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#267 - Why Galatians Is the Most Dangerous Letter Paul Ever Wrote · Brandon Fogal Evolution

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Tonight, we are going to be talking about the book of Galatians.
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I would argue it is one of the most misunderstood books in the entire New Testament.
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It is actually probably the very first book in the New Testament.
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Earlier than the Gospels, probably Paul the Apostle's first writing,
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his first putting pen to paper, and maybe that is why it's so misunderstood.
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There was a lot of things that were still progressing.
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Revelation was still coming about.
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I would not say that the apostles immediately understood everything.
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I think there was a progression to their understanding and their revelations.
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As Paul got further along in his apostleship, you could see he toned down a little bit.
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He's probably a lot younger in this book.
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So when we come to the book of Galatians, we got to understand who he's writing
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to, the time he's writing it, why he's writing it.
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There are a lot of things that go into this book so that we don't come away.
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Misunderstanding or reading it incorrectly.
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And I would argue that a lot of the church,
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for 2,000 years, has grappled with this writing, this book, this work,
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and has taken it in probably directions that the apostle did not intend it to be taken.
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But we're going to dive into it. We're going to go through the entire book.
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If you've done this with me before, I read it, text every verse,
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verse by verse, and I'll give my commentary as we go.
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But it's argued that this was probably pre the Acts Council and the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.
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This is probably before that. I would argue that it has because there are certain
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issues that Paul attacks in this work.
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And if the council in the Jerusalem Council had happened, he would have referenced that council.
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He would not have had to go on this long diatribe and arguing points and bringing
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up points to fit his argument. He could have just referenced that counsel and it was settled.
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But this is before that. What do we do with Gentiles? What do we do? That's the argument.
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That's the debate that is happening within the apostles.
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So we're going to just dive into this verse by verse. And if you have any questions,
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feel free to shout them out in the chat and I'll try to look at them and answer
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as best I can. So this is the book of Galatians.
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Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and
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God the Father who raised him from the dead and all the brethren who are with
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me to the churches of Galatia.
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Grace to you and peace from God, the father and our Lord Jesus Christ,
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who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil
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age, according to the will of our God and father to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
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And I wanted to pull up just on the screen just so you, that's not actually
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what it is. Don't want you to see that. That's not what you should be seeing.
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Avert your eyes, avert, avert. Okay. This is from Faith Bible Church.
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I just, I just wanted to find a map for Galatians, for Galatia.
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And this is what I found, the one that is easily readable.
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And you can see Paul's missionary journeys, first, second. It only has his actually first and second.
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Either way, you can see Galatia up here. I'll do my little, you can see my mouse cursor right here.
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So this is the area, and we don't know exactly what church he was writing to,
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but you can see his missionary journeys, who he passed through.
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So this is probably after his, definitely after his first, maybe after his second
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missionary journey, and he's writing to this church because he's heard that
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the people that he converted to Christ, that he shared his gospel with,
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are now going to be turning away from the simplicity of the gospel,
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and something is being added to them.
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And we're going to find out that it's more than likely these,
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who we've known them as Judaizers,
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people that are trying to get Gentile Christians to not only just believe in
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Jesus, but to return and to go under the yoke of the law, which is to become Jewish.
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And Paul is, he has got his game face on for this. He does not want that to happen.
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So he started off with his doxology, who he's writing to and introducing himself.
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Verse six, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you
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in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another.
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But there are some who 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 other gospel to you than what
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we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
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As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel
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to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
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For do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men?
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For if I still please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
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You can see that Paul came out guns blazing, that he is marveling.
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He's shocked that he was with them. And you can see that Paul's letters,
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he didn't have social media.
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He couldn't just text people. He couldn't put it on TikTok or on Twitter of what his thoughts were.
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But he had to actually write it down and send it through a courier to this church
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that he planted, these people.
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And he's saying to them, I cannot believe that you are turning away from the
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simplicity of the gospel and turning to another gospel. and he's saying that
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if anyone preaches a different gospel than what you received that's.
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Let him be accursed. That's let him be eternally condemned.
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Verse 11. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
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by me is not according to man, for I neither received it from man nor was I
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taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church
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of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.
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And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation.
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Being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
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But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me
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through his grace to reveal his son in me,
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that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with
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flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.
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But I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
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If you haven't heard of the story when Paul became a Christian,
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Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus.
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He fell off his horse, went blind for three days.
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And then Jesus had a man named Ananias come and restore his sight.
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And then he, because he gets selected, Paul, to be his, he's almost like a different version of Moses.
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Because it reminds me of Moses, because Moses in the Old Testament,
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who had such knowledge and who had such education brought up in the,
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under the best like teaching. He was like almost second in line to Pharaoh.
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And Paul, who grew up under Gamaliel, who was a very high, respected rabbi,
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teacher, and he had the best education, grew up very well off.
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And so he almost was ready for this apostleship.
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And he was very, very passionate about whatever he was involved in.
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He wanted to advance in Judaism.
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And so God took that and he harnessed that in Paul before he even became a Christian
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so that he could be a person that was devoted to Christ and could spread his
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gospel almost more than anyone has on the earth in the last 2,000 years.
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So in that little verse, so he went, I went away into Arabia.
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We see in the book of Acts that after Paul, he got converted to Christ.
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There's a verse, like one verse to the next, and there's a gap of like three
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years that Paul was in Arabia and basically just having a re-understanding of
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what he had believed because it was like a plot twist to him.
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What he expected the Messiah to be wasn't what it was.
