Paul's History Reviewed

We're going through Galatians quite slowly, and we've been assigned a book for a year, and when you look at the number of verses in the book, 149, and you divide by 52, actually you divide by 50 because the first week was an introduction. and the last week will be a summary. So if you divide 50 into 149, you get a number of 2.99 something.

So anyway, on the average, we're doing three verses a week. Now next week, we're going to do five or six verses, I think. But today, we're going to do two. And we're partitioning this book in terms of the classes based on, I think, the lesson to be obtained from the verses the way we've arbitrarily kind of split them up. You could question that at times as to whether we should have gone one verse further or one verse less, but nevertheless today the title of the lesson is Paul's History Reviewed, and this relates to Paul's life as a Pharisee to a large extent before he was saved. And so we're going to look at verses 13 and 14, but I think to lead into this, let's begin down at verse 10, and this was covered to a large extent by Randy last week.

For do I now seek the favor of men or of God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I made known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now today's verses are 13 and 14.

For ye have heard of my manner of life and time passed in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it, and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation. being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

And what we're going to have to follow then next week is kind of Paul's being taught by Christ. And this is an interesting text that I think we lack in sufficient detail to really explain what this educational process was like. It's been generally described as kind of Paul taking out of society, placed someplace in Arabian for three years, taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. But boy, that's vague. But all we know is what Paul has experienced is really beyond simply aspiring to learn more and try harder.

This is a lesson from the Lord directly to Paul that has impacted his life in a way that probably no other man that's lived has ever experienced. And that's why we place much of our theology in terms of our life lived in Christianity in Paul's epistles. I mean, Paul clearly is the human example of what the changed life looks like. So let's today focus in on verses 13 and 14. I've just read them, so we'll not read them again. This section, these two verses, pertains entirely to Paul's former way of life as a Pharisee.

Let's drill down. the Jews religion or Judaism. I think terminology here is very important. Hebrew is a language. Okay, so I'm not a Hebrew or a Jew is not a Hebrew because Hebrew is the language of the Jew. Being a Jew is being part of a nationality.

And it's distinguished from the Gentiles. So the Bible is very clear on the nation of Israel and the people who belong to the nation of Israel are Jews. So this is to be distinguished by people who are not of Jewish heritage, the Gentile nations. And presumably the entire world is separated into Jews and Gentiles, right? Doesn't make any difference what color your skin is. You can be black and be a Gentile. You could theoretically, I guess, be black and be Jewish. if you come from that nationality.

Finally, an Israelite is the highest title and originally intended to represent the religious privileges as a member of the theocracy. Those are terms that we need to think about. Judaism reflects you know, the whole history and traditions of external ordinances, you know, observations or observances, traditions, it's really wrapped up in, you know, the Jewish, you know, faith, if you will. And it's very traditionally oriented. And it presumably is founded on the principles of Yahweh, Jehovah, God Almighty.

But Judaism itself is never to be equated with salvation or spirituality. So this is a whole different venue of being spiritual or saved. The traditions and external observances and ordinances of Jewish tradition or the Jewish faith is not in fact equated in any way with salvation or spirituality.

I guess it's possible that the Messianic Jews people come to salvation and ultimately have roots in Judaism, ultimately can bring some of those things appropriately into their Christian faith. But remember, law and grace are like oil and water. They don't mix. And so ultimately the Messianic Christian must leave his or her you know, Judaic culture and faith behind them. I mean, it just is not appropriate to be returning to the traditions and ordinances and observations of the Jewish faith once one has become born again.

Now, what comes to mind when someone asks you of your religion? Because we're talking about here the Jews religion being equated with the term Judaism. So, doesn't this come up all the time in conversations? What religion are you? Well, don't you remember it used to be on forums? I mean, really. When you go in the hospital, for instance, right? Yeah. What is your religious preference? That's what it would say. So what's the term religion mean to you when somebody asks you, what's your religion? Stan, if somebody asked you tomorrow at work what your religion is, how would you answer that?

Oh, in those forums I would always put Protestant. Exactly. That's what I would put. So that's a name. It's not a belief system. Correct. So religion is, actually as we interpret it best from Judaism and what it stands for, it's a tradition or it's an ordinance or it's external observances, it's really not a born-again faith as your religion. I mean, people have a faith that's part of their religious practices. We don't have a lot, it's been long enough for born-again believers.

