethren but they’re brethren about whom he has great concern, because without the clarity of understanding of the gospel they are in great danger.

What Paul’s going to do before his final words in this conclusion is return once more to that conflict between the cross and circumcision, that’s the underlying issue. What is the focus of our salvation and our life in Christ? Both our justification and sanctification have been accomplished in the cross and that is Paul’s only focus of life and ministry. It’s basic to everything else he’ll say as he’ll make clear in verse 14, but he wants to remind them of the issue, because this issue of the Law is confusing because God gave the Law. It’s part of His inspired Scripture, so when these teachers we call Judaizers, Jews who had professed faith in Christ but were mixing requirements of the Mosaic Law as necessary for salvation, necessary for sanctification, it was confusing the Galatian churches.

Well, some of what they say makes sense. God gave the Law. It has the authority of God behind it. God required it of the nation Israel but as Paul has made clear, it never was a way of salvation for the nation. The way of salvation for the Jews was established with the Father of the Jews, Abraham going back to Genesis 15. Abraham “believed God.” God “credited it to him as righteousness” and that was 500 years before the Mosaic Law would be given. The Law can’t be a way of salvation, not for the descendants of Abraham, the Jews. The way of salvation was always the same for Jew and now for Gentile, by faith in Christ alone, so when we pick up with verse 11, Paul says, “see with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.” It was Paul’s practice through his letters to dictate them, to be like a secretary, an amanuensis, a scribe. One who traveled with him that the Lord had provided who would write accurately the Scriptures as they were revealed to Paul, so now at the end, he does what seems to be a practice and that is to write the conclusion in his own hand, so it’s sort of authentic. We appreciate that, we have people who have expertise in evaluating autographs to see if they’re genuine, because certain autographs, particularly as we go further back, have greater value but certain autographs of certain individuals are, even currently, more valued. Well Paul really puts his autograph at the end, and not by just signing his name, Paul, but by writing some concluding remarks in his own hand.

Come back to Romans chapter 16 to see his pattern. In Romans, chapter 16 and we’ll pick up verse 22. Here is Tertius who was evidently Paul’s amanuensis in writing. It says, “I Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord,” so there you see Paul using a man who identifies himself. He writes the letter but he’s not the author of the letter, so Paul in effect would have dictated this letter, the Spirit of God inspiring Paul. Paul is the inspired apostle but then it is written down by Tertius, so he sends a greeting and evidently knows some of those in Rome and they know him, so he plays a great role. He’s not the inspired writer but he records the words of the inspired man, Paul.

Come over to 1 Corinthians, right after Romans, chapter 16 and you see here what Paul is evidently referring to when he writes at the end of Galatians that he’s written with his own hand. Verse 21, “the greeting is in my own hand”—Paul. “If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” and so on, so you see here, Paul evidently now takes up the pen. He’s been dictating it to the scribe but now he says here’s the greeting in my own hand, showing something of the authenticity of the letter, because you have the letter now written in the hand of the scribe who’s with Paul. That won’t necessarily always be the same individual. Now remember these letters had to be copied and passed on but the original here, what we would call the autograph, the original comes directly from Paul. He dictated it, as written down by this scribe and then he validates it, if you will, shows it is authentic by closing it out in his own handwriting, which evidently was recognized as Paul’s.

Come over to Colossians chapter 4 verse 18. “I, Paul write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you,” so again indicating that Paul himself didn’t sit down and write out this whole letter but he did dictate it and so at the end of the letter he gives that authentic signing off if you will, with brief words of greeting and just continue on to 2 Thessalonians, so 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Here you have a little more elaboration that might give us some light on Galatians. Verse 17, “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand,” and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter; this is the way I write, so there you can see Paul saying, this marks my letters off as genuine, because remember writing to the Corinthians he had a deal. Don’t be deluded with a letter as though it was coming from us.

You know, in that day, they were much more primitive than we are. A letter is written, it’s sent on and as we have in some of Paul’s letters, he encourages them to pass the letter on. He wrote to another church and read the letter he wrote from that church. We have this going on. You know, we have the problem now, even with our people. They are getting on our electronic media and putting out things as valid that aren’t valid and so on. Same thing there, so Paul notes, “I write this greeting with my own hand.” This is a distinguishing mark and Paul’s writing stood out and would be recognized, that guarantees the letter, so when you come back to Galatians, then he says, “see with what large letters.”

