I don't think I'm a grumpy man. I think I'm a very happy man with beautiful things in my life, but I'm going to sound grumpy for a minute about two television commercials that are running right now that I do not like. Number one is the No Flex Zone Wing Stop commercial. I think it's Wing Stop. I didn't like the song before the ad, but now that ad has been played so many times that I especially don't like the song. And I don't, that's all I can think of is that it's just overdone and I don't like the song because there's nothing wrong with the ad. I mean, the people in it seem likable. They're playing Jenga in the ad and eating wings. I like Jenga and I like Wings. Everything about it's fine. It's just a song overexposure. I don't know. I'm sick of the NoFlex Zone commercial that they play during all the sporting events. Second commercial I'm sick of is, I think, by an insurance company. I don't even remember whose ad it is, so I guess it's not a very good ad. And in it, you got two people who have an interpersonal disagreement because they both remember an event earlier in the day differently. And then one of the two is insistent they're right, and they take out a little red, it kind of looks like a napkin with maybe some beans tied off in the bottom to give it some weight. It's a challenge flag, and they throw the challenge flag, and that's a reference to American football, wherein, if a coach disagrees with a call that some officials made, he can throw this red flag on the field, and then the officials have to stop play. It's very boring, and they take five minutes and have to go watch a video review of the play to see what actually happened. And that's kind of the joke in this commercial. And inevitably, whoever is higher on the advertising demographic likability totem poll at any given time, they are always the winner, and the less likable person is not the winner, and then you're supposed to go buy their product or something. I don't know. I just don't like the execution of the ad, I guess. But it is a nod to this idea of hey, sometimes you got to go back and you got to look at the receipts. You got to look at what actually happened when there is a strong interpersonal disagreement or when you don't like a call. You just go back if you still have access to what happened in the first place and you review it. And likewise, I think it makes sense for us as we're here at the front end of the book of Galatians and discovering that there's a very serious interpersonal dispute, to put it lightly. It makes sense to go back and check the receipts to check the replay to be like, okay, well, is Paul right here? Because he's coming in really, really strong at the beginning, saying, But even if we are an angel from heaven, should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned. So he's saying, like, go back and check the replay. This is exactly what the message was that was preached to you. And then he goes on to say, as we've already said, so now I say again, if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned. So there's a second challenge, the second red flag is on the field to say, let's go back and review this. Did you indeed hear this message and did you indeed accept this message? I mean, either they did or they didn't. And the whole letter becomes kind of a moot point if we can't arrive at some sort of agreement as to what was actually preached and then what was actually accepted, because if Paul is just blowing hot air about this, then everything else is just uh an insane old man rant like the one I just did about commercials that I don't like very much. So the red challenge flag is out. We need to go figure out what exactly Paul said to these people on the front end. What was Paul's message as he was going around to all of these different churches, both in Galatia and in the larger region? And if Paul's telling the truth, what we should find is that he's basically saying that all of the Old Testament stuff is pointing to Jesus, and it also demonstrates that nobody is good enough or self-disciplined enough to earn the favor of God, right standing with God, eternal life with God through their own effort and impeccable behavior, but rather that there is a righteousness apart from the law that is given to us. It's the righteousness of Christ imparted to us by the saving, gracious work of Christ on the cross and his resurrection. And this is how the forgiveness of sins happens, and it's not really your thing that you did, it's God's thing that he gave. All right, so red flag, we gotta scroll back through the footage here. We're gonna go to Acts chapter 13, where if we are indeed reading a letter here to the Southern Galatian churches, then this account here in Acts 13 is exactly what Paul is recorded as having said to them, preached to them in the first place, and this is exactly what they are said to have accepted. Again, if we're talking about some other Galatian cities that are further north, there would be no reason to believe that Paul would have said anything different there. So either way, I think this is going to hold. All right. Acts 13, from Paphos, so remember that's on the island of Cyprus. Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia. Pamphylia is a neighboring Roman province to Galatia. There's a tiny little band of coastal land that is Pamphylia, and once you cross that tiny little band, you're into the southern half of the hourglass, the bottom half of the hourglass that is Galatia. Okay, so uh Perga and Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. Okay, so John's gone now. From Perga, they went on to Poseidon Antioch on the Sabbath. They entered the synagogue and sat down. Okay, well, now we're in Galatia. It's in probably the most prominent city in this region. Okay, so he goes on, sits down at the synagogue. This is following the normal pattern of what Paul did everywhere. After reading the law and the prophets, the synagogue rulers sent word to them saying, Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak. Well, standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and said, Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me. Is this ringing a bell? We covered this on the flyover of Acts, but the red challenge flag has been thrown here, so even though we've already seen this footage in real time, now we've got to go back and revisit it. The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers. He made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt with mighty power. He led them out of that country, he endured their conduct for about forty years in the desert, and he overthrew seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to his people as their inheritance. All of this took about 450 years. After this, God gave them judges. Okay, so then we go through the time of the judges. After removing Saul, okay, so now we have kings, he made David their king. Okay, this everybody's agreeing on all this history. Moving ahead, Acts 13, 23. From this man's descendants, David, God has brought to Israel the Savior, Jesus, as he promised. Before the coming of Jesus, John, this is the Baptist, preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel. As John was completing his work, he said, Who do you think I am? I'm not that one. No, but he is coming after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. Then he goes through and talks about how the religious leaders in Jerusalem had Jesus killed, even though they found no real reason to do it. When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree, the cross, and laid him in the tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had travelled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people. We tell you the good news. Aha, good news. Gospel means good news. The challenge flag is out. Here's the core of what we're looking for. When God promised our fathers, he has fulfilled for us their children by raising up Jesus. Okay. So what was promised in the Old Testament, through all of the law and the prophets and all of that, has been fulfilled in Jesus. Okay, so that's what Paul preached. That's what they accepted. As it is written in the second Psalm, You are my son, today I've become your father. The fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words. I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David. So it is stated elsewhere, you will not let your holy ones see decay. Okay, so Jesus is risen, Jesus is descended of David, Jesus is reigning on the throne of David, Jesus is the completion of all of the Old Testament stuff, he goes on. For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep, he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. Now we get into the really smoking gun part. I actually just marked up my Bible here, Acts 13, 38. This is the part that the officials are going to huddle around and play forward and back up and play forward and back up. This way his foot end, did everything work? But here, it's so smoking gun, the officials would just hear the next thing that is said here and they'd be like, oops. Okay, well, that settles that. Let's go out and announce the now absolutely confirmed and inarguable reality of what happened. Verse 38. Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him, everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses. Dang. That's it. Right there. Paul's not making stuff up. The challenge flag has been thrown, it has been reviewed. Nope, he definitely preached. Jesus is the long-promised king, the descendant of David. Jesus is the fulfillment of everything about the Old Testament law. It's only through Christ that forgiveness happens, and this cannot happen through the law. I mean, it's just right there. Justification before God, right standing before God cannot be obtained through strict adherence to the law. Nobody's good enough. It can only be obtained through the grace of Christ. But the challenge flag is still out there because Paul said two things. This is what was preached, and then he said, This is also what you accepted. So did they accept it? Okay, well, verse 42, Acts 13. We're still in the Galatian region here. As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. Okay, there it is again. We reviewed it. Yep, sure enough, they accepted it. But I guess that's just the Jews. What about the Gentiles here? Okay, on the next Sabbath, the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were jealous or mad. They said mean things, and Paul and Barnabas answered boldly, We had to speak the word of God to you first, but since you reject it and don't consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we will now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us. I've made you a light to the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And then it says, Oh, here we go, another smoking gun on the replay. When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. There you have it. The official comes out from under the hood after reviewing all the footage. What can they say other than, well, Paul's pretty heated here at the beginning of Galatians, but his insistence is vindicated. He was definitely right. What he's saying is the gospel that he preached, and what he's going to go on to say about that gospel through the rest of Galatians is exactly what he preached, and what he is saying the recipients of this letter signed up for and accepted is exactly what they signed up for and accepted. The call on the field is confirmed. Paul is correct factually. He is remembering the situation properly. And with that in mind, we can't really dismiss Paul as being some ranting old man who's just mad that things didn't go his way. He has a point, and the facts of the situation and his recollection of the situation are on his side. We have a pretty good conversation that we keep rolling for paid supporters of the program and for not paid supporters of the program. Everybody's welcome over at patreon.com slash the TMBH podcast. I know this is going to seem trite given all the things we just talked about, but I would love to hear what commercials are irritating you right now so that I'm not the lone old guy ranting at clouds in this discussion. Thanks for hanging out with me. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.