This is the Truth Network. For ever thy word is settled in heaven, O Lord. Psalm 119, verse 89. I'm Stu Everson. Welcome to this special Wednesday in the Word leader podcast, where we prepare and equip our leaders of this special Bible study outreach breakfast every week to teach through the scriptures.
13 Dario locations. There's a men's group meeting and several of them Locations host the women on Thursday morning. Stay tuned, be encouraged as we jump into this week's Wednesday in the Word. It's been called the Magna Carta of the New Testament. It changed and transformed.
Uh a a little Monk. In just over 500 years ago, back in the 1500s. To lead a thing called the Great Reformation. It is the book of Galatians and Dr. Sam Horn, so much history, so much significance in this six-chapter book.
I don't even know how to introduce it. That's why I'm glad you're with me, sir. Welcome back. I know you had some much-needed time away, and we're so grateful for that. And we're grateful to have you back, brother.
When you hear Galatians, the also called the battle cry of the Reformation, kind of what hits your heart, and how do you want to kind of frame it for our listeners out there as we start a brand new book of the Bible? It's interesting, Stu, that as you come to a book like this, you really start to realize. There's an order to how the Apostle Paul developed his thinking. About the gospel. You know, we get to the book of Romans, you're getting to a section in Paul's theology where it's all fully formed.
And when you read Romans, much of the other epistles that he wrote had already been written. And in fact, he expects you to kind of know them. And so If Romans is the culmination of Paul's fully formed thinking, Galatians is at the other end. It's probably, if not, the very first letter Paul ever wrote. It comes really early on in the gospel story.
You know, Jesus is crucified and rises again from the dead somewhere between 30 and 33 AD. And so from 33 to 50, let's just say 35 AD to 50 AD is 15 years. And 15 years. Is the time when the Apostle Paul becomes a believer? He goes and spends that time in the wilderness and is actually taught by Jesus himself.
as we believe. And then he takes a missionary journey with a few people, John Mark being one of them, and he goes to what is now Asia Minor. And the gospel goes to the region of the Galatians where this letter is directed. Galatia is not a city. Galatia is not a town.
Galatia is a region. And there were two sort of regions. There was one sort of in the north. And then there was another Roman region where the Roman Empire had established cities like Derby and Lystra. And the cities that Paul visited in the very first missionary journey, Acts 13 and 14.
And so it's this region that this letter is written to. It is the churches that are in this region.
So something has happened.
Something is going on here. In the churches where Paul has just been and just evangelized. And the gospel has worked powerfully. And so all of a sudden, Paul gets word that the believers in these churches. are moving away from the gospel.
that so powerfully impacted them. He's going to explain to the Corinthians later that the way a person comes to understand the gospel is God causes light to shine in their heart so they understand. He opens their eyes so they understand. He enlivens their heart, like he told the Ephesians, so they can receive the gospel. But something has happened.
And they have been radically deceived. And as he digs into what's going on, they have been radically deceived by a gospel that sounds like the gospel, but it's actually a very different gospel. And because it's a very different gospel, it's actually not a gospel at all. And the people who had come with this new teaching had come from Jerusalem. And they were very, very convinced.
about something that had been accommodated to them. The apostles had made an accommodation for the Jews in Jerusalem. That were just so entrenched in things like circumcision and things like fasting and observing the Sabbath day and doing all of the temple rituals that for a period. I could keep doing those things. Although it wasn't necessary for salvation.
And so, as those believers began to hear that Gentiles were coming to the faith. It really bothered them that these Gentiles were not. being taught that it was needful for them to be circumcised. and it was needful for them to come under the law of Moses. And it was needful for them to embrace the dietary restrictions that were in the Old Testament.
And so many of these. Jewish teachers began to follow Paul and show up at the churches. Full of Gentiles who had just been saved to instruct them that they really hadn't received the whole gospel. That, yes, it was true Jesus was the Messiah, and yes, they needed to repent from their sin, but that wasn't all that they needed to do. If they really wanted to be saved, they needed to embrace Jesus.
