Ever wonder what it truly means to be free in Christ? We ponder on this and much more as Pastor Ryan Brown and I embark on a deep study through the theological intricacies of the Bible. Get ready for an enlightening discourse where we analyze Paul's argument and the purpose of his letter in Galatians, dissecting how proper thinking leads to proper living. Strap in as we explore the complex narrative of the law, slavery, the story of Hagar and Sarah, and ponder the thought-provoking idea that it is better to be divided in freedom than united in slavery.
On this journey, we dig into the profound notion of freedom in Christ, revealing its depth beyond the mere absence of consequences. We reflect on how Christ liberates us from the shackles of idols and other gods.
We are thrilled to engage with our listeners, appreciating your support as we dissect the word of God. Our discussions venture into controversial topics, such as the value of Christ in our lives and the concept of living under grace. As we question and reflect, we also encourage you to let go of your anxieties, fears, and vices, surrendering them to Jesus. We round off with a heartfelt appeal to spread love and kindness around you, embodying the very essence of our faith. Join us, reflect, and engage, as we navigate through this real Bible story.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealBibleStories
Notes: https://sermons.church/archives?church=PalmsBaptistBibleStudy&id=126
Website: https://real-bible-stories.square.site
Check us out on these Streaming Platforms: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1912582/share
Ever wonder what it truly means to be free in Christ? We ponder on this and much more as Pastor Ryan Brown and I embark on a deep study through the theological intricacies of the Bible. Get ready for an enlightening discourse where we analyze Paul's argument and the purpose of his letter in Galatians, dissecting how proper thinking leads to proper living. Strap in as we explore the complex narrative of the law, slavery, the story of Hagar and Sarah, and ponder the thought-provoking idea that it is better to be divided in freedom than united in slavery.
On this journey, we dig into the profound notion of freedom in Christ, revealing its depth beyond the mere absence of consequences. We reflect on how Christ liberates us from the shackles of idols and other gods.
We are thrilled to engage with our listeners, appreciating your support as we dissect the word of God. Our discussions venture into controversial topics, such as the value of Christ in our lives and the concept of living under grace. As we question and reflect, we also encourage you to let go of your anxieties, fears, and vices, surrendering them to Jesus. We round off with a heartfelt appeal to spread love and kindness around you, embodying the very essence of our faith. Join us, reflect, and engage, as we navigate through this real Bible story.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealBibleStories
Notes: https://sermons.church/archives?church=PalmsBaptistBibleStudy&id=126
Website: https://real-bible-stories.square.site
Check us out on these Streaming Platforms: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1912582/share
Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories. Join us as we deep dive into the historic, religious, cultural, political and emotional context surrounding the real lives of real people in the Bible and the stories we've all grown to life. Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories. And if this is not your first time, then welcome back to Real Bible Stories, so if you've been a long-time listener. We traditionally have at least three people in the room when we go through and do an episode of Real Bible Stories, but my wife, Selena, is on a trip to Spain with her family and she is just having the time of her life, living the high life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:She's been sending us the pictures, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, the other voice you hear before we get too far into it, is Pastor Ryan Brown. Hello, I'm the chief instructor on this podcast. I had to change up the opening because I used to have my flow of going from like me, to my wife, to Ryan.
Speaker 2:What do we do?
Speaker 1:It's like well, that's all jacked up.
Speaker 3:Now. We're going to have to let the spirit lead the intro Exactly, and here we are, here we are.
Speaker 1:So she's over there enjoying Spain. We miss you, Selena. Yeah, we miss you. The desert miss you. Come back to the sand, leave the beautiful beaches that they have out there. Apparently, it's super humid and hot.
Speaker 3:Like she said.
Speaker 1:She said it feels hotter than it does in Tonette Poms which I found it sane.
Speaker 3:I knew it was hot, I didn't know it was humid, but yeah.
Speaker 1:So the temperature is about the same. It's like mid 90s, but because it's like 80% humidity, she said it feels worse.
Speaker 1:That's true, yeah, but um, hey, it is what it is. So we are still going through the book of Galatians. If you've been tracking with us, then we are about five or six weeks in at this point. So we're about a month and a half through this series and, lo and behold, we may be on chapter five out of six chapters, but we still got a couple more episodes in the tank as we deep dive into this book here. So I'm don't don't, don't think we're almost done here with you, and for those that are just tuning in, I really recommend you go to the beginning of this series of Galatians and start with Decoding Galatians, the first episode in that series. If not, you can stay and hang out with us, but just understand that. Um, if you don't get what's going on, I warned you upfront. You know it's up to you. You do you boo boo. But uh, for Ryan, where are we going to start off? You want to start with the reading or some opening comments?
Speaker 3:I'll do some opening. Well, first I just have to say I've been meaning to tell you this for weeks. I love the way you say Galatians, Galatians. Yeah, I just love it, it's just like so proper, it's just proper, it's just. I have a little accent with it, but you're just very Galatian, okay.
Speaker 1:Um thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so uh, what we're going to be into tonight is um really guess what you would call the conclusion of the first set of Paul's guess, argument and purpose of the letter Um? If you remember, last week he went to kind of this whole theological treatise of um both the law, slavery and then ultimately using um, the story of um Hagar and Sarah um to lead the Galatian church into what he wants them to ultimately do, which is kick this teacher who's coming behind them, undermining his gospel and kick them out, right.
Speaker 1:Um, so tonight is actually very controversial. Um when, when you think, when you think about it, it's like that's not often where no, and especially within as Galatians has been all about unity right Unity with everything. And he says but you need to compromise right, but then at the point where you can't compromise, you must not compromise Right.
Speaker 3:And unity at what costs? And he said it's better to be divided in freedom than united in slavery, right? And so this is kind of the capstone to the first piece. So, if I could summarize it this way go, you know, galatians, chapter one, through five. Verse 12, which is what we're um, where we're going to end tonight is, um, that whole set.
Speaker 3:Is really Paul getting everybody? This is the proper way to think about the gospel, the proper way to think about the kingdom, the proper way to think about Abraham's family who receives the inheritance, right? So those first really five chapters are always through. Verse 12 of chapter five is Paul getting them the proper way to think right, everything after that kind of starts. This new set where he says okay, now that you're thinking properly, this is how you need to live, so you got to be able to. I would say the first piece of this is you need to know you need to be thinking properly before you can start living properly. Yeah, because if you're not thinking right it's going to manifest and not living right. And I think I would actually say there's a lot of people I love that.
Speaker 1:That's a great one liner. We'll get that on a t-shirt for you. There you go, yeah.
Speaker 3:Cause I would say in the West I mean, there's so many good people, you know, good believers, good, um, faithful people who you know love Jesus and want to serve him with all their heart, right, but then then you're kind of watching the way they behave or some of the things they do or the things that they're not doing right, and you're like like.
Speaker 3:I see the zeal in you, but then why is that zeal not translating over into you know things that you were reading, right? And on Sunday, Pastor David's been going through the book of James, right, and he's saying, hey, god wants you to be religious, he just wants you to be religious about the right thing.
Speaker 1:And be religious for the right thing. Yeah, his overall point was that, um, we're all religious about something. To be religious just means you're passionate about something.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And so to say that God doesn't want religion, god wants relationship, is not actually the point. God wants religion. He wants you to be religious and zealous and passionate about him.
Speaker 3:Right. And he says you know the quoting pastor, david, you know. He says you know, you've heard a lot of people say I don't you know, I'm not in a religion, I'm in a relationship. And he says you've heard your friends say that. You've seen that on bumper stickers and T shirts and on Facebook, right next to the Jesus fish. You would not read that from your Bible, right? Cause in the Bible it actually says no, he wants you to be religious with that passion said fastly proper religion right.
Speaker 3:And he says with that proper religion. This is in James, chapter one. Um the latter end of chapter one, I want to say it's like versus 17 through something. Just go read later into your Bible.
Speaker 3:But it. But essentially, what he says is good religion, one's religion that leads to righteousness, leads into helping the widows and the orphans in their time of need, um, living a life that is, um, not stained, right. It is a admirable moral life, right? So James is kind of hitting at the same thing, right? The idea being, though, is that why do so many people that you see, have that zeal and passion for Christ, the religion for for Jesus, but it doesn't manifest to these other elements?
Speaker 3:And I would say a lot of it has to do is probably because it's not that they're not trying to be faithful and doing the right thing, it's that they haven't been thinking right. They don't have proper thinking about the kingdom, the gospel and what this really means. So what Paul first does, it says let me first tell you the proper way to think, and because now you're thinking properly about this, now let's talk about the proper way to live, right? So, first thinking properly about the law, thinking about the proper way to think about circumcision and all those elements, right, yeah, but now really thinking about freedom, and how do I go properly live in that freedom, right?
Speaker 1:I do want to note that, like if what Ryan's going through right now seems like, oh my gosh, he's a lot of big points he's bringing up, it's like, well, we deep dived into it in the series.
Speaker 3:So right, there's another point Go back, go back.
