Sermon Collection

To Know Him Is To Love - Galatians 5:22a

Keith Doster — 2012-01-29T22:25:25Z

For many years, the best known Bible verse was John 3:16. But in recent years, as you know, John 3:16 has been challenged for the top spot by Matthew 7:1 (in the King James Version) - Judge not, that ye be not judged. However, I believe another verse, or another portion of a verse, may have both of those verses beaten for being the best known, most familiar biblical passage in America - 1 John 4:8 - “God is love.”

For at least a century, the liberal thinkers within Christendom have succeeded in convincing us that God possesses the single attribute of love, and that to an infinite degree. He directs that love towards all people indiscriminately and equally while seriously neglecting all other divine attributes. We’ve been taught that God is love and very little else. God possesses a kind of blind, ignorant, emotional love that somehow does not recognize people as sinful and rebellious. And this is the fertile false doctrinal ground in which all kinds of lies grow and prosper such as, “God loves you just the way you are.” That one sentence instantaneously removes the necessity for repentance from sin in many people’s minds.

This naïve idea of God loving men to the neglect of His justice and holiness is extremely dangerous. It causes critics to ask the question, “How could an all-loving God allow so much suffering in the world?” It also causes others who claim to be Christians to say things like, “My God would never elect some people to salvation and not others. My God is not like that. My God would never send people to Hell”

This warped perception of a God who is strong on love but really weak on wrath and condemnation and the punishment of evil has caused some of us to lean so far in the other direction that we hesitate to even recite the phrase “God is love.” When I quote that verse, I feel compelled to follow it up and balance it out with Psalm 7:11b - God is angry with the wicked every day. These liberal ideas about God’s love has actually made the discussion of the love of God very complicated.

But what makes it even more complicated is the largeness of the topic of love. In a few weeks we’ll have a holiday that is simultaneously enjoyed and hated by millions - Valentines Day. It’s supposed to be about love. But is it? What is love? On Friday night we saw a sign outside a local church that says, “Money buys the dog, but only love wags the tail.“ Does that help us understand biblical love?

The Bible says in 1 John 4:8, God is love. So if God is love, then is love God? If A = B, then doesn’t B = A? Is God’s love like Valentine’s Day love? If not, then what IS God’s love like? Is it like the love I felt in the 10^th grade towards my girlfriend which only lasted a couple of months? Is it like Tina Turner’s song, What’s Love Got To Do With It? where she says “What’s love but a second hand emotion?” Is there no real substance to love?

If I asked you to quote a Bible verse with the word “love” in it, how long would it take you to think of 10 examples? Lots of passages quickly come to mind: “For God so loved the world”. “What manner of love is this, that we should be called the children of God.” “This is love, not that we loved Him, but that He first loved us.” “Love one another.” Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Love the Lord your God. . ..“ ”Husbands love your wives.” “Love is patient, love is kind.” “The greatest of these is love.” “If you love me, keep my commandments.” “Love not the world.” “Love your enemies.” If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them (Luke 6:32 ESV).

According to one search I performed, there are 281 verses in the Bible that contain the exact word “love”. And some verses have it three or four times.

So when Paul says the fruit of the Spirit is love, what is He talking about? An emotion? A feeling we’re to maintain towards others? A very basic word study reveals that the Greek word is agape, a word that has been used and misused for decades within Evangelicalism. Also, there are two different Greek words in the New Testament which are unfortunately translated with only one English word “love”: agape and phileo. They are not synonymous words. Agape speaks of a selfless, intimate but not sexual love for others; a sacrificial love. “Phileo” is generally understood to be brotherly or familial love.

The best text in the New Testament to explain the difference between phileo love and agape love is John 21. Look there with me for a moment. The context is the 40 days after Jesus rises from the dead and before He ascends into heaven. Peter and the other apostles had been instructed by the Lord to go to Galilee and there they would see Him. So they go to Galilee and while they are waiting, Peter says to the other disciples with him, “I’m going fishing” and they say “We’ll go with you.” So they head out, fish all night and catch nothing.

The next morning, a man on the shore (who, unbeknownst to them, is Jesus) shouts to them from the shore that they should be fishing on the other side of the boat. So they throw the net over the other side and catch so many fish the net will hardly hold them all. Then John says to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” Immediately, Peter the fisherman leaves the biggest catch of his life, dives into the water and swims ashore to be with Jesus and have breakfast with Him. Now look at verse 15.

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love [agape] me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love [phileo] you." He said to him,"Feed my lambs." 16 He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love [agape] me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love [phileo] you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." 17 He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love [phileo] me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love [phileo] me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love [phileo] you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. (John 21:15-17 ESV)

Jesus caused Peter to be grieved, he was heartbroken because of the difference in the two words Jesus used: Peter do you love [agape] me? The word implies love even to the death. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13 ESV). Peter knows how much Jesus loves him. That is not in question. Jesus does not say, “Peter do you know how much I agape you?“ He doesn’t have to ask that question. They all know without doubt that Jesus has displayed the greatest love a man can give for His friends, even for the friend who denied he knew Him three times.

Because of his desertion, Peter knows better than to tell Jesus that his love for Him is such that he would give his own life for Christ. He miserably failed that test. Yes, Peter likes Jesus. He likes Him a lot. And he is greatly distressed that he cannot honestly say because of his own sin against the Lord that he loves Him with all of his heart, even to the point of death.

And that is the whole point of the question: “Peter, do you phileo me?“ “Do you like me?” “Of course I do! Lord you know I do!“ He likes Jesus, but he does not yet love Him with no regard for his own life. But we know the rest of the story. Soon, Peter will indeed agape, he will love Christ with all of his heart. He will fearlessly preach the gospel to the very people who crucified the Lord when he receives the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, because the fruit of the Spirit is real, selfless, sacrificial love.

The word Paul uses, agape or phileo, depends upon the context. For example, 1 Corinthians 15:22 says, If anyone has no love [phileo] for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! If a person doesn’t even like the Lord Jesus, if he doesn’t even have a familial love, or the love that good friends share, then let that person be condemned. May they be accursed. The one who doesn’t at least have phileo love for Christ does not know Christ. They have not believed the Gospel.

There’s another passage which shows the distinction between these two kinds of love, 2 Peter 1, beginning in verse 3.

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection [phileo], and brotherly affection with love [agape]. (2 Peter 1:3-7 ESV)

As believers, we are to have both brotherly affection and sacrificial love towards one another. It is not sufficient for us to call each other brother or sister and to enjoy being members of this spiritual family and love one another as spiritual siblings. Do we agape, do we really love one another deeply, from the heart? Would you be grieved like Peter if I asked, “Do you even like each other?” We call each other family, we say God is our father and Jesus is our brother. But do we really love each other like family? And that is before we even talk about life-sacrificing love for one another.

The word Paul uses in Galatians 5 for the primary fruit of the Spirit is not phileo, but agape. The fruit which is generated in our hearts by the Holy Spirit is the exceptional love that sometimes even leads to the laying down of our lives for one another. Paul did not say the fruit of the Spirit is like. Nor did he say the fruit of the Spirit is tolerance. Yes, sometimes there are things about us that we may not particularly enjoy about each other, but do we truly love each other in spite of those things, or do we merely tolerate one another? Without the Spirit-given fruit of self-sacrificing love, we have to ask ourselves if we have been truly born again.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 13 and we’ll see just how fundamental this particular fruit of the Spirit is. Some of you are thinking, “I was wondering how long it would take him to get to 1 Corinthians 13, the Love chapter.” You cannot afford to tune out what I’m about to say because you’ve already heard a thousand sermons on love from 1 Corinthians 13. Please listen carefully.

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13 ESV).

Regardless of any other giftings or abilities the Lord may have granted to us, if we do not exercise sacrificial love towards one another, we are like useless noisy gongs, we gain nothing, we are nothing. What does that mean? To speak in the tongues of angels without love is just noise! To have great wisdom and understanding of the deepest of spiritual mysteries without love makes me useless to the Body of Christ. To have faith enough to be able to speak to this mountain and cast it into the sea, without love, is a worthless faith. If I’m willing sacrifice all my earthly possessions for the sake of others, and if I’m willing to sacrifice my own life for others even by the excruciating death of being burned alive (which is how I take what he is saying), but my sacrifice is not motivated by the love of God, it is all for nothing.

We’ve got these little baby bottles which we’ve decided to fill up between now and Valentine’s Day with our loose change for the sake of A Woman’s Concern. Why are you doing that (if you’re doing that)? What is your motivation for contributing to the offering basket each week or each month?
Why do we come here and share our prayer requests and pray for one another? Do we pray for one another once we leave this building?
Why does Kathy play the piano and print up the bulletins for us week after week?
Why do so many of you prepare food for the rest of us every Sunday?
Why do you voluntarily watch our children in the nursery every week, a virtually thankless job?
Why does Sam prepare the recordings of the sermon every week for our webs site?
Why does Rob work on our web site?
Why do I spend hours and hours writing sermons each week to preach to you again and again and again, year after year?
What is it that motivates us to do all this church stuff?

If any of us do these things for any reason other than because we are motivated by sacrificial love for God and for one another, a love that is generated in us by the Spirit of God, then there’s really not much point in doing it. It is for nothing. It is noisome. It is pointless. It is vain. It is worthless. That is how important this fruit of the Spirit called love really is.

Notice verse 4 - Love is patient and kind. If we look back at Paul’s list of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians we see that patience and kindness are there. This seems to imply that all of the fruit of the Spirit is built upon the foundation of love. It is agape love that provokes patience. Patience, kindness, and all the fruits of the Spirit grow from this soil called love.

The fruit of the Spirit is a package. The fruit of the Spirit is not like the gifts of the Spirit. God may give one of us a certain gift or two, and someone else different gifts to be used for the sake of the church. But the fruits of the Spirit are all cultivated in each of us. All of these fruits are characteristics the Spirit works in every believer. But the greatest of them all is love.

Now I could end this message by saying something like we all need to search our own hearts, to be honest with ourselves like Peter who knew he did not yet love the Lord Jesus as he wanted to or as he ought to. But really, when has anyone ever loved the Lord as he ought to? I could end on that note, but I’m not going to do that.

Rather, I’m going to say this: In spite of a very pleasant outward demeanor that I see among us nearly all the time, I’m tempted to think we must really believe the fruit of the Spirit is tolerance. I believe many if not all of us, myself included, have thought that phileo love, brotherly love, is sufficient. And as long as we never get outwardly, observably upset with one another, then we must really love each other a lot. But that’s not entirely true. We are often guilty of merely tolerating each other and sometimes we don’t even do that very well, rather than loving one another even with a familial love, brotherly love.

Do we love each other deeply? Do we even love each other like family? Or is it just a superficial tolerance of each other? Are we genuinely concerned about one another to the degree that, if it were necessary, we would give our lives for one another? Or have we confused putting up with each other with Holy Spirit-motivated love? Just how difficult is it for us to look past the things we don’t care for in our brothers and sisters in this room for the sake of love?

There is a passage of Scripture which contains the word love that I did not mention earlier, but you are all familiar with it. Peter said, “Love covers a multitude of sins.” A multitude of sins. He should know. If we’re going to really love each other as the Bible prescribes for us, we will have to look past our own needs, we will have to sacrifice our own lives, we will have to deal with, and then look past a multitude of sins in those around us. Listen to brother Peter:

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies--in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:7-11 ESV)

Do we really love the Lord? Do we really love each other? Love for God and each other is the foremost evidence of the presence of the Spirit of God in our lives.

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. (1 John 2:10 ESV)

Bearing Fruit by Abiding in the Vine - Galatians 5 and John 15

Keith Doster — 2012-01-22T23:45:00Z

Today I want to look with you for a few moments at the flip side of my message from two weeks ago. We looked at Paul’s list of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5, and a sordid list it is. We defined in brief detail what those sins actually consist of. But today we want to focus on the fruit of the Spirit in the life of the believer. Before we do that, I want to revisit that sordid list for just a moment. Let me read to you a short news story I saw a few days ago.

Pagan mom challenges Bible giveaway at North Carolina school

By Jonathan Serrie Published January 19, 2012 | FoxNews.com

A pagan mother's challenge to the distribution of donated Bibles at a local school has prompted the Buncombe County Board of Education to reevaluate its policies regarding religious texts.

Ginger Strivelli, who practices Witchcraft, a form of Paganism, said she was upset when her 12-year-old son . . . came home from North Windy Ridge intermediate school with a Bible. The Gideons International had delivered several boxes of the sacred books to the school office. The staff allowed interested students to stop by and pick them up.

"Schools should not be giving out one religion's materials and not others," Strivelli said. According to Strivelli, the principal assured her the school would make available religious texts donated by any group. But when Strivelli showed up at the school with pagan spell books, she was turned away.

"Buncombe County School officials are currently reviewing relevant policies and practices with school board attorneys," the district announced in a written statement. "During this review period, no school in the system will be accepting donations of materials that could be viewed as advocating a particular religion or belief." (So now there will be no Bibles distributed in any schools in that district)

The school board is expected to address the issue at its next meeting Feb. 2. According to legal experts, the First Amendment gives public schools two clear choices when it comes to the distribution of religious texts.

"You can either open your public school up to all religious material, or you can say no religious material," Michael Broyde, a professor and senior fellow at Emory University's Center for the Study of Law and Religion said. "You can't say, 'You can distribute religious material, but only from the good mainstream faiths.'" (I.e., You must be fair and open it up to the bad wacko faiths as well)

And it goes on from there. All that to say the promotion of sorcery, one of the sins in Pail’s list, is quite alive and doing remarkably well in the public schools of North Carolina in 2012. Paul’s list of sins is timeless. Idolatry is not an extinct sin. Sorcery and witchcraft are not a thing of the past. This list of the works of the flesh will endure until the Lord returns. So when I encourage you as I did two weeks ago to avoid such things as Halloween and the Twilight TV programs, it is because Paul says to avoid those things.

Now, let’s turn together once again to the book of Galatians and I want to read to you from chapter 5, and verses 16 through 23.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:16-23 ESV)

Many years ago I was teaching on the topic of holiness and the need for Christians to live godly lives. This is certainly one of the most basic doctrines of the Bible. God’s people are to be holy even as He is holy. Old Testament, New Testament, it doesn’t matter. We read this throughout the Bible. It applies to Israel in the Old and to the elect of God in the New. There are multitudes of passages that instruct us in this matter.

The creation of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness is a study in the holiness of God.
The Old Testament sacrificial system is built around the concept of holiness.
The sin of Adam and his expulsion from the Garden of Eden is about un-holiness.
Sodom and Gomorrah teach us of the consequences for people who lack holiness.
The nation of Israel was sanctified by God to be His exclusive, holy people.

The pages of the New Testament are replete with commands for personal holiness. The writer of Hebrews puts it very bluntly by saying without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Holiness is a theme found on every single page of Scripture. Even the cover of your Bible probably has the word “Holy” on it.

However, in response to my teaching many years ago, someone who thought I was being legalistic accused me of being a spiritual “fruit inspector”. It wasn’t a compliment. I was reminded that personal holiness is optional. Those who want to delve deep into the Christian life can pursue a godly lifestyle by deciding to make Jesus their Lord. But holiness is certainly not necessary for salvation. I was told that yes, we need Jesus as our Savior. But obeying Him as Lord is totally unnecessary.

Beloved, the only way anyone can come to that conclusion is to entirely ignore the what the Biblical text constantly says. That is what this person did. In fact he readily admitted that most of the Bible does not directly pertain to Christians. None of the Old Testament was written to us. Obviously, that would include the ten commandments, as well as the rest of the Mosaic Law. And since we’re no longer under law, but we’re under grace in the Church age, none of that Old Testament stuff applies to us.

I was further instructed that except for the letters Paul wrote during his imprisonments (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon), none of the Bible, including the rest of the New Testament, pertains directly to us. In my Bible, this would mean that I could virtually ignore all but 14 of the 1241 pages of the text. According to this theological position, with the exception of the 14 pages of Paul’s prison epistles, the entire Bible is addressed to the Jews exclusively, not to the Church the Body of Christ. Even more astounding is that this man’s hero is the apostle Paul.

Paul himself was a “fruit inspector”. That is evident from his words to the Corinthian believers in 1 Corinthians 5 when he commands that church to immediately excommunicate a man for having sexual relations with his own step-mother. Sometimes the Church needs godly people to be “fruit inspectors”. (See 1 Corinthians 5:1-3)

In Galatians, Paul uses the word “fruit” to describe the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life. Paul teaches that every genuine Christian, every follower of the Lord Jesus, possesses (or is possessed by) the Spirit of God. The Scriptures refer to Him as the Holy Spirit not merely to distinguish the Spirit of God from the UNHOLY spirits, or demons. Rather, He is referred to as the Holy Spirit because He is 1) inherently holy and 2) because He indwells the believer to MAKE HIM or HER HOLY.

The Holy Spirit is perhaps the greatest gift God gives to the Christian. The Spirit of God, the third Person of the Trinity, lives within us. He dwells in our hearts to make us compatible with God Himself. But sadly, in spite of our salvation, in spite of our union with Christ, and in spite of the Spirit’s indwelling presence, somehow we still find the will to sin. And yet the Holy Spirit remains in us and perseveres in His work to cause us to will and act according to God’s good pleasure and not according to the desires of our flesh.

For someone to oppose that unbelievably gracious work of God in our lives by teaching that holiness is optional is the very definition of quenching the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s work is greatly hindered when people teach such things as, “Jesus is not Lord unless you give Him permission to be Lord. He is too much of a gentleman to impose His will upon us. He would never insist that we bow to Him as Lord.” I can’t think of anything that kills the desire for personal holiness and feeds sinful desires more powerfully than that heresy. Brethren, Jesus is Lord. And the Holy Spirit’s task is to make the people of God holy by teaching us first to agree with, and then to comply with the will of our Lord.

We want to try to understand this biblical concept of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives as Christians. When Paul says in Galatians 5 that we are to walk in the Spirit, the evidences that are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In 5:19 Paul says the works of the flesh are not good. He uses the word “works” or in some translations “deeds”. But here in verse 22 he refers to the “fruit” of the Spirit. Why does he choose that word “fruit” to describe what the Spirit does in us and not the word “work”? It may seem insignificant, but it isn’t accidental. I believe Paul intentionally uses the word “fruit” and not the word “work” because it is the same word Jesus used. Look at with me at John 14:15-17.

15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:15-17 ESV)

Here is the promise of the Lord to send to His disciples and to us, the Holy Spirit. Notice He says the Father will send the Spirit to those who love Jesus and keep His commandments. The Spirit will come and stay forever with and in His people. This is a tremendous promise, and surely the disciples did not understand fully what Jesus meant by all of this. Even we today have difficulty fully grasping all we read concerning the Holy Spirit. Now skip over to verses 25 & 26.

25 "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:25-26 ESV)

After the departure of the Lord Jesus, he will send the Holy Spirit. But let’s back up and look at the bigger picture for a moment. We see that:

The Father has sent His Son to propitiate His own wrath against the sin of His people.
The Son sacrifices Himself for their sins and is their substitute in whom the Father is pleased.
We know the Father is pleased with the work of Christ because He raises Him from the dead.
The Son returns to the Father to prepare a place for the people He has redeemed.
Then, at the request of the Lord Jesus, the Father sends the Holy Spirit in the name of the Son to remain with His redeemed people, to be with them and dwell in them and to continue to remind them of everything Jesus taught.

This is the work of the Trinity on behalf of the people of God and it is a marvelous thing in our eyes. So Jesus tells the disciples He will send the Holy Spirit. Now look at John 15, beginning at verse 1.

1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another (John 15:1-17 ESV).

What Jesus is saying here in this last conversation with His 11 disciples before His death is this: “I am leaving. But don’t let your hearts be troubled. I am going to send another Helper, Someone who can continue with you and you will carry on as though I were still here. I am sending you My Spirit, the Holy Spirit. He will grant you power. He will be with you, He will be in you , and it is in this way that I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will continue with you and you will continue in Me.”

“Together, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit will continue this work we’ve begun. The Father is the vinedresser, I am the Vine, you are My branches. And you WILL produce fruit. My Father, the Vinedresser will see to that. You will be tended and pruned in order to produce spiritual fruit by means of the Helper which My Father and I will send you. You will produce MUCH fruit because He will come in My name and work in you! He will abide in you and the main fruit He will produce in you is love.”

So when the Holy Spirit moves Paul to write Galatians 5 and he uses the phrase, “The fruit of the Spirit is . . .”, Paul uses the word “fruit” instead of “work” because he is explaining in greater detail what Jesus was alluding to with His disciples in John 14, 15, and 16. “Fruit” is the same Greek word Jesus used, and Paul is connecting some of the dots for us. Jesus said He would send the Spirit and His true disciples would consequently bear spiritual fruit, much fruit, the primary fruit of the Spirit being love; Love for God and for the brethren.

Here is Paul’s list of Spirit-provoked, Spirit-generated fruit in the believer’s life: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Jesus said those who abide in Him were to abide in His love and love one another.

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:34-35 ESV).

Jesus said, These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:11 ESV).

Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled,” and “My peace I give to you” (John 14:1 & 27 ESV), which speaks directly to their need for peace and faithfulness instead of fear and worry.

Jesus said, “I am going away and you cannot follow, but I will come again for you” (John 13:33 & 14:3 ESV), which speaks to their need of patience and faith.

Then He says in John 16:13-15,

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

In other words, the Spirit is going to continue the work of God the Father and of Christ in all of His disciples. The Spirit is going to glorify the Lord Jesus, by teaching us the very things Jesus taught when He was here physically. What did He teach? Everything His Father said. All that the Father has is mine, and the Holy Spirit whom I am sending to you will take what is mine and declare it to you. The entire Trinity is at work in us when the Spirit works in us.

Jesus is the vine, the Father is the vinedresser, and the Spirit produces the fruit in us, the branches. The Spirit is going to glorify Jesus by producing fruit in the branches (believers) that are connected to the Vine, Christ. The fruit of the Spirit which Paul speaks of is the same fruit which Jesus spoke of. They are the same thing.

It is remarkable to see how the plans and purposes of God are accomplished by God in us. From eternity, God purposed to create a people for Himself, to save them for Himself, and to make them holy unto Himself. That work continues to this day, even to this hour. Love, joy, peace, and the other manifestations of the Spirit of God in us are the manifestations of the work of Jesus Christ in us. He is the Vine, we are in union with Him as the branches, the Father is the Keeper of His vineyard, and the Holy Spirit is the very presence of God within us which produces the inevitable fruit which all God’s people produce. He produces in us the holiness we must have, without which we would never see God, we would never inherit the kingdom, we would never enjoy eternal life, and we would not be saved.

8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. (John 15:8-9 ESV)

So how do we abide in His love? How do we glorify the Father? How do we prove that we belong to the Lord Jesus? We walk by the Spirit. We manifest the fruits of the Spirit of Christ so that we do not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

As I was looking at my notes last night around 10:00, I received this email from Grace Gems entitled Let me try to draw a picture of Biblical holiness (J.C. Ryle, "Holiness, Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots")

"Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord!" Hebrews 12:14

Are we holy? Shall we see the Lord? In this hurrying, bustling world--let us stand still for a few minutes and consider the matter of holiness. It is a solemn thing to hear the Word of God saying, "Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord! A man may go great lengths in religion--and yet never reach true holiness.

What is true practical holiness?
It is not knowledge--Balaam had that.
It is not great profession--Judas Iscariot had that.
It is not doing many things--Herod had that.
It is not zeal for certain matters in religion--Jehu had that.
It is not morality and outward respectability of conduct--the rich young ruler had that.
It is not taking pleasure in hearing preachers--the Jews in Ezekiel's time had that.
It is not keeping company with godly people--Joab and Gehazi and Demas had that.

Yet none of these were holy people! These things alone, are not holiness. A man may have any one of them--and yet never see the Lord! Let me try to draw a picture of Biblical holiness, that we may see it clearly before the eyes of our minds.

1. Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture.

2. A holy man will endeavor to shun every known sin, and to keep every known commandment.

3. A holy man will strive to be like our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. A holy man will follow after meekness, patience, gentleness, kind tempers, and government of his tongue.

5. A holy man will follow after temperance and self-denial.

6. A holy man will follow after love and brotherly kindness.

7. A holy man will follow after a spirit of mercy and benevolence towards others.

8. A holy man will follow after purity of heart.

9. A holy man will follow after the fear of God.

10. A holy man will follow after humility.

11. A holy man will follow after faithfulness in all the duties and relations in life.

12. Last--but not least, a holy man will follow after spiritual-mindedness.

Let us be sure that the habitual conduct of our lives is one of walking in the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ sent to us by God Himself.

12 Deadly Sins (and how to avoid them) Galatians 5:13-26

Keith Doster — 2012-01-08T21:40:00Z

Let’s begin today by reading once again from Galatians chapter 5.

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

We need to continue to bear in mind that this letter is written to Christians for Christians. It is written for the Church, not for the general public, as is the case with the entire Bible. An unbeliever, while he may be able to read this book as easily as any of us here, cannot understand its gospel message at all apart from the intervention of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that grants unbelievers the capacity to understand spiritual truth. So the truths here are directed primarily towards those who actually possess the Spirit of God: Christians.

Secondly, what Paul says here is taught throughout the New Testament. And it is very interesting (considering Paul’s enemies tried to pit Peter and Paul against one another) to see that Peter teaches the very same things in his letters to Jewish believers that Paul teaches to Gentile believers. Even a casual look at Peter’s writings reveals that he and Paul were very much like-minded, which shouldn’t surprise us at all.

Peter begins his first letter by addressing it, “To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1Peter 1:1 ESV). Peter wrote to Jewish believers amongst the Gentiles in Galatia who may have been fellowshipping with the very believers Paul wrote to many years earlier. Listen to some of the things Peter writes that sound very much like what Paul wrote to the Galatians:

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14-16 ESV)

This sounds a lot like, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

Peter: Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. (1 Peter 1:22 ESV)

Sounds like Paul: 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13-14 ESV)

Peter: (2:1) So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. (1Peter 2:1 ESV). Peter has his own short list of sins which believers are to avoid, similar to Paul.

Peter: (2:11) Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. (1 Peter 2:11 ESV). Isn’t that exactly what Paul says: For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:17 ESV)

Peter: Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2:16-17 ESV).

Paul: For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. (Galatians 5:13 ESV)

According to the Scriptures, Peter was considered to be the apostle to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles. But what difference does it make when they both say the same thing to both groups? All Christians, regardless of their pedigree, suffer the same affliction with the flesh, and we are all called to do battle with the flesh. Again, Paul states it this way: For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

So what do you want to do? Do you realize that whatever we desire to do as a Christians, we’re always swimming upstream? Whether we desire to walk according to the Spirit, or according to the flesh, either way there is opposition. Sometimes the opposition is bad, sometimes it is good. If we want to be obedient and live holy lives, the flesh will fight against us. That, obviously, is the bad opposition. Peter says it is a spiritual war against our souls. Our bodies are not allies with holiness.

But if we tire of that battle and decide to just give up the battle with our passions and stop fighting them, that is when the good opposition kicks in. The Spirit who dwells within us will oppose us in our sinful desires. A large part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to resist and fight against the carnal desires of our flesh. Thank the Lord for the gift of His Spirit!

So regardless of what we want to do, whether we’re fighting to overcome our own sinfulness or we’re succumbing to the temptations around us, as a follower of the Lord Jesus there is no vacation, no leave of absence, no truce with the enemy, no escaping the battle. We live IN the battlefield! Our biggest enemy is our selves! And until we get our new bodies, we will face the daily battle of living a holy life.

This is precisely why both Peter and Paul have lists of sins that CHRISTIANS are to avoid. Yes, real Christians are capable of terrible sinfulness. I’m sure that is news to no one here. Thus the repeated commands for us to avoid it. Neither Peter nor Paul is speaking to the general public. They both write to their fellow believers. In Galatians 5, just so his readers understand what he talking about, Paul lists 12 specific kinds of sins which he labels as “the works of the flesh”. Let’s take a brief look at them.

Galatians 5:19 - Sexual immorality - "porneia" from which we get the word pornography. In the world in which we find ourselves, the word “pornography” should be sufficient to explain what Paul is speaking of. But to be precise, the phrase means illicit (illegal, unlawful) sexual intercourse of any kind. Any sin of a sexual nature. This first sin in the list sets the stage for many of the rest. Believe it or not, the world of the first century was even more sex-crazed than ours. As far as I know, people here in America have not yet built large temples the gods of fertility and invented sexual “worship” rituals. But in Paul’s day, that was the norm and believers were to avoid it entirely. But they couldn’t possibly escape its influence.

Impurity - This applies primarily to one’s thoughts and motives, what a person meditates upon and thinks about, especially sexually lustful thoughts, but not exclusively. The most familiar biblical example is when Jesus says in Matthew 5:27&28, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Then to put an even finer point on it, Jesus went on to say, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness (Mark 7:20-22 ESV). Or, in other words, the heart of man is inherently evil. The fallen heart is desperately wicked. And that is why even Christians, people in whom the Holy Spirit lives, have this constant battle within.

What Paul is addressing here in Galatians is the very opposite of what he says in Philippians 4:7-9 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Think pure, not impure thoughts. We can, and sometimes do sin in our thoughts. But by the power of the Spirit, we are even enabled to control our minds and bring them into subjection to Christ.

Sensuality - In a worst case scenario, this refers to unbridled, shameless, outrageous lust often accompanied by a nearly complete lack of self-control. The motto of the sensuous person is, "If it feels good, do it." It is abandonment to one’s senses and desires, particularly sexual desires, but not exclusively. Losing control and regularly eating lots of food simply for the joy of tasting it is a kind of sensuality. Sensuality is when we give ourselves over to our senses.

The Gay Pride Parade is an extreme example of sensuality: Open, publicly displayed, "out-of-the-closet", into the streets in broad daylight, shameless sensuality where one gives himself over (or he has been given over by God) to the unbridled pursuit of sexual desires and pleasures.

A slightly less extreme example would be nude beaches. Although there was some small measure of propriety at many of those beaches in the past because they were private, out of the way places, it is less so today. Public nudity is becoming more and more common and many who frequent public beaches and pools for the joy of sunbathing and the surf and swimming, who technically speaking aren't nude, might as well be, and that applies to both men and women.

People who would be mortified to walk down the street in their underwear are guilty of the sin of sensuality when they lie around the pool or on the beach in attire that is significantly smaller than their underwear. It is not acceptable for believers to dress (or undress) in that manner simply because this is how people normally dress (or undress) at the beach. The believer never has the freedom to act like the world because this is how the world normally acts. When a Christian gives himself over to his own sensual desires, whether it is an inordinate display of skin, or an inordinate consumption of food, or an excessive viewing of movies and video games, or the viewing of those who display too much skin, this is the sin of sensuality.

Galatians 5:20 - Idolatry - Literally, this is the worship of false gods by means of physical objects (or the worship of the objects themselves). Practically speaking, idolatry is the exorbitant desire for anything besides or in addition to God. Idols are a direct insult to God. When men try to fashion physical representations of God, it is an exercise in futility. It shows immense ignorance of who God really is. How can humans accurately represent in physical form a God who is physically invisible? However, it has been done once: In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ! John 1:18 - No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. Regardless of the skill employed, anything made by human hands that presumes to represent God is by definition a perversion of God.

This is one of the reasons why many Christians feel it is at least inappropriate if not actually sinful to have artistic representations of the Lord Jesus. The argument is that it is impossible for us to know what Jesus looked like and therefore any presumed likeness of Him is necessarily inaccurate and a misrepresentation of Him. That is not something we want to do. It is not good to misrepresent God ever. To do so is sin.

But the idolatry we need to be most concerned about is the idolatry Jesus spoke of in Matthew 6:21 - For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If the greatest commandment is to love God with all my heart, the question we need to ask ourselves fairly often is, “What do I really love? Where is my heart? Are there things I treasure more, that I am committed to more than God Himself? Are there things or people or relationships I must have regardless of whether God wants me to have them?” That is idolatry.

Sorcery - "Magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it". And we know from a number of other biblical texts that idolatry is influenced by demons. Think Harry Potter.

On second thought, no, don’t think Harry Potter. Don't read that stuff, don’t watch those movies, and at the risk of sounding paranoid, please beloved, do not participate in Halloween activities. This is not simply the paranoia of an old man from a previous, superstitious generation. All of these things are directly or indirectly associated with witchcraft and sorcery. The ridiculously popular Twilight series on TV whose main characters are dead, or the living dead, or the un-dead, or vampires or something like that; it all should be completely avoided. Beloved, what does light have to do with darkness?

14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore go out from their midst,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.” (1 Corinthians 6:14-18 ESV)

Thankfully, Paul explains what he means by this in 1 Corinthians 5:

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Regarding the sin of sorcery, there is a parallel universe to the one we see around us. There in that other realm are angels and demons and the dead, both the righteous and the wicked dead. Sorcery is a generic term to describe peoples’ attempts to make contact with that mysterious other world to use the spirits of the dead and demons for one’s own evil purposes in this world.

Beloved, that world has been hidden from us. We are forbidden by God to go there. Mediums and necromancers and seances and spiritists and psychics are all condemned in the Scriptures. The realm of the dead is off limits to the Christian until he dies. But more than that, there is no reason for us to inquire of that other world. Jesus has already died and gone there for us. He has defeated Satan, death and all the powers of Hell and darkness. That should be more than sufficient for us. Sorcery is sin. Leave it alone.

Jealousy - "envious and contentious rivalry"; Surely Christians would never be guilty of such a sin, right? Resentment over the accomplishments or possessions of another which we feel we deserve more than the person who possesses them. Covetous longing for a thing or a position or a person belonging to another. Another person’s job, his position, his prestige, his big church . . . his fame and popularity, his money, his good looks, his girlfriend or his wife, or his raise, or his house, or whatever. “Whatever it is, I deserve it more than he does!” That, brethren, is jealousy. It is the stuff murders are made of.

Fits of anger - The spoiled brat syndrome. Titus 1:7 speaks of the elder/overseer who is not to be "quick-tempered", someone around whom you feel you must be careful so as not to upset him because he upsets so easily and so violently. One who is prone to fits of anger is self-centered and proud and intimidating and hard to love. It’s difficult to be comfortable around an angry person. ANd while it is not a sin to be angry, it is a sin to allow one’s self to be easily enraged. To lose control, to easily lose one’s temper is an indulgence of fleshly desires and is not pleasing to God.

Rivalries - For the person who engages in rivalries, everything is a contest to win the seat at the head of the table. Kinda like the Republican Primaries. The NAS uses the word "disputes". Sinful rivalry is a subversive, fractious jockying for a position of prominence; Self-assertion, self-promotion, self-aggrandizement at the expense of others for the sake of gaining power and influence. Pride and a lust for power are often the driving forces behind rivalry. Many have “climbed the corporate ladder” through perpetually wicked rivalries with others who were “in the way”.

3 John 1:9 - I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority (ESV). NKJV - who loves to have the preeminence ; Young's Literal - he who is loving the first place among them.

Jesus said in Luke 20:46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts.” Beware of such people. Pastors and church leaders need to be particularly careful of the temptation to make rivals of their brethren.

Dissensions - "Disagreements, esp when leading to a quarrel" (Dictionary.com); Here it is in the plural meaning an habitually argumentative attitude. It is from the Greek word "stasis" which is translated "insurrection" in some Bibles. Some people just aren’t happy unless everyone around them is miserable. A perpetually argumentative and quarrelsome person is wretched to be around. The world and the Church are both filled with an overabundance of disagreeable people. Take Congress for example. The sin of dissension is closely related to the sin of . . .

Divisions - NASB uses the word "factions". "Dissensions arising from diversity of opinions and aims". Think "denominational-ism". Think Sects and Cults and communes and compounds and Jim Jones and The Branch Davidians and any number of other groups who part company with sound doctrine to pursue some peculiar teaching of an individual or small group. Think Family Radio and Harold Camping who instructed believers nationwide on his radio network to stop going to church. It would be difficult to find someone more divisive than Harold Camping.

It is sinful to be divisive just for the sake of being divisive, constantly stirring the pot, trying to promote disunity and disharmony and strife between groups paerticularly when it is done to gain a following. Paul addresses this in more detail with Titus:

9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned. (Titus 3:9-11 ESV)

All of this is the opposite of Philippians 1:27 & 2:2 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, . . . complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Galatians 5:21 - Envy - a begrudging discontentment towards another because of their possessions or position, and the coveting of those things for one's self.

Drunkenness - uncontrolled drinking sprees leading to intoxication and sometimes orgies. "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18)

Orgies - Revelling, carousing, and/or rioting. "a nocturnal and riotous procession of half drunken and frolicsome fellows who after supper parade through the streets with torches and music in honour of Bacchus or some other deity, and sing and play before houses of male and female friends; hence used generally of feasts and drinking parties that are protracted till late at night and indulge in revelry"

Now just in case you’re tempted to think I’m being negative and overly morbid and oppressive in describing all these fleshly behaviors, notice what Paul himself says in verse 21:

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

I warn you, as I warned you before - This is at least the second time Paul has addressed the Galatians concerning the consequences that await those who indulge the flesh in such sinful behaviors. It is absolutely appropriate for us to remind ourselves regularly of the grave danger that awaits those who do not walk by the Spirit and who do habitually gratify their fleshly desires: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who habitually do such things as a way of life are not God's people and have no reason to believe they will be accepted into the heavenly kingdom.

Q: Does God accept people just the way they are, in their sin and wickedness? Does God somehow turn a blind eye and act as though a person has never sinned against Him so that He might accept them into His presence?

A: No! The people God accepts are those to whom He grants repentance from their sin and faith in the Lord Jesus to save them from their sins. Until that happens, both the most moral and the most sinful of people are totally unacceptable to God.

But thanks be to God who has qualified you [us] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:12b-14 ESV) It is God who qualifies sinners to be accepted by Him by granting them faith to believe and repentance from their sin. Look at this horrid list of sinfulness which God sent His own Son to bear for us! Let us never forget the sin we have been delivered from, as well as the sinfulness we’re still prone to entertain. Let’s walk by the Spirit, so that we do not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Who Are My Neighbors and Why Should I Love Them? Galatians 5:13-17

Keith Doster — 2012-01-04T03:15:00Z

Happy New Year! I don’t know if you feel compelled to watch the big shiny ball in Times Square drop at midnight, but I for one do not. But I suppose it is true that people typically have high hopes for good things, for blessings and happiness in a new year. And undoubtedly New Year’s Eve is also a time when many people say “good riddance” to what may have been a particularly bad year for them. Bad memories of the past combined with high hopes for the future makes New Years Eve a time of reflection and hope.

As believers we can say that ultimately, every year is a good year. We are one whole year closer to heaven. We are one year further along our pilgrimage of this Christian life. And God is one more year closer to completing the work He began in us. We have seen one more year of God’s faithfulness and provision and leading. We have witnessed another year’s worth of grace and mercy and forgiveness. And we know He has worked another year’s experiences together for our good. For us, every year is a good year, even if it has been marked by tragedy and heartache and disappointment.

The passage of another 365 days is also an indicator of our fragile condition as mortal beings. It is a reminder that God is the “Ancient of Days”, and we are quite temporary. But from our first breath until our last breath, God remains the same. There is no passage of years with Him. From generation to generation to generation to generation, for hundreds of generations, God remains, and He remains the same. From everlasting to everlasting, He is still God. But we all fade like the grass that withers. We are like dust, like the chaff which the wind blows away. God is the rock that never changes.

This is a great comfort to us. The God we have come to know will be the very same God we see when we enter into glory. And He will be the same unchanging God throughout our entire eternal heavenly life where the Lord Jesus has prepared a place for us in the Father’s house. That is very, very good.

Our text today reminds us of how dependent we are upon an unchanging God. We change. We are fickle and weak. We have to work at being steadfast, immovable. We have difficulty persevering. We often don’t know the best course of action or the wisest decision to make. And we often have trouble understanding the Scriptures. The letter to the Galatians can be tough. Chapter 5 presents some challenges, and I’d like to point out a couple of those difficulties to you today.

As you know, Paul has been reminding the Galatian believers of their freedom from slavery to religions that do not save. They have come out of slavery to idolatrous paganism and into the liberty of salvation in Christ that is “freely bestowed on all who believe.” They have been delivered from the bondage of trying to appease the gods through their own religious rituals and have been set free to serve the true and living God NOT in order to gain salvation, but because they have been granted salvation.

Then the Judaizers come along and tell them grace is not enough. “You’ve got to do SOMETHING in order to earn your salvation. It can’t be as simple as trusting in Christ alone! And that one thing you must do is become Jewish like us, through circumcision. THEN God will accept you because, after all, the Jews ARE God’s chosen people. It says so in the Old Testament! That guy Paul has led you astray. Actually, he has recently begun to teach circumcision too.”

All that drivel from the Jews prompted Paul to write this letter to the Galatians to rebuke them for falling for this theological baloney and consequently falling from grace right back into slavery to works again. Only this time the flavor of their religious slavery is Jewish, not pagan.

If we are not careful, some of what Paul says can be confusing. Part of the confusion is what he says, and part of it is simply the English language. Look with me at verses 13 through 15. I want you to notice four terms he uses here: brothers, law, neighbor, and one another.

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. (Galatians 5:13-15 ESV)

Paul uses the words “brothers” and “neighbor” to mean the same thing as “one another”. That seems rather straightforward. As brothers and neighbors they are to love one another. But then, after he’s made this long argument for salvation by grace and not by keeping the Mosaic Law, here he quotes Leviticus 19:18 (part of the Mosaic law) as the rationale for his command to them to serve one another in love and avoid consuming one another: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Are they responsible to obey the Law of Moses after all?

