The Wickedness of Gospel Distorters

well let's turn to the fifth chapter of the book of Galatians again and these messages in this opening part of the fifth chapter are somewhat difficult to preach and very infrequently will you ever hear them preached because they are such severe denunciations of false doctrine and false teachers the opening twelve verses are designed to make it crystal clear how the Apostle Paul and God himself feels about false doctrine and false teachers and I'm not talking about other religions I'm not talking about some form of paganism or false religion Buddhism Islam Hinduism or whatever else the issue here has to do with an aberrant form of Christianity which is no different than a pagan religion as we will dramatically see in this passage and what Paul is attacking in this entire letter is the idea that you can tamper with the gospel of salvation the gospel of salvation says that men and women are saved from sin and death and hell by faith in Christ alone apart from any works or ceremonies or rituals or ordinances of any kind that is the gospel salvation is by faith alone and all glory goes to God it results in a transformed life which then produces righteous works but there are no righteous works or religious works that contribute anything to salvation that is the message of Galatians and as I've been telling you it is the first of Paul's letters and attacks the most critical issue in his ministry and that is the reality of the gospel he had gone to the region of Galatia and he had preached the gospel in a number of cities and in many of those cities churches began they were flourishing churches the gospel was preached the people believed their lives were transformed they were justified by God their sins were forgiven they were given the Holy Spirit and they begun to see the Spirit of God operating in their lives flourishing churches all was going well wonderfully converted out of paganism redeemed given new life in Christ receiving the Holy Spirit beginning to see the evidences of the Holy Spirit conforming them to Christ's likeness that is the work of sanctification they were flourishing until some Jewish teachers showed up same kind of Jewish teachers that basically followed Paul everywhere to undermine the gospel they were emissaries of Satan they were false apostles they were like Satan disguised as ministers of light but they were ministers of Darkness who represented Satan and the kingdom of darkness it wasn't that they had an anti-christian message it was they had a deviant quasi Christian message and that's what made them so deceptive these were Jews from Jerusalem who said they believed in Jesus Christ and they commended surely the Galatians for also believing in Jesus Christ but they also said to them you cannot be saved by believing in Christ alone that's not sufficient to save you you must follow the rules and ordinances and ceremonies and external rituals associated with the law of Moses and that means you must affirm circumcision and all the mosaic ordinances if to say you can't just come from paganism into the kingdom of God you have to go through Judaism and you have to maintain some of those standards of Judaism revealed in the Old Testament Paul saw this as a different gospel and you will remember that in Chapter one he showed his righteous anger over this chapter 1 verse 6 I'm amazed that you're so quickly deserting him who called you that would be God himself him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel which is really not another it's not good news it's not another gospel there is no other gospel only there are some namely these Jews from Jerusalem who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ again this is the issue here it's not an anti Christian religion they taught it's not even Judaism itself that they taught it is a distorted form of Christianity that says salvation comes by faith in Christ plus your works it's the combination it's the hybrid that brings salvation Paul says even if we as an apostle or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you he is to be accursed anathema damned as we've said before so I say again now if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received he is to be accursed damned by God himself Paul is writing Galatians in a state of righteous anger the kind of righteous anger that I think is missing from much preaching today and while we certainly do preach all that the scripture declares and that means the love and compassion of God there is a place for righteous anger over the false doctrines that have found their way into Christianity and seduced people as they were attempting to seduce the Galatians now in the opening of the fifth chapter Paul confronts these false teachers in the first six verses we looked at last time he confronts their false doctrine helps us to understand what it does and then from verse 7 to 12 he looks at the character of false teachers the very work that marks them now remember in the big picture this whole letter is defending the gospel of salvation by faith alone and the first two chapters be defended it by his own apostolic testimony and then in chapters 3 and 4 he defended it from Old Testament scripture because it was always the way of salvation by faith alone and now in chapters 5 and 6 he defends the true gospel by the experience of the believers in Galatia and the work of the holy spirit which they'd always seen manifest in their life so we're in that section but before he starts to talk about the work of the Spirit in their life which is a manifestation that they have genuinely been saved by faith he lays down an all-out assault on false doctrine and false teachers there is not a worse position for any human being to be in than to be a false teacher propagating lies from hell lies that twist scripture to pervert