Speaker 1:Make sure you listen up and read, you know, don't oversimplify. Get that good in depth knowledge.
Speaker 3:The next thing I would say before we read the passage. For tonight I wouldn't call this section a poem, but this is really a piece of the letter where you really see Paul's personality. He gets like very artistic and creative in his writing.
Speaker 2:It's really cool.
Speaker 3:So this whole, like these 12 verses, is like one massive pun. Well, there's multiple puns in it. It concludes with, like this triple pun, which is really interesting. But Paul's mind he is playing off of a lot of things that are very interesting. So it's not a poem but it's. But he took some very he took a very artistic approach to concluding this section of his letter um Engolations, and we'll dive into that and do time here. But, um, you know, you know how, like when you there's certain authors right, you read them, you're like, oh, I don't know who that is.
Speaker 1:You could just read any extra how the quotes are written out, right you just?
Speaker 3:certain personalities and styles come out. Paul has this personality of puns. The entire book of Philemon is one massive pun, um. When he talks about you know, uh, onissimus is um is my heart. And then he says you know, um, I send my heart to you. If um return my heart to me, right?
Speaker 3:So he's doing like these double meanings, where he's saying like he's making a theological point while also making a very practical, like hey, return onissimus to me. Yeah Right, Um he. So. He does that a lot in the book of Philemon. He does it here in this section too, which is going to be kind of cool.
Speaker 1:All right, I love it. So, if you're following along, uh, we are reading from chapter five versus one through 12, and I'm reading the NIV version for this. So it is for freedom that crisis set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be bear, be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words.
Speaker 1:I, paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, christ will be of no value to you at all. Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace. For, though the spirit we eagerly await by faith and righteousness, for which we hope for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Speaker 1:You are running a good race. Who cut you? Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from one who calls you A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. I'm confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves.
Speaker 3:That's a fun one. So again, proper way to think about the law, slavery, and that you are free in Christ right, we start talking about living in Christ right and again, we've talked about this throughout and we're not going to hit it. We're going to hit it next week, but the dangers of freedom right.
Speaker 3:And Paul was very well aware of. Well, if you're giving everybody this freedom, then are they just going to go lose their minds and just be lost into sin? And he provides a rebuttal and an answer to that right. But what he first wants to establish, when he's concluding here, is that all the things that used to tie you down, the things that you used to have to work for for that righteousness to be quote unquote saved you know, in a sense like to be considered righteous, being slave to the law being under the law all of those things.
Speaker 3:Being faithful. That's all gone away. It's been satisfied and fulfilled in Christ. So you no longer have to be faithful to 613 commands, you just have to be faithful to Christ right. So you are freed. You are freed from that, but it goes a little bit more than just that.
Speaker 1:You're not free to do whatever you want. You're free to pursue Right.
Speaker 3:And we'll talk about that next week. But my point is and I guess one way you could use in terms of like a synonym for this is what we would use as saved right, so to say you've been freed, as a way of saying you've been saved right, so to be saved. You know, that's not just a past tense thing. We weren't just saved from hell, right, we're saved. Currently, what Christ does is he comes in and he saves us from the idols, the power of the idols, the power of those powers that keep control over us, right, and then in the future, we also get saved from judgment day, right. So it's a past, present, future salvation. It's not just a previous thing, right.
Speaker 3:The same thing goes with freedom. It's not that he just freed us then. We are free today and we will be free tomorrow right. So, as he gets going on this right, so it was just, I guess, starting verse one. It says that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. In other words, christ has set us free and we get it five words, I know.
Speaker 1:Christ has set us free. I was like wait what you? Already I didn't even pick the Bible back up yet I'm putting it back down.
Speaker 3:All right, what Christ has set us free, right. But to what purpose? He says he has set you free for that freedom, right. So there's almost this sense of an argument that's being made against Him, that he has freed us from, essentially, consequence but not freed us from obligation.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 3:And he's like no, it is for freedom that he sets you free. You were freed to be free. You weren't freed to go into different chains right.
Speaker 2:He doesn't rescue from this prison, just for you to go into the other prison right.
Speaker 1:You were freed for freedom. You were freed from prison, being those idols and other lesser gods that we put over us, and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, there's many things right that those chains are and we're actually going to talk about it a little bit more here in a second Good to go, but I want you to notice it says it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Right, this isn't something that he's going to do. It's not that he will set you free, but he has already set you free. Yeah, right, this is a reality. Okay, it is up to us whether we choose to walk and be stand fast in that freedom or to have that freedom ahead of us, but continuing to live in the chains that we were freed from.
Speaker 1:I think that a worthwhile question and I think we're going to get to it is just what does it mean to be free? Because I think of freedom in the context of like America. Freedom first, so all those like big things we talk about with America. But it's like America is a nation of laws, under a constitution, with a representative democracy and all these things. It's very clearly has a structure and has rules, but you are free to act within the confines of the law in a way. But I know it's not like that with our faith, but it's like. But that means that the definition of freedom here must be slightly different.
Speaker 3:Well, let me ask you, let's just talk about it. So what would you? How would you define freedom?
Speaker 1:Freedom in general or freedom within the biblical context?
Speaker 3:Just, in general, like in terms of the meaning of the word and as it's applied here and how Paul is using it, like where does your mind go?
Speaker 1:I interpret I guess, fundamental interpret freedom as optional. It's the ability to choose in the first place, whether that so, it's like you're free in our society to pursue a certain job, you're free to pursue money, pursue your lusts, pursue for your faith, you can pursue. You can pursue being a criminal and do that as long as you want. You're free to pursue it, but you're not free of the consequences of those actions, whereas in some other society you may not even have the freedom to be able to choose to do so.
Speaker 3:So, would you say, freedom would also not, would include, then, being able to do make a choice, and whatever that choice is, to be also free of the consequence.
Speaker 1:Not free of the consequence. I always tell my students sorry, I've told people this actually for a long time. I was like you can do anything once, anybody. You can do anything once. You, you, you can. You can go to your boss, scream in their face directly and be like I hate you, I hate this place, all this stuff. I was like you can do that once, because then you're going to be fired, you know. So it's like you can, you can do anything once, but you have to deal with the consequence of that actions, whether good or bad.
Speaker 3:But? But wouldn't freedom, though, be that I can do what I want, but I don't have consequences to do what I want?
Speaker 1:I feel like that's what many people would people do think that, yeah, I do too. That's why I'm surprised that that there's consequences in right.
Speaker 3:Correct because I'm free to do this and I'm free of the consequence.
Speaker 1:And I've never me personally, I guess I've never considered freedom being free of consequence, because I understand that we live, we live interrelationally, we like ISO whatever you always gonna have an effect on the other people around me.
Speaker 3:You decide you wanna go buy a bazooka and you're like, okay, I am free to buy that bazooka, but as soon as I buy that bazooka, the FBI or ATF is raiding my home. Am I free to buy bazookas in this country? No Once.
Speaker 3:No what I would say is that freedom to me is that you know I can go in this particular absurd case. Right Is that if I had the freedom to own a bazooka, I have the freedom to go purchase it and I have the freedom to own it without consequence. No one's gonna be kicking in my door and sending me to prison. Right, that is freedom to me.
Speaker 3:Interesting Because if not, I mean I mean by that definition I mean Soviet Union's free, china's free. You know what I mean. To me, it is like I have the freedom in this country to say what I want politically and not be thrown in prison for it.
Speaker 1:Right freedom of speech and in some countries you just don't have the freedom to do it Right you could post on social media, but you're gonna get thrown in prison.
Speaker 3:You don't have freedom of speech, right? And I'm trying to frame that right Because I think one of the places-. And.
Speaker 1:I'm glad we brought this up because, like right here, my understanding, my definition of freedom is a little bit different from yours. But my ultimate question is what is Paul saying when he says free in Christ? Like? What is he saying?
Speaker 3:So I would say it's probably more aligned to the idea that you're not just free to do it, but you're free of consequence. Right Now it gets a little hairy, though, because does that mean then, if I want to, you know, go sleep around all I want, I'm free to do that because Christ died for me? Absolutely not, right? Paul says absolutely not. So what does that mean? That I'm free in Christ? If I'm free in Christ but I'm not free to sin, then what am I freed from, right? Yeah, and I think the freedom in this context is not doing whatever you want, right? You know we're trying to go satisfy every desire or inclination you ever have right.
Speaker 1:You're free from trying to satisfy your own desires, I guess, which is an unquenchable unending thing. If you haven't figured that out about yourself yet, your desires are forever and unending, I think there's two things with this.
Speaker 3:First, I think to Paul, paul's gonna build a point out here, and a little more particularly starting next week, when we start talking about walking with the spirit. But when you are pursuing God and you have a heart for God, when you have a heart for God, your heart also softens to the things that God's heart sought for right. So if God loves the poor and I'm loving, I'm pursuing God, I then start to love the poor. Right, it becomes an actual thing within me. If I am pursuing and loving God, I am hating sin and I don't have, in the sense, in inclination, a desire to be in sin. Not that you don't have inclinations of desires like, oh, I wanna go sin, but you don't-.
