The Hypocrisy of the Legalists
Galatians 6:11-13
I draw your attention tonight to the 6th Chapter of Galatians. And we take the last portion of scripture that comes as a unit in the book of Galatians verses 11-18 for our study tonight. And although it is a farewell portion of the book and although it is somewhat chopped up in terms of subject. The closer...or at least appears to be on the surface, the closer you look at it, the more beautifully tied together it is. The logical mind of Paul works its way right up to the very finish of the book of Galatians. And as we mentioned to you earlier, the book of Galatians is the one book that Paul wrote that has absolutely no personal references at all.
He is so concerned, he is so anxious. There is so much righteous indignation and urgency in his heart that he never bothers with any kind of personal amenities whatever. He makes absolutely no personal notations. He has very little to say concerning any good things that the Galatians had ever done. Any nice little phrases of comfort or a gentleness. They just aren't here. And as you come to the very end of Galatians, that really never changes. It is with the same urgency, the same righteous indignation, the same concern for his churches and for their confusion which had been placed upon them by the Judaisers that he writes even the conclusion. And so he really doesn't mix in any niceties. It just carries itself out to the very end with the same kind of intensity that he has had since he began.
Now you'll remember that the Galatian churches had been corrupted by some Judaising teachers. That is Paul taught them salvation by Grace and some teachers from Jerusalem came along claiming to be Christians, but believing in salvation by works. They told the Gentile converts that they weren't truly saved unless they were circumcised. Unless they became real Jews or at least proselytes. And then they added to that the fact that they were not true living Christians unless they lived the Christian life by the laws of Moses.
So they imposed a legal system on the Galatian Christians and messed them up, troubled them, hassled them, confused them. And Paul wrote the letter to the Galatian churches in order to correct the confusion. Now as he comes to the conclusion of his book, he wants to give one final word. And really it's kind of a summary of everything he has said. It appears in verse 11 through 18 as a final contrast between him and the Judaisers, and really that's the issue.
They told the Galatians believe us, he says believe me. They said you're saved by works. He says you're saved by grace. They said you live by law. He says you live by the Spirit. So the contrast is very diametric all the way through the book and it's no different at the end as he puts himself in absolute opposition to the Judaisers with this final kind of summary. And what it really is is a last effort to force the Galatians to deny law, to deny the flesh, and to accept grace and the life of the Spirit. This is his last argument. Now mark it. The key to this argument is the cross of Christ.
Paul makes the cross the dividing line. His statement in verse 14, "God forbid that I should glory accept in the cross," is the crux of this entire section. To Paul the cross is the determiner of destiny. What a man does and how a man reacts to the cross of Jesus Christ is the one single factor that determines his ultimate destiny. Now if you were to go around the world and collect all of the philosophies that would give you some information on what determines man's destiny, you could come up with a million different answers.
But if you were to talk to the apostle Paul and say what is it that determines a man's destiny, he would say there's only one thing and that's how that man relates to the cross of Jesus Christ. That is the absolute determiner of the destiny of every man. Now that just wipes out most of the philosophies of the world. In fact, all of them apart from Christian truth. Every man's life and every man's eternity is determined by his relationship to the cross of Jesus Christ. The insignia of the Christian faith is the cross. Because that is the crux of everything. Our insignia is not too tables of stone containing ten commandments. You've never seen that hanging around a Christian's neck.
It's not a sword and it's not an angel. And really, it isn't even a fish, as popular as that is, but the insignia of Christianity is a cross and it has always been a cross. And our insignia is not a mythical thing. It is not a simply symbolic thing. It is not in an artistic rendering. It is a historical and actual cross that is the significance of Christianity, a real one. First century references to Christianity and to the Lord Jesus always refer to the crucifixion. That is extra biblical ones. If you were to read, for example, the historians, Suetonis and Tassidus, you would read their description of Christians is this. "Christians are followers of a criminal who was crucified under Pontius Pilate."
Christianity has always been identified even from the first century historians with a cross. The cross is the most cruel instrument of execution man has ever devised. Man has never out done himself in thinking up horrible torture that can succeed in being more devastating, more punishing, more horrible than a cross. It can't be done. That's it. It was so horrible that no Roman citizen ever could be crucified. It was horrible to the extent that the Jews despised the cross as far back as even the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 21 said "cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree." And as well as that talks about hanging, it is used to fulfill the prophecy of crucifixion as well.
So the cross was hated by the Romans. It was hated by the Jews. The Jews still hate the idea of the cross. One of the first things the new country of Israel did was change the name of an area known as the valley of the cross. They changed it and changed it fast because the cross to them is an offense. Now when somebody was executed with the cross it was not just to kill them, it was to degrade them. You could easily kill people but the cross was to add degradation to death. Yet in spite of the fact that the Romans despised the cross and the Jews despised the cross, the cross becomes the beautiful symbol of Christianity.
You say well how so. I mean, how could that ever happen that Christians who are supposed to be loving and gentle and harmless kind of people and even Jesus said, "be wise as serpents and harmless as doves," how is that Christians would ever select in the world a cross as their symbol? The answer is simple isn't it? Because Jesus' death accomplished our salvation and He died on the cross and what He accomplished in dying on the cross was the atonement for our sins, the forgiveness of God, this was the greatest expression of God's love and the accomplishment of ultimate salvation. Consequently to us it's a glorious symbol. The cross then is the great insignia of Christianity.
Now just because you see the cross in Chapter 6, verse 14 does not mean that the cross is new in Galatians, not at all. If you're going to write an entire Epistle talking about grace, if you're going to write an entire Epistle talking about the fact that you're saved by faith not works, grace not law, you're going to have to talk about the cross a lot more than just at the end. Some people have called the book of Galatians the crucifixion Epistle. Because it mentions the crucifixion at least four separate times. Chapter 3, verse 1 talks about Christ crucified.
Chapter 2, verse 20 he talks about being crucified with Christ. Chapter 5, verse 24 talks about the flesh being crucified. And Chapter 6, verse 14 talks about the world being crucified. And I being crucified to the world. So the cross is mentioned repeatedly in the book of Galatians and the reason is because in any discussion of the true means of salvation in any discussion of the truth about redemption or how a man reaches God the cross has to be at the center of the discussion. So Paul sums up his letter again by stating that the cross must be held in perspective. The cross, the crucifixion of Christ is the determiner of every man's destiny. And what he does here is interesting. He contrasts himself with the Judaisers on one basis. On the basis of the attitude of each toward the cross.
The Judaisers have one attitude, he has another attitude. On the basis of those two attitudes, they stand in absolute opposition. Now mark this, as we've told you in our study of Galatians there are only two religions in all the world. There are not thousands of religions. There are only two religions in the world. There is faith religion, known as Christianity and there is works religion, which is everything else but Christianity. And under any name it's the same stuff. It's as if you put sawdust in every can and every box in the market. Under every conceivable label and you open it up and it was always sawdust. No matter what the label is in terms of false religion it is always the same religion. It is Satan's religion of salvation by works. Those two stand in opposition and Paul here sets them in contrast.
Two religions, the religion of human achievement which says I, on my own merit, can accomplish what needs to be accomplished to make me right with God. And the religion of divine achievement, which says I can't accomplish anything. God accomplished it all in the death of Jesus Christ. I'll simply accept that. Those are the two religions of the world. There are no others.
Now in Philippians, just to draw your attention before we look at the passage before us, Philippians 3. It says, "Brethren be followers together of me and mark them who walk even as you have us for an example." Now watch, for many walk of whom I've told you often and now tell you weeping, they are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction. Now notice that. Anybody who lives in opposition to the cross his end is what? Destruction. It doesn't matter how you qualify the opposition. It doesn't matter what the brand name is. It doesn't matter whether it's Christian science or Buddhism, it doesn't matter whether it's Soon Mun Moon or whether its...that's right isn't it? Some liberal over here on the corner at the first liberal stone quarry of Panorama City. It doesn't matter what the religious box is, it's all the same thing.
Anybody who is any enemy of the cross...you say what's an enemy of the cross? Somebody who denies the sufficiency of Jesus Christ sacrifice for the salvation of men. That's an enemy of the cross and his end is what? Destruction. So Paul has said before and he says it again in effect in Galatians. There are only two religions. The religion of human achievement and the religion of divine accomplishment. There is the cross and then there is everything else.
Now we're going to see these in contrast. The work system to grace system. Now what about the Judaisers? Well, here's their problem. They gloried in the flesh. That's point one. Point two Paul gloried in the cross and there's the outline. Not even three points only two, because there are only two, right? You say what do you mean glory in the flesh? That's a religion of human achievement. I, in my own flesh by my own strength by doing 49 little spiritual goodies can accomplish whatever needs to be accomplished to rightly relate myself to God. Whereas the cross says you couldn't accomplish it. The Son accomplished it on the cross, just accept it. That's all there is. There couldn't be any more than two points to the outline because there are only two religions.
First of all, let's look at the Judaisers. Theirs was a system of works glorying in the flesh, verses 11-13. They gloried in the flesh. Now this is the view of religion that a man is sufficient to himself to effect the transformation to have fellowship with God to earn blessing and to gain eternal life and he can do it on his own. And incidentally, it's a doctrine continually propagated by Satan, all of his demons and all of his false teachers. And it's what the legalizing Jews taught in Galatia. Now notice verse 11. "You see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand."
Now I want to stop there because I want to dwell on this verse. You say how could you dwell on that verse. It's...there's nothing there. There is. He says, "you see how large of a letter I have written you with mine own hand." Now this verse cannot be interpreted dogmatically. We can't say positively what he means by this, so understand that. I am going to tell you what I think is a very good possibility, but I can't be dogmatic about it, because there's no way to be. It just says what it says and I'm going to do the best I can with it. Well, to begin with if we're going to know what it means we ought to at least translated it correctly.
This is how it translates. You see from the Greek, with what large letters I wrote to you with my own hand. It's not correct to translate it how large a letter, but with large letters. Now you would translate it a large letter because it's not that large. Romans is larger, 1 Corinthians is larger, 2 Corinthians is larger and Ephesians is larger. You say well, maybe this is the first one he ever wrote and he thought it was large, because he hadn't written any others. That's possible. That's very possible and that's maybe a substantial argument. Technically, you could translate it that way. But the best translation, I think the purest one is the one that says you see with what large letters, plural, I have written unto you with mine own hand.
It's not the large letter that he's trying to get across, I don't think. That wouldn't be a particular point in saying that, but it is the size of the letters that he has in minds. You see these big letters. Now to support the point, let me say this, whenever the apostle Paul in his writings refers to a letter in total, a letter like an Epistle, he always uses the Greek word Epistle. For example, Romans 16:22, 1 Corinthians 5:9, 2 Corinthians 7:8, Colossians 4:16, and 1 Thessalonians 5:27 when he refers to the letter, when he says this letter. It always is the word for Epistle. He does not use that word here. He uses the word for letters. Not for an Epistle, but for the letters. And so it seems to me that that is his emphasis.
Now stay with me. I know you're saying this is really trivia, but there's a point in it. Paul says, "With what large letters I have written unto you with mine own hand." Now he was in the habit of dictating his Epistles to a person called an amanuensis or a secretary. He would dictate it and the secretary would write it down. And at the end of every letter, mark this, Paul would take the pen from the hand of secretary and he would write the conclusion. Paul would write with his own the conclusion to the letter and sign his own name. You say, why did he do that? There's an obvious reason. And that is in order to avoid anybody forging the letter.
Do you realize that in the early church there were all kinds of forgeries floating around, all over every where. One of the ways that Paul validated the true letters that he really wrote was by writing out the conclusion himself and signing his own name. Now this is true, for example, and I'll give you some illustrations in 1 Corinthians 16:21, "the salutation of me, Paul, with my own hand." And then he proceeds to write three more verses. So they could really know that this was his writing. Here's another one, Colossians 4:18. The salutation by the hand of me Paul. And then he proceeds to write some more. There's another one 2 Thessalonians 3:17. "The salutation of Paul with mine own hand which is the token in every Epistle, so I write."
In other words, at the end of all his Epistles, he says, I have always written the salutation and that came at the end. "With my own hand." And you know, this was very necessary, especially in the early church when people were trying to forge...Satan was trying to forge things." Do you realize that already the Thessalonians at least had received a forged letter and it messed them up. Listen to 2 Thessalonians 2:1. "We beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by Spirit nor by word nor my letter as from us as that the day of the Lord is present." Somebody had written the Thessalonians a letter supposedly from Paul telling them they were already in the tribulation.
And they got all messed up and that's why he goes on to say let nobody deceive you, that day will not come except this happen and this happen and this happen. So there was the problem of forgery and some of the Thessalonians had been hoodwinked into believing or at least getting confused by a forged letter. So the letters were written by an amanuensis or a secretary and at the end of the letter, the apostle took the pen himself wrote his own signature and wrote some little closing remarks. So these are Paul's own letters. So he says, you see with what large letters I myself am now writing. But now watch this, I feel in my own mind, and again I'm not dogmatic on this, but I just feel this way, that Paul not only wrote the ending of this thing, but he wrote the whole thing.
I think Galatians is the one letter that he wrote from beginning to end. And there's a reason for that and I'm not going to go into all of the features of the Epistle airiest and all that kind of stuff and try to show you what I mean by that. The very choice of Greek construction here is never used anywhere in the New Testament to speak of something the writer is about to write. It always speaks of something he has written. So when he says here, it's clear, see we with large letters I what? Have written.
It seems to be the indication that he's going backwards with that. Now at the end of 2 Thessalonians when all he wrote was the ending, he doesn't use that tense. He uses the present tense. So I am writing. So the difference indicates to me that he probably wrote the whole thing. You say well, why would he do that? Well, I think there may be several reasons. Number one he really heard that news he must have gotten hot fast. The letter indicates that he was really hot, right? He was fuming from the beginning of Galatians to the end and it seems to me that he just grabbed the nearest pen and whatever ink he had and just took off and wrote that there. In addition to that I think he desired to make this letter as intensely personal as he could, because of the fact that it was such a rebuking letter and there was no personal character in it in terms of specifics. I think that it could have been well his design to make it a personal confrontation and certainly he wanted to confront the Judaisers in a very personal way.
But let me see by adding another thought the fullness of what the verse is saying. You see with what large letters I have written unto you with my own hand. As you read that there is almost something pathetic in it. There's almost something brokenhearted about it. He's saying in effect, I hope you can read in these large scribbly, untidy, scrawling letters the pain in my heart about you. I've gone about this myself. And you know, it must have been a very difficult thing for him to do that, because he had a problem, and what may well have been his problem, eyesight. And for him to sit down and do this whole thing, he's saying in effect, you see with what large letters I personally have written all of this as if to say will you just for a minute stop and think that my heart is revealed in this letter to you?
You say well, why did he write with large letters. Well, some say he had bad eyesight. And if he had bad eyesight, he'd write large. Did you ever see a person with extremely bad eyesight? Everything is large, has to be so they can see what they're writing. You say well, how do you know he had bad eyesight? Well, we're not positive, but it's a good indication. Chapter 4 of Galatians, verse 13. He says, and "You know how through infirmity the flesh I preach the gospel unto you at first and your trial which was in my flesh you despise not and rejected but received me as an angel of God even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness you spoke of? For I bear you witness that if it had been possible you would have plucked out your own," what, "eyes and given them to me."
So there may be the implication there that he had an eye problem and it may be corroborated somewhat by the statement here that he wrote with large letters. Other commentators say that the reason he wrote with large letters was for emphasis. He wrote the whole thing in capital letters to emphasize it. That wouldn't make any sense. If you wrote the whole thing in capital letters you wouldn't be emphasizing anything. It'd all be the same. Another commentator said the reason he wrote with large letters is because he was treating his readers like children, and since he was rebuking childish, spiritual immaturity, he used baby writing. I really feel that's pushing it. There may be some truth in point one that the blindness was a factor, but let me give you this, now hang on this all has a point.