the true gospel which then clouds the reality of the only way of salvation so that's what's on his mind in these opening 12 verses last week we looked at the first six and we saw what happens to someone who accepts this doctrine of salvation by faith and works and what did we learn if you do that Christ is of no benefit to you verse two if you do that you're under obligation to keep the whole law verse three if you do that you have been severed from Christ if you do that you have fallen from grace and then in verse five if you do that you will never know the righteousness that you pursue false doctrine leads you down the wrong path it makes Christ useless makes you obligated to the law cuts you off from the only Savior you step out of the category of grace which is the only category the only realm of salvation and you have no hope of the righteousness you pursue stay away from false doctrine it is damning Paul elsewhere calls such things damnable heresies and remember as he said at the beginning of verse one it was for freedom that Christ set us free therefore keep standing firm do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery any kind of work system ends up being a yoke of slavery which does you no good it doesn't you no good this freedom is not freedom to sin it is freedom to do right to do good this freedom is tied to a new life principle eternal life from God a new power the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit you are now free from external constraints which you could not keep up because now you have an internal power in the Holy Spirit all the law did was put rules on the inside the outside which you couldn't keep grace puts the Holy Spirit on the inside the power and the freedom to do what is right which is what you desire to do because you have been recreated stand firm he's saying to this to Gentiles don't go back to a Judaism you never knew they hadn't have any experience with Judaism they didn't live under the Mosaic law there was no reason for them to go back to something that was never a part of their lives the Jews wanted them to do that because they wanted to be the only door into the kingdom of God but that was long gone now in Christ there's neither Jew nor Gentile the way is the way of faith and the way of grace so Paul first of all then in this chapter goes after the false doctrine we saw that in verses 2 through 6 now let's come to verse 7 and I I want you to understand this portion and the gravity of it as we go and I'm going to keep reminding you we're talking here not about an agnostic not about an atheist not about a blatant God hater not about a Christ hater and a Christ denier not about some religion that attacks Christianity we're talking about people who declare that they are the people of the true God that they acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Savior but they add works to faith such forms of Christianity abound in fact one could argue that a hybrid kind of salvation faith and works is defining the largest number of so-called Christians in the world because it would encompass both Eastern Orthodoxy and the Roman Catholic system and all kinds of other hybrid forms of Christianity this is not a small group this is a massive population of deceived people Nepal wants us to understand the seriousness of this so he's going to tell us about false teachers let me read verses 7 to 12 you were running well who hindered you from obeying the truth this persuasion did not come from him who calls you a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment whoever he is but I brother and if I still preach circumcision why am I still persecuted then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves I don't know that there's a stronger statement against false teachers than this Jude has strong statements and will look at them 2nd Peter has strong statements but of all of Paul's writings this is the most devastating assault on false forms of Christianity those who say they believe in the true God even the Word of God the Christ of God but ad works to salvation he shows the evil of their works in several statements number 1 verse 7 you were running well who hindered you from obeying the truth false teachers hinder you from the truth false teachers hinder from the truth Paul liked to use the metaphor of a race very popular form of activity in the ancient world you were running well he says using the metaphor of the race he used it back in chapter 2 verse 2 when he talked about himself running this was a very common metaphor moving rapidly ahead he is saying you started out so well back in chapter 3 verse 3 you you begun in the spirit you're you're moving so well you were running well collectively he's looking at the church and saying everything seemed to be going in the right direction but again it's you it's not we we through the spirit in verse five embraces only believers but here it's you and that means it's the people in the congregation some of whom were listening to these Judy Isaac teachers and being seduced into adherence to that we know that because back in chapter four verse 10 he says you observe days and months and seasons and years and I fear that perhaps I've labored over you in vain you you seem to have already stepped into some of these forms of external Judaism but you are running well who hindered you not asking for a name or names it's a rhetorical question you've got to understand who it is that is hindering you they're passing themselves off as scholars of the Old Testament they were very likely connected to the Pharisees they are the kind of people who would let you think that they came from Jerusalem that they have the authority of James who was the leader of the Jerusalem church that they may bear some apostolic weight they have a credential or so to impress you but let's be honest who