Show / hide full transcript
Happy birthday, dear Eric. Happy birthday to you. I think my thing leaves something to be desired there, Jeff. Over. Yeah, I think you left parts out. Was this an attempt to keep out of jail? Well, yeah. You know how it is. I've got this guy listening in down there in Rockland that might turn me in, so I gotta be careful. Over. You know, a little sin is just the same as a lot of sins, so I guess it doesn't matter, Mag. This is true. If you break the law in one point, you're guilty of all, right? I think it says that in James. All right, Jeff, good chatting you up. And let's see if we got anybody else that wants to check in here in these last four minutes or so. Any other stations come now. Okay, we got Kilo 7, November Echo Bravo. Keith, we got a great band today. I hear your voice real clear. How you doing, brother? Doing very well today. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. Thank you. Copy request. Forward to you around the place. Thank you. All right, copy no prior request. Appreciate that, and good to have you with us, Keith. All right, any other stations, please come down. KJ7PWM. KJ7PWM, Brian, good morning, how are the sheep doing? Okay, how are the sheep doing? We still have a two-gallon truck, two-gallon truck for him. And, uh, we have a couple of new sheep here, a new one, a little bit of a ram. Alright, well hopefully those last 2 will get going and get that job done and you guys can move forward. Alright, that's Brian, KJ7PWM, good morning Brian, good to have you with us. Alright, other check ins, please come down. All right, so now we'd like to acknowledge Peter, KJ7BA. Peter, see you there on both SDRs. And good morning, Pastor Max, N6TNI, audio. Well, there's our birthday boy. Good morning. How are you doing, Dan? I understand you've turned another year younger, is that right? That is correct, yes, and Jeff should always remember how old I am. I'm exactly almost a year older than he is. Oh, okay. Yeah, well, that way you're in a position to tell him how it is since you're older than him, right? That's the way it works. Hopefully. Anyway, good morning. Looking forward to a wonderful morning, and we'll let you get back to check-ins there. N6, T&I. All right, Dan, happy birthday to you and happy birthday to Eric, KJ7BA. All right, let's see. Yeah, I want to acknowledge Peter, KJ7BA. Peter says good morning to everyone. So, Peter, good morning to you. Thank you for being there. All right, WB7MAX here looking for check-ins. Please come now. Okay, Michael, Fox 5. There's Will, KM5F. Good morning, Will. How are you doing? Oh, I'm doing okay. No new prayer requests. Copy. No new prayer requests. Yep. And Annette would like to acknowledge Gene, K7GWR. Good morning, Gene. See you there on Utah SDR. That's Gene, Kilo 7, Golf Whiskey Romeo. All right, Gene. Good to have you with us. Thanks for being there. Let's see who else do we have on the SDRs here that I haven't checked in. Okay, everybody's caught up on Utah and everybody is caught up on Half Moon Day. All right, take a voice check in, voice check in, please come down. WB7VZL, great band. Isn't it, Roger? What a lovely band today, I'm so grateful for that. All right, Roger, we got you checked in. Any prayer requests over? No, just continuing same. Yeah, it's a walk my pace, over. Copy that. Understood, understood. All right, I want to throw my fishing line out there. Mark, KJ7PVT, if you're out there, please come back to me. All right, haven't heard from Mark in a few days. Since we have a good band today, I thought we could pick him up. Also, Carol, KK7TPL, Carol, are you there? Please key up for us if you are. All right, so 0 for 2 on that. Okay, any other check-ins this morning? Please come down. All right, this is WB7MX, Net Control for the West Coast Bible Study. We are going to get started with our study. We are in this last section of Galatians chapter 6. We're going to finish the book today, God willing. and we are going to be reading together verses 11 through 18. And, Roger, WB7VZL, if you could prepare to read that, I would appreciate that. That's Galatians 6, 11 through 18 there, Roger. In any event, Paul has given several exhortations regarding relationship issues here in the first half of Chapter 6. Um, He's talked about restoring fallen brethren. He's talked about supporting ministers of the gospel there in verse 6. He's talked about sowing and reaping in verses 7 through 10. And so as we therefore have opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially those in the household of faith. We're going to pick up the reading today at verse 11, and he's going to return to some of the themes he covered earlier in the book. And this is kind of his summary, if you will, where he's giving a personal appeal regarding most of what he said in the book, and especially regarding the necessity of the Galatians not embracing... false gospel and not embracing false teachers. So we'll talk about that today. But before we get started with that, we want to open our time together in prayer. Ed, N6XOH, could you please open in prayer for us today? Sure, let us bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning. We ask that you bless our Bible study this morning, that each one of us here will get a blessing. You just touch each heart here with the message that's going to be read this morning, that we can learn from all your words that are in our precious Bible, Lord. Watch over Pastor Max as he leaves out. Give him a blessing, and watch over him. and give him the guidance that he needs to run our net, Lord. He's been a real blessing for our net here. So just ask, Lord, that you watch over him today. Be with each