Well, it's been wonderful going
through the book of Galatians, hasn't it? We're in chapter 5.
We're coming up to the fruit of the Spirit, too, and that'll
be amazing when we get there, too. And always remember that
it's a fruit of the Spirit, it's not fruit of our doings. It's
a fruit of the Spirit, and it's amazing how the Lord works that
in us, and as a group, too, works it in a church. It's absolutely
amazing. Turn, if you would, to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians
chapter 5. Now last week we looked at two
of the four Bible teachings. I didn't get through them, which
make up part of the offense to the cross. There's many things,
election, all different things that will
be offensive to natural man through the preaching of the gospel.
But you can boil it down to the fact that that the gospel offends
man's pride and man's dignity. It shows us that we can do absolutely
nothing to be saved. And that Christ is the only savior
of sinners. It strips us down to nothing,
doesn't it? And then what does it do? It builds us back up in
Christ. So you don't leave us there.
For the born again believer, we get built back up in Christ.
Because he's our everything. He's the one we look to. He's
our only hope. He's wisdom that cries in the
streets, as Proverbs says. Oh my. Four things that the natural
man, I picked out four things that the natural man are offended
at by the preaching of the gospel. First one is, natural man is
offended by the Bible teaching, and it's a Bible teaching of
God's absolute sovereignty. Number two, natural man is offended
by the Bible teaching of man's total depravity. Number three,
natural man is offended at the Bible teaching that knowing God And salvation is
by the revelation of God. It's not something we can learn.
Not something we can learn. And then number four, natural
man, they're really offended at this one, is offended at effectual
redemption or limited atonement by the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That along with, you want to
see people get mad? And we're not trying to get them
mad. You just mentioned limited atonement and you mentioned election,
and people go absolutely squirrelly. But you know what? Here's something
to think about. Were the sacrifices for any other nation in the Old
Testament other than Israel? Nope. Right? It's a picture of
limited atonement. Was Israel the chosen nation
and everyone else was left out of that covenant? That's election. It's a picture of how God chooses
his people in Christ, you see? But people don't get mad about
that, but that's just a good point to bring them to, to say,
okay, well, look, there it is. There it is. My, oh, my. Let's read verses 7 to 15 now.
It says, Paul's writing to the Galatians, he says, you did run
well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth?
This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. So it doesn't
come from God. This persuasion doesn't come
from God to be circumcised, to be saved. A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. Drop of poison will kill you.
I have confidence in you through the Lord that ye will be none
otherwise minded. Now notice that too. Keep that
in mind for when we are in Acts today, because the church of
God is of one accord. one accord. But he that troubled
you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren,
if I yet preach circumcision, why do I suffer persecution?
Then is the offense of the cross ceased. I would that they were
even cut off which trouble you." Now see that word cut off? You
know what that word means in the Greek? Amputate. This is... I was looking at Weiss,
the Greek scholar, he said this is some of the strongest language
Paul's using. Amputated from the body. You
know why? Because, as I said last week,
so they will no longer hinder the people of God. So they will
no longer hinder the people of God. The name of the message
is cut off. I could have called it amputated
too, but it cut off. That's what we're going to use
what the scripture says here, but that Greek word is amputated.
And Vicky and I were talking, and it's not like when you go
prune a garden, right? When you amputate something,
you cut it off. And I always think of the Civil
War when they didn't have the means to do what they can do
now. They just took people's legs off and arms off, and they
used saws to do it. It was horrendous. So much pain. And he's saying, I just want
something to be cut right off. And that's what they used back
in these times, too. Oh my. I would that they were even cut
off, which trouble you, now that he's talking about, again, the
false teachers. For brethren, you have been called
into liberty. We've been called into freedom.
Freedom! We got such freedom, we don't
even know how much freedom we have. Oh my. Only use not liberty
for an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve one another.
We are not to say, okay, I'm saved now, I can do whatever
I want. That's what he's saying. That's called antinomianism.