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And so he had to almost refashion and reframe his understanding so that he could
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rightly understand who Jesus was, who the Messiah was, and then he immediately
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went into preaching the gospel.
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It says, Then after three years, verse 18, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter,
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and remained with him fifteen days.
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But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.
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Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God I do not lie.
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Afterwards I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was unknown by
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face to the churches of Judea, which were in Christ.
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But they were hearing only, he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith
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which he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God in me.
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So before Paul became a Christian, he was going up to Damascus to persecute Christians.
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And he had just come from Jerusalem of wanting, he was the one who basically
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arranged and organized and watched everyone's clothes as they were killing the
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first martyr of the church, Stephen.
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So Paul, he was very zealous for his tradition.
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He saw that somebody was coming in and they were leading people astray because
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this is what comes down to.
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And this is what I think a lot of the people in the church today do.
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They misunderstand Jesus's message in a lot of ways because they think that
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he came, He fulfilled the law so that the law is done away with when that's
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as far from the case as possible.
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Because when we think of Jesus and we say that he did away with the law,
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we're basically removing his qualifications from being the Messiah.
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And that's why it's such a stumbling block to Jews.
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It's hard for them to embrace Jesus because they see him painted as this figure
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that has done away with the law that is...
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All these things that were given to the Jews, these promises and blessings that
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were given to them, the instructions they were given to them,
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we make it seem like Jesus did away with them completely when he didn't.
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And I think that a lot of people go to this book, Galatians,
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because we see Paul and he's arguing about.
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First of all, his audience is Gentiles, primarily Gentiles in this church,
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and he does not want them to go under the yoke of the law,
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but he doesn't have the exact words and the exact tenets to give to them because
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it has not been ironed out yet that it was when it was ironed out, like I said,
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in Acts 15 in the Jerusalem council that they had.
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Because in that council, it was decided that Gentiles do not become Jews because
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if they go under the yoke of the law and become Jewish,
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they're actually nullifying a lot of the promises that God gave in the Old Testament.
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And they use a verse from the book of Amos to justify this, because it talks
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about in the book of Amos, and I think it's chapter nine, I have it,
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had it written down somewhere, had it somewhere. It was somewhere.
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I think it was Amos 9. And it's quoted in Acts 15, Amos Summers,
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but it's talking about the Gentiles in the future age that the Gentiles will
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glorify the God of heaven.
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And that promise is, it's nullified if all Gentiles and all the nations,
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people of the nations become Jewish, then that promise, that prophecy can't really be fulfilled.
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The future was that Israel would embrace their Messiah, but then all people
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from all nations would embrace the Messiah as well.
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So it's like we all get to gather together.
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And if everybody just becomes Jewish, becomes Israel, then that prophecy can't be fulfilled.
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But moving on into chapter two, so this is where we actually get Paul's personal
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autobiography of what happened. Because we see in the book of Acts that Paul,
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it's given from the writer, the historian Luke,
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and he's given Paul's account, but this is from Paul the apostle himself saying
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what actually transpired.
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After I encountered Christ, I went to the apostles, I went off, I went into Arabia. He's.
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Time frame by time frame point of view, what actually happened.
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It's pretty interesting that we actually have this from him.
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So it's not just from one person's witness, it's from Paul the apostle himself,
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his witness of what happened. So this is chapter two.
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Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and also took Titus with me.
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And I went up by revelation and communicated to them that gospel,
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which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation,
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lest by any means I might run or had run in vain.
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Yet not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.
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And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in,
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who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus,
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that he might bring us into bondage, to whom we did not yield submission even
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for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
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But from those who seem to be something, whatever they were,
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it makes no difference to me.
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God shows personal favoritism to no man. For those who seem to be something added nothing to me.
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But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had
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been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter,
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for he who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised
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also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles.
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And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace
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that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship,
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that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
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They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also
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was eager to do. So Paul's given this account of.
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You can think of them as like Pharisees, these Judaizers, they're kind of jealous
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because this is the stumbling block of the cross.
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This is the stumbling block of Christianity to Jews, because it makes it seem
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like they're not as special anymore, that anyone can come into the kingdom by
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solely trusting in Jesus.
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And this was offensive to Jews because it's saying that like,
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you don't have to go under the yoke of the law. You don't have to become a part
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of the Jewish people to inherit all the promises.
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That was what was specifically given to Paul.
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His message was Gentiles remain Gentiles, and you receive all the blessings
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that are given to the Jewish people because you're in Christ, you're in the Messiah.
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And that was offensive to Jewish people, you know?
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And that was what Peter the apostle struggled so much against himself.
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He, like he had to have, God had to like show him over and over that Gentiles are clean.
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Now you can fellowship with them.
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You don't need to, they don't need to be considered as just dogs to you as like
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just animals, but they are, they are made clean by, by becoming Christian,
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by submitting to Jesus Christ and surrendering to him.
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You know, that like, it's like, we are all on the same level now.
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And that's why the, uh, that's why Jews persecuted Paul from city to city.
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He went from one place to the next because he was preaching this like free gospel
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to everyone and making like, that's why like they were so offended by it.
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Okay. This is verse 11. Now, when Peter had come to Antioch,
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I was stood him to his face because he was to be blamed for before certain men
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came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles.
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But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
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And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him,
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so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.
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But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel,
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I said to Peter before them all, If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of
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Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?
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We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man
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is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
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Even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in
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Christ and not by the works of the law.
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For by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. I just want to quickly
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say this phrase, works of the law, what it entails can be very confusing at times.