Speaker 1:You don't want to be in sin you don't have the desire to.
Speaker 3:You don't have the desire to have the desire to sin right Now, you still get the desire sometimes that you hate yourself for it. You're like man, why am I such a rotten person? I don't wanna be that person right when before? You're like oh, I was completely fine being that dude, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So to go to have your mind, and I'd honestly say, more your heart, veer towards oh, I'm free in Christ, so I get to go playing all this sin.
Speaker 1:Well then, you've completely missed you missed the point.
Speaker 3:The point your heart's not anchored on chasing after Christ wholeheartedly. Because freedom comes in multiple ways. One of the things is that sin does have a deep grasp on us. Right, you could see it as young as a toddler. A toddler, you see immediately the sin that they possess.
Speaker 3:Right, like, even in a toddler, like they carry these things and you know, like I was just saying, like there's times where I don't wanna be that kind of guy, but then I'm like man, I can't believe. I just thought that or I just said that or oh, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I just lost my temper.
Speaker 3:that way I don't wanna be that guy, but I lost my temper Like how am I in that sin right?
Speaker 1:So One of the things that and if you're in therapy, you may have had this type of conversation with your therapist. But I remember talking to my therapist about some of the inner thoughts and conversations that I have with myself, and the therapist brought all these statistics basically trying to make me feel like, hey, everything you're feeling is normal. And I told him I was like, okay, I understand that what I'm feeling may be normal, but that doesn't mean that it's right, like I don't want to think about women that way.
Speaker 3:I don't want to think about my wife that way I don't wanna Once something just because something's normal doesn't mean it's okay right, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying, that's scary.
Speaker 3:This is normal, You're right. This is normal for everybody being in sin. But that's abnormal, right?
Speaker 1:It is abnormal the fact that we're in this state and that we're considering this sheer volume of brokenness. Normal doesn't mean that it's good. So just and that's kind of the disagreement I have with the therapist is like just because it's normal, just because it's common, just because your friends, your family or whatever may also be suffering with the same thing, does not mean that it is good and that the fruits of that will be good. So you have to. That's why you have the spirit, that's why your heart, eyes, mind are open and in that pursuit you're gonna see. You're gonna see that it's not good.
Speaker 3:All right so let me finish this verse because it says it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery right. So here's a question for you, amran If you are unable to say no to yourself, are you free?
Speaker 1:I am unable to say no to myself, or at least I have to run for myself.
Speaker 3:No, no, no what I'm saying, though but you've been able to get into battles to where you have said no to yourself. You said the way I'm speaking to my wife or the way or I'm looking at porn or I'm cursing at work or all these things, that you're like man, I know, I'm saying it, I don't want to be saying it and you actively work and combat against it and you're able to push against your flesh right.
Speaker 1:You're able to be in combat against yourself you can change yourself right, so you can say no to yourself.
Speaker 3:If you're every inclination and desires for sin and you can't say no to yourself, are you free from anything?
Speaker 1:You're changing your-.
Speaker 1:I would say no, and I'll take that a step further. If you don't even know that there was another option, that's the worst thing. Well, that's the thing is that so I will tell you, like me personally, like I was so and I grew up in the church, but I was so blinded by lust and porn and stuff like that that I couldn't even comprehend it not being good, even though I was brought up being taught it wasn't good. There was some shift that happened at some point when I was a teenager that blinded me from the fact that it was even sin. I didn't even notice that it was bad in a way, and it's like now and then I had to, like, relearn my faith, I had to relearn my morals, all that later.
Speaker 3:I would say mine was in probably total rebellion, in the sense that the first time I saw and you just brought up porn right I knew I shouldn't have been watching it. And I knew the moment I started watching it why I shouldn't be watching it. Like I knew, like it wasn't just that I'm like, oh, I shouldn't be doing this, but when I saw it I was like I know why I'm not supposed to be watching this. I get it. I get why they say don't do this. And yet I was like but this is kind of awesome. Like I'm 14 years old, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like so and you don't think it's as big of a deal at the time and then, years later, you're like man.
Speaker 3:I'm enslaved to this.
Speaker 2:I can't break this right.
Speaker 3:And I think the point is that freedom in Christ does not mean doing whatever you want. It's actually giving you the freedom to say no to yourself. And it is breaking the chains that you bind to yourself that you're saying I'm putting myself to death. I'm free of myself, I'm able to tell myself no, because of not just who I am in Christ and what Christ has done for me, but my heart, my passion, has been redirected from me towards him, so I'm freed. To be free in Christ means to be freed from self.
Speaker 3:And if you can't say no to yourself, then you're not really free at all. Right, those are just different chains. What we mean by freedom. We're like other people enslaving me, right, Like I'm not gonna be a slave to Emran and I'm not gonna be a slave to this end of the political spectrum, with this political party telling me how I have to think and what to do and what pronouns to use and blah, blah, blah. You right, we go down those routes. Right To us, that slavery. But I think really the piece for us is the enslavement of ourselves, right? Is we can't tell ourselves no. Here's a good exercise, if you, because this was one of the things I actually. I remember when I taught this Bible study I encouraged people to do. I challenged them for a week to choose something and learn to tell yourself no. Just learn to tell yourself no on something little, oh my gosh. Remember.
Speaker 1:Something that doesn't matter. You remember, a few weeks ago, Selina's like?
Speaker 2:Oh, coffee.
Speaker 1:Selina's like, my psychologist told me that I probably have a lot of anxiety because I'm drinking a lot of coffee and if I stop drinking coffee that'll bring my blood pressure down and all this stuff and I'll be fine. And I love my wife, absolutely love her, but she has been drinking coffee since she was like 14. And she was like I'm gonna stop drinking coffee. And then the next day she drank coffee and then kept trying to start to stop drinking coffee.
Speaker 3:Today's the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah exactly. She's in Spain like drinking wonderful, wonderful good.
Speaker 2:So that's like yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was on the phone like aren't we supposed to stop drinking coffee? She's like I gave up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, we talked about, like we said, we can't even obey the laws we give ourselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, because we're so enslaved to ourselves and so enslaved to the flesh.
Speaker 1:So you can talk yourself out of anything.
Speaker 3:But that's the point. Right Like. So my challenge would be for anybody like and you'll notice how miserably you fail at this Right. So when I did this this week when I taught it, we'd go to I go to Starbucks like a lot during the work week.
Speaker 1:Nice Because you need motivation Like the on-base one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I just you know, you need motivation and I was there and I was looking at one of those cheese danishes.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 3:And I was like you know, I don't need it.
Speaker 1:I don't need it, I don't want it, I definitely don't need it.
Speaker 3:I remember what I taught at the Bible study. That's fun for those that are initiated. Choose something. Just learn to tell yourself no, right, I was like all right, ryan, you're gonna tell yourself, no, this is the same week you taught that. Yes, I do my own exercise that I challenge them with Right I'm like no. I'm gonna tell myself, no, I don't need the cheese. Danish Right Choose something that is inconsequential.
Speaker 2:Generally Right Like it wasn't a sin, like the double chocolate brownie If you got the cheese danish right, but just learn to tell yourself no.
Speaker 1:Learn how, and you'll learn how. Did you buy the cheese danish? I sure did.
Speaker 3:That's my point. You will learn how hard it is to tell yourself no. If you learn how enslaved you are to yourself. And my point was this is that if you learn to tell yourself no in the little things and the things that don't matter, you'll be much better prepared and equipped to tell yourself no on the big things that do.
Speaker 1:I wanna also throw that throughout there. That like, if you, when you become aware of how difficult it is for you to tell yourself no and how you can talk yourself out of almost anything, I would say two things become pretty apparent to you. One, the importance of relationships, because it's if you have someone helping to hold you accountable, that external validation that's there. Someone's gonna check up on you and check in with you. It helps a lot. And then also, when you become aware of how fruitless it is to try and, on your own, try and stop yourself from doing anything or start doing something, you really start realizing that you need to rely on the spirit. I physically sometimes get out of this house without my wife. Here I go to the church because it's like if I'm here by myself I'm gonna be a problem. You know, I physically just remove myself from being alone by myself.
Speaker 3:It is a curious thing when you take it serious, because I think a lot of people are in denial about how enslaved to themselves they are.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And we like to You're the number one priority in your life. Yeah, we like to puff ourselves up to thinking we're better than we are. It's like okay, you think you're in so much control? Go tell yourself no. Choose something little. Hey, why don't you just stay off Amazon for a week? Tell yourself no.
Speaker 1:I've tried to uninstall the YouTube app on my devices so many times over the last couple of years and it took years for me to get every other social media out. But YouTube is that. It's like man, but how am I gonna be entertained? And it only lasts a couple of days and it's like all right, and I install it without even realizing.
Speaker 3:But we are spoiled-.
Speaker 1:Stupid little things like that.
Speaker 3:We are spoiled children to ourselves, yeah, and so I challenge learn how to tell yourself no in the little things so you're better prepared to tell yourself no in the big things.
Speaker 2:That actually do matter, that are consequential, right?
Speaker 3:So let's keep going. Verse two, verse two Mark my words. I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, christ will be of no value to you at all, right? So this is when we start seeing the puns. Okay, so we obviously see the term circumcised there, right? We know what circumcision is I think generally most people but the Greek term here is per tee, oh gosh. Per re-teemo, which means generally circumcision, but it more precisely means to be cut off or cut around. So that's what that word actually means. It means to cut off or cut around. Okay, and the reason I'm bringing that up is because you're gonna see all the puns here in this text. Just notice how many times, as we go through this, how many times Paul refers to cutting off or cutting around things. Right? So he's starting to use this play of words of circumcision.
Speaker 1:So, after his opening premise being talking about circumcision and his fundamental point being about the fruitlessness of circumcision or of the law, at this point now he's actually using the argument as a joke to further his point. As a joke, exactly as a joke. What a genius.
Speaker 3:First used here right. What a genius. But the big piece out of this verse here, right. He says mark my words if you let yourselves be circumcised, now just substitute your thing here, right? We've talked about the non-essential things, right? Those non-essential hills we die on. Just place your thing there right and replace it. And notice what he says. If that is there and elevated there, christ will be of no value to you at all.
Speaker 1:And if you're elevating this non-essential thing above Christ.
Speaker 3:Right, and he's not saying if you are circumcised he's no value, right? And? He's saying that if circumcision is the entry point for you into God's family, then Jesus is of no use.
Speaker 1:It's like if you're adding some additional rule besides just the fact that Jesus saved you Whatever. If you're saying that there's any other condition and that relies on you doing something, then you're missing the point. You're missing the point.
Speaker 3:So in this context it's a course circumcision. But let's say, say it's Sabbath, right, if you come up under Sabbath like you have to do that and he's a no doubt what is yeah, in one sense. What, what does Christ freed us from? He's freed you from circumcision right in this context. He's also freed you from the Shabbat and the holidays and the food laws and you know, the freedom to like, enjoy food with people and not being so stressed and concerned. But, what's touched, what oh?
Speaker 2:why is there a guest? Why is there milk and?
Speaker 3:cheese here with meat I can't eat at this table. I'm sorry I can't have dinner with you guys. I would love to but I'm out the cut. Fellowship here because this is on kosher Right. He says no, you could go to the table now and enjoy people without that right. Like you're freed from that.
Speaker 2:Does that? Does that make sense he?
Speaker 3:says if you think that is still Essential, right then. Christ has profited you nothing. He's no value to you, gain nothing right. Yes, you missed the point, right, if you think all these things are essential. If I can maybe put it this way, what is what this functionally represents? Is anything, or you know something that represent, that is represented, that Removes your trust from Christ, and you put it into that thing, right? So so you're essentially putting your Faithfulness in yourself or in this thing outside of Christ right that then once you do that that's what he's talking about crisis of no use to you.
Speaker 3:Then, right, if you have to rely on this other thing and we do this with a lot of the crutches in our life right, if you look at bad, sinful habits or not, or not even necessarily the moral sins, but dependencies that shouldn't exist, right, like you brought up, you know coffee. Yeah, that's a big thing for a lot, that's a probably a big thing for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, is a huge thing for you talked about your you and your wife trying to give up coffee, for Was it 24?
Speaker 3:Yeah, one day, fast yeah and with pounding headaches right, I could just broke off Now. I don't think that you have to have coffee to enter the family of God, right? However, there are times where I'm like I need coffee to sustain me through this day, or God would say, no, I sustain you through the day.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know I'm saying so anything that you place.
Speaker 3:You know past habits, traumas, dependencies, crutches reframe that whole.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, I like that right, go back just rewind 30 seconds.
Speaker 3:You missed it.
Speaker 1:I guarantee you missed it. Just rewind 30 seconds and listen to it again.
Speaker 3:If you look at it this way, jesus died between two thieves right None of them. Neither of them could do anything. They couldn't get baptized, they couldn't take Open or close communion.
Speaker 1:They didn't have a chance to have an opinion and do a single good work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I already on the cross Is it okay to read from a the Greek Torah, or is it only Hebrew Torah Right? Like different translations of scripture, all they had Was the ability to publicly profess their faith in Christ and one of them, that is the only thing they could do.
Speaker 3:One of them did, the other one didn't right, two thieves Dying behind beside Jesus, right, both of them the same right, same situation, same circumstances, same opportunity. But one, it profited him paradise, the other one had profited him nothing. Yeah, right. So the little things that we like to place there, right, like if you're putting anything there, that's, that's stopping, then that's taking your trust outside of Christ. Well, let me give another example. Right, many people use alcohol as a coping mechanism for past trauma. So essentially, you're saying Jesus has saved me from hell, but he hasn't saved me from my trauma.
Speaker 3:Yeah so I still need this alcohol.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I still need these drugs or I still need, right, all these guys amount of people that medicate to Not think through and actually solve problems and they're just like, well, it hurts. So I'm just going to take this medication to Reprogram how my brain works.
Speaker 2:I don't feel it. This is what I need.
Speaker 1:I need it so that I can't, so I don't feel and it's like well, maybe you need to feel so you can actually grow and move forward right, and it's if you are so dependent on alcohol. Or any drugs or any substance, right if you're just using it as an example. Vice here right.
Speaker 3:Just use alcohol, for example. If you are dependent on alcohol to get you through the weekend and you're a professing Christian, christ has profited you nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 3:So let's keep reading, because he kind of I another?
Speaker 1:ah, I don't want to. I don't want to take up too much more. Okay, well, it's like to verse three.
Speaker 3:Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised, right to be cut off, yes, that he is obligated to obey the entire law. Right, we've, we've hit this, you know, over and over right. There's no such thing as obeying some of the law. You've already talked about this earlier in Galatians, I'm not gonna write it too much here. But if you think circumcision is required, then all six hundred thirteen commands are required.
Speaker 1:Right, the entire law is required.
Speaker 3:Could put it this way no amount of obedience can ever make up for one act of disobedience. Yeah, all sins are like 30 racks in the escort Right so, if I could give a an example, me and my wife were in Sedona last week for our 15 year anniversary.
Speaker 1:Drive back in California. That's Arizona, arizona, okay, that's why I don't know. Beautiful place.
Speaker 3:Okay, my wife's a little maniac, I mean she. I know we did a lot of hiking, quite Like I was the infantry Marine and she's like what's doing that? I'm like another seven miles, I go my gosh. I mean please, but they were good hikes.
Speaker 1:My knees, they can't take it.
Speaker 3:They were a disability will never cover. This had a great time, me mean. Her both did not want to come back, right, but so, anyways, we're driving back, yeah and you know there's like one road that you're on for about 200 miles right and you know, you know you kind of get like those little communities on the road, like you're the same cars Driving for the same two hours on the same stretch like the same similar destination. Yeah, so you're like a little community, right.
Speaker 1:And it's like I know it is night with a meteor shower. Yeah, I think out to not Joshua tree. I diverted from Joshua. I can say how you made that. I, we saw it.
Speaker 3:For everybody has context. We had this big meteor shower in the high desert here last night and I don't know where everybody came from, but it had to be and this isn't really it was probably about 50,000 people.
Speaker 3:Yeah all came up trying to get into the park, and it was chaos anyways. Yeah, my point, though, is that so we're in our little driving community, right? So I have this it's like this Kia behind me, so whenever I would like switch lanes to pass somebody, you know, in the fast lane, they would switch lanes with me. Oh right, you just kind of do this thing right.
Speaker 2:We were going practice.
Speaker 3:I mean generally the speed limit right, I within reason, to where you're not gonna get pulled over right, yeah. And I'm talking for hours. Right, we finally get on the 10, start going down the 10 and they finally go. I'm on the 10. I don't know where they were going, but they got motivation. They veer around me and boom, you know, they take off this Kia.
Speaker 3:Yeah this Kia All right you know, the 10s are kind of a fast highway too. Yeah, I was already going probably 75, so they're going probably 85, right, and then, like I'm not joking, within about five minutes Pew lights, they get pulled over. Oh no, right now. Did it matter now for the last two hours that they were riding, you know, with me on that road that we were doing the speed limit.
Speaker 2:Does it matter? Do you think when?
Speaker 3:they got pulled over. The driver of that car was like hey, officer, I know I broke the law here.
Speaker 2:I know I was disobedient here.
Speaker 3:Here's the thing I'm a really good dad. I'm a good husband. For the last three hours of this drive, I've been obeying the speed limit. I just disobeyed at this one time. Does that matter? I never hit my wife, not even once.
Speaker 1:Yeah does that matter?
Speaker 3:to the highway patrol officer. Not at all right Cuz not. No amount of obedience can to other laws remove one act of disobedience right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely great, that's so anyone.
