Beware of Conduct Undermining the Gospel

Transcript

GR 2088
6/11/2017
Beware of the Conduct Undermining the Gospel
Galatians 2:15-16
Gil Rugh

In the book of Galatians, chapter 2, Paul is addressing the issue of the Gospel. What is the Gospel? Very foundational issues in this early history of the church because if the Gospel is corrupted in those early days that corruption will spread and soon with the passing of time we won’t know what the truth is. So God uses Paul and others of His servants to stand firm in declaring the Gospel and protecting if you will by defending it.

Paul has condemned harshly in chapter 1 those that would preach any other Gospel. There is no allowance for space here. “Even if an angel from heaven would preach another gospel” it would be condemned. So you don’t have to sort out. Not that an unfallen angel would proclaim a different gospel but it clarifies things for us. We don’t have to think, “Well maybe he did get it from an angel.” It won’t matter. We have the Gospel. That is clear. Everything and everyone can get measured by that.

As he comes into chapter 2 he is making clear his own position and the authority he has as an apostle receiving direct revelation from God. And the Gospel had been given to him directly. It is not different than what was given to the other apostles but Paul wasn’t dependent upon them.

He talked about the Council at Jerusalem. We noted that we understand that to be the Acts 15 council where it is sorted out, the relationship of the law and the Gospel, the message of Christ and the law is not part of that message. The issue in all of this is the truth of the Gospel.

In verse 4 he talked about false brethren who “secretly had crept in to spy out the liberty believers have.” That is a danger. They have infiltrated the church under the disguise of being believers but they are not genuine. The issue in verse 5, “We did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour so that the truth of the Gospel would remain with you.” That is what is at stake. We wouldn’t yield to them. We wouldn’t compromise with them. We wouldn’t give in in any way “so that the truth of the Gospel would remain with you.”

You come down into verse 11 and we looked at these verses down through verse 14. Peter comes to Antioch. Remember that is 250 plus miles north of Jerusalem and that brings another problem and danger to the churches because Paul has to stand against Peter because Peter becomes inconsistent in his conduct so now it is not false believers teaching a corrupted message, it is a genuine believer by his conduct undermining, note verse 14: “I saw they were not straight forward about the truth of the Gospel.” So this is going to be denied not only overtly by changing its content but it can be denied in a more subtle way with conduct that in effect denies the truth of the Gospel.

What happened? Peter he had made clear to him that the Gentiles were part of God’s plan and so when he came to Antioch he would fellowship with the Gentile believers, eat with them, eat in their home but when Jews came from Jerusalem, Peter withdrew from fellowshipping and eating with the Gentiles. This is a delicate point with the Jews. They might look down on me and so verse 13 it spread. So the Jews at Jerusalem, the Jews in Antioch who were believers, I mean you have Peter here. If Peter is not going to eat with the Gentiles, we shouldn’t either and even Barnabas gets caught up in all of this and Paul has to take his stand. It is the truth of the Gospel that is at stake. Are the Gentiles saved or are they not saved? Are the Gentiles cleansed or are they not cleansed?

Come back to Acts 10 again if you would, just a reminder. In Act 10 as preparation for Peter taking the Gospel to the Gentiles, God gave him a special vision and in verse 3 of chapter 10 he tells us that “At the time he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God” and Peter is to go and remember the sheet was lowered from heaven and all kinds of unclean animals with it, animals that were declared unclean by the Mosaic Law and Peter is instructed to kill some of these animals and eat them.

Verse 14: “Peter said, ‘by no means, Lord. I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean.’” This is a crucial issue for a Jew. Lord, I can’t do that. I don’t eat unclean, unholy things and you note what God says to him, “What God has cleansed no longer consider unholy.” That is repeated three times to make an impact on him and then Peter is instructed to go with the details there, we won’t go into to the house of Cornelius, and when he gets there he tells them verse 28: “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit with him,” (non-Jew) “yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.”

Now that is a pretty dramatic impact on Peter directly from God and yet he forgets it. He’s intimidated in a certain circumstance and so it’s like he didn’t receive this. So I bring you back here again just as a reminder. It couldn’t have been made any more clear to Peter. Peter preached the Gospel in the house of Cornelius, the Gentiles are saved.