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And I would say, and I would argue that it is specifically identifying marks
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and signs that are given to the Jewish people.
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That is primarily what it's talking about. It's about being Jewish.
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It's about, it's like all those signs of them. It's not, it's,
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it's not just about the 10 commandments or the, the commands,
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commandments in the, the five books of Moses or anything like that,
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but it's about just those self-identifying marks that God gave to the Jewish people.
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And that's like that, because what was kind of going on in, in the first century
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was become Jewish and you're good.
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It's kind of like this cheap grace that people are just trusting in their Jewish faith.
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They're trusting in their becoming Jewish, and that is what saves them.
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So it's almost this form of cheap grace, whereas the message of the gospel is
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you surrender completely and totally and solely to Jesus Christ. That is what saves you.
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It's not by relying on any of your own works or anything good you're going to
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do, but solely upon Jesus.
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He's the only thing. He doesn't just carry you the first mile,
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but he carries you the whole distance.
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Him alone. That's what it is. That's what this kind of the works of the law,
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it gets very confusing at times of what Paul is talking about.
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But I would argue it is specifically these identifying marks that apply to Jewish
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people, that that is like that they're resting in.
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And that's what Jesus had to fight against a lot of people rhetorically with
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them of you're trusting in these things as opposed to trusting in the greater
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sacrifice of the things that really bring you close to God and which is ultimately
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trusting in Jesus. All right, verse 17.
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But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found
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sinners. Is Christ therefore a minister of sin?
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Certainly not. For if I build again those things which I destroyed,
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I make myself a transgressor.
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For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
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I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
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In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God,
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who loved me and gave himself for me.
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I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the
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law, then Christ died in vain.
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And it's not just like comes through the law as in you don't murder your whole
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life or you don't commit adultery or a whole life.
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It's basically these, it's a simplified way of saying going under the yoke of becoming Jewish.
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A lot of that is what it is. And this is probably what was self understood in
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their timeframe, but it like.
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It got like distorted and it got very kind of blurred between Gentiles because
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the separation between Gentiles and Jews that happened in the first century,
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because there was major hostility that was happening.
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And as we got further away from the Jewish people, the Gentiles,
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we kind of took Paul's writings and we didn't really know what we're doing with them.
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And we didn't have the Jewish context that Paul had and the apostles had,
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and we were just taking it and applying it in our own worldview,
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in this Gentile worldview.
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And they kind of went off in different directions than Paul really intended.
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Chapter three. So this is Paul getting, he's really, this would have been like
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speaking in all caps, like almost shouting.
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Like a lot of times we miss a lot of kind of maybe the depth or the like,
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I don't know, we miss a lot of the tone because of just reading it on words,
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on pages, but Paul is probably, he's probably pacing back and forth and whoever's
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writing it for him is just like, he's just having, he's like, just like,
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he's still got, he's probably still young at this point, pretty young and he's
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very fiery and he's very upset and he's just like, he's upset at these.
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These are Judaizers, these are people that are Jewish that are going in and
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they're trying to make these Gentiles not only just believe in the gospel,
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but they're trying to add to the gospel,
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saying it's not enough that you have to become Jewish. You have to undergo circumcision.
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You're not gonna be a part of Israel and the kingdom and all the promises to us if you're not Jewish.
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And that's what Paul is like, his gospel that was specifically given to him
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is that Gentiles remain Gentiles.
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That's why he refers to it as my gospel, my gospel.
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And that's why Paul primarily focused on the Gentiles and Peter and the other
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apostles primarily focused on the Jews.
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So Paul, he is getting upset. Think of him. He is just fiery.
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He's ticked off. He's ticked off on these false teachers that are teaching something
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that he probably himself, which we see later in this book, he was teaching.
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Because he says, we're going to find out later that he says,
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if I still preach circumcision, meaning there was a point in time when I was
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preaching circumcision.
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So he's mad at these guys that are doing that. They are misleading these Gentiles.
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Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth
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before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified.
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This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works
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of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
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Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
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Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain?
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Therefore, he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you,
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does he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
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Just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness,
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therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
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And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
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preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, In you all the nations shall be blessed.
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So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
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So imagine you're like, you found Christ, you found Jesus in your life,
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you and you have this weight of guilt lifted off of you and you're,
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you are at peace and you have joy.
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But then someone says, you really, you haven't gone far enough.
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You're like maybe at the beginning stages, really, I'm going to give you some
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new knowledge that is going to just add an extra burden and weight of guilt
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to you. And this is what these guys are doing.
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They're saying, really, you're not all the way there yet.
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There's something else that you are missing. And if someone came to you and
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told you that, and you have this relationship with Jesus and you're at peace
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and you're happy, it would destroy you.
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You would think you've been living a lie that you're really not as close to
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Jesus as you thought you were.
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And that's what Paul, he's upset because these guys are hurting people that
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he had brought to the faith.
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But now Paul is going to get really into the law and what it means.
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And this is the subject matter of a lot of his conversation of what the purpose of the law was.
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Verse 10 of chapter three, for as many as are of the works of the law are under
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the curse, for it is written,
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cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in
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the book of the law to do them, but that no one is justified by the law in the
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sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith.
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Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them.
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Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse.
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I'm just like slurring that and butchering that. I'm going to start that over.
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Verse 13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
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For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing
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of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive
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the promise of the Spirit through faith.
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Brethren, I speak in the manner of men.
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Though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.
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Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
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He does not say, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, who is Christ.