Speaker 3:If you're gonna get circumcised, you could be obedient to that one command, but you got to be obedient to all other 612 commands.
Speaker 1:If not, it doesn't matter your anecdotes are like top tier today. Good, good job.
Speaker 3:It must be the coffee. All right, verse 4. So you who are, who are trying to be justified by the law, have been alienated. So term there for alienated is Katar Geho, which in the Greek word means to be severed or cut away from okay so here's another pun right. Essentially you are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from or cut away from Christ Right cut away from circumcised from Christ is a sense.
Speaker 3:You see the pun yeah, so you're trying to be justified by the law. Have been alienated, you know, cut away from Circumcised from Christ, you have fallen away from grace. Now here's a interesting thing when you use that, we hear this phrase a lot oh, that person fell from grace. You usually hear it in terms of like politicians or, you know, like celebrities right.
Speaker 1:Celebrities, more celebrities, yeah, but we assume politicians have Right. Yeah, yeah, we were a politician. Well, here's my point, though when we use that term.
Speaker 3:What does that usually in the context?
Speaker 1:mean implies that you were once within grace, I guess but, but.
Speaker 3:But. When we use that term, term like oh you know, britney Spears fell from grace, that assumes that she did something insane, right? Yeah over the top Control bonkers, right yeah. Oh, she fell from grace. That's the complete opposite and improper use of that term Interesting, especially as applied to Paul. To be in grace means it actually assumes sin to say to, to, to fall from grace. Let me just back up. To be in grace means that you at some point, generally, continuously, are in sin.
Speaker 3:You've sinned, but you fall into grace right, it assumes Mess ups. It assumes mistakes right, it assumes that and you fall into grace if you belong to Christ. To be falling from grace then, as Paul puts it here, actually means anytime that, anytime that you put your trust into something else, that's you falling from grace.
Speaker 1:Hmm, trusting anything or anyone other than Christ soon, as soon as you Essentially put your faith in something that's not Christ. Now You've fallen. You fall from grace, but at the same time, I thought it was not our responsibility to Maintain our I mean I guess it's not implying we're not this time saying we're not losing our, if we're saved or not.
Speaker 3:What's first taken in the sin context? If your trust just like we were just talking about if you were trusting money or alcohol or pornography or drugs or drugs, or your own intellect or your own power or your therapist or your therapist. Right If you're trusting Something to get you through a situation. Right If you, if you are relying on your own capacity, Any situation or get you through it not right to get you through a situation that is not.
Speaker 3:Christ, you have fallen from grace. Okay, a flip of that, though, and this is gonna shock some people. You may have some people who are, you know, boy Scouts. Right that they are.
Speaker 1:Seemingly seemingly morally perfect, right, these are people who, yeah, they've never seen me Boy Scout and like the military term when people say like you're being a boy scout, being a boy scout, you're being pure, you're being you know, You're a rule, fall.
Speaker 2:These are the people.
Speaker 3:I would say that these are the people like in church.
Speaker 1:I'm an Eagle Scout so I can. I can make. You can't say that I.
Speaker 3:Haven't earned those wings. But no, people like in church, who you're like man, never been divorced. They seem clean as a whistle, right that they're not cursing, they're not addicted to porn, they're not doing, they don't even take a sip of alcohol. Right, like all those people, right that you kind of, oh, those people. But if those people are Are relying on their habit or their system, right, like, yeah, what it would is keeping me going is the discipline I have with my family Because I don't drink alcohol. Right, I'm good You've also fallen from grace, because now you're thinking that is something you're doing that is keeping you going, not the grace of of Christ. Yeah, right, so it goes both ways.
Speaker 1:It's anything, it's as soon as that reliance on the spirit transitions to pride, then you're, you're done right there your trust your reliance on? Yeah, I must got this, and as soon as that gets in your head is exactly when you're about to trip, fall and flat in your face.
Speaker 3:I let me put it this way there are, on a given work day, probably about 80 different situations where I'm not in grace, mm-hmm, where I'm like ah, I don't need to pray about this, I can make this decision on my own. Hmm, I got this. I'm smart enough to handle this. I'm.
Speaker 1:I don't. That was my entire relationship with God, up until, like, we started this podcast like straight up until or really till till God crashed into my marriage and was like you don't know how to be married, son, I'm about to fix you and. But it was like I would only pray to thank God for things. I would never pray to ask God for things or give things to God. I would never rely on God for anything like straight up. If I felt like I could handle it, then I would default to that course. I was like well, I only need God for the things I can't handle.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm, you know, when there's been some like tough work conversations, right, that you have to have just with work related right, yeah, and I'm like I know this is gonna be a tough thing, right, and but I never go to God in prayer before that I got it. I mean it's gonna be tough, but I got it right. Okay, you're operating outside of grace in that exactly and interesting.
Speaker 1:That's such a interesting way to think about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then that's so. Falling from grace doesn't, isn't you sinning? It's actually sin that falls you, causes you to fall into grace. Right, sin causes you to fall into grace if you're relying on Christ. If you're relying on Christ, but if anything that begins to take that dependencies or those reliance is away from him, you fall in from grace. You've fallen outside of grace and that's what's happened.
Speaker 1:It's a fundamentally different way to think about your relationship with God. You know it's like you because you will sin in this broken reality. You will sin. But If you sin but you're completely relying on God, then you're in that grace and you also are in pursuit of trying to be Better, because you're pointed towards him and you're pursuing him. You have the forgiveness, you have the grace and all this stuff. But even if you're a good person and you're doing what most would consider all the right things, if you're doing that based off your own power or your own Believing in yourself and not relying on God, now you are out of grace.
Speaker 1:Yes you are out of grace. And now, if you're non reliance on him, would that be sin in a way as well?
Speaker 3:come yeah, I mean complete Submission, reliance, trust and faith and the sufficiency of Christ.
Speaker 1:And then there's things where we do Right, but this is me tying back to like because you talked about the definition of a definition of sin is just being Outside of what God's intent is, and God's intent is for us to be completely relying on him. So if we're relying on ourselves and we're outside of his intent, then we are in sin, right man?
Speaker 3:Right so mark so by putting your faith completely in Christ, even when you fail, and in your success right. Then you're in grace, right.
Speaker 1:There's so much peace.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there is right if you just let it go.
Speaker 1:Just so much.
Speaker 3:Let it go like that's that's the problem is that so many of us in our pride that's causing so much of the anxiety and stress in our life is really in the things that we're holding, trying to hold control over. Right, we have this white knuckle fist holding on to this thing like nope, this is mine. I can do this one alone, and that's where your stress is. Yeah, because that hasn't been handed over to him. Right, and just hand it over to him. You're in grace there. He's got it right and he has all the capacity to handle the situation far better than you can. Even if it's within your capacity, he still has far better wisdom on how to do it better.
Speaker 3:Right, just hand it over, let it go. Rest in the grace of Christ. Right, and we talked this in terms of sin. Right, there's also the theological sense, right? You know anything that, like we talk Sabbath or hey, you church attendance or Bible version or translation version that you use, right, all those things right. Let's keep reading here, because verse 5 for through the spirit we eagerly await by faith, the righteousness for which we hope for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, right, neither being cut off or Essentially remaining on there has any value. It doesn't matter, right, there's no value to this. Well, let me ask you, when you see some of the people bicker about things Particularly theologically right, not on the big things, but like little things, like it's just stuck in my brain right now, but because we've had people leave our church, because we don't preach and teach from a King James Version Bible right, yeah so just that, that's one of the things that's always just made a imprint on me, like, okay, let's argue that.
Speaker 3:Does that have any value at all to anybody? Right, so somebody who do you mean by, doesn't have any value somebody who loves King James Version me coming in and telling them what is it? Historically the most inaccurate version of us, but but this doesn't help them either.
Speaker 1:Does that help them? Does it help?
Speaker 3:me and then by them saying, well, you're wrong, cuz it should only be this. Does that help me? Does that help you right? It has no value for the kingdom and loving people right has absolutely zero value at all.
Speaker 1:So they want you to start with love and then work up from there right. You know it's starting with a being antagonistic. I guess?
Speaker 3:well, that's what he says, right? So for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision has any value. Notice this the only thing that counts, the only thing that matters, this is verse what? Verse 5 the only thing that counts, the right, the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through Love. Okay, now notice what he said faith Expressing itself through love and so I mean not just faith expressing itself through words, not just faith expressing itself in social media posts?
Speaker 3:yeah, not just faith expressing itself, and you know, your, your personal Journal, right, but it expressing itself in love. Yeah, right, and you, those have to be together Proper faith and love, not love by itself, because there's a lot of people in the world like, hey, do I really need God to love people? I mean, you know, I know these atheists who love people very well, right, you know what? Like, I don't need Jesus for me to go love people. Right, it's like, well, you can love people, but it's gonna be improper love because it's coming probably from an improper version of faith. Yeah, because you have faith in something. Right, but what is your faith in?