What does “neighbor” mean? When Paul commands the believers to love their neighbor as themselves, are they to include the Judaizers as their neighbors? Are they supposed to love the very people who have deceived them? Who are these neighbors New Testament Christians are supposed to love? When we use the English word “neighbor”, it means different things to different people. Here’s what the dictionary says:

neigh·bor noun
1. a person who lives near another.
2. a person or thing that is near another.
3. one's fellow human being: to be generous toward one's less fortunate neighbors.
4. a person who shows kindliness or helpfulness toward his other fellow humans: to be a neighbor to someone in distress.
5. (used as a term of address, especially as a friendly greeting to a stranger): Tell me, neighbor, which way to town?

[Old English nēahbūr, from nēah nigh + būr, gebūr dweller; see boor ] 1

This is how we typically understand the word neighbor. Either someone who lives close by, or a really nice guy, or in the broadest sense of the word, any fellow human being. So my neighbor could be the people in the house next to mine, a considerate person, or someone I’ve never met who speaks a language I don’t understand in Mongolia! Thus the question the lawyer asks of Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?“

If we use neighbor in the broadest sense of the word, “one’s fellow human being”, then the word itself eliminates its own usefulness. If everyone is my neighbor without exception, then logically no one isn’t my neighbor. So why use the word at all? Is there anyone who is somehow not my neighbor? Is there no such thing as a stranger? That causes us to consider the use of the word “another”, as in love one another. But “another” is even more confusing than “neighbor”.

an·oth·er adjective
1. being one more or more of the same; further; additional: another piece of cake.
2. different; distinct; of a different period, place, or kind: at another time; another man.
3. very similar to; of the same kind or category as: What we need today is another Thomas Jefferson. 2

So if I’m reading this correctly, “another” means one who is the same AND it means one who is different AND it means one who is similar. English is so confusing! So that is why I ask the question here, who is Paul talking about when he says to the Galatian believers that they should pay attention to Leviticus 19 (the Law of Moses) and “through love serve one another for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself‘“ (Galatians 5:13-14 ESV). Who is “one another”? What neighbors? The people who live close by? The Judaizers? The entire human race? What is he talking about? Who am I responsible to love in the same manner that I love myself? And what does the Law of Moses have to do with this? Well, context determines meaning. So let’s look for a few moments at Leviticus 19, beginning in verse 9.

(Read verses 11 through 18.) We see here in these seven verses that the people of Israel were to consider “the sons of your own people” (v.18) and their “brethren” to be their neighbors. That’s who “one another” is in this context: fellow Jews. Within their own peculiar culture they were to love one another, or love their neighbors as themselves.

But then in veres 33 and 34 we read this: “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Not everyone was considered a neighbor. The Jews had neighbors and then there were strangers. But under certain circumstances, the Jews were to love non-Jews as though they were Jews. What were those circumstances? When they sojourn among you, when they live among you, when they want to be part of the Jewish culture.

But it is even more than that. Notice why the Jews are to love each other, why they are commanded to love their neighbor, and even the stranger who lives in their midst, as themselves:

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. 3 Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. 4 Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God.
10 And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.
12 You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
14 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
25But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, to increase its yield for you: I am the Lord your God.
28 You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.
30 You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
31 “Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
32 “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
33 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
35 “You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. 36You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the Lord.”

At least sixteen times in this chapter, God declares His people to be brothers and neighbors who are to love one another specifically BECAUSE He is their God. They have a common religion, a common God. That is what makes them a distinct community above all other considerations. So, according to Paul, who is the Christian’s neighbor? Who am I supposed to love in the same way I love myself based on Leviticus 19? Specifically, I am to love those who belong to God; those who worship the Lord; those whose faith is in Jesus Christ for their salvation. Not everyone is my neighbor in the same way my fellow believer is my neighbor.

So we need the grace of God to enable us to be pleasing to Him in how we live amongst ourselves as brothers and sisters and neighbors in the Lord. That is why Paul tells the Galatians (and us) to walk in the Spirit. We love one another, we love the brethren, our closest neighbor, when we walk together in the Spirit. And, when we walk together in the Spirit, we avoid consuming one another. And that’s a good thing, right? It’s good for Christians not to bite and devour one another??

So Paul says in Galatians 5:16, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. What desire of the flesh? The desire to bite and devour and consume one another! This is the opposite of verse 13, through love serve one another. Serve, meaning attending to one another’s needs, not serve up one another for dinner so we can bite and devour one another! English is strange, isn’t it?

Now let’s look closely at verses 16 & 17. I want us to compare this passage with Romans 7.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

There are some striking similarities between these verses and what Paul says in Romans 7. However, the contexts of the passages are entirely different. Once again, context determines meaning. In both cases, Paul is saying similar but different things. Here in Galatians he says one thing, and there he says another. Turn with me to Romans 7.

Romans 7:22-25 "I delight in the law . . . in my inner being". ". . . the law of my mind . . ." "I serve the law . . . with my mind . . ."

As we’ve said in a previous study, Paul is not speaking here as a Christian but as Saul prior to his own conversion. You say, “But he says he delights in the Law” Yeah. All the unsaved, hypocritical, murderous Pharisees delighted in the Law of God. Isn't this the condition of nearly all unbelievers that you’ve ever approached with the gospel? Ask the most sinful of people how they expect to get to heaven and most often they think they are good, moral people who, in some fashion or other, obey the Law of God. In their minds, they are good and obedient people before God. But they think this in spite of their own experience, in spite of the knowledge that there is . . .

". . .another law waging war . . . making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. . . . with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

This is the typical condition of the unregenerate person. And when confronted with the need to repent of their sin, it is their love of sin that keeps them from Christ. This was Paul's condition. According to his own testimony, prior to his Damascus Road experience he considered himself to be blameless in regard to the Law of God:

". . . as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless." (Php 3:5c & 6 ESV)

Paul really and truly thought he was a righteous and blameless under the law. He thought he was a good person WHILE persecuting the Church. He delighted in the Law of God in his inner being, in his mind, while he simultaneously murdered Christians. He was confident in his performance as a "God-fearing" unconverted Jewish man. In his mind, everything was OK in spite of what he was doing in his "members", with his hands and feet as a persecutor of God's people.

That is the context of Romans 7. While he thinks in his mind he is serving the Law of God, outwardly that is obviously not the case. And Romans 7 is a description of his spiritual awakening to the fact that the very Law he thinks he is obeying actually serves to condemn him. He cannot obey it.

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

The context of Romans 7 is one of an unsaved man who knows in his heart and mind what is right, but in his hands and feet, he obeys the sinful desires of his flesh. That is NOT what Paul is talking about in Galatians 5.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Paul is speaking here to brothers, to believers. They have been set free to serve God with a whole heart as slaves of righteousness. But that is not to say that there is now no problem with fleshly desires. Christians still have fleshly, sinful desires. We have been set free from bondage to them, but we have yet to be set free from the desires themselves. Sometimes we even have these sinful desires towards one another!

Fleshly desires remain for the Christian because the Christian remains in the flesh. But now that we have believed, we are armed with the power of the Holy Spirit within in order that we might live godly lives amongst ourselves in spite of ourselves. Notice verse 17:

17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Paul says here that these are opposed to one another. The flesh opposes the Spirit within the believer. This flesh works against us to keep us from living holy lives. On the other hand, thankfully, the Spirit opposes the flesh! He works in us to provoke us to obedience, to deny the flesh, to love one another, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13 ESV).

Not only does the Spirit move us to agree with God’s will in our minds, but we are also enabled to carry out God’s will with our bodies. The Spirit of God helps us both to will and to work, to want God’s will and to obey it. That is NOT what Paul is talking about in Romans 7. There he talks about the impotence of the unbeliever without the Holy Spirit to do what he knows is right. Here in Galatians (and Philippians) he is talking about the power the believer possesses to do what is right through the Spirit of God within.

Next week I want to go into some necessarily morbid detail regarding these ungodly desires that continue to reside within us, and also discuss how the Spirit produces love for one another in us as well. But it is important for us to understand the nature of the Christian life: who the enemy is, where our help comes from, and who our neighbor is. When we love our brethren as the Spirit compels us to, we are living in obedience to the will of God for His people.

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1. "neighbor." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 31 Dec. 2011. .
2. "another." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 31 Dec. 2011. .

The Light in the Darkness - Various Scriptures

Keith Doster — 2011-12-26T16:05:00Z

At Christmas, there are two biblical texts that are generally considered to be THE texts most closely associated with the entire Christmas season. Matthew 1:18 - 2:23 is the first. There we read of the angel’s revelation to Joseph of the miraculous nature of Mary’s pregnancy, we read of the wise men of the East who seek out the child Jesus and worship Him, and of the work of the maniacal King Herod who sends soldiers to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the child Jesus, the King of the Jews.

Then we have the passage that Linus has been reciting from memory since 1965 in A Charlie Brown Christmas, which is kind of amazing in itself: Luke 2:1-20. There we learn of the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, that the inn was full, that the only thing available was a stable, and that was the birthplace of Jesus. Angels appear in the night and herald the good news to shepherds who then leave the sheep and run into town to “see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” When they arrive and tell Joseph and Mary their story, she ponders these things in her heart.

These are the things we most often hear about in Christmas messages: Angels and shepherds, wise men and a crazy king, cattle lowing and sheep bleating, an unsympathetic innkeeper, and two amazed and probably somewhat confused parents. All of this is wonderful and it makes for some powerful story-telling to children and grandchildren of Christians all over the world. It even impacts the adults telling the story of how God sent Jesus into the world as a baby.

The Matthew account and the Luke account are both amazing. But I believe John’s account of the birth of Christ is absolutely earth-shaking. There are no cattle or donkeys or kings or shepherds in his telling of the Christmas story. His story does not begin in Nazareth, and he doesn’t mention Mary or Joseph at all. His story begins at the beginning. At THE beginning.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. (John 1:1-18 ESV)

It is evident from this passage that the Person repeatedly referred to by John as “the Word” is the Lord Jesus. He does not introduce Jesus as “a Word” but as “the Word”, the definitive and precise communication of God to men. He is the One and only perfect expression of Deity to men and He did this by taking onto Himself, or even more precisely, by actually becoming a human being like us: And the Word became flesh. This divine Person became ALSO a human person. The Lord Jesus, even from before His birth into this world by Mary, even from the womb, even from His conception by the Holy Spirit, was fully God and fully human simultaneously.

You know how much I enjoy reading A.W. Pink’s writings. Here is some of what he said about the incarnation of Jesus: “The word became flesh:" He became what He was not previously. He did not cease to be God, but He became Man.

“The One born at Bethlehem was the Divine and eternal Word. The Incarnation does not mean that God dwelt in a man, but that God became Man. He became what He was not previously, though He never ceased to be all that He was before. The Babe of Bethlehem was Immanuel—God with us.”

“‘And the word became flesh.’ The plain meaning of these words is, that our Divine Savior took upon Him human nature. He became a real Man, yet a sinless, perfect Man. As Man He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Heb. 7:26). This union of the two natures in the Person of Christ is one of the mysteries of our faith—"Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16). It needs to be carefully stated. "The word" was His Divine title; "became flesh" speaks of His holy humanity. He was, and is, the God-man, yet the Divine and human in Him were never confounded. His Deity, though veiled, was never laid aside; His humanity, though sinless, was a real humanity; for as incarnate, He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52). As "the word" then, He is the Son of God; as "flesh," the Son of man. This union of the two natures in the Person of Christ was necessary in order to fit Him for the office of Mediator. Three great ends were accomplished by God becoming incarnate, by the Word being made flesh. First, it was now possible for Him to die. Second, He can now be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Third, He has left us an example, that we should follow His steps.”

Thursday night, we were talking about this and I asked the question, “What do you think is the greatest miracle in the Bible?” Several things were mentioned: The creation of the universe from nothing; the resurrection of Jesus; and a couple of others, I think. The miracle of salvation should rank highly in the minds of the redeemed.

But for the second Person of the Trinity to condescend to this degree, to leave the glories of Heaven and become like the inglorious creatures He Himself has made? Let me ask another question of you: When Moses looked for a moment at the glory of God, what was the effect of that experience on Moses? When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. (Exodus 34:29 ESV)

When the angels came to the shepherds and lit up the night around them, was the glory of the angels an inherent glory? Do angels naturally shine because they were created as brilliantly shiny beings? Or are angels glorious because they live in the presence of the Trinity? Do angels shine because they have seen the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus in all of His glory? Do you remember what the text says:

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. (Luke 2:8&9 ESV)

The reflected glory of God as it was seen in the angels was such great glory that it immediately caused the shepherds to tremble in fear. And that was second-hand glory. The angels merely radiated light and glory that did not belong to them. In Matthew 17, we read this:

1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. (Matthew 17:1-2 ESV)

From the moment Jesus was born until He rose from the dead He perpetually veiled this light, His inherent glory and majesty. The brilliance of His inherent holiness, except for this one occasion when He revealed it to Peter, James and John, was always covered for our sakes. When the baby Jesus was born, the greatest miracle the world has ever seen was witnessed by Joseph and Mary and some shepherds: that totally human newborn was the fully divine Creator of the entire universe, the glorious and holy and almighty God. I believe (and this is my opinion) that display of infinite humility, that containment of His infinite glory, may be the greatest miracle God ever performed. And He did this so that we might have access to God.

If it is possible to rate the magnitude of miracles, this one may be the most magnificent. I think it is obvious that some miracles are more impressive and more important than others. The resurrection is significantly more important than God making an axe head float for Elisha. Many miracles we read of in the Bible seldom get mentioned or discussed. From our perspective, it would seem that our own redemption would be the most important miracle. It is truly astounding that a holy God would willingly, out of love for His own sinful creatures, take their sins upon Himself and die in their place. That is hard to fathom.

But is it possible that the act of Christ’s incarnation is an even greater miracle than His act of redeeming us? Because in His becoming a man, He does so in order that He might suffer and die and be resurrected from the dead and save us from our sins. This incarnation, this act of God becoming a man is the first step, the first act through which He begins His 33 years of work as a human being in order to accomplish our redemption. It was a 33 year long miracle.

When King Solomon dedicated the newly constructed Temple in Jerusalem, he prayed to God and said, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27 ESV) Even Solomon’s Temple, great as it was, was ridiculously inadequate to house an infinite God. And yet, miracle of miracles, the great and awesome Jehovah in all of His fullness and glory is contained in the body of a newborn child, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Colossians 1:19 ESV). We agree completely with Paul: "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16),

It took the church many years to deal with this mystery of Jesus being both God and man. In an attempt to make the mystery a little less mysterious, J.I. Packer says this:

“The Council of Chalcedon (A.D.451) affirmed that Jesus is one divine-human person in two natures (i.e., with two sets of capacities for experience, expression, reaction, and action); and that the two natures are united in his personal being without mixture, confusion, separation, or division; and that each nature retained its own attributes. In other words, all the qualities and powers that are in us, as well as all the qualities and powers that are in God, were, are, and ever will be really and distinguishably present in the one person of the man from Galilee.

"The Incarnation, this mysterious miracle at the heart of historic Christianity, is central in the New Testament witness. That Jews should ever have come to such a belief is amazing. Eight of the nine New Testament writers, like Jesus’ original disciples, were Jews, drilled in the Jewish axiom that there is only one God and that no human is divine. They all insist that Jesus the Messiah should be personally worshiped and trusted—which is to say that he is God no less than he is man."

This is exactly what Jesus is saying when He says to Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?” (John 14:9 ESV) And it is exactly what Thomas is saying when he sees the resurrected Jesus and exclaims, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28 ESV).

With the help of God and His grace, I have begun to comprehend to some small degree how God might want to glorify Himself by a magnificent display of His love for sinners by making Jesus our substitute, a holy sacrifice for the sake of His elect people. I can see, I think, why God might want to do something like that. What practically unbelievable love that is! But I can see how it works. I can grasp sacrifice and substitution. I can see how the Old Testament sacrificial lambs foreshadowed the future Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world by His own sacrifice. I grasp that concept.

I can even see to a degree how God can raise the dead, both the physically and the spiritually dead. If He was powerful enough to create everything from nothing, and if He was capable of breathing the breath of life into an inanimate Adam, surely He can do the same for spiritually dead people.

But if the Tabernacle in the Wilderness could not contain God, if the Temple of Solomon could not contain God, if the heavens and the entire earth could not contain God, how is it that Mary’s baby is God? And how is it that God would ever choose to come into this world and live in our midst in this manner, by becoming Mary’s child? That, my brothers and sisters, is a fantastic mystery, far beyond mortal comprehension. Who would believe these things if God had not moved John to tell us?

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. (John 1:14&18 ESV)

Today is Christmas day. It is usually a happy day typically filled with much that is trivial and trite and flippant and inconsequential. I don’t suppose a day of frivolity is necessarily evil. But I don’t want my Christmas, my Incarnation Day to be like that. And I hope I’ve helped you keep yours from becoming that. The wise men from the east got it right. Surely they didn’t understand then, when they journeyed to Bethlehem 2000 years ago, what we understand today from reading the entire Bible. But they got one thing quite right:

And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11 ESV).

Jesus is the One to whom we should be giving both our worship and our gifts. The great and awesome King of Glory, the One who is Light and Life, the One who gives eternal life to all who believe in Him, He is the One to whom we bow the knee in reverence and awe and praise and worship. Mary’s baby is the eternal and almighty and infinite God. Let’s worship Him at Christmas.

A Truly Spiritual Life - Galatians 5:16-25

Keith Doster — 2011-12-19T05:20:00Z

Today we come to the end of the fifth chapter of Galatians and it is one of the most interesting and practical passages in the entire New Testament regarding how we as believers in the Lord Jesus are to live in this world. In a word, we are to live by the Spirit in this flesh. On the surface of it, that appears to be a rather contradictory statement. How do we live spiritual lives in physical bodies? That is the problem, and it is what I hope to address with you today.

Over the last century there has been a great deal of confusion amongst Christians regarding the Holy Spirit. Lots of trees have sacrificed their lives for all the books that have been written about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, there is a book by that exact name name and many others with very similar names. But the book we need to be most concerned about is the one you have in your hands. It is the only authoritative source of information about the Holy Spirit and we need to see what it says in order to form a right understanding of the Spirit of God.

One message cannot address everything there is to know from the Scriptures about the Holy Spirit. We would be celebrating Christmas, New Years, and Groundhog Day together if we were to try to plumb the depths of all the biblical texts concerning God’s Spirit. So this sermon is just a dipping of our toes into the ocean of what could be learned even if we had all eternity to learn it.

The second verse of the Bible introduces the Holy Spirit to us: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2 ESV) The Spirit of God played a role in the Creation of the world.

We read throughout the Old Testament of the Spirit of God coming upon people in order to empower them for particular tasks. In Exodus 31 we read of a man named Bezalel who was filled with the Spirit of God and with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, in order to oversee the building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness.

The prophets of the Old Testament experienced a filling of God’s Spirit. The prophet Micah said, But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. (Micah 3:8 ESV) The prophets were given the ability to preach and speak God’s word by God’s Spirit to God’s people.

When we get to the New Testament, long before Pentecost, Elizabeth, Mary’s relative and the mother of John the Baptist, is filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. (Luke 1:42-44 ESV)

And why did John, still in the womb of Elizabeth, leap for joy at the sound of Mary’s voice? Because the angel had told Zechariah, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. (Luke 1:15 ESV)

For many years, many people have taught that the definitive sign of having been filled with the Spirit is speaking in tongues, as was the case with the 12 apostles at Pentecost (Acts 2:4). But that was not the case with these examples I’ve already cited. I seriously doubt John spoke in tongues from Elizabeth’s womb. With God, anything is possible, but . . . .

Luke 1:67 ESV - Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied . . .

Acts 4:8 ESV - Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, . . . He preached.

Acts 9:17-19 ESV - Ananias laid hands upon Saul and his sight was restored and Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then he rose and was baptized and ate supper.

Paul speaks of the filling of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5 -18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. The filling of the Holy Spirit makes believers holy people.

In 1 Corinthians, we learn that we cannot understand the truths of the gospel without the intervention of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who quickens us to believe and repent and trust in Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who brings about the new birth (John 3:5-8).

In Galatians, Paul has much to say about the Holy Spirit. I want to look at several verses, beginning in chapter 1.

2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

He says here that it is Christ who lives in him. Then in chapter 4, he gives us more detail about that: 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

So Christ lives in the believer because God sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He is called the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15). And it is this Spirit that dwells in every true believer in Christ: God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:5 ESV). Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him (Romans 8:9b ESV). Every Christian receives the Holy Spirit from God the Father. A person can’t become a Christian with the regenerating work of the Spirit, and a person cannot be a Christian without the Holy Spirit’s indwelling them.

Even the Galatians, some of whom are now entertaining thoughts of defection from grace, even they had been given the Holy Spirit:

3:1 - O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—?

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.

