So let's read verses 6 through 10 but we'll kind of, I'll give just a brief on 6 and 7 and we'll start in on 8 because we didn't really capture 8. Verse 6 says, I am astonished that you were so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Verse 7, not that there is another gospel, or not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. Verse 8, But even if we were an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. Nine, as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Verse 10, for am I now seeking the Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. And remember that in verse 6, his astonishment on the negative side, on a sadder note, he says, as the English Standard Version says, you're quick to embrace this other gospel. You're quick to embrace works. And what it was was they were so easily persuaded, if you recall, is what we looked at last week. It's not that just because they were fresh converts or that it was a new church. It's just that they were easily swayed and easily turned, and that's what astonished Paul. He gives the sense that when he planted the churches in Lystra and in Derbe and Antioch of Pisidia and Iconium. In those churches along the way in his second missionary journey, he really established the gospel. We can see that even later on when he gets to Macedonia in Thessalonica. He must be there for probably at the most three weeks, but he was telling him about the second coming of the Lord. So he was really getting into the scriptures and making sure that they understood the gospel of grace. And in verse seven, the thing that we noted was that he says, he uses terminology that almost sounds contradictory, but he says, this is another gospel. They're presenting it at the gospel, but there's not another one. There's only one true gospel. We're using that word of good news, gospel, or the Greek word, Euaglion, we're using that, he's using that word. He says they're using that word, but it's not a gospel. It's not good news. It's bad news. It's putting you into bondage. And so verse 7, he says that these, these troublers, that it says in the English Standard Version, it says these that trouble you, Last week we looked at it that they were disturbers. Somebody that's stirring up the pot just by bringing that in and in there disturbing them. They were distorting the gospel. They were perverting the gospel. Because when we add anything to grace, it's not grace. Love. I was talking with somebody recently and they were talking about godly fear. Which, you know, it was covered in the Pilgrim's Progress in our reading there. But godly fear for the Christian, if it doesn't have love, it's not true godly fear. because that fear springs forth from love and therefore that reverence that we have, being careful that we're afraid that we will break the heart of the one that we love, the Lord Jesus, and then that love extends even unto brothers and sisters. God forbid that we would be such people that wouldn't be heartbroken over, you know, an offense that we might cause for a brother to stumble because it should spring forth. I'm afraid, I fear, this is what this fear is about in love. I don't want to break the Lord's heart by taking someone else that he has saved and cause them to sin or cause them to stumble. And when we start moving in that direction, boy, are we really moving along with keeping the Lord's commandments, that this is the commandment I've given you, that you love one another as I have loved you, John 13, 35. So in the King James Version, verse eight, which is where we left off last week, but though we were an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed." And that word accursed is the Greek word anathema. And we know, we see, he uses it twice. He uses it again in verse 9. But he makes such a strong appeal. You've heard the gospel. It's been preached. This church has been planted. Leaders have been established. Timothy has come along with me. And if an angel even came, or if I came back and preached to you a different gospel, then I should be accursed. So he uses very strong language right up at the beginning. Then he'll lay out logically why this should be, that this false gospel should be shunned. Mr. Spurgeon says this in verse eight. He says, Paul is no fanatic, no raving enthusiast, yet he cannot endure the notion of a false gospel. In his solemn anathema, he includes himself and all the brethren with him, yea, and the very angels of God, if they preach another gospel. Let him be accursed, saith he, and so he is." And that's a quote from Mr. Spurgeon's exposition. found in the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Paul was not saying that such were barred from communion as say, for example, the Roman Catholic Church might do. Well, you know what, they are committing a bit of heresy here and so now we'll disbar them from communion. They cannot partake of that. which means that they'll have to go to purgatory if they die before then and someone will have to pray them out. It's nothing like that. He is saying that the heresy itself, the heretical unbelief barred them from true communion automatically. Just like what we had this morning when we looked at communion, the fellowship we have with Christ. Our fellowship exists because Christ went to the cross. And since we're saved, we have fellowship with him automatically. But if we end up believing something other than by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to scripture alone, for God's glory alone, When we've departed from that, we've actually departed from the faith. The communion that we have with Christ has grieved the Holy Spirit because we're adopting a different gospel. So Paul's not pronouncing a curse upon them with an anathema. He's not saying to go against every heretic that preaches a heretical doctrine. He's saying that the doctrine itself that they are, by their heretical doctrine, lacking God's grace, and therefore should be recipients of God's grace. If they are heretics, we should present to them the truth of the gospel. He's saying that they're lacking salvation. So, of course, he can't, they're already, let me say it this way, let me slow down. They're already cursed. So he's not cursing the people that are bringing in the doctrine. If they're preaching that, then they lack grace, and therefore they lack salvation. So he's not bringing a curse to them. He is saying that that doctrine, we should treat that doctrine as if it's an accursed thing, that it is something that we don't want whatsoever. Because remember, let's see, Ephesians 2 verse 3, where it says that among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." Ephesians 2 verse 3. So these people that are bringing this, and we suspect that they were Judaizers, they were men from Jerusalem, they were saying, now that's great that you believe in Jesus, but you need to add circumcision to it. Otherwise it's not a complete gospel. He was saying that the wrath of God already abides on them because they are perverting grace. And if that's what they're teaching, in order to confound the people in Galatia, in the churches of Galatia, in Derbe, in Lystra, and in Iconium, then they are already, the cursedness is already upon them. The King James Version of verse 9 says, As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that we have received, let him be accursed. Just like amen, amen. Here Paul says, he repeats almost the same thing, but As a Jew, he's using a Hebrew emphasis. This is how strongly we should take this measured warning about this adding to grace. Mr. Spurgeon says this of verse 9. Quote, the modern style of speaking is, let us fraternize with him. He is a man of original thought. Surely you would not bind all men down to one mode of speech. Perhaps if he has made mistakes, you will bring him around to your way of thinking by receiving him kindly into your fellowship. No, no, says Paul. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. That was Charles Spurgeon that was bringing that quote. He was saying, well, you know, well, they're, you know, the wrath of God is already upon them, so let's bring them into the fellowship. But one of the things that we do note with this is that Paul's language is such to put that down, that they weren't just in the fellowship sharing something. Well, here's an idea. These people were making their way into the leadership. Brother Mike. The ones that are bringing in the... Yes, these troublers, these disturbers, they are accursed. And this is the point Paul is making. Yes, sir. Right. Their only recourse is either to stop and listen, walk away, or get converted. Right. It's exactly what Hopeful and Christian were talking about as far as those who are ignorant of the gospel. That they'll use such things as the dog turning again to his own vomit. As they regurgitate things that will bring up sin. Grace. The gospel of grace does expose sin for what it is. That there's nothing that we can do. So Yes, they'll want to argue, they'll want to debate with us, with Christians sometimes. You'll come across someone who will want to debate. And the reason why they are is that list that Christian was talking about, picking holes in those who are godly. And eventually they're outside of, they may be outside of the fellowship. Eventually they'll go to a place where they're outright attacking our godly lives that grow in grace and are strengthened in faith. They have much of their selves that is elevated because it's based on what they have done. Their gospel, if we can call it that, Paul goes to great lengths to say it's not a gospel, is they elevate themselves because it's based on what they have done. And what they do is they degrade the cross because they're saying that what Jesus has done isn't enough. We have to do something. And so let's be circumcised. Or if we put it in today's terminology, let's be baptized. We're adding baptism to salvation. Now baptism is an expression of what Christ has already done. The communion, partaking of that, is just an expression of what Christ has already done. So then when they group themselves into a fellowship, they're actually just in competition with the gospel. They are in competition. This is why they're distorters, perverters, and disturbers. When he uses the word troublers, there's these folks that have come in and they're troubling the gospel. They have not deserted the gospel. They may not have ever even received the gospel because their emphasis is on something other than the grace that abounds from the gospel. Paul reinforces this gospel in verse 9. Paul reinforces that the gospel he has delivered to them is unchanging. He gave them the complete gospel of grace in Christ when the churches were planted in Galatia. And even if he showed up a third or fourth or even a tenth time, he would say, don't believe me. Believe what you have heard as the gospel. And so we never hear of that ever happening with Paul. But we have heard, and he's going to mention it as we move on in Galatians, of others that have done that. Peter and Barnabas, who by these guys coming in, they were moved to, well, let's move away from the Gentiles and start eating now with the Jews. And so this is why when Paul writes this letter, he's right at this particular point. He's saying, if it even happened to me, because it's happened to Peter, and Peter was rebuked openly by Paul because of it. In verse 10, it says in the King James Version, for do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Mr. Spurgeon says this about verse 10, quote, He would not be the servant of Christ if he pleased men. Those whom we try to please are our masters. If a man tries to please the populace or to please the refined few, these are his masters and he will be their flair. But if he tries to please his God, then he is a free man indeed." I love how Mr. Spurgeon says so much in just so few words. Paul presents the strong conviction of his steadfast loyalty to Christ here in verse 10. And even if he were to backslide, again just to emphasize that, and failed to preach the gospel he delivered at first, he says we shouldn't listen to it. But here the true gospel, the one preached in the beginning that Paul preached, is the one that he maintained. And interestingly we do have a track record for Apostle Paul, and I believe that Paul wrote this from his fourth missionary journey. There are others that believe, as I mentioned when we first started out, there are some that