are they really who hinder you who are they in the larger scheme of things today they may be religion religious leaders they may wear robes they may be priests they may be patriarchs they may be Pope's or Cardinals or bishops they may be pastors they may be whatever they may have titles education but who are they really these Judaizers had stepped into the race that the galatians were running well and put up obstacles they had put a blockade in in the pathway and they had caused these people some no doubt even believers wondering about this and certainly those that were on the edge of faith thinking maybe this is the right way to go and they would have turned their backs on faith and walked right into legalism and right in to destruction they certainly attacked Paul's apostolic Authority they must have attacked the truth of the Old Testament and they certainly had to attack the Holy Spirit's power so they were attacking all the categories of evidence that Paul uses in this book they were throwing legalism at these people and it was interrupting the race and making the runners hesitant and confused and their confusion led Paul to be perplexed back in chapter 4 verse 20 Paul doesn't want an answer from them except to listen to him and he will answer the rhetorical question himself who is it that hinders you from obeying the truth now what does it mean to obey the truth that is a key interpretive phrase in this section to obey the truth essentially in the New Testament means to believe the gospel it means to believe the gospel I don't know if you've thought of it this way but the gospel is a command it is not a suggestion it is not God sharing with you it is God commending you I think we even as believers when we go out to present the gospel would do well not to talk about sharing the gospel but about commanding people to believe because that's what the gospel does it calls for obedience in the 6th chapter of Acts we see an illustration of this the Word of God kept spreading the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith an act of confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is an act of obedience to the gospel which is a command which is a command in Romans chapter 2 this kind of language continues just a few illustrations of it Romans chapter 2 talks about those who are ungodly as selfishly ambitious verse 8 and they do not obey the truth they do not obey the truth but rather obey unrighteousness for them is coming wrath from God and indignation in the sixth chapter of Romans verse 17 Paul says thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed you actually became slaves of righteousness it is a call again to obedience and a call to slavery you are called to be a slave of Christ and a slave of righteousness as Paul comes to the end of Romans in the fifteenth chapter in the eighteenth verse we see this kind of language again I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles obedience to the gospel command at the end of Romans chapter 16 verse 26 says now the gospel the preaching of Christ the mystery of the revelation of Christ is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal God there is the word commandment the gospel is a commandment of the eternal God made known to all nations leading to obedience of faith the gospel is a command and then we find on the other side 2nd Thessalonians 1:8 that God will send the Lord Jesus from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire 2nd Thessalonians 1 a dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord in the glory of his power destruction on those who do not obey the gospel it is the obedience of faith it is the obedience to the truth it is the obedience to the gospel trusting in Christ is a command it is a command in 2nd Corinthians 10 it says essentially that when we come to preach the gospel to those that are held captive by Satan the goal is to set them free from all that and bring every thought captive to Christ every thought captive to Christ we are calling people to obedience Peter writes in 1st Peter 1:22 since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls the gospel is not an option it is a command and when it is rejected judgment everlasting judgment falls some of these Galatians were no doubt on the brink of coming in full faith to Christ but like those in the book of Hebrews were hesitant for whatever reason now these legalists had come along and for their own reasons were wanting to push them into legalism and away from the gospel and you might wonder why would they ever do such a thing and the answer has given you in Chapter six of this letter verse 12 they desire to make a good showing in the flesh and so they try to compel you to be circumcised simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ they didn't want the persecution that came on them when they said they believed in the cross of Christ this is a critical point they had believed in the cross of Christ but they were not going to exclude their judaistic works because it was enough to bear the stigma of believing in a crucified Messiah without being accused of the jews of abandoning your judaism if they did that they would have been persecuted it's as if to say the jews could tolerate them believing in jesus as the messiah even though it was a stumbling block to them if they continued to adhere to the law of moses so they were trying to hold on to their jewish community by making this good showing in the flesh in addition to saying they believed in the cross then verse 13 those who are circumcised do not even keep the law themselves but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh they want to be able to say to their jewish community no no we're supportive of judaism no no this christianity is just a branch of Judaism we still believe you know the law the law has a place it