Chapter 11, “Now the apostles and brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles had received the Word of God” and they celebrated and praised the Lord? No. When Peter came to Jerusalem because he had gone down to Caesarea to the house of Cornelius “those who were circumcised” (the Jews) “took issue with him saying, ‘You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.’” You see how tense the situation is that Gentiles can experience the fullness of God’s salvation and the completeness of His cleansing is totally unexpected to these Jews.

Now they thought Gentiles could be saved but they would have to convert to Judaism and so on, become partakers of the law and he tells them down in verse 9 that he had a voice from heaven that told him “What God has cleansed no longer consider unholy.” So down in verse 18 when all is said and done the leaders, Jewish leaders in Jerusalem say “Well then God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”

Now we come back to Galatians 2. When Peter is in Antioch and Jews comes from Jerusalem he is shaken and backs up to his old ways, retreats to Judaism. It is a safe space. He knows better because before the Jews came he freely ate with the Gentiles. That is what Paul says, verse 12: “Prior to the coming of certain men from James he used to eat with the Gentiles.” So it is not that Peter doesn’t know any better but he is concerned what they will think, what they will say. Well Peter, he backs up into Judaism again. If Paul let’s this go on what is going to happen? We will have a Jewish church. We are going to have a Gentile church. And the Jews may say “yes Gentiles are saved but they are still not clean as we are clean.”

You know we could slide into that today. Sometimes we have a problem with other believers. I mentioned to you reading a respected leader, three volumes of his theology that had been printed and part of that contained his explaining why black people could not be accepted in the church on the same level as white people. Is the cleansing different? Were they not created in the image of God? Are we all not descendants of Adam? Somehow you know, so to speak, traditions die hard.

So here Peter is carried away and when Peter gets off track other Jews and even Barnabas thinks, “well we better pull back here.” So we have believers now being a problem because these come from James and James we saw in Acts 15, Peter stood up and explained why the Gentiles didn’t need to keep the law and there is an agreement. You know, they are not going so far as to say the Gentiles have to keep the law on Peter’s issue here like the false teachers were up in verses 4 and 5. He is just acting like even though they believe in the same Savior and don’t have to keep the law, they are still not completely clean. Well then what does the Gospel do for them?

So verse 14: “When I saw they were not straight forward about the truth of the Gospel.” You should have that marked in your Bible and up at the end of verse 5 as well because you have the same issue coming at it from different directions. The unbelievers just dress like believers, corrupting the message; believers by their conduct denying the truth of the Gospel. “I said to Cephas, ‘in the presence of all it has to be settled like it was at Jerusalem, let’s settle it up here at Antioch as well. If you being a Jew live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews. You are saying, ‘you can’t eat at the house of a Gentile unless he becomes Jewish and cleanses things and goes through everything the Jews do.’”

Peter, something is wrong here! You are a Jew and before these from Jerusalem came you were willing to live like the Gentiles. You went to the house of a Gentile, you ate with them. Now you are turning it around and acting like the Gentiles have to live like Jews. Peter, you are a hypocrite! That prepares him for verse 15 and 16 where we continue what Paul is telling Peter. So it just didn’t end with that question at the end of verse 14. He goes on to explain this truth. That will go through the rest of the chapter. We won’t go through it all tonight but it also will form a transition then into the development that he is going to bring beginning in chapter 3. So he says in verse 15. “We are Jews by nature.” So you see he has picked up. “If you being a Jew live like the Gentiles, not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews, we Jews by nature, by birth. That is who we are.” That is the ‘we’ here, we Jews. Picking up where Peter is, by nature, by birth and there are great blessings for the Jews, great honor. Paul doesn’t put that down. There were great benefits and blessings given to the Jews.

Come back to Romans 3. He is not belittling the Jews. They are a chosen people. They are a special race but when it comes to the issue of salvation we have to be clear. Chapter 3 of Romans says, “What advantage has the Jew or what is the benefit of circumcision, great in every respect; first of all that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.” You realize our entire Old Testament came from Jews. Then when we come to the Gospels they come with Jews and who wrote most of our New Testament? Luke, a Gentile but by in large our New Testament was written by Jews. But they were given the oracles of God and this is in the same kind of context, the same issue.