believe that this was earlier, may have been written earlier. They may be right, I may be wrong, but it seems to make more sense that now as it's crept into some of the churches by this time, it's starting to take a foothold because he mentions the same thing in Philippi, which is in Macedonia. more to the west of where Galatia is. And in Philippians he mentions this, that these Judaizers, these circumcisers, he calls them, he says, in one place, I wish that they were emasculated. Here they want to cut the flesh. I wish that they were, you know, basically saying, these guys want to circumcise you? I wish that they were castrated, is basically what he's saying. That's how firmly he's trying to make the point that this is not of God, because it's not of grace. Remember Matthew 6 verse 24, no man can serve two masters as a reference for verse 10. No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot save God and money. It may be a money thing. He was saying in the King James Version, he says, you cannot serve God and mammon. And that's the context of what Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount. However, the verse is very appropriate to what he says here in verse 10. Am I serving men or am I serving God? We can't have two masters. We must be servants to one. And that's where Paul concludes that opening. One of the most powerful openings of the letters that Paul writes is this one, because of the correction that it's being made. I just want to emphasize that point. When we read it, the reason why it sounds a little bit redundant, as if he's using, well, if they preach another gospel, it's not really another gospel because there's only one gospel, and it sounds almost like redundant, is because he's making such an emphatic point that that confounds our faith, that shipwrecks the grace of God in Jesus Christ, and we just cannot have that. And since we have the testimony of Paul from the very beginning, from Acts chapter 9 in his conversion on the road to Damascus all the way to his epistles from prison, And in fact, his second Timothy, which is his second imprisonment, here is one who by God's grace has stayed consistent with the gospel all throughout the New Testament. Every letter of Paul's is a gem that stays on the gospel of grace for Christ's exaltation. Any questions or comments? Yes, sister. Oh, at this particular time? Yes, ma'am. I believe some of like, for example, some of the earlier letters of Paul like through his third missionary journey. They probably at this particular time they probably had the letter to the letters to the Corinthians probably by this time until Yes, ma'am they did and Historically what we see if you all didn't get that question sister Vicki asked about did they have other letters besides this one to the Galatians if this was his fourth missionary journey, which I believe that it was and More than likely, they had the letters to the Thessalonians, both first and second. They probably had the epistle of James. And historically, the historical record presents that the writing of the New Testament and making the copies was very profound in the late 60s, early 70s, all the way up until John was taken away from, when he was arrested in Ephesus and then placed in the boiling oil, it was at that time, about that time, around the early 90s, when John was arrested, that Domitian was gathering up all the New Testament letters and burning them. And he didn't get them all, but there was, historically they said that there was so many letters written by the 90s and 30 years that they pretty much had basically the whole, every one of the churches had the New Testament by that time. But they had to rewrite them again because Domitian was fairly thorough and the volume of those letters. So I would suggest that by the time that this was written, Paul was beheaded in 68 A.D. So by the time this was written, they had ten years to write. And it sounds like, from a historical standpoint, that the New Testament, they were very copious in copying down the New Testament, if I could put it that way, no pun intended. So, good question. Thank you. Brother Mike, you had something? So, Paul's comment about this emasculation, he's probably saying that these people almost put me in the flesh. Yeah, I guess he could say that. That there was, in fact, he hints of this. It says that, what he's saying also, to paraphrase some of what he was saying in this little section, if I come in to preach another gospel, see, I am, the corruptions that are still remaining in my mortal flesh, though I'm an apostle, I still, I can have, that can be me. There but by God's grace go I. And so this is such that you were so easily turned because that's what our flesh wants. It wants to exalt what we do and not exalt the grace of God in Christ alone. And this is why I believe that the Lord really placed the Galatians as a great place to go next for our Sunday evening because it's a dangerous topic. our flesh will do everything that it can in order to add something that we can boast in. And that's the enemy of grace and it's the enemy of the cross. So, good questions. Let me close it in prayer. Our most blessed and gracious God and Father, I thank you for Sunday evening Bible study, and when I say that, you know that I'm talking of the folks that come and want to hear your word and hear from you and live a life that is exalting to Christ and glorifying to you, Heavenly Father. Lord Jesus, thank you for your death upon the cross and the sacrifice that you've made. And may the blessing of your grace apply to our lives. May that run through and through, through our very veins. and in our blood and through the very marrow of our bones. May that be the work that you're working in us that we may work it out in the reality of what we are. what we have in our lives until you come. So we thank you for the study that you've given us. We thank you for saving us and for the love of one another that you've given us, and most especially for the love that you've given us for you. And we ask that we may love you as one of my brother's favorite hymns is, Oh, How I Love Jesus. We pray that that might be a hymn upon our lips every day. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen.