>> Okay. Let's everyone go ahead and take your seats, get situated so that we can pray and then begin with the time of worship. >> All right, everybody. Would you please go ahead and bow with me in a word of prayer. >> Heavenly Father, we want to thank you so much, God.

Just coming away from the Easter week. Lord, our hearts were just fed. God, remembering and appreciating Christ, his work, his presence in our lives, and the great grace that, God, we have simply through faith, all on the account of your incredible work. We're so grateful. And then, God, we're happy to be back in Bible study.

And Lord, I pray that as we are just regularly trying to study and glean, would you bless us with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. But also, God, help us truly to saturate in your word in such a way that, God, we are prepared for the spiritual battle. We are warned of the falsehood that exists in this world and generation.

And, God, that we would be strong, not in our own right, but because of the word of God that is strengthening us to fight against the various things that are happening in our lives. And we also pray, God, that as we gather together, help us to be strong as a community, joining together, Lord, spiritually, beyond just simply having our connections and friendships, but let it be a true fellowship where we're encouraging each other, God, to be faithful to you week in and week out.

We want to thank you again for this time. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. I will glory in my Redeemer Who's priceless blood has ransomed me Who was the sin that drove the bitter nails And hold Him on that judgment day I will glory in my Redeemer Who crushed the power of sin and death My only Savior before the Holy Judge The Lamb who is my righteousness The Lamb who is my righteousness I will glory in my Redeemer My life He bought, my love He owns I have no longings for another I'm satisfied in Him alone I will glory in my Redeemer His faithfulness my standing face No foes are mighty and rush upon me My feet are firm, held by His grace My feet are firm, held by His grace I will glory in my Redeemer Who carries me on equals wings Who crowns my life with love and kindness This triumph song I'll ever sing I will glory in my Redeemer Who waits for me at gates of gold And when He calls me it will be paradise His face forever to behold His face forever to behold Your will be done, Father As in heaven so on earth My heart is drawn to self-exalt Help me seek Your kingdom first Jesus was, so I shall walk Held by Your same unshaking love Still my soul, lift Your voice in prayer Father, not my will, but Yours entirely How in that garden we persisted I may never fully know The fearful way, the cruel beat It was held by Him alone Wondrous faith to bear that cross To bear my sin, what wondrous love Hope was sure, there my Savior played Father, not my will, but Yours entirely When I am lost, when I am broken In the night of fear and doubt Still I will trust my God Yes, to one great thing I vow As Jesus rose, so I shall rise Here ransomed, glory at the door My heart restored, with all Your saints I sing Father, not my will, but Yours entirely As we go forth, as we go forth God and Father Lead us daily in the fire Let all the world see Your glory In Your name be lifted high And in this game we overcome For You shall seed us safely whole As Your church, lift Your voice in prayer Father, not my will, but Yours entirely In this game we overcome For You shall seed us safely whole As Your church, lift Your voice in prayer Father, not my will, but Yours entirely Father, not my will, but Yours entirely Father, not my will, but Yours entirely Heavenly Father, God, we just thank You for all the truths You reveal to us through Your Word God, we thank You for the assurance that we can have God, we know that You desire us, for us to know You God, I pray that we would pursue Your truths with conviction May You help us to hear from You tonight And just be ever convicted of what we believe in In Jesus' name we pray, amen We'll start our discussions now and reconvene at 8 Thank you All right, everybody, for those of you guys who are in the room, please go ahead and come on out to take a seat.

You can do it right now, yeah. Okay. I hope and pray that you guys had a fruitful time just preparing and then reviewing the segment of the passage. As a reminder, you can text in questions. I will do my best to take a look and answer, but my guess is as we go through the passage, it will kind of self-answer some of these things.

Let's take a moment to pray, ask God's blessing over the review. Lord God, we really pray, Lord, that with all humility, we would have such a devotion to your truth, such a loyalty to what is explicitly stated in Scripture. God, that regardless of what it means for us in consequence, we would always make decisions to obey.

God, I pray that you grant to us strength as these principles apply to so many different situations and circumstances of our lives. Grant to us, Lord God, strength in every day to follow your word. We thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Now, by way of just review, my request is please, when I ask the question, try your best to answer and review.

The easiest one to kind of get at is the letter so far, when we have been studying the book of Galatians, it has been kind of unsettling because it has been not just once or twice, but almost five, six iterations of different kinds of arguments trying to convince the church, and therefore, sometimes the tone was very one of disappointment, but all throughout, it just started with a banger of, man, I am so shocked and amazed how quickly you're deserting the one, right, and Savior.

