Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. What's up folks. We are kicking off Thanksgiving week. It is a Sunday and this is the week that we set aside a day out of our year to be thankful. And then we followed up with a day to go out and buy all the things that we want to buy. And we're thankful about that. And we're thankful about that. Yeah. Yeah, I'm thankful for Amazon. I mean, it's crazy. It's so I remember back in the day, Oh, Amanda. And I would go to Allen. So Allen outlets that, uh, are still there today. Uh, we would go there at midnight when we were in, back in, in seminary and before we had kids in and things, and we would do midnight shopping there to try to get our Christmas shopping done. And now it's like, Amazon's already got black Friday deals out a week in advance. It's like black Friday week is happening black Friday month. In some cases I've seen some really early ads, which. Or even just some retailers saying, Hey, don't buy this or that. Wait until this day to do that. Which is interesting. I mean, it is. We're a consumer culture and that's just part of it, which I'm not mad about it. Some things I'm like, all right, that's a good deal. Yeah. I won't pull the trigger on that. Yeah. Yeah, same. Yeah. It's Hey, I love online shopping. It prevents you from the madness of the stores and everything. It's it's not a bad thing. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. But, uh, yeah. Good opportunity this week to. To be intentional about it ahead of time. I mean, we talk about intentionality about coming to worship on Sunday morning. Uh, it's probably helpful for us to think a lot this week about gratitude and not just wait to Thursday when we're gathered around our table with our family together and all of us wearing our pilgrims hats or our Indian garb, depending on what side you're on. And. Um, And giving thanks around the table. I mean, it's probably helpful to think all week this week. Hey, how can we be thankful people I'm not preaching specifically on a Thanksgiving, a message on Thanksgiving next Sunday. And in part of that was. We've been, we had the transformed conference, we're going into the Christmas season coming up here. And so it was, it was going to chop up the gospel of John. Series. I'll a lot more than I felt comfortable with, but gratitude is important. We need to be a thankful people for sure. That's right. So it's a good opportunity to practice that. It is. It is. And we can be thankful for God's word Galatians one through three in particular today. And so let's jump in and tackle the first three chapters of Galatians. I mean, I tell you what, pastor, rod, we talked about it, I think yesterday or the day before, but this chronological series is helping me understand these epistles so much better. Uh, than I ever have before, even just understanding the issue of Galatians dealing with legalism and in Judaism. Uh, that I always knew it was about that. But now, as we're reading chronologically through this plan, it's given me a much better appreciation for the context into which Paul was writing at the time, such a helpful tool, Mina. And I've been using some of the maps in fact, I did put a link to them. The first map I was referring to on our podcast. So if any of you guys notice that you're welcome. Uh, I'll put a link to our, to Paul's second missionary journey also on the podcast. Whenever we cover that, it starts at acts chapter 15. So I think that'll be sometime soon. Uh, but yeah, watching the journey and seeing where they travel and singing Macedonia and Acadia, and these places that Paul interacts with these people. Um, the, the region of glacier it's, it's a really, really helpful to see these books and where we think is the best place for them in terms of chronology. This, this seems like the most likely spot makes sense. And it really does bring the book of acts to life in a different way. It does. It does for sure. For sure. The, the audience of Galatians here are really those churches yet. Of of his first missionary journey. That was the region of Galicia. Those were the churches that he had in mind as he's writing this, that this letter was to be circulated amongst those churches. And, and that's one of the reasons why, uh, we consider some of the, a lot of the epistles to be part of the new Testament, Canon. Is that these letters were written by Paul and by some of the other epistle writers. And they were, uh, they were circulated amongst the churches with a degree of authority given to them by these local churches. So as Paul's writing the letter to the colation churches there. It was accepted as authoritative by him, even though it wasn't yet canonized that that happened. Uh, you know, 83 hundreds in that timeframe, but, but these letters were already recognized by the church as being authoritative, carrying the weight of God's word behind them. And one of the signs was, it was, it was preserved and. One church would read it and then make a copy perhaps, and then send it to the next church and the next church and the next church. So that's, what's going on here. We think