Come over to chapter 9 since you are in Romans, verse 4 Paul says that “I wish that I could be accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsman according to the flesh who are Israelites to whom belongs the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple services, the promises; whose are the fathers. From whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all.”

So yes, there are benefits to being a Jew but come back to Galatians 2. “We are Jews by nature.” Now be careful that doesn’t cross over and guarantee their salvation and their salvation is different than the Gentiles. “We are not sinners from among the Gentiles.” And that’s how the Jews viewed the Gentiles. That is why they can’t eat with them. That is why they don’t want any close fellowship with them. “We are Jews by nature, not sinners from among the Gentiles.” He is not saying Jews are not sinners but God chose the nation Israel and you see those special things that were true for the Jews that we just read. We are not sinners like the Gentiles. Gentiles are born sinners. They don’t get the sign of the covenant with circumcision or the baby boy at eight days because they are not part of those covenant promises; therefore the Jews. Now there is provision in there as it becomes clear with the New Covenant and the coming of Christ but what Paul is saying here is the basic truth. You are right. The Gentiles are sinners. We are not like them. We are a special people, the only special nation. Remember God said, “You only have I chosen of all the nations of the earth.” That is true down to this day. There is only one true chosen nation, Israel.

Nevertheless, but now here, this is some say the most important verse in the book of Galatians, “Nevertheless but knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law since by works of the law no flesh will be justified.” So in spite of our privileges, in spite of the honored place the nation Israel has in the purposes and plans of God we know that a man is not justified by the works of the law. So he is writing to believers. He is speaking to Peter now, writing to the Galatians, but this is part of his direction to Peter, to Barnabas, to the other Jews. We are agreed. We are Jews by nature. The only way you can have that is be born into it. We are not sinners like the Gentiles who weren’t born into the chosen people. But we know, we believers, Peter you know, you Jews here, Barnabas you know. We Jews know this, “a man is not justified by the works of the law.”

Justification, a word that is used three times in this verse. “A man is not justified by works of the law; even we who have believed in Christ that we might be justified by faith in Christ. By works of the law no flesh will be justified,” justified, justified. And a legal concept where a verdict of not guilty, innocent, declared righteous that would be the opposite of condemning someone in a court room, declaring them guilty. You are declared not guilty. You are declared righteous and that is the concept. How do we come before a holy God, the Judge of all the earth and become acceptable to Him where He could say, “Not guilty?”

Remember this is the same word. Come back to Romans 3. We were back here in our previous study here, Romans 3. After showing all are sinners in the first part of Romans then in chapter 4 the crucial thing is verse 28, “A man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” Verse 26: “So that he would be just and the justifier.” All the same basic word carrying that same idea of righteous, declared righteous, not guilty, not under condemnation. God had to be just and the justifier.

So how can God declare me a guilty under condemnation sinner not guilty? Well He has to do it consistent with His character. The Judge of all the earth must do right. He can’t just say okay, I declare you not guilty. He has to function consistent with His character so He must maintain His own character, His own righteousness, be just and still be able to declare the sinner justified and that is the work of Christ as is developed here.

He is the “propitiation,” verse 25 in chapter 3 of Romans, “The One who turns away the wrath of God from us,” so that we now can be declared righteous because He has taken our guilt, paid our penalty. Our account is taken care of. It is marked paid in full. You can’t say, “I am guilty.” You know, all my sins it’s like you know a financial ledger and here I am and there is no escape. I am guilty by birth and by conduct. My debt is overwhelming but someone steps in and pays it all and then my account is marked, “Paid in Full,” not guilty. What can I be charged with?

Now you are here in Romans. It is so good we have to come over to chapter 8. Look at verse 33 and this is in the context of God’s work of redemption He provided in Christ. But then you come down to verse 33: “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect. God is the one who justifies.” Who can overrule God? Who could bring a charge against me, against you when God has declared you righteous? Is there a greater judge than God?