But when it comes to Judaism, it has, to me, it has special I don't even know how to put this into words, but it has special, I guess, charisma because basically, you know, you read the scriptures and understand that much of this came from the hand and mouth of God. True. Written down by scribes through centuries.

So, you know, if there is a preeminent belief system To me it would be Judaism because of the source. Well Judaism is a religious set of ordinances and performances that relate to a people separated unto God, correct? But remember in Hebrews, one verse among many, the sacrifice of bulls and goats can never take away sin, right? So, all the atonements that were utilized in the Old Testament were by faith of the Jewish people, or those who believe that the sacrifice of the bull and goat was sufficient for a time to bring them to Christ.

Right? Yes, Margaret? Well, you know what I was going to say too, based on kind of what Stan said, it's interesting, we've been to some bat mitzvahs and bar mitzvahs, and friends of ours with their children, and whereas we look at all of that tradition and that process and how it points to the Lord and how special that is. The veil and the, I mean, the whole tradition, the service that they go through is so impressive to us.

To them, what was so interesting is it really didn't mean anything except tradition. They didn't grab, because many of them do not believe that this actually was the word of God. To them now, it's just a tradition. That's why it says that he desired mercy and not sacrifice. You know, he wanted the tradition as in that movie. What was that movie? Fiddler on the Road. Fiddler on the Road. Do you want the microphone here? I want to make sure we get this recorded. They got lost They got lost in the system. And they forgot the focus.

And the focus was God. It was a theocracy. Well, it's just been so interesting because we would go, and I'm not kidding, this was so moving to us to see the pointing to Christ. And to them, they're sleeping, they're talking, they could care less about this whole thing. It was very interesting. He was very zealous.

And that's why he moved up in the ranks. That's right. And we're going to deal with that here today. Notice it says an eye advanced in Judaism. It's kind of like moving from a blue ribbon to a silver ribbon to a red ribbon. The idea of he's being honored by men because of his performance along the lines of the ordinances and traditions. Right?

I mean, a religion is a really a traditionally based process. What about Islam? We call that a religion, correct, because it's a set of traditions really that began with the prophet Mohammed. Actually, it began with Abraham, actually, if you go back through Ishmael, right? But ultimately, religion has nothing to do with salvation. We don't have a religion, we have a person. The Lord Jesus Christ, right?

And I guess if somebody asks you what religion you have, again, what would you say? What is your religion? Would you say Protestant too? No, you wouldn't say that. No, I would preface it by saying I don't, that I have a relationship with a person, but if you need a way to think of what we're like, we're similar to Protestant, particularly Baptist types or those kinds. But what if I said, well gee, I'm a Muslim and I have a person too, it's Mohammed. How would, if we were going to get into a conversation?

A living person. A living person, okay. So the crucial nature is what about Christianity? He had a living Savior. That's right. crucified, buried, you know, implanted in death, and then risen from death. Right, Stan? And going back to the forms again, I think that's a perfect example, because those forms are there for what reason? If you die. Right, if you die. Who comes to minister to the family, right? That's exactly right. Is it a rabbi, or is it a priest, or is it some sort of an Islam prophet? Right, and is that not what we're talking about when it comes to religion?

I mean, your entire life, which is but a vapor when you're living here on earth, is alive, but when you come to the point where you are no longer there, then everything that you believed in previous to that makes a really big difference. I had a person ask me this weekend about that and he was talking about, you know, so I don't remember how the conversation went, but, you know, I said, well, you're going to find out when you die.

And he turns around and looks at me because he wasn't a Christian. And he looked at me and he said, and then it's going to be too late, isn't it? And I said, I don't know, is it? turned around and walked away. And for him, as I believe, it is going to be too late. And what a sad situation that's going to be for him.

Yeah, you wonder kind of at MDNers right now, who came to quote minister to Ben, based on the form they filled out when they went into the hospital. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Any other thoughts on that? Yeah. Just to comment on that idea that you just brought up, is that when I got my last knee surgery done, I had put on there that non-denominational Christian or some such thing.