We are not antinomians. We're absolutely free in Christ,
but that freedom we have in Christ doesn't give us a right. You
always hear me say we don't have a right to go out and do whatever
we want when we go outside that door, do we? Because now what? The love of Christ constrains
us, right? It constrains us from sin, the scripture says. He says,
only use not liberty for occasion to the flesh, because that's
what it is. It's the works of the flesh. But by love serve
one another. Look at that. He's bringing up
love again. True love. God-given love. For all the law
is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. But if you bite and devour one
another, so obviously there was a lot of contention over what
had been going on. He's saying if you bite and devour
one another, take heed that you not be consumed one another.
Take heed that you don't consume each other. My. So the first point, I'm going
to go over the first two points real quick. Natural man is offended
by the Bible teaching of God's absolute sovereignty. When we
stand up as preachers and we start to proclaim the salvations
of the Lord, plus absolutely nothing, natural man gets offended. And I can testify of that. Because
I remember when people would come to me and talk to me about
Christ, I just didn't want nothing to do with them Jesus freaks.
That's what we called them back growing up. Didn't want nothing
to do with him. Now, now, all I want to be is
around the Lord's people. Look at that. What does grace
do? It changes us, doesn't it? It's
amazing. It's such a transformation. And
that all comes about, beloved, because of God's absolute sovereignty.
Vicky and I, like this one fella up in Canada, we watch him on
YouTube. He goes all over Canada and parts
of the southern US. And he just does videos of what
he sees and all that. Well yesterday, we were watching
a video and part of a glacier was falling off. And he was the
only one there filming this. And thankfully he was able to
film it so we could watch it. And it was spectacular. And I
said, look what God's done, babe. Look what God's done. This is
absolutely amazing. And what he was recording was
a glacier that had come down. And you saw the glacier stream
and all that. And then pieces of the glacier
were falling off as the water was running down the bottom.
God's, I said, not a speck of that dirt's fallen without God
knowing where it's going to fall. Isn't that amazing? That's our
Savior, beloved. The One who has absolute control
over everything is our Redeemer. What great joy that can bring
our hearts. Oh, He's absolutely sovereign. And He is sovereign
and His will is sovereign, isn't it? His will is absolutely sovereign. And so what can we conclude from
that? That if God's absolutely sovereign,
that we are absolutely dependent upon Him. Absolutely dependent
upon God. Number two, quickly, man's total
depravity. Oh, natural man is offended because
we say salvation's, when we preach the gospel, we say salvation's
all of God. That there's nothing man can
do to be saved, and that offends man's pride. I know it offended
my pride. Right? Just remember back before
the Lord saved us, before we even knew who he was, right?
Because we all worshipped a false god at one time. Right? Think. Think of how we had no
clue of who he was, and we thought, wow, I'm a good person. I'm good. I'm not as bad as that
fellow here or this fellow here. Well, we're just as bad. See,
that's what total depravity teaches, that we're all guilty before
God. We all need a savior. And praise God, God provided
one, didn't he? He provided a savior, his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God in the flesh. Oh my, that's absolutely wonderful.
So there's no difference in all of us. We all have the same fallen
nature. So that brings forth what the
scripture says, so that all the world can become guilty before
God. See, the law comes and it shows us we're all guilty. We're
all guilty sinners, every one of us. Whether you believe it
or not, we're guilty sinners. Some are saved sinners, some
are lost sinners, right? Who made them to differ? Who made them to differ, beloved?
Come on, who made them to differ? God made them to differ, amen.
He did, didn't he? He made them to differ. My, it's
wonderful, isn't it? Oh, it's wonderful. My, oh my. And so God lumps all the mankind
together. We're hewn, all of us are hewn from the same quarry.
And I remember Henry used to say this all the time in his
message, and it just sunk into my head. Never forget the rock
you were hewn from. Don't ever forget. You know,
you young people, don't ever forget, as you get older, where
you came from. Don't ever forget that. No, don't
ever forget. My, oh my. Never forget the rock
you were hewn from. So man is offended that God is
the potter and wore the clay. And he can do whatever he wants
with it, right? He can do whatever he wants.