that this was written probably 48 to 55. A D sometime in that timeframe. So early on. In, uh, in the. The spread of the, the early church here again. Churches have is. His first missionary journey here. So it opens up an ink relations one. Um, you've got his, his greetings, which Paul. Uh, is no to doing his letters in different styles here. Uh, what makes Galatians unique? Is he. Kind of goes for the guttural right away in verses six through 10, a lot of times in an epistle, he'll say, Hey, you guys are doing really good over here. But starting in verse six, he goes right after them. And he accuses them of quickly deserving him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel, a different gospel. And then he goes on to, to clarify saying there is no other gospel other than the one preached by it by. By me by Paul he's saying. Um, and if anyone should tamper with that, they should be enough drama or condemned to hell. So, uh, pastor, uh, let's, let's kick that around a little bit. That's strong language and we've, we've talked a lot about what defines something as, as heresy or, uh, something that would be, uh, uh, uh, Unorthodox of gospel. Any thoughts on that? Because we want to be careful with, with this. I mean, this, this is serious language weighty language from Paul. But how should we go about thinking about who would qualify somebody? We would say that's a different gospel. That's anathema versus somebody that might have. Slight variances, but, but we wouldn't put them in that camp. Yeah, there's probably a lot more to say about it than we have time for. But at minimum, what we can say is that something heretical fundamentally undermines the gospel in some critical, again, fundamental way. It tampers with it in such a way that you can no longer call it the gospel and the word that Paul uses anathema. Uh, is a word that means to one who is cursed. So someone who is condemned, as you said to hell, which means that when it comes to our conversations about the gospel, we have to be clear about what the gospel is. Our church strives to be clear about what the gospel message is and what the right response is. Um, which is again, even by itself, a helpful clarification, the gospel. And the response are not the same thing. We talk about repentance and faith. Those are the responses to the gospel, but the gospel itself is not those things. The gospel is the good news of what God has done for us. Now you might start asking the question. Okay. Then what, what would we qualify as being especially fundamental? What, what level of precision does someone need to affirm in order to say? Yeah, that's, that's an Orthodox gospel and that's. That can sometimes be a little more challenging to specify. Like, does someone need to know that Jesus is God in the flesh? And how much do they need to know that? Do they need to be able to affirm the hypostatic union to some degree? And we would say, well, you should definitely say that because that's pretty important about who Jesus was, but whether or not they fully understand that to the degree that you would say a mature Christian should understand it. Well, that's a different story. But suffice it to say. When we're dealing with the gospel, it's important to get it right. Which is the name of one of the books that, that talks about the gospel that we, we appreciate. We have to be sure that we're sure about what what's being said. And that means as Paul says it here, man, it's so important that you don't want to get it wrong. You don't want to be fuzzy about some of those details. So if you're unclear about it at all, you should be one of those people that picks up one of those books. What is the gospel by Greg Gilbert? We hand that one out, out, uh, quite a bit. Uh, exploring the gospel by Mike FUBARs along with getting it right also by Michael Barr's. We'd like those books. There's one by. Uh, Paul washer, I think called what is the gospel or something like that? All of those books are excellent resources in terms of being sure that you understand what the gospel content is otherwise. Uh, you, you run the risk of being what Paul says here, as someone who is a cursed, who has a different gospel, which by the way, notice verse eight. It talks about an angel from heaven. I always think about the Mormons when I see this because of their angelic. I mean, Joseph Smith, supposedly angelic visitation with the angel Moroni. In addition to saying God, the father and God, the son in the flesh as to percentages. Who visit him saying, Hey, everyone's wrong? You're right. Let's get this thing going. So heads up on that in case you're flirting with Mormonism. Verse eight all by itself really undoes their position. Yeah. Yeah. And this is such a good conversation for us to have because, um, you know, we don't want to be the church that says, Hey, we're the only ones on the block that has it right. There are our faithful churches in our area that are preaching a biblical gospel. And that is something that we need to readily accept and integrate with. We may say, Hey. Um, we feel like there's, there's growth opportunities that we're trying to present in, in challenge our people to mature in their faith, the way that some others might not be. Uh, but that doesn't mean that we're looking at every other church around us. There aren't any other faithful churches producing gospel, believing Christians around us. There are. And so that's why I think we need to be careful about saying this. This place is heretical or this place is not preaching. Uh, faithful gospel. If we're going to make that statement, that's a big statement because what we're saying, according to this opening passage in Galatians is that they're leading everybody in their midst. It's to hell and that that's, uh, that's a serious charge, uh, for sure. Verses 11 through 24, then we get Paul's testimony here. And so Paul goes on to talk about his conversion, who he was beforehand. And he's saying, look, you need to understand that, that the gospel, that I'm preaching is not something that I made up. And that's why he's doing this. He's saying this is, is, is different than, than what you're used to. And remember, why is all of this happening? Because part of this is, Hey, the law. We have a different relationship to the law now than we ever had before as Jews. The Judaizers are coming in saying, no, we need to still apply the law. So Paul is saying. Understand my authority is not my own. My authority comes from Jesus comes from the resurrected savior in he's. The one that has, has given me this now. Uh, pastor rod, we didn't talk about this earlier in, in, I was remiss on that, but Paul didn't immediately go to Jerusalem right after he was saved as the book of acts kind of implies. With this conversion account, but he went to Arabia. It seems for three years to, uh, to study and to become acquainted with things. Um, before going up to Jerusalem there. And so, uh, that's something that's important for us, just timeframe wise for, for us to note here in the book of acts, it makes it seem rather seamless, but. It seems like before he goes up there in, in, I think, um, That, that that's right before verses 26 through 29. And in the book of acts, when he goes up to Jerusalem there, I think this happens before, even that. Uh, he's got three years where he's in Arabia and he's developing his understanding of the gospel in that. That's my thoughts on that. Uh, pastor Rodney, any clarification on that? I would agree with that. I would just make. Three years is approximately the timeframe that the disciples spent with Jesus. Yeah. So that's an important consideration. Given the fact that I would consider Paul an apostle. I'd consider him. Uppercase a apostle. And this would be one of my arguments and that he has a very similar timeframe with Jesus. That would be my, my supposition here that he's spending time in the desert with Jesus, Jesus who appeared to him on the road to Damascus, gave him revelation. And in Paul says as much I have received this as by a revelation from Christ himself. So. And by the way, when you're thinking about three years to. Part of the consideration is. I think about the Jewish mindset a part of a day could be considered a whole day. And in a similar way, a part of a year could be considered a whole year there. The precision is not the same as 21st century Western precision. So you could have been, you know, what, uh, what would that be a year and a half or year in three quarters over the course of three calendar years. Yeah. And it still really qualifies that. So he spent a good deal of time in the desert, and then he goes up to Jerusalem and gets the right hand of fellowship from. Uh, Peter James and, and the other guys who affirm his ministry. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great, great point there. Um, in, and you'll note in verse nine or 19, he says, I saw none of the other apostles during this time except James, the Lord's brother. So who's doing the instruction for him and I think you're right. That's right. I think it's Jesus, whether that's through the spirit or in, in more visions that he's having of Jesus, we don't have that detail provided for us. Uh, but I do think that that he's in the school of Christ. That Jesus is the one that is teaching and that's his whole point here. Th this gospel that I'm giving to you is not the gospel that I invented. And it wasn't given to me by men. It's not like this is all coming from the apostles. So you guys can't accuse us of that. It's I'm learning the same thing that they heard from Jesus. I heard it separately. And it's, it's all in agreement there. And so the chapter one sets that up and then it gets into in chapter two. He does talk about the initial meeting with the disciples and going up to gather with them. And this is 14 years. Uh, after his, his conversion is what we're talking about here. So not in addition from the three years mentioned earlier, but 14 years later probably corresponding with acts chapter 11. Um, he's, he's going up there. He says because of a revelation step before them. Uh, that, that, uh, though privately, before those who seemed influential the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running or had not renovated. So what is he doing in chapter two? He's making sure that the gospel goes into the Gentiles as part of the plan, and he wants to be on the same patient. And that's such a. Uh, good thing. It's, it's a reminder that that we're part of something bigger and sometimes we need. We need confirmation on that. We can't just say, Hey, I think this is what I should be doing. I'm going to go, just go rogue and do this on my own. And even a church to do that is a dangerous thing. We need to have a community of like-minded other Christians that we're all on the same page. Pull the ship in the same direction, so to speak. And so I think we're seeing that with, with Paul here, when he goes to Jerusalem, says, Hey, go to the Gentiles, but I just want to make sure all of us are, are together here on this. Is confrontation with Peter pastor, rod, talk us through. Uh, some of this can cause this is bolt. He confronts Peter to his face here about some hypocrisy that he sees in Peter's life. Yeah. So it seems like. Uh, Peter is having some difficulty. Uh, with the, with the external pressure, that the fear of man to please the circumcision party. And so when Peter, uh, CFS here in verse 11, came to Antioch Antioch in Syria. I opposed him to his face. Antioch and Pisidia. Lydia, I believe actually that's not the case. I opposed him to his face. Paul says, because he stood condemned and that's a big deal. Paul is saying, look, Peter was so wrong, you know? This is one of the leaders of the apostolic band here. And if not the defacto leader next to James, he says he was so wrong. I opposed him to his face because he was condemned in his position. And he says, the reason why is because of this incredibly divisive issue, eating with the Gentiles when he came, he drew back and separate himself because he didn't want to upset the circumcision party, which of course refers to the. Now w who we would call the Judaizers people that would say you have to be circumcised to be right. And so he says, look, you're being a hypocrite. You're leading Barnabas astray. I can't allow for this. And still I oppose him to his face that tells me that a good brother who loves you is going to be someone who, as a Proverbs, a. Oh, mercy, 27, 5 and six. Uh, better's opener Buick than hidden love. And I think Paul took that to heart and he does that for CFUs. And he says, look, if you though a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How can you force these Gentiles to live like Jews? In other words, don't put the law upon them, let them have the grace of the gospel. And so then after this, you have Paul jumping into what justification by faith looks like from 15 verses 15 and onward. Yeah. 15 through 21. They're the core of the true gospel. Right. And in verse 16 really lays it out. As we know it. Uh, a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because by works of the law, no one will be justified. And so Paul's coming back to this and again, it contextually, this is why context is so important because what he's combating is this idea that works are necessary in addition to faith for a person to be justified. Again, Paul is not disagreeing with James that works have to be there. This is w to, to pit the two against each other is to misunderstand what's going on here. We're looking at the same coin, just different sides of the same coin there. And so Paul is, is combating. Uh, the, the false idea that you have to add works to your faith in order to be justified. Now, when James says that works along with our faith, just faith justifies he's right too. Because why, because faith produces those words. We're going to talk about that at, even at church this morning. With regards to a true relationship, which uses abiding in Christ is going to bear fruit. And so we got to be careful to understand this contextually Paul's writing to. Uh, given context where they're trying to say, Hey, you need to do X, Y, and Z. In addition to believing in order to be saved well, No. What saves you is faith alone, but to quote, I don't know who was the first person to save it. Th th the faith alone that saves you, it does not remain alone. In other words, it's going to produce those works in our lives as well. So, uh, that's, what's going on here in verses 15 through 21. Um, Verses 18 through 19, he asks a rhetorical question there. He says for if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor for, through the lie, die to the loss of that. I might live to God, I guess it's not a question, but he says. Uh, he says, why would I rebuild the law? The law is not there to justify me, but to show me my sin. And so he's saying if I want to bring the law back in, after I've been saved, that's just going to condemn me even further in, in now I have a new relationship now I need to. To submit myself to the law of Christ. And so I've been crucified with Christ and he's going to live through me now, Galatians two 20. And so he's going to work those things out in my life. Through a new relationship that I have with him by faith. And that is going to again, yeah, like James says, that's going to produce works, but the works don't save us. And so Paul's right into combat that idea there. Galatians chapter three, then he gets into talking some more with them about the same concept. And he calls them foolish because they have now bought into this idea that they were begun by faith and somehow they need to be perfected by works. Uh, and that's important for us to understand to church. Our works are part of our sanctification, not our justification. Um, you have been justified by faith. And so you are right with God because of your faith and that alone. Your sanctification, which is the process of being made more like Jesus as the spirit goes to work in your life. Yeah. That is going to be by works, but you are not making yourself more justified by working. And that's what Paul's combating here in verses one through nine. That's why he says in verse three, having begun by the spirit. Are you now being perfected by the flesh? No, the spirit. Eh, who regenerated you? He you've been justified by faith in Christ. It's a done. Job that the work is done. You don't have to worry about that anymore. And then he goes on in fact, in chapter three. And he says, in fact, if you want to, if you want the law, you got to have the whole law, because if you fail on one part of it, man, you are under all of it. And it's such an interesting concept past. Galatians three eight. He says that God preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying in you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Abraham becomes a figurehead. For us as Christians, which the Jews, right. We, we read in John eight where the Jews love to appeal to Abraham as their father. And here policying Abraham is everyone's father as well. So. What's he what's the connection back to Abraham here. So you might remember Genesis chapter 15, Abraham believed God and God credited to him or counted it to him as righteousness. It was his belief that got highlighted and consequently, why he can be known as the father of faith, verse seven here. Paul says no, then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. The true sons of Abraham are not. Th those who are merely made. So by the flesh, but those who are made so by the spirit. And so it's, it's in a sense saying, look, the covenant with Abraham, uh, the God's promised him preceded all of those law keeping details, and therefore this supersedes the law, and this is better than the law, this transcends alone. So if you really want to be on Abraham side, talking to people that would call themselves Jewish, man, you better be people of faith then, because that's the way that God. Uh, validated the, the covenant with him. He became right with God Genesis chapter 15 when he believed God. And that's when God candidates in his right. So that's why this is so important. Yeah. And that's really verses 15 through 29. He's arguing against the opposite notion that somehow the mosaic Kevin had given after the Abrahamic, Kevin. Uh, superseded Abrahamic, covenant, or nullify the promise given to Abraham that somehow now it's by works. Uh, through the mosaic, Kevin or the giving of the law. And he's saying, no, that's not it at all. The promise he says still remains instead. What was the law given to do? It was given to us to show us that we need to rely on the promise given to Abraham because we can't fulfill the mosaic. Kevin. We need to rely on the promise that there's going to be one that's coming through Abraham's line. That's going to be a blessing to all the nations. Because we need him because we can't do it ourselves. That's what it means that the law was our tutor or to our guard. Rail is the concept there to point us to Jesus imprisoned us under sin, meaning. It kept us mindful of the fact that we couldn't do it. Someone else is going to need to do it on our behalf. And we're going to need to have faith. I'll let Abraham in or in that, that one in order for us to be made right with God. And so, uh, that's verses 15 through 29. There's a chapter three wraps up. That's it that's Galatians one through three will finish up the book. Believe it or not. We'll knock out the rest of Galatians tomorrow. In Galatians four through six, but let's pray. We are grateful for the one that you gave through Abraham to be the one to free us from the curse of the law. Even as Galatians three says, by becoming a curse for us. And that is Jesus. And even as we move into a week of gratitude and Thanksgiving, we are certainly first and foremost, thankful for Christ. And so we are. Praising you this week and thanking you for our salvation. Uh, that is not dependent on our works because none of us would be able to stand before you, if it weren't. So thank you for Christ. And we just pray that we'd be mindful even more of that this week, as we set aside that time, uh, to be, be reflecting in gratitude for the salvation that we have, that comes by faith in that works. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, y'all keep it in your Bibles tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible pocket. We'll see you then. Bye.