has the priority place they wanted to hold on to that for their own personal social benefit Paul says that's a false gospel if you go that way Christ is no benefit to you you're under the law to keep the whole lot perfectly if you're going to think you're saved by the law you are severed from Christ you are fallen from grace and you will never attain the righteousness you pursue false teachers hinder the truth they get in the way of the truth maybe this would be a moment to look at 2nd Peter chapter 2 verse 1 false prophets arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you keep in mind this is where they go they infiltrate they introduce destructive heresies they do it for greed they exploit you with false words verse 3 and God has set them for judgment so first of all from what we see here in Galatians 5 the work of false teachers is to hinder the truth to hinder the truth if you do that you have taken up the cause of the archetypal arch liar Satan himself this is Satan's work even though it has Christianity as a label secondly back to Galatians 5 false teachers into the truth secondly they do not represent God they do not come from God they may say they do they will say they do they will claim divine rights divine authority divine power they may even say they speak for God they speak as if the mouthpiece of God but notice verse 8 this persuasion did not come from him who calls you this is an effectual call the call of God to salvation the God who called you into salvation by the way whenever you see anything about God calling in the epistles of the New Testament it's always the effectual saving call not just an open gospel call it's the call to salvation mentioned in Romans chapter 8 that whom he called he justified it's the call that awakens the dead center and regenerates him and gives him life it's that call the God who called you and gave you life is not the one who sent these teachers with this persuasion these legalistic lies are not from God it is impossible to deviate from the true gospel and come from God because God has pronounced anathema on any such deviation there's no connection to God no connection I know you think about people in these forms of Christianity and you think well they must be connected to God and then they pray to God they talk about God they they even hang around sometimes with leaders who are true believers and and true ministers of the gospel and they they get together for political and social reasons and all of that and they they seem to be mutually committed together recently there was a prayer breakfast a presidential prayer breakfast which was a meeting together of apostate Herot heretics under the curse of God and true believers and children of God and we look at that and we say but they all talk about the same God and they even talk about Jesus and it's not wrong for people to get together for some noble philanthropic cause for some benefit to mankind we applaud all of that but there seems to be a lot of confusion about who these people really are as the emissaries of hell you're not hearing from God when you hear from them you're not this message is not preached today this this would literally disintegrate a lot of alliances that shouldn't exist in the first place so false teachers hinder the truth and they do not come from God thirdly they contaminate the church they contaminate the church this is tragic verse 9 a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough we all know what yeast is right and yeast is a picture in Scripture of permeation it's usually used of evil influence permeating evil influence the Jews before the days of unleavened bread would remove every particle of leaven from their homes part of that feast was to recognize that they needed to get rid of the permeating influence of sin and so this was a symbol of that leaven operated on the principle of fermentation as you know so it was a good illustration of moral and spiritual corruption these false teachers contaminate the church they corrupt the church by the way this is a common proverb verse 8 a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough paul used it in first Corinthians 5:6 it's the same thing a little leaven leavens the whole lump and he's talking about again the influence of sin and the influence of the evil and the influence of false doctrine in the church but it all really kind of began in the New Testament with the words of our Lord in Matthew 16 and again he was talking about the most religious Jewish people the Pharisees and the Sadducees Matthew 16 6 Jesus said watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees of the leaven what did he mean by that well down in verse 12 they understood they didn't say to beware of the leaven of bread not the bread itself but the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees so it was our Lord who used the idea of leaven as a permeating evil influence referring to the teaching of the Pharisees who were the most fastidious legalistic Jews and here the Apostle Paul picks it up as he does in 1st Corinthians 5 it's similar to Paul's words in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 17 where he says that the teaching of false doctrine eats like gangrene it's that same kind of corrupting permeating influence I suppose in the modern world where we now have a more comprehensive understanding of the pathology of disease the Lord might have used if he were saying it today the cancer of the Pharisees and the cancer of the Sadducees the symbol of invisible permeating corruption but our Lord wants these people to know so through the Apostle Paul he tells them these false teachers will contaminate the church they will corrupt the church we see it all the time we see so many quote/unquote evangelical people embracing these people as if they are part of the kingdom of God when