So the tone of it has been intense. Now, by way of quick review, we ask the question, but why? Why is it necessary, and why is the tone so intense? Any volunteers? Just in a brief way describing why the letter has such a tone. Going once. Twice for extra credit.

Yes. Thank you, brave soul. Because the Judaizers came in, and Apostle Paul is fighting the spreading of the false gospel, okay? Why is the tone so intense? It's because there is a spiritual battle happening, right, for the territory of the minds and hearts of the saints within the church.

But more, more so than that, too, if you think about it, the way that Apostle Paul has been trying to convince the church was, you think this is just simply adopting somebody's, like, tradition? What about Christ? To distort the gospel doctrine is to try and mess with the character of Christ, just in the same way that you would never just by your own whim decide, you know what Christ is like?

You know what he's thinking? You know what he believes? You know what he does? To distort the doctrines would be to distort with Christ himself, yes? And so there is a place for righteous indignation, especially in the way that Apostle Paul puts it, was in the very beginning, he says, anybody who preaches another gospel, even if it were spiritual beings, angels, let them be anathema, right?

Because what is happening is not just messing with different religions, you're deserting the Savior. Okay, that's where we came from in the last segment that this is by way of review. If you remember in verse 1 through 6, he said, "The consequences of you doing this, you will have been separated from Christ.

You've fallen from grace." And so we have to know that. The other thing I want to review is as we've been discussing the various passages within Galatians, I do think there's a need for us to regularly try and define what we're talking about. Why? Primarily because in our day, legalism, its definition is really, really broad.

So do I have another volunteer to answer the question in a very short and concise way. What is legalism referring to? When we're thinking the doctrines of the Judaizers, what are we thinking? Yes, in the back. >> Righteousness by works. >> Excellent. Righteousness by works. And I like that.

It's succinct and it comes to hit the main idea of what people are seeking. In the gospel, the gospel begins by saying the righteousness of God is revealed. Yes? How do we attain a righteous standing before God? So if you put it in another way, an individual who wants a right standing with God to be accepted by God, but does it by their own strength, through their own work, for their own glory, this is legalism.

Long time ago, there used to be this brand called FUBU. I'm not sure if you guys remember that. FUBU, actually, what it represented was is for us and by us. Now, I'm just going to take that little phrase. I don't want to go into the history of all that.

But if you think about it, legalism just simply means what we're establishing in our religion, in our system of righteousness. Who is righteous? Who is scaling this ladder of holiness? It's for us and it's by us. Okay? That's legalism. Whereas the gospel says, no, it is accomplished through Christ, it is given through Christ's work, and it is all for the glory of the Lord.

Okay? And the reason why that's important is because when we keep those things in mind then, we're asking the question, how intense is that fight? Is the way that Apostle Paul is reacting, is it appropriate? Okay? And especially in our pastors today. I don't know if some of you have felt like, whoa, is this like a moment of anger?

He's just letting loose some of his words. Right? But I think what we're going to see is that as Apostle Paul over the entirety of the letter has been trying to show the church, look at the comparison and contrast between what God has given to us, the long history of what he has accomplished in giving to us freedom, and then now you're trying to do this?

He's not just seeing like, a couple people having different ideas and different thoughts. You know, we should try to see a middle ground. No, no, no. He's saying the difference is between freedom and slavery. There is no middle ground. That was the review, okay? So in today's passage, we're hitting chapter 5, verse 7 through 12.

And the way that I have broken it up is that in verse 7 through 10, I see him comparing and contrasting. Here's you, you began running well. And here's you, I have a lot of confidence that God is working in you. But then them, right? He's pointing at them.

And he's trying to show us that in as much as you need to see the contrast and difference between the systems, between freedom and slavery, he wants you also to have the strength and courage to discern the ones who are your opponents, the opposition. You have to not only distinguish doctrine, but you have to distinguish people.

Not very popular and a very relativistic, you know, everybody's all equal kind of society that we live in today, but actually the thought, okay? Verse 11, I see as Paul's defense. He is not preaching circumcision. And verse 12, he says, "I wish that these people who are disturbing you would mutilate themselves." This is his genuine thought about how he feels about those who would threaten the church.