He's supreme. Okay, so the third point now. Let's read verse 11 again. It says, And I, brethren, if I yet
preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the
offense of the cross ceased. So he's saying, if I preach something
man's got to do, then the offense of the cross is gone. You see? Because the scripture tells us
there's nothing we can do to be saved. And when a man stands
up and preaches the gospel, and you guys know from hearing me
and hearing Jim and hearing other preachers that have been here,
we preach that salvation is all of God. There's nothing we do. Nothing we even contribute, is
there? We have our sin. That's about all we bring to
the table. Can't do nothing, no can it. It just shows us we're
guilty. We're guilty before God. But
isn't it wondrous? Isn't it wondrous that God in
eternity chose the people in Christ? And isn't it wondrous
that he sent his son and that the word of God came on his own? to live upon this earth that
he created. Can you imagine that? He came into a world that he
created. He knew the thoughts and intents
of every man that was on this world and every woman and every
child. And here he comes in love for
his people, for us, for we who are the redeemed. to save us
before we're even born. Then he ascends back up to heaven.
Is it any wonder then the Holy Spirit had Paul, Penn, I would,
that they were cut off? Do you see what God sacrificed?
He sent his Son. His only begotten Son, the sinless
Lamb of God. to die for his people. And here
these Galatian Judaizers, or these Judaizers are saying, well,
that's not good enough. You know, whenever you hear somebody
say, but, or I have to exercise my will, you know what they're
saying? I heard this this week. I think it was Bill that I heard. And
he said, they're basically saying that
God's work's not complete. that Christ didn't complete the
work because there's something they got to do. I never thought of that. It's
true though. So these Judaizers are saying, basically they're
saying, well, the finished work of Christ wasn't finished. There's
something you got to do still. So no wonder. See, and the offense
of the cross is the fact that this work is finished. This salvation
is complete. It's absolutely complete. And
it has to be revealed to us. Right? And that's the third point
that the salvation is complete, but it's by the revelation of
God. Did any of us have any idea before
the Lord saved us that he died for us? We may have heard the gospel,
but it wasn't real for us. And then, my, what great love
this is. This is a love that I can't even
measure. That the God of glory, that the
King of glory would leave heaven and come to this earth and die
and bleed and shed his precious blood to redeem my eternal soul
and then reveal himself to us. by the power of God, the Holy
Ghost, and regenerate us? That's why we say now's the day
of salvation, right? Remember last week I mentioned
how many of those people that died in those fires in Hawaii,
how many of them people thought they had tomorrow? And they didn't know they had
an appointment with death that day. Now is the day of salvation.
Flee to Christ now. Tomorrow may never come. It may
never come. My, oh, my. God makes his people
willing in the day of his power. This declaration here, Paul's
saying, well, if you add circumcision, then the offense of the cross
is gone. And man is offended when you
say, you can't learn this gospel. I had a fellow the other day
and he said, he said, I don't care about God. I don't, I don't
care at all. He was just real brash. And,
and I said, well, you'll never know him unless he reveals himself
to you. And he stopped. I don't think he'd ever heard
that. I wasn't going to pat him and say, you know, see, this,
this is a problem when people tell people, everybody that God
loves them. God loves his people. That's
who he loves. We don't know who they are. So
when I'm talking to a lost sinner, I'll just set Christ before them. Now, how are our hearts pricked?
Our hearts were pricked, too, by the love that Christ had for
us, right? But that's by revelation, isn't it? See, this guy, he was
just, and I looked at him and thought, well, that was me. That
was me. That was me before the Lord saved me. See? We don't look down at people.
My, oh my. So, the fact that salvation,
and knowing that salvation is of the Lord, and knowing that
it comes by revelation of God, takes man's learning out of the
equation, doesn't it? Now, I told you last week, I'm
all for learning. But you can't learn the gospel.