they are the kingdom of darkness and they pull in their permeating corrupting evil influence just to show you a little more of that Jude chapter only one chapter verse 11 of chapter 1 woe to them these are the false teachers woe to them for they have gone the way of Cain they have rushed into the error of Balaam for pay they perish in the rebellion of Korah and then he describes them they are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts they feast with you without fear this is what they do they get inside the church and they feast with you and they're part of your love feast they they want to be there for the occasions that give them credibility the fact is they are clouds without water carried along by winds they are autumn trees without fruit doubly dead uprooted wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved for ever and on them verse 15 says will judgment fall to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against in four times they're called ungodly in one verse these people do not come from God they permeate and contaminate the church Paul comes to a fourth characteristic in verse 10 I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment whoever he is they will face divine judgment we saw that as I just read in Jude and also in 2nd Peter chapter 2 they will face judgment Paul is saying I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view I have confidence that you're going to go the right way that you're going to be faithful to the gospel of grace and my confidence isn't in me it's in the Lord that the Lord is going to lead you into the truth I have confidence that the Lord is going to bring you to the truth and that you will adopt no other view but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment whoever he is I don't care who he is I don't care what credentials he has I don't care what religious claims he makes Paul says I have come to the settle the conclusion in the Lord that you're going to come to the truth and be faithful to the truth but with regard to the false teachers they will bear judgment from God doesn't matter who they are doesn't matter who they are that's as if he's saying I'm confident that you're gonna be okay because the Lord is going to lead you to a full commitment to the gospel but the false teachers who are disturbing you that word means throwing you into confusion they're going to face horrendous punishment horrendous punishment when someone gets inside a church and tampers with the church the punishment is severe when someone says they're a believer a true believer and they introduce their error and their corruption to the church the Lord is very serious in his response you see this in two letters in Revelation - two letters - two churches the first to the church at Pergamum says in verse 13 of Revelation - I know where you dwell where Satan's throne is city of Pergamum you hold fast my name didn't deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my witness my faithful one who was killed among you where Satan dwells but I have a few things against you because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam the teaching of Balaam mentioned here and also earlier as we saw is being in the religious business for money which is what false teachers do there are those in the church at Pergamum who hold to the teaching of Balaam who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols commit acts of immorality you also have some in the same way you hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans this is another false doctrine system it had gone into the church at Pergamum now verse 16 says therefore repent or else I'm coming to you quickly and I will make war with them war against them with the sword of my mouth he will make war a against false teachers in the church in the next letter to Thyatira it's very much the same verse 19 I know your deeds your love faith service all of that but I have this against you verse 20 you tolerate the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and she teaches and leads my bondservants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols this means that even believers were captive to this corruption at least for a time I gave her time to repent she doesn't want to repent of her immorality I'll throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into Great Tribulation unless they repent of her deeds and I will kill her children with pestilence and all the churches will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts the Lord looks at his church and he sees false doctrine and false teachers and he takes serious action so what is the impact of false teachers they hinder the truth they do not come from God they contaminate the church and they end in a face-to-face judgement with God then has Paul has one other thing to say in verse 11 they also persecute the true teachers they also persecute the true teachers but I brethren if I still preach circumcision why am I still persecuted then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished now let me give you the background of this verse so you'll understand it Paul was persecuted he once persecuted the church but after his conversion he was persecuted and the primary source of persecution of Paul came from the Jews yes the Gentiles also persecuted him but particularly the Jews persecuted Paul they dogged his steps the Judaizers doing what they were doing was a form of anti Paul effort it was a kind of persecution they didn't have the authority to inflict wounds on his body or make him a captive they wouldn't be able to do that unless he was back in Jerusalem in their country but they were persecuting him by dogging his steps with false doctrine trying to undermine everything he did but notice what he says there brethren if I still preach circumcision why am I still persecuted somebody must have said well Paul wait a minute you're inconsistent you preach circumcision what in the world would they would they have in mind with that very simple back in the sixteenth chapter of the book of Acts you don't have to go to them to it I'll just tell you about it Paul came to meet a young man by the name of Timothy Paul met Timothy was impressed by Timothy's righteous life godliness he was a believer in Christ his father was a Gentile but his mother was Jewish Timothy had never been circumcised but he was a believer in Christ Paul had him circumcised somebody probably told the Judaizers about that and said look you even preach circumcision and Paul is saying if if you think I preach circumcision why are you persecuting me if that's what you want and you think I'm doing it well of course they didn't think that they persecuted him because he didn't preach it but then that brings up the issue of Timothy why did he do that very simple reason Timothy was already a believer that nothing to do with salvation but he would have had no access to synagogues it would have been the natural thought of Jews that he had a Gentile father and he had a Jewish mother since he wasn't circumcised he must be a pagan he must have taken his father's religion this would have made it difficult for Timothy to minister along with Paul so Paul a mama dates the Jewish expectation by having Timothy go through this surgery so that he will be accepted as one who has embraced Judaism like Paul and together they can minister to the Jews it was nothing more than that and it was obvious he didn't preach that or do it any other time or they wouldn't be persecute him for not preaching it if I preach circumcision why am I still persecuted then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished he's saying this if I was preaching circumcision the Jews wouldn't be stumbling over the cross now you have to understand what he means by this the Jews had two problems with apostolic preaching problem number one was a crucified Messiah that was a problem that was a stumbling block to them because they thought Messiah was going to come be a king not a crucified victim of pagans Romans that was a problem but there was an even greater problem and that was that Paul was saying we had no obligation as believers to adhere to the Mosaic ordinances that was a bigger problem those Judaizers knew it because I told you in Chapter 6 the Judaizers believed in Christ and the cross but they also wanted to embrace the whole mosaic ritual so that their friends would accept them Paul would have been accepted if he had believed in a crucified Messiah Jesus Christ but held on to the trappings of Judaism if his message had been you have to believe in Jesus Christ crucified and adhere to the Mosaic law and then you will be saved but Paul didn't preach circumcision he didn't preach the Mosaic law and that's why they were after him with such vicious passion a good way to understand this is to remember the story of Stephen in the sixth chapter I'll just remind you of it the Sanhedrin puts Stephen on trial Jewish Sanhedrin Jerusalem the charge was not that he was worshipping the crucified one that was not the charge the charge was this he is blaspheming the Jewish temple and the law of Moses acts six thirteen and fourteen Chrysostom the early church father said for even the cross which was a stumbling block to the Jews was not so much so as the failure to require obedience to the ancestral laws and traditions for when they attacked Stephen they said not that he was worshiping the crucified but that he was speaking against the laws and the holy place by the way Saul had persecuted the church for the same reason not because they acknowledged Christ but because they were against Judaism so what we learn here is that false teachers will persecute true teachers that is if true teachers tell the truth you can avoid that if you don't tell the truth the message of the cross was all Paul ever preached Christ and him crucified never the law Paul closes this section with a fierce statement that sums up his attitude verse 12 I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves castrate I wish that those that are troubling you would castrate themselves say yikes it's a pretty serious thing to say then you get the connection to circumcision but that's not the connection well what is he saying Galatia was adjacent to Phrygia Phrygia was known for the worship of Sabeel cyb ele pagan goddess this was the dominant worship in the area and the priests of Sabeel and the very devout worshippers of Sabeel had themselves castrated they became eunuchs eunuchs for the purpose of the worship of Sabeel this is sheer gross paganism why would Paul ever say this to these Jewish teachers what he is saying is this if you accept circumcision and the mosaic rituals and rules you might as well go ahead and castrate yourself and become a full-blown pagan because that's what you are this shows you how extreme any deviation from the gospel is you are a full-fledged pagan you might as well do the most severe pagans do I can't imagine what happened when they read that verse they would be devastated the Judaizers when they heard it must have been infuriated they thought they saw themselves as God's representatives they were full-fledged pagans there is no room for any alteration of the gospel of salvation by faith any deviation and you might as well become a eunuch in a pagan religion because that's what you are

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Keywords: Truth, Gospel, Christianity, Law, Grace, God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Bible, Scripture, Biblical Preaching, Exposition, Expository, Sermon, John MacArthur

Id: 3HMLVFE5suA

Length: 51min 20sec (3080 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 21 2018