Verse 34: “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died who was raised” because of what, back in Romans 5, our justification, the end of chapter 4. He is at the right hand of God. He intercedes for us.

So we have I John 2: “If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father.” Who is Jesus Christ, the one who is righteous, who’s provided His righteousness for us so we can be declared righteous by God. So He is there to intercede for us. Satan is the accuser of the brethren but Christ said, “I died for that sin. That has been paid in full.” That is the picture we are dealing with.

When you come to Galatians some of this will be developed as we move through the letter. Galatians 2:16 “Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified,” (not declared righteous by almighty God) “by the works of the law.” He has “justified” three times in this verse. He stresses that that justification is not by works of the law also three times. “A man is not justified by works of the law. Even we have believed in Jesus that we may be justified by faith, not by works of the law since by works of the law no flesh will be justified.” He wants to make that clear.

We talk about justification. That is not found in works of the law. That is the Mosaic Law. That is the Ten Commandments. This gives us somewhat of a condensed summary of the Mosaic Law with its 630 some commandments. We have people who say, “I try to keep the Ten Commandments.” Well that will do nothing for getting you to heaven. It doesn’t even get you a step in the right direction. We have to be careful. We get an idea and there are debates over whether we could put the Ten Commandments up in certain places and that. I don’t even want in that debate because sinners trying to keep the Ten Commandments are going nowhere. Well we think it is better for morality. We are not here to try to reform corrupt, dying people. We are here to bring a redeemer. We don’t want to get caught up into confusion. There is no salvation in trying to keep the Mosaic Law. We get caught up in these. Well don’t you think it would be better? It is always better not to sin. The more people slide into the muck of sin and they become more open and more consuming in obvious ways the more society deteriorates. That is true but I am not here to help as Jesus told the Pharisees, “Put a whitewash on dead men’s tombs.” We are undermining that conduct. That conduct undermines the truth of the Gospel just like Peter was doing. We are denying by our conduct.

You are saying, “Christians are behind this,” as though if people do this God will be more pleased with them. He wasn’t more pleased with the Jews in their self-righteous attempt to keep the law than He was with the Romans and their all-out paganism. In fact Jesus said, “I have more hope for the openly sinful who are going into the kingdom in responding faith to His message than for the religious people.” Who do you think He pronounced the awful woes to in Matthew? “Woe to you hypocrites.”

So we want to be careful we don’t slide into where we are denying; where we are not straight forward about the truth of the Gospel. That is why we can’t join in a political alliance. I don’t want to confuse people that somehow they have become more pleasing to God by trying to have better conduct. I sort of cringe as I turn on the news and they are interviewing evangelical pastor so and so. I say, “Stay home. Shut up.” At any rate, they weren’t straight forward about the truth. “A man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” Faith in Jesus Christ! That is the only way of salvation! We are saved by grace through faith. We are familiar with that but by grace alone, through faith alone. The reason he doesn’t put ‘alone’ on that is clear, it is the Gospel and the point is no law.

Now if you can’t be saved by trying to keep the Ten Commandments, by doing the works of the law what other works could you be saved by? I mean at least the Jews could fall back on and say what? “God gave the law. He gave the Ten Commandments to Israel. At least we are trying to do something God said should be done.” The problem is that never was the way of salvation and it served a purpose. We will get to this further in Galatians just to guide the nation until Christ came. But it never was a way of salvation. The Jews were confused in all of this and resulted in a nation under judgment. “We are saved through faith in Christ Jesus.”

So the contrast is justification and not justification. A man is not justified by works of the law but is justified by faith in Christ. That is the contrast. So he says, “Even we have believed in Christ Jesus.” We Jews who think we have an in and they do have benefits. Paul had a benefit when he came to Christ. He already knew the Old Testament and now it made sense to him in a way it didn’t before but there are benefits to Jews. God had chosen the nation and we read about the benefits and receiving God’s revelation and so on but even we, we Jews. It is not just verse 15: “We are Jews by nature, not sinners from among the Gentiles.” “But even we who are Jews by birth have believed in Christ Jesus.” Why? “So that we may be justified by faith in Christ Jesus.” See his point? We Jews aren’t saved by any different way than Gentiles and the reality here, what’s confusing is we Jews have to adjust our thinking to be saved like the Gentiles are saved and that shows how we Jews have to be saved and as he will develop as we get into chapter 3 and so on, salvation has always been by grace through faith. It never was through the law. So the Jews were just off the rails.