As the Messiah, they needed to repent of their sin and they needed to submit to Moses. And it was that third thing. You know, you need to embrace Jesus as the Messiah. You need to repent of your sin. Check mark, check mark.
Paul was like, absolutely. It's the third component that perverted the gospel. And it was, now if you really want to be a Christian. Here's the third thing you've got to do. You've got to embrace Moses.
You've got to get circumcised. You gotta embrace the dietary laws and you gotta start observing all of these Old Testament rituals. File. And so Paul. Yeah.
absolutely appalled. at how the gospel has been perverted. And so he actually writes the book of Galatians. to address this issue. And as he writes the book of Galatians to address this issue, the controversy actually becomes stronger.
And we don't get a definitive answer to the controversy until Acts 15. When Paul and his crew And Peter, I'll show up at the church in Jerusalem, and the very first church council is called in Acts 15. And this question is raised, and the Judaizers. stand up and they insist That if Gentiles are going to be fully embraced as Christians, they need to embrace Moses. In other words, they need to come in through Moses, not just Jesus.
And Peter and Paul stand up and refute that. And the council finally speaks, and James gives the definitive answer. It's interesting that the book of Galatians doesn't mention that council at all, which is one of the reasons why we think it was before.
So that's why I said at the very beginning, this is probably the very earliest book Paul wrote. And it is a defense of the gospel. And we can say it this way. It is the defense of the gospel. Uh by grace alone.
Through faith alone, finished work of Christ alone. And that's why Luther, you mentioned the Protestant monk or the Catholic monk that became a Protestant preacher. That's why this book resonated so much with Luther, because it actually affirmed. The very thing that was beginning to show him that he was in a religious system that had added things to the gospel that changed it. And when you change the gospel, it's no longer the gospel.
And so the Roman Catholicism that Luther was struggling with was very similar, although it had different components. To the error that the Galatians were being tempted to embrace. And Paul gives the same answer. That's why this book is called a Magna Carta. of the Reformation.
It is the book that frees us From anything other than the finished work of Christ alone. That's why it's such an amazing book. An amazing book, and it's full of all kinds of rich Christology. really rich soteriology doctrine of salvation dr horn You know, the attempt of the enemy is always to undermine the authority of God's word, in this case, the authority of God's apostle, Paul, but also. To add to the gospel.
You know, he either he loves addition, hey, Jesus plus, he loves subtraction, hey, Jesus minus, he loves division, because all of that divides. And all of that is heretical. And Paul comes out with some strong language against it. I love what one preacher said. He says, Jesus plus anything.
ruins and destroys everything. Because you can't add. to the gospel.
Now, I want to give everyone listening to this special Wednesday in the Word. Podcast that we Have designed to prepare you to lead your groups. We do this weekly Bible study. Men and women meet the different days at Darios across the state of North Carolina and go through the Bible together. And a lot of pastors now are listening to this, getting some encouragement as they prepare to preach their sermons.
We just want this to be a tool. We're going to cover the first 10 verses in this first week, and we're going to kind of give an introduction as we go along.
So, Dr. Horn, you've given some great introduction, and I know there's more coming, but as we look at these verses, we'll see that and we'll see more of the entrapments and the seduction of these Judaizers on into the book of Galatians, you know, as we round chapter two and three, especially, and even three and four. But how would you give us a little framework? That you know, these it's a group of churches, it's not just one, like most of his letters are to Philippi, right, or Colosse, but this is the Gauls, that area, which is Asia Minor back then, modern-day Turkey. Uh, Dr.
Horn, break the whole book up for us, and then we'll. Jump into these first 10 verses, and you can help us break those verses down for our teachers getting ready this week. Yeah, and like I said, we're going to be doing introductory comments all the way through.
So I think we can do a really high level today, and then we can jump in a little more. But really, what's happening here, if you want a kind of a theme for the book, it is embracing and defending the gospel of grace.
So by grace, we mean grace alone. by faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone. And I think When we talk about the word grace, you know, everybody says, Oh, it's all by grace. You know, if you talk to a Roman Catholic theologian and you say, Do you believe that salvation is by grace? The answer is, yes, I do.
Or if you talk to a Greek Orthodox and you ask, you know, is salvation by grace?
Well, of course it's by grace, all of it is by grace. The question isn't whether it's by grace. The question is: does God save people by grace alone? Through faith alone. In the finished work of Christ alone.
And the minute you put the word alone on those three ideas, It really boundaries the gospel in a really, really tight framework. And so, this book is intended to help you embrace. And by embrace. I don't mean just agree, I mean understand and really confess. The gospel of grace alone.
By faith alone, in the finished work of Christ alone. And then you learn how to defend it.
So you can take this six chapters that make up the book, and I love the way Warren Weersby breaks it down. I wish I had thought of it. And I do want to make sure we give credit to the right people. And so Warren Weersby is one of those commentators that, man, once he breaks a book down, I can't read him before I prepare my sermon because, man, he's just so good in the way he outlines it. He has a really, really good outline for the book.
And so here's how he breaks it down. And I would encourage our Bible study leaders to use this framework. Chapters one and two go together. And it's the personal side of this argument, right? Paul is establishing the fact that God has appointed him to be the preacher of a gospel that he has brought to them.
And so we could sum it up this way. The grace of the gospel is personal. And it starts with the person God sent. to this region but it goes beyond that person it has to actually become personal So chapters one and two are about Grace and the gospel being personal. Chapters three and four are doctrinal.
It isn't enough to just personally say, I love Jesus and I love the gospel. You have to be embracing the doctrinal truth. That makes the gospel, right? You can't embrace error and put the word gospel over it like the Judaizers were doing. And so in chapters three and four, Paul is really going to lay down the doctrinal framework for the gospel that has to be protected.
And he's going to go right at the error that the Judaizers are bringing. Judaizers is like a fancy word. For People who were Christians, they had come to embrace Jesus as the true Messiah, but they were insisting that Moses was a part of the gospel. And Paul is going to come really hard at that error, and he's going to go at the error by Xing Moses out, and he's going to do it on doctrinal. And theological and biblical grounds.
And so that's going to be chapters three and four. He's going to illustrate it from the life of Abraham. He's going to talk about the purpose of the law as a tutor. He's going to give a really big contrast between the slavery of being under the law and the freedom. Of sonship.
And he's going to use Hagar and Sarah in this amazing metaphor that we're going to talk about when we get there.
So it's clearly a doctrinal section.
So one and two is personal. Grace and the gospel have to be personal. Chapters three and four are doctrinal. Grace and the gospel have to be doctrinal. But number chapters five and six, the last section is practical.
And that is grace and the gospel have to be lived out. it actually has to make a difference in your life, right?
So Paul's going to talk about liberty and why God gave us liberty. He's going to talk about walking in the spirit. He's going to talk about the fruit of the spirit that grows in the heart of a true believer versus what the flesh. what trying to keep the law in your old flesh actually produces. He's going to talk about our responsibility to one another, to bear one another's burdens.
He's going to deal with how we help one another when we're overtaken into sin. He's going to talk about the need to put confidence only in the cross.
So We've got an amazing journey ahead of us. And that's the way I would break it down. One and two are personal. Two and or three and four are doctrinal and five and six are practical. Excellent.
And Dr. Horn, as we look at these first 10 verses, you basically have a greeting and you have a warning, but I like the. I like the acronym, the A's that you use, so I want to turn you loose on that before I do. It was quite noteworthy. That in of all of Paul's epistles, like we just did Thessalonians, and he was so.
Effusive and Generous in his commendation of the Thessalonian Christians, you know, talking about how their faith had been, you know, had resounded and had been storied all over the early church, and how, you know, just commending them and just this very warm language. But you don't find that in Galatians. I mean, he comes out with a greeting in those first five verses, which are very.
Solid on the gospel and whatnot. But then he comes right out swinging. Dr. Horne, it's like R.C. Sproll calls it a, it's like his pen is on fire.
And I listened to Sprol's messages on these two. Sections verses one through five and And then verses six through ten, and that'll that'll be what we cover. But take us through, just kind of structure these verses for us, real quick, as our leaders are looking at teaching. You know, through Galatians, do we tackle these first verses? A little introduction will be important, but then as you jump right in, talk us through this and how you kind of break them down.