one of us here, Lord. Help us all to be ready when you come to take us home. For in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, Ed. Thank you so much for that prayer. And indeed, our Bibles are precious Bibles. Thank you for... for that phrase there. You know, there's no book like the good book, and there's no book like our Bible. So praise the Lord for this wonderful, precious, precious, valuable book. All right, that brings us into our scripture reading today. We're going to ask Roger WB7VCL. Roger, if you would read for us, please, Galatians 6, 11 through 18. WB7VZL with the NASB translation. Verse 11, see with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply that they may... not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But may it never be that I should boast. except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause trouble for me; for I bear on my body the law of the the brand mark of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen. Hi, Roger. Great reading. Thank you for that wonderful passage here to conclude this wonderful book that has as its very heart and theme, what is the gospel? And we've seen that gospel is salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from human works, ceremonies, or rituals. all right real good roger thank you for that okay any comments on this section that roger read to us please come down here closely uh kevin please go ahead kb7's anything i'll get rolling but up to here thoughts from from others too and uh yeah water just an outstanding book this this has always been so impactful to me throughout my life with Christ and just kind of recentering perspective. It's almost like a plumb line when it comes to the gospel. Maybe he had eyesight problems and, "Hey, look, I've written my own handwriting in large letters," you know. But it also may be, you know, it's traditional. Paul often dictated his letters to maybe someone with really good handwriting, who we think of as a secretary, and then, you know, he would sign it. But he may just be emphasizing this point in larger letters to think this is a motivation. kind of amongst us as Jews as well. But I think the other, which Paul points out, they're hypocrites because they don't follow the law themselves. It's like the teacher or the I heard of a baseball coach one time that he lectured his kids, you know, the team every year about don't start smoking at the same time he's got a cigarette cuffed in his head behind him with a smoke raising above his head, you know. And that's the dutyizers. They're out there telling, hey, you need to keep the rituals, the ceremonial law. You need to follow these rules. But they're not doing that themselves. But I think the bigger motivation he points out here is fear. You know, the cross exposes all of us. The cross tells us that we're inadequate, that we're not enough, that we're failures, that we cannot save ourselves. It's all about Christ and what he's done. But the cross is also controversial. and it's going to bring persecution, and especially in and around Jerusalem and in and around many of the Jews. You preach the cross, and you're going to get a reaction, and either people will respond with repentance and receive that gift of grace, or they're going to respond with hostility and be very angry and persecute. And there's no more apparent... application of their evidence of this then in this time so they were chicken if you will they were afraid so they thought this would also by converting them to a form of Judaism would free them from persecution of those other Jews so but the cross points out to us that we can't do it on our own the cross only Christ. You know, God had to send a rescue mission, and that rescue mission was Jesus Christ. And he gave us that salvation because of the sacrifice he made atoning for our sins that we cannot. So exposing the motivation is very revealing here. KB7, that excepts. Yeah, Kevin, and you know, you're right. What we have here in verse 12 is modifying the message to avoid persecution. You know, in verse 12, as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only. lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. And you know, you're exactly right. The cross is very humbling. And the cross conveys to us that Jesus is the one who does all the work, and Jesus is the one who gets all the glory, and Jesus is in control of the outcomes that occur. And when people want to be in control, they want salvation by process, it's really easy to grab a human ceremony like circumcision or baptism or church membership or whatever to say, "Oh, look, we went through the process, therefore we have a conversion." And it moves us out of the realm of faith and into the realm of sight. And it allows us to count numbers. And it allows us to say, "Look what we did. And so the nature of gospel ministry and gospel preaching is that it's spiritual work, not physical work. It involves the unseen, not the seen. And it involves God determining the results and not us being able to count the results. And so it also is of a nature that it's very humbling to man. And so as a result, you wind up getting this radical persecution and rebellion against the true gospel message because it's... It robs man of his glory and it humbles man before the Lord. As it says in Jonah 2.9, salvation is of the Lord. And so what you see is people, especially in our day and age, modifying the message so that the world won't persecute us. And, of course, the great persecutors at this stage in history were the Jews. And if the Christians were circumcised just like the Jews, well, the Jews had no problem with you. But if you refused to be circumcised by thus declaring that Judaism had passed away, no longer were we under the old covenant and its requirements, well, then they took that as a personal affront, and instead of evolving into obedience to the next covenantal arrangement, they wanted to cling tenaciously to the old covenants. and look at that as the ground of their righteousness and their redemption. So there's a lot of dynamics at play here in this conflict between Paul and the Judaizers. And, Kevin, you pointed out a bunch of those. Thank you for doing so. All right, any other comments? Please come down to the call to action. All right, and I would like to acknowledge Dave, KE7WKI. Good morning, Dave. Good to see you there. Saw you there from the beginning. Appreciate you being there on our neck. Okay, all right, any other comments on this section? Please come down. To summarize some of what you just highlighted in summary, and thank you, Kevin, there seems to be a lot of pride of opinion and pride of place and pride of ethnic pride. And they were very loath to give that up. And we see that that was one of the great fears of Caiaphas and Annas when they said, if we let this man go, this Jesus, and we follow him, we'll lose our place and our nation. And that was their grand concern. They weren't worried about losing their souls. They were worried about losing their place and their nation. And so, you know, it was the nature of the nation is that it wasn't going to be defined now by circumcision and genetic descent. It was now going to be defined by the new birth from Jesus and the relationship to him. And so now we are a holy nation made up of Jews and Gentiles. that are supposed to show forth the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. So, you know, any time we come to salvation, Roger, we wind up experiencing loss. We lose our self-righteousness. We lose our importance. We lose our esteem in the eyes of other people. But what do we gain? Well, we gain our souls. And you remember the passage in Central Washington, what profit a man if he gained the whole world but loses his own soul? Well, if a man gains his own soul and loses the whole world, that's a worthy trade. So that's the calculation that goes into all this. Are we going to live for the next life? We're going to live for this life. Are we going to live for reconciliation with God or power and position in the eyes of people? Are we going to live in self-importance or are we going to live in humility and declare that Christ is the important one? And, you know, it's like Kevin said a little earlier, Jesus is okay, but he's not enough. Well, he is enough. And when we understand that, we understand we don't need to add anything to his saving work in order for the redemption of our souls. All right, other comments, please come down. Roger, go ahead please. In reading Luther's commentary on the book of Galatians, and it's been, I don't have a fresh read, but as my memory serves me, that every time I read it, I remember the every person that faced the Word of God and every Lutheran had to come to the point where they were going to lose their status with the Mother Church and all the millennial heritage and all the authority. all the authority that is backed up by a millennial, like I heard on NPR with this analysis of the current tensions between the pride of the church and the pride of our national leader. And also, you know, my talk with Craig, his main reason for switching from a small minority super Protestant group, and I'm not saying that in pride, I'm saying it's only by faith, as Hebrew says, but he wanted authority. He wanted to be part of a group that had authority. Over. Yeah, I copy that, but authority derives from who? That's the question. And of course Christ is our authority, the scriptures are our authority. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And so Jesus is the Word, and so we can't separate between Jesus and the Bible. One is the living Word, the other is the written Word. And that's where the earth lies. It doesn't lie in an institution. It doesn't lie in a figurehead. It doesn't lie in a long historical lineage. It doesn't lie in pomp and circumstance and fancy buildings and vestments and robes and all of those things. Authority lies in Jesus and in the scriptures, and we all have access to that by faith in Jesus. and by a faith in God and what it says and the guidance that it provides. So, Roger, thank you for pointing that out. Really, all doctrinal controversies and all religious conflicts ultimately boil down to what is your source of authority? And if your source of authority is the scriptures, then you're gonna come up with one set of answers. If your source of authority is men, then you're gonna come up with another set of answers. All right, great comment there, Roger. Thank you for that. All right, any other comments on this section, please come down. - QQH. - All right, I'll QJ7QQH, go ahead. - I did, focusing on the verse 17 as being both, mic drop moment. He's saying that unless you've been through what I've been through, get off my back, Lord. I totally agree, and that's exactly what he's saying, Al. It is a mic drop moment. And what he's saying is, I have proven, I have scars in my body that prove my loyalty and faithfulness to Christ. And we have seen, as we looked at the book of Acts, as we looked especially at the book of 2 Corinthians, the persecution and the abuse that Paul went through in order to stand up for the truth. And see, the difference between Paul and these fortuitizing teachers is that he was willing to suffer persecution for the cause of Christ by maintaining the truth, And in verse 12, it says, They changed the gospel, lest they should suffer persecution for the cause of Christ. So one of the things you know that if the world is patting you on the back and the world is giving you accolades and the world is praising you for your religion and your religious beliefs, Mark it down, you're wrong. Because the world is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. And so if the world is praising you, it's because you compromised the message. And so what happens to all of us is there is a sense in which we all bear, some of us, physical scars, some of us, emotional scars. some of us scars in terms of broken relationships that happen when we stand up for the gospel, when we stand up for the truth. And those who want the glory in the flesh, those who want the approval of the world, are going to reject us when we stand up for this one single thing. Verse 14: "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 to the world. So there's only one thing we glory in, and that's Jesus and his saving work. There's only one thing we trust in, and that's Jesus and his saving work. And when we do that, the world wants to crucify us. They reject us. The cross is a place of rejection. And of course, we also crucify the world, right? We reject them. We don't go along with their humanistic, immoral, wicked, self-serving, self-righteous teaching. And so there's this divide. What communion has light with darkness? You've got to pick a side. And you either pick the side of persecution, or you pick the side of the devil. and faithfulness to Christ, or you pick the side of approval and violate the gospel of Christ. All right, any other comments in this section? Please come down. AK6OK. Jeff, AK6OK, go ahead. You know, I was wondering about Paul's handwriting. He was talking about how he wrote this in big letters, and I was looking at a Bible reference here. and it talks about how scribes used to write on Paul's behalf as he spoke. But in this particular case, apparently he took the pen from his scribe and wrote these letters with his own hand, hand oversized letters. I was trying to figure out why would he do that when he wrote the entire letter. Over. Yeah, well, a couple of things at work here, Jeff. Paul apparently has some kind of eye disease. He spoke of that earlier. in Galatians chapter 4, when he says in verse 13, "You know how through the infirmity of the flesh "I preached the gospel to you at the first." Well, what was that infirmity of the flesh? Verse 14, "For my temptation, which was in my flesh, "you despised not nor rejected, "but received me as an angel of God, even as Jesus Christ. "Aware then of the blessedness you spoke of, "I bear you record that had it been possible, "you would have plucked out your own eyes "and given them to me." So apparently Paul had some sort of an eye issue probably couldn't see very clearly, and so when he wrote, he had to write in large letters so they could see. We have folks at our church who use large print Bibles because their eyes are so bad, that's the only Bible they can see and read. They can't see smaller print. So it may be that verse 11 is saying, you see how large letters I have used to write to you. Okay? So the idea that the script was like 20 points instead of 12 points. The other thing that may be being said here in verse 11 is you see how long of a letter I've written to you. I mean, we've got six chapters here, right? That's a big book. It's a lot of writing. Ordinarily, Paul would have an amanuensis, which is a secretary, people who were skilled and trained in writing, And he would dictate his letters to them and they would write them down exactly as he dictated them. But apparently he didn't have an amanuensis so he had to write it himself. And so he wrote a long letter. He wrote it in large font. And of course the reason for that, I think, Jeff, was because he had an eyesight problem. Back to you there, Jeff. Yep, that's what I was reading about here, that scholars think that that might have obviously been the problem. Now, did he just write the very end in large handwriting, or was it the entire book? Well, it's probably both ends. I don't think it's either or, Jeff. I think he wrote a long book, and he wrote it in large letters, and I think both of those ideas are being conveyed there in verse 11, over. You got it. Very, very interesting. All right, any other comments on this section, please come down to the call line. Is that XM? Is that XM? Go ahead, Kevin. Yeah, excellent comments. And, you know, it's interesting. People don't mind a message about oftentimes, you know, about doing good or doing the right or following a list of rules or too much anymore, we see more of a self-help or personal development message in churches and not the gospel being preached, you know. You know, you can improve yourself. You can turn a new leaf. You can aspire to greater things. Well, that's not the message of the Bible. I think verse 15 really encapsulates a lot of this. You know, he says circumcision or uncircumcision, it doesn't matter. That's not the point. That's not the point at all. The point is the cross. That's what the Bible's about. That's what the gospel's about. It's about the cross. And, you know, the legalists as the Judaizers or those that think that they can find another way to salvation really focus on the outward things. But the gospel focuses on the inward man. And if we are focused on all these secondary and tertiary things, then we're majoring in the minors. We need to major in what's the most important, it's the cross, because the cross is God's grace on display. I like the acronym, God's riches at Christ's expense. Well, that's what the cross is. It's his unmerited favor to us. It's his gift to us that we certainly cannot earn. We cannot follow enough rules or the law or even the will of God. We failed on all those fronts. We will always fail on all those fronts. but we can come to God in faith for the work that Christ did on that cross on our behalf. And that's the heart of the matter. TB7, is that acceptable? Yeah, Kevin, well said. Thank you for that. Let me turn my machine off there. Yes. And Eric, KD7ES said, I've also heard the same and understood that Paul had some sort of vision impairment later in his ministry. Yeah, thank you for that, Eric. Appreciate that. Yes, Calvin, getting back to your comment, you know, there's two things here. Verse 14, God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so... you know, you've really been emphasizing the centrality of the cross, the work that was done there, the person who accomplished that work on the cross, and the fact that our faith should be in Him and in Him alone. And then you have this diversion, verse 15, where people said, "Oh, it's the cross plus circumcision." And what Paul is saying there in verse 15 is, "No, it's the cross plus the new creation." Notice that last phrase in verse 15, "From Christ Jesus." He rules out circumcision as being of any value. What is valuable? Notice that last phrase in verse 15, but a new creation. So what we're looking at is we're looking at the cross. And what Jesus did there is he becomes the object of our faith and his saving work. And what does that produce? Does it produce circumcision? No. It produces a new creation. People are born again. And so the question is not, when I look at people, it's not, you know, "Are you circumcised?" or "Are you baptized?" or "Are you a church member?" or "Were your parents Christian?" The question I say is, "Have you been born again?" You know, "Are you a new creation in Christ?" "Have the old things passed away? Have all things become new?" "What is the object of your trust?" "Where is the focus of your faith?" And are you willing to endure persecution to cling to Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins? And so he's saying you've got this one set of teaching and this one set of values, and then you've got this other set of teaching and this other set of values. And he just really strongly sets forth the contrast between these, either salvation by process or salvation by faith. A salvation by Christ plus human works, or salvation by Christ alone? A mark of conversion in the body, or a mark of conversion in the soul? And so all of these contrasts are set out here. And, you know, are you willing to be persecuted for the message, or are you not willing to be persecuted for the message? And so I think this very last phrase here in verse 18, brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. That word grace, you know, Kevin talked about, you know, God's riches at Christ's expense is an acronym. And that's a fine definition. But I think of grace as God's unmerited saving favor given to undeserving sinners. And, you know, we don't deserve any of this. It's given to us without merit on our part. It brings salvation. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, Titus chapter 2, teaching us that denying a godliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, and godly the end of it and I'll be back to full strength by the end of the day today. So thank you for that, Roger. It's really strange. I take really good care of my health and keep my immune system up and all that. So like I said, it's the first time I've been sick in over ten years. You know, we failed through COVID and all that and I never got anything. So, a little bit surprising, but nevertheless part of what's involved in being in a fallen body susceptible to disease and illness like everyone else. Go ahead, Roger. Oh, well, that 10-year record is just amazing. That's awesome. Yeah, the last time I was -- I just verbally said, "Oh, that's awesome." You mentioned throwing up. I had to go to the hospital. My wife insisted when I was given some mohel mushrooms, and I kept them in the refrigerator too long, and I eat them raw without cooking. Apparently, I mean, it was horrible. I was dehydrating myself, and so that's the first thing they did, gave me fluids. And when you start doing what you were doing, and that dehydration can sure throw things out of equilibrium very quickly. I'm so glad, so I praise the Lord that restoration has come and peace has come a bit. Yeah, and have any B12 from the stress that your body has been through. You know how to work on recovery. Yeah, right. Yeah, well, this is rough. This world is something else. WB7VZL, take back. Wonderful, wonderful conclusion of this letter. Thank you. WB7VZL, I'll be clear. All right, Roger. All good. Yeah, I am really blessed, Roger, to have a wife who, takes care of all my vitamin needs, and every day I get a handful of this stuff, right? I'm not real sure what it all is, but I know there's B12, there's D3, there's zinc, there's quercetin, there's a bunch of other stuff in there, and of course, you know, acidophilus to restore everything once things have been cleaned out. Yeah, I have an amazing physician on my hands here who takes good care of me, and I'm so grateful for that. So, yep, that's all on the list there, Roger, and thank you for suggesting it. I really appreciate it. I think that we can encourage each other in those regards. All right, well, you guys have a great day, Roger. 73 to you, WB7DZL, and this is WB7MEX, and I'm standing by. This is WB7MX, I'll be clear in QRT, see you all tomorrow *train noise* Thank you. Thank you. ♪ ♪ *train noise* ♪ ♪ Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ♪♪ ♪♪. Thank you. Thank you. .