Now for believing Jews the keeping of the law and all that goes with it, of course. We will say more about that in a moment. It was a manifestation of their faith just like we as God’s children. We want to be obedient to him because along with our salvation by grace through faith, Ephesians 2:8 and 9, vs 10 “There are good works that He foreordained that we should walk in.” But we don’t back up and say “well I am trying to do good works so I can be saved.” You can’t. You have to be born again like Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3: “You must be born again.” There is no other way.

So we have believed in Christ Jesus, even we. That ‘even’ there kai. Some of you have taken Greek. It is often translated ‘and,’ but here “even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ Jesus, not by works of the law since by works of the law no flesh will be justified.”

There are different prepositions like we have different prepositions, ‘in,’ ‘for,’ ‘by.’ There are different prepositions used here in the context of believing in Christ and this one ‘believing into Christ. We have believed in the preposition ‘eis,’ into and it here is what one person who has done great work on Greek prepositions, wrote a whole book on it. “Depicts the committal of oneself to the person of Christ. Something more than an intellectual acceptance of the message of the Gospel or a recognition of the truth about Christ.”

When I went to Bible College they used to illustrate it you know. It is like there is a chair. I believe it will hold me up. I believe if I sit down in it, it will hold me up, be comfortable but I haven’t really believed until I sit in it. So it is not believing things about Christ. That is what James is arguing for because demons believe. What did the demons say in the opening part of Mark’s Gospel when they had to confront Christ? “We know who you are, the holy One of God. Have You come to torment us before the time?” The demons aren’t saved.

So believing facts about Christ. The point is you have these different prepositions here. Believing into Christ denotes something of the movement of yourself to rely upon Him, to commit yourself to Him. A lot of debate has gone on over the years. That is not a work. That is an action of God’s grace in your heart and mind but every average Protestant or Roman Catholic you ask “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, of course.” They believe all kinds of things about Him but that coming to that point where in my faith it is a faith that commits myself to Him and Him alone.

If I can use the analogy of the chair and don’t analyze it too closely. But that is the chair I am going to sit in and that only. It is not that there are all these things around it in case it….that’s what Peter fell into. So it is a recognition. We recognize, yes, we have to have the facts of the Gospel. It’s not just now I know a lot about Christ. I can talk about Him but it is an action of the committal, that faith, of relying upon Him and Him alone and believing into Christ.

I think John’s Gospel uses that expression with that preposition 37 times as a way of speaking of our faith in Christ. So that is what Paul is saying. We can be justified, absolved of guilt by this, the same way that Gentiles are. So why are you putting this distance between yourself and the Gentiles? They are cleansed the same way.

If we are not careful we begin to look at people this way even today. Some people, well you know their background, the life they come from. I don’t know that that really fits here. The church growth movement emphasized this. You know we like our own kind of people. Even as believers we like our own kind of people. Well we have to get over it. I know they are saved but it is just different. Well how are we different, are we denying the Gospel? It doesn’t matter what their background, what kind of life they have had. When God cleanses them, declares them righteous, they are absolved. How do they differ from me? Then I slide into well, you know, how do I put this? I was never like that. Oh really! Now it becomes questionable about me. The Jews don’t see themselves as sinners like the Gentiles. They had more of external cleanliness, if you will, because keeping the law kept them out of certain things. It didn’t keep them from being liars, didn’t keep them from being murderers. They executed the Son of God but they had a general life style that we would be more comfortable with. So we want to be careful.

Come back to Acts 15. You know as so often we as Christians become a problem when we forget and sometimes we choose, we “forget” our theology because it goes contrary to what we want to do. In Acts 15 look at verse 9 and Peter is the speaker here. I am just reminded you of this and he reminds them, “God chose me to carry the Gospel to the Gentiles.” Verse 8: “God who knows the heart testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us.” So just like the Jews got the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 the Gentiles got it in Acts 10. Verse 9: “He made no distinction between us and them.” Note this – “Cleansing their hearts by faith.” Now why would you want to put them back under the law, put them under a law they were never under, put them under the law that we could never keep, that could never save us?

Verse 11: “We believe we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they are.” Preach it Peter. We will say amen. Then he comes to Antioch and he lives differently. We want to be aware of that. Peter could preach the best sermon on God’s grace cleansing the Gentiles, cleansed them by faith. We are saved the same way as they are but all of a sudden I am in a situation I can’t what?

You can see why Paul says, “The truth of the Gospel was at stake because by your action you are implying they can’t be cleansed like we are.” So we Jews are better off so our cleansing doesn’t have to be like their cleansing and just what kind of salvation do we have when we make those kinds of distinctions as though we never were as dirty as the Gentiles. They were born sinners. We were born Jews. Well, we don’t understand sin and we can be cleansed and the Gentiles can be cleansed. Peter wouldn’t make a different argument. It just, what happened?

You know why the Jews didn’t associate with the Gentiles? It would be defiling. Well if they have been cleansed and absolved from all guilt, what is there to defile them? Didn’t God tell Peter in Acts chapter 10: “What I call holy don’t you call unholy.” What is Peter doing by his actions in Galatians chapter 2? They are not holy. Now his problem is with God and the Gospel is at stake because if that is allowed to stand the Jews will begin to say “The Gentiles may be saved but they are in a different category and we Jews have our own.” So the truth of the Gospel is at stake.

Just a couple of summary points, we are done because we are not going any further in this section. Peter, the Jews by birth declared he was saved by grace through faith. That is the only way there is to be saved. Paul, a Jew by birth said the same thing. Now if you can’t be saved by keeping the Mosaic Law, the Jews chosen by God couldn’t be saved by keeping the law including the Ten Commandments. It ought to be clear. There are no works that can save you because at least they could go back to the Old Testament and say, “There was a place for the law.” Now they are confused on it but it never was a way of salvation. God says, “No one will ever be justified by works of the law.” You can’t be justified that way. Now what works are you saying you are going to do that God will save you? There aren’t any works. So every religious system that no matter what they say about Christ and the Gospel if they add works to it they have corrupted the Gospel. The truth of the Gospel has been attacked. Some by unbelievers in a religious system, sometimes just be the actions of Christians who now are functioning inconsistent with what we claim to believe.

No one has ever been saved by keeping the law. We will be into this in chapter 3. That is why I say this key section here will transition and prepare the way for what Paul wants to develop and demonstrate in detail beginning in chapter 3. This is salvation by grace through faith. Everything else is excluded. What can I say? People say we are narrow. We are exclusive. You think there is only your way. The only way is the way I am telling you because it is not my way, it is God’s way. When He says that a “man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Christ and by the works of the law no flesh,” no human being “will be justified.” That pretty well covers it. It is only by God’s grace through faith. We are clear on the Gospel. We want to be clear on our conduct with the Gospel and we have a cleansing Savior and we praise God for that. We want to live like well, if people you know, there is nobody in no walk of life. If they have come to salvation in Christ they have been cleansed I don’t care what their life is. And I want to keep in mind the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from all sin and without that blessing we would all be lost all over again, wouldn’t we? But the blood of Christ keeps on cleansing us and we want to recognize that and acknowledge that as well.

So we have to be careful. We want to be alert to those who would corrupt the message of the Gospel and we want to be personally alert that nothing in our conduct would be of such that we would be denying the truth of the Gospel.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the truth that You have entrusted to us. We earthen vessels have been the recipient of the greatest of treasures, Your truth. We are to guard it, we are to protect it, we are to proclaim it, we are to live it. Lord may we be sensitive to these matters. These aren’t just matters recorded so we can learn something of the history of the early church. These are truths preserved so that we can take them in, examine ourselves in light of Your truth and then live out this truth day by day. In the week before us we pray that You will be honored in all that is done in Christ’s name, amen.