Chapter 6 beginning in verse number 1 the verse reads "if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are Spirit ual, restore such an one in the Spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." The bible here is talking about how to react when our fellow brother in Christ is overtaken in a fault, meaning they fall into sin. They become backslidden and they commit some kind of a sin or starts to do something that's wrong in their life, God's saying we that we should try to restore that person in the Spirit of meekness. Our goal should be to get that person back on track, get them right with God, get them back in church, and get them restored to the position that they were once in. The bible says here to do so in the Spirit of meekness. Meekness has to do with humility, being humble not being prideful or arrogant.
What the bible's saying here is that if we someone that's overtaken in a fault we should not have this prideful attitude of "what a wicked person, what a horrible person, I would never do something like that". We're supposed to have a meek, humble attitude not to lift ourselves up at that persons expense and act like they're a horrible person and we'd never do anything like that. We're supposed to restore that person in the Spirit of meekness, meaning that we have genuine concern for that person's well being and we're not just approaching ti from a vantage point of how much better we are. For example, "pray for so and so because they're into this terrible thing" and really we just want to talk about it and gloat about that. Take them down a notch to lift ourselves up.
The bible says that we should "restore such and one in the Spirit of meekness", then he says this "considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." When the bible says "lest thou also be tempted" it's saying lest you be tempted to go down the same path they're going down. What the bible's saying here is that when we have a fellow Christian who falls into sin and we want to reach out to that person and try to restore them, humbly, meekly. Not acting like they're a complete idiot but actually trying to reach out to them and say "hey look, I understand. Let's get you back in church, let's get you back reading your bible." He says "we need to consider ourselves lest we also be tempted" meaning that we don't go after that person to the point where they become a bad influence around us.
We're not going to go into the bar and sit down and have a drink with them to explain to them why they shouldn't be back in their drunken lifestyle. We'll just order an ice water and sit at the bar with them and talk about it. We need to consider ourselves lest we also be tempted. We have to be careful being around people that are backslidden and people that are living in sin because we don't want their ways to rub off on us. We can get too close or too buddy buddy with backslidden Christians. We should want to restore that person and be humble about it, but we don't want to go down into the sewer with them. We don't want to follow them down that path in order to do it.
He says "restore such an one in the Spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." Meaning that we don't just go through life looking out for ourselves, but rather when we see other people having problems and having trouble we should take responsibility for helping to restore that person and not to just have an attitude that we don't care if that person messes up their life. No, we should actually bear their burden. It's interesting because right after that he says in verse 4, "But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden."
On the surface sometimes you'll be reading the bible and something will almost appear to be contradictory. In verse 2 there it says "bear thee one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ" but then in verse 5 it says "For every man shall bear his own burden." It almost seems to be saying 2 opposite things, here's actually what the bible's teaching here. It says that we should bear other people's burdens. From our perspective we should see other people's burdens and say "you know what, it's my responsibility to help them bear that burden. I'm going to take responsibility and I'm going to get involved and help that person." When it comes to ourselves we need to realize that at the end of the day it's our responsibility if we mess up our life and it's going to be our success if we through the power of God live a righteous life. We're going to receive a reward for our own work, we're going to have rejoicing in our own work alone, and we've got to prove our own work and bear our own burden.
What's the bottom line? We need to bear our own burden and we need to bear other people's burden, that's what the bible's saying. Bear other people's burden but don't expect other people to bear your burden. That's what he's saying, it's not contradicting itself. He's saying "from your perspective your job is to make sure that you're doing well on your own without help from anybody and then you go out and help other people." It's kind of a one way street here, does everybody understand that? You can just expect everybody, "hey, come bear my burden." No, bear your own burden. When we see people who are falling under the load we get in there and we help bear that burden, that's what the bible's teaching us. Once you understand it it really makes perfect sense what he's saying here and there's no contradiction.
People love to try to find contradictions in the bible, but really it's always just a misunderstanding where they don't comprehend what's being taught. Like when the bible says "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit." In the next verse he says "answer", sorry good night. "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him." Then it says "Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit." It's like, "Whoa, which one is it?" Do I answer a fool or do I answer not a fool? Honestly, what I believe is teaching there is you can't win when you're dealing with a fool. When you're conversing with the fool, when you're arguing with the fool if you answer not a fool he walks away wise in his own conceit. If you answer a fool then you seem to other people to be like unto him. You can't win with these people.