So part one, let's take a moment now to walk through this segment, okay? To walk through this segment. Here, he just begins and describes you are running well, okay? And for that, all I'm going to say is, so you see this contrast. Like for you, you're running well, but then who hindered you?

And he's asking this question, okay? And then in verse 10, he says, "Although I have confidence in you, but the ones who are disturbing you, this is what's going to happen. They're going to bear their judgment." So here's that contrast. Back in chapter 3, he described, "You began by the Spirit." And so I want to just put into context, you recall Apostle Paul has knowledge of these people.

He's seen various spiritual fruits in their lives. He's remembering how receptive they were, okay? And so there's a genuine sense of disappointment, right? There's a genuine sense of disappointment. Now, the point of this first statement in verse 7 is not just simply to encourage them because the point of it actually is to say, "But right now, you're not obeying the truth." What a very pointed rebuke.

You're not obeying the truth at all. As a matter of fact, what we sense is that they've been very, very hesitant. They've even potentially been accusatory, like, "Apostle Paul, why are you against us?" They've been giving a lot of pushback, is the inference, okay? Now, when we think about this question, who hindered you, okay?

I want to ask maybe a question that feels a little bit too, like, nitpicky, but to actually ask the question, "Is this a genuine question?" Asking, like, "Who is it?" Like, name him. Or is it more of a rhetorical question? If it is a rhetorical question, we know the point because the point is if you ask a rhetorical question, the answer is no one.

It's my fault. The reason why I'm here, you know, compromised and et cetera, that's totally on us, right? When he says, like, "Who did this to you, huh?" I'm not trying to put tone into it, but if he was, like, a rhetorical question, then that would be the tone, and the answer would be the person.

We can't give any excuse. We're disobeying God's truth, right? But what we know is that there are actually people who are opposing the Church, who are trying to do a lot. So we ask this question, "What is the opposition doing right now?" And I think this is the emphatic point of the passage that we should take home today, okay?

If you think about it, there's this. They're hindering the Church. They are persuading. They are disturbing, okay? And this here, it says-- it's just a proverbial, like, a pithy statement about how such a little thing can corrupt and influence the whole thing, but essentially, he is pointing out, again, the corruption of these false teachers is affecting the whole Church, right?

So I want to talk about that a little bit, just putting it all together. They're hindering the Church, which, if you look that up, it means to try and cut off. They're trying to get people to not obey the truth. They're persuading and convincing. Another synonym for that idea of persuading is they're trying to give false conviction to the Church.

Just a moment of pause there to think. Anybody who is a false teacher that's trying to lead the Church astray isn't typically going to do that with, like, "Yeah, I don't know," but most often, they're going to do that with, "I have conviction. This is the truth," right? They're going to come at you with, "This is the Word of God," et cetera, et cetera.

They're going to come with a lot of oomph and conviction. And then what's more, this idea of disturbing, back here in verse 10, is this--the literal idea is to take somebody and just swing them left and right, swing them back and forth. It's to discombobulate and confuse an individual, okay?

These are the many tactics of the opposition. Quick question for you, okay? I think we live in a generation where the typical idea is that most people have good intentions. They just make a lot of mistakes. But here in this passage, that is not the way that Apostle Paul views false teachers.

He wants the Church members to know the voice of the rebellious against Christ. He wants the Church people to know those who would, you know, blow hot air and just try to have all this, like, emphatic teaching. He wants you to be able to distinguish between people. He wants you to be able to distinguish between those who are safe and those who would swindle you, okay?

And the question, therefore, to you is, do you--are you able to distinguish, okay? Now, I want to take a moment to ask this question about what are the Galatians doing, though, okay? We talked about, hey, we have the opposition and they're doing all these different kind of schemes, but here it's phrased really interesting to talk about the Church people and that they are currently not--oh, sorry-- obeying the truth, okay?

All right, to not obeying the truth. And there is a moment for us to ask this question. Well, why? Why is the Church slow to obey the truth? Why is it that they've been so convinced of the gospel, they receive Apostle Paul and his preaching well, and then now they turn into, like, "Oh, yeah, let's go ahead and obey the laws of Moses.

Let's get circumcised," et cetera, et cetera. And I have some thoughts for us there, but first and foremost, I want to just have us kind of meditate on that question. That could it be that what is at stake right now? In some sense, if you think about even our preaching, we can preach, "Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the way of salvation." Did you know that there's a lot of people who'd be like, "Sounds good to me." But the moment you say, then that means he is the only way, and that means every other way, whether it's Islam.

You can acknowledge Jesus as an amazing rabbi, the greatest teacher there ever was, a prophet of God, et cetera, but every other way is wrong except Christ. That's when you all of a sudden have opposition, right? Well, if you think about it, what the church was doing in context was trying to find a middle ground.

So then there is a point of reflection and meditation for us. Is there any desire in us where we want to maybe mistakenly take like a humble approach to truth and try and seek like, "Oh, is there a middle ground here?" Okay? If somebody is teaching falsehood, is there any desire for us to be like, "Yeah, you know, "I never want to be too emphatically on this side.

"I don't want to be too emphatically on this side for sure. "I want to try to take like a middle ground." That kind of attitude is not humble at all. That kind of attitude God would see as, "What are you doing? "Why are you trying to self-preserve?" Okay? If God tells us certain things like, "Jesus is the only truth, the only life, "and he is the Son of the living God, "and you happen to say something to the extent of like, "'Yeah, I don't know,' others say," that's not humility.

Right? If God said something very clear and explicit in the Scriptures, we have to come at it with the same explicitness, same clarity, same devotion, as God would say it. Anything less than that would actually be the opposite of humility. It would be self-preserving. Okay. So, in this way, I just want to take a moment to think about how the Scriptures has an expectation.

The Gospel call is not just, "Here's doctrine. "I hope you understand." The Gospel call is actually a command. You believe and you repent. And that's what Christians do from day one and every day forward. Right? Okay. I want to move forward into the other just thought, which is--let me pass through a couple of these real fast.

Verse 8, okay? In verse 8, you know, we don't have to take time to ask like, "Oh, what does he really mean by this?" because it's really apparent and clear. Apostle Paul is saying, "And you know that these false influences, "this persuasion, does not come from God." Okay? And I want to remind us that the admonition and the warning for us in this generation-- I mean, if you think about it, this is already, you know, the writing of the Scriptures is a couple thousand years old.

We are now more than, if you think about it, affected by this truth that there are going to be so many false teachers. Let me read to you 2 Corinthians 11, verse 12 through 15. "But what am I doing? "I will continue to do, "so that I may cut off opportunity "from those who desire an opportunity "to be regarded just as we are "in the matter about which they are boasting." You see what he's saying, right?

If there are people trying to teach you, trying to have their way with you, I'm going to make sure to cut off that opportunity. Yes? Someone may accuse us, the leaders, of like, "Oh, you leaders, "you're so arrogant. "You only want to be the people "who teach into the church members.

"Oh, you're so arrogant. "You're like the good old boy club. "You're not raising up other leaders "and giving people an opportunity "to teach into the church's life." People have said that. Well, like Apostle Paul, we're going to say, "So be it. "Accuse us of what you will. "We love our church people, "and we are not giving the pulpit "to anybody or anyone who wishes "just to have an opportunity with you." Yes?

This is what he says. Verse 13. "For such men are false apostles, "deceitful workers, "disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. "No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself "as an angel of light. "Therefore, it is not surprising "if his servants also disguise themselves "as servants of righteousness, "whose end will be according "to their deed." So, I want to just make a point with that in verse 8 is, again, the leadership of the church has a call to protect the flock.

But another quick reminder for you, every single one of you has to see the difference between who is from God and who is not. Think about this question. How well can you discern? And are you actually willing to say that guy is a false teacher? Or do you have this generally very, very empathetic heart?

You know, they mean well, they're good people, they just said something wrong. That's an admonition to you. Next. Within this, we have this, you know, principle of life, I like to call it. Sometimes the scriptures gives us principles for living, kind of pithy statements in wisdom proverbs. And in verse 9 it says, "A little leaven leavens "the whole lump of dough." And we asked a simple question of what does the leaven represent?

And you guys probably know right off the bat from other parts of scripture where Jesus says, "Beware the leaven of the Pharisees." The yeast of the Pharisees, right? It's the false teaching. And the other principle that is embedded in this is this thought, "A little error "has incredible consequences." Yes?

"A little contamination "can ruin the whole thing." The thought of it here is that there is no way for us to say, "Yes, this has a little leaven in it, "and once it's risen, "let's try to salvage this thing "by separating." You can't, it's already done. It's already baked into the whole system.

Does that make sense? Okay. In thinking about that then, we can move to just a quick, quick application of our attitude. How will you respond if someone comes in here and says, "You know what? "You guys are straight legalists. "You guys just try to dot every I, "cross every T.

"You guys try to think "that you're so holy "by doing everything right." How would you respond to that? We should respond with, "The scriptures "has such an admonition for us. "Whether it's topics of baptism, "whether it's topics "of interpretation, "every single one of us, "if we are trying "to be faithful to Christ, "we should have an attitude of, "Dude, even if I have "a little thing wrong, "I would change that "for the Lord." Right?

Why would I complain to my Lord Jesus Christ like, "Oh, you want me "to change that too? "This too? "Jesus, you're so legalist." That is completely the wrong attitude to have. It is actually good to think in every way, in every facet of my life, "Here it is, Lord.

"I'm a total open book, "and whatever you reveal to me, "no matter how long "I've been doing it, "no matter how many people, "the majority are doing it, "I'm going to do it right." That's the right attitude. Amen? Okay. Now, with that said, I do want to share with you guys that with this whole thought, like, have there been, have there been certain attacks against the church where little, little faucets have come in?

There have been. You know, there, just in recent history, we've had to fight like this thought like, you know, the Old Testament, not as reliable as the New. I could totally accept the New, but the Old Testament doesn't seem inerrant. Should we allow people like that to join our membership?

I'm just asking you now a very practical question. If you are in charge of who do we allow to be a part of the members? If somebody had a free grace theology, which was, you know, once you confess Jesus as Lord, you're good for life. Even if you fall away from the church, you never go, you denounce the faith, you're good.

Why? Because you believed at one point. Should we allow that person into the church? We've had that. You know, there was a scenario one time when I was out in the courtyard and Pastor Peter Chung, he just had like bright eyes and he beelined towards this one new individual because that individual was going around challenging our church people.

Did you know that you're saying Jesus' name wrong because you're in sin? You're supposed to say Yeshua. And then he motioned over at me, there's more of these guys. He pointed another one at me so I said, okay, so Pastor Peter Chung got one person, I got another person and we know everyone out there and we're like, what are you doing?

And they were preaching like, we love everything you do, we're Bereans too, but you're in sin because you're not saying Jesus' name right and therefore you're falling. Scripture says in Acts 4, there's only one name by which you must be saved. And I was sitting there like, what is this?

Right? What is this? And then I argued with him like, dude, you do understand that even the way you say it is wrong because in Hebrew, yes, it's Yeshua but there's vowel pointings that was placed by the Masoretes and in my Greek Bible, it's Jesus because it's translated and now I'm going to accuse you of racism because I'm Korean.

Right? Because in my Korean translation, it's Yesvinim. Am I wrong? Right? And he was kind of like, huh. I was like, so you're going to tell me all 50 million Koreans who are in the-- right? Like when they say Jesus' name, they're just wrong and sinful and he was like, I never thought about that.

And I was like, dude, this is the epitome of self-righteous false teaching. This conviction like, we have the name of Jesus. Right? And there are people like that who enter into our church. Praise God that Pastor Peter Chung caught them early on and said, dude, you're not allowed to talk to anybody at church.

If you want to talk, you come talk to one of the leaders, get off this campus. That's what he said. Praise God we can-- we have the wherewithal to do that but sometimes what I see is this desire to be like, oh, you know, like do we want to really divide and cut lines everywhere?

We should because that kind of thing breeds self-righteousness. Okay. So today what you're feeling is the passage to us gave such hard-- like hard line warning. There are these false teachers who are after us. And in 2 Peter 2:1-3 it says, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

Many will follow after their sensuality. Because of them the way of truth will be maligned and in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep." Okay. I want to take this moment to give us this challenge.

Jesus in Book of Revelation when he is confronting the churches he specifically highlights, you know, one of the seven churches a church in Pergamum which is in modern day like Turkey. Okay. And he says to the angel of the church in Pergamum, write, "The one who has a sharp two-edged sword says this, 'I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast my name and did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan dwells.'" Pause.

He's commending them because they are in the epitome of pagan idolatry there's so much paganism going on and he says "And you haven't folded." Good. But then look at what he says. Verse 14, "But I have a few things against you because you have there some who hold the teachings of Balaam who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.

So you also have some in the same way hold the teachings of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent or else I am coming to you quickly and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth." Wow. What does he say? He says "I commend you because you haven't folded but you've tolerated false teaching in your midst and this toleration has led to licentiousness, immorality and people still performing whatever was in their flesh.

Now I go to war with you." That's scary. Okay. So in summary of that first section the opposition is hindering you from obeying, persuading you of false convictions, disturbing you with convictions. Their source is not from God but their own flesh, their own might and all that stuff. They're ruining all with a little bit of themselves but ultimately they will be judged.

Have confidence. If ever you feel like oh my gosh the state of the church is so crazy there is still this conviction. God is Lord of the church. Amen. And so earlier in verse 10 he says I have this confidence in you but ultimately in the Lord. He who began a good work is going to see to it and the church is going to remain because God is able to keep it.

Amen. The next two portions are just really quick. This one it says but I brethren if I still preach circumcision why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. This one may read a little funny but what you have to do is kind of read it in context.

You know that Apostle Paul was one who was Jew of Jew. Okay. And so I can imagine someone saying dude that guy he preached Judaism. That guy was the greatest apostatizer of the Jewish faith. Right. Jewish faith. That guy preaches circumcision and what's more we've heard this guy Timothy.

So my guess is there were people accusing him this guy is a hypocrite. Right. I call this Apostle Paul's defense because the question is did Paul ever preach it? And the answer is in his pre-converted state. Right. But what he's saying is if I still preach then why am I still persecuted?

Of course I don't preach circumcision. The reason why I'm being persecuted is because I don't preach Christ the stumbling block to the Jews. If I preach circumcision then the stumbling block of cross would be abolished and it would be easy there would be an easy way out out of all this turmoil of all the stuff I'm stirring up right now if I just let it be.

Okay. That's verse 11. But here verse 12 this is the one where it's again maybe a little bit unsettling. I asked this question Apostle Paul says I wish that those around you would even mutilate themselves. Okay. Is this the moment of anger? Is this verbiage too harsh? Okay. Is this something that we should feel ourselves?

Is this kind of like a model attitude for us or should we be like no no that's an apostle thing. That's not an us in our modern day church thing. Okay. And this is kind of where I'll just wrap things up. I think you guys know when he says to mutilate themselves he is talking about full-blown castration demasculating and amputation.

He's saying if you're going to mutilate yourself just go all the way. Right. Now in that sense this is really intense and the word itself he could have just said the word to amputate but he uses a compound word to be very emphatic. Okay. So then in thinking through that what is he doing?

Is he just in an argumentative tone being sarcastic and be like if you're going to cut just do it and he's speaking in that kind of tone. Well I think there's a couple of things I want to say about that is I believe Apostle Paul what he's saying is I wish that they would be cut off from the community.

If you remember he said earlier the separation from the free man to the slave there has to be a removal of the slave child. Right. In order for there to actually be freedom there has to be such a distinction and what he's saying is I wish that these people would go.

Right. Why? Because of course it's ten times worse to have somebody who believes that he is a Christian who believes and wants to be a leader amongst Christians to be in the midst of the church trying to gain persuasion. That's ten times worse. Right. If you have somebody who is Buddhist and they say yeah you know we believe in Buddhism but they're completely outside of the church we can clearly distinguish.

But these people who come in to scope out the liberty of the flock to put them back into bondage Apostle Paul then appropriately feels this way. And the way I'm going to conclude is this is the appropriate sentiment. We live in a generation where people will be mad at you for showing any kind of self-righteous indignation and rightly so because you shouldn't be self-righteous.

But does that mean that every form of anger is self-righteous? No. You guys remember back in the day Phinehas Phinehas I'm not sure exactly how to pronounce it but when in the temple in the worship while Moses and the elders were praying there was a man who would take a pagan woman and sleep with her in the viewing of all.

So this man took a spear and drove through both of them and the zeal of the Lord moved him to do that. Why? Because the audacity of sin was before the face of the elders and God. What did God say? This man's loyalty is with me. This generation will hate you and be angry with you for showing your loyalty to Christ loyalty to your family and loyalty to your church.

Do not let this pagan world silence your righteous indignation. Why? Because you're supposed to love Christ. You're supposed to love your family. You're supposed to love your church. And Apostle Paul says it is only right for me to feel this way about you. He loved these people and any person who comes in I mean if you imagine a vicious, greedy, violent uncontrolled man trying to run a business out there okay it's a cutthroat world out there run your business but then he comes into your house expecting to be the CEO of your home and we're supposed to be like ah you know acceptance for all give him a chance no not at all you're going to feel right the distinction the judgment and the appropriate indignation of the church.