And the chaplain was making his rounds and he came in and he talked to me briefly and asked me, did I have any prayer requests or I don't know what he asked me. And then he went away and I felt like, well, gee, that was worthless. I knew more than he did. My prayer request, sir, is that you would be saved. How much time do you have?

Actually Hal went through that too when he was in the hospital so much near the time he went to be home with the Lord. He was ministering to everybody else there rather than ministering to him. The number of conversations he had with the chaplain that came by really proved to him that this chaplain wasn't a brother in the Lord for sure. I think as patients we often can have more impact than the chaplain does on us.

Alright, so I'm going to turn to Mark, just one many example. If you can look through Mark 7, this is a great kind of section of the scripture just dealing with the traditions of Judaism. Making the word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you've handed down in many such things you do. Was Paul's righteousness, God's righteousness as he really lived out the Judaic faith? bringing glory to himself, right? And Paul would admit that.

We're going to look at some of those verses this morning. Look at this. Making the word of God of no effect. Traditions, ordinances, law. Remember, God put law in place to convict man of sin, not to show how well you're doing keeping a life free of being guilty of that sin. So we have a number of verbs in these two verses that are worth paying attention to.

Persecuted, trying to destroy, or ravaging, or putting to waste, and advanced, Paul's being advancing in the Judaic faith, or cut forward, blaze away, are all in the imperfect active tense. So what does that mean? These are continuing actions in the past. So Paul was about continuing to persecute. He was about the business of continuing to destroy or put to waste. And he was in the process of continuing to advance himself. So this was a process wherein he was growing through the experience of what it meant to be a self-righteous Pharisee.

An ongoing activity. Boy, the flesh never ends, does it? You know, improving the atom nature is a never-ending process. And again, I've shared in this class many times, whether it's Corinthians, Romans or Ephesians, that this process of buffing up Adam and working on the flesh is just where much of the church is at, I think. Until you have that rest and peace of who you are in Christ, You know, Adam is being plugged in each and every day to try to improve how we're viewed by God and just not where the life comes from.

And Paul exemplified this to the ultimate extent in terms of what it meant to have the flesh appear to be improving and performing. And by the way, trying to destroy it implies the church. And here we're not talking about the church in Galatia. We're talking about the unified church. As Paul was all over the place, just wasn't in one section of the Middle East. So let's look at how this is exemplified by scripture. We have a lot of scripture here today because the two verses we're dealing with really provide a rich source of scriptural foundation as to why these verses are what they are. Acts 8, 1-3. Now Saul was consenting to his, meaning Stephen's, death. We know Paul was around the time Stephen was stoned.

And at that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentations over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women committing them to prison. Just an example of what Paul was about.

This is around the time of Stephen's stoning and ultimate burial. In Acts chapter 9, this was the chapter that, you know, the road to Damascus experience, right? Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, threats and murder, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way, meaning the way of Christianity, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Just like chapter 8 where he's dragging men and women off to prison because of their faith, their newborn faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it true that, I have to go back and remember, some of the different scriptures, but Paul was stoned. Paul was stoned. Did he go to Jerusalem bound?

At this time? No, later. Oh, later. He did. So basically, at least in these examples, he was put in prison many times. Kind of turned around, didn't it? I was looking at that and I thought, wow. What he did... I didn't think about that when I was looking. But what he did... Isn't it true? It's a very, very good point.

Now here's Ananias after, you know, Paul was delivered, Paul meaning Saul to Paul was being delivered to him in Damascus. Lord, I've heard from many about this man, meaning Saul, Paul, how much harm he had done to your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call upon your name. So this is Paul's or Saul's history that Ananias was now articulating after, in fact, he had been delivered after the road to Damascus experience to Ananias in Damascus. Then, when preaching, this is Paul now, Christ in the synagogue of Damascus immediately after his conversion Then all who heard were amazed and said, ìIs this not he who destroyed those who called on his name in Jerusalem and has come here for that purpose that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?î So people are questioning, ìWhoís this guy?

Isnít this this guy who was in fact dragging men and women to prison and ultimately killing because of their faith? Who is this guy here?î I mean, this is not who we expected. Then Paul himself said, and these are words from his own mouth, Acts 22.4, I persecuted this way to death. Isn't it interesting, this way or the way being capitalized and in multiple verses, the way of Christ or Christianity. I persecuted this way to the death. binding and delivering unto prisons both men and women. Isn't it interesting? Well, see, not just men, but women too. And it's always noted. Wasn't the whole movement called The Way? The Way, sure. That's what it was called, The Way. Paul himself says The Way. Right. It's several times attributed to him.

In Acts chapter 26 verses 9 through 11, Indeed I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem. And many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priest to do so. And when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities." So this is an autobiography now. Paul is telling who he was and what he once did.

Galatians 1.23, but they were hearing only, he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy. A verse very similar to what Ananias had said back in Acts after Paul's conversion. Immediately after he was converted he was preaching Christ. Immediately.

1 Corinthians 15, I for I am the least of the apostles, I mean we hear Paul says that again in 1 Timothy, I'm least among all saints, who am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. Now let's pause there just a second.

I think, argue with me if you will, I think for each and every one of us we must view ourselves as the chief among all sinners. Isn't that biblically who we all are? I mean, Paul says this, and he qualifies it and says, because I persecuted the Church of God, I'm the chief among all sinners, or the least of the apostles, or the chief among all sinners. But Timothy doesn't qualify it this way in terms of his previous persecution of the Church of God. But if we don't view ourselves as the chief or the least of all apostles, the least of the apostles, he's saying, but I think a chief among all sinners is the same kind of concept. I think we have, you know, an insufficient view of our salvation, don't we? I mean, if I think, you know, that I'm a little bit better than Gail, I mean, goodness.

You know, that's the thing about the cross. The cross is the great equalizer of all men and all women for all time. There's no preference there. I mean, if you think about the inequalities and the biases and the prejudices of the world system in which we live, we're always trying to create legislation to make everyone equal, the lesbians and the gays and the blacks and the browns and the yellow-skinned people. But the cross is where everyone's made equal, is it not?

And so Paul's view of being least of the apostles, or in 1 Timothy, the greatest among all sinners, really is a view that we all need to have about ourselves before God. Yeah, Gail. Sometimes I think it's hard to realize, you know, that we really are as bad as someone else, unless we're thinking we get to the point where we're really able to view our sinful nature the way God views it. But maybe another way to help us realize that is to realize that the price that was paid was the same for each. It wasn't like he did this for the really bad ones and that for the better ones. It was the same for every single one of us. So looking at it from that viewpoint can be helpful, I think, to level us. Yeah, good point. Thanks. in Romans and we've just finished seven and gone into eight.

And of course that famous passage at the end of chapter seven where Paul talks about the law of the mind and the other law that he follows. When you think about Paul's life and his zealousness and his desire to follow the law which is through tradition and external means and works and all the rest of it. And then he found out later that, yeah, he said the law is spiritual, but there's something else here. It's not following works, but the law is spiritual.

However, his struggle was to please God. And ultimately, that's what all this was about from the very beginning, was to have faith and to please God. And his struggle is that he got lost. He got lost in the law. You're talking about Romans 7. He's a saved man now. Okay. Yeah.

And so then he went and really got a different perspective through the road on Damascus when he talked to Christ. And it changed his whole life. And he's saying all people go through this struggle until you find the truth. Who shall deliver me from the power of this man? This wretched man. Yeah. The Galatians now are going back to that same struggle again. And he said, why do you want to do that? The other gospel, right? Another gospel which is not the gospel, right? And look at Paul's history in Saul in terms of what he had already done and accomplished what he thought was in the name of God, right? You know, it's so sad that so many churches, mainstream churches, they're right there. They're still right there. But they don't realize it, honey.

So what brings about, I think, first of all, we're going to return to this at the end, but this freedom we have in Christ, this joy, this encouragement of being believers, I think it begins with a hungry heart. And the hungry heart is kind of wearing out yourself to try to please God. And when we keep trying harder and harder, we're not doing enough, we have wrong thoughts, and we get bogged down with the old man and his failure, ultimately start asking, isn't Christianity more than this? And so we still have the old nature that shows up only too often, but we confess the acts of the old nature, we get regenerated in who we are in Christ.

The Christian life is a life. It's a life led by the Spirit, by faith. in the new creation each and every one of us are in Christ Jesus. Boy, that's freedom. And it's being biblically placed in a life that's not under law and legality. And by the way, it's not a theology of let go, let God, because it's still a life that's lived by faith.

We need to realize that we have faith, that we've been co-crucified, co-buried and resurrected with him under newness of life. It's all faith enacted without the guilt of what God has already paid for in Calvary. Philippians 3, 6, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness, which is law of blame, as Paul's reflecting on who he was. In Philippians 3, actually go back to 4 and 5, that sets the stage for this verse even further.

1 Timothy 1, 13, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Notice the ignorance was in unbelief. It wasn't simply, you know, ignorance, I'm excused because of it. It was ignorance in unbelief. His faith was misdirected. So Paul did it all extremely well in the tradition of Judaism. He was proficient. I'm taking this from verses 13 and 14 of Galatians. Above his equals and more zealous than probably most if not all.

Acts 26.5. They knew me from the first if they were willing to testify that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived the life of a Pharisee.

And the word zealot means to burn with zeal or to boil. And the Greek used the term to describe someone actually who was an imitator or an admirer. So Paul was an imitator of what he thought that this life was all about and tried as hard as he could. And he was an admirer of the Jewish law and the tradition and tried to live it. Bob, do you think that where it says zealot, do you think that it refers at all to Wasn't there a sect of believers?

There were the Essenes and there were the Zealots and then there were Sadducees and Pharisees. And by the way, Simon of Zealot was an apostle. Right. So it would be kind of like saying, I guess in today's vernacular you would say that a Zealot was the fundamentalist Jew. One of the fundamentalist Jews, right?

Right, and here you are, Stan, there was also a party of zealots developed from the Pharisees, a group of what would be called hotheads, who actually brought on the war with Rome. So this was a party within the Jewish tradition, and Paul fit the name of the game.

And this is also maybe why Paul was so against Christ, because one of the things that they really hated about Christ was that he was supposed to be the king of the Jews, and they wanted him to fight the Romans. That was the purpose. They wanted a person to come down and get rid of Rome. Right, and there it is. This group within the Jewish tradition in fact brought on the war with Rome. And if I'm not mistaken, I think Judas may have been a zealot as well. You may be right. Don't know that for sure. I think he may have been. However, you know this term zealous, we don't want to think about this entirely incorrectly. I mean, we can all have zeal as New Testament believers.

And the example there is the text in Titus where it says, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, all of us special people. Zealous for good works. Now that doesn't mean we return to Pharisean ways for works. By working harder to do good works, it means by faith that life lived out is one that results in good works. We need to be zealous for good works and that their source is the new creations each of us are in Christ Jesus.

Always remembering, I think, that beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the traditions of men. according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. Look at the qualification of the traditions of man according to the basic principles of the world system and not according to Christ. In a sense, in gathering after gathering, the traditions of man is really the social gospel, is really what's preached and taught, and it's one doomed with failure. It's not according to Christ.

It's another gospel of works first, then faith somewhere finds its way into that teaching and preaching. In Matthew chapter 15, first three verses, I just put third here, he answered and said to them, this is Christ himself, why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? And what's the commandment for us as believers? What's the greatest commandment? What's that?

As He loved you. And we see the qualification there, as He loved us. How you doing loving your neighbor? And loving God with all your heart and mind and soul. In other words, Jesus himself said that they worshiped and practiced the first law, actually the traditions or something like that. Yeah, the traditions of men. Yeah, the traditions of men. So loving our neighbors, ourselves, loving God with all our heart, mind, and soul really is an act of Christ within the believer.

It's an impossibility for Adam to love his neighbor as himself or to love God with all his heart, mind, and soul. That's not an Adam-sourced event in our life. We can't do that. But as Christ first loved us, that's the source. of that relationship to the Heavenly Father and to our neighbor. But they don't finish it. The world loves to use that. That we should love our neighbors. The world uses that all the time. But they leave out the part about as Christ first loved us. The important question to respond to that is how you doing? How y'all doing at that? Loving your neighbor as yourself or loving God with all your heart, mind, and soul. All right.

Sometimes forget that Paul was also the son of a Pharisee. In Acts 23.6 it says, But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I kind of forgot that. But he was not only a Pharisee himself, he was a son of a Pharisee.

Concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead, I'm being judged. Remember, the Pharisees believed there was life after death. but that was not focused in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. David talked about life after death. I'm not sure whether I can say confidently that Abraham did too, but anyway, Abraham of course was not a Jew. The Jewish faith came from Moses forward.

Can you envision, let's kind of have a bit of discussion now, can you envision such a change in Saul as he became Paul after the road to Damascus experience that is man-taught and humanly possible? Is this learning simply the facts, the process of intellectualism? Did Paul study hard to become converted from Saul to Paul?

Is this simply trying harder? If not, then what is it? And I raise the point here that make sure you're here next week. We're not done quite yet, but next week we'll begin to see that this was an experience that Paul had, not only on the road, but ultimately the Father, where Christ himself was the educator.

It could only be a supernatural kind of transition, transformation, just like it is in us. Because, you know, no one would seek God, no, not one. So if the Lord is not doing the work, there's no way that we can be transformed. How were we saved? By faith. By faith. What's the principle? Grace. Grace by faith.

Ephesians 2.8, not of works lest any man should boast. Okay, so we're saved by grace through faith.

Is living the Christian life a different set of principles? I mean, Paul was saved by grace through faith. God chose Paul like he chose each one of us before the beginning of time. And that process wasn't Paul working hard or becoming more educated about who Christ was. God miraculously met him on the road. And then he took them into Arabia someplace and for some period of time, whether it be three years or less or greater, I'm not sure we're perfectly sure of that, but he was educated and experientially tuned by the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

So as we walk in our Christian walks, do we in fact become better educated in what a Christian should look like? Or do we in fact try harder to live the Christian life? No, the same principles there, the miraculous enacting by grace through our faith to bring us about the Christian experience, which is the life of Christ. We've all been created as new creations in Christ Jesus. Reflect on this personally.

You know, Adam shows up a lot. The old man, the sinful nature shows up a lot, and as we increasingly grow and the light becomes brighter about who we are in Christ, ultimately the Adam nature becomes more real. Because light shows darkness for what it really is, doesn't it? As you grow in grace, don't you see Adam is even uglier than he was a few months ago, a few years ago?

Boy, I thought that that was all left behind. Those thoughts keep coming up again, time and time again. And as that lightness becomes brighter, the sinful nature becomes uglier, but yet as believers we're positioned above. And we ultimately confess this sinful nature, our sinful thoughts, our deeds, our lack thereof, and we move on by great grace through our faith that everything has been dealt with. The cross is never going to occur again, is it? Our position will never be better than it is right now.

Carol King is now experiencing the Lord Jesus Christ in reality, but her relationship to God hasn't changed. She's just left her earthly vessel. and now is with the Lord Jesus himself. Boy, I mean, to think of Carol just being here a few weeks ago and now with the Lord is just hard to believe because it wasn't our timing, was it? We all wanted to say goodbye to her in a very different way.

The fear of dying is the false assumption we have many years left yet to live, right? Reflect on that personally in that we don't want to be Pharisean. We want to be, you know, grace-filled, faith-experiencing believers who believe that everything has been done and that ultimately there's a great freedom. Yes, Sam, go ahead.

To me, several years ago when I really saw this and understood it, we are a new creation. And when you use that word creation, that means that it's not done of this world or of man. It's done of God. And the word creation actually means to be created out of nothing of this world of time, space and matter.

And so, when you're saying that, you go down this laundry list of did Paul change because of his intelligence, or did he change because of his effort, or did he change because he changed his mindset, or he went to a different paradigm, as the world talks about today, or he really got, you know, new age spiritualism, or, you know, he met an angel someplace, and because of that it changed his viewpoint on life. Or the purpose-filled life, right? I mean, None of that works.

It's a new creation. Which means it's got to come from God and it comes from not of this world. So it's a dramatic change. It begins with a rest and a peace and a positional truth of it's not of us but of Him. It's filled with grace which is infinite. And all God is asking from us is to respond by faith. Do you believe what I have revealed, who you are in Christ Jesus?

See, that's why the sacrifices couldn't do it, Bob. That's why animals could only, it was a process that you had to go through to look toward the real goal, which was God or Jesus Christ, and that's why it also says it can't be of bulls and goats, because that's only temporary. See, the one of Christ is permanent, and it's a new creation, and the creation comes through Christ. And like you said, Christ fulfilled the law, because when he hung on the cross, for many reasons, but when he hung on the cross, and he said, For they know what they don't hate.