It's sort of like this stupid flat earth thing where all these people are going around, they think the earth is flat and that it's this big NASA conspiracy. It's like, "hello, people knew the earth was round long before NASA came around". People have been sailing boats around the earth for hundreds and hundreds of years using all these charts and maps and everything. This weird doctrine is out there deceiving the foolish online where "Oh, the earth's flat. It's a big conspiracy it's a big cover up." It's total nonsense. If you answer this folly you seem like an idiot for even talking about it. It makes you sound stupid that you're even arguing with these people and trying to prove to them "no, it's round." Then if you don't answer them they're like "see, nobody can answer us. Nobody can disprove us because it's a big conspiracy." It's one of these things where you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. You can't win when you're answering a fool or not answering a fool. You can't win dealing with fools.
People always try to point out, "Oh, it's contradiction in the bible." They don't understand the depth of what the bible's teaching, that's really what's going on with these type of things where God will juxtapose 2 different ideas and he's trying to get a certain point across by giving you both sides of the coin. There's really no contradiction there, he's just stating a fact. Look at verse number 6, here's an important thing to understand with chapter 6 here in Galatians is that throughout the book remember the theme has been dealing with false doctrine that had been brought into the churches of Galatia. That false doctrine had to do with a works based salvation. Salvation by the law instead of salvation by grace through faith.
Then the other thing was that there were the Judaizers that were coming in and they were trying to get them to circumcise them, and to keep the Jewish feasts, and observe the new moons, and the Sabbath days and all those kinds of days. Those are the false doctrines he's dealing with, work salvation and the Judaizers. When you get into chapter 6 he deals with a bunch of subjects because it's the last chapter. It's all the final closing thoughts. He changes gears rapidly in this final chapter. If you realize that it will help you to understand he switches from subject to subject. Verses 1 through 5 had to do with restoring the brother who's gone into sin, who's been overtaken in a fault. "Ye which are Spirit ual, restore such an one in the Spirit of meekness."
Remember, the bible says "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." There are a lot of people who get this attitude that they would never get backslidden or they're never going to go into sin and all this stuff. Honestly, a lot of times these people have only been saved for a couple years. They haven't even really been in the Christian life long enough to really understand what it's like to go through a cycle of being excited about the things of God, then maybe getting a little backslidden for a while, and then having a personal revival and renewal in your life. People that are in it for the long haul, they know what that's like. By the way they know what that's like in marriage too. Where marriage is great and it's sweet, then it goes getting better, better, better. It had its ups and downs, but then it comes back up again.
The point is you got to be in the Christian life for the long haul. Christianity's not measured in years, it's measured in decades. Don't get this puffed up attitude, "I'm never going to go into sin, I'll never get backslidden, I'll never quit the church." I can tell you about all the people who said the same thing that are not here, that are not anywhere tonight, that have completely gotten out of church, gotten backslidden. Usually the people that are the most high minded and the most puffed up with this attitude of "I'll never forsake you, I'll never quit the church, I'll never backslide." You can almost take it to the bank that these people are going to backslide. When I hear people say stuff like that to me, I had a guy say that to me several months ago. He was so zealous and so fired up. I literally, maybe this was cynical of me, in the back of my head I was thinking to myself "this guy's going to be gone at 6 months. He's not going to be going to the church anymore." He wasn't.
This guy was so fired up, and so zealous, and he's never turning back. It's like Peter, "I'll never deny you." Then he denies him a few hours later. The bible says "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." That's why the bible says to restore them in a Spirit of meekness because it could be us if we're not careful that goes down that wrong road. We need to remember that. He changes gears in verse number 6, that's verse 1 through 5. In verse 6 he changes gears and says "Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things." What does that mean to communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things? The word communicate has a few different definitions in the bible.
A lot of times in the bible the word communicate means what we think of in 2015 as communicate, which is just to talk or express something in a message. There's another meaning of communicate in the bible, flip over to Philippians chapter number 4, I'm going to show you some scriptures that use a different meaning that fits this scripture in Galatians. Look at Philippians chapter 4, verse 14. It says "Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God."
In this context it's clear what communicate means when it says that they did communicate with his affliction, it's not saying they had a conversation with his trials. That wouldn't make any sense, would it? No. It says they communicated with his affliction, it's defined in the next verse as communicating with him as concerning giving and receiving. Go over to first Timothy chapter 6 and you'll see the same thing. First Timothy chapter 6 this is where God is charging those that are rich in this world. First Timothy chapter 6, verse 17 says "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works," watch this "ready to distribute, willing to communicate;". The rich person is supposed to be ready to distribute and be willing to communicate. What did communicate mean back in Philippians 4? Communicating, giving unto somebody who's in need, somebody who was in need because they were an affliction.
The word communicate doesn't just mean talking, but in this situation the word communicate actually means to give something to someone. It's talking about giving them money, or giving them food, or giving them what they need. Go back to Galatians chapter 6. This is one of those words where people will try to say that this word is archaic. The King Jame's Bible's archaic, we can't understand it because that's not what communicate means anymore. They'll say that these words have changed in meaning, you'll hear that a lot won't you? "A lot of words in King James' have changed in meaning", but that's really not the case. These words haven't changed in meaning at all, these words have 2 meanings. They had 2 meanings back when the bible was written and they have 2 meanings now. People don't know the second meaning but that doesn't mean it's not a valid meaning.
For example the word suffer, in the bible the word suffer sometimes means to go through pain like we would think of suffering, you're going through pain. It also sometimes means to allow. Like where Jesus said "suffer the children to come unto me for of such the kingdom of" he's saying allow the children to come to me. Suffering fools gladly is to put up with them. Here's the thing about that, in the bible both definitions existed. In a modern day dictionary, in today's vernacular both definitions exist amongst intelligent people. They'll try to say "oh, the word suffer changed in meaning." No it didn't, it didn't change meaning. It didn't even lose a meaning. It had 2 meanings back then, it has 2 meanings now. Nothing has changed. People today use the expression to suffer a fool gladly or suffer the children. These are terms. There was a song in the eighties on the radio called "Suffer the Children" by Tears for Fears. If it's so archaic why were they doing it in the eighties? Am I that old where the eighties have become archaic?
The point is just because you don't know a word, that doesn't make it archaic. "I don't know that word it must be archaic." No, maybe we need to expand our vocabularies a little bit and get off texting language and get on the king's English here. Don't let people hit you with that because if you look up any word in the King James' version in a modern dictionary it's there with the King James definition. You can get a brand new Webster's dictionary from this year and it will have every King James word with the King James definition. It's just that these are "archaic" to people who have a small vocabulary. It's that simple. We can think of the word communicate, but what about the name remuneration? Even the word communicate, the mune there comes from the same root word as our word money. You can see how this could have to do this giving, communicate. Remuneration is another word that is from a similar root.
That will help you to understand this. Again, the bible is its own dictionary. When we're reading this in Galatians 6 we might look at this and say "communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things" and not quite understand that, but then that's why we cross reference with Philippians, cross reference with first Timothy, and then the definition comes clear here. What's it saying? "He that is taught in the word should communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things." This has to do with the pastors, the teachers being paid to minister the word of God which is something that's taught throughout the New Testament. That's all that it's saying there, it's pretty easy to understand.
Then in the next scripture he says in verse 7, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." This is a very famous verse just laying down a principle that's a universal principle in a lot of areas of life, that we are going to reap what we sow. What goes around comes around. We go through life planting seeds and if those seeds are good things that we do, those good things are going to come back around to us. If we plant seeds that are bad things, those bad things are going to come back around to us. Those are principles of the world that we live in. Look at verse number 8, it says "For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
Let me go into something with this, because the modern bible versions they really twist this passage. I'm going to hand out some of these modern versions to see what they say because I know I've seen where some of the modern versions they really twist this thing up. Here, I'm going to give you the ... Give you that one right there, which one is that? Look this up, Galatians 6. You want to look up the New American Standard? I walked into a Christian bookstore one time and they had one of these versions, I forget which of these phony versions that they had. They changed this scripture all around where it was teaching a works based salvation.