So I don't think this is too harsh. I don't think this is Apostle Paul being out of line. I think it's him being loyal to the Savior. Amen. I'm going to close off with a certain verse because I don't want you guys to think that okay now it's time to go be vigilantes.

We are not supposed to go and mutilate people and we're not supposed to go and cast judgment on everybody. Turn your Bibles over to Jude chapter verse 11 through 12 it's just one chapter. 11 through I'm going to actually read the whole section. Jude 11 through 21 okay and then we'll wrap up there.

It says Jude 11 "Woe to them for they have gone the way of Cain and for pay they have rushed headlong into the air of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feast when they feast with you without fear caring for themselves clouds without water carried along by winds autumn trees without fruit doubly dead uprooted wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.

It was also about these men that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying behold the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds what they had done in an ungodly way and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

These are grumblers grumblers finding fault following after their own lusts they speak arrogantly flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage." There you have from scripture certain categories that will help you distinguish who are the false teachers. Verse 17 "But you beloved ought to remember the words that are spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ that they were saying to you in the last time there will be mockers following after their own ungodly lusts.

These are the ones who cause divisions worldly minded devoid of the spirit but you beloved building yourself up in the most holy faith praying in the Holy Spirit keep yourselves in the love of God waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life." Amen. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father I pray God that you would help us be strong in a wicked and perverse generation. I pray Father God that we would not lean to the right or to the left but rather help us to stay so centered on Christ. I pray Father God that as this passage said help us not to give in but rather cling so closely to the hope that we have in Christ looking forward to him that in this way help us to be preserved.

I ask God that you would help us to be wise and discerning for there are many voices but I pray Lord that you would grant to us wisdom. I pray God that you would grant to us strength. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Okay. We're going to go ahead and have some announcements for the events coming up.

Just to start off just we had a busy week last week and it's such an encouragement to see the whole like pretty much the whole church serving on a very wet and crazy Sunday but just it was a blessing just to see our church just moving and ministering to people all week and so much appreciation just for just extending your love to all the newcomers on Sunday.

I hope you had a good week. We have a couple things that are coming up. Next Saturday is the Women's Conference. There's a lot of information online and we'll go into more detailed announcements this coming Sunday but it always helps to know how many people are coming so we can set up like enough chairs and refreshments and stuff so if you're planning on coming and you haven't signed up yet and you're a lady please do so via the QR codes and the stuff that you'll see the links that you'll see online.

A couple important things remember the 21st we have a members meeting and that's mandatory and we only have four per year and this year we have for this one there's going to be a service team fair and so with the service team fair you can see what our church is doing and also the areas where you can get plugged in and the areas that we actually really need a lot of help in so that's on the 21st.

That same day earlier in the morning if you are here in our church but you're not a member but you really want to just join our church community there's an eight week course that starts on that Sunday so please prioritize that because you're going to need to take this class in order to become a member.

The praise and prayer is April 26th so kind of keep that in mind and that announcement will go out just in a couple weeks when we don't have bible study but here's an important one May 4th between 9 to 12 we've been announcing this for a while but as abortion birth control and IVF are very sensitive topics but we want to have every person at our church able to articulate and biblically understand just how to process through these sensitive matters regardless of what stage of life you're in.

That's going to be happening on that day it's going to be two parts with Pastor James Lee from Cross Life walking us through and he's done a lot of research and a lot of careful study on these things and so please don't miss it but we also need kind of a head count for different purposes and for child care so if you guys can don't just show up like sign up so that we can kind of prepare for you okay and then the sign ups are all online and then on Sunday if you guys are not as tech savvy there's always going to be a table right outside the (laughter) there will be a table right outside the doors after each service or you can do this right now I'll give you about like four seconds okay and while you're trying to do this right now the time is 844 we're going to go into a time of discussion but just remember that the shuttle service will end at 10 o'clock so if you've parked farther away but you want a fellowship with people here go get your car bring it to the slot and then proceed with the fellowship afterwards so that our people can go our shuttle service they can go home the shuttle people really are serving very passionately for our church right and so when you guys get an opportunity please do thank them because they are really running around trying to make sure that we're all getting to our car safely especially those who have been parked far away okay the discussion questions are here go ahead and take a photo of it go ahead and just look over it and then we'll formally wrap up with a time of discussion and prayer (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence)