Bible Guys Classics: Galatians 2

Well, today Paul gets crucified with Christ but not really.

But for real kind of yes, well he says it,

not physically, that's what we're talking about today. He's Chris.

I'm Jeff and where the Bible guys? So Chris, you know,

I'm constantly looking for trustworthy sources of news and information.

Sure you are.

And the Babylon B which is one of my favorite. Hey,

it's just as good as all the other ones, by

the way, I would say, But the Babylon B, which

is a satire page. For those who don't understand, the

Babylon B's not real. They've had a whole bunch of

things get quoted by CNN and MSNBC and different organizations

quoting them like it's real news, and then later on

people have to come back and go, it's just satire,

right right, So anyways, the Babylon B they did a

blind taste test, and here's the headline. It says, blind

taste test finds most people can't tell the difference between

candy corn and an orange crayon we found in the

junk drawer. And here's the news article says, a fascinating

new study has revealed that the vast majority of people,

when presented with a blind taste test, can't tell the

difference between candy corn and the dusty, old orange crayon

we found in the junk drawer. According to researchers, people

who were fed candy corn and people who were fed

the old orange crayon that had been stowed away in

a drawer for the last seventeen years had the same reaction.

Quote this tastes like a waxy blob of nothing, and

my life is much worse for having places repulsealrojict in

my mouth.

End quote head of hey, I reject all of that

candy corn A lot ahead of research doctor science.

It's the science, Chris, the head of research doctor Gorbo

Lindfield said. Quote we had theorized that at least twenty

percent of those surveyed would be able to detect some

kind of flavoring candy corn. So we were shocked to

find that over ninety five percent of people had the

same instant negative reaction to eating candy corn, so full

they did the chewing on the old dusty crayon. Now listen,

he says it right here. It's proven in the article.

Quote the science is settled. Candy corn is just as

tasty as a crayon forgotten in a cabinet for decades.

It's sophisticating here, isn't it? So, he says.

Further research showed that over ninety percent of people couldn't

tell the between marshmallow peeps and a piece of cotton,

both from an ivy pro from bottle.

Okay, so let's let's talk about the candy.

You know, Circus peanuts, it says, says, you can't tell

the between Circus peanuts and eraser from one of those

giant novelty pencils or dots and stale gum that's been

stuck on the underside of a table.

Down.

It flows, It flows, diners.

Yeah, yeah, listen, I just I just want to go

on record and say that I think candy corn is phenomenal.

Are you serious?

Oh?

Yeah, I love candy corn. What yeah, Chris? And by

the way, so does the catapillar.

Okay, I questioned your judgment on everything else in your life.

Remember the Canabi statement, Yes he's going in the circus

and he goes, oh, candy corn. Let me hope you

do finish it. You like candy corn? Oh? I love it?

Okay, kids, after Halloween this year, just bring all of

your candy corn and dump it in Chris's office.

Oh don't do that, Oh please. I didn't say I

would eat it.

I just love it.

It's disgusting.

I just don't eat a bunch of candy. Hey, by

the way, real quick, real quick, what is what is

your favorite Halloween candy?

My favorite Halloween candy. Well, chocolate is by far the

most important thing. So it's kind of a mix between

KitKat and Snickers, one one or the other. Either one

of those. Those are my two favorites.

So it's Snit snut.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah?

Or Kickers Yeah maybe Kickers. So so what do you

mean you just meant.

Either one, either one?

Yeah, those are your favorite. Like I pile those two up.

Kind of like a concrete mixer, yeah or something.

And then racist peanut butters.

Yeah. So here's the thing. I agree. I think that.

Uh uh, you know, I don't. I'm not a lover

of chocolate. I don't love chocolate.

Again, you like candy corn and don't like chocolate.

I don't love chocolate.

Hey, this is this interview is don I'm leaving.

So it's terrible.

Dude, I could only eat chocolate one of your friends

coupled with I never said it was your friend.

You know, it would be nice.

It has to be coupled with something else, so like

peanuts or you know, like like, I'll be honest with you,

if I eat a Snickers bar. By the time I

get done with a regular sized Snickers bar, I'm done with.

The chocolate part of it.

Wow.

Yeah, yeah, I like the stuff inside it more.

