Defining the undefinable.

Steve Brown:
Defining the undefinable. We’ll do it on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life is all about God’s radical grace, grace that has dirt under its fingernails and laugh lines on it’s face. If you want the Bible to be a book of rules, you may want to stop listening now. But if you’re hungry for the truth, that’ll make you free, welcome to Key Life.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hope you guys had a great weekend and I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. If you’re just joining us, we’re studying the book of Galatians. If I went to a Island somewhere and was going to have to stay for 10 years by myself, given the choice of bringing a book, I would ask for two. And one would be Romans and the other would be Galatians. This is a wonderful book and defines the gospels so very clearly. And so that’s what we’re doing both this week know last week and next week, defining the undefinable or it lease the counter intuitive. The gospel goes counter to everything we ever believed. And it is such good news that sometimes I think nothing could be that good. Okay. We’ll get to the second chapter of Galatians, but first let’s pray. Father, sometimes you’re so good, we can’t believe it. You told us to call you Father. The sovereign creator, ruler and sustainer of the universe said we should call him Father. Father, that’s hard to believe, so is your forgiveness, so is your amazing love, so are your promises and we wouldn’t even believe it, if it weren’t for your grace infusing in us a belief in things that are true. Father, you know, everybody who’s listening to this broadcast, you know, the hard places and the soft laces, the laughter and the tears. And you’re the God of all of that. And then as always Father, we pray for the one who teaches on this broadcast that you would forgive him his sins, because they are many, we would see Jesus and him only. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. All right. We’re defining the gospel. As I said, what in the world is it? We sing about it. We talk about it. We get it wrong. What is it? Paul is very clear on that. And we’re looking at the first 15 or 16 verses of the second chapter of Galatians. And then we’ll see the rest of that chapter, when we finish this part. This is a part where it’s kind of general, a way of seeing the gospel from the big perspective and then we’ll get down to details later on. At any rate, this is what Paul writes.

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up by revelation and I laid before them (but privately before those who were of repute) the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, less somehow I should be running or had run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he’s a Greek. But because of false brothers secretly brought in– who slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us back into bondage– to them we did not yield submission even for a moment, that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who were reputed to be something (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) –those, I say, who were of repute added nothing to me. But on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for the mission to the circumcised worked through me for the Gentiles) , and when they perceive the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they would have us remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do.

I’m gonna stop there cause we’re going to be looking at some things and then we’ll move on from there. When we start detailing the gospel. Now, if you were listening last week, we saw that when you look at the gospel, you got to remember that the gospel is Catholic. In other words, it’s universal. I mean, the gospel reaches people who talk different than you do, who eat things that I won’t eat, who sing in ways I don’t sing, who have cultural beliefs that are different than mine. The family of God under girds all that of that and includes it. And it’s universal. And then we’ve seen in these verses that it is conveyed. In other words, you’ve got to share it with somebody. It’s continued. I wouldn’t give a rip about Christian doctrine, if I knew Jesus was coming back on Thursday. But he may not. And because he may not, it’s important that others and the next generation, know the truth. And it’s important that I keep the truth clear and crystal, so they can. It’s conspicuous. You can see it. I mean, there is a difference and it’s not in the way that a lot of people think. The difference between us and them, isn’t because we are nicer than them or we are kinder than them or more pure than them. Sometimes we’re worse than them. But once you’ve been loved, once you’ve been cared for, you’re different. I may have told you that we got a German shepherd. We’ve had a lot of German shepherds and loved those dogs. But as we got older, I just couldn’t go through seeing my beloved shepherd die. I’ve done that a lot of times. And each time it’s been really, really hard. And besides we didn’t want to get a German shepherd, that was, that was going to outlive us. But because of some kindness of some dear friends of ours, we fairly recently got a new gorgeous black female German shepherd, her name is Annie. And we absolutely love her. Annie was rejected by two families. And she was kind of feeling that she was going to be rejected by us, that this was just a stop over. But as the days have blended into weeks and the weeks into months, she’s begun to realize that she’s different, that she’s acceptable, that she’s loved and it shows. I mean, that is the most loving dog you have ever seen. And that’s what happened to Christians. You know, we’ve been rejected so long and kicked out so often and criticized so much, that we decide we’re going to be different and we’re gonna be better than anybody else. We’re not. We’re loved. And because we’re loved, we’re different. But let me show you something else. And I mentioned this last week, but we got to see it a little bit closer. The gospel, when you look at the macrocosm of the gospel is also compassionate. Look at Galatians 2:9-10,

And they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they would have us to remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do.

In other words, compassion is natural. You know, I don’t care much. I one time and I’ve told you this before said to a large congregation, there are millions of people in the world that are going to hell and I don’t give a rip, cause I don’t know their names and I don’t know their children’s names and I don’t know where they live and I don’t know a thing about them. And then I said to the congregation, that’s not bragging, that’s confessing and you’ve got to pray for me. And they did. And you know, something, I care. My last two books were written to them. Because it breaks my heart, when I realize that there is so much and they are missing so much of it. It is very hard for me to pass somebody, who’s asking for money on a street corner. Now I don’t give a lot of money. My friend Buddy Greene gives them $10. But that requires that you spend time and I don’t want to do that, cause I’m not totally healed. But I care that they eat. I care for people. I really do. And I’m not bragging, it’s just natural. It goes along with belonging to Jesus, compassionate, kind, gentle. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. That was Steve Brown leading us into the first part of Galatians chapter two. There’s a lot to dig into here and that’s exactly what we’re going to be doing this week. Sure. Hope you’ll join us again tomorrow. And for the rest of the week. Well recently on our other radio show, Steve Brown Etc, we spoke with Chuck DeGroat about a sometimes unseen danger in the church, narcissism. We discussed how to spot it. And just as important delved into how healing begins. It’s a conversation you need to hear. And that’s why we’re offering that entire episode on a CD for free. Get yours right now by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also drop an email to [email protected]. By mail, send your request to

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