The thing about that that is so ridiculous is that the whole book of Galatians is written to people to explain to them that salvation's by faith and that if righteousness comes by the law then Christ is dead in vain. How we can't be saved by the flesh, we can only be saved through the Spirit which comes from the hearing of a faith. That it's the faith of God that gives us righteousness in Jesus Christ, not works as he mentions. The whole book of Galatians hammers that in ever chapter. I walked in a Christian bookstore and on this whiteboard they had a bible verse written and it said something along the lines of that if we keep on doing well ... If we're not weary in well doing then we're going to get everlasting life if we keep doing the right things. It was like "whoa, is a major paraphrase." Do any of these versions that that I hand you ... I don't have all of my phony bibles, do any of them say anything like that?
Congregation: Galatians 6 what?
Pastor Anderson: I'm sorry, 6 verses-
Congregation: 8 and 9?
Pastor Anderson: Verses 8 and 9, it was verse 9 where they taught work salvation. I don't know what version it was, but I went to the manager and I said "what is this perversion of God's word that you have on the whiteboard?" I said "this is what the King James says and they've changed it into something totally different." I told him that he should take it down and he refused to take it down. He's like "you're right, it's not by works and that version is wrong." I'm like "then erase it." "I can't do that."
Congregation: "The one who sows to please his central nature from that nature will reap destruction. The one that sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life."
Pastor Anderson: What's the next verse say?
Congregation: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap our harvest if we do not give up."
Pastor Anderson: That one changed, that one actually perverted it in a different way, what version is that that you're reading? The NIV?
Congregation: I guess, I don't know.
Pastor Anderson: Here's the thing, yeah he's got the NIV. What the King James is saying here is that "if you sow to the flesh you'll have the flesh reap corruption; sow to the Spirit of the Spirit reap life everlasting." I'm going to show you what that means by cross referencing scripture with scripture and show that this is teaching salvation by faith, not salvation by works. If you read it in the NIV it's basically saying instead of sowing to the Spirit , they've replaced that with doing things that please the Spirit . It becomes works, your doing stuff that pleases the Spirit instead of sowing to the Spirit which I'm going to show you what that means. What do you got there Garrett, do they change it in these?
Garrett: It's a little worse than [inaudible 00:22:48].
Pastor Anderson: Which one's this, what version is this?
Garrett: New Living Translated.
Congregation: Oh wow.
Garrett: "Let's not get tired of doing what is good, at just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get up."
Pastor Anderson: What do you got here? This is the New World?
Congregation: 8, because-
Pastor Anderson: Yeah, here we go. Listen to this one, listen to this. Read it nice and loud verse 8.
Congregation: Verse 8 says right here, "Because he who is sown with a view to his flesh will reap corruption from his flesh, but he who is sown with a view to the Spirit will reap everlasting life from the Spirit."
Pastor Anderson: Oh wait, it's verse ... I'm sorry, verse 9, listen to this. No, no, no, no I'm sorry, that was it. Verse 8. I might seem at first like these are just little changes, they don't really change much but it actually completely changes the meaning here. Keep your finger in Galatians 6 and go to John chapter 4 and I'll show you what's going on here. Again, you got to get the context. The whole book of Galatians has been telling us that salvation's by faith, it's not by deeds, it's not by works, it's not by anything that we do to earn it but that it's by faith. Look at John chapter 4 and look at verse 35. The bible reads "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages" pay attention to that. "He that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."
God is saying that he's sending us to work in his harvest, because he said right before this in the verse before that verse 34, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." Jesus talks about doing work for the lord. Then he says "he that reapeth" which that's the word, reaping. "He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal:" What the bible's teaching here in John chapter 4 he gives us wages. What does wages refer to? What we earn for what we do. Think of another scripture "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Let me ask you this, excuse me, is eternal life the wage that we earn? No way, because the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Is eternal life a gift or a wage? Eternal life's a gift.
The bible says the wages of sin is death, we earn death by sinning but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's a big difference between wages and a gift. Wages is something that you earn, a gift is given to you for free. The bible's real clear eternal life is not wages, it's a gift. Everybody got that?
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor Anderson: Here what he's saying is if we do work for the Lord though he gives us wages. What is that? That's he's paying us for our work, he's going to reward us. That's why Jesus said "behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Here's the thing, what gets us saved? Faith, eternal life is a free gift. After we're saved if we do works for the Lord we earn wages. Does everybody understand that? It doesn't take any work to get saved, it doesn't take any work to get eternal life. After we're saved if we work we get wages.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor Anderson: Why would God give us wages for the work that we do? Because he doesn't want us to think we're earning our salvation. All of our works he pays us.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor Anderson: "I'm just working off my salvation." No, no, no you don't work off your salvation, your salvation's paid for.
Congregation: That's right.
Pastor Anderson: It's a free gift, it's by grace, you don't work for it before, during, or after. It's paid. That's why he that reapeth, he that does the Lord's work receives wages. That's talking about rewards in Heaven, you earn a payment "and gathereth fruit unto life eternal." The fruit that we bring forth is we win other people unto the Lord and we gather fruit unto life eternal. We earn wages and we gather fruit unto life eternal. It's not saying we earn eternal life, does everybody see that in the passage here? Wages are not eternal life, no. Wages are a reward that we get for the works that we do after we're saved, the eternal life is the free gift. Everybody got that? With that in mind go back to Galatians chapter 6, put a finger in Galatians 6 and look at Galatians 3, verse 1.
It says "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" What are we talking about here? We're talking about 2 modes of salvation. We're talking about salvation that comes through the flesh, and we're talking about a salvation that comes through the Spirit . A salvation that comes through the flesh is a salvation that has to do with doing the works of the law, the deeds of the law. A salvation that comes by the Spirit has to do with the hearing of faith. That's why the bible said in Galatians chapter 5, just a few lines to the right there.
In chapter number 4 "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." The salvation that's of the Spirit is salvation by faith. The salvation that is through the flesh is by the deeds of the law and the bible says "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified." Christ is of no effect unto you if you try to go that route, you're doing it without Jesus. What's the bible saying in Galatians 6? "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." How do you reap life everlasting? Sowing to the Spirit which would be salvation through the word of God. Salvation through the hearing of faith versus salvation through the flesh which leads you to corruption which leads you to death.
What these new versions are changing this to though, they're changing sowing to the flesh as living a fleshly life. Then they're changing sowing to the Spirit as living a Spirit ual life, doing the things that are pleasing to the Spirit . That's what these new versions changed it to if you were listening carefully. Whereas the King James bible when it says sow to the flesh it's not talking about living a sinful life, it's talking about looking to the flesh. That's where we're putting our seed and our hope to receive eternal life, we're trying to reap it from the flesh. No, you're going to reap corruption. If you try to reap eternal life from the Spirit through the hearing of faith you're going to reap eternal life. Then he goes on in the next verse to a new thought, but he's continuing off what he just said.
"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." What are we going to reap? The rewards that it talked about in John chapter 4. Here's what he's saying, you get saved by the Spirit and then if you continue in well doing you get rewarded for that someday in Heaven. That's why it says in verse number 10 "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith." I know this is complicated but I want you to understand what he's saying here, doing good, do you see that in verse number 10? Let's do good especially unto them who are of the household of good. What does doing good get us? We reap a reward for doing good. "Every good thing that any man does" it says in Ephesians 6 "the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free." Remember, he that works reaps wages. We get paid.
Does doing good save us though? Is he saying "hey, if you do good you're going to reap eternal life?" No, no, no if we do good we reap a reward. The only thing that causes us to reap everlasting life is sowing to the Spirit, it's not anything that's of our flesh. It's something that is a Spirit ual thing of faith. I hope that makes sense, I'm trying to explain this and break this down and cross reference things because people will try to twist this. They see the reaping eternal life and they try to bring that down into verse 9 where it doesn't belong. Verse 8 is talking about reaping everlasting life, verse 9 is talking about reaping rewards if we do good things, if we keep on well doing, if we do good unto people.
To interpret it as you do good and you reap eternal life that would pretty much negate Galatians 1 through 5. It's like what have we been talking about for chapter 1 through 5. It's not deeds, it's not works, it's not the flesh, it's not anything we do. He's not going to turn around in chapter 6 and turn that on his head. No, people are understanding it wrong. You got to compare scripture with scripture and understand that what he's saying in chapter 6 ties in with what he said in chapter 3 where he talked about salvation through the flesh and salvation through the Spirit . Which one is it foolish Galatians? Is it through the hearing of faith or is it by the deeds of the law. Doing good is the deeds of the law, doing good, well doing, that's all the deeds, that's all works. That doesn't save us but that does earn us what? A reward which God calls wages, a paycheck. God will reward us for our works, we will be paid for our deeds.
We shouldn't be weary in well doing because in due season we will reap if we faint not. God will reward us. He's coming, his reward is with him to give to every man as cording as his work shall be. If you think that your deeds that you do in the flesh are going to earn you ever lasting life you are going to reap corruption. Let's move on here. It says in verse number 11 "Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand." Galatians may not seem like a very large letter to you because he doesn't mean he's writing in great big letters. What he means when he says a large letter he means this letter that he's writing to them is a large letter, 6 chapters long. That might not see long but he says "Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand."
The longer epistles that Paul wrote he had someone else writing it down for him. For example in Romans chapter 16 it says "I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord." Paul was dictating it to a guy name Tertius that actually wrote it out for him, a secretary. Here he wrote the whole thing with his own handwriting. At the end of second Thessalonians he says "The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write." Customarily the apostle Paul would dictate it to someone else who would write it down and then he would at the very end he would do that part in his own hand. The part that says "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." He would do that in his own handwriting just so that they would know that the letter was authentic. That it was not a counterfeit, that it came from him. He would do that part in his own hand.
Here he says "Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand." I think what he's trying to say there is that he feels that this was so important and it's so urgent ... He didn't even wait for somebody to copy it down for him, he didn't even look to anyone else. It's almost like he grabbed pen and grabbed paper and wanted to get this letter out because it's so important. You can tell the urgency of the tone of the letter because all throughout Galatians he's rebuking and telling them "don't be deceived by this. I'm afraid of you. Why have you turned to another gospel?" And all these things. What does he get into because he says "Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand." He's going to get into the important reason why he's writing such a long letter. "As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised;" he's getting back on the problems that he's been rebuking for the last 5 chapters.
"As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." That's what's important. Not circumcision, not uncircumcision, but a new creature. Back in chapter 5 if you flip back over to verse 11 of chapter 5 he said "And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased." In chapter 5, verse 11 he's saying that if he would preach circumcision he would not be persecuted.
In chapter 6 he says "They have you circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." Again he's reiterating that preaching against circumcision is an unpopular thing to preach. He said if you preach it you'll get persecuted. He says if I preach circumcision then I wouldn't be getting persecuted. Then here he says these people are preaching circumcision because they don't want to get persecuted. Why? When you preach the pre Judaism doctrine, the pro Zionism, the pro Israel doctrine you'll be a popular preacher. Look at all the TV preachers, every one of them, they're very pro Israel, pro Zionist, pro Jewish and they'll even sometimes get the Jewish prayer shawls and put it on. They'll bring Jewish Rabbis on and they'll talk so much about how wonderful the Israelis are for praying to the Lord. It's like "wait, they're not praying to the Lord." The bible says "if you don't have the son, you don't have the father."
Congregation: Right.
Pastor Anderson: "But he that acknowledgeth the son hath the father also." How could a Jewish person that doesn't have Jesus be praying to the same god? When the bible says "if you don't have the father, but he that acknowledgeth the son hath the father also, who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ." He's antichrist that denieth the father and the son. You can't say "I'm trusting God" if you don't trust Jesus. The Jews of course reject Jesus which makes them a false religion. You don't see the TV preachers, you don't see the popular big name preachers even in our own independent Fundamental Baptist circles, the big name popular conference preachers are all going to teach the pro Israel, pro circumcision, pro Zionism doctrine. Why? "Only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." You start saying anything against anything Jewish and you know what you're called? Anti-Semitic. They try to make it a racial thing even though there's no racial difference between the Jews and everyone else.
There is no racial difference, we're all of one blood. We're all intermingled thousands of years later. Yeah, at the time of Christ was there a difference between Jew and gentile? A lot more so than today, but that was before God scattered them into all nations for the third time and before they'd been completely intermingled and mixed for the last 2000 years to where no Jew today can show you their genealogy back to the patriarchs. None. Zilch. We talked to these rabbis and said "does anybody even know what tribe they're from?" No. This coming out of the mouth from an orthodox rabbi. No one knows what tribe they are. He said "it's not important, we don't know." It's like how do you even know you're Jewish? This is what they all pretty much said "If you believe you're Jewish, then you're Jewish" they said.
We asked one of the rabbis "Is it possible that you're not even descended from full blooded Jews?" He said "I think I'm descended from converts. I don't think my ancestors were Jewish at all" because he said "my last name is Abrami" and Abrami is a name that they would give to non Jews with they convert to Judaism they'll call them Abrami son of Abraham. He says "we're the sons of Abraham through faith" he says. The Jewish rabbi's like "It doesn't matter what our nationality is if we have the faith of Abraham we're Jews." I'm thinking to myself "yeah, that's right, that's true. Except that the faith of Abraham means you believe in Jesus."
Congregation: Right.
Pastor Anderson: That's the part they're missing. It's so funny how even the Jews are like "we're Jews by faith we don't need a genealogy." Then the Christians are like "they're special because of their genealogy that they don't have." Then there's this troublesome verse in the new testament that says avoid genealogies. It means it doesn't matte what our ethnicity is, it's meaningless. There are people who want "to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." "God forbid" Paul said "that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" don't you love that statement right there? Verse 14 look at your bible. "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." What's he saying? He's saying we have nothing to glory in except Jesus.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor Anderson: What are some things that people glory in besides Jesus? They glory in "I'm Jewish" or they glory in "I'm a white person." There are white supremacists that glory in the fact that they're white. There are people out there who will say "white people are the true Israel. The Israelites are white people." They said "Anglo saxon, saxon means son of Isaac. It's the sons of Isaac, the Israelites are the white people." Then there's another group that says the black people are the Israelites. The black Hebrew Israelites. There are people out there that'll say "it's all the Latinos, they're the real Jews, they're the real Israelites." It's people wanting to glory in the flesh. God forbid I should glory in being a white person. God forbid you should glory in being black. God forbid you glory because your "Jewish". God forbid that you would glory in being Latino. I'm going to glory that I'm a Christian.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor Anderson: Rejoice that your names are written in Heaven.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor Anderson: Don't glory in some fleshly attribute. Oh, I'm white, I'm Native American, I'm black, so what? It's meaningless.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor Anderson: Aren't there people that glory in that? Oh man they've got all this pride in being an American pride, white pride, black pride, Native American pride, Mexican pride, Asian pride. Everybody's so proud. Jesus Christ pride, right here. That's the only thing I'm going to glory in. What else is there to boast in besides Jesus? In him we make our boast all the day long the bible says. Boast about your race and these other ... You know what there are other things people glory in too. They glory in money. They glory in their money and "oh I have so much money." Or they glory in their athletic achievement, or they glory in their education, or titles, or whatever achievements. God forbid that we should glory in anything except Jesus. All this Zionism stuff takes the emphasis off Jesus, puts it on a bunch of Christ rejecting people. Puts it on a Christ rejecting nation.
People get all excited about picking up the newspaper and figuring out what's going on in the so called holy land. They need to be picking up the bible and reading about Jesus. Getting excited about soul winning, winning people to Christ, not winning a war somewhere. Not winning a battle so we can get more land for Israel or some nonsense. Why don't we get excited about winning a soul to Jesus? This emphasis on the flesh, the carnal instead of on the Spirit ual it's epidemic today. Why? Because there are plenty of people that don't want to suffer persecution for the cross of Christ, that's why they're afraid to talk about this stuff. Even people who agree with what I'm saying, that it's all about Jesus and it's not about our ethnicity and that being Jew means nothing if you don't have Jesus. You're nothing, you're no one. He said "your not a son of Abraham."
Here's the thing, even people that agree with that sometimes they're afraid to talk about it lest they suffer persecution. You don't hear a lot of sermons preaching against circumcision or preaching against these other Judaizing practices. Paul said I took this letter with my own hand because it's so important not to let these stuff creep in. These circumcision, the deeds of the law, all these different things. He says in verse 16, "And as many as walk according to this rule" what is the rule? What did he just say? Verse 15 "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." You know what the Israel of God is? It's everybody who's saved, it's the believers.
The bible talks about Israel after the flesh. That's that country over in the middle east where they reject Jesus 99 percent. Then there's the Israel of God. Guess what? The Israel of God is believers, it's not those who are circumcised. It's those who are believers, it's those who walk according to this rule that are the Israel of God. Of course there are many, many scriptures to teach that. Romans 9 for example says "they are not all Israel, that are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Right there in Romans 9, 7 through 9 it tells us that Israel is those who are born of the Spirit , it's not those who are born of the flesh. That's what Roman 9 teaches.
The Israel of God is believers, it's not a physical nation in the middle east. He says in verse 17 "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." What did he mean by that? Paul's got a lot of opposition coming at him, he's being persecuted pretty hard for preaching this stuff. He's saying other people don't want to preach what I'm preaching because they don't want to suffer persecution. I'm suffering persecution because I'm preaching against the circumcision. He says "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." I believe he's referring, when he says "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" I believe he's referring to the scars and the wounds of the beatings that he has received for preaching the name of Jesus. He talks about how he received repeatedly 40 strikes save 1, he was beaten with rods. He's constantly being scourged for preaching the word of God and thrown in prison.
What he's saying is, look don't mess with me. Let no man trouble me. He's saying, get off my case, don't mess with me. "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." While you guys are afraid to preach what needs to be preached, I'm out preaching it and being persecuted and I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. You can just back off is what he's saying. Here's the thing, if you read Galatians from chapter 1 to chapter 6 the whole book has a hostile tone. He starts out "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:" look how many times he says something like "O foolish Galatians".
Think about it, what if we received the epistle of Paul to the churches of Arizona? What if we add that the epistle of Paul the Apostle unto the church of Arizona and he's like "Oh foolish Arizonans, you've begotten in the Spirit are you now made prefect in the flesh? Who's bewitched you over in Tempe that you've departed from? I'm afraid of you." That's the style that this whole letter's written in. He's upset. He's upset about the [inaudible 00:49:18]. He says "I would they were even cut off which trouble you." Don't mess with me. He's like look "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." I think that's what he's referring to when he says that. Then he says lastly, "Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit . Amen." Even in the end, even though this is a stern letter, even though he has to rebuke them, even though he said a lot of harsh words he still loves them. That's why he said earlier have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
He's trying to restore them in the Spirit of meekness here. He has to sometimes deliver a stern rebuke and get a little angry, but in the end he wants the grace of Christ to be with them. In the end he wants them to get the truth and to get back on track. He wants these false teachers to be dealt with, and thrown out, and cut off. That's what he's saying. As we close the book of Galatians let me say this, it's an extremely important book for the day that we live in.
These issues of works based salvation and the Jewish movement of Hebrew roots, sacred name, and bringing all this Judeo-Christian doctrine in. It's very relevant in today's world, it's something that we're dealing with. I think the book of Galatians is more important than ever and I encourage you to read this book frequently. The whole book of Galatians, read it frequently and let these teachings sink down into your ears. We need the book of Galatians to be equipped to deal with these false doctrines that are coming at us. It's just as urgent as it was when Paul wrote it urgently and he writes it with his own hand, that's how urgent it is today for us.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord, and from what we can learn from it. Lord help us to restore people when we see them overtaken in a fault. Here in this book Paul's trying to restore the Galatians. He loves them, he's trying to help them, but sometimes he had to show some tough love. Help us to restore those in our lives who are going into sin and backslidden and try to get them back in church and back serving you, Lord. Also Lord help us to understand that we're going to reap what we sow. In this life when it comes to salvation the only way we're going to get everlasting life is through the Spirit.
Lord help us to do good and not be weary in well doing so that we can reap great rewards in Heaven and we can urge wages, Lord, and gather fruit unto everlasting life. Lord help us not to get sucked into any of these false doctrines that are out there. Help us not to be carried about with every wind of doctrine, Lord. Help us to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the love for as much as we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