Yeah. Well that speaks volumes about you, your character, Yeah,

your lack of humanity.

Yeah, that's unbelievable, man. Yeah, yeah, you know what I think.

I told you the reason why I don't.

So if you had a choice between candy corn and

the Snickers, you would choose candy corn.

It depends on the mood, but I would say I

could easily choose candy corn.

That's disgusting, Okay, Yeah, listeners were sorry you had to

go through that. Yes, it's and horrifying. Don't look down

on him otherwise, he's a pretty decent human.

I think, thanks, Jeff.

Yeah, I appreciate your buddy question your judgment though, What

in the world what did your parents do to you

as a child that made you not like chocolate and

like candy corn.

So we don't.

We don't celebrate Sweetest Day a lot doing sweetest Day.

My wife and I do, okay, every day.

Oh Jess.

Never Jim carry on dumb and dumber and he goes

like this like this, So basically, my wife sent me

a bunch of chocolate when I was in Bible College,

like a huge, huge, massive things of chocolate. It was

a it was a box this big.

I kid you not.

It was like it was like a foot and a

half by For our listeners, it's a foot and a

half by foot and a half.

Yeah, So I just said it way to be late

and and I and it was filled with her she's

kisses and everything else. And I ate the whole thing

within like a week, and I got sick on chocolate.

Huh And ever since that day.

I don't think that's possible.

Yep.

I actually have not loved chocolate since that day. So

it's been you know, like a long time.

Well, thanks Liz for ruining him for life.

Yes, wow, that's.

What she's Okay.

Well, I'm glad that segment's over because there's just some

things we don't want to know about you and that's

that's one of them. So, oh, my goodness, that's terrible.

So we are continuing in the Book of Galatians. So

remember we're reading through the Book of Acts and the

spread of the Gospel, and throughout the Book of Acts,

Paul pauses and he writes these books back to the

churches he had just helped start. So the churches that

he had on that first journey that he and Barnabas

has helped start in Iconium and in Lystra, Derby and

antiog Pasidia, these towns. Now he's writing a letter back

saying somebody has come in, these Judaizers have come in,

and they're perverting the Gospel. And he's given some credibility,

a little bit of his resume as to why you

can trust the fact that he has authority to teach

the Gospel. And so we're going to pick up there

where he's already talked about his zeal Judaism, it beliefs

that he had before he became a Christian, and all

those things. And then he says in chapter two, verse one,

then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again,

this time with Barnabas, and Titus came along too. I

went there because God revealed to me that I should go.

While I was there, I met privately with those considered

to be leaders of the church and shared with them

the message I had been preaching to the gentiles. I

wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for

fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I

was running the race for nothing. And they supported me

and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised,

though he was a gentile. Even that question came up

only because of some so called Christians. They are false

ones really, who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in

to spy on us and take away the freedom we

have in Jesus Christ. They wanted to enslave us and

forced us to follow their Jewish regulations. But we refused

to give in to them for a single moment. We

wanted to preserve the truth of the Gospel message for you,

and the leaders of the church had nothing to to

what I was preaching. By the way, their reputation as

great leaders made no difference to me, for God has

no favorites. Instead, they saw that God had given me

the responsibility of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, just

as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to

the Jews. For the same God who worked through Peter

as the apostle of the Jews, also worked through me

as the apostle to the Gentiles. In fact, James, Peter, and John,

who were known as pillars of the Church, recognized the

gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and

Me as their coworkers. They encouraged us to keep preaching

to the Gentiles while they continued their work with the Jews,

and their only suggestion was that we keep on helping

the poor, which have always been eager to do. But

when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him

to his face, for what he did was very wrong.

When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians

who were not circumcised. But afterwards, when some friends of

James came, Peter wouldn't eat with the gentiles anymore. He

was afraid of criticism from those people who insisted on

the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish Christians

followed Peter's hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by

their hypocrisy. When I saw that they were not following

the truth of the Gospel message, I said to Peter

in front of all the others, Since you, a Jew

by birth, have discarded Jewish laws and are living like

a gentile, why are you now trying to make these

gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? You and I are Jews

by birth, not sinners like the quote unquote gentiles. Yet

we know that a person is made right with God

by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law.

And we've been We have believed in Christ Jesus so

that we might be made right with God because of

our faith in Christ, not because we've obeyed the law.

For no one will ever be made right with God

by obeying the law. But suppose we seek to be

made right with God through faith in Christ, and then

we are found guilty because we've abandoned the law. Would

that mean that Christ has led us sin to sin?

Absolutely not. Rather, I'm a sinner if I rebuild the

old system of law I already tore down, For when

I tried to keep the law condemned me. So I

died to the law. I stopped trying to meet all

its requirements so that I might live for God. My

old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no

longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So

I live in this earthly body by trusting the son

of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I did not treat the grace of God as meaningless,

for if keeping a law could make us rite with God,

then there was no need for Christ to die.

Wow, that's a lot.

Yeah, man, there's some great stuff in there. Yeah, there's

a lot as opposed to some of those bad chapters

that we've read, but this is a really good one.

I found myself saying there's some really great stuff there,

and I thought there's great stuff in every chapter we read.

Ok.

Yeah, Yeah, that's funny.

You know, it's it's a it's a it's a it's

a funny thing how Paul is writing for a specific

purpose because of what is happening, happening specifically in that city.

But at the same time, the content in which he

is writing applies to us today, which is what I

love about God's words so much. I mean, you know

we all understand that. Well, let me we're phrase if

you've been a Christian a while. Isn't it interesting how

you can read one verse one day and it applies

to what you're going through, and then maybe down the

road you read that same verse and you get something

completely different out of it.

Is that ever happened to you? Yes, many times where

it's like.

The same verse applies to it. And so it's just

so cool for me because there's a practical sense of

what we're reading, and you and I are sort of

talking about that practical sense. We're talking about, Oh, this

is the reason why Paul's writing these things, and you know,

he's writing it specifically for these reasons. But let's not

forget that. Because it's a living book, because it's the

inspired word of God, because God had Paul write these

you know, letters and and and that we believe that

it's inspired by the Holy Spirit, and so we believe

it is the Word of God. And so Paul is

writing it for a specific reason. So God used human

authors to pen his words, and so let us not

forget that. Because the truths that that that that only

apply to the culture and to the specific context that

they should be taken, you know, with that in mind,

But central truths like this apply to us today because

Paul is talking about, you know, very plainly, the difference

between the Old Testament and the New Testament. And by

the way, we just talked about this last Sunday at

our church, where we talked about treasures being both old

and new. We shouldn't discard one for the other, but

we should try to understand the old in light of

the new. And that's what really Paul is trying to say.

He's trying to say, like, those those laws that you

have obeyed for centuries aren't to waste. In fact, the

law points me toward Christ. And if not for Christ,

then then it's good for nothing, because I've died to

the law. They're important, but I now understand that it

all points me to this one thing, which is Jesus Christ.

The sacrificial laws, those all represented the cost for sin,

how to cover over sin, redemption, all those kinds of things.

The societal laws, those really they set apart the Jews

from the rest of the pagan cultures at the time.

But most of those laws also had some significant benefits

to them. Right. The don't eat pork law was there

were you know, pigs normally and naturally carry a lot

of diseases. Of course, now you know we treat those

things and so it's a little bit different. But back

then it was highly probable that you'd get ringworm or

some kind of disease like that. The idea of building

latrines around your homes. Everybody else it was just on

the ground or out in the rivers or whatever. But

for them, they would have latrines that would manage their

waste and it would provide a better healthy lifestyle for them.

Not keeping allowing any vermin, rats and things to be

in their homes. They'd keep cats or whatever to keep

them out, would prevent a lot of the spread of diseases.

So there's lots of.

Lots of Just to be clear, you're voting laws that

were given.

To the Jewish.

Yea, I'm quoting all these laws that God had given

to the Jewish people. That they began to look at

it that by keeping those laws they get to go

to Heaven. They by keeping those laws, they please God,

and God likes them, as opposed to God saying I

gave you these laws for your benefit. So they shifted

it from the benefit of their lifestyle of being healthier

and better to this is how we please God. This

is how we get into eternity. This is how we

earn his blessing.

Expand on that whole like latrine thing of bearing it

like they didn't understand it, but then modern science tells

us what.