Speaker 3:so he says also very good price that expresses itself in love, so through a Christ-like perspective, with a Christ-like love right.
Speaker 1:I'll say two quick things. One is that a Love without faith, to rely on kind of the conditions of what defines that love, can end up being a kind of selfish love, because there's a lot of people that give generously, very generously, but they're doing it out of Advancing their own self image and their own self, righteousness and all these things which so make sure that what you're calling Love, or or that that loving acts coming from the proper perspective, or some misguided love, right, it's a, or maybe maybe better, we're.
Speaker 3:It's a ill-defined love, yeah cuz out.
Speaker 1:My second point was gonna be like making sure that you are they. You also are Operating under that expression of love that's defined in the Bible, because love is fundamentally an act and the Bible, defined by the fine right.
Speaker 3:So I love faith defines the love right and Because it defines love, it also is expressed through that. Faith is expressed through love right.
Speaker 1:It's a it kind of the saying that that your faith is expressed through your action, because love is, it is Action.
Speaker 3:So, and you see this, kind of a modern culture, right that there seems to be this thing now where, if I disagree with you, if I disagree with your lifestyle, your position, on something that I don't love, you, yeah, so disagreeing with your identity, disagreeing with your position.
Speaker 1:Which is very a teenager of us for some reason, like that's why we're so immature as a country. Yeah, we've gotten very immature as a very that's very 14 right and the idea is like look why I don't understand.
Speaker 3:Why is it? I'm loving to disagree with somebody, right, and and it's what defines that, and that's because their definition of love is ill-defined, because right of what is so. But I just want to kind of Make this point though you could be right in faith but wrong in love. Right, you can have the right faith and the right person or the right things, but you're completely wrong in your love if it's not being expressed in love Right or improperly expressed in love.
Speaker 1:So you can be right in faith. I'm not understanding what love is, not understanding what your faith is. It can come from misalignment of the two and you're kind of Superceding something personally over the, that faith or that definition of love. So there's a lot of complexity there and then ultimately, I guess in like three weeks, we're gonna finally start talking about frees to the spirit and then we can start defining these things. We can, but I've been waiting.
Speaker 3:I think a big point here, though, if what I think people need to hear though. Yeah believers right, yeah, disciples of Christ need to hear is that faith alone is not enough. Mm-hmm, and love alone is not enough. What he says is faith, working through love, is what matters. Right, because you could be right in faith, wrong in love, and you could be right in love but wrong in your faith and can you have the appropriate aligned faith and not be showing love?
Speaker 3:I think you see it all the time in the church. I think you have plenty of people who have properly put their faith in Christ, but what they haven't done is translated that into work.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, into action. Yeah, they're bench warmers, they're. I say that love us. I said that they're.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there is a Notice. It kind of be a couple million dollar term words here, but there's what you call orthopraxis. Oh no, what orthodoxy? Okay, orthodoxy is proper thinking. Again, what you would say is chapters one through four of Galatians is Paul's orthodoxy proper way to think? Then orthopraxis, practical Destation of that orthodoxy right.
Speaker 3:You got to have a proper ortho orthopraxis to have, or a proper orthodoxy To have a proper orthopraxis right. You can't have one without the other right. And that's essentially saying faith working through love. You know, there's this story of the Apostle John and he's old man, old age, he's in Ephesus and he, the story goes, that he had to be carried by his disciples to Worship On a Lord's Day right, which is Sunday right. So he's being carried by, you know, john's disciples. You know this is the Apostle John, writer of the gospel, the writer, you know, revelation. So he's being carried by his disciples to worship and what he was reportedly always told was that, if you do nothing else, trust in Jesus and love, because that is enough. Trust in Jesus, love people, that is enough. I absolutely love that.
Speaker 3:If you do that, if you do those two things, trust in Jesus and all you do and love people that is enough right, and that was, that was like his motto at the end of the day. Right, and what is it?
Speaker 1:Do you remember where? What verse it is where like love is defined, of like what love is, because I would argue that people listening don't have a Consistent definition of love. But what's? I don't remember the exact verse of where love is biblically defined.
Speaker 3:It's like love is patient. That was fine. Yeah, first Corinthians 16. Wait, it's first Corinthians 16. It's like verses, is it 16? Gosh, you're calling me out, sorry.
Speaker 1:What first? Corinthians 13?, 13 or 16.
Speaker 3:Oh, it might be. Oh yeah, here here yeah 16 this one goes 16 9 through 13. Is that right?
Speaker 1:Let me check.
Speaker 3:He's checking.
Speaker 1:I'm checking 16, 9 through 13. Yep I.
Speaker 3:May have completely missed the mark on that one. Well, well, kind of say this, though about that there are many, it is not that I think it's first Corinthians 13.
Speaker 1:Maybe my point is the excellence of love. First Corinthians 13. For reading that 13.
Speaker 3:Okay, read that but Love is expressed through the character of who God is Love. God does not love perfectly in the sense that love is something that's outside of God, and he just Loves perfectly. The Bible says that God is love, right. So what is love? By definition, it's God, right. So the more you learn about the character of who God is now he's expressed himself and his character that's where you manifest your understanding and definition of what love is right and.
Speaker 3:Which is ultimately fulfilled and complete faithfulness with Christ. Right, so verse 7 you were running a good race, right, he, paul, was with the, this church, in the very beginning when they was founded. Right, he brought the gospel to him, so he was with them in the beginning. He says you guys started off great. You started off phenomenal. You were running a good race. You guys were in grace that whole time. You were running a good race. Who cut in on you? Notice the other pun?
Speaker 3:Oh no, cut in on you, circumcised you who circumcised you to keep you from obeying the truth.
Speaker 1:Imagine telling that to somebody who, who circumcised you to keep you from telling the truth, like I just imagine like actually telling that to somebody in real life. It's like like what, but you?
Speaker 3:know what, though I think this is a. I think there are many Christians who could relate to this, though is that when you first started off, when you were First brought into the faith, when you were, you were saved. Right like man. You were on fire. So it's for the right. This. This was before you knew anything about Christian quote-unquote culture. This is before you knew and cared about the fact that Chick-fil-A is Christian owned. This is before that you knew a whole lot of Bible and had doctrine and had Biblical literacy built up and had opinions on things.
Speaker 3:Right, this was only when you came in and you're like I Know nothing else except that God is good, that Christ died for me. That's where I put my name on your savior.
Speaker 3:God saved right there and you were so close to grace, you were so close to Jesus, you were on fire, right, and then that fire started to dwindle a bit. Right, what happened? Earlier on in Galatians? Paul actually asked the question who has bewitched you? Right, who bewitched you? What happened? Right, like, who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth here? You know, like, in that time, like, and I think, and I've gone in cycles right, there's been times when you know, I don't say faith gotten dry, but there's certainly times, right, man, I remember when I was really close to Jesus, like every day waking up with that joy, that peace. Right, there's been times of, like, I'm not at as much peace.
Speaker 1:You know, you know something that I've realized, at least with myself. I'm sure some of you got the when everything's okay, it's the zeal starts to Dwindle a little bit. It's kind of harder to maintain and when I feel most on fire for Christ is like right when he brings me out of some insane situation which which, because I'm like man, that's when you're in grace.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm in grace, that's when I'm completely relying on him. But, man, that means I have to go through more awful stuff. We don't have to. That's the only time it's effective, right.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, it's when you're closest to grace, is when you feel closest to Christ. Or, if I could reverse it, when you're closest to Christ, you're, you are closest to great, closest to grace, right, and. But you know, something happens to us when we start thinking different and we start walking different and we start trusting in ourselves For some reason, because we think, oh, I'm a mature believer, now I don't need to go to God and prayer for that. That was something I used to do when I was an immature Christian. Now I got it right. Yeah, oh, so you're more relying on yourself, you're? So you're falling from grace, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, first, eight, though I felt like I did something wrong when I ate that slice of pizza without praying first.
Speaker 3:I did do a quick prayer like oh, well, you should ask for forgiveness because that was Hawaiian pizza, verse 8. That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. He's talking to Paul himself. Paul's the one who called them right easy, one who brought the gospel to them. That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. I eat me, but a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough, right, so why is he so passionate about removing this person? Why did he tell them you need to kick this person out of your church?
Speaker 3:because Little bit of yeast works through the entire batch of dough and you see that right you see that in churches.
Speaker 3:So if you remember, if you go back to you know the first three chapters, right, some of the emphasis is that the Paul's frustration. The church was united in our message of the gospel. We were united in our mission, right, we were united in our love for people and love for the poor and we were united in our freedom, even to the Gentiles I you know he talks about. I went to Jerusalem. I made sure that I wasn't running my race in vain. They affirmed my message, my mission to the Gentiles, just as Peter was on mess mission to the Jews, as I was to the Gentiles. We were united in all those things.
Speaker 3:But then, all the sun, something changed, right. And this one little thing, right. And you know we talk about the non-essential things all the time, but this is a good time to pause and say Non-essentials just because they're not essential doesn't mean they're not important, because where you hold to Non-essentials but they are important enough to where, if they start to work their way through things, it is enough to throw the church off its unity in its message. Notice this one thing of circumcision. This one thing Right, this one little thing not the destabilized entire completely change the gospel nations church Right.
Speaker 3:It changed the message of the gospel because if well, if I had to get circumcised then.
Speaker 2:Now I have to rely on then. So what does that mean?
Speaker 3:Christ hasn't fulfilled Torah then, that means I need to be completely under Torah. So now, this is a.
Speaker 1:Then things like well, if it's circumcision wise and it also the high-high. All right if it's not the high holidays wise and it not also bubble one, it's exactly slope.
Speaker 3:So now that there's disunity in the gospel message, there's disunity in the mission now of who you go to, when you go and how you go to them. There's disunity now in love, because now we're asking people like this is out of Obligation, this is out of a compromise to be people pleasing to Rome and the Jewish Authority. This is in out of love for the Gentiles or the church there, and it's certainly not united in freedom anymore, because now you're trying to chain them back to those things, right? So, while it may be a non-essential, it's very important because it's enough to throw them off their unity, right? This one person is enough. So to Paul he says you may think like, well, hey, it's just one person, but he said that one person is enough to throw you all of you, into total confusion.
Speaker 1:So are we saying? Are you saying now that people are justified in their anger and their frustration over all the little things that they Want to excommunicate people from their church for?
Speaker 3:No, but a motion is just a motion. A motion is just a motion. A motion derives from passion. Passion derives from mission and Jesus was angry you know when Jesus flips tables and starts whipping people in the temple? Yeah right, that the last week of his life. You realize how many people were probably in the temple.
Speaker 1:At that time, I mean, it was hundreds of thousands.
Speaker 3:We're not talking onesies and twosies that he's thrown, flipping a couple tables over and whipping like a person or two. We're talking about causing such a chaotic scene in the temple that hundreds of thousand people were drawn out Like he was going ballistic in there. Right, yeah, he was angry, and he was righteously angry, like anger in itself is just an emotion. There's good anger and there's bad anger. Yeah, right, because emotion comes from passion. What matters is well, what's the passion from misplaced anger? Right, so bad anger is being derived from a passion that isn't off mission.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm right.
Speaker 3:So, generally, if it's like my mission is for myself today and you made me angry because you offended me in my image, you offended me or you are hindering me from accomplishing my daily goal for me, yeah, right, that's my mission for this day and I'm now angry with you. Right, that's misplaced anger and that's not justified. Yeah, right, it's also not justified to Because because even to say well, that Bible translation I'm, I'm justified in my anger because it's right, blah, blah, blah. Well, that show that your mission is more now for proving yourself right and something that's not essential, than it is for peace.
Speaker 2:And unity in the love, in the church.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, so no, I would not say you are justified. I'm saying that there are certain situations where anger is justified, but that is not one of them. Um, nice, so One person right can disrupt the entire unity and of the church message and mission of love and freedom. So, verse 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. He's essentially saying that, that one day that they will have to stand in judgment. Okay, so one just quick reminder with this, because he's trying to get them to kick this person out right Again. This book is not about salvation. This book is about what is the church? This book, this whole letter, it's about what does it mean to be part of Abraham's family?
Speaker 3:Yeah so when he says cut them out, kick them out, right, he's not making it casting a judgment on their salvation. He's making a judgment on the proper way to disciple and shepherd a young church into good health, right, yeah, and he's saying, in order to do that, that person needs to leave you because they are not good for you. And what he's saying?
Speaker 2:is not. They stand in judgment.
Speaker 3:Now he says that one day they will stand in judgment. So judgment hasn't happened yet. So Paul's not making a judgment on this person's salvation. He is making a judgment, though, on the proper Way to shepherd a young church, and in that judgment he's saying you need to, you need to kick them out, the they are not good for your health, so Whoever that may be will have to pay the penalty.
Speaker 3:Verse 11 brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching a circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been completely abolished, right? So put your thing there. If circumcision or Sabbath, or your theological camp or your thing is so necessary and important, then why is the cross still so offensive when other people preach it? Why does God still use the believers of an alternative view, right? Why do believers who hold to different views? Why are they still then suffering for Christ? The point is this is that okay?
Speaker 3:If King James version Bible is so important to you and I'm preaching from an NIV Right or reading from an NIV for a podcast If that is so important to the point that you think that we are Delegitimatized as disciples and true followers and believers of Christ, then why is it we still suffer for him? Why is it that we still are being successful in reaching souls and changing lives? Yeah, for the gospel, right, if, if and I'm sure there's many things that we've said on this podcast that other people, like you know, I don't necessarily disagree or agree with that, which is okay. We've always said that right.
Speaker 3:Yeah this has. There's things that they would say that probably got it. I disagree with that view. That's okay, right, but if you're thinking it's so important to where you'd be, like, no, they're wrong on that.
Speaker 3:So I'm not gonna write off the podcast writing it off completely or I'm cutting fellowship with this person because they believe that. Why I could just tell you this is that I know just from getting feedback this podcast has helped a lot of people. So if it is so true and it's so important, right, of course you could look well, god uses, you know, bad things for good. He sure does right. But what Paul's more talking about?
Speaker 3:sure is the fact is that they're saying you have to get circumcised and do this thing To be brought into the family. I'm saying you don't. And if I am so wrong and I'm no threat to Satan, then why am I still being persecuted? Yeah, why is Satan coming after me? Because Satan doesn't want me and what I'm saying to be effective. Mm-hmm right, like that's kind of his point and that's the question we. It's kind of like that question of Did did you receive the spirit before or after you start out holding these views?
Speaker 1:Right, yeah it's the same thing in the book if you're believing this.
Speaker 3:Were you suffering before or after? Yeah, are you still suffering? Once? You, right, because, remember, if they get circumcised and almost alleviate some of the pressure and some of the potential suffering in the future, yeah, right. And he's saying why is that? If that is so right and so on, online you know, with with what the spirit wants, then why am I suffering for the gospel, for something that is supposed to be Essentially a people pleaser and you're really the one being the people please are? By going to get circumcised, we're just gonna create less suffering, right? So if it's so wrong, the, why am I suffering so much? Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:I will say that this particular line that that Ryan's going down, you have to actually go back like episode one and two of this series to fully understand his argument, like Paul's argument, and why the circumstances is a big piece here, right?
Speaker 3:All right, verse 12. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves. So this is a very interesting you know, here's that pun again right to emasculate, to cut off right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And he kind of saves. It's like a triple pun here at the end. So let me just kind of explain this. So In earlier weeks we had to explain that the term gal right and this is the region of Galatia right that the term gal itself was kind of a euphemism for.
Speaker 2:For a male appendage. It's a euphemism for a male appendage.
Speaker 1:Because you had to make that full line there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so there's a. It's literally the land of roosters as a euphemism, right so? And this is in your Bible, right? The book of Galatians is the book of roosters, right so? The book of male humor of the Holy Spirit, but he kind of saves that last pun here for the end, because in that region, I mean you said it was like a triple pun there.
Speaker 1:Well, there is so.
Speaker 3:So the reason though it was called the, the land of Galatia, the land of roosters or a male appendage right, which, ironically, is all surrounding circumcision. The reason why it was because in that region you had a cult that worshiped the goddess Cybele, and this they're. This cult, essentially, was kind of about 150 miles north. Of the region of where this church is Was like their center of worship. They're like primary temple, which was like a meteorite.
Speaker 3:It was like this black meteorite rock that they would they would worship, build the temple like around it there, just yeah and it was like right by the river there and that's why I love how people are like that. But the priests that were a part of this cult, um, they were essentially E feminine men who would cross dress where, like women's jewelry and clothing, would grow their hair very long. They would and ultimately would castrate themselves like self castration. The self castrate themselves, and that was this cult right.
Speaker 3:So In that region there, right, you got this, this cult that that was very prominent, where the priests were known for castrating themselves. So in one sense, paul is essentially saying that, where we are now right if for them to Ask you to get circumcised, which was a sign of the covenant God made with Abraham, to the promise that he would deliver him a seed that would Bless all the nations. Right, who was fulfilled in Christ. Right, so you don't need to get circumcised anymore Because what it was assigned for has been fulfilled. So for people to come in now and say you still need to get circumcised, Right it's just weird, right?
Speaker 2:It's super unusual.
Speaker 1:That's that's like. Is this such a strange, strange thing?
Speaker 1:so and and, like you fast forward to today. And it's like, um you, could they still offer circumcision? You know, right, when you're born in the hospital today, like the doctor will ask you know, and and and you can make that decision at that time. And if you're and it's just, I guess, like an objectively true statement if you're circumcising your kid Now and you're doing it as like a condition of your faith as a Protestant Christian or as a as a modern-day Christian, it's like well, why, why are you doing that? Do you really understand what you're doing? And if it's like you're not under the law anymore, you didn't. You don't have to have your kid to be fair.
Speaker 3:I had my boys circumcised. I was in the room for one of them and it was one of the worst things I think I ever experienced right, do this to him.
Speaker 1:And what have I done to my?
Speaker 3:son. It's coming from a heart of faith, but I wish I really would have understood Galatians more before we did that you know, but the the first pun though.
Speaker 1:I love that your son's gonna eventually hear this and they're gonna like thanks that.
Speaker 3:But the first one here is essentially he's saying is that for them to now ask you to go cut yourself Right as to to be faithful to something that's already been fulfilled is just weird and Essentially those teachers to do that
Speaker 3:are as misguided as these galley priests who are in the region that are castrating themselves in the temple for their cult had a devotion to this meteorite of their and their vice, right, right so he's essentially saying that, um, they're just as lost as these pagan priests, that they might as well just go All the way and emasculate themselves like the, the galley priests, because that's essentially what they're asking you to do right the second pun is very that's kind of in this is that the um.
Speaker 3:He's pretty much saying you know, I wish they would just cut themselves off completely from you, go all the way just to masculate themselves all the way, cut all of themselves all the way off. He's essentially saying I wish cut themselves away from the church right.
Speaker 1:I wish, do it to themselves.
Speaker 3:Right. I just wish that they would remove themselves from you all, but the reality is is that they're not. They're staying there. So you guys need to have this confrontation to say we're going to choose to live free, not in the slavery or circumcision right, cast them out right and just just let them go right.
Speaker 3:So the third pun with this is, um, there was already a standing kind of pun with the galley in Rome at that time. So the romans, you know, they were very, I guess, open-minded to a lot of things, um, in the sense that you know, unlike, so like, unlike today, where we have, you know, political organizations, or you know, um cultural organizations, right, like, or movements right when you think like you know, you got planned parenthood or you got black lives matter, or you have um, you know lgbtq and you got all those Right.
Speaker 3:When we look at them as like there are these like cultural movements that are happening, the same things kind of existed then. It was just that there was a god or a goddess kind of over the top of it, right where we we just replaced god or goddess with the organization, yeah, the organization itself, exactly so um, so Rome, you know, they looked at the galley priests and thought that they were weird and that they they weren't really.
Speaker 3:I guess what you would call the Standard or metric of manhood, right, men who self castrate, who dress up kind of, you know, cross dress and, um, you know, that's not really what a roman soldier would look at and say the typical traditional definition of being a masculine person.
Speaker 3:So already at that time it was the to be called a galley was kind of like a slur. Um, two other people like that's what they would call their enemies and, um, when they were At war with the Gauls, they would call them galley, right, you know, we're just fighting galley, right? So there's already a standing pun among Rome, right? Yeah, rome looked at them like hey, they're weird, but they're.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're weird, but they're serving you know, their goddess right so they were accepted, um so, because that they were already kind of a pun within Rome. Paul is also kind of using this reference to really as like an like a insulting slur to these other teachers who are coming in behind them and saying that you know, you, you guys got to get circumcised, just like the galley. You're saying, right, you like yeah. I, they're galley. Just let them go, be galley. I wish they would just go all the way, just and just go people on galley, go and cut yourself off completely from us.
Speaker 3:What us um with freeing christ, right? So all that to say um, because that kind of wraps that up right Um, all that is to say, if there is one thing to take away from the teaching tonight, is that um One, how close are you falling away or into grace? Yeah, as Paul's definition right. Are you letting these certain circumstances or situations Um? Are you relying on your own capacities and then you're falling from grace in that? Or are you completely handing over that trust, um and faith and being fully relying on the sufficiency of christ and those right? And you know we talk about like you know, christ didn't just save us from hell. He's there to say save us from our situations today. He saves us then. He's saving us now and he's gonna save us tomorrow.
Speaker 1:So when we start talking about christ as our living savior, he's not just saving us from past things, but two things of today.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, um you, you're in his grace right, just hand it over. And we hold such tight control over certain things because we think that we can maintain control and and and we try to um I don't know Um.
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 3:We have a hard time handing things over to. We do those normal people, but particularly god, who is far more, I would say, handling that for us.
Speaker 1:I would say it's a trust thing or a maybe an over reliance for me personally, I guess I I think I over Estimated my own abilities and I misunderstood my place. Um, and that's why I would hold on to things. I was like I I've god's given me a certain amount of talent and capability so that I can handle a certain amount of things myself. That's, that's obviously why I have the talent and capability that I have. When that's misplaced, the talent capability was given to me to be used for christ and me trying to do things myself.
Speaker 1:I'm actually using it for me.
Speaker 3:It's. What's funny is that even sometimes in ministry, some of the pride that can build up right among ministry leaders and um people serving, it's like you are using a gift god gave you To do ministry to a gospel. That's not yours, right? I didn't. And diane's save anybody, right? This isn't my gospel, I didn't do that. So I'm using my talent To spread the gospel of jesus. That's not my gospel, I mean I. It's my gospel in the sense that I belong to it. Right, I've been rescued by it.
Speaker 3:But that's that. That gospel belongs to christ and for some reason we like to get very Priteful sometimes of like oh man, look how good and how smart and how effective I am in my talent. That. God gave me to go for his gospel. Not even mine, it's like. Why am I even?
Speaker 1:at all and there's so much danger there like it was. It was in the church that I fell into some of the greatest sin, and it was because I was. I was so proud of myself that I couldn't see my own broken and that, and ministry is also falling from grace, right.
Speaker 3:So the question is when you are now? And I think we kind of segmented, segmented out within our lives, right. So it's not just like there's certain things that we have surrendered over, we're in grace, right, but there's these other things that we're holding control, and he's like well, you're out of grace in that situation because you're relying on your own capacity and christ is absolutely of no value to you In that situation, because you're holding and trying to maintain control of it.
Speaker 2:I think?
Speaker 3:I think that's like one of the big points, right? Is that? Why is it that God came through and it seems so evident and so powerful back here, in this situation or this time of my life, but not now?
Speaker 1:well, not because you're holding on to something, because you're, you're, you're not even in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're doing grace, then you're not in grace now. So if you're not in grace in your situation, meaning you're trying to maintain control and dependency on your own capacity and you're not handing that over, then Christ crisis of no value to you. I think you at all in that situation.
Speaker 1:I think you said in one of the earlier episodes as well, it's like, of course you have anxiety, of course, right, you have fear and you should it's like, and you should, because you are, you know Yourself and you know that you can't rely on you.
Speaker 3:Situation is bigger than me. I'd be stressed if it is up to my capacity. Like life is too much for me, I'm gonna.
Speaker 1:I will be stressed every day of my life, yeah, so I guess ultimately, um, like Ryan said before, is is you get back under grace. Give it to God. Whatever is that trauma you're holding on to, whatever is that, uh, anxiety, fear, money, um, stress, whatever that vices that just seems like it has got a grip on you. Give it, give it to God, because then, even if you're Um, even if you sin, you're under grace and you know you're under grace and you know you're pursuing Christ and you know that he loves you, even as you're struggling through and you're working your way towards being a better version of yourself. Um, and you're not gonna be perfect, not on this side of eternity, and that's okay, um, and then when, when Christ comes back, he comes, he comes back before you're on the other side of eternity. Then, boom, there you go, judgment day and um, and it's a good day for you as well, it's a good day for all those that are members of the kingdom. But, um, I did, I did find that verse that, uh, we were talking about earlier. So if you go back to verse 10, um, or, sorry, verse 6, where at the second half it says the only thing that counts is Faith expressing itself through love, and I highlighted that like well, people have different kind of definitions of love.
Speaker 1:What does the bible say about love? Well, paul wrote what love is in first Corinthians 13?. So I'm gonna leave you with this as you go into this week. Think about if your faith is manifesting itself in love in this way, starting with verse 4 of chapter 13 of first Corinthians. Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude, it is not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away, for we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. So think about that definition of love as you're going into and evaluating If your faith is manifesting itself appropriately.
Speaker 1:And so, with that, I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of real bible stories. We look forward to engaging with you in the comments and and on facebook, and if you haven't already liked our facebook page, please go ahead and do that. Share this podcast with a friend, share with your family. I don't know, can I call this a revival? Because I love. I love everything about this, because the amount of it's awesome hearing your feedback and knowing that this, this podcast, is touching lives out there all over the world. We really, really appreciate the feedback we've gotten and we want to answer your questions. We want to engage with you. Just reach on out and with that, we love you and we'll see you next week. Go love somebody, amen.
Speaker 2:Thank you for tuning in to real bible stories. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to leave a review, share and subscribe to be notified each week when we upload new episodes. Real bible stories is produced in partnership with palm church in 29 palms, california. If you would like more information or want to check out archive sermons and bible studies, please check out the church website at palmsbaptistchurchcom, or check them out on facebook, instagram or youtube. Real bible stories can be found wherever podcasts are found. Thank you again and we will see you next week.