Now, you read the commentaries, there are a variety of discussions about Paul writing with large letters but evidently his handwriting is unique and there’s a variety of possibilities but one of the more recent commentaries, which is very good, says—he sorts out the various reasons with you. We really can’t finally say what the reason is. Some say it’s because Paul had poor eyesight. Remember he said that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your eyes to give them to me, if you could have. Some take that to mean he had eye problems. Others say, as we noted when we looked at that, that might have just been an expression like we would say, I’d be willing to give you my right arm, an expression to how far you would go for their benefit. Paul said they would have been willing to—maybe Paul did have an eye affliction. Some others say the writing with large letters was like our putting things in bold print and so Paul wrote in a special way here to make his concluding remarks stand out. As he told the Thessalonians, “this is the way I give my unique closing in all my letters,” so he purposely made his handwriting stand out in a way. Whatever, it is a validating signature and this was Paul’s practice.

Back in Galatians chapter 6. Paul wants them to take note of this because he precedes it with the word we have translated, “see,” which begins the sentence and it’s a command. Some of you have done Greek; it’s another of those aorist imperatives. It’s a bold command, a strong command. It draws attention to what he is saying. I want you to pay attention to this, look at this. “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.”

Now pay attention. This is a genuine letter. They’re having to deal with these false teachers. Some of them may have letters they claim from Paul. They have authority; I want you to pay attention here. This letter, the content of it comes from me. He started out in chapter 1 in his introduction in verse 1, “Paul, an apostle, not sent from men through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.” Then, further down in chapter 1, he claimed he didn’t get his message from men, he wasn’t taught it. It was directly from God.

Now as he closes the letter--pay attention, this is a genuine letter from me. The content of this letter comes from me. What that means is now you can evaluate and compare other teaching with what is true revelation from God just as we do. There are a lot of false teachers and false teaching infiltrating the church. What do we say? We have to compare it with the word of God, that’s what Paul is telling them. “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.” This letter is genuine it’s God’s word through me to you, so “any teaching that is contrary to what I have taught you what I have taught in this letter that teacher is cursed to hell, anathema. I don’t care if an angel comes,” so he takes the subjectivity out of it. It doesn’t matter if an angel came and told you something contrary to this, that angel would be on his way to hell. The truth is, the truth and the church today have the same problem with this finality in holding on to the word of God that the Galatian churches were having. You think, well we can be loose with it. Paul has a point in stressing this.

Now he’s going to go on and again attack the Judaizers. He won’t let it go. He’s repeating what he elaborated in the letter now in a concise way. Verse 12, “those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, they desire to have you circumcised so they may boast in your flesh. But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation and those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one cause trouble for me, I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.”

You can see something of the abruptness. He summarizes in a very firm direct way what he has elaborated in this letter and then he’s done. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you brethren, Amen.” It’s done. You don’t have any softening at all, even as you come to a close, so it’s going to show the real motivation of these false teachers and you see the contrast with verse 11, why it’s important. This letter is the genuine article from God Himself. It’s about the gospel that I received directly from God going back to chapter 1 regarding Christ who gave Himself to rescue us from this present evil world.

Now in contrast, those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh and one of the motivations for these false teachers is they want to have a good appearance in the flesh, in the physical realm. They were concerned about appearances. They had come up with a gospel, which is really not a gospel like Paul’s as he made clear in chapter 1, but would make them more acceptable on the human level and it’s always the pressure, let’s broaden the gospel. That’s broaden the idea of salvation let’s not be so narrow and exclusive that we turn everybody off as we would express it today, so these who want to look good among other people try to compel you to be circumcised. They have an external focus. What will people think and we battle with that if we’re honest. When we are standing for the truth, when we’re presenting the truth, sometimes we have a tendency not to want to be too clear, because I don’t want them to think negatively about me. These false teachers, Paul said that’s their motive.

I’m bringing you a message that will give you a broader ministry, and will be better received among people. They try to compel you to be circumcised. These false teachers were putting pressure on them. That word compel, is necessary. You note, they’re not denying the Person of Christ or the work of Christ. They’re not saying Jesus Christ was not God’s Son. They’re not denying that He died on the cross. They’re not even denying that He was raised from the dead. They’re simply saying that alone is not sufficient, you also must be circumcised and then keep the Law. Now the danger that confuses and confuses the church today—people say well as long as we agree on the facts of the gospel. “Christ died for our sins, He was buried He was raised from the dead,” the rest is not important and we can join together. That is not true because if you say that the work of Christ was not a finished work, it in and of itself is not sufficient, you’ve really denied the gospel, but if you could broaden it to include the Mosaic Law, you would have inroads and acceptance among a much larger contingent because it wouldn’t be so narrow. There would be Jews who would accept you because as long as you agree on circumcision and the place of the Law you can go to the other side.

You know like some Christians say, as long as you believe on the facts of the gospel, the death burial and resurrection of Christ we can call you brethren. Well the Jews could say as long as you believe in the necessity of circumcision and keeping the Law, we can call you brethren, so you see we have broadened the gospel now to be more inclusive.

They try to compel you. This word translated “compel” is used two other times back in chapter 2 and are both of those uses. Back up to chapter 2. They’re both in the same kind of context. Look at verse 3, Paul talking about the Council of Jerusalem remember and Titus had gone up with him and Titus was a Gentile. Verse 3, “but not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled,” there it is, required to be circumcised, but note this, it was “because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ, in order to bring us into bondage. We didn’t yield in subjection for even an hour, so that” (this is important) “the truth of the gospel would remain with you.” Then down in verse 14 because here “even Cephas, Peter and Barnabas got caught up in an inconsistency and they are more subtle when Jews from Jerusalem came up to visit. Well we won’t eat with the Gentiles because they’re unclean they’re uncircumcised and they don’t observe the Law so they’re defiled so we will be defiled if we eat with them and we don’t want the Jews from Jerusalem to think we would do that, so they’re withdrawing.” Verse 11, “Paul withstood Peter to his face” and then down in verse 13,”even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.

You see you have to be careful, these are two men of stature, they know Peter well and Barnabas but they want to look good, fit in. Well, verse 14, “when I saw they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel”—this is what’s at stake. Don’t minimize the seriousness. It’s the truth of the gospel that’s at stake. I’ll say more about that as we move along. “I said to Cephas in the presence of all, ‘If you being a Jew, live like the Gentiles, not like the Jews, how is it that you compel” (there you are, putting the pressure on, requiring) “the Gentiles to live like Jews?” You’ve become a hypocrite Peter and in doing so, you’re undermining the truth of the gospel, because now you’re pulling back from the Gentiles as though they weren’t truly clean before God, there was something deficient in their salvation that you’re not going to have any connection with them. Well what does that say about the gospel? It’s not complete. I’d be defiled by eating with them. Well now, the gospel’s at stake. It’s not just a matter of choosing whom you’re going to have dinner with, in this kind of context it’s an undermining of the truth of the gospel. You’re implying that the Gentiles aren’t completely clean by faith in Christ alone. Once you compromise that you’ve compromised the gospel and as Paul said in chapter 1, you “no longer have the gospel of God that He has revealed.”

Come back to chapter 6 verse 12. They do this to make a good showing in the flesh so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. You know what the offense of the cross is, it excludes everything else. You can make a compromise here and you can understand the pressure this time, the church has been established on the basis of faith in Christ back in Acts 1. Paul’s carried the message out beyond Judaism. You know, there’s a lot of pressure out there that the pagan world would accept Christianity; they have a pantheon of Gods. The Romans weren’t opposed, the people of that day, to adding another god. This was practiced, the Romans conquered, they just absorbed that god into their pantheon. It was great. We see this with the pagan religions in the Old Testament time as well, so now we could have the Jews and the Jews were a religion accepted and tolerated by the Romans. Christianity was not, so now we could include the Jews and we can avoid the persecution.

We don’t have to deny Christ. We don’t have to deny that He’s God’s Son who died on the cross and was raised from the dead, so we can hold on to what we believe and we won’t be persecuted. Now it’s true we have to also agree that the Mosaic Law is a requirement, circumcision is necessary, adhering to the Law is necessary for true salvation and then sanctification, but that’s a minor compromise when you think we will look good before men and we can avoid persecution. Think of how much more effective we will be in this pagan world if we join forces like that. I mean we agree with the Jews on all the ethical and moral things. We have so much in common so they could avoid persecution. The scandal of the cross, the stumbling block of the cross is its narrowness. Jesus Christ is the way the only way. It is by faith alone in Christ alone. You take off the alone, you’ve undermined the truth of the gospel.

Back up to chapter 5 verse 11. “But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision,” and evidently some of the false teachers were implying that saying, “well Paul really believes this, Paul teaches this, and besides as a Jew, Paul’s been circumcised. Remember he was a Pharisee when he was saved and he had spent his life keeping the Law. It’s easy to come in and say you know you misunderstood Paul or he didn’t have time to develop everything for you but verse 11, “if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?” Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. The stumbling block, the skandalon. There was a song, “The Scandalous Cross” and what is scandalous about the cross is it is the only way of salvation. Faith in the death of Christ as the payment in full for our sin. Nothing else, nothing more, nothing less, the cross and the cross-alone. That’s the scandal. That’s what’s so offensive. Those people, bible believing Christians, think they are the only ones that have the way of salvation. They think they are the only ones going to heaven. They think they’re the only ones right and we have all kind of religious alliances that join together in larger groups.

Why are those Christians so narrow, so isolated and we begin to feel that pressure? Why do we, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people say, why does everybody look at Indian Hills negatively? I’m not saying we’re the only church like it, but for our church—why do they say bad things? What are we doing? What changes should we make? We should quit being so narrow with the gospel. This is what is scandalous to people. This is what the stumbling block is. We believe the bible is truth and everyone and everything that disagrees with it is wrong. That just drives people crazy. They don’t mind whether, you know, you hold this belief, this belief, this belief. We believe in tolerance for everything but truth. The scandal, the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished if I preach circumcision. You know what he says; I don’t have to stop preaching the cross. I can preach the Person and work of Christ if I don’t preach its absolute complete sufficiency. That is the scandal, the offense of the cross is its narrowness, and that’s what offends people, that’s the stumbling block, that you people think you are the ones that are right, that you have the only way. It’s not because it’s our way. It’s because it’s God’s way.

Come back to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Paul talked about this when he came to Rome and was going to preach at Rome. Verse 17, “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, not in the wisdom of speech.” You note, instead of the simple pure clarity of the gospel you add man’s wisdom. Well I didn’t come to impress you with my intellect. He’s not sent me to baptize but to preach the gospel. By baptism? No, preach the gospel. Not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. If you make baptism a necessity for salvation, you’ve nullified the cross. If you make the wisdom of man necessary, you’ve nullified the cross. “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” This word, foolishness in this section. We carry it over into English. It’s the word moron, it’s moronic. It’s stupid, its foolishness. “The word of the cross is foolishness to those to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

That’s why the question is raised in Galatians. “Did I minister to you in vain? Did you not understand the saving power of the cross of Christ?” When you can add these other things, there’s a question. Did you not understand that the cross, remember Romans 1:16 and 17? “The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. To those of us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Verse 21, “since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” What the world looks at as foolishness is God’s wisdom at work.

You know I was rereading part of a biography of a man who has had great influence in evangelicalism, George Elton Ladd and he was driven by the desire to have acceptance as a scholar, not just as an evangelical scholar but as a true scholar in the unbelieving world. He adjusted his theology accordingly. His doctorate from Harvard encouraged other evangelical Christians to go to Harvard and get their doctorate, so you can get it there. The title of his biography and it is a favorable biography, A Place at the Table. He wanted to sit with the world scholars, and be recognized as a scholar. You have to make compromises with the gospel to do that.

