I hope you can say amen to the message of that song, and that's in your heart as we look to the law of God, the scripture, that you love it, desire to know it, and want to obey it. I want you to turn to chapter six, which is the final chapter in Galatians. And believe it or not, we have reached the final section of this letter. These are the concluding remarks that Paul makes to the believers in Galatia. And according to my file, I'm on sermon number 50 in Galatians. I want you to turn to chapter six and scan down the page until you see the larger print there. You see where the writing changes from the smaller cursive script to those larger Greek unseals. Well, you probably don't, because you're not looking at the original letter, but a printed copy of a translation. But if you did have the original in front of you, you would notice a significant change in the handwriting. Both as to the style in which it was written and to the size of the actual letters. beginning in what we call verse 11 and running down through the end of the letter. Look at verse 11. You see how large a letter, or better, with what large letters I have written unto you with my own hand. Now, it may appear when you look at verse 11 that he's saying that Paul wrote here the whole letter with his own hand, and some do take it to mean that, But it's much more likely that this is a form of the verb that we would call an epistolary aorist, which should be translated this way. You don't have to learn the term, but it would be better translated this way. I am now writing. And that would make the autograph portion of Paul's letter to run from verse 11 down through verse 18. This is now Paul writing in his own hand. Now, there is a study. In fact, there are a couple of universities in Italy where you can go and get an accredited degree in graphology. It's a study and analysis of handwriting, especially in relationship to human psychology. The people that do this are called graphoanalysts. And what they engage in is graphology. In fact, there is a society called the International Graphical Analysis Society, IGAS. Its membership peaked back in the 70s. It had more than 50,000 members. And in 2002, it was closed, but it was reopened in the next year. And it's still a society today out of Pennsylvania, one that you can join. And what they do is they teach you a certain form, their form, of how to analyze people's handwriting and their different schools of graphology. There's people that believe in integrative graphology. That is an approach that believes that specific traits of handwriting reveals personality traits in the person that's writing. There's a school that is called holistic graphology, which I'm too scared to figure out exactly what they mean by that. There's also what's called symbolic analysis, and that describes meaning to the stroke depending upon the picture. that the stroke draws. For example, John Wayne's signature shows a blackened out portion that represents his lung cancer. That makes sense, doesn't it? Well, I don't think there'd be much profit in grapho analyzing Paul's writing if it were even possible, but it's not because we don't have the original manuscripts that were written by Paul. However, some have tried to analyze exactly why Paul would write and why he would write in such large letters, why he would call attention to his large handwriting. And some have supposed that it was because of poor eyesight. In fact, if you'll glance back at chapter four and verse 15, he speaks about how he first came to this region of Galatia. And he says in verse 14, I think that it was because of a bodily illness. And then he makes this common in 4.15, where then is the blessedness you spoke of? For I bear you record that if had it been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. And some think that perhaps he's referring to some physical ailment with his eyes. And they would have been willing to give their own good eyes to exchange of Paul's bad eyes. And so when he picks up to write, he has very large handwriting. Well, there's also been suggestion that his hand was twisted or defective as a result of some harsh persecution he had received. There's also the reflection that possibly this is simply the fact that he wrote not as a professional scribe who was trained in Greek writing, but he wrote more as a man accustomed to shaping leather and making tents. Perhaps it attests to the fact that Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews and was more familiar with the large Semitic Hebrew letters than the small Greek letters. But whatever the reason may be for his large handwriting, the Holy Spirit does want us to know, even in the 21st century, that at this point Paul takes up the quill and begins to write the letter with his own hand and in his own distinctive style. Now, this is not to say that the rest of Galatians is not from Paul. The whole letter comes from Paul. But as people do today, who have the luxury of having a secretary, so many people did back then. They would dictate their letters to a secretary who was called an amanuensis. And that person would write down for the person the writing. Because it was more complicated to write in that day than it is even in our day. All the letters were run together, and all the words were run together, and all the paragraphs were run together, and all you just had was line after line after line of letters. In fact, I want to show you one example of this. Go to Romans chapter 16, which is the last chapter of Romans, and we'll be coming back later. And look at verse 21 through 23, Romans 16. It says, 16.21 says, Timothy, my work fellow. So this is Paul speaking. He's my work fellow. He's my fellow worker. And Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen, salutes you. Now look at verse 22. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salutes you in the Lord. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salutes you in the Lord. And then verse 23. Gaius, my host. So we're back to Paul speaking. And the whole church salutes you. And he goes on. But right there in verse 22 you have A little clue into how Romans was written. It was a letter from Paul, but Tertius was actually the one writing it down. And right there in the middle of salutation, he takes a little time to give his own greeting to the people. Now, it seems that most, if not all, of Paul's letters were actually written by a secretary friend, an amanuensis. Let me suggest two reasons, and these are just suggestions. Well, no, I think that they can be backed up, and I'd like to try that. Two reasons why Paul takes the quill into his own hand at this point. This won't change your life. This won't get you out of debt in six months. But I do think it is significant and interesting. The first reason is authentication. Authentication. Because though Paul uses a secretary, he's careful to add his own distinctive and authenticating touch to all his letters. And I want us to see two examples of this, so that we really get a feel of what's going on here. Go to Colossians chapter 4, and then we'll go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. But in Colossians chapter 4, verse 17, he's reaching the end of that letter. And just like with the other letters, he's going to pick up his pen. Look what he does. Colossians 4, 17. I say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it, the salutation by the hand of me, Paul. That is, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen. So verse 18 there, the final verse, is a little salutation by Paul's own hand, his own signature or autograph. Go to 2 Thessalonians and look what was happening in that day. Second Thessalonians and look at chapter two at the beginning of that chapter. Paul's writing to these people and they had been troubled. They had been received misinformation and wrong theology about the coming of the Lord. In fact, some people had come in and said even that the coming had already come and Christ had already returned. And now they're wondering if they missed the boat. And so he writes in 2 Thessalonians 2, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled. How could you be troubled? Either by spirit or by word or by letter as from us. You see that? Don't be troubled by a letter that seems to come from us. So they'd obviously received a letter that was purported to be from Paul. but really wasn't from Paul and was full of bad theology. And he says, now don't get troubled by those four false Pauline letters. And then verse 3 says, let no man deceive you by any means. So how is Paul then going to assure them that this present letter is genuine? Well, look at the last chapter. Look at chapter 3. And look at verse 17 and 18. The salutation of Paul with mine own hand. Then he says this, which is the token in every epistle. See, every single letter I write, this is the token. It can be translated this way. This is a distinguishing mark in every letter. So I write. This is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. He says, to every letter I append my distinguishing token or mark. So you know, this is me. This is the way I write. And Paul must have been like me. I can at least claim kinship with Paul in this regard. And that is that his writing was very distinctive from everybody else. So when Paul comes to Galatians chapter six and we can go back there now. He picks up his pen there in verse 11 from his amanuensis, from his secretary, and he begins to write in his own writing, and it serves as his distinguishing mark. It was his authenticating the letter as genuine. So someone says, well, how do we know that Galatians is really written by Paul and not by a pseudo Paul? Well, he provided an authentic autograph that was recognized and admitted to be such by the original recipients of this letter. So that's one reason, authentication. But here's what's unusual about Galatians from all the other books. In the other books, it's I greet you, Paul, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. In Galatians. We notice that what is unusual is the length of that autograph section, verse 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. This is not found in any of the other letters. And I think there's more going on here than simple authentication. Paul handwrites this comparatively lengthy ending to make a point, to emphasize one last time his point. And so I think we could say that it's here for the sake of emphasis. On the one hand, authentication, like the other letters, but here he's going to write a lengthy ending with his own hand to make a point for the sake of emphasis. He's going to sum up his arguments. He's going to come back with one final blow against his enemies, with one final appeal to his people on how to live. And he wants to emphasize this by taking the quill into his own hands. Lightfoot, the commentator, I think, says it best. Quote, the boldness of the handwriting answers to the force of the apostles' convictions. The size of the characters will arrest the attention of his readers in spite of themselves. So Paul makes a deliberate choice. to put these final words in his own large, perhaps awkward handwriting. Why? To authenticate them and to emphasize them. Well, what is he trying to emphasize? Well, let's look at the text now. Galatians chapter six. See how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand, and I'm not going to preach a whole sermon on large handwriting, so we're going to read on. as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh. They constrain you to be circumcised, only lest, or so that not, they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised, so that they may glory in your flesh." They want to glory, and they want a glory in your flesh, but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy upon the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. You know that for all of us, there are topics, there are issues, certain opinions that we might call very personal. And all someone has to do in a conversation is bring that topic up and our antennas go up, our minds jump into full gear. And our emotions begin to twinge with whatever emotion that brings up, whether it's excitement, whether it's fear, whether it's anger. For some, it