Yeah, yeah, I think I talked on one of the

older podcasts about this. That so really funny passage in

the Book of Deuteronomy, which is the whole book is

just laws, six hundred and seventeen laws or something. There's

two verses, the funniest verses in the Bible. God says,

when you need to do your business, he said, first

of all, go outside the camp, turn over a hole

in the ground, do your business, and then cover up

that hole. And then the next verse says, because I

the Lord, your God, walk among you in the camp.

It's such a funny verse. Right, he doesn't say much

else about it, but so God says, you can do

your business. Do your business in a hole, right, a

little hole. He's not talking about necessarily digging a pit,

but at least the hole. And it was thousands of

years before we discovered it was in the mid or

the early twentieth century before we discovered that in the

top you know, twelve inches or so of soil in

most places in the world, the micro organisms in those

top few inches of soil will break down human waste

and the negative sides of waste in a matter of

hours days, you know, two days or so. Whereas if

you do your business on top of the ground and

just wait for to naturally dry out or whatever rain

comes winds up ruining the water things, it can be

weeks that the negative impact has on society or on

the world around us. And so all the water ways

are polluted. All these things happen so God, they didn't

know when God gave that four thousand years ago to Moses.

They didn't know about micro organisms, they didn't know about germs,

they didn't know about those things. God didn't even take

the time to explain it. God just gave them a

law and said, if you obey this, your whole community

will be more healthy. And how many times you and I,

You and I've been in places where I was in

Africa one time in the massive cholera outbreak, dysentery. There's

several things that wind up happening because water gets polluted

from human waste because they're not managing it well. So

God doesn't explain every little micro organism detail. He just says,

trust me. And so if you're looking at the laws

of God, just to trust me. I'll take care of

you if you follow me. That's very different than what

the Judaizers were doing. The Judaizers were saying, if you

don't first convert to being a Jew, you can't become

a Christian because Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. So the

first thing we have to do is you need to

be all the men have to be circumcised, which, by

the way, circumcision being a requirement for joining the church

would really limit membership.

I would think I would think so too, Yeah, wouldn't

you think.

But they that's what they were requiring, was you have

that all the men have to be circumcised, and you

have to convert to Judaism first. And Paul want wait

a minute. That was never the purpose we thought that

was the purpose of the law. That was never the

purpose of God's laws.

Yeah.

And by the way, the whole circumcision conversations just hilarious.

The fact that most people, and I would say, you know,

probably upwards of ninety high ninety percent of people are

circumcised males.

When they're born right in the US. In the US.

Yeah, that's actually a really good point, and it's become

sort of a practice and people know that because when

they have children. It's just something that just happens.

Right.

But people don't necessarily connect it to the Bible. Right,

they don't connect it to the Bible. There are so

many things in our culture that exists that are around

us today that we don't necessarily know or understand that

it's connected to the Bible.

It's really interesting.

Yeah. Yeah, So now there's health benefits in that, you know,

you can look all that up to This is in

a biology lesson necessarily, but there are a lot of

with regard to the transmission of diseases and other things,

there are some health benefits to it. But this was

a command from God to Abraham, and from that point

on that was the main symbol. It's not the only thing,

but it was the main symbol of the fact that

people have converted from whatever their religion was into Judaism

was that issue. And so Paul saying, hey, even Titus

was along with me, and we were with Peter, James

and John and they did not demand Titus, who's a gentile.

They didn't demand that he get circumcised. They recognized that

he was saved, They recognized that he was truly converted Christian.

They didn't recognize it. But then some people snuck in

found out, and then we're pointing fingers at Titus and

even Peter James and John went, that's not necessary. Just

make sure that you are being generous to the poor,

make sure that you're living for Jesus, make sure that

you're honoring Christ with your lifestyle. But they weren't requiring

that he convert to Judaism in order to be a Christian.

So Paula saying, if Peter James and John didn't require it,

and their message of my message lined.

Up, it's the same.

They did correct anything between us, So the founders of

our faith, Jesus being the founder of our faith. But

these these early leaders in the church, they didn't correct it.

Why would you then allow some radical fringe group to

come in and ruin the freedom of the gospel when

there's no reason to do so.

Yeah, and you know, it's not like God doesn't want

us to try to obey every single law. But there's

a big difference between you know, getting to heaven based

on doing good. So yesterday I was actually called over

to a good friend of mine. His aunt is in hospice.

She doesn't have long, you know, to live, and so

they said, can you come over and meet her before

you do her funeral? So last night I went and

I stood by her bedside, and the whole family was there,

and we prayed and laughed and talked and and it

was so weird for me knowing as I said goodbye

that the next time that I was going to see

their family again was going to be for her funeral.

Right anyway, all that to say, I asked her and

I said, are you scared about going to heaven? And

she says, well, I think I've been a good person.

And so it's one of those things where the majority

of people focus on salvation is dependent on obeying the laws.

This is really what we're talking about here, the rules,

right and so, and you mentioned Deuteronomy. I don't know

why I know the numbers, but it was actually six

hundred and thirteen laws, two hundred and forty eight thou

shots and three hundred and sixty five thou shot knots.

Don't know why I remember that, but people think like,

if I'm a good person, I obey all of those rules,

then I'll go to heaven. So I was able to

tell her, I'm like, well, let me ask you a question.

What do you believe? And I found out she believes

in God.

She believes in Jesus Christ, you know, given and resurrected,

you know, he died, the cross, resurrected. She had faith

in all of that, and so I believe she was

a Christian. She just didn't understand the clarity that Paul's

trying to.

Somehow, some judaizers had come into her life and told

her what you.

Got to do is be good, right and so and

the best part for me was is that I'm explaining

it to her, but really I'm explaining it.

To everybody in the room.

Yeah right, So those with the gift of evangelism or like,

you know, a passion for evangelism. I'm just loving it

because I'm explaining to her and I'm thinking, I know

who's zooming in here. I can see the guy in

the back couch and he's pretending to, you know, look away,

but i know he's listening. Yeah, you know, it was good.

So it's it's so important for us to differentiate between

faith and works. James in the book that we mentioned

before that James wrote doing the same time, James says,

you can't separate faith from works. Right. Faith will always

lead to works if you really have faith that lead

the works. But you can't get saving faith by doing

good works. Right, there's a differentiation there. And then the

last thing. We kind of blew over this, but I mean,

it's really really clear what happens in the second half

of the chapter. Paul has front Peter because even when

we know it, sometimes we have a hard time living it.

We get embarrassed being around to other people. So some

Christians came in who were surprised that Peter was at

living like a gentile at this point. And so then

he retreats back, and so does Barnabas. And Paul's like,

oh no, I'm not going to allow that to go on.

You're not going to minimize or shame these gentiles because

there's some other Jewish Christians around. He said, God doesn't

have any favorites and so either you are or you

or not. But he said, here's the deal, don't try

to add to their faith something that some kind of

requirement for law, either you're free from the law or

you're not. And by the way, and Peter accepted that correction.

I was going to say, you know, by the way,

that's because we talked about Peter before. I remember heard

the dream and God showed him that gentiles were not unclean.

And yet it says that really he fell into good

old fashioned peer pressure. That's right, because he was eating

with gentile house and then all of a sudden, when

when the elders came in and when these other church

leaders came in, he felt pressure, and then he stopped

eating with them. And there was this whole like, you know, like,

why aren't you sitting at my lunch table anymore?

Kind of thing, right, and and then and then Paul says,

I'm the one that had to come and correct him.

Hey, real quick, I know we're out of time, but

I just we have so much to cover because it's

the whole chapter. But when it says I am crucified

with Christ, therefore I no longer live, but Christ lives

in me. So now I live in this earthly body,

trusting the son of God who loved me and gave

his life for me. I love that verse. It's it's

a verse that a lot of Christians memorize. And really

what he's saying is, even though he's not physically crucified

with Christ, he's saying, I tried to keep the law,

but he said, but the law condemned me, So therefore

I am crucified with Christ.

He's given.

It's such a great word picture of giving your life,

giving your body, you know, and and understanding that Jesus

died for your sins. It's just a beautiful, beautiful picture

that all Christians can relate to because we are crucified

with Christ because he died first.

Since so I live in this earthly body by trusting

in the Son of God who loved me and gave

himself for me. That's a great place to end today.

Yeah, well, okay, we'll see you next time. I'm the Bible, guys,