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And this I say that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant
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that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
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For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise,
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but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
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So understanding why, when he's talking about this, who Abraham is, who Moses is.
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So God gave Abraham the promise.
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He's the one who, he's Father Abraham, and he gave him the promise.
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And then 430 years later, we get actually timelines is when Moses comes along
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and then the, the, the covenant at Sinai is ratified.
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So it's not to say if God makes a covenant, if something else comes along down
26:28
the road, it does not nullify something that happened before.
26:32
God does not retract or go back. He doesn't need to, but things can build upon
26:38
things and things can be more clear and.
26:42
There's more, a greater fulfillment in future things, but it does not nullify
26:47
or take away what God promised beforehand.
26:49
So the law that came along later, it's serving a purpose, but it's not just
26:54
overriding what God promised to Abraham.
26:57
Verse 19, what purpose then does the law serve?
27:00
It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.
27:06
And it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
27:11
Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.
27:15
Is the law then against the promises of God?
27:18
Certainly not. For if there had been a law which could have given life,
27:23
truly righteousness would have been by the law.
27:26
But the scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus
27:31
Christ might be given to those who believe.
27:33
But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for faith which
27:39
would afterward be revealed.
27:41
Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
27:47
But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
27:51
So this gets very obscure because you got to keep in mind who he's talking to.
27:54
He's primarily talking to Gentiles, but him being a Jew.
27:57
So there is this dichotomy, this difference within the church.
28:02
There's Jews and Gentiles in pretty much every church.
28:05
And as it grows, Gentiles pretty much take over. They become more and more.
28:11
And so we see that when Paul is talking, that the law was not given to the nations.
28:17
It wasn't given to all the nations of the world.
28:20
It was only given to the Jewish nation, the people of Israel.
28:26
Now, everybody has a specific, like a general moral law that God hasn't put on our hearts.
28:32
But like these specific commandments that were given in the first five books
28:36
of Moses, they were specifically given to the nation of Israel, only to them.
28:41
And so we see even in the Old Testament that there was people of the nations
28:45
that would come along and they would live alongside the people of Israel.
28:49
And they wouldn't, if they kind of just, more than likely, they would just become Jewish.
28:55
They would just go under the yoke. They would become circumcised.
28:58
And that's what they would do normally. And that was the safer thing to do.
29:02
And that was because you're taken upon your household.
29:05
You're not, you're saying we are of the, we are following the God of Israel.
29:08
It's not to say that everyone of every nation had to do that because we see
29:12
that the sojourner that lived among them, there were people that were Gentiles
29:17
who worshiped the God of Israel, but they didn't become Jewish.
29:20
But we see in the New Testament and when the gospel comes that in Paul's gospel
29:26
specifically, it is the argument that Gentiles do not become Jewish.
29:30
That is Paul's like his command and it is his house rule. It's saying, do not become Jewish.
29:37
Otherwise you are going to like, you're going to blur this distinction that is still there.
29:42
And you're nullifying the prophecy that we talked about earlier that was in the book of Amos.
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Verse 26, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
29:53
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
29:58
There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free.
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There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
30:06
And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
30:14
And you're probably like, wow, that just butchered what you just said,
30:17
because I just said there's still a distinction.
30:19
There's still a difference between Jew and Gentile.
30:22
And then people will be like, what do we have here? He just said, you are all one.
30:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek. He just said it.
30:31
But he also said, there is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor
30:35
female. We would still argue that there is still a distinction between males and females.
30:41
So there is still a real distinction between Jews and Gentiles.
30:46
It's not just obliterated. We're not just homogenized.
30:49
But how we approach God and how we are saved across the board is the exact same.
30:59
It's by faith in Jesus Christ.
31:02
That is what saves us. That is how we become saved.
31:06
Jason Campo, John 8, 44, ye are of your father, the devil.
31:09
He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth.
31:12
Well, I don't know. What are you referring to that? Can you give more,
31:15
like you're quoting something, but I see you're seeing a little bit,
31:18
like what are you saying on that?
31:20
Are you just saying that in general? Or Paul speaking to the Pharisees in that
31:24
time frame that are rejecting him, that are not embracing him as the Messiah.
31:29
Acts 8, 3, 13, 9, Revelation 10, Saul, he made havoc of the church,
31:34
committed them to prison.
31:35
Then Saul, who also is called Paul, the devil shall cast some of you into prison.
31:39
Yeah, I mean, yeah, you can get more information what you're talking about.
31:44
Like, I would love to hear it.
31:45
We're going through the book of Galatians. All right, chapter four.
31:49
Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from
31:54
a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until
31:59
the time appointed by the father.
32:01
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.
32:07
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son,
32:12
born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law,
32:16
that we might receive the adoption as sons.
32:19
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your
32:23
hearts, crying out, Abba, Father.
32:26
Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son,
32:30
then an heir of God through Christ.
32:32
Now, we got to keep in mind Paul's whole argument when he's going through this, why he's writing this.
32:37
He's probably writing a nice letter. He wants to, But his purpose behind what's going on.
32:42
I know Paul, he goes off on like kind of just like, just magnificent rants.
32:47
And he just says a lot of stuff that is just.
32:50
It just, it, it's in like, um, there's so much there it could be gleaned from. It's like, wow.
32:57
But he does go off on tangents, but we got to keep in mind his purpose,
33:01
why he's bringing up this whole, every verse he's quoting, every,
33:04
every like trail he goes down.
33:07
He, his primarily, his primary focus is these Gentiles are being confused and
33:12
they're being bewitched by these Jews or telling them you need to become Jewish.
33:17
That is the argument that is happening.
33:20
They're basically throwing away the simplicity of the gospel.
33:25
That is what's happening.
33:26
And Paul is, he is ticked off. Verse 8, But then indeed, when you did not know
33:31
God, you served those which by nature are not God's.
33:37
But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God,
33:42
how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you
33:46
desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years.
33:51
I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
33:55
Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you.
33:59
You have not injured me at all. You know that because of physical infirmity,
34:04
I preached the gospel to you at first.
34:07
And my trial, which was in my flesh, you did not despise or reject,
34:11
but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.'.
34:16
What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that if possible,
34:21
you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me.
34:24
Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
34:28
So I have to touch on that verse where he brings up the, you observe seasons and years.
34:34
Like when he, I would not say like people point to those things that those are
34:39
the feasts in the Old Testament, the days of observances in the Old Testament.
34:44
You got to be careful with this because I, if Paul would just refer to God's
34:49
word as just elemental things,
34:51
whenever he's like talking about like that and just say like kind of dissing
34:55
on these things, there's a difference between God's holy days and things that
34:59
he commanded and gave to the people of Israel and just regular,
35:04
because everybody in that day and age was religious.
35:06
Everybody was worshiping something. And even pagans had days that they commemorated
35:12
and they followed and they did. And that's what, like, so it could be a mixture of that going on.
35:17
Or, I mean, it could be that these Judaizers are telling these Gentile Christians.
35:22
Now that you have undergone circumcision, or we don't know if they have yet.
35:27
We don't know if they have done that.
35:28
We know that Paul is very strongly telling them not to go down that road.
35:33
But I would just say that when Paul is referring to these days and he's,
35:36
like, using these elemental things and he kind of disses on these,
35:39
like, these holy days, I wouldn't refer, I would not think that he is talking
35:43
about God's commandments in the Old Testament.
35:45
That would almost be blasphemous in a sense. And I don't think Paul would be doing that.
35:51
But there is a very specific nuance that the apostle is giving when he's going through these things.
35:56
So you have to be really careful in what he's saying and not
35:59
having his whole knowledge and understanding and just regular day speak that
36:06
they would have had more acquaintance with what Paul was referring to in certain
36:12
instances that we might not necessarily easily have like they would have had. Verse 12.
36:20
Actually this is verse 17 they zealously court you,
36:25
but for no good yes they want to exclude you that you may be zealous for them
36:30
so he's talking about these guys these guys that are coming in there and that
36:33
are deceiving them and they might not even know that they're deceiving them
36:37
they might be trying to do the good thing you can think of anybody even in our
36:42
day and age like people that are Jehovah's Witnesses,
36:45
they're wanting they're doing in like zealousness They're wanting to go door
36:49
to door and tell people about what they consider the gospel.
36:53
But if you're in deception, you're going to, even if your heart is in the right
36:57
place, you're not doing the right thing because you're not doing it like you're
37:02
not spreading the good news. You're not spreading what's truth.
37:06
And I think that these guys are trying to do the same thing.
37:09
But Paul, he kind of goes to their motives. They want you to be zealous for
37:12
them. It's like almost a notch in their belt.
37:15
We're going to try to go and get as many proselytes as we can.
37:19
And it's like, this is happening within the church. This isn't just Jews going
37:23
to Gentiles and just telling them to become Jews, but not embrace the Messiah.
37:28
These are Jews that are Christians going in there and they're telling him,
37:33
telling them, you have to become Jewish. You're not safe.
37:36
You're not really there yet until you become Jewish.
37:40
And Paul is like, he's, this is his gospel and he's going to stand for it.
37:45
But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always.
37:48
And not only when I am present with you, my little children for whom I labor
37:52
in birth again until Christ is formed in you.
37:55
I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone for I have doubts about you.
38:01
Tell me you who desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law?
38:05
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman,
38:10
the other by a free woman.
38:12
But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh,
38:16
and he of the free woman through promise.
38:19
Which things are symbolic? For these are the two covenants, the one from Mount
38:24
Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar.
38:28
For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem,
38:33
which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
38:37
But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.
38:42
For it is written, rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear.
38:46
Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor. For the desolate has many more
38:51
children than she who has a husband.
38:53
He's going down this rabbit trail like, so this Jerusalem that is above, this is the contrast.
38:59
The covenant at Sinai, and it's not like when Jesus came along,
39:05
now there's a Jerusalem that is above.
39:07
I would argue that the Jerusalem above is the people from the Old Testament
39:10
to now, all of human history.
39:13
There's people that are trying to work their way to heaven and trying to do
39:18
enough good so that they have confidence to stand before God.
39:23
Whereas from beginning to end, from beginning of human history to now,
39:27
to this present day, it's always been about trusting in the Lord,
39:32
trusting in God's promise,
39:34
trusting in him and trusting what he says and believe in him, believe in him.
39:39
And that's the difference of what Paul is like contrasting here.
39:44
He says like these people are, they're putting a yoke on you,
39:48
trying to get you to work your way to heaven.
39:50
You haven't done enough. You need
39:52
to do more. You need to do a couple more Hail Marys. You need to do it.
39:56
I'm throwing that out there. That could, you know, I don't mean to like,
39:58
I don't mean it to just, but it could go that way.
40:01
If you're a Protestant, you got to read your Bible more. You need to be just
40:04
confidence in your own doing, as opposed to the God, he saves people only this
40:11
one way by faith. It's always been about faith.
40:15
That's why David, King David, he understood like why in writing the Psalms,
40:20
he's like, blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven, whose sin God will not take into account.
40:26
Because it was trusting in the Lord. Because once you trust in the Lord,
40:30
your sins are gone. and they're washed away because Jesus paid for them all on the cross.
40:37
It's not by sacrificing animals. Those aren't atoning for your actual sins.
40:43
And that's what Paul is contrasting here, that anyone who has trusted in the
40:48
Lord in all of human history, you are a child of the Jerusalem that is above
40:53
and you're not a son of perdition.
40:57
You're not a slave of this covenant, which was at Mount Sinai,
41:00
but really just assign people to death.
41:03
Because if people are just trusting the law and their ability to keep the law.
41:08
All they're going to do is condemn themselves further and further,
41:11
further and further. And that's what it does.
41:13
It's a magnifying glass that points out your sin. That's all it does.
41:17
If God commands something, his command is just and it's right.
41:21
But all it does is show us that we can't do it.
41:24
That's all it does. We cannot do it.
41:27
And even if we outwardly do it, we're not going to be doing it from a love, a perfect love of God.
41:34
So that's kind of the distinction that is happening here with Paul and the bond servant.
41:40
He uses Hagar and then our mother, those who trust in Christ,
41:46
he uses the example of Sarah.
41:49
Abraham had his wife, Sarah, but then he had a child through Hagar who was a
41:55
slave and which produced, who is it? What's his name?
41:59
What's his name? Who is Abraham's, what is his name?
42:04
I've blinked. But you can see like, almost like that, that led to a lot of Arabs today.
42:09
A lot of just like that kind of that, like of people that we see,
42:14
you know, people that are very, can be very violent.
42:16
I know the people are violent across all spheres and people,
42:19
but I cannot, what is his name?
42:21
I'm going like, I'm almost going to have to go back and look at it.
42:23
I'm just going to Google it.
42:24
I'm going to, I'm going to think. what is it i
42:27
have to i can't do this ishmael that's what it is
42:30
you know you just go blank sometimes i just went blank ishmael
42:33
he had ishmael through hagar and then which is he paul's using a metaphor he's
42:39
making a point and that point is that having a child through a slave produces
42:45
a slave but having a child through a free woman which is his actual wife produces
42:50
the the child of promise, who is free,
42:53
that when you become a Christian, when you trust in Jesus, you're actually free.
42:58
You're actually free to be you. You don't have to keep doing things just to
43:03
make God happy, but you're free and you're a child.
43:06
That's the good news and what's awesome about it. All right. Verse 28.
43:11
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
43:15
But as he who was born according to the flesh, then persecuted him who was born
43:20
according to the spirit, even so it is now.
43:23
Nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son,
43:28
for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.
43:32
So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
43:37
That's good news. if you trust in Jesus and he's telling these Gentiles,
43:40
you are, you're, you got it.
43:42
You have all you need. You don't need to do any more.
43:46
And you're actually going contrary to my gospel. If you become Jewish and Paul
43:51
is, and becoming Jewish is like the.
43:54
The term is circumcision. If you undergo circumcision, then you are obligated to keep the whole law.
44:02
That's what it is. And because Jews, even today, are obligated to keep the whole law. They have to.
44:10
That's their covenant. They have to live it out. They're not saved by doing that.
44:15
Jews are still saved solely by faith. That's why everybody is saved by faith.
44:20
But Gentiles are not under that specific covenant.
44:24
But like I said, the council at Jerusalem has not happened yet,
44:28
where the apostles had specifically, they had given their decision.
44:35
And their decision is basically God's decision.
44:38
They were the representatives of Christ, and what they said goes.
44:44
And them to say something, like they made their decision, it was fully fleshed
44:50
out, and they said Gentiles remain Gentiles, but they did give them specific
44:54
prohibitions in Acts chapter 15, those four prohibitions.
44:59
So they didn't put them under the whole yoke of the law, but they did give them
45:03
specific prohibitions that they had to keep.
45:05
And it was expected that the Gentiles would continue to learn and follow and
45:10
go to assemble together with the reading of scripture and to learn from the
45:16
Jews and learn what their teaching was, but not to blur that distinction.
45:21
Never to blur that distinction between Gentiles and Jews, because that's the
45:24
beauty of God's overall design.
45:27
And his purpose in all this is that he's going to have people from all nations
45:31
and all tribes, and his covenant people are going to be right there in the center,
45:35
but we're all going to be gathered around him and Jesus at the throne. And it's,
45:40
in the center of all of us. So we are children of promise. Anyone who trusts
45:43
in Christ, you are like Isaac.
45:46
You are a child of promise. Chapter 5. Stand fast, therefore,
45:50
in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
45:57
Indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
46:04
And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.
46:11
I'm going to say something like, and I don't want to be gross or grotesque at
46:15
all, but a lot of males, a lot of guys that aren't Jewish are circumcised.
46:21
Most people are like, most guys are circumcised and it's become this medical
46:26
circumcision, which is, it's a healthy thing to do.
46:29
So what Paul is saying, it's not saying that everybody that's in the church,
46:32
every guy that's in there, if you've been circumcised, you're cut off from Christ.
46:36
That's not what he's saying.
46:37
He's saying, if you become Jewish, that's the whole point.
46:43
That's the whole point. And that's like why a lot of people in the church are
46:47
very, they're very hesitant when people talk about following the law or getting
46:53
into that, because we think that that's been all done away with.
46:55
It has not been done away with at all.