Yeah. You mentioned four A's, and so that's just a simple way to review it. And it's not original to me. And I, you know, everybody's got to kind of figure out how to do this in ways that work for them and their presentation. But verses one through five: Paul is establishing his authority.
as an authorized spokesman. Uh, for the gospel, so that's why he starts out, Paul and Apostle. And what I want you guys to know, he says, is I'm not an apostle because somebody made me one. I'm not an apostle because some man decided I'm an apostle or myself. I'm an apostle because Jesus Christ.
and God the Father who raised him from the dead appointed me to this. And all the brothers who are with me acknowledge this.
So he's laying out. His authority to these churches, right? To the churches of Galatia. And then, of course, he is going to greet them with the effects of the gospel. Grace to you and peace.
Right, grace to you from God our Father. and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel comes because of the grace of God the Father, and the effect of the gospel is peace. With God and with others through Jesus Christ.
So you've got the source of the gospel and the effect of the gospel in verse 3. And then in verse 4, he's going to give you the heart of the gospel. I mean, this is the heart of the gospel. Moses did not do this. This is what Jesus did.
He gave himself for our sins. to deliver us from the present evil age. according to the will of God. of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
I mean, this is why this is called the Magna Carta of the Reformation. because it sources the gospel only in God. It is accomplished only by Christ. It is for the glory of God, right? We don't participate in.
any meritorious way, we just exercise faith. And so He is defining the gospel. As something that is uniquely defined, right? Christ gave himself voluntary substitution for our sins. There's the problem.
to deliver the idea there is to ransom to rescue according to the father's will and for the father's glory this is substitutionary language right he came and the gospel is about jesus the messiah becoming our sin substitute Uh, and it's an amazing thing. Paul is going to actually flesh this out more in the book, but really, we're going to get an amazing picture of this in the book of Romans.
So, that's what's going on in verses one through five. And so, I use the word authority for that. Paul is actually presenting himself. As an authorized messenger for the authoritative gospel, this gospel has been authorized by God, it has been accomplished by Jesus, and it is the only way for a person to get grace and peace.
So that's why I use the word authority. Verses six and seven is the word astonishment. Paul said, I am astonished in verse six. He said, I am absolutely dumbfounded. That you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ.
and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one. But there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. And so in verses six and seven, he is astonished. That people are turning away from God by turning away from Christ.
And what God designed the gospel to be, and they're being bewitched. They're being mesmerized. Into this. And basically, what Paul is saying is the gospel. that you're turning to.
Isn't a gospel at all. There aren't two gospels. There aren't two nuances of the gospel. There is one gospel, and God is the only one who gets to define it. And he defined it up in verse 3.
And you're moving away because other compelling voices have come to the table and redefine the gospel. And that's what happens in Roman Catholicism. That's what happens in Greek Orthodoxy. That's what happens in High Anglicanism. And and and And I'm not suggesting there aren't true believers in Roman Catholicism, or there aren't people who are genuine believers who we're going to see in heaven in Greek Orthodox churches, or that in high Anglican churches or Church of England theologically framed up congregations, we're not going to see people who genuinely know Christ and are born again.
But the system itself, the theology of those systems. adds things to the gospel that make it not a gospel, right? Uh and so that's uh the the second A. The the third A is a really strong one. It's probably the strongest statement you ever hear Paul make.
in the entire Pauline corpus, all the books that Paul wrote. He's going to make an amazing statement here in verses 8 and 9. And so the word I use for this is the word anathema. He is going to pronounce. And the Holy Spirit is going to let it stand under inspiration.
He is going to pronounce. An anathema on any other gospel and on anyone who brings that gospel. Notice what he says. Inverse A. Even if we ourselves Or any angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one that we preach to you.
The one I just defined for you up in verse three, the one you believed when I came to you the first time. If anybody, including ourselves or even an angel, preaches a different gospel that is contrary to what we shared with you when we came, let him be accursed. Let him be damned. In other words, may God damn him to an eternity. Away from God in a place called hell.