might be the word Democrat. For others, it might be the NBA. For others, it might be a specific experience in your past. For others, it may be a certain individual. Maybe a specific view of personal finances, maybe a political viewpoint, maybe a theological distinctive. But it's something or someone or some opinion that you hold very dear and you're going to immediately resent any attempt to deny it or disgrace it or somehow take it away. And the Judaizers had something like that. They had something very personal to them, very meaningful to them. Something that in itself would sound very odd if it were taken out of its context. But for them, it represented all their heritage. It represented their identity. It represented their race. It represented their whole religion. Their specialness, if you want, in distinction from all the other nations. And thus, they guarded it. I mean, they defended it. And they sought to defame and to destroy anybody else who would seek to minimize it. And it was a practice of circumcision. Paul describes them again. Look in verse 12. They desire to make a fair show in the flesh and they constrain you to be circumcised only so they should not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised, that you may glory in your flesh." You know, Paul had something like that that was precious to him. And for Paul, it was a most unusual obsession. It was, of all things, an instrument of torture and death. It was a symbol of shame. And thus it was an offence to the Romans and it was a stumbling block to the Jews. It was something that was really so shameful, so loathsome and horrible that according to Cicero. It was unmentionable in polite Roman society. And so when someone was condemned to die in this gruesome way, the polite Roman citizens had a euphemistic expression. They would say, abori infelici suspendito, that is, hang him on the unlucky tree. And here at the close of his letter, Paul just grabs the quill from his friend and he boldly and emphatically and with large letters, he draws his proverbial line in the sand. Here's where they really stand, verse 12 and 13. That's where they really stand. And here's where I stand, verse 14. God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the emphatic question left unasked is where do you stand? Look at these Judaizers, these compromisers. I want us to consider verses 12 and 13 And what I'm calling exposing gospel compromises. I want us to once again look at the text. I cannot have you look back at your Bible too many times to do me the favor of doing that again. Verse 12, as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. That's what they're all about. Why? Only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. What do they do? What's their actual practice? Well, for neither they themselves who are circumcised, they don't keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may glory in your flesh. Paul has been fighting these Judaizers tooth and nail through the whole letter. I mean, really, it's a battle kind of letter. And here he is with his one final parting blow. He's just going to get one last punch in there before he ends the letter. The Judaizers were teaching a false gospel. In fact, go back to chapter one. Look at verse seven. Look at the second part of that verse. And this is how he first refers to them. Chapter one, verse seven, second part. There be some that trouble you. So they're troublemakers. Ah, what's their trouble? They would pervert the gospel of Christ. The biggest troublemakers in the church are those who are perverting and distorting the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Paul's reference to them here back in chapter six now is significant because we learn what exactly they were trying to do. How are they exactly trying to pervert the gospel? And that is we learn the precise point at which they were attacking Paul and perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so he says there, chapter six, verse twelve, As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you. It is to be circumcised. So here was their point of contention. They were insisting on the physical right of circumcision, which was the mark of identification with ethnic Israel. You are a Jew. And they were insisting on that and they were making this a condition of salvation or at least of spiritual profit. If you want to be a good Christian, you have to do. We call them Judaizers. And they were saying what Paul taught you was fine, but he didn't go far enough. Now you need to come and do it. Look, we come from Jerusalem. We're pals with the apostles down there. We know what we're saying. You must be circumcised. In fact, in Acts chapter 15, verse one, it says that certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. And that's what they were teaching. And what they were doing is they were qualifying the grace of God. They're saying you can have the grace of God if you do this. And that's what was so damaging about it. Now, this is the specific way in which they were compromising the gospel. Insisting on circumcision. But I'm going to argue that what can be said here about these teachers can be said about all false teachers. If Paul had written these verses today, He'd get run out of town. I mean, he would get just excoriated on the blogs for being un-Christian, unkind, bigoted, and a whole bunch of other things. Because what he does here is he attacks their motives. And if there's one big taboo in our Christian world, it's to question someone's motives, right? And yet Paul links gospel compromise with improper motives. So I want us to consider then about these compromisers, I want us to consider first of all their motivations. What is motivating these gospel compromisers? And he points out two things. In his final blow, he goes right for the heart of the matter, and he says, let me tell you why they're doing this. Look at it. Verse 12. As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh. We could label the first one simply self-promotion. They were really into spiritual self-aggrandizements. However you say that word. And the flesh