46:58
It has not been done, but it does not apply to Gentiles how it applies to Jews.
47:05
And so if a Gentile in our day and age became Jewish, he would be obligated to keep the whole law.
47:11
Like I've said, like I just said then and read that.
47:14
So that is, Paul has some very strong words when he says, he'll say,
47:19
you have been severed from Christ.
47:22
All right, verse three. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised
47:27
that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have been estranged from Christ.
47:32
You who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace.
47:36
For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
47:42
For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything
47:47
but faith working through love.
47:51
So it's not to say, if you obey the commandment of do not murder,
47:56
you are severed from Christ.
47:58
Or if you obey the commandment of bear false witness or, or you,
48:02
you better be committing adultery if you, because if you obey that you are severed
48:06
from Christ, that would be obviously idiotic and not at all.
48:10
We would understand, oh, that makes no sense at all.
48:12
But Paul is specifically focusing on circumcision because that commandment is
48:17
the commandment that is given to anyone who wants to become Jewish and become a part of that people.
48:23
Because once like, it's somewhat like, because we don't really understand this,
48:26
but there was things that people had to do.
48:28
If you want to become Jewish, you need to go through certain rituals.
48:32
And the final ritual would be, I don't know if those in this exact order,
48:36
but circumcision would be a part of it.
48:38
But even girls would have to go through certain rituals to become Jewish themselves.
48:43
And once you're Jewish, you are that forever.
48:46
And Jewishness is passed through people's lineage and it's passed through specifically
48:52
if your mother's Jewish, you are Jewish.
48:56
And that's why it becomes kind of like there's specific laws,
48:59
but like the Jews were given the authority and the responsibility to iron out
49:05
a lot of these things. And they did that through the oral law through that.
49:07
But then they sometimes they would add things that almost contradict.
49:11
And that's why like a lot of the Mishnah and the Talmud, it's just this,
49:14
them going through these laws and how we are to rightly, not we,
49:19
I don't want to say we, how they are to rightly obey the commandments given through Moses.
49:23
So Paul, he's talking to Gentiles. We got to keep that in mind.
49:27
He's not talking to Jews. You ran well.
49:30
Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from him who calls you.
49:36
A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in you,
49:40
in the Lord, that you will have no other mind, but he who troubles you shall
49:43
bear his judgment, whoever he is.
49:46
And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution?
49:53
So he's saying he does not preach circumcision right there. This is verse,
49:57
because this will kind of open up your eyes in a lot of ways.
50:01
What Paul refers to as the offense of the cross or the stumbling block of the cross.
50:06
This is what he's talking about. This is what he defines as the stumbling block
50:10
of the cross, preaching circumcision, and that is preaching a message,
50:14
a gospel message of you have to become Jewish.
50:18
But this is what, so Paul had to go through this kind of progressing revelation
50:23
that God had to give him because whenever he embraced Jesus as the Messiah,
50:27
was preaching Jesus as the Messiah, it was still kind of well understood.
50:30
Yes, Jesus is the Messiah and we all need to believe in him.
50:33
But really that first step is you got to become Jewish and then you embrace the Messiah.
50:40
But God specifically pointed out to Paul, that is not the message at all.
50:45
The message is trusting in Jesus solely. That's the message.
50:49
And so at the beginning, he was preaching circumcision, but he's not preaching that anymore.
50:55
He's not preaching that anymore. I don't know if y'all just heard my nose go.
50:59
Okay, there we go. I have to read this again. Verse 11, chapter five.
51:04
And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution?
51:09
Then the offense of the cross has ceased. That's the stumbling block of the cross.
51:15
I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off.
51:20
I've heard you say like, I wish they would not only circumcise,
51:23
they would just cut it all off. They would emasculate themselves.
51:26
He is, his passion is just bleeding through and pouring through every page.
51:32
And like, if you really dial it in what Paul is saying here,
51:36
he is, he is like up in arms. He's tearing his hair out.
51:41
I'd be tearing my hair out as well if I had, you know, luscious locks like some people do. All right.
51:47
Verse 13. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty.
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Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
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For all the law is fulfilled in one word. Even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you become consumed by one another.
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I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
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For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
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And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that
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you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
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Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication,
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uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred,
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contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions,
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dissensions, heresies.
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Envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand,
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just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will
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not inherit the kingdom of God. That's a tough one.
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But it's to say this ongoing, like a Christian, once they have trusted in Christ,
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because I would say any person that trusts in Christ, it's because the Spirit
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has awakened you and made you alive.
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And you're not going to, you might stumble into these things,
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but the Holy Spirit's not going to let you live in them and not,
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and live in them without conscience that just is just in anguish.
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And it just feels terrible.
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The Holy Spirit will keep like correcting you until you get the point.
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And that's, we all are going through that. We do not become perfect in this life.
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We keep touching the stove and it keeps burning us. We keep touching it and
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the Holy Spirit, but that like, so if you're a Christian, it's not to say that
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you lose your salvation, you never lose your salvation.
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But it says the people that are doing this without feeling bad, they don't care at all.
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They're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 22, but the fruit of
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the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness,
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faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
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Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh
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with its passions and desires.
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If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become
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conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Take a drink of coffee.
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So this is good stuff. This is really good stuff.
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And I'm not talking about my coffee. I'm talking about the word, God's word.
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And a lot of these things, like what he's saying here and what you kind of grapple
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with and what you take away from it, you want to go and test drive it,
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probably in the book of Romans.
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Anything that you glean from Galatians, you need to take it to Romans and really
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test drive it and see if it aligns with Romans.
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Because in Romans, you could say that Paul has really fleshed all this out.
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The Jerusalem council has happened.
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And he has like more revelation at that time.
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And it's not to say that anything contradicts, nothing in God's word ever contradicts
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it, but some things are more fully kind of understood and clearer.
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And I would just say.
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It's expounded upon in Romans and clearer to the point in Romans.
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And Paul has really thought this through. He's really ironed it out with the
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other apostles and just with all of God, the people he dealt with every day,
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the believers that he encountered.
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All right. Chapter six, the last chapter. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in
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any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness,
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considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
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Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
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For if anyone thanks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
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But let each one examine his own work and then he will have rejoicing in himself
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alone and not in another.
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For each one shall bear his own load. That reminds me of work out your own salvation
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with fear and trembling.
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Like we're all, like we are part of the body of Christ, but we're also members
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ourselves and we're to be like.
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Going through tribulations ourselves and persecutions, all this,
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that's what is in this life. And we are to fight, fight with all we have.
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You know, there's this like this balancing act.
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We fight with everything we have, but also when we're fighting,
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we understand we're, it's God doing it within us.
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And it's not that we're fighting for our salvation. We're not fighting to be saved.
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We are saved and God is sanctifying us.
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And that like, it's to, to grow closer to him, to become more holy and also
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to share his word and share the gospel with everybody else in this world.
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Verse six, let him who has taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.
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Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
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For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption.
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But he who sows to the spirit, oh, I don't know.
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I might have to, this is going to get kind of awkward. I hope y'all don't feel
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awkward. I'm going to a different camera. My camera heated up a little bit too much.
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I'm going to switch it and it might, you might see something you don't like,
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but we're going to try it. We're going to try it. All right.
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I'm going to keep going just to ride this out.
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I don't know if my camera heated up going too long. We're going too long.
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Here we go. We're going to wrap it up because my camera just said,
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what did it say? It said, let it, let it cool. I have not had that.
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Maybe I shouldn't keep these shorter. I don't know.
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I don't, I've, I've done this long as I don't, I went through the whole book
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of Romans. I don't know what's going on. We're going to go. Here we go.
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All right. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption,
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but he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life.
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And let us not grow weary doing good for in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
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Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those
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who are of the household of faith.
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See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand.
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As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you
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to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
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So you hear that? So first of all, Paul writes the large letters.
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That's where people get, he might've had a eye problem or whatever.
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But then he says, these guys, they want you to be circumcised so that they can glory in that.
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But because they don't want to suffer persecution because in the church,
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within the church, there's still this ongoing argument that like,
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no, it's, it's offensive to say that these Gentiles don't need to become Jewish.
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They need to become clean like us Jews.
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They have to become clean like, like us Jews, otherwise we can't eat with them.
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And it's, it's, it's kind of eating like eating with dogs.
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You can see these kinds of arguments happening. And Paul's saying,
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no, the Gentiles are clean. They are made clean by trusting in Christ.
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And it was tough for, for the Jews to do that. It was tough for them to accept
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it. And it was a stumbling block to them.
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And it kind of removes like, well, why are we special anymore?
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Like if everybody doesn't have to become Jewish to be saved,
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why are we still, we're not special anymore.
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It's like, if anyone can do it, like, and that's why it's offensive to him.
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And Paul's like saying, like saying to them, it's not about that.
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It's solely about Jesus, Jesus alone.
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That's it. There's nothing else. Don't add to it. If you add to it,
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may you be eternally condemned.
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If you're adding to the message, may you be eternally condemned. It's trusting in Jesus.
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That's it. Bottom line. There's nothing else. Then he says, it's because these
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guys want to get out of suffering persecution because Paul was being persecuted.
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Jews were chasing him from city to city and trying to get him killed because
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he was spreading this message of every, this inclusivity that they did not want.
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Verse 13, for not even those who are circumcised keep the law.
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He's probably talking about these proselytizers, these Jews are going on,
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but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
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But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
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For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation.
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That new creation that we are, when you have the Spirit of God, you are a new creation.
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And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God.
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From now on, let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
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Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
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So I got a weird, I'm using my phone right here, so I hope it probably looks
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kind of weird, but you can kind of still see it.
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All right. So there's so much there. I love the book of Galatians.
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And this was actually one of the first books I read after I became a Christian.
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I did a little Bible study with my friend and I knew nothing.
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None of this made sense at all. None of this made sense.
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I did not know what was happening and I was just learning it as I went.
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But when this all clicked of rightly understanding Galatians, it comes down to that.
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Gentiles remain Gentiles, Jews remain Jews, and you don't need to become Jewish to be saved.
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And I know that people obviously think that, we obviously know that,
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but it's not to toss out the law because that's where people go on the opposite
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direction because they're kind of distorting and misunderstanding some of these
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things that Paul the Apostle is writing specifically in this book.
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And in other parts of the other letters he writes, also people kind of confuse it as well.
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But this is the book that people really focus in on of saying that the law is
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done away with, which we obviously know there's good things in the law that
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Gentiles, it's good to keep.
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You know, it's good to keep the 10 commandments. It's good to keep a lot of
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things, but things that blur the distinction between Jews and Gentiles,
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that's where you got to be a lot more careful.
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So, all right, we'll leave it at that. I hope you have a wonderful day and have
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a good week ahead. Have a good Holy Week and have a wonderful Easter next week.
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I'm just excited. I hope you're excited as well. See ya.