If I got treated like him, and I was marred, like it says in Isaiah, beyond recognition, they said that he didn't even look like a man. He was so badly abused and beaten that he didn't look like a man, and yet he was able to hang on a cross and say, forgive them. But they know not what they do. Now that's loving your neighbor, isn't it? I can't love my neighbor because of a lot of things.

But if they did that to me, I can guarantee you It would only come from God. That's a godly love. Remember, again, it's not let go, let God. It's an active faith of what God has already done. We have to respond by faith in who we are in Christ. That life, ultimately, without our paying attention and noting our accomplishments is occurring in each and every one of us. We are bright lights into the world's darkness. And it's not a matter of seeing how we're doing.

It's a matter of living by faith to see what he is doing and let somebody else tell us what those results are. I thought we'd, you know, what I said here in terms of reflecting personally, what's your history here? Are you still relying on the traditions of men to accomplish this Christian life? And I thought I'd end with this section of John 8, 31 through 36.

Then Jesus said to those Jews, keep in mind the Judaism, the Jewish religion practiced by the Pharisees, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know that the truth and this truth will make you free. They answered him, we are Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say you will be made free? Jesus answered them, most assuredly, I say to you, whosoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

And by the way, when our sin nature shows up, that's an enactment of this bondage to the old man or the sin nature that we are. We're a slave of sin, but God says, and a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore, if the son makes you free, which he has done with each and every one of us, You shall be free indeed. And by the way, even though that sin nature is there and shows up before God, and I've said this before, before God, that sin nature has been crucified.

We experience it. But before God, we're free because He seizes us free. And that allows that life to be lived by faith, not by works. That life lived by faith results in good works. But it's not the works that are pleasing to God, it's the life and the freedom we have to live that life by faith. So, so important.

And so as we reflect on Galatians 1.13-14, we see Paul identifying himself in a tradition of men, in a world system operation in which he failed repeatedly and now counts it as done. for what's going to follow. And remember, the Epistle of the Galatians was written to make sure that these new believers, these largely Jewish believers, were not returning to this other gospel, which is not the gospel of faith.

Any further thoughts, questions here today? Yes, Dan. It's interesting. Some of the things that you say and the things that we understand as humans through the flesh really don't seem possible. you know, like you're saying that you're free and that you're no longer a slave to sin because we live in this fleshly body and all this other sort of thing.

But that's the essence of faith. That's what he's saying there. He said, if you follow my word, my word is truth. And then you go back to scripture and it says, God cannot lie. So everything that he has said, you can count on, you know, and that's faith.

So in other words, if he tells me that the cults are going to win today, I can count on it and I can take it to the bank that they're going to win today to make it practical in the world. Well I hope you're right. And it seems unbelievable that that would be possible. But when you read Isaiah and he predicts the future, we've been doing that study in precepts. It just blows me away that he talks about things that are going to happen a thousand years later and he's got them in the detail to the absolute minuscule detail of what's going to happen. You know, this man was so blessed because he had the truth of God.

You know, along that line, a question often comes up, which is greater among the three? Truth, love, or faith? What's the greatest among those three? They're all critically relevant and important. The one that trumps the other two, and without this one, the other two can't exist, is truth.

And I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. And then, by the truth of who Christ is, God's grace is poured out. And the love we have for one another and for God himself comes because of the truth of Christ and who He really is. So truth is the trump card of all Christianity. Pilate asked Jesus, what is truth? You're looking at him. And remember, the Christian life is one of encouragement, being lifted up, and really, it's fun. You know, people say, I don't want to be a Christian. You've got all those rules and stuff. Are you kidding?

Christ himself says you'll be free indeed. And that freedom, by the way, is living a life before God in the absence of sin because it's been paid for. Yes, we fall short and that sinful nature never leaves us. But we are to reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin and alive unto Christ.

So have a wonderful week. How about the next minute or two? Let that be joyous. Stan, close us in prayer, would you please? Thank you, Lord, for this time to get together and study your word. And thanks for Bob who has taken his time to be our teacher and the ultimate teacher being you. I ask that you go with us this week and live within us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.