That is an incredibly strong statement. And the Holy Spirit could have struck that from the record. The Holy Spirit could have said, No, Paul. That's not an appropriate thing to say. The Holy Spirit could have mixed it.
Uh You know, Peter tells us that holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. This statement. The inverse Eight isn't just Paul overreacting. This is the Holy Spirit rendering a verdict through the words. that he is inspiring Paul to write.
And what those words are is if you change the gospel, God is going to damn you. That's a really statement. And there's actually two anathemas there. I mean, I was going to say, it says it again in verse 9. That's like a double A battery of anathemas right there, brother.
Yeah, he said, as I said, I'm going to say it again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed. You know, honestly, Stu. This Is probably why Luther and Calvin and other evangelicals beyond them, Wesley. And what field, and you know, we can argue whether we're more reformed or less reformed, but at the end of the day, there are people who have bound themselves to the gospel that Paul defines here in Galatians 1 and in Romans 3, and they are saying it doesn't matter. Who comes, it doesn't matter how religious they are or how many PhDs they got behind their name or how many creeds and confessions they want to cite.
If the gospel they are bringing is different than this. It's a damnable thing. It's a damnable error. And so we have to guard the gospel. That's why I said at the very beginning, the book of Galatians isn't just about embracing the gospel that saves us.
It's about guarding that gospel. And that's what's happening here. It's a sacred trust. And, you know, it's interesting. It is a sacred trust, which is what we're.
Which is what verse 10 is all about. Yes, sir.
Now, I want you to jump on 10 and then we'll pray us out of here. But, Dr. Horn, it's interesting that there have been all these movements across the. Decades, I wouldn't say centuries, because there's been a bloodbath prior to now, but to bring Catholics and Protestants together. Yet, in Catholic literature, which they hold on the equal standing of the Bible, in fact, the councils are held higher than the Bible.
They use the exact words in the Council of Trent, which is Scripture to the Roman Catholic leadership. Yes, yes, there are born-again Catholics. I have friends who are born-again Catholics that are, and they'll admit I'm a Catholic, you know, I'm born again, not because of the church, but in spite of it. And they don't agree with this, but the dogma of the church. uses the word anathema to say if anyone believes in faith alone, They are to be anathema.
So they damn to hell. Basically anyone that believes Galatians. 1, 8, and 9, which damns everyone to hell who adds to the gospel, which they do. In Roman Catholic theology.
Now, I'm hoping they'll retract that one day. I'm hoping that, you know, but unless they do, there's no way we can say that that's a biblical church and that's biblical doctrine. And but it doesn't mean we need to be gracious in how we discuss it, but that's exactly what. their scripture say, their dogma, their tradition, their council say, And it's a head-on collision. With Galatians 1, 8, 9, including Mormonism, which is another angel.
This angel Moroni that Joseph Smith, where he got all these other fabrications and they call themselves another gospel. And so it really sets off a whole lot of things, but we don't want to forget about the first century church that was embattled by these folks that he's talking directly to. I don't want to take it too hard. I'll tell you turn or departure from what we're talking about, but it's very important. No, it's very important.
And I'll tell you a little story and I'll leave names off just because. I don't want to stir up controversy, but I have a very good friend who years ago put me on a radio broadcast. after the death of a very popular pope. and asked me if I thought that Pope was in heaven. And I had to answer that.
Honestly. And I chuckle and you and I chuckle because you and I both know how that unfolded. Oh, I know. And I'm glad you were on the show with me that day on my actual rating. You turkey, I said I wasn't going to say.
Hey, listen, we needed the ratings, brother. We needed the ratings. Because nobody else would come on. You just had me on because nobody else would come on. Oh, God.
So, anyway, but if you remember how I answered that question, I've never, because the minute you asked me that question, I asked the Lord for help because there were many things about that Pope I respected. There were many things that man did that were worthy of praise on an earthly level. You know, what he did in so many areas was praiseworthy. And but when it came to the gospel. He was a false teacher.
And I said to you this. I said it to you this way. I said, I believe this Pope is a man of integrity. And if he did not believe what his own church teaches about salvation, I think he would have the integrity to say so.