It has to be taught to you. It has to be taught. It has to
be revealed to you. The blinders have to be taken
off, eh brother? Don't they have them blinders
on the horses and stuff like that? Say, can't see nothing. Scales, they got to fall off,
don't they? Who takes them off? God the Holy
Spirit. My, isn't it wonderful? He takes
them scales off, and we see Christ! Oh, my, we see Him in all His
glory, His redemptive work! Hallelujah, is our cry from our
hearts. Even if we don't cry it out,
we say it in our hearts, don't we? Praise be to God, for His
glorious work, His finished, complete work, that He did on
our behalf. So this offends men when you
tell them that the gospel has to be revealed to you. But our
Lord said this. Listen to this. You must be born again. See, Nicodemus came to him. Remember,
Nicodemus came to him and he's like, well, what do you mean,
Lord, do I have to be born a second time? You have to go back into
my mother's womb. That's just natural man saying
that. Sometimes we look at that and we say, well, he's being
smug. No, he's natural man responding
that way. He's actually like, what do I
have to do? Do I got to go back in my mom's
womb to be born? No, it's a spiritual rebirth, isn't it? And our Lord
said this. Except the man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except the man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,
John 3 verses 3 to 7. You must be born again. And then, by revelation of the
Holy Spirit of God, we know Christ, don't we? And that all happens
like this. It just, it happens like that.
And then the believer just flees to Christ. It's an operation
of God. And I'm not, I'll tell you what. Today is the day. I'm sitting, let Holy Spirit
do the work, but today is the day. Today is the day. I'm going to keep crying out.
Today is the day. We don't know if we got tomorrow.
Today is the day of salvation. Right. And we as believers, we
continue to look to Christ, don't we? I was reading Thomas Moore
this week, a deacon at Spurgeon's Church, and he said, he said,
we look to Christ and then we just keep looking to him. We
just keep looking. Don't we? By God's grace. Charlie, by God's grace. Well,
keep looking, brother. Just keep looking to Christ.
Keep looking to our all in all. Keep looking to He who is our
Redeemer. He who is our Savior. My. Except God, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, reveal Christ to the man or woman's heart, he
cannot be saved or they cannot be saved. Flat out. And that
offends men. That offends natural man. I said it last week too, and
I'll say it again. You tell somebody they got to do something to be
saved, they're going to run to it. You tell them salvation is
by grace alone, they're going to go, oh man, I want nothing
to do with that. Unless, now I'll tell you what though, if
the Holy Spirit gets a hold of him, if he regenerates him, what
happens brother Zane? We run, don't we? We run to Christ. We flee to Christ. And it's wonderful. We find in him peace with God,
justification with God, that we could stand in his presence
clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. We find that the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. I mean every single
one. There ain't nothing left that's
not covered. This is, this is, beloved, this
is not, this is not a partial pardon. This is a full pardon. It's a full pardon. I'll tell
you why. You, you, you got a man preaching
to you who's redeemed by the Lord. Not by anything I did.
Nothing I did. Not a, the coat of righteousness
I'm clothed in, there's not a stitch of my works in it. It's all Christ,
isn't it? The same with you, right? It's
all Christ. It's all Him. And He put it on
us, beloved. Oh my. Oh. Set by the power of the Holy
Spirit, Him revealing Christ in a man or woman's heart, they
cannot be saved. And how this offends natural
man. Oh, it just offends natural man. But the wise and prudent
man, Scripture says, trusts in Christ and trusts in Him alone. And we do not trust in our own
ability to acquire knowledge of God. No. What does God do? He teaches us, doesn't He? He
teaches us. Number four. Natural man is offended
by the teaching of the effectual redemption by the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ is our substitute. Let's read
verse 11 again. And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, I keep thinking I'm saying the
wrong word. Why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense
of the cross ceased. So another truth of the gospel
that is an offense to natural man is the fact of the effectual
redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me, if you
would, to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. And I'll read John 6, 39 to 40
quickly while you're turning there. And this is the Father's
will, now this is the Father's will, which has sent me all which
he hath given me, I should lose none. I'll lose none of them. If you're one of the ones who
God gave to Christ, you'll never be lost. You're saved, you'll
never be lost. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. But you'd raise it up again at
the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that
everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have
everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
If you're a believer, We're going to be raised up the last day. Shall. Yeah, we saw that, didn't
we? Shall. It's going to happen. See, I
was listening again to the Proverbs this morning. Shall again came
out. And I said, there it is again.