Another book written by a professor at an evangelical school that I’ve read to you on a number of occasions says, “the problem with fundamentalists is their narrowness. They insist on a literal biblical account of creation. It cuts them off from acceptance in the scholarly scientific world. They are so narrow in their interpretation of the bible” and on it goes. When you want acceptance and recognition by the world, you have to make a compromise.

Paul goes on down in verse 23, still 1 Corinthians 1. “We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block to Gentiles foolishness.” We don’t fit anywhere in the world of the unbeliever. Paul was saying, “I know what the Jews want and I know what the Gentiles want. We preach Christ.” Down in chapter 2 verse 1, “when I came to you, brethren, I didn’t come with superiority of speech or wisdom.” He didn’t come, let’s start out at least with making a connecting point. They’ll know I’m a very intelligent well-educated man. I didn’t come with superiority of speech or wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. You get the idea, Paul wasn’t afraid of anything. He just stormed into town and blasted them with the gospel.

No, he says, “I was with you in weakness, and fear and in much trembling.” He was a man, he was human. He’s like you, like me, and coming in here, in the face of opposition of Jew and Gentile alike and knowing the opposition he would face, the rejection of the message that would come. It was unnerving but “my preaching” (my message of my preaching) “was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God, and we are preaching wisdom but it’s God’s wisdom.” It doesn’t impress the world but it is God’s way of salvation, so false teachers aren’t necessarily those who deny the Scripture. They don’t deny Christ.

I’m going to read you a little bit. This is Catholic because they’re clear. Protestants don’t usually know wherever they are. At least Catholics have a doctrine, wrong as it is, you can identify something. Protestants just think, “do your best, do good. Help everybody and you’re on your way.” The Roman Catholic, this is from their Official Catechism of the Catholic Church and I believe this is the most recent one that they have done. “The church affirms, (referring to the Roman Catholic Church) that for believers the sacraments are necessary for salvation.” The sacraments, the mass, baptism, the other sacraments and that’s how you can get saved and to get started you have to be baptized and here’s what they say. “Through baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God. We become members of Christ and we are incorporated into the church. Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration.”

How’s that different from the Jews saying circumcision is necessary for salvation? Recently with the death of a prominent evangelical, we hear them saying, one thing that happened when the Reformation--the line between Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics was drawn, and Evangelical Christians opposed the Catholics as not being fellow Christians, but now in recent times we’ve come to a new understanding, and now evangelicals consider Roman Catholics as fellow Christians. Somethings wrong. I’m not saying Evangelicals haven’t made those kinds of changes, but we don’t have the same agreement. This is like saying, well that was Paul’s writing but now we’ve come to understand the Judaizers are fellow believers. What’s changed the gospel?

I give the Catholics credit from the standpoint they’re clear, through baptism, we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God. You can’t be saved by faith alone, the saving will of God, the necessity of baptism for salvation. “The church does not know of any means other than baptism that assures entry into eternal blessing. By baptism, all sins are forgiven, original and personal sins as well as punishment for sin. Baptism not only purifies from all sins but also makes the neophyte a new creature, an adopted son of God who has become a partaker of the divine nature, member of Christ, coheir with Him, a temple of the Holy Spirit. Baptism makes us members of the body of Christ. Baptism incorporates us into the body of Christ, the church. We are justified by faith in baptism.”

On it goes, then they refer, “The Counsel of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith,” and gives a summary, I just happened to have brought with me. The Council of Trent was done in the 16th century in reaction to the Protestant Reformation. Listen to what they said then, “Nothing has changed in Roman Catholic doctrine. If anyone denies that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in baptism, the guilt of original sin is remitted, let him be anathema.” If you deny that you received the grace of Christ to remove your sin in baptism, they say you’re anathema. The very opposite of what Paul say’s in Galatians chapter 1. “The instrumental cause is the sacrament of baptism, which is the sacrament of faith, without which no one is ever justified.” So, they equate faith with baptism and of course, faith is not the absolute necessity, because the babies they require to be baptized soon after their birth—what--so they don’t go to hell, so really what saves you is the baptism.

