Sermons on Galatians - FROM PHYSICAL CIRCUMCISION TO THE DOCTRINE OF REPENTANCE (I)

In today’s sermon, I would like to focus on Galatians 1:4. It is written in this verse that Christ “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” It is my sincere hope here that you would all realize the profound Truth contained in this passage within the bounds of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and to thus gain great spiritual benefits.

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In Today’s Scripture passage, the Apostle Paul said that Christ “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:4). This passage tells us that to deliver us from the iniquities that abound in this evil age and from all the sins that emerge from our individual hearts, our Lord took upon the sins of the world once for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, shed His blood and died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved us all at once.

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During the Early Church era, the churches in Galatia were facing numerous problems. There were certain teachers in these churches who were causing a great deal of spiritual trouble. Intent on Judaizing the churches of Galatia, these people were propagating a completely false gospel among the saints, claiming that they could become God’s people only if they were physically circumcised. As a result, many in the Galatia churches who were still spiritually immature came to believe in and follow such false teachings, and the virulent effects of these teachings were so great that they posed serious threat to the Church.

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In today’s Scripture passage, the Apostle Paul said to the saints of the Galatian churches that he marveled at how they were turning away so soon from the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which had led them into the grace of Christ, to follow a different gospel. He also pronounced that there was no other gospel but the gospel of the water and the Spirit, declaring that anyone who follows any other gospel would be accursed. The other gospel that the Apostle Paul spoke of here refers to the false teachings advocated by the circumcisionists at that time, claiming that for anyone to become one of God’s people, he must be physically circumcised.

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Today, through the Apostle Paul’s faith, I would like to explain to you what kind of a heart a servant of God should have.
Paul is universally recognized as a servant of God by everyone. That he is undoubtedly God’s servant is because he neither sought to please men nor himself, but preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit according to the will of God the Father and of Jesus Christ, and kept his faith in this gospel under all circumstances.

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When the Apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the churches of Galatia, the circumcisionists had caused so much havoc that the churches were about to close down. So quite naturally, Paul’s heart was very anxious lest they should be undermined. The churches of Galatia had been the gathering of those who were saved from their sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit preached by the Apostle Paul. It was because of their faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Apostle Paul and the saints of the Galatian churches could be saved from their sins. This gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel that Jesus has saved all sinners from the sins of the world through the baptism that He received from John and the blood that He shed on the Cross. His baptism was to take the sins of the world onto His body and to pay off their wages on behalf of all sinners, for the wages of sin is death.

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The number of visitors to our website continues to increase. On average, we have more than 4,000 visitors a day, and we expect this number to increase into the near future. Lately, we have had visitors not just from the English-speaking world, but people speaking different languages from all over the world, including Third World countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. So I am that much more thankful to God. Although there were a few disappointments from time to time, I am still rejoiced to see how God has born the fruit of evangelism and blessed us.

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All of us should know that most Christians are now being fooled by the so-called famous leaders in Christianity. Today, so many people are living religious lives, spiritually deceived by those who are famous. Therefore, we should not take such false teachers seriously. In current Christianity, those famous people ignore and do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, so their faiths are always meaningless. That’s why the faiths of the existing Christian theologians are highly fallacious.

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In today’s Scripture passage, we can find the essence of the Apostle Paul’s faith: His faith was to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He came to this earth and took upon all the sins of mankind by being baptized by John, that He carried these sins of the world to the Cross and shed His blood to death, that He rose from the dead again, and that He has thereby completed our salvation.
This is why Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). Paul stated here that his old self died with Christ, and that now it is Christ who lives in him. He continued to say, “The life which I now live in the flesh is not lived for myself, but for Christ who is in me.”

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The Bible says that it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, the judgment awaits them. Therefore, those who neither know nor believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are born in this world once, and they die twice, for they die physically once and spiritually once as well. However, we receive the remission of our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit before God, at the same time we die once and are brought to life again by believing in this gospel. This is how we are born again. The believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have been crucified with Christ, and then they have been brought to life again receiving new life. Therefore, for those who have been remitted from all their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, their old selves died with Christ and their new selves were brought back to life with Christ.

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