Shall. I got to do another message on
the word shall. My, oh my, it's wonderful. But this greatly offends
man pride when you bring forth that Christ died only for the
elect. He didn't die for everybody, because if He did die for everybody,
everybody would be saved, right? But not everybody is saved. But
all those for whom Christ died will be saved, and are saved. My! So salvation is not by one's
works, not by one's decision, not by one's choice. but by God's
election of grace and divine predestination and by Christ's
sin atoning sacrifice offered once for all to completely redeem
God's elect. And we are born, when we're born
again, we make a choice, we run, don't we? Then our will is made
willing. Oh my. There in John chapter
10, we're clearly seeing who Christ died for right here. It's
the elect of God. And they're called the sheep
of God's hands in the Old Testament. Isn't that a wonderful title?
Sheep of God's hands. Look at this in John chapter
10 verse, we'll read first verses seven to 18 here. Then said Jesus unto them again,
verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. There's
one of the I am statements. I am the door. All that ever
came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not
hear them. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he what? He what? He what? Amen, brother. He shall be saved. Look at that.
Isn't that wonderful? And this is the words of the
master, isn't it? He shall be saved. Oh, this warms
our hearts. And shall go in and out and find
pasture. The thief cometh not but for
to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have
life abundantly, or that they might have life and that they
might have it more abundantly. Here's another I am. I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd giveth his life for who? The sheep. The
sheep. But he that is the hireling and
not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf
coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth,
and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because
he is in the hireling, and careth not for the sheep. So this is
like a preacher who doesn't take a stand. And a wolf comes in
and they say, no, they just let the wolf go run amok. We need
to take a stand, don't we? No, because the under shepherd,
we love God's people who the Lord put us with. And we look
to the shepherd, don't we? We call on the shepherd though.
But man, oh my, he's talking about a hireling here. And the wolf cometh, and catcheth,
and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because
he is in the hireling, and careth not for the sheep. Now here it
is. Another I am. I am the Good Shepherd.
That's Christ. And know my sheep. Look at that.
Look at that. Marcia, He knew you. Right there. Sister Diane, He knew you. He
says, I know my sheep. I know who you are. Some people say, well, he's talking
about Israel. No, he's talking about his sheep.
He's talking about his flock. Oh, I love this. This is wonderful,
isn't it? And then look, I know my sheep
and what? Are known of mine. See, God's sheep are known by
Christ and by revelation of God, as we looked at one of the points,
they know him. Isn't that wonderful? My, oh
my. Oh, look at this. As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life
for who? For everyone? For the whole world? Nope. Doesn't say that, does it? It
says, I lay down my life for the sheep. No, no goats for the
sheep. And look at this. And here we
are. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold. There's
us! Woo! There we are. Oh my! And them also I must bring and
they, they what? Shall, amen brother! They shall! Look at that! I'm going to keep,
I'm going to keep focusing on that word because it's so wonderful,
isn't it? It's so wonderful. Sister Mary Jane, they shall.
You heard, didn't you? It's wonderful. They shall hear
my voice and there shall be one fold. That ties in with the message
this morning of one accord, of one accord. My, I have power
to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received from my Father." So this blessed truth of effectual
limited atonement, completed by Christ, will not be received
by the natural man. They recoil automatically at
it. Because they'd rather have a God that wants to save, but
it's up to the sinner to decide. Again, what are they saying?
They're saying the same thing that Bill said about salvation. They're saying, well, that's
not good enough. No, what Christ did is good enough, isn't it?
It's complete. It's finished. Praise His mighty name. So this
is why natural man will not receive the good news of the gospel.