“Wherefore, no one ought to flatter himself with faith alone fancying that by faith alone he is made an heir and will obtain an inheritance.” Don’t flatter yourself into thinking you’re saved by grace through faith alone that’s why that alone, become the key. People get confused, just like the Judaizers by confusing--Roman Catholics say oh yeah, we believe in the Virgin Birth. We believe in the deity of Christ. We believe in His death and resurrection we’re fellow believers. They don’t think you’re really a fellow believer because the church holds the keys to salvation regardless. They have over time sort of mellowed in some of the ways they emphasize things but the doctrine hasn’t changed. It is interesting in their modern catechism they say the Council of Trent expresses our faith and some Catholics will say, well the Council of Trent that was a long time ago, but nothing has ever changed the doctrines expressed there.

“If anyone says that by faith alone the impious is justified in such wise as to mean that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, let them be anathema.” In other words if you say that faith alone is not enough to bring you complete salvation, you’re cursed to hell. I give them credit; at least they are clear on where they stand. “If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ’s sake, or this confidence in faith alone is enough to justify, let him be anathema. If anyone says that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified because that he assuredly believed, (and I won’t go on reading,) let him be anathema,” and I have many markers but I won’t keep reading to you.

That’s just an example, how can people, who profess, believers, come and we have a document, “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” that was done a number of years ago. Can you imagine what Paul would say “Bible Believing Christians and Judaizers Together” now? We finally come to realize we’ve grown, we’re fellow believers. Roman Catholicism didn’t have to change anything, but we evangelicals have come to realize it’s bigger. I use that like I say, it’s hard to find Protestants, they’re all over the map. They are basically “good works” people. We find that; we have some of you going door to door carrying the gospel. People go to church and they answer the door but they don’t want to hear the gospel.

We need to be careful in our presentation of the gospel. You know it’s simple, can anybody who’s a believer, say well I wouldn’t be able to, you know, I can’t tell them what the gospel is. Why not? You’re a sinner. The penalty for your sin is death including an eternal condemnation in hell, but Jesus Christ the Son of God came to die for your sins. If you’ll believe in Him, you can have life. I can’t answer all their arguments. You don’t have to answer, they’re all human. Paul said, “when I came to Corinth I didn’t come prepared to answer all the arguments. I just came to present Jesus Christ, and Him, crucified. I don’t believe what the bible says about this or that. Now let me just tell you the one thing you need to hear. The bible does say that you’re going to have to believe, one day or another, sooner or later. You’re a sinner and you’re under condemnation for your sin but Jesus Christ, the Son of God came and died on the cross to pay the penalty. That’s a demonstration of how much God loves you. He gave His only Son to die for you so you wouldn’t have to perish.”

Back to Galatians 6, I haven’t forgotten where we are because I have notes. This constant emphasis on the simplicity and purity of the gospel, verse 13. “For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so they may boast in your flesh.” Now commitment to circumcision was a commitment to obey the Law, not just the Ten Commandments, all 613 commandments of the Law. Remember, there was a man who got stoned to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath. This is serious business but those who were circumcised, they don’t even keep the Law. It’s a commitment to salvation by works but they can’t attain to it, the perfection that the Law would require. Back in chapter 2 of Galatians verse 16, verse 15, “We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles.”

The Jews had such confidence in their circumcision and in their possession of the Law. That’s why they wouldn’t eat with Gentiles, they’re dirty, they’re defiled, we’re clean. By their ritual they lost, you know, they didn’t have the understanding. “Nevertheless,” Paul said, “knowing that a man is not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus. Even we,” referring to ‘we Jews,’ from verse 15, “have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, not by works of the Law since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

Let me read you Acts 15. I was going to take you there. Peter at the Jerusalem Council and he should have known better, but when he got out there among the Gentiles as we saw in chapter 2, he sort of got shaky like we do when we get out there. With some people, you know, all of a sudden we get a little bit nervous about being too clear with the gospel and now here Peter says, “you know, we’re Jews.” At the Council of Jerusalem, he’s clear. “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?” Acts 15:10. “He stood up and said you can’t require the Gentiles to keep the Law we Jews could never keep the Law. Our ancestors down through history, our fathers Jewish fathers couldn’t keep the Law. That’s why we had the sacrifices, for when we broke the Law we brought a sacrifice. We never did keep it. Why would you retain that?”