here, then when it's used there in verse 12, to make a fair show in the flesh, the flesh is used here in the sense of that which is external rather than that which is internal. Externally, visibly, where everybody can see. They want to make a fair showing, a word that's only used here. It's not used anywhere else in the scripture. The NIV says those who want to make a good impression outwardly, Phillips paraphrases it this way. Those who want, quote, to present a pleasing front to the world. And even looser paraphrase from the message says they want an easy way to look good before others, but that's what it's saying. And this is what was driving those Judaizers, they wanted to look good. And Paul's not OK, Paul's not saying that they're There is no element of sincerity and no element of conviction among his opponents. But what he is saying is that underneath that conviction, underlying that pseudo sincerity is a more sinister and self-serving motivation. You know what that tells me? It tells me that the easiest way to compromise the gospel, to swallow and then to begin propagating a false doctrine is to have as a controlling passion and desire, well, a desire to look good. See, what that tells me is that people who have as their controlling passion a desire to make a fair showing in the flesh are headed right down the road towards theological error and gospel conformance. Because pride always leads to destruction, even theologically. And that should be a warning because pride is never an isolated sin. Pride always brings with it its bedfellows, and one of them is these. And who doesn't want to look good? Anybody here? Really? You don't want to look good before others? But if you start running with a certain crowd and insisting, let's say you're insisting on the exclusivity of the gospel. And that just doesn't look good in that crowd. And so you begin to hem and to hawn. You begin to look for ways to soften it. And pretty soon you discover that you don't even really believe it after a while. I mean, really, you just don't believe that anymore. Because your desires are no longer for the pure gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your desires are to fit in. And so your theology follows your ambitions. It's a scary thing. It's a frightening thing. And the Christian world is rife with gospel compromisers. Let's take any of the mainline denominations. Let's take the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of churches here in this county, and let's consider the majority of them, and they're rife with compromise. And the question is, is it right to associate compromise with faulty motives? Is it right for us to call into question their motives? Let's take an evangelist who begins to compromise the gospel. He might call himself Christian, but he begins to compromise the gospel, to fudge on the exclusivity of Christ. Is it right to question his motives? We'll go to Romans 16. I'm sorry we were there earlier. I should have told you to keep a finger there. Go to Romans 16. And look at verse 17, Paul has, of course, we know the wonderful book of Romans, and now he's drawing it to a close and he has one of one of his final commands for the believers. Romans 16, 17, he says, I beseech you, brethren, I'm begging you this. as an apostle, as one inspired by the Spirit of God. Brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses that are contrary to the doctrine which you have learned. That is Romans 1-15. Look for those guys that are creating new categories of Christians, new categories of truth that are contrary to the truth I've just taught you in this book. And he says, avoid them or better turn away from them. That active sense of turning away. This is the doctrine of separation from teachers who teach things contrary to the Bible. Turn away from them. But how do you explain this phenomenon of false teaching? I mean, why are there false teachers? Are they just really sincere but misguided? Now, let's let the Bible speak and look at verse 18. for they that are such for these people serve literally they are slaves not of the Lord Jesus Christ these people that teach this erroneous doctrine but notice this they're slaves of their own belly that is their own appetite And by good words and fair speeches, see, they're smooth talkers. Oh, they're excellent communicators. And through this, they deceive the hearts of the simple or the unsuspecting. Who's that? That's people who think can't think badly about anybody. Example, Barnabas, who had such a wonderful heart for people, which is a good thing, by the way. But in Galatians chapter 2, it's Barnabas that gets swept up in this air. It was unsuspecting. Notice the connection there. They do this because they're servants of their own belly. Now go to Philippians chapter 3 and look at verse 17 in that chapter. Because here he gets even more specific about what's behind these false teachers and gospel compromisers. And we need to understand this, people, because so often we treat it as some kind of intramural debate, you know, just among good people. And there's just disagreements. That's not at all the picture Paul is painting. Philippians 3.17, he says, Brethren, be followers together of me and mark them which walk as you have us, for an example. or mark those who walk according to the pattern we gave you. Then he says in verse 18, for many walk. So the distinguishing mark between good and bad examples is their walk. Follow them that walk like us, because there's many others that walk in a different way. Look at verse 18. For many walk of whom I pulled you off, and I now tell you even weeping, this moves him, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. See? They're God's enemies. They're enemies of the cross in which Paul gloried. whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. Now, he points, first of all, to their end. They're going to end in destruction. But notice these other three things that he says about these men. First of all, their deity. Whose God is their belly. And the actual word, by the way, is belly. And you can understand Paul to be speaking of two things. Either licentious libertines, And the description then would be simple. They simply make a god out of their sensual appetites. Whatever they want, that's their god. They're antinomians who delight in indulging the flesh without any compunction whatsoever. Slaves to their sensual impulses. They're unrestrained in their pursuit of pleasure. These would be the men who Jude calls ungodly persons who turn the grace of God into licentiousness. But you could take it actually to the other way and say that this passage actually is referring to Judaizers, like the people Paul has talked about in Galatians. Law-keeping legalists. And if you took it that way, you'd actually agree with the majority of Christian commentators, of early Christian commentators even, who took this expression to refer to the Jewish laws about food. And in this sense, Paul would be saying, That this is their God. That which they devoted themselves to is their belly. Their scrupulous observance of food laws became their belly gods, so to speak. They're all about what you ate, what you didn't eat, things like that. And the possibilities really are polar extremes, but they're in the sense of the same thing. The point is, in the end, that it's the same thing before God. Both have made a God out of their belly, and that's why they're preaching these things. That's why they're not walking according to the gospel. And that's why they're enemies of the cross of Christ. And then he says, he points out their indignity, or you could say the disgrace. He says their glory is actually in their shame. See that? So whatever it was, whether they're fleshly indulgent or self-sufficient adherence to the Mosaic law, it brought them shame. And they were taking the most pleasure in what, before God, was actually bringing shame. Imagine spending your whole life, and you get to the end, and you realize you poured your whole life into something shameful. That's what they were doing. And you notice their mentality. It says, who mind earthly things. The mentality is simply put, earthly, or earthbound. So whether their focus is on ceremonies, festivals, sacrifices, new moons, or whether it's on pleasure, vice, immorality, the focus is still earthly. And all such examples, whether they add to the gospel, whether they take away from the gospel, they make a mockery of grace, and they position themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. That's how Paul describes false teachers. Now, one more quick example, back in Galatians chapter one. Galatians chapter one, Paul refers to himself in verse 10. And he says, For do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? And then he says this. If I yet pleased men, if my life were about pleasing men, I would not be the servant of Christ. You see how he links those two things? If my life were about pleasing men, if that was my motivation, I would not be serving Christ, preaching truth. Your motivation and your doctrine are intimately connected, and there are other examples of scripture connecting false teaching with false motivations. Now, listen to me. Followers can be deceived. But a leader, it's interesting, in Sunday school there was mention of this, but a leader who persists in twisting the gospel in an unbiblical way has an unbiblical motive. You can't do the wrong thing for the right reason. Now you can do the right thing for the wrong reason, Paul says in Galatians, that are some who preach Christ out of envy and strife. Imagine that. A gospel preacher and he's doing it out of envy and strife for other preachers. You can do the right thing with the wrong motive. You can't give your life to the wrong thing with pure motives. So any gospel compromiser, he might He might be the sweetest man alive. He might have the smoothest and fairest speech. And he might defend himself with such graciousness and kindness. The Bible says in Romans, that's how they deceive. I mean, of course they're doing that. But their God is their belly. Their glory is in their shame. earthly things. So, exposing then the gospel compromisers, we see verse 12, that the people who do this are the ones who desire to make a fair showing in the flesh. So they constrain you. Later on in the next verse, it talks about how they want to glory in your flesh. They want to be able to say, Twenty-seven men who have been circumcised this month. Really, because, you know, that's easy to count. You've got hard fact numbers. You can come back and you have a really good presentation. And you're glorying in their flesh. This is why a lot of people compromise the gospel. They shade it, they twist it, they lower the demands. Because they know it's easier to get people to respond, to get hands to go up, to get signatures on cards, to be able to say we have this many decisions. And so out of motivation for self-promotion, the gospel is compromised. What a tragedy. But notice the second motivation. And there can be one or the other thing, be a mixture of these. Look at verse 12 again. As many as desire to make a fair showing in the flesh. They constrain you to be circumcised. And here's the other motivation. Only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. Only so that they won't suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. So on the one hand, you have self-promotion. And on the other hand, you have self-preservation. Why are they twisting in self-preservation? In other words, they're out to save their skin. Back in chapter 5, verse 11, Paul says, look, if I preach circumcision, why am I still suffering persecution? And he was pointing out that the persecution at this time was really focused on that point. And we don't understand, we don't have a knowledge of all the historical context with the Jews, but we know that the Zealots, even in Jerusalem, were very concerned that these Christian Jews were losing their Jewishness, so to speak. And they're probably being persecuted by other Jews. And yet, when you could go back to them and say, look, we're bringing it. No, no, no. Look, we got more people circumcised. We got more people following the law of Moses. That's what you're all about. You don't suffer persecution from that realm. And how many times are we silent? and by our silence disgrace the gospel? Or how many times do we fudge or soften or twist or compromise the gospel motivated by desire for self-preservation? I think this hits close to home. I think this is very close to. How we speak about Christianity and the gospel to our friends and relatives, even. So, first of all, we saw their motivations, we said it was on the one hand, self-promotion and on the other hand, self-preservation. Secondly, Paul points out their practice in this final blow, he's going to say, OK, here's what they actually do. And here, what Paul's drawing attention to is the great inconsistency between what they were demanding of others and what they themselves were practicing. So he's really pointing out their hypocritical practice. Look at verse 12. As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. So on the one hand, they're constraining people to be circumcised. Now, they're not physically putting people down and doing this, but they are They're using deceptions, they're lying about Paul, as we've already seen in this letter. They're name-calling and name-dropping. They're calling Paul names and they're dropping names like we know the apostles. They're using all these means, trickery and deceptions, to compel these people into being circumcised because they want glory in that. They seem to be zealous for the law, but notice what they themselves are doing. Look at verse 13. They that are circumcised themselves, neither keep the law. But they desire to have you circumcised so that they may glory in your flesh. In other words, those people, they themselves aren't keeping the law, he's saying. Now, circumcised, well, that's easy to do. Do it once and it's over. And it looks like they're all about the law. Do you want to know the truth? They're not even keeping the law themselves. It's exactly what Jesus charged the Pharisees with in Matthew 23. It says there that Jesus spoke to the multitude and his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sat in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they bid you to do, observe and do, but do not after their works. For they say and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born, and they lay them on men's shoulders. But they themselves will not even move them with one finger. For all their works they do to be seen of men." That's very much what these Judaizers were doing. They were all about Circumcision to appear as if they were honoring the law. Boy, they were digging in and fighting on that point. Yet when you observe their lives, they weren't really keeping it. Their practice, in other words, was hypocritical. You know, it's so easy to set up certain standards of holiness. And to guard those practices or those beliefs as if they were gospel truth themselves. And yet at the same time, we evidence by our lives that our lives really aren't about gospel truth. We have set up visible standards of godliness because they're visible, okay? Because they're easy to see, they're easily defined, they're easily kept, they're very visible. And so everybody in the group keeps that specific visible standard. And we're all impressed with one another. We're all patting each other on the back. And it looks like we all care about being godly because we're all doing the right things. The things that our group has determined to be godliness. But if you look at our lives and how we live, it becomes very obvious that we don't care about being godly. In an extreme example, I've seen some people come off the street living a wretched life, argue over a specific point of doctrine. And boy, they're not going to drop that. And you look at their lives and you realize they don't care a bit about God's truth. Now, that's extreme, but we do the same. We set up certain opinions, we set up certain standards, and boy, this is the way it's done. This is the right way to do church. This is the right opinion to have. I'm not going to compromise. And yet our lives are full of compromise. We might even compel others into agreeing with us. And though we might do that one specific thing, we don't care about God's law. And in that sense, we become gospel compromisers, because at that point, we have set up circumcision or something else and filled it with so much importance when the gospel itself and our communion with God and our walk day by day with God and our reading the Bible and praying and fellowshipping with Christians, those things that are so clear and fundamental and foundational in the Bible, we hold to a lesser extent for compromising the gospel. Their practice then was logically inconsistent and hypocritical. And the Spirit through Paul exposes these gospel compromisers. People, we must all be discerning. Turn on the radio. Go on the internet. There's every opinion possible, really. It's hard to come up with anything new nowadays. And so many of them call themselves Christian. So many of them call themselves evangelical. So many of them call themselves fundamental. And yet when it comes to gospel truth, we must not be unsuspecting. We must be gentle as doves, but wise as serpents. And we must use the scripture to expose gospel compromisers and pray that God would keep us from joining their ranks. Let's pray. Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for the way that you expose these men. If we were to know them, we might have found them very kind and gracious and so easy to get along with and to converse with and so fun to have around. And yet what you care about most is not their personality, but their allegiance to you and your word and the gospel. Help us to turn away from such men. And protect us from ever becoming ambitious, either through a desire for self-promotion or self-preservation. So that we are led by false motives into false doctrine. God, keep us, because in ourselves we cannot do this. The only antidote is that of Paul, and to daily glory and boast in the cross of Jesus Christ alone. Make our boast the cross of Christ. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.