As foolish as the Galatians had become by listening to the false teachers, the true believers among them had all received the Spirit of God. And now, in chapter 5, after much discussion about what the gospel is and what it is not, after four and a half chapters of doctrinal instruction, Paul begins with the practical application of the truths he has been defending:

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Before we continue in this section, let me remind you that possibly the number one desire of the flesh which the Galatians were entertaining was the desire for self-justification. That is undoubtedly one of the worst desires we all have. We want to take credit for our own salvation by procuring it through our own works. That is what Paul has been accusing them of for four and a half chapters. And this is why an Armenian mindset is so prevalent - because it appeals to the flesh. We don’t naturally gravitate towards salvation by grace. But we do naturally gravitate towards salvation by works. And as believers, we must unlearn that natural attitude by walking by the Spirit.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (Galatians 1:20, 3:1-6, 13-14, 4:4-6, 28-29, 5:5, 16-25)

This is the inevitable effect of true salvation: The Holy Spirit is given and the battle against the flesh begins. Notice carefully what verse 16 says: Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Now someone who is paying attention should be saying something like, “Hey! Wait a minute! Didn’t we just read back in chapter 1, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Yeah! Thats me too! And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I’ve been crucified with Christ, too! Just like Paul. So there are no remaining desires of the flesh to gratify! Those desires were crucified. Christ lives in me now! The Spirit of Christ lives in me and now I’m a new creation. The old man is gone. Those old things, those old desires, all that old fleshly, carnal, sinful stuff died with Christ!”

Apparently not. Look at chapter 5, verse 5: “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.” We’re not yet righteous, practically speaking. It is the Holy Spirit within us who causes us to yearn for the day when we will be completely and perfectly and wholly righteous. We’re not there yet. Turn with me to Romans 6.

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

You say, “There it is! Our old self was crucified. We died with Christ. Therefore we are now free from sin. As Christians, now we do not sin.” Is that what that text says? Is that what that means? Let’s keep reading.

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Our old self, our old unsaved self, was crucified with Christ so that we would no longer be ENSLAVED to sin. When we died with Him, we were SET FREE from sin and from it’s enslavement. So now we are to consider ourselves to be dead to sin like Christ actually died to sin. Let’s keep reading.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:6-14 ESV)

It is the power of sin that has been broken. As Christians, we are free from our enslavement to it. Just as we were once slaves to a false religion of self-salvation by our own works, we were also slaves to sin and could not stop sinning or overcome its power in our lives.

But now we have been set free from its power, and we have been given the Holy Spirit to dwell within. Therefore, Let not [do not allow] sin therefore reign in your mortal body. Do not allow it to govern your life. Sin still tempts us. We must deny it. We must not grant it control over our flesh, or allow our flesh to dictate to us how we will live. Rather, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

As Christians in earthly not-yet-glorified bodies, we still possess desires that are contrary to God, desires that are still fully compatible with sin. However, as Christians, we are to deny our bodies those sinful indulgences: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, etc., etc. You can read the list. And as Christians, we also possess the Holy Spirit who provokes us with holy desires, with the desire to live godly lives, lives marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

So in a very real sense we live a conflicted life. These opposite desires dwell now in us: fleshly desires and holy desires. We are to pursue the one and mortify the other. We are to encourage the one and reject the other. The one leads to death, the other to life. So how do we stay in the right lane? How do we keep from veering off into sinful attitudes and behaviors that are always there for the flesh to indulge and enjoy?

In verse 16 Paul says, Walk by the Spirit. In verse 18, he says we are to be led by the Spirit. In verse 25 he tells us to keep in step with the Spirit. In other words, we are to cooperate with the Spirit that lives within us. And this is not for the sake of having some kind of ecstatic experience. It is for the sake of being obedient to Christ. We are to pursue godliness by the power of the Holy Spirit, at the expense of fulfilling our carnal desires. And, my good friends, it is a daily battle.

This is why Paul likens the Christian life to a race. He likens it to a boxer who fights. He likens it to a farmer who works hard. He himself suffered greatly from enemies on every side. But at the end of his marathon he was able to say, “I fought the fight, I ran the race, I kept the faith.” And keeping the faith isn’t simply continuing to believe, or perpetually guarding sound doctrine from false teachers. Keeping the faith is living for Christ each day contrary to the desires of our flesh.

I have no doubt that the number one temptation that appealed the most to Paul’s flesh was simply the temptation to quit. “If I just preached circumcision for salvation, they would stop persecuting me. If I just preached salvation by works, or if I just preached that Jesus wasn’t the single means of salvation, or if I just compromised on some of these points of doctrine, my life would be SO MUCH EASIER!”

At one time he fights paganism in life, the notion that all kinds of conduct are lawful to the Christian man, a philosophy that makes Christian liberty a mere aid to pagan license. At another time, he fights paganism in thought, the sublimation of the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body into the pagan doctrine of the immortality of the soul.

At still another time, he fights the effort of human pride to substitute man’s merit as the means of salvation for Divine grace; he fights the subtle propaganda of the Judaizers with its misleading appeal to the Word of God. Everywhere we see the great apostle in conflict for the preservation of the church. It is as though a mighty flood were seeking to engulf the church’s life; dam the break at one point in the levee, and another break appears somewhere else. Everywhere paganism was seeping through; not for one moment did Paul have peace; always he was called upon to fight.

We typically aren’t faced with those kinds of battles. Seldom does our conflict involve going toe to toe with heretics who are attacking us. Our struggles are much more mundane, and much more deadly. We must practice walking in the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, and keeping in step with the Spirit of God. Our battle is mostly within, with ourselves.

Here is how the Spirit of God leads His people. He leads us, not by some mysterious, subjective, intuitive, perceptions or emotions. He always leads His people by the same means, in the same direction: Towards love. Towards joy. God’s Spirit always leads in the direction of peace and patience. He leads us to be kind and good and faithful and gentle with others. He leads always in the direction of self-control. If we’re going in any other direction, it is not the shepherding Spirit of Christ that is leading us. When we pursue these things, we can be assured that we are walking in the Spirit, being led by Him.

When we do all that other stuff that Paul mentions in verses 19-21, we can never blame that kind of behavior on the Holy Spirit. We can never say, “The Lord led me to get drunk and beat up my next door neighbors.“ Or, “I felt led of the Spirit to cheat on my wife and run off with the choir director.“ No, that’s just the flesh. That’s just us. Don’t even blame that on the Devil. That’s just the gratifying of the desires of the flesh. That’s all on you and me. The Devil may have brought the temptation and laid it at our feet, but he can’t make us do anything. He doesn’t have that kind of power over us. Sin no longer has dominion over us. We are no longer enslaved to our passions so that we fall all over every temptation he brings our way.

As Christians, we have been set free from that slavery. We have been made the recipients of the Spirit of Christ. God the Holy Spirit dwells within us. So, . . . don’t do that stuff. It’s that simple. You don’t have to do it, you have the indwelling Spirit’s power, so don’t do that stuff. We must discipline ourselves to live in obedience to the leading of the Spirit of God within us. Whenever we are loving and joyful and peaceful and patient and kind and good and faithful and gentle and self-controlled, THEN we are walking in the Spirit. It is then that we are being led away from what our flesh desires, and toward what the Spirit desires. So walk in the Spirit.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (Galatians 5:25-26 ESV)

Calling a Spade a Spade: The Curse of False Teachers

Keith Doster — 2011-12-11T21:25:00Z

Let’s turn together in God’s word once again to the book of Galatians and read together beginning in chapter 5, verse 1, and read down to verse 15.

1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

We have already looked at these verses and we understand the main issue which Paul addresses quite forcefully throughout this brief letter. Jews who are zealous for the Law of Moses, and who are offended by the preaching of salvation by grace alone rather than by the works of the Law, are proselytizing the Christians of Galatia to convert them out of Christianity and into Judaism. The Jewish way of life, their understanding of the Scriptures, their perception of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah of Israel exclusively, their relationship to the Gentile nations, the typical Jewish understanding of all these things is in upheaval because of this man Paul.

Even more than the other apostles, Paul has nearly single-handedly turned the world upside down. The gospel message was first preached only by Jews to Jews. But now Paul has taken the gospel of God’s grace to non-Jews, telling them they can be justified in the sight of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by repenting of their sins and trusting in the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This message of salvation for the nations has provoked the Jews to persecute Paul. His gospel goes against everything the Jews have ever known, but it is all spelled out in the Old Testament and explained quite skillfully by Paul. Which makes the Jews hate him even more.

So instead of going toe to toe in biblical debates with Paul, the Jews try to undermine his missionary work among the Gentiles throughout the region of Galatia. This letter is written by Paul to counteract their attacks on grace, and to rescue the Galatians from a life of religious slavery the Jews are trying to impose upon them. He says here in chapter 5, “For freedom, Christ has set us free. For you were called to freedom, brothers!” So don’t be snookered into thinking you need to return to bondage of another kind, a Jewish kind, to the slavery of law-keeping, in order to be acceptable to God. In Christ, and in Christ alone, God sees us as righteous and we are free from the impossible burden of trying to save ourselves by our own efforts.

Here in chapter 5 and verse 6, Paul states the entire issue in one brief sentence: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. That is the issue. For the person who is in Christ, the only thing that counts is faith working through love. Jew/Gentile distinctives are a moot point. It is not unlike the issue raised in Saudi Arabia over women driving cars. There, it is against the law for a woman to drive a car. Here, in America, it is not a consideration at all. Men drive cars, women drive cars. Women drive tractor trailers. It’s not an issue.

The Jews of Paul’s day were stuck in a Saudi Arabian kind of mindset. They can’t get past the idea that Jews and Gentiles aren’t alike, like the Saudis can’t get past the differences between men and women, and the obvious (in their minds) inferiority of women. Paul says, no. All men and women everywhere are alike spiritually. All are sinners. All need a Savior. And all are saved in the same manner. Not by their own righteous deeds, but by Christ’s righteous deeds on their behalf. And this is the thing that drives the Jews crazy. Freedom makes them crazy. The free offer of the gospel, the free offer of salvation to all people, the free offer of eternal life to the morally inferior Gentiles makes them angry.

But Paul gets rather angry himself. Look at verses 7-12.

Paul loves the Galatians. That is why he says what he does in verse 12. The Judaizers are like wolves attacking Paul’s sheep. And Paul is the shepherd who has come to their aid to defend them. There is no love lost between himself and these false teachers who are spreading lies about Paul. In essence he says, “I wish they would do to themselves what they desire to do to you, and worse!” The Holman Christian Standard Bible puts it in such a way as to remove any doubt about what Paul means here:

I wish those who are disturbing you might also get themselves castrated! (Galatians 5:12, HCSB)

Paul is torqued. And undoubtedly some would say he was wrong in speaking this way. They would say his attitude towards the Judaizers was unloving and intolerant. They would say Paul needed to decaffeinate and take a time out and collect his thoughts and apologize for such hateful speech towards his Jewish brethren.

Nope. That’s not gonna happen. There are times when you just need to call a spade a spade. 1 Paul is saying, “These guys are evil. They are liars. They have lied to you about me. They want to rob you of the only hope of salvation there is. They want you to become like them more than they want you to come to Christ. They are slaves to Judaism and they want to force you to join them in their hopeless bondage. I wish they would take their circumcision knives to themselves and get a little crazy with it!“

Paul is angry! You can hear it in his voice. Notice verse 7: You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? “Who is it that is causing you to stumble like this? Tell me his name!” And in verse 10 he says, I have confidence in the Lord that . . . the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. “I’m trusting the Lord to take care of this guy. The Lord knows who he is. He won’t get away with this.”

Would that God might raise up more defenders of the sheep against the wolves! Would that God might grant His sheep more teachers of His word and fewer entertainers for the masses. It is right for us to be angry towards those who lead God’s people astray, who hinder them from fighting the good fight and running the good race, all in the name of Christ. We don’t need to worry about being civil and tolerant towards those who deceive God’s people and preach false gospels that don’t save. Paul said, “Let them be anathema!”

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! (Galatians 1:8-9 NIV)

Eternally condemned! Anathema! Cursed by God! Sent to Hell! Where are the men who would preach such a message as Paul’s and pronounce such condemnations against the Rob Bells and the Brian Maclarens and the Benny Hinns and the Joyce Meyers and the Joel Osteens of our day? Brothers and sisters, those men who would preach against the false teachers of our day are very few and far between. Pray for God to raise up men and women who love the Church, who love God’s people, and who are willing to do and say whatever is necessary in order to protect them from those religious liars, those wolves in sheep’s clothing who would drag us to Hell with them if they could. Listen to what Charles Spurgeon said:

“These destroyers of our churches appear to be as content with their work as monkeys with their mischief. The case is mournful. Certain ministers are making infidels. …. A little plain-speaking would do a world of good just now. These gentlemen [false teachers/false prophets] desire to be let alone. They want no noise raised. Of course thieves hate watch-dogs, and love darkness. It is time that somebody should spring his rattle, and call attention to the way in which God is being robbed of his glory, and man of his hope…..” 2

Here’s a bit of plain-speaking that is doing a world of good in our day:

SHOW PAUL WASHER VIDEO

This is the kind of righteous anger and straight talk that Paul expressed in Galatians. The false teachers are one thing, but our churches, and ESPECIALLY the pulpits of our so-called evangelical churches, are filled with cowards who prefer the accolades of men over the approval of God and the suffering that comes with serving God faithfully. If you preach the truth, and if you make it a point to name the names of those who are merely masquerading as ministers of the gospel, you WILL suffer persecution. Look at verse 11:

But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.

Paul is being persecuted by his fellow Jews for preaching salvation by means of the sacrifice of the Messiah upon a Roman cross, and by that means alone. That is very offensive to the Jews. They don’t like hearing that salvation has nothing to do with being Jewish, but it has everything to do with what God has done through Christ upon the cross. They don’t like the fact that they all completely missed the coming of their own Messiah and they were responsible for is crucifixion! They don’t like Paul minimizing their religion for the sake of the salvation of the miserable Gentiles. So they persecute him.

How might he avoid this? What would he need to do to escape the abuse and the suffering that comes from his fellow Jews? Just agree with the Judaizers and preach circumcision as necessary for salvation. Just preach salvation by Christ AND keeping the Law of Moses! Then the persecution will stop. Just preach the same lies they are preaching and they will leave you alone, Paul! And the price to pay to escape persecution by means of compromising the gospel? The price is to be damned, to be cursed by God. To be anathema.

These wolves amongst the sheep are so evil and so deceitful and so conniving that they even tell the Galatian believers that Paul, PAUL! preaches circumcision for salvation! And Paul says, “If I were preaching that, I wouldn’t be in constant danger of death from my own countrymen! If I preached circumcision, then the offensiveness of Christ alone for salvation would be removed! Why do you think I’m STILL being persecuted? I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.” (Galatians 5:12, Green’s Literal Translation).

But possibly the most important point to be made for us here may be what Paul says in verse 7 - “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” You WERE running well. You WERE! But you allowed someone to cause you to stumble and fall away from salvation by grace.

Many years ago I had a friend who claimed to be a Christian. He and I worked together and we enjoyed each other’s company very much. Then one day we were talking about Christianity and about the Lord and I said I knew I was going to Heaven when I died. That struck a chord. “Nobody KNOWS they are going to Heaven when they die!” He thought I was being arrogant. And the reason he thought that was because he believed in salvation by works. Being good was what got you into Heaven and nobody could KNOW they had been good enough. And my friend was a Lutheran.

Martin Luther must have been rolling over in his grave! “WHAT? Have you completely forgotten the Reformation? Have you completely abandoned salvation by grace? Do you not know we have already fought this battle, that we have already spilled blood over this issue, that many good men and women have died defending salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone? You were running so well! Who hindered you from obeying the Gospel? If you now believe you’ll eventually be saved by your own good deeds, then don’t call yourself a Lutheran! Don’t call yourself a Christian!! You have abandoned the gospel. You are cut off from Christ. You have fallen from grace.”

How does that happen? From listening to false teachers and bad theology. For example, the Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in the city of Trent, now in modern Italy, between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563. The primary purpose of this church council was to address and condemn the “heresies” of the Protestant movement in Europe, and to define Church teachings in the areas of Scripture and Tradition, Original Sin, Justification, Sacraments, the Eucharist in Holy Mass and the veneration of saints. 3

The Council of Trent was a major reform council and the most impressive embodiment of the ideals of the Counter-Reformation. It would be over 300 years until the next Ecumenical Council in 1962. When announcing Vatican II, Pope John XXIII stated that the precepts of the Council of Trent continue to the modern day, a position that was reaffirmed by Pope Paul VI. 4 When he was asked if Vatican II changed Catholic doctrine, his response was, “What was still is.”

So what did the Council of Trent determine to be the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church which, according to Pope Paul VI “still is”? Here are a few samples:

Sixth Session, Chapter IX - Against the Vain Confidence of Heretics (or more specifically, the Protestant Reformers): [N]o one can know with a certainty of faith . . . that he has obtained the grace of God [for salvation]. 5

Sixth Session, Chapter XVI - The Fruits of Justification, That Is, The Merit Of Good Works, And The Nature Of That Merit: . . . [T]o those who work well unto the end and trust in God, eternal life is to be offered, both as a grace mercifully promised to the sons of God through Christ Jesus, and as a reward promised by God Himself, to be faithfully given to their good works and merits. We must believe that nothing further is wanting (lacking) to those justified to prevent them from being considered to have, by those very works which have been done in God, fully satisfied the divine law . . . and to have truly merited eternal life, to be obtained (not granted) in its due time . . . . 6

Canon 11 - If anyone says . . . that the grace by which we are justified is only the good will of God, let him be anathema. 7

Canon 24 - If anyone says that the justice (i.e. justification) received is not preserved and not also increased before God through good works, but that those works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained (granted by grace alone), but not the cause of its increase, let him be anathema. 8

Canon 30 - If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be opened, let him be anathema. 9

Canon 33 - If anyone says that the Catholic doctrine of justification . . . derogates . . . from the glory of God or the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, . . . let him be anathema. 10

Seventh Session, Canons on Baptism

Canon 5 - If anyone says that baptism is optional, that is, not necessary for salvation, let him be anathema. 11

Canon 8 - If anyone says that those baptized are free from all the precepts of [the] holy [Roman Catholic] Church, whether written or unwritten, so that they are not bound to observe them unless they wish to submit to them of their own accord (will), let them be anathema. 12 [Or, if we say that once a person, an infant, is baptized, that baptism frees that person from all the rules and regulations of the RC Church that may violate the conscience of that person, and that such a person is no longer in bondage to obey whatever the Church says, then we’re accursed.]

Now do you see why the message of Galatians is so important? Do you understand why Paul was so angry at those who insisted upon law keeping for salvation? Do you understand how Martin Luther may have been the apostle Paul resurrected from the dead??? (Not really.) These two men were facing the exact same issue, and they were both persecuted by those in authority for telling the truth: that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The gospel is worth getting angry over when men distort it and cause God’s people to stumble and fall in order to lead them away from saving grace into the religious servitude of men and institutions like Judaism and the Roman Catholic Church.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Do not ever submit again to a yoke of religious slavery.

==============================================

1. "call a spade a spade." The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Houghton Mifflin Company. 10 Dec. 2011. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/call a spade a spade>.

2. http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/charles-spurgeon-on-speaking-out-about-false-teachers-and-false-prophets-and-avoiding-them/

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Trent

4. Ibid.

5. Schroder, H. J. The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Tan books and Publishers, 1941/1978, p.35.

6. Ibid, p.41.

7. Ibid, p.43.

8. Ibid, p.45.

9. Ibid, p.46.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid, p.53.

12. Ibid.

Freedom, Liberty and the Christian Life - Galatians 5

Keith Doster — 2011-12-04T19:50:00Z

I read a news article the other day that I’d like to share with you:

“Saudi Report - Allowing Women to Drive Would Mean No More Virgins”. 1

By Caroline May - The Daily Caller 12:42 PM 12/02/2011

Saudi Arabia has a problem: Some of its women want to drive, but the kingdom wants to make sure there are virgins in the country. Based on a new report from the Saudi highest religious council — the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala — and a former King Fahd University professor, those things are mutually exclusive. An Iranian news agency is reporting that the “Wahhabite scholars’” report was presented to the country’s legislative body and explained the possible repercussions of repealing the Saudi ban on women driving.

The report concluded that allowing women to drive would lead to a blight of virgins and lead to the proliferation of homosexuality, pornography, prostitution and divorce in the country. The “Wahhabite scholars” pointed to other Muslim nations that allow their women to drive, which they claimed have experienced “moral decline.” Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that prohibits women from driving.

According to Fars News Agency, the researchers noted that within a decade of lifting the ban, Saudi Arabia would have “no more virgins.” Over the summer a coalition of Saudi women’s rights activists protested the ban and attempted to publicly pressure Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and European Union’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, into supporting their right to drive.

Women in Saudi Arabia are subject to corporal punishment if they are caught driving. Most recently a woman was sentenced to 10 lashes after being caught driving in Jeddah. 2 The Daily Mail reported last month the Saudi government is also considering a proposal to force already fully-covered women to cover their eyes if they are deemed too “tempting.” 3

After quite a bit of laughter, I began to try to understand what possible connection there could be between allowing women to drive cars and the disappearance of the entire female Saudi Arabian virgin population in ten years? Obviously there is a connection in the minds of some Saudi Muslims. But there actually is a connection, and if you think like a Muslim, it makes sense.