I really feel there's something else that explains the reason he used large letters. There were two styles of Greek writing, and there style are. We learn today in seminary, we learn on style and the Greek speaking world today has a different style. The first style is what's called literary unseal. That means everything is an unconnected big letters. You know how the little kids print when they begin to print, they print all those great big huge letters? Pretty soon they learn to write. Well unseal is the big block letters that are disconnected. The writing that connects is called cursive. Cursive, smaller and joined. Now most scholars, manuscript scholars feel that Paul's letters were probably done in cursive writing because the most adept scribes would write in beautiful flowing cursive.
The less educated would write in big block letters. And I realize that because I know Greek even after having all the years of Greek that I had, I still write great big block letter Greek and if somebody...somebody says oh I got a letter from my aunt in Greece could you interpret it? Interpret it, I can't even read it, because I can't read the cursive. I'm not that educated. Not that acquainted. Now according to Sir Frederick Kenyan who did some study on this, there are four classes of workmanship in the 1st Century manuscripts.
There is the best professional scribe who brought in the most beautiful cursive style that just read beautifully and flowingly. Then there was secondly, the good ordinary professional hand, not quite the class A, but sort of class B. Then thirdly, there was the educated man who was not a scribe. And probably these are the kinds of men that Paul used to write his letters. They were not professional scribes, they were not as professional as the other two, but they were educated and so they could write. And fourthly, there was the common every day hand and this is the guy who just really wasn't that sharp at all and he wrote in great big block, unseal letters.
The big untidy sprawling letters indicate, I think, the fact that Paul not only had an eyesight problem, but that he was no professional scribe. He was probably a lot more used to writing in Semitic languages because from the time, as we saw this morning, from the time of his boyhood on, he was trained in Jerusalem wasn't he. And he was trained in the law, and surely he never became as fluid in writing Greek as he did in Semitic language. And so what he's saying in effect is this, you see I'm writing with great big letters. Do you read my concern? It's a laborious problem for me to get across to you and yet I'm painfully going through this myself to show you that I care about you.
There's a sense of urgency in it. But there's another thing that just jumps into mind as I see this. He in effect is not trying to follow any pretense of scholarship. He's not trying to put any great airs of being a sort of a literary genius and to make sure everything is correct and beautiful in terms of its outward appearance. And I believe that as he looks at those scrawly, scratchy, big, untidy letters, they become for him a kind of parable. And he sees inherent in this letters and in that letter to the Galatians the difference between the Judaisers and himself.
All the Judaisers ever care about is the outward appearance, right? The external, the show, and he cares only about the inside and what he's saying is look at all the chicken scratch I've written you and in his mind this is a parable. He could care less about what the letters look like it's the content that he's after, right? He isn't concerned about what the letters look like. There are some who only care about the outward appearance and that leads him right into verse 12.
"As many as desired to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only less they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." He says I've written you in some big untidy, scrawly, scratchy letters, but I don't care. I'm not concerned about what it looks like. I'm concerned about what it says. However, he says, there are some in this world who care only about what the outside of everything looks like. They're only concern with making a fair show in the what? In the flesh, parading the flesh. Now beloved, he does something at this close of the letter that he hasn't done before as powerfully as he does it here. He has step by step, point by point destroyed the doctrine of the Judaisers already in the first part of the book.
I mean, he has just wiped out their doctrine. You know what he attacks now? Their motives. He spends the first section of the book just wiping their doctrine out and now in the conclusion he attacks their motives. Do you know why they taught you what they taught you? They desire to make a fair show in the flesh. In a word, they've got a problem with pride. Now watch, they glory in the flesh for three reasons and he gives them. He gives them three motives for what they do.
Number one, to show off spirituality. Number one to show off spirituality, verse 12. "As many as desired to make a fair show in the flesh." They want to put on a fine religious impression. They're very concerned with the outward, the external. Well, that's too untypical of today. They want religious popularity. Let me stop here for a minute and say that this is one of the motives of the legalistic Jews throughout history. And it's one of the motives today of legalistic religion. It's one of the motives today of a whole lot of phony pious people.
They want to put on a fair so they want to display their spirituality make everybody think they're so spiritual. All by the way they act, they've all a little spiritual faces that they put on, stances and little activities. Now, you