They want something they can do, but they don't want to have
nothing to do with the complete, finished work, unless God makes
them willing. And I'll tell you what, is there any good news
if you have to do something? No, because we mess it up, won't
we? We mess it up. There's no good
news. If salvation's left to me, or
left to you, or left to any man or woman, we're in a heap of
trouble because we can't save ourselves. But praise be to God. Praise be to God for the wonderful,
regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit. We're born again by His power
and given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my,
it's wonderful, I'll tell you. Praise be to God. Praise be to
God. Let's look at John chapter 10
again. And we're seeing, man, these
Pharisees, when He proclaimed that He's dying for the sheep,
they got mad. They got mad. Oh my. Look at this, verse 22. And it was at Jerusalem, the
Feast of Dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked into
the temple in Solomon's porch, then came the Jews round about
him and said plainly, how long dost thou make us doubt? If thou
be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered, I told you, and
you believe not the works that I do in my Father's name, they
bear witness of me. But ye believe not, look at this,
Because ye are not, what, of my sheep. You're not my sheep,
that's why you don't believe. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, that's ginoska, that's an intimate
relationship in the Greek, and they follow me. And I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Maybe that little
hinge word again. This word's following us all
through the scriptures, isn't it? They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave
them to me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Then
the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered,
Many good works have I shown you from my Father. For which
of these works do you stone me? The Jews answered him, saying,
For good work we stone thee. not but for blasphemy, because
thou, being a man, makest thyself God." Well, He is God. He is
God. Now, let's go back to Galatians
chapter 5, and we're going to do quick. I got five minutes. Do a quick thing here on Galatians
chapter 5 verse 12. Okay. Look what Paul desires
for these false teachers. Now, this is serious stuff. These
guys are so in discord, causing trouble, agitating, we saw, stirring
up, agitating the body. And Paul says, here I would that
they were even cut off, which trouble you. Paul desires that
these false teachers would be cut off, amputated in the Greek,
from the body. They would no longer be part
of the body. My, oh my. And these false teachers here,
they've been troubling the body, they've been disturbing the body.
And Paul writes, because these fellows are trying, they're teaching
that you have to be circumcised to be saved, or do something
to be saved. He says, I would, they'd be cut right off. Amputated from the body. Listen
to what Weiss says on this, the Greek scholar I was telling you
about. He says, this is perhaps the severest expression in Paul's
epistles. So the way he's saying this is
so serious. The great danger in which Christianity
was placed by the Judaizers made such a severe statement necessary.
You see, because it was a false gospel. He goes on to say, the
man who could besiege his converts with the meekness and gentleness
of Christ could also deal in the most severe way. He could
be like a Labrador retriever, but he could be like a bulldog
in a pit bull. Couldn't he? Oh yeah, he could. He said, "...could
deal in the most severe way when the occasion for such treatment
presented itself." So we see here then, Paul, by the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God, is bringing forth that those who
followed the false teachers were simply, you know what they did?
They were going back to their heathen ways because the heathen
religions had all kinds of cuttings and all kinds of stuff that you
had to do. They were basically just going back to their heathen
religions except it was circumcision now. And as I always say, only a man
can be circumcised. It's, you know, they would think,
right? But if we would have thought
before we were saved, right? But we didn't know because it
has to be revealed to us, right? Oh, my. My. So they weren't doing this for
health issues. They were doing it for salvation.
That's what they were doing it for. And Titus, Paul had Titus
circumcised, but again, that was just so he could speak to
the Jews. It had nothing to do with salvation.
He's already saved man. So that's by glorying in the
flesh, and that's what they're doing. They're glorying in the
flesh, beloved. We glory in God, don't we, for
what he's done, because we know there's nothing we can do to
save ourselves. See, the opposite of true faith is glorying in
the flesh. True faith glories in God. So
they're glorifying, they're glorying in the flesh, which they're just
bringing themselves back into bondage, right? That's why he
keeps saying, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has
made you free and be not again entangled in the yoke of bondage.
Stand fast. So we're to stand fast in this
freedom, this liberty we have in Christ. Again, let's look
at verse 12 again. I would that they were even cut
off. What's trouble you? See the word, the word trouble. He says, I would that they were
even amputated, which trouble you, that's to upset or overthrow. They were actually overthrowing
the people, ruling over them. God's preachers don't rule over
God's people. We preach the gospel in love. My, and that word is used as
one driving someone out of their home, like literally thrusting
them out. So they were even thrusting true
believers out. My, or ruining the city. This word then brings
forth how forcibly was the character of agitation which the Judaizers
were stirring up in the church. You see? It's very serious. And Paul says, I would that you
would just cut off, that you just amputate, that you go on
over there. That's what he's saying. The
Judaizers were upsetting the peace that was within the body.
The unity that was within the body was being upset and agitated
by the Judaizers. And this is why Paul desires
that they would be cut off. So they wouldn't disturb the
body anymore. My oh my. Brother Jim, can you close us
in prayer?