So the only thing I can do is not assess his motives or his character. I can only say that he's a man of integrity, which I think he is. And he's leading a whole denomination who holds written statements about. baptism being required for salvation. and the Lord's table.
being required for forgiveness of sins. and alternative ways for people who are in purgatory to be fully saved if he actually believes those things. They add to the gospel in the very same kinds of ways that Paul is saying are anathema here in Galatians chapter 1. And so I'm not going to answer the question. I'm going to direct you to Paul.
What does Paul say? Where does Paul say somebody who holds those views is? No matter how many good things that person does and how highly he's regarded and respected for his work's sake. And I think an answer like that is a hard answer to give because you know it's not going to satisfy people. It really does attempt to honor the right parts of that man's life and legacy, but at the same time speak boldly and truthfully.
About His posture to what Paul's talking about here. And so, why would somebody do that? Why did so many evangelicals stay silent on a question like that? And I'm not going to judge anybody else's motives, but I had to come to verse 10. And verse 10 is a really important thing.
So let me just review. We said there's authority in verses 1 through 5. Paul is going to establish himself as an authorized messenger of the gospel, and he can't change its content.
So he's going to define it. And that's what he does in verse three. He is going to express astonishment in verses six and seven at the radical departure that has come into their mix by religious teachers who are adding to the gospel things like circumcision. You've got Roman Catholicism that added to the gospel of grace things like baptism. and things like taking the Lord's table and things like penance.
And the sacraments, right? And then he pronounces in no, twice, he says it twice. A strong anathema on anybody who does that. If you bring that kind of a gospel, that is a damnable offense. and he pronounces an anathema on that gospel and on the ones bringing it.
And then you have to come to verse 10 because You know this is going to cost Paul. You know, somebody stands up in a public forum like I'm doing on this show, and you know, people are going to go, that's just a bigoted Baptist. That dude, I loved what he had to say up to this point. I can't believe he would say that about Roman Catholicism. I mean, he should have enough respect to just say, look, I disagree with it, but to actually use the word anathema for that, that dude crossed the line.
So, why would the Apostle Paul cross a line like that? And why would somebody like me feel compelled to cross a line like that? And verse 10 is the answer. Paul said, Am I seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man?
If I were still trying to please men, I would not be the servant of Christ. Here's the thing. Paul says, I have one ambition. And my ambition is I want to please the one who commissioned me to be a messenger of the gospel. And that's why verse one is so important.
The one who commissioned me to this mission. and who authorized me to announce this message. Is it a man? It isn't the apostles in Jerusalem. They're going to verify that I'm preaching the right gospel in chapter two, but they're not the ones who authorized me to do this.
They're not the ones who commissioned me. I am not an apostle because Peter, James, and John put their hands on me. I'm an apostle because Jesus Christ and God the Father authorized me and commissioned me, and I don't have the right. To to Change the message so I can get the approval of these Judaizers. I realize.
that from this day forward The minute I write verses eight and nine, I know from this day forward that group of men are going to pursue me, they're going to hate me, they're going to spread lies about me. We're going to read about them in Second Corinthians, we're going to see them pop up constantly. In the churches, these men began to hound Paul, and Paul knew that. He knew from day one. The minute I write this, the minute this gets.
Into this letter, and this letter gets to those churches, and this word gets out. I am toast. And at that moment, Paul had to make a decision. Am I going to please God or am I going to please man? And Paul's answer is this, I have one ambition.
I want to be. A servant. Of Christ. And that's really our ambition, right? There are times where we just need to be careful and gracious and kind, and we need to season our speech.
with grace so that we're not needlessly offensive. We need to be respectful of others who disagree with us. You know, when somebody has a different sexual identity or somebody has a different religion than we do, they're still image bearers. And as image bearers, we owe them the respect that we would give to any image bearer who bears God's image. But at the same time, We have to be bold at times when we're called upon in the defense of the gospel.
And that's what Paul is saying. I have one ambition in life, and that is to please God and to serve Christ. And if you don't get anything else out of this book, if you get all the way through six chapters and you don't get anything else out of this book, here's the point of the gospel. It gives you a new purpose in life. It tells you what to live for.
Paul says, I have one ambition. I want to please God and I want to serve Christ. And if, if, you know, that's in my mind, Steve, that's the greatest. Proof of the gospel because we're not born with that, right? I was born not wanting to serve God or not wanting to please God and not wanting to serve Christ.
I wanted to please myself and I wanted everybody else to serve me.
So, what is the only thing powerful enough to change that? And it's the gospel. And so. You know, this is just an amazing section that I think. Um you know, we have before us guarding the purity of the gospel.
Uh, embracing the demands of the gospel, understanding the components of the gospel, and then living for that as an Yeah, it's so rich. And Dr. Horn, I want to make sure, you know, there's really two sides of this that are both so important. One is extolling. this rich gospel that you know we're back to verse Verse 4, where Paul just jumps almost into this doxology.
Before he says, To God be the glory, he says, He delivered us from sin, from this evil age.
So, this is a book that elevates and extols the gospel above all. But it also is talking about guarding. You know, Jude, at the end of the book of Jude, he says, you gotta guard this truth, this established truth, you gotta protect it, it's sacred. And so both components were there, and Paul would take that. Paul would die for the gospel.
I mean, he would live this out to his death. John Huss, you think of him, you think of William Tyndo, you think of the great martyrs killed by the Roman Catholic Church. Because they held to the sacred view of scripture and to the biblical view of salvation by faith alone. Through grace alone, through Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. But is this the question?
It demands our. Response: Is this worthy of living for and living in by its power? Is this worthy of dying for? And that's a brilliant passage, and I love how you laid it out. I'd love for you to pray us out of here, Dr.
Horn. Maybe share those five A's again, will you, for the four A's again for the guys that aren't as quick of learners like your co-host here. And then pray us out of here.
So, first day is authority, verses one through five. Paul says, I'm an authorized messenger. of a gospel that God has authorized as the way for people to be made right with him. And so I don't get to change the components of the gospel, and neither do you.
So, you know, authority in verses one through five. And then there's astonishment in verses six through seven. How did the gospel that was so clear to you when I preached it to you become so muddy when these false teachers came in your mix and now they persuaded you to add Moses in.
So there's astonishment. We ought to be astonished. at how many people Embrace the idea that you need to be baptized to be saved. Or you need to take communion to have forgiveness of sins, to be forgiven of a mortal sin. You need to offer an indulgence in order to get out of purgatory.
Or I know the official dogma is to back a little bit away from Mary being a co-redemptrix, but that's only recent for decades under full papal infallibility. Mary has been a co-redemptor. How in the world did you get that idea? From the gospel that is in the one authorized person, Paul.
So there's an astonishment. We ought to be astonished by that. And then there's an anathema. Paul said: listen, if you do this, If you embrace this. And or you teach this.
You are embracing something that's going to damn you. This is a damnable gospel. This is a gospel over which I am anathematizing. Not the true gospel, but the gospel that brings Moses in, or the gospel that Roman Catholicism teaches. You embrace that, and you're going to be damned.
That's a really strong term. And then the fourth word is ambition. Paul says, I have one holy ambition, and that is to please God and not man, and to serve Christ. and the gospel. And I'm going to devote my entire life.
And if it means I'm going to be persecuted and lied about. And just hounded by these dutyizers, so be it. I am going to serve. I'm going to please God and serve the gospel. And that really has to be our own ambition.
So, well, let me pray for us here, Lord. As we come before you and we bring this teaching on the airwaves and in the social media delivery systems that it goes to our leaders, and we pray that you would bless it. I pray that. you would help this not to be misunderstood. or the spirit not to be misunderstood.
Help everyone to understand the graciousness that we intend in saying these things. But Lord, we're in a text where Paul uses these kinds of words and we don't have the authority to change Paul any more than Paul had the authority to change the gospel.
So we're just following what Paul did. We want to please you and we want to serve Christ. And so help us to do that in sincerity in the world. Thank you, Dr. Horne, and thank you for joining us for this Wednesday in the Word podcast.
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He is a shield to those who put their trust in him. Proverbs 30 verse 5.