“They desired to have you circumcised,” back in chapter 6 “that they may boast in your flesh.” The Judaizers wanted to boast in winning converts. They could brag in Jerusalem and so on. They could brag among Jews. You know we’re winning them back to Judaism. Oh, don’t get upset that they believe in Jesus, they’re committed to keep the Law, be circumcised and to keep the Law, so we brought them back under our umbrella. Again, the motivation is external. Look successful and this constantly sweeps through the church, that idea. I saw reading an article on a church that was giving away a free car, and I forget, their doing it every week for six weeks, something like that and they were advertising it. Come to church, you sign in, we’ll be doing a drawing and if your name gets drawn you get a free car. I think attendance went up three-fold for those Sundays and they interview people. Well you know, I’ve thought about going to church. Didn’t know where I would go but when I heard about a free car I thought I’d go. That’s what church is? Get a free car, other things to bring people in, so let me summarize this.

Paul revealed these false teachers were motivated by, three things. They wanted to look good the first part of verse 12, they desire to make a good showing in the flesh. They’re concerned about what other people think. They want to be respected they want to be viewed as successful. They want people to not look at me and no, no, I don’t want to be viewed as a bible thumbing fundamentalist. They’re less than intelligent and our kind of people. This is a trap for us. We make changes for appearance’s sake. That can be just keeping our faith secret. You may remember 1 Samuel 16:7. “Man looks at the outward appearance, the LORD looks at the heart” and Jesus said in Luke 6:26, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you,” that’s the way their fathers used to treat the false prophets, so we are not doing it to look good.

They “wanted to avoid persecution” at the end of verse 12, “so they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.” The worst thing that happens to the church, we want to fit in, fit into the world around us. We’re not to fit in; we don’t belong here. We’ve been rescued out of this present evil age. We’re strangers and pilgrims here our citizenship is not here, so we compromise and that’s the danger, to avoid persecution we are sometimes softening the gospel. Let’s take that sharp edge off the gospel, let’s soften it. We want to have a church for all people. Well, all people are welcome but all people aren’t going to be comfortable here because the truth is offensive. The preaching of the cross is offensive to those who are perishing.

When we take the offense out of the message, what have we done? We’ve removed the power of the gospel; it’s the truth that the Spirit uses to convict men of sin, righteousness and judgment. It’s necessary. We want unbelievers who come to be made uncomfortable so that God might convict them and bring them to salvation. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you falsely say all kind of evil against you because of Me,” Matthew 5:11. We have a hard time with that. We think we ought to be admired by the world. You know they’ll admire us for our convictions even if they don’t agree with us. That doesn’t come from Scripture. It doesn’t, they didn’t admire Christ. Why do you want to kill me, a man who told you the truth? What did Paul say? “Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?”

Thirdly, they wanted to brag about success at the end of verse 13, “they want to boast in your flesh.” You become a statistic, a conquest for them to boast about, Peter warned about this in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 3, “in their greed they will exploit you with false words.” That’s what the false teachers do, they exploit even believers with false words and believers are lured into compromise and then into confusion. We don’t want to become trophies for false teachers, for error. Ephesians said we would be “trophies of God’s grace for eternity.” I don’t expect the admiration of the world. I don’t even expect admiration from evangelicals. Neither should you. We have a commitment to the truth. If were hated by all men for Christ’s sake, so be it. That’s a wonderful reputation. Those people are so loyal to Christ they don’t believe anything else. Thank you, that’s exactly what we believe. “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” That’s the message we have to share and that’s the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes it.

Let’s pray: Thank You Lord for Your word, its truth. What a treasure it is and we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Its been entrusted to us and Lord how blessed we are. We carry with us, we have in our homes this copy of Your very words. We know we’ve memorized the truth of the gospel. What an honor it is to be identified with the King of kings and Lord of lords. What a privilege to be identified with Christ to suffer because of our identification with Him. Lord, we want to manifest the beauty of Your character but we realize the unbelieving world does not appreciate that beauty, does not appreciate the clarity but Lord we would not be intimidated, we would not be discouraged, we would not become weary. We want to be faithful. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen





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