It appears from what we see in the news that Muslims consider personal freedom to be the first step on a slippery slope of sin and debauchery. They believe all human activity must be restrained and strictly controlled by Shariah Law. Therefore, giving women a modicum of freedom, even something as simple as the right to drive a car, is interpreted as rebellion against Muslim morality. They believe freedom and liberty invariably leads to libertine behavior. What do I mean by that?

The dictionary defines libertine as a noun and an adjective. A person who is a libertine is one “who is morally or sexually unrestrained, especially a dissolute man; a profligate; rake.” A person who is described as being libertine is “free of moral, especially sexual, restraint; dissolute; licentious.” 4

A certain white-haired, Republican presidential candidate said recently: “I don’t think liberty means libertine. I don’t think liberty means absence of values. None of the founding fathers thought liberty meant that.” 5 In other words, even in America, liberty does not give us the right to do absolutely whatever we please. But it seems some people believe it does, both here and most definitely in Saudi Arabia.

It appears that Muslims, or at least those who burned American flags and danced in the streets and handed out candy to children when the Twin Towers fell, those Muslims believe freedom and liberty always leads to Libertinism, the freedom to be immoral. How many times have we heard it said, “I’m an American. I can do whatever I please!“ Muslims hear that, they see our debauched culture which they assume is the natural result of personal liberty and freedom, and they hate it. Obviously (in their minds), liberty means inevitable debauchery. They fear becoming depraved like us.

This is exactly why the “Wahhabite scholars” of Saudi Arabia believe giving women the freedom to drive cars will lead directly to high rates of divorce, adultery, homosexuality, and a serious lack of virgins. This also explains why we see signs amongst Muslim protestors that say things like “Freedom of Expression is Western Terrorism” and “Freedom Go To Hell” and “Shariah Is The Only Solution.” They don’t want freedom. They loathe freedom. They mistakenly think liberty equals libertinism.

Shariah Law based upon the Koran is the solution to unbridled libertine sensuality. Shariah Law imposes an oppressive external morality upon what would otherwise be uncontrollably sinful people. The Muslim world is terrified of their perception of American freedom. They are terrified because freedom promotes depravity which earns the wrath of Allah.

Given this confusion of liberty and libertinism, what do you suppose the Muslim response to Galatians 5:1 would be? For freedom Christ has set us free. What does that mean? I assure you, it doesn’t mean what the Saudi scholars think it means. It doesn’t mean Christ has set us free to do whatever we may please. But what does it mean? Is “Christian America” free from the Law of Moses? It would seem so according to what we see on TV. Are we no longer responsible to obey the laws of God? And if not, then are there no boundaries at all? And if there are Laws which Christians should abide by, what are they? Turn with me for a moment to Galatians 5:1.

For freedom Christ has set us free.

In Christ, we have been granted deliverance from our slavery to religion, from our slavery to sin, and we’ve been set free from the condemnation of our sin by God’s grace. Our salvation, our deliverance, our being set free is a gift, freely bestowed by God on all who believe. But that is only one side of grace. We’ve also been granted grace in order to deal with our remaining sinfulness so that grace might also reign through righteousness. We have not only received a righteous legal standing IMPUTED to us by God’s grace, but we have also received the power of grace which moves us to LIVE righteous lives. We have both legal and practical grace. The one sets us free from sin, the other gives us power for holiness. And no one gets either without the other. That’s the package.

So since, by God’s grace Christ has set us free in order that we might enjoy freedom, then the logical next step is lawlessness and debauchery, right? What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1 ESV). If you’re a of a Muslim mindset, it seems the answer is, “Sure! Not only does such freedom logically lead to a sinful life, it is inevitable! Freedom is a bad.” And apparently the people of Paul’s day must have thought the very same thing. That’s why Paul asks and answers the question in Romans 6.

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? (Romans 6:15 ESV)

Can we sin now that we’ve been set free from the condemnation of the Law? Does this freedom we have in Christ grant us permission to live as we please? Doesn’t our continued sinfulness magnify God’s graciousness?

By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:15-21 ESV)

True Christian liberty is a beautiful thing. The Christian ALONE is capable of living a consistently righteous life because of the grace that uniquely enables us as God’s adopted children to be practically holy. But apart from true Christianity, the Muslim understanding of man that we see in this news story and elsewhere is not far off the mark at all. Their fear of freedom from Law, specifically the Law of God, is not baseless. Mankind, left to itself, will eventually and relatively quickly become precisely what Islam fears: Entirely debauched and depraved and godless. Without Law, the world would quickly become a place where it’s hard to find a virgin over the age of 14, and where homosexuality is considered normal. Kinda like the world in Noah’s day. Kinda like “Christian” America.

But you say, “Aren’t unsaved people already depraved? And yet the world isn’t nearly as bad as it could be! Things could certainly be a lot worse. I know a lot of good, decent, moral, but not Christian, people.” And if you said that, I would agree with you completely. Not everyone who rejects Jesus Christ is a mass murderer or a habitual thief or a terrorist. But the reason that is so is because of what we refer to as common grace. It is only the restraining grace of God upon the entire human race that prevents all men everywhere from becoming entirely sinful, so sinful that God would be able to say of us once again, the thoughts and intents of their hearts are only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). As bad as things are, they aren’t THAT bad yet.

Now, just so you know, I am not advocating taking driver’s licenses from women in order to avoid an inevitable global moral catastrophe. Don’t walk out of here and say, “Keith has converted to Islam! He thinks women shouldn’t be allowed to drive cars or walk around with their eyes uncovered. Keith doesn’t believe in freedom and liberty and justice for all!”

No, what I am saying is I now understand better than ever why Muslims fear and hate America. I’m saying we don’t understand the fears of the Muslim world and their hatred of libertine freedom which does indeed lead to utter lawlessness and all kinds of evil. They think America promotes just such a libertine freedom as that. They equate personal libertine freedom with democracy. But their take on this is not as absurd as we are prone to think. Look with me at Galatians 5:13.

So there you have it! Our freedom in Christ grants us opportunities for the flesh! That is what they think Christianity and American liberty leads to - an opportunity for the flesh, to bite and devour and consume one another. In other words, it leads to an American-type culture. Occupy Wall Street comes to mind. Gay Pride celebrations and Las Vegas and Desperate Housewives come to mind. Lady Gaga and O.J. Simpson and Monica Lewinsky and Lindsay Lohan and Madonna and Hugh Hefner readily come to mind. Jerry Sandusky comes to mind.

And if these are the kinds of people and the kinds of things that Christian freedom and American democracy produces, then it is much easier to understand why the Muslim world hates us and this “freedom” we’re trying to export to the rest of the world. That’s why the Saudis don’t want their women to drive cars. They must keep people (especially women), under control. Freedom, they believe, is Libertinism.

So what is it from which Christ sets believers free? Let’s look again at the text.

1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Christ has set us free from slavery to salvation by law-keeping, whether that is keeping the Mosaic Law or obeying Shariah Law or even submitting to the Constitution of the United States. Anyone who lives according to a theological system or a religious philosophy that demands obedience for salvation is a religious slave. Christ came to set men free from all kinds of religious slavery. He has set us free in order that we might be free indeed (John 8:36 ESV).

Paul says to the Galatians and to all former slaves of religion, Therefore stand firm and do not submit again to a yoke of [religious] slavery. And once again, what I mean by religious slavery is a theological system or a religious philosophy that demands obedience for salvation. The Judaizers were attempting to impose religious slavery upon the Galatians. Today, Muslims are trying to impose religious slavery upon the world. The Roman Catholic Church imposes this kind of slavery on their converts. ALL religions are forms of slavery, except one. Only Christ, through the preaching of the biblical gospel of salvation by grace alone, truly sets men free.

Paul continues by saying the Galatians have a slippery slope of their own to avoid. The Saudis think giving women driver’s licenses is the first step towards a moral Armageddon. Paul tells the Galatians circumcision is the first step towards complete enslavement by the Jews. If you accept the principle that Christ alone is not enough to save you, but that you must also become Jewish, then Christ will be worthless to you. And when we look at Catholicism, that is precisely what we see. And Judaism. And Islam. And all religions. Jesus is not esteemed highly because according to those religions, He didn’t do all that much. Other things, other practices, other objects of worship, other acts of self-sacrifice, other acts of obedience become the focal points, to the neglect of Jesus Christ.

The spiritual consequences of minifying Christ are, You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. Either you are saved by grace through the work of Christ alone, or you are severed, cut off, entirely removed from Christ and from saving grace. “Galatians, if you agree to the severing of circumcision to gain eternal life, you will be severing yourselves from Christ, the only hope there is for salvation. It is either salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, or nothing.

5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Galatians 5:5-6 ESV)

A pilgrimage to Mecca counts for nothing. Preventing women from driving cars counts for nothing. Praying the Rosary a thousand times and going to confession and going to Mass perpetually counts for nothing. Circumcision counts for nothing. Feeding the hungry and housing the homeless and saving the polar bears counts for nothing. Collecting Toys for Tots and dropping your spare change in the Salvation Army kettle and filling up shoe boxes with gifts for little kids in far away places counts for nothing. Baptism by immersion counts for nothing. Being Jewish counts for nothing. Confirmation counts for nothing. Going to Sunday School and church with perfect attendance for decades counts for nothing. Reading the Bible daily, reading the entire Bible in a year every year for decades counts for nothing. Being American counts for nothing. Being devout, being moral, being dedicated, being committed or re-committed, being faithfully and consistently religious and spiritual, counts for nothing.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor. 13:1-3 ESV)

The only thing that counts is faith in Christ, motivated by the Holy Spirit, which results in love. Spirit-given faith in Christ that results in love for one another is the fruit of genuine salvation. Everything else avails nothing.

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

This freedom in Christ brings with it the responsibility and the power for believers to love one another. Anything short of this true religion is self-destructive. All other religious pursuits eventually result in people being consumed and destroyed by one another. Is that not what we see happening in our world, either in the past or in the present? That was the threat of Judaism to the Galatians. It is the threat of every slavish religious ideology. But in Christ, we are free indeed.

==================================

1. http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/02/saudi-report-allowing-women-to-drive-would-mean-no-more-virgins/

2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15079620

3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2063143/Saudi-women-attractive-eyes-forced-cover-resolution-passed.html

4. "libertine." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 02 Dec. 2011. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/libertine>.

5. http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=56&load=6329

The Emancipation of Christian - Galatians 4:21-5:1

Keith Doster — 2011-11-27T23:25:00Z

I have referred on numerous occasions to the book by John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress. Several of you joined me in reading the entire story of a man named Christian as he escaped the City of Destruction (this life and this world) and made his way to salvation and Mount Zion or the Celestial City which is Heaven.

Bunyan’s entire book is an allegory, a fictitious story that serves to illustrate God’s salvation and how we are to live the Christian life. One of the most memorable scenes is when Christian approaches the Cross with his burden of guilt and sin that he has been unable to rid himself of, and no one else along the way has been able to remove it from him either. Listen to what Bunyan says:

Now I saw in my dream, that the highway, up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way therefore did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.

He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below in the bottom a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do, until it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, ‘He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.’ Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him, that the sight of the cross should thus ease his burden. He looked therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. Now, as he stood looking and weeping, behold three shining ones came to him, and saluted him with ‘Peace be to thee;’ so the first said to him, “Thy sins be forgiven thee;” the second stripped him of his raiment; the third also set a mark on his forehead, and gave him a scroll with a seal upon it, which he bid him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate; so they went their way. Then Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing--

Thus far did I come laden with my sin,

Nor could I aught ease the grief that I was in,

Till I came hither: what a place is this!

Must here be the beginning of my bliss?

Must here the burden fall from off my back?

Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?

Bless’d cross! bless’d sepulchre! bless’d rather be

The Man that there was put to shame for me!

This is an example of an allegory. Another example with which we are familiar is in John 10:1-6.

1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech [i.e. allegory] Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. (John 10:1-6, 14-16 ESV)

The text tells us, even though it should be obvious, that Jesus is using a figure of speech when He says, “I am the good shepherd and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus did not die on the cross for sheep. And as far as we know, He was never a shepherd and we aren’t sheep. Jesus uses this figure of speech to illustrate a number of spiritual truths, the primary one being that He has people for whom He will die. False teachers do not love the people whom they address, but use them for their own gain. Jesus loves His own even to the point of death, like a shepherd who guards his sheep at the risk of his own life. And there are many other things we could draw from this passage as well.

In Galatians, Paul is using every tool at his disposal to help his readers understand the nature of the saving grace of God and the futility of working for one’s salvation, which is in fact a form of religious slavery. It is a burden that never goes away because the work is never done. And the question Paul is raising is, “Why would you Gentiles want to be a slave to religion YET AGAIN, when Christ has come to set us all free from religious slavery?” And he uses the account of Isaac and Ishmael as the basis for an allegorical explanation of his argument. Look with me at Galatians 4.

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,

“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

First of all, we need to be clear about one thing: Paul is not saying (and I am not saying) that the Scriptures are to be interpreted allegorically. Many, many people have been led far, far astray by thinking the Scriptures are subject to whatever I think they may mean to me because Bible passages are not to be interpreted literally. In fact, we are often criticized for interpreting the Bible literally! But we do not have the liberty to lift passages of Scripture from the pages of the Bible, and slice and dice them to fit whatever interpretation I choose to accept. Peter warns us of just such a thing:

15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. (2 Peter 3:15-17 ESV)

The mainline denominational churches are champions of this kind of intentional scripture warping so that they might “prove” from the Bible that their liberal ideas are God’s ideas. And they do so to their own destruction and the destruction of those who listen to them. I don’t need to go into any more detail about that. You know what and who it is that I speak of.

In verse 24, Paul is speaking of an historical event in allegorical terms. We can do that with any real event in order to illustrate a point. Allegory is a literary tool and Paul is using it here to help the Galatians out of the snare of the Judaizers. Jesus used it, Paul used it, it is used in the book of Psalms, the prophet Nathan used it in his confrontation with David over Bathsheba, etc., etc. It is a useful literary device for teaching. It is NOT to be used for interpreting Scripture, except in those cases where the writers of Scripture are using it themselves. When David says, “The Lord is my shepherd”, we recognize that as allegory. That was his intent.

However, there are those who want to allegorize the first three chapters of Genesis because they cannot believe an omnipotent God could make the entire universe in 144 hours. A truly omnipotent God can do anything He wants. He could have made it all in one day. One hour. In an instant. Omnipotence can do that.

Others want to allegorize the first six chapters of Genesis because they cannot believe in a world-wide flood or that an omnipotent God could preserve the entire animal kingdom in the ark. They don’t believe in the God of the Bible. The Jews couldn’t have walked through the Red Sea, the walls of Jericho couldn’t have fallen down, the shadow couldn’t have moved backwards up the steps of the Temple, and it just continues to go downhill from there. All that miraculous stuff the Bible talks about that liberals can’t bring themselves to believe, all of that is allegory. Or so they say.

Here in Galatians 4:21, Paul begins by drawing their attention to Scripture. In essence he says to them, “It would amaze you what you would learn if you would just read the text!” He addresses those who want to live under the Law. Who would that be? Those who want it most are the Judaizers themselves. I believe he is addressing both the Galatian churches AND these false teachers. “You want to be under the law? Have you actually read the law? Do you not understand what it says?” I think this is a slap at the Judaizers. They are out of their league when they start arguing with an apostle of the Lord Jesus over the interpretation of Scripture. Paul is way above their pay grade.

22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

This is such an elementary statement for his audience that it really shouldn’t need an explanation. “Do you want to be free or would you prefer to be a slave?” To illustrate his point, he turns them to the father of the Jews, Abraham. Rather than trust God to keep His promise, Abraham listened to Sarah and had a child by her servant, Hagar, whose name was Ishmael. Ishmael’s birth was not according to God’s word to Abraham. God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of nations by means of his legitimate wife, Sarah. And, as you know, he and Sarah eventually had a child in their very old age, Isaac, precisely as God had promised.

Paul’s audience knows all this. Ishamel was the child of a slave and therefore a slave himself. Isaac was the child of a free woman and therefore free. But for the sake of illustration, Paul says in effect, “Let me tell you a story and I’ll use Sarah and Hagar to make my point.”

24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

We’ll call Hagar “Mt. Sinai”, and we’ll call Sarah “the Heavenly Jerusalem”. Which one would you prefer to have as your mother? Mt. Sinai? The one who gives birth to slaves who live under the burden of the Law? Perpetually responsible for perfect obedience? Or would you rather be a child of the Heavenly Jerusalem? The one who gives birth to the family of God who are free from the curse of the Law?

Paul is saying, “Look, Judaizers and Galatians, at present day Jerusalem! The Jews who live there are enslaved to the Law. They work constantly to gain their salvation through it! But what God’s word is actually teaching us is that those who are of the faith of Abraham, those who are the children of promise, are free from that burden! In Christ, we are free citizens of the Celestial City, the New Jerusalem.” In Christ, we are sons of the free woman, not the slave woman. Then Paul quotes from Isaiah (54:1ff):

“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;

break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!

For the children of the desolate one will be more

than those of the one who has a husband.”

Sarah is the barren one. She is the one who is not in labor, and who does not bear. She is described by Isaiah as desolate. Empty. For decades she has wanted a child, but has had none. She is so discouraged that she says Abraham him, “It seems pretty obvious that I’m not going to be a mother. If you’re ever going to have children, it won’t through me. Why don’t you take my slave girl, Hagar. She can give you a child.“ (I think Sarah was a bit of a liberal.) But even in Abraham’s and Sarah’s faithlessness, God uses it to illustrate the difference between man-made attempts at salvation and true salvation that is of the Lord.

This passage says the children of the free woman will be far more than those of the slave. That is why Jesus said, “I have sheep who are not of this fold.” The children of the free woman are not only Jews, not only the direct descendants of Abraham and Sarah, but Gentiles as well. Multitudes of sons and daughters! Nations! And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise (Galatians 3:29 ESV). People from every nation of the earth by grace, through faith, and not by works of the Law. Not as a result of being Jewish.

Then in verse 28, Paul sees another comparison between the days of Isaac and Ishmael, and the day in which he himself was living:

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Here’s another stab at the Judaizers. Who is persecuting whom? Well, just as Ishmael persecuted Issac, just as the slave persecuted the legitimate child, even now the slaves from Jerusalem, the Jews who are in bondage to the Law, persecute the followers of the Lord Jesus. Paul should know! He used to do this! But now he is free and he longs for the Galatians to join him and run from the slavery the Judaizers are peddling.

In verse 30, notice that Paul once again uses scripture to interpret scripture because he understands biblical hermeneutics. That is one of the legitimate methods of correct bible interpretation. The Bible often interprets itself. It is the only inspired interpretation we have. So Paul says, “What does the Scripture say?” It astounds me that people believe they can be “good Christians” without knowing what the Bible says.

I recently had a friend who claims to be a Christian ask me how I know if what I am preaching is true. I know the same way Paul knew. The same way the believers in Berea knew. The same way all believers know: “What does the Scripture say?” Whatever it says, that is true. We start there. Sometimes it is difficult to know precisely what a particular passage is saying. But the majority of the Bible does not require a seminary degree to understand. When people want to know what is right and true, the first thing to say is, “What do the Scriptures say?”

Finally, Paul says in verse 31, So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. I don’t know who thought this would be a good place for a chapter break, but the next verse clarifies this verse:

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1 ESV)

Stand firm. Do not allow anyone to persuade you to submit to religious slavery ever again. It is at the cross of Christ that every man’s burden, every man’s slavery to sin, every man’s bondage to salvation by his own efforts, is miraculously lifted from his shoulders and taken away and buried in Jesus’ own tomb, never to be seen again. For me to have to bear the burden of saving myself in my own strength, by my own works, through my own keeping of God’s law, is an impossible burden to bear. It is slavery. That’s what Bunyan was illustrating when Christian looks at the cross and his burden miraculously falls from his back and rolls into the grave.

Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him, that the sight of the cross should thus ease his burden. He looked therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.

Then Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing--

Thus far did I come laden with my sin,

Nor could I aught ease the grief that I was in,

Till I came hither: what a place is this!

Must here be the beginning of my bliss?

Must here the burden fall from off my back?

Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?

Bless’d cross! bless’d sepulchre! bless’d rather be

The Man that there was put to shame for me!

And that is what Paul is teaching the Galatians. In Christ, we are free. Stand firm in Him.

The Galatian Enigma - Galatians 4:8-20

Keith Doster — 2011-11-21T00:20:00Z

I enjoy reading books that use words I need to look up in the dictionary. Not so many words that I have no idea what the author is talking about, but a word every now and then that I’ve never read before is fun.

In October when I was visiting my parents, my mother wanted to play Scrabble. I can usually hold my own against most people in Scrabble. But my mom works the crossword puzzle in the Rock Hill Herald every day. In ink. She’s no slouch when it comes to Scrabble. So I was more than slightly miffed when she spelled a three letter word with a Triple Word Score, for 2000 points. Qua? What in the world is “qua”? I looked it up but I don’t remember what it means. Even so, I have added a deadly word to my Scrabble game.

I found out yesterday that I didn’t know how to spell enigma. I looked it up and the dictionary said there’s no such word as i-n-i-g-m-a. Of course there is! Well, apparently not. There is a word spelled e-n-i-g-m-a and if you look that up, it means “a saying, question, picture, etc., containing a hidden meaning.” 1

Also among the definitions listed is an entry for Enigma with a capital E. In WWII, the Nazis used an Enigma machine to encrypt and decrypt top secret correspondence. It looked something like a big clunky typewriter with wheels and cams and lights and such mounted in a wooden box.

Why did they call it an Enigma machine? Because it made the German language unintelligible to those who didn’t have the secret decoder ring. It kept top secrets secret from everyone except their fellow Nazis. To everyone else, the messages it produced were incomprehensible.

That’s how Paul felt about the Christians in the churches of Galatia. They had begun so well in their understanding of the Gospel message he had preached to them. They had been so gracious and kind to him as a messenger of the Lord Jesus. They had welcomed and embraced both him and the salvation he brought through his preaching. They had been set free from the bondage of their hopeless devotion to idols.

But now, after spending some time with the Judaizers, their behavior made them an enigma to Paul. So much so that he says to them,

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel (1:6)
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? (3:1)
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (3:3)
I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. (4:11)
I am perplexed about you. (4:20b)
You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? (5:7)
I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! (5:12)

If there was ever a time when the apostle Paul was frustrated in his missionary work, it was with the Galatians. They are beyond interpretation. They have become a mystery, an enigma to Paul. He is perplexed, bewildered, confused about their behavior. How can they be this foolish? Can you feel his irritation? Can you hear him asking them, “What part of ‘grace alone’ don’t you understand?” He is presumably speaking to Christians, or people he thought were Christians. Now he has his doubts.

Have you ever been there? Have you ever wondered how a Christian, or someone professing to be a Christian, could ever find fault with God’s grace in salvation and exchange it for a pseudo-salvation by one’s own efforts? Exchanging the work of Christ for one’s own work? How someone could be so easily led astray from the clear, un-enigmatic teaching of Scripture? How does that happen? How can this be? This is precisely why Paul says to the Galatians, “I am perplexed about you!”

Let’s read together chapter 4, verses 8-20 and see Paul’s dismay over his friends.

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of the blessing you felt? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. (Galatians 4:8-20 ESV)

In ch 3, Paul says, "the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin" (v22), and that the unregenerate man is held captive under the law, imprisoned . . . " (v23), he is under a guardian (v25). That is not freedom. That is not liberty. That is bondage and enslavement.

In 4:1 he says, "the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave . . . ." In 4:3 he says, "we . . . were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world." In v7 he says the person who is in Christ is "no longer a slave."

V8 - Now in v8 Paul tells us those who do not know God are enslaved. The Galatians did not possess free will as it is usually understood by our culture even among Christians. Slavery and free will are opposites. And the unregenerate man is not free. He is a slave.

Formerly, their slavery involved their obligatory worship of those that by nature are not gods. Those who are not yet regenerated by God’s Spirit are spiritual slaves. Slaves do not have freedom to think or do as they please in the spiritual realm. They are owned by another, and in this particular instance, the Galatians had been owned by their idols whom they served as religious slaves. In 1 Corinthians 10:20, Paul says “what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.”

V9 - Verse 9 says these believers were returning to an enslavement "to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world."

V10 - And what characterizes this slavery? Are the Galatians being encouraged by the Judaizers to go back to their idols? No. But they have gone back to the same bad, weak, and worthless elementary principles, the bad theology that drives idolatry: Salvation by works. The evidence of this is their desire to return to the religious observance of Jewish "days and months and seasons and years!" You see, it really doesn’t stop with circumcision. Now we have to observe holy days also. What holy days and months and seasons and years? The ones the Jews were under obligation by the Mosaic law to observe. And eventually they will become enslaved to the entire Law. They will be slaves to Judaism.

This is why Paul is pulling out his hair, figuratively speaking? The Galatians are being successfully persuaded to trade one slavery which they had formerly been bound to (idolatry) for another, at the expense of spiritual freedom from ALL slavery. They were trading Gentile slavery to idols for Jewish slavery to the Law of Moses, at the expense of the freedom of salvation in Christ. You want to be slaves to law-works again when you could be set free in Christ? How can this be? You prefer do-it-yourself salvation to salvation by grace?

Therefore verse 11 is self-explanatory: I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. In other words, Paul is saying his previous missionary work among them appears not to have produced true believers in Christ after all. If you STILL believe you can be justified through your own religious efforts, you STILL don’t get it. You STILL don’t understand the grace of God.

Vs 12-20 are parenthetical. This is personal now. He turns from his theological argument in order to share the grief and sorrow he feels for them. He recounts his own time spent with them, the physical problems he had, and their previous expressions of love towards him: "You did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus." (v14)

What happened? “Before, when I was among you, you would have given me your own eyes! But now I'm your enemy? Because I'm telling you the truth about your grievous error? Because I have confronted you for following after false teachers? You are falling away from salvation by grace to embrace dead works that cannot save you! What do you expect me to say?”

The Judaizers have made Paul an enemy to the Galatians. They cannot argue with him and stand their ground scripturally, so they have turned to denouncing him, attacking his person. This is exactly what we read Thursday night from The Sovereignty of God by Arthur Pink: "Denunciation is the last resort of a defeated opponent." That has been the case with these false teachers. They cannot compete with Paul scripturally, so they have attacked Paul personally and made him out to be a liar and less than an apostle, and the Galatians have fallen headlong into the trap.

These Judaizers want to exclude you from the salvation that is in Christ so that they might be seen in your eyes as important. They want to be seen as holding the keys of salvation themselves. They want to take credit for your conversion to Judaism and rob you of the true gospel. How can you follow these liars? "I am perplexed about you." (v20).

It truly is perplexing. They really are an enigma. Why would anyone prefer works over grace? Slavery over freedom? Doctrines of demons over the Son of God? If you had a choice between:

1) the possibility of saving yourself from the judgment to come through your own efforts while never being certain you had done enough or been good enough to ACTUALLY secure your own salvation, OR

2) choosing the sure salvation that is granted to those whose faith is in Christ and His work upon the cross, . . .

WHY would you EVER repent of the slavery of idol worship, trust in Christ alone as your Savior, and then repent of salvation by grace and RETURN to the slavery of trusting in your own religious efforts to justify yourself before God? No wonder Paul was perplexed over the Galatians! It confuses us as well when people who have given every outward indication that they are truly born again by the Spirit, somehow are drawn away from Christ and into a cult or a denomination that is a stranger to the saving grace of God. How does that happen? What do we do with such an enigma?

It all comes down to faith. They were being taught to trust in themselves more than in Christ. That is the false elementary principle that enslaves all unregenerate men.

So we read in verse 19 Paul’s endearing and heartbreaking words where he speaks of the Galatians as, “my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” Paul was being crushed by their straying away from the Lord Jesus and now he is laboring to bring them back with a clear reiteration of salvation by the grace that sets men free.

I often see parallels to this. There are multitudes of professing Christians who have had an emotional response to a gospel presentation, but who have been so poorly taught, or so wrongly taught, that they eventually slide into a kind of mock Christianity that has little to do with the biblical gospel and much to do with a religious subculture that is nominally Christian at best. Christian camps and city-wide crusades of the past have generated multitudes of people who are on record as having “made a decision for Christ” but who were never seen nor heard from again after their initial “salvation experience”. They were, in effect, inoculated against the true gospel with a false religious, emotional experience called salvation.

In the 1800’s Charles Finney began preaching throughout middle and western New York State. He came from a Presbyterian background in which he was ordained, even though he eventually denounced the Westminster Confession, and Total Depravity in particular. In his evangelistic meetings, he developed a rather novel approach for his day, what we often refer to today as an altar call or the Invitation System. If you look in the Bible, you will not find any scriptural precedent for issuing an altar call at the end of a church service. But Finney was convinced that a person could and should be persuaded by all means to make a decision for Christ in order to secure his own salvation.

This technique of Finney’s produced so many “converts” that most of western New York eventually became known as the Burned Over District. So many people had supposedly been converted by the fires of revival that there was no more fuel to burn. But toward the end of his life Finney’s own testimony tells us what actually happened:

“I was often instrumental in bringing Christians under great conviction, and into a state of temporary repentance and faith. . . . [But] falling short of urging them up to a point where they would become so acquainted with Christ as to abide in Him, they would of course soon relapse into their former state.” 2

That describes what was happening to the Galatians. But through no fault of Paul’s. Paul hadn’t preached a deficient gospel. But many of the Galatians seem to have made a kind of illegitimate “decision” for Christ which did not result in salvation. The proof of this is that they were eventually easily persuaded by the Judaizers that their former decision to believe (if I may call it that) in Christ alone was deficient.

So they, like Finney’s “converts” “relapsed” into a spiritual state that was not significantly different from the state they were in when they worshipped idols. Because of the Judaizers, they no longer depended upon their worship of idols for salvation. They now depended upon their worship of Christ to save them. But both are equally damning. In both cases, their trust was in their worship, in their works of devotion.

Once again we need to ask the question with Paul, “What part of Grace Alone do professing Christians not understand?” This is exactly why Paul is perplexed. He feels as though he needs to start all over again. He wishes he could be with them and labor in the gospel with them and among them until Christ is formed in them, until Christ becomes their own.

What amazes me in all this is Paul’s perseverance in love towards the Galatians. He does not write them off. He does not take offense and say, “Well just forget it! After all the blood, sweat and tears I spilled among you to bring you the Gospel, and now you’re believing all these lies the Judaizers are telling you about me? Then I’ll just dust off my feet and move on to someone who will appreciate me and who will accept the Gospel and REALLY believe it!”

No. This man just never gives up. That’s why he writes this letter. And the message to us is that we love people enough to never give up, never stop pointing them to the Lord Jesus, never stop sharing the Gospel.

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1. enigma. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/enigma (accessed: November 20, 2011).

2. http://www.hisfatherlyhand.com/blog/church-ministry/preaching/659/macarthur-on-finney/

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"To have recourse to invectives is ever the last resort of a defeated opponent. Whenever you find men calling their opponents hard names, it is a sure sign that their own cause has been defeated." - A. W. Pink See http://www.biblebelievers.com/Pink/John/john_33.htm (Sounds like American politics to me.)

Penn State, King David & the Great Cover-Up

Keith Doster — 2011-11-13T20:45:00Z

Over the last week or so, most of us have experienced nearly every human emotion available to us because of the sins of a few prominent men in the State College community. There has been everything from outrage to pity, from deep sorrow to deep disgust, over the reports we’ve read and the news we’ve seen. After an initial knee-jerk reaction of denial came a very real sense of betrayal by some of the most trusted and beloved people at Penn State. This community was kicked in the teeth by one evil man, and it seems the rest of the world has been kicking us ever since. I’m not sure it isn’t deserved. One poignant sign I saw said, “We are Penn State. We are ashamed.”

There are a lot of pertinent issues that could be addressed from this pulpit because of these recent events. One of the more obvious ones is hypocrisy. Here’s what a friend of mine said:

“Will be praying for your community. I must confess I'm struggling with the hypocrisy of it all. The acts involved are truly disgusting and morally reproachable. But much of the media expressing moral outrage are the same who condone homosexuality, fornication, adultery, pornography as acceptable. It seems that only when the depravity exceeds acceptable depravity that it becomes recognized as depraved.”

That is exactly right. It is the height of hypocrisy for the American culture to express such moral outrage over this, while actively promoting every kind of sexual sin imaginable the rest of the time. The university itself has made it a point, even to declaring it to be official policy to allow all kinds of promiscuity on campus while virtually threatening anyone who would suggest such things are morally wrong. It is quite possible that some defense lawyer will make this argument: “If homosexuality, fornication, adultery, and pornography are socially acceptable on university campuses all across America, why not this? Why is a grown man expressing his love for a child immoral?”

I’d actually like to hear their answer to that question. And it is not inconceivable that it would actually become a subject of debate on campus. What are the choices: 1) Admit guilt and repent of the sins of so-called “sexual freedom” that have been fostered on university campuses, or 2) Propagate even more depravity for the sake of being consistent and not offending people with “alternative lifestyles”. I pray for number 1 but I don’t have high hopes.

Turn with me please, to 2 Samuel chapter 11. I want to read with you the account of David’s sin against God and against Bathsheba. I think there are some lessons to be learned from this text that are applicable to our current situation.

Read 2 Samuel 11.

Before we begin our study, I want to make two assumptions: 1) Bathsheba was not an exhibitionist and 2) David was not a voyeur. There is no reason to believe from the Scriptures that Bathsheba was trying to entice or seduce anyone by indecent exposure (in fact, from what the text says, there’s reason to believe she most certainly was not attempting to do so). And we have no reason to believe David made it a habit of going up to the roof with binoculars to see what he could see. We are safe in assuming this sin of which we’ve just read, specifically their adultery, was not premeditated on the part of either David or Bathsheba. The text gives us no reason to think otherwise.

So we have two people living in rather close proximity to each other. She had no idea anyone was watching her bathe, and he had no idea she was there to be seen. He walks up to the roof, which people in those days did regularly, and because of his vantage point, David is enabled to see someone he didn’t expect or intend to see. But because of her beauty, and apparently because of the privacy he has there, he looks just a bit longer than he should. The wheels of temptation begin to turn rather quickly and within moments, David has committed a sin that will bring serious consequences upon him and his family and his nation throughout the rest of his life and beyond.

Verse 3 - And David sent and inquired about the woman. This is the beginning of the end. For David to see Bathsheba was not a sin. To gaze at her and entertain thoughts about what he saw was indeed sinful. I suspect David had already realized this woman’s husband was likely off to war and Uriah would never know of the plot David was scheming.

Before David speaks to his servant to go and fetch the woman, he is already guilty. As Jesus said, David has committed adultery in his heart. All that is left is to send for her in order to gratify the lusts he has indulged on his rooftop. David is guilty before he ever speaks the first word of inquiry about her, and long before he ever touches her. That is the awful and destructive power of sin, and such is the nature of the fallen human heart.

This is how vulnerable and how fragile all of our lives are. If Adam could fall as hard as he did when he was tempted by Satan in the Garden of Eden, when he had never sinned or experienced any other temptation to sin, in a place that was pure and untouched by the deadly effects of depravity, how are we to live in a world where the Devil prowls about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour? What kind of defense system should we have in place to protect us from the temptations that constantly come against our hearts and minds which are already inclined towards evil?

Not only was David weak and susceptible to temptation, as we all are, but this account also speaks volumes regarding the absolute necessity of modesty, yet another topic we could discuss at length and which would be quite pertinent to our current situation. I am not faulting Bathsheba here. As I already said, I assume she had no idea what was happening. It may be she never knew David was there watching her, she may have thought no one could see her, and it seems likely that no one but David from his particular point of view could have seen her.

But this text does teach us that the mere accidental sight of an attractive female form affects men sexually, sometimes provoking very bad behavior. This particular set of circumstances--David’s access to the perfect vantage point, Bathsheba’s unfortunate timing of her bathing, the privacy that was afforded David so that he might indulge his lust, Bathsheba’s physical beauty, and the fact that her husband was out of town-- all of those circumstances combined to create a perfect storm of temptation and opportunity for David. It was the perfect setup for heinous sin.

But the truth is we all live only a few feet and a few moments away from moral disaster constantly, and we always have.

The disaster of sin was near to Adam in the Garden in the form of Satan and rebellion,
it was near to Cain in the form of murder because of pride,
it was near to Abraham in the form of fornication with Hagar,
it was near to Achan in the form of coveting silver and gold,
it was near to Peter and Judas in their betrayals of the Lord Jesus,
it was near to Ananias and Sapphira in their deception of the church,
it was near to the Galatians in their abandonment of the gospel of grace,

--and it is perpetually near, if not nearer to us. Sin is always close at hand. Never have there been more virtual Bathshebas and more virtual rooftops from which to privately gaze upon them. It is a sexually uncontrolled age in which we live. The events of recent days in our community attest to that fact and are the provocation for this message.

But I hope you have noticed that in my list of people just mentioned, every single one of them would have claimed to have some kind of relationship with God or with the Lord Jesus. All of the above mentioned people--Adam, Cain, Abraham, Achan, Peter, Judas, Ananias, Sapphira, and all the believers in the churches of Galatia--and David & Bathsheba--all of them would have claimed to know God and be among His people. Several are direct ancestors of Christ.

This message is not for the sake of pointing out the sins of others, but in order to point out the common dangers we all face as we walk in a sin-filled world. If the biblical characters I’ve just mentioned fell into grievous sin, so can we. And we do. We have. No one in this room would want every minute of our lives since our conversion examined by the rest of us.

None of us could be weighed in the balance of God’s justice and survive it based upon our own merits or our own performance as Christians. We all have indulged various lusts and sinful pleasures as Christians. There is not a man in this room that is not guilty of the sin of David. And not one of us deserves any better treatment from God for our sins than he received. Like David, there have been too many occasions when our actions, like his, have displeased the Lord. Look with me at chapter 12.

Read 2 Samuel 12:1-15

I want to draw your attention to verse 13: David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” There are several things I want to point out about David’s statement.

1) It is an immediate admission of guilt. Once he is confronted, David gives no excuses, he casts no blame, he doesn’t hire a lawyer, he makes no claims of being afflicted with some irresistible sexual lust syndrome and was off his medication. Immediately he agrees with the charges Nathan brings against him: “Yes, I am the man. Yes, I sinned. Yes, I am guilty. Yes, I deserve to die.” That is the first thing David has done right in this entire event. In making this simple statement, David realizes he deserves to die. He is guilty of lying, deceit, adultery, covetousness, and murder. He committed adultery and tried to cover it up. And he admits to it all.

2) His statement also reveals an understanding that sin is first and foremost against God. Did David sin against Bathsheba? Against Uriah? Against the people of Israel as their king? Against Joab by commanding him to abandon Uriah to his enemies? Absolutely. But how did he sin against them? By breaking God’s Law. By despising God’s word. By despising God Himself.

v7 Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, . . . v9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? . . . v10 You have despised me. . . . v14 By this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord . . . .”

When we sin and we attempt to cover it up for the sake of our reputations,
When we sin and we refuse to deal with it as though it were no big deal,
When we sin and we convince ourselves that we are somehow exempt from the responsibility to obey all that God’s word commands us to do;

That sin is directed first and foremost against God. It is an expression of hatred. And is that not our attitude every time we sin? Do we not despise the Lord and His word when we disregard Him and what He has commanded us in order to pursue our own sinful pleasures and indulge our own desires that are contrary to His will? David’s sin, and my sin, and your sin, and everyone’s sin is always first and foremost against God.

I could stand here and vilify Mr. Sandusky for the despicable things he has done. I could stand here and point out the utter failure of numerous people in not stopping this man from his awful sin. But there are plenty of people who are already doing that. What I want to say to you is that Jerry Sandusky and many other people involved in this scandal sinned against God. They despised the word of God. And for at least a decade, they utterly scorned the Lord by allowing these things to take place right under their noses.

3) In David’s case, everything happened in less than 9 months. It all happened before Bathsheba gave birth to David’s son. It may have happened in only a matter of weeks. So another thing we might want to take note of here is that sin should be dealt with swiftly. Look at chapter 11 and verses 4&5.

4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

David sent messengers - How would you like to have been one of those guys. The king gives you the order to go and get this beautiful woman whom they all know, and whose father they know, and whose husband they know, according to v3, and bring her to him. Why would the king want to see her? It doesn't take much imagination to figure that out.

But it would be even worse if you were the guy in v5! You're the messenger Bathsheba sends to break the news to David that the "girl next door" is now pregnant with his child? And you, being the messenger, know this information firsthand!

What are these messengers supposed to do with what they know? We are talking about the "indiscretions" of a very important person who needs to maintain his reputation as the leader of the people of God, the nation of Israel. What to do?

What to do?! How might this entire event have turned out if just one of these messengers had spoken up? We don’t know. This is purely conjecture. Surely he would have been taking his life into his own hands. But had one of them spoken up, Uriah's life might have been spared and David might have avoided the sin of murder.

But by the time we get to vs 26-27, because of Bathsheba's mourning over the loss of her husband in battle, and because of her return to the royal palace immediately after her week of mourning, all of these messengers now know beyond a reasonable doubt exactly why Uriah is now very conveniently out of the way. How many of these onlookers saw what was happening and said nothing?

Brethren, this is the terrible power of sin. So how do we respond to such things? What is the biblical and Christian response to such heartbreaking scandals as David’s and as the one we’re seeing unfold before our eyes? What should we do when we ourselves sin, or when we are privy to the sins of another believer? Let me simply draw your attention to two passages of Scripture that directly address this. In Galatians 6 we read this:

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load. (Galatians 6:1-5 ESV)

If one of us is ensnared by sin, others of us are to work for restoration. We are to help each other in holiness. We’re to be mindful of our own vulnerability, especially in the context of helping others as they wrestle with their own sins and temptations. We need to be mindful that none of us is infallible. None of us is above the possibility of terrible sin. Bear one another’s burdens as we live in this fallen world, while remembering that we alone bear the responsibility and the consequences of our own sin. But we’re in this together. We must help each other to walk the walk and avoid bringing any reproach upon our Lord.

In the book of James, chapter 5, we read:

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

This is about the normal Christian life: suffering and sin and sickness and praying and confessing our sins to one another and rescuing each other from our wanderings away from the Lord. This is how we’re to live this life together. When Nathan confronted David, he brought back a sinner from his wandering. He delivered David’s soul from the death he deserved. And he undoubtedly prevented even more sins from being committed. Thank the Lord for men like Nathan. Would that there were more men like him who are willing to confront God’s people when they sin for the Lord’s name’s sake.

I want to encourage us all today, as we continue to feel the effects of the sins of others in this town, that we never lose sight of the fact that truly, apart from the grace of God at work in our lives each and every day, we are all capable of the very same kinds of sin that even unbelievers condemn. If Adam fell, if Abraham fell, if David fell, if Peter fell, if the Galatian believers could fall, so can we. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

May God protect and deliver us from such evils, and fill us with His Spirit, so that we might live godly lives before Him and bring Him the glory He fully deserves.

A Meditation on Adoption - Various Scriptures

Keith Doster — 2011-11-07T15:55:00Z

Turn with me once again to the book of Galatians, and let’s read together the first seven verses of chapter 4.

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

For reasons I do not understand, the doctrine of adoption has been sorely neglected by the church. It is difficult to find anything written in depth about the subject. According to one writer, John Calvin makes no allusion to it at all in his writings. For centuries it has been considered a minor point or a sub-point of the doctrine of Justification or mentioned only in passing. Paul, however, does not think our adoptions as sons of God is a relatively unimportant thing. Look with me at Ephesians 1, and verses 3-6.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Through a peculiar series of providential events, I came across a rather rare book entitled The Reformed Doctrine of Adoption by Robert Alexander Webb, a Southern Presbyterian who died in 1919. His lectures on adoption were published in 1921. In his book he makes these two powerful comments in regard to Ephesians 1:5 and Galatians 4:5 - “The apostle defines [adoption] as the very goal of the gracious purpose of God concerning sinners . . . .” “It was the very blessing which God aimed to secure when, in the fulness of time, He sent forth His Son into the world . . . .” 1

The goal of God’s gracious purposes is our adoption? Adoption was the blessing Jesus secured for us? For many years I have thought and taught that the main blessing God intended to secure for His people by means of the work of the Lord Jesus was their salvation. That is what the angel tells Joseph: “He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21 ESV). I have been under the impression that God’s primary goal in sending the Lord Jesus into the world was to make it possible for us to be justified in His sight; that because of the Lord Jesus, God is able to maintain His justice while at the same time declaring us who believe to be righteous.

The great doctrines of the Reformation of which we speak frequently and which we hold in the highest esteem don’t include this doctrine of adoption. Seldom do we hear this idea of our adoption being emphasized. But I must say I find it hard to disagree with my new friend Robert Webb when he says these two passages (among others) teach that our adoption as the sons (and daughters) of God is the ultimate goal of the grace of God towards us. Salvation is the primary goal of His grace toward us, but our salvation is the means to this end: our becoming God’s children.

Notice here in Galatians 4 (and also in Romans 8) how Paul describes our eventual relationship to God. Because of our adoption, we are compelled by the Spirit of God to cry, “Abba”, “Father”. This is what we call a term of endearment. “Abba” is the Hebrew equivalent of “Daddy”. We don’t simply have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He is our personal relative! As adopted children, we become personally related to God as our Father. We are adopted by God in order to become the family, the offspring, the children of God.

Listen to what Robert Webb says about this: “There is a sense in which [adoption] is to be the crown and glory of the entire redemptive process. The admission of sinful men, through the grace of adoption, into the family of God, with all the rights and privileges of sons in His house, is, in a lofty sense, the culmination and climax of the blessings of redemption.” 2 Or, as we might say, “That’s as good as it gets!”

In Psalm 83, verse 10, the psalmist speaks of the joy of being in the temple of God and in His presence:

For a day in your courts is better

than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

than dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Psalm 83:10 ESV)

If being in the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem was this delightful, if serving as a mere doorkeeper in the house of God was something to be greatly desired, if one day in the courts of the Temple was better than three years spent anywhere else, . . . brethren, what will it be like to enter into the heavenly temple, our heavenly home which our Brother, the Lord Jesus, has prepared for us, and draw near to God Himself and speak to Him saying “Abba”, ”Daddy”, “Father”? Who would believe this if it were not written in the pages of Scripture?

“To bring back a man as a disobedient subject, and reinstate him in heavenly citizenship, and confer upon him the immunities and duties of a servant [like a doorkeeper], and let him take his place as a ministering spirit about the burning throne of God--this would be an exhibition of grace worthy of immortal doxologies; but grace is heaped upon grace, and mercy is banked upon mercy, and love is laid over upon love with more than ten-fold thickness, when the sinner is reclaimed, and transplanted in the bosom of the heavenly Father, made an inmate in the eternal and fadeless home of God, and appointed an heir to all that glory which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away.” 3

“The conception of God as Father is the most charming and transporting thought which ever enters into the bosom of man; and the correlative conception of himself as the son of God is the most soothing and satisfying thought which a sinner ever finds himself indulging concerning himself. Philip said to our Lord, ‘Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us’ (John xiv. 8). It would satisfy Philip, it would satisfy any man, if he could grasp in consciousness and realize in experience that God was his Father.” 4

One of the questions that comes to my mind when I read this is, When was the last time you or I indulged ourselves in the thought that we are the children of God? The apostle John thought a great deal about this: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1John 3:1 ESV). Children of God! Us! We have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:15-17 ESV).

Even Jesus Himself spoke of believers as sons of God:

“You are the light of the world. . . . let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13 & 16 ESV).

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (5:48 ESV).

7 “And when you pray, . . . your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name . . . . (Matthew 6: 7 & 9 ESV).

We speak of God as our Father so regularly and so often and so passively and so casually that we seldom consider what that actually means. God is our Father. Which of those four words is most important? God is our Father. God is our Father. God is our Father. God is our Father!

We all have earthly fathers. We would not be here otherwise. Everyone has a father somewhere. Even orphans have fathers. Children raised in single-parent homes where that parent is the mother, those children have fathers. Obviously everybody either has, or has had a father. Some fathers are good. Some aren’t so much. Some are incarcerated. Some are deceased. Some are unknown. And there are even fathers who don’t know they are fathers. Some are quite responsible, while others are totally irresponsible.

But the Fatherhood of God is perfect and incomparable. Everything that could possibly be good and desirable in an earthly father is found to an infinite degree in God. That tender, loving, caring relationship of our heavenly Father for us, His children, is the single most precious and most valuable relationship any human being will ever experience. That is what these texts are teaching and that is the main point I want you to understand. God has shown His grace toward us,

- not “only” by saving us from the condemnation of our sins,

- not “only” by redeeming us and purchasing us for Himself through the blood of Christ,

- not “only” by justifying us and clothing us in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus,

- not “only” by regenerating us and granting us the new birth,

- not “only” by giving us eternal life and making us citizens of His heavenly kingdom,

- not “only” by giving us His Spirit to dwell in us and guaranteeing our future salvation,

- not “only” by granting us forgiveness of all our sins , past, present, and future . . .

On top of all of that, in addition to all these wondrous blessings that come to us by His grace, He ALSO adopts us as His very own children and makes us heirs in His house, joint heirs with His REAL Son, our Brother! and by His Spirit, moves us to call Him Abba, Father.

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32 ESV).

God gave up His beloved, only begotten Son for us! Obviously He will withhold nothing from us as His children. And the proof of that is His grace in our adoption as sons.

“There is a sense in which [adoption] is to be the crown and glory of the entire redemptive process. The admission of sinful men, through the grace of adoption, into the family of God, with all the rights and privileges of sons in His house, is, in a lofty sense, the culmination and climax of the blessings of redemption.”

=====================================

1. Webb, Robert Alexander The Reformed Doctrine of Adoption, Eerdmans, 1921, p.18.

2. Ibid. p.19.

3. Ibid, p. 20.

4. Ibid, p. 19.

The Great Adoption - Galatians 4:1-7

Keith Doster — 2011-10-25T01:55:00Z

Today we come to chapter 4 of our study of Galatians so please turn there with me. Verse 1 begins with these two words: “I mean . . .“ It has been three weeks since we last studied this together, so let’s read the last few verses of chapter 3 to remind ourselves of what Paul is explaining to us in chapter 4.

23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, tin order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:23-29 ESV)

As you recall, Paul is explaining salvation by grace and how it is impossible that a person, any person, could ever be justified by keeping God’s Law. The specific issue he is addressing is the lie of the Judaizers that the Gentiles may only be saved by keeping the Abrahamic covenant of circumcision. That is the particular law they are trying to impose upon the Galatian believers.

But Paul says that if one’s faith is in Christ, whether circumcised or not, whether Jewish or Gentile, whether male or female, whether slave or free, regardless of any outward distinction, WHOEVER is in Christ has the same standing, the same status, the same spiritual condition as everyone else who is in Christ. They have the same spiritual status as Abraham! In other words, the biblical gospel levels the playing field, if I may put it that way. This is spiritual equal access. No one, regardless of heritage or race or sex or social standing, has any advantage over anyone else. God shows no partiality. We are all one in Christ.

Not only that, but he makes this absolutely remarkable statement in verse 29 that all who belong to Christ are the spiritual descendants that God promised to Abraham and are therefore his spiritual heirs. The spiritual promises made by God to Abraham apply also to all of his spiritual children, to all the children of promise. The promised children of Abraham are all who are in Christ Jesus. Consequently they are also heirs to everything God promised to Abraham.

Now if you’re saying to yourself, “I’m not sure I understand what Paul is saying here”, you have a lot of company. The Galatians were undoubtedly thinking the same thing because Paul goes on to say in chapter 4, verse 1, “I mean . . . ” or, “What I’m trying to say is . . .” Here is his explanation of the last couple of verses of chapter 3 by way of illustration.

1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

This is Paul’s explanation to the Galatians of how they have become the promised sons and heirs of Abraham by way of illustration. Something has obviously happened that has caused Paul to claim uncircumcised Gentiles to be sons of Abraham. So he likens the coming of the Lord Jesus into the world to save His elect people to a child being set free from his guardians and tutors by his father. This is a picture of what God has done through Christ in salvation so that we as believers in the Lord Jesus might legitimately call God our Father. This is how men become sons and heirs of God: by adoption.

In the Greek and Roman cultures of Paul’s day, the laws regarding adoption were extremely important because heirs and inheritances were important. An inheritance isn’t as vital to us in our culture as it was then because we have things like IRAs and retirement accounts and 401k’s and pensions. There was no such thing as a Social Security system which gave people some sense of hope that when they grew old and could no longer work, they wouldn’t starve to death.

Our government has in essence eliminated the need for us to depend upon a future inheritance from our parents. We’ve been trained to believe Washington will take care of us. But that was not the case in the first century. It was the family that took responsibility to care for itself, and an inheritance was a huge part of providing for future generations. Your inheritance from your father was your retirement plan.

In the Roman world, it was standard procedure to assign guardians and tutors to infants and young children who would become the heirs of their father’s estates. But even though they were in fact heirs and in theory the owners of everything their fathers owned, they were treated little better than slaves. In fact, child heirs were subject to slaves because their tutors and guardians were usually slaves who were owned and appointed by their father.

It was also customary for the father to set the date when his son would be released from his tutors so as to actually become the responsible heir. It was entirely up to the father to decide when that release from tutelage would take place. It did not happen automatically, nor was a child necessarily released from his guardians once he became an adult.

In the Roman world, there was a legal term to describe this relationship between fathers and their children: Patria Potestas. Patria means father, and potestas means power.

patria potestas, (Latin: “power of a father”), in Roman family law, power that the male head of a family exercised over his children and his more remote descendants in the male line, whatever their age, as well as over those brought into the family by adoption. This power meant originally not only that he had control over the persons of his children, amounting even to a right to inflict capital punishment, but that he alone had any rights in private law. Thus, acquisitions of a child became the property of the father. The father might allow a child (as he might a slave) certain property to treat as his own, but in the eye of the law it continued to belong to the father. 1

The patria potestas was the father’s power over his family; that power was absolute; it was actually the power of absolute disposal and control, and in the early days it was actually the power of life and death. In regard to his father a Roman son never came of age. No matter how old he was, he was still under the patria potestas, in the absolute possession, and under the absolute control, of his father. Obviously this made adoption into another family very difficult and a very serious step. In adoption a person had to pass from one patria potestas to another. He had to pass out of the possession and control of one father into the equally absolute control and possession of another. 2

These are some of the thoughts that went through the minds of Paul’s readers when they read verses 1 through 7. A child could not deliver himself from his tutors and guardians because the father had control over his children until he released them or until he died. Even adult children owned no personal property because whatever they acquired became the property of the father. They could not marry except by permission of the father. And they could not be adopted by another except by a complicated procedure, and even then, the adopted son was still subjected to the absolute power of his new adopted father.

So when Paul speaks of children being under tutors and being adopted, this is how the Galatians understood these things. In chapter 3 he said the Law of God served as a tutor to guide His children to their eventual liberty in the Lord Jesus. It was the coming of Christ that set them free from the tutelage of the Law and made them sons of Abraham and his spiritual heirs . Now in chapter 4 he gives another similar illustration:

1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.

Paul’s illustration is quite clear. This was the common practice of families in the Roman world and the Galatian Christians undoubtedly conducted their own families in this way, according to Roman Law and custom.

3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

What Paul seems to be saying here is that prior to faith in Christ, we all, Jew and Gentile alike, lived according to the ways of the world, according to the thinking and the philosophies of fallen, unregenerate men. One of those elementary principles which we see at work even now is the religious belief that we can save ourselves by meritting salvation through our works.

All religions everywhere, whether we’re talking about Judaism, or Greek and Roman mythology, or Roman Catholicism, or Mormonism, or the Watchtower Society, or Islam, or you name it: The most fundamental, elementary spiritual principle that has ever existed and that persists throughout history to this day is this idea that I can save myself by my own efforts. That is the idea, the fundamental philosophy that enslaved the Jews of Paul’s day, as well as the Gentiles. And it still enslaves people today.

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

“The fullness of time” is like the time when a Roman father decided it was time for his son to no longer be under the control and oversight of tutors and guardians. It was time for his son to be emancipated. In a similar fashion, when God determined the time was right, He sent His only natural-born Son, who became subject to the Law of God,

5 to redeem those who were under the law,

To purchase our freedom, to liberate us from our slavery to the vain, futile, false religious philosophies of men that taught self-salvation, and from the legitimate condemnation of God’s Law which all men are under,

so that we might receive adoption as sons.

We are not naturally-born sons of God. We are not like the Lord Jesus. He alone is the rightful heir to all that belongs to His Father. But He has set us free from the patria potestas, from the power of our father over us, our father being the Devil. That was especially true of the Gentile Galatians, all of whom had been idolators.

Elsewhere Paul says the worship of idols is in reality the worship of demonic forces behind those idols. It was Satan who had held sway over them. He enslaved them to his will, and they had no power to escape his rule over them because of their worship of false gods and idols. The same is true of men today. Apart from Christ, we have no power to live contrary to our sinful natures, and we have no power to obey the Law of God.

But God sent His own Son, the only Person who could deliver us out of our bondage to a cruel father in order that we might be adopted by our new Heavenly Father and be placed under His patria potestas, His fatherly power. So now, having been adopted and given all the privileges of a legitimate son of God, this is how we also become heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Sons are heirs. And don’t worry if you are a daughter and not a son because in Christ there is neither male nor female. We are all one in Christ. In Christ, we are all the adopted children of God and heirs of God our Father.

6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

It is very interesting to me how this verse is worded. It does not say what I thought it said or what I’ve heard that it says from others. In Romans 8, we read that the Spirit of God within us causes us to cry “Abba! Father!“ But here in Galatians 4, according to verse 6, who is it that cries out “Abba, Father”? The NIV makes it absolutely clear: Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."

Do we ever cry out to God as our Father? Absolutely. Jesus taught us to pray to God as our Father and we address Him as Father constantly. Romans 8 also confirms this. But I must say it does my heart good to know that it is first and foremost the Holy Spirit of God who cries out from our hearts to God’s heart, “Abba! Father!” It is the testimony of the Holy Spirit within us to God that we are His children. Not only do I claim to be His child, but the Spirit of Christ declares me to be God’s child!

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:15-17)

We in our own spirit, and the Holy Spirit both bear witness that we are now the adopted children of God! And if children, then of course we are also heirs! Heirs of our adoptive heavenly Father, and fellow heirs with our brother, the Lord Jesus!

It was customary among the Romans to adopt children for the specific purpose of selecting a suitable heir to their estate. God has adopted us and He makes us suitable as heirs to His estate because He makes us like His Son! He sent the Lord Jesus to set us free from our tutors and guardians in order that we might become the adopted children of God, sons and daughters of the Most High, who will dwell together forever in our Father’s house as His heirs.

7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

We inherit eternal life. This does not mean simply that we inherit bodies that cannot die. We inherit a life. A lifestyle, a heavenly, glorious, joyful life as children in the household of God Himself. We move out of the slum and the ghetto, into the Father’s house! A new and inconceivably magnificent life.

Only begotten - Jesus, God’s unique Son with (and I don’t know how to say this more eloquently) the “same DNA” as God the Father, and therefore He is God. Translated in the ESV simply as God’s only Son. No one else is a Son like Christ. Therefore no one else can present God to us like Him. This is why the virgin birth is so important, because it makes Jesus absolutely unique as God’s own Son, totally divine and at the same time totally human.

Born of the Spirit - All believers are sons of God, but obviously not like Jesus. For one thing, Jesus was never born again. We are. We are birthed by the Spirit into the family of God; It is God the Father who is responsible for this. Even so, our standing before God is not the same as Christ’s. Even though we’re born of the Spirit, we are also adopted by God.

Adopted - We have a legal standing before God, similar to our justification. We have been declared righteous in God’s sight because of Christ, even though we aren’t actually righteous. And we have also been declared to be sons of God, even though we all know God only has one REAL Son, the Lord Jesus. Legally, our adoption makes us as though we had been begotten like Christ, like the “naturally born” Son.

Consequently we are made heirs and granted rights as co-heirs with Him. What the Lord Jesus inherits from His Father, we also inherit from our adoptive Father. It was God’s prerogative to grant us this status. We do not adopt God as our Father. He chose to adopt us.

This is also why Jesus is referred to as the firstborn among many brethren. Ro 8:29 - For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Why would the Lord Jesus want to share His inheritance with us? And why would He want to do so at the cost of His own life? Why would God crush His true Son for the sake of adopting slaves of sin as sons? Why would God ever want us to call Him Abba, Father? How could He be so merciful as to set us free from our slavery to the sin we love? How is it possible that we are heirs with Christ of the Creator of everything? How could God be this kind to the likes of us? Look with me at Hebrews 2.

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying,

“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”

13 And again,

“I will put my trust in him.”

And again,

“Behold, I and the children God has given me.”

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:10-18 ESV)

Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters. How could we be the recipients of such love as this?

============================================

1. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/446579/patria-potestas

2. http://www.pilgrimtours.com/church_history/italy/devotionals_history/Adoption.htm. See also http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Patria_Potestas.html

A Historical Look at the Jehovah Witnesses

Jim Gentner — 2011-10-10T20:50:00Z

Intro

Galatians - Chapter 1:6-9

⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Galatians - Chapter 3:1-6

¹O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. ²Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? ³Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? ⁴ Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? ⁵Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— ⁶just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"?

Pastor Keith has been preaching to us from a letter Paul wrote to the church in Galatia dealing with false teaching. Over these next two weeks Rob and I will basically cut out the middle man and teach about one of our modern day false teachers, the Jehovah Witnesses.

What we see from Galatians and many of the other letters Paul writes is that the most important thing we need to do in order to protect ourselves from false teaching is hold fast to what is true. We need to understand what we believe and why we believe it, lest deceivers come and lead us astray. As it is written in

Jeremiah – Chapter 23:32

³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the LORD.

As we examine the Jehovah Witnesses and really when we examine anything it is best to first check your premises and what are the consequences of those beliefs. We find a great example of this in

Matthew – Chapter 22:23 – 33

²³The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, ²⁴saying, "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.' ²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. ²⁶So too the second and third, down to the seventh. ²⁷After them all, the woman died. ²⁸In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her."

²⁹But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. ³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ³¹And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ³² 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living." ³³And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

The Sadducees believed there was no resurrection and tried to ‘trap’ Jesus based on their faulty premise of thinking the resurrection would be just like this life on earth.

This is especially true when dealing with the JWs. Now if we just listed out all of their beliefs in front of you, you might think its nonsense. But there are a few reasons that I would say make the JWs more dangerous to Christianity theologically then the other cults.

They have the best trained individuals by far than any other religion. Notice I didn’t say biblically, though that may be true too – at least in their version of the bible. Pound for Pound a JW knows much more of their own theology then the average Christian, Catholic, Muslim, etc.
1. That’s not to say they really understand it but that’s not really the point. Even if they are just regurgitating memorized lines the average Christian will not know how to respond.

This leads into the second point and that is their Theology and methods are very deceptive. It is a subtle gradual progression that is closely aligned with truth making it difficult to discern.
1. I remember doing this myself when I had a ‘bible study’ with some JW’s. This was a few years back right after I finished college living with a roommate from church. As was their custom 2 JWs came to my door and made their introductions and asked if I wanted to have a bible study. At the time I was fully aware of their false teaching and thought it would be a good opportunity to learn more straight from the source so to speak.

I wasn’t trying to convert these men but it would be a good opportunity to question their theology. Each week we would cover a chapter or so in their ‘What does the Bible Really Teach’ book and I could prepare for any of the theological issues that came up. But going through their booklet I saw how there was little to nothing to disagree with. There were just small things here and there that crept in before they got to any major theological differences.

What I want to do today is take a big step back from all of that and dig down to the roots of the JWs.

Adventism

In order to talk about the JW history we need to mention a little bit about Adventism first. We will see this is uniquely relevant to our topic today. In the 1830s and 40s William Miller was the most vocal leader in the Adventist movement. In particular he was popular for his prediction of Christ's return on Oct 22, 1844. This date soon became known as the "Great Disappointment" in which many people in the movement gave up on Adventism. *Half gave up the belief on the significance of the 10/22 date but believe Jesus would be returning soon. The other half maintained that he did return on the 22^nd just not literally but ‘spiritually’.

The following year a conference was called to determine the future of the Millerite movement. Following this meeting, the "Millerites" then became known as "Second Adventists". However, the delegates disagreed on several theological points. Four groups emerged from the conference: The Evangelical Adventists, The Life and Advent Union, the Advent Christian Church, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church.³

Charles Taze Russell

This brings us to the man Charles Taze Russell who is the father of the JW movement. I want to take a look at the following clip as an introduction. Take note that this is a recently produced video by the JWs themselves.

*Video*

*Stop @ 3:33

Let me stop here for a min. Did you catch all of that, in his immediate life there was much death and suffering. And in 1861 we have the Civil War a war which would eventually claim the lives of over 1 million Americans. So not surprisingly Russell asks the question that if God is love then why is their death and suffering.

Can you see the premise Russell uses to throw away the ‘Creeds’ of the Great Churches. Like countless others he decided My God wouldn’t create people just to send them to hell.

*Restart - Stop @ 8:55 ⁴

What you may not realize here that each of these men Russell is associated with in that video were Adventists of one strip or another. One of which worth noting here was Nelson Barbour.

What is not mentioned in this video is that just a few years earlier Barbour had falsely predicted the return of Christ in 1874 in the magazine which was called ‘The Midnight Cry’. This resulted in Nelson losing over 95% of his readership, which at its peak circulated about 15,000 copies. He found, with help from one of his readers, a translation of Matthew 24:27 which rendered “… the coming of the Son of Man” with “… the presence of the Son of Man”. So they could now say that the 1874 date wasn’t incorrect it was just that Christ came back in a spiritual/invisible nature, not a fleshly one. They soon stopped publication of ‘The Midnight Cry’ and a year later had restarted under the name ‘Herald of the Morning’.

Barbour and Russell soon became partners with Charles contributing as an editor of the magazine and supporting it financially. One notable work that Russell helped publish was Barbour book called ‘Three Worlds and The Harvest of This World’ in 1877. In it contain many of the same theological views that Russell would later publish in the Watch Tower. Barbour wrote that there would be a 40 year harvest here on earth and that the end of the current age would be in 1914. At that time would begin age of judgment and God would restore the Jews. But before that time in little under a year would be the date that Christians who had died would be raised in April, 1878. ⁵

When “the rapture” did not occur as expected Barbour and Russell split. They both had different explanations about what happened but could not agree. Russell would start his own magazine called Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, and published its first issue in July, 1879. The ‘Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society’ was started for the purpose of distributing tracts, papers, doctrinal treatises and Bibles. The Society was officially chartered in 1884, with Russell as President, and in 1886 its name was changed to Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. ⁶

Allow me to interject something here. One thing I think is great about the JWs is that their organization is basically one big publishing company. For example their pamphlet “Would You Like to Know the Truth?” is available in 50 different sign languages. That’s right that just the different sign languages available, not including the printed translations. You know all the trouble we have just working with an ASL and MSL ministry. The reason why I say this is great is that there is an abundance of documentation when they teach their false doctrine and make their false prophesies. As Rob will get into next week this will be a very useful tool to use when witnessing to a JW.

Marriage

During this time Russell married Maria Frances Ackley On March 13, 1879. They separated in 1897 in which Russell blamed the breakup on disagreements over Maria's insistence for a greater editorial role in the magazine, though a later court judgment noted that he had labeled the marriage "a mistake" three years before the dispute over her editorial ambitions had arisen. Then in 1906 he was divorced Maria and instead of sharing his personal assets with her, he transferred them to the WTBTS which he held controlling interest in.

His wife had brought charges of immorality against him in court. He was caught kissing a younger woman living in their home call her, his little wife. Based on even his own testimony the court stated that “His course of conduct toward his wife evidenced such insistent egotism and self-praise… that would necessarily render the life of any sensitive Christian woman a burden and make her condition intolerable.”

Teachings

If nothing this would disqualify him from leadership for being a failure as a husband. But let’s also take a look at some of things he taught.

Does anyone happen to know what he thought of the Protestant Churches? He clearly didn’t like Catholicism at all but he also had a let’s say ‘unique’ take on Protestant history.

In his book “The Finished Mystery” we read in this section the interpretation of Revelation 9:18, why don’t you go ahead and turn there:

9:18. By these [three] PLAGUES was the third part of men.—The Protestant third of Christendom.

Killed.—Deprived of reason, manhood and dignity.

By the fire.—The sermons full of hell-fire.

Now we would defiantly agree that is quite a stretch but that’s not even the best part:

And [by] the smoke.—Smoke is a symbol of confusion.

One great function of the hairs of the head is perceived to be to lead off 'the vapors which otherwise would choke and make smoaky the brain, though how hopelessly choked the brains of all bald heads hence would be is not clear. A study of the foregoing leads to the conclusion that the various churches must have been founded by bald-headed men, and the smoke being unable to find its way out through their scalps naturally had to come out of their mouths!

Did I not mention earlier that if we list out their beliefs you would think it is ridiculous?

In this same book we go from the ridiculous to the dangerous and heretical. On page 167 it states that it is Russell’s voice used in Revelation 7 to call out the four angels. And on page 169 that Russell is the Seventh Angel spoken of in revelation. In the preface on page 5 they state “…that the earthly creature made prominent therein above all others to the messenger of the Laodicean Church—‘that wise and faithful servant’ of the Lord -CHARLES TAZE RUSSELL.” Referring to Revelation 3:14.^[7]^[8]

The book was largely written by some of Russell’s followers and published a year after his death 1917. A power struggle broke out among the Societies leaders. After initially electing Joseph Rutherford the other board members soon regretted it as Rutherford fought for sole control of the WTBTS. Where Russell setup individual congregations to run on their own; Rutherford consolidated them under one theocratic rule. Eventually he changed the name of the organization to the ‘Jehovah Witnesses’ to distinguish the many ‘International Bible Students Associations’ setup by Russell. ^[9]

A Pattern of Cultism:

After taking a look at the transition of the movement from Russell to Rutherford I saw significant parallels with other cults/religious movements. Let me use just a few examples.

In Adventism as I mentioned earlier you have the Millerites and then the split with the members creating their own denominations.

In Catholicism the same thing happened to the Popes till at one point you were down to 2 popes trying to excommunicate each other.

In Mormonism after the death of Joseph Smith the church divided into two groups: One led by his widow, they are known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They claim to be the true Church and lay claim to the legal succession of the church presidency which was bestowed upon Joseph's son by Joseph Smith himself. The other group was led by Brigham Young and they went to Utah where, in 1847, they ended up in Salt Lake and founded Salt Lake City.¹

Has anyone here ever been taught where the whole Sunni/Shiite conflict came from in Islam? Muhammad died in 632 and on one side you have those that believed the direct descendants of the prophet should become the caliph, the theocratic ruler. They were known as the Shiat-Ali, or "partisans of Ali," after the prophet's cousin and son-in-law Ali, whom they favored to become caliph. In time, they came simply to be known as Shiites.

The other side, the Sunnis, thought that any worthy man could lead the faithful, regardless of lineage, and favored Abu Bakr, an early convert to Islam who had married into Muhammad's family. "Sunni" is derived from the Arab word for "followers" and is shorthand for "followers of the prophet."²

Perhaps at another time we could examine each of these groups further too.

Conclusion

There is certainly much more of the JW history to cover, some of which I am sure Rob will use in his lecture. If you want to do some prep for next week, take a look at my references and read up on their most recent history. But remember the point of all of this is so … ‘that no one may delude you with plausible arguments’. Now that you are equipped with Truth it is much harder for you to be lead astray.

References

The Seed of Abraham - Galatians 3:23-29

Keith Doster — 2011-10-03T13:40:00Z

We’ve come today to one of the most powerful statements in the entire Bible concerning salvation by the grace of God alone. This is the text that clarified in my mind precisely why the teachings of that system of theology known as Dispensationalism cannot possibly be true as it has been commonly taught. The apostle Paul makes a very clear statement here concerning salvation and concerning the people of God which should be the death of that theological system. But unfortunately, error and false teaching and false teachers will be with us until the Lord returns for His own. Therefore we must continue to persevere in the truth against at least three kinds of people, those people who:

1. Simply don’t understand the clear teaching of Scripture, like Apollos in Acts 18 who was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. Apollos was a good teacher. He just didn’t have all the information he needed in order to be a great teacher. And so it is good for those who are more spiritually mature to help those who need a fuller understanding of God’s word. We must persevere in that.

2. We also have to persevere in the truth against those who are so committed to their theological systems or denominational positions that they have lost the ability to discern any difference between their system of belief and the Bible itself. They have become (unlike Apollos) unteachable.

Some may think it strange that I would say such a think as though I am not in danger of the very same thing. We are all susceptible to these kinds of snares. There are those who would acuse me of being fanatical in my adherence to Calvinism. In my own defense, let me say that I did not come to this understanding of the Bible by reading John Calvin’s commentaries or by listening to Presbyterian ministers or by reading Reformed theologians. I came to my convictions about what we refer to as the Doctrines of Grace, or the Five Points of Calvinism by reading the Bible.

These things are in the Bible. I believed them before I ever knew what to call them. And it is my hope and prayer that I will never adhere to any system of doctrine so tightly that I am incapable of being taught anything to the contrary. But one thing I will never lose hold of is my commitment to this Book. It is true and right and reliable and trustworthy, and if it teaches something other than what I already believe, my prayer is that God would be merciful and grant me the grace to see the difference and follow after Him and His truth Our commitment to our system of theology must never supersede our commitment to the Word of God because His word, and only his word is pure truth.

3. The third group we must persevere against is the most obvious: those who intentionally lead people into error for the sake of personal gain. They are intentional deceivers who sneak into churches and lead God’s people astray like the Judaizers in the churches of Galatia, by preaching a false gospel that does not save.

Our text today speaks directly against many false doctrines, and against many Dispensational teachings. But it speaks directly to the false teaching of the Judaizers and their gospel of salvation by works. Paul has been teaching us how Christians are supposed to relate to the Law of God. The Judaizers have placed the Galatian believers in a precarious position by insisting that faith in Jesus alone is not sufficient to save. That is the very same lie we hear broadcast around us even to this day. The largest and most powerful proponent of that lie today is the Roman Catholic Church. Rome agrees wholeheartedly with the Judaizers that faith alone is not enough to save anyone and Jesus alone is not sufficient to save anyone.

So somebody has it wrong. Either the Roman Catholic Church is wrong, or Paul the apostle is wrong. And getting this issue right is absolutely crucial. We’re not talking about whether we should or shouldn’t have wine in our communion cups, or whether immersion or sprinkling is the biblical mode of baptism. We’re talking about salvation. That is the issue. To get this wrong is deadly.

The Galatians have been taught that alongside faith, they must also be circumcised. And alongside circumcision, they must obey the entire Law of God. Then they will be saved. But Paul says, “No!” He has gone to great lengths to explain the role of the Law of God and to make the point that salvation is unattainable by obedience to it. Abraham, the original Jew, was saved by faith, not by circumcision, and certainly not by the Law. It hadn’t even been given yet. Then he says, “No!”, the Law, when it was given 430 years after Abraham did not make God’s covenant with Abraham void.

What he is saying is that all men of all ages in all nations have always been saved in the very same manner: by faith. It was true in the days of Abraham, it was true in the days of Moses, it was true in the days of Jesus, and it is true today. We are saved by the grace of God alone, through faith in Christ, and through faith in Him alone.

So why do we need the Law at all? What purpose does it serve? If we’re not saved by keeping the Law, then why have it? If we’re saved by grace and not works, then the Law has been abolished, right? And that is the nature of the argumentation here. The law of God has not been abolished by this supposedly new way of salvation through faith. The Law never was a means of salvation. So how do we as Christians understand the Law of God? Look at the text with me:

21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. [In other words, If righteousness was by works, then there would be a conflict between law and faith.] 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. [I.e. The Law declared everyone hopelessly guilty to drive men to faith in the promises of God to Abraham through whom would come the Messiah. The Law creates the absolute necessity for the grace of God and provokes men to trust in Him rather than themselves.]

Then Paul continues in verse 23: Let’s read it together.

23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:23-29 ESV).

Notice that very first phrase in verse 23: “Now before faith came” - Before faith came? What does that mean? What does he mean, “before faith came”? There was a time when people didn’t have faith? And if so, when did faith arrive?

The only way to understand this is in its larger context. Paul is speaking of saving faith and of the time prior to salvation. “Before we believed in Christ.“ But to whom is he speaking? What does he mean when he says there in verse 23, ”Now before faith came we were held captive under the Law”? Who was held captive under the Law? The Gentiles? No, the people of Israel, the Jews.

. . . we were held captive . . . the law was our guardian . . . we are no longer under a guardian . . . . The Gentiles had never been under the Law in the same way as the Jews (although as Paul says in Romans, the Law of God is written upon all men's hearts and consciences). He is speaking here of Israel's bondage under the law. They were captive, imprisoned, and under guard (or a guardian).

Paul uses a peculiar word here which is translated in the ESV “guardian”. Other versions translate it “schoolmaster” or “tutor”. It is the Greek word from which we get our English word “pedagogue”. “Among the Greeks and the Romans the name was applied to trustworthy slaves who were charged with the duty of supervising the life and morals of boys belonging to the better class. The boys were not allowed so much as to step out of the house without them before arriving at the age of manhood.”

Suppose you were traveling on a long trip and suddenly you found yourself on a one-lane, one-way road where there were no side roads, no places to turn or turn around. On both sides of the road were these high steel guard rails, and there was no break in them at all. You would be forced to continue in one direction as far as the guard rails continued. That is how Paul is describing the Law. The Jews weren’t enslaved to it, but they could not escape from it. The Law constantly provoked them in the direction of faith in the coming Messiah.

So their captivity by the Law was only for a time, until the coming faith would be revealed. He makes it sound like no one had faith under the Law until some kind of future faith arrived. But he’s already said Abraham was saved by his faith and not by his works. So what does he mean, until the coming faith would be revealed?

Paul is speaking in general terms of the times in Israel prior to the coming of Christ. Generally speaking, Israel’s faith had always been either in false gods, or as was the case in more recent days, their faith was in their works, thanks to the Pharisees. The nation as a whole had come to believe salvation was by means of Moses and the law and being Jewish. Jesus said to the Pharisees, You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. (John 5:39a ESV) That was what the Judaizers were saying and what Israel generally believed for centuries.

Obviously Paul is not saying no one had saving faith prior to Christ. Men even exercised saving faith before the Abrahamic covenant (e.g. Abel, Enoch, Noah - Heb 11:4-6). But Paul is saying that there was a kind of faith, a degrees of faith that came to the Jews and was revealed to them: Now before God granted us the faith to believe in Jesus Christ and God revealed to us who He was . . .

Look at these four phrases. In verse 23 - Before faith came; and until the coming faith; Then in verse 24, - until Christ came; and verse 25, Now that faith has come. There is now a qualitative difference in saving faith since the coming of Christ. Now, since Christ has come, we have been granted a specific faith (sometimes referred to in the New Testament as “THE Faith”), in a specific person (the Lord Jesus) and in His specific sacrificial work upon the cross. Now that the Messiah has come, we all know exactly who He is, and exactly what He has done, and exactly what it is that we have faith in: His life, and death, and resurrection.

Neither Jews nor Gentiles need the guardian of the Law (the entire Law, not just the moral law) to direct our steps toward some future Person and some future event any longer. That previously hoped for Person has arrived. That previously hoped-for event has taken place, and now the perspective of faith and hope has changed: Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:24-25).

There is now no need for the kind of faith which the Old Testament saints had, a faith in future things, things hoped for. Now the hoped-for Messiah had been seen and heard and handled and touched. Now the hoped-for redemption had been accomplished. There is no need for a hopeful faith but a faith in what they have seen first-hand and experienced. A faith in the testimonies of those eyewitnesses who speak of the Lord Jesus as the complete fulfillment of the covenant promises of God to His people. Now our faith is in what has been seen, and that what has been seen is precisely what God said would take place. That is the faith that has come.

Now look at verse 27 - For as many of you as were baptized into Christ - Here the emphasis is on the phrase “as many of you”. In effect, Paul is saying, “Whoever among you regardless of who you are or where you come from”. He is telling them that things have changed since the coming of Christ and now whoever trusts in Him is saved.

Notice Paul does not merely say, "For as many of you as were baptized have put on Christ." Baptism in itself is not salvific. A person does not “put on Christ” simply because he is baptized. There are many acts of baptism that are not baptism into Christ. Paul speaks of a specific group of people here: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ”.

I have two questions for you: 1) When are believers baptized into Christ, and 2) Who performs that baptism? I have performed a number of baptisms over the years, but I have never baptized anyone into Christ. I can’t do that. I cannot place anyone into Christ. I don’t have that kind of power or authority. How does that happen, when does that happen, and who does it?

This baptism that Paul speaks of is one that has been performed by God. God baptized His elect people when He placed them into Christ. Those who have been baptized into Christ by God are His chosen people, whoever they may be, wherever they may be from, who eventually, when God grants them saving faith, put on Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6 ESV)

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29 ESV)

Question: When did God foreknow those whom He would conform to the image of Christ? Assuming you are one of those infinitely blessed people, when was it that God foreknew you? God knew you before what? Before you were born? Before your parents were born? Did He know you before 1900? 1800? Did God know you before Jesus was born into the world? Let’s ask the question a different way: When did God NOT know you? At what point did God discover you?

It is not possible that there was ever a time when God was ignorant of His chosen people or of His plan to make them like Christ. He has always known His own people. These are the ones whom the Father gave to the Son. It has always been His plan to send His Son to redeem us. Before the foundation of the world, God placed us in Christ, He baptized us into Christ. Somehow, there has never been a time when we were not in Christ. We were in Christ before He was born in the world. We were in Christ during His earthly life. We were in Him in His death, in His burial, in His resurrection. And, in some miraculous sense, we are in Him in His current glorified state. We have already been glorified in Christ:

30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30 ESV)

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27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. You whom the Father gave to His Son have been justified, you have been redeemed, you have been counted righteous. Christ has come to you, faith in Christ has come to you, and you have put on Christ and His righteousness.

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Jews and Greeks, slaves and free men, women and men, all of you who have been baptized into Christ and have put on Christ, all of you are one in Christ. And it is particularly significant that Paul would mention that both men and women are one in Christ. Obviously circumcision has nothing to do with salvation. A new day has dawned. Paul explains himself even further with his very final remark in Galatians, chapter 6, verses 15 & 16:

15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

Beloved, we who believe are the Israel of God. As many as were baptized and have put on Christ through the faith in Jesus that has now come, they are all, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, ALL who trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation are members of the Israel of God. Not the Israel of Abraham’s genetics, but the spiritual Israel, the spiritual nation that has been born of God, born by His Spirit, baptized into His Son, and to whom this faith, THE faith that is in Christ Jesus has been granted.

This is exactly why Paul says in verse 29:

29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

If we belong to THE Offspring of Abraham, the Lord Jesus, then we are Abraham’s children as well. We are his spiritual children, the children that have been born to Abraham according to God’s promises.

Beloved, what a miraculous thing God has done in reversing the effects of the Tower of Babel. The unity that men tried in vain to maintain by their pride through the building of a tower to Heaven, God has done by His own hand. God has made people from every nation, from every social status, from every tribe, regardless of sex, whether rich or poor, slave or free, . . . God has made them all to have equal status as brothers and sisters, spiritual offspring, sons and daughters of God in Jesus Christ. All who have ever believed God, all who have ever been counted righteous in God’s site, all of us together are the family of God, the Body of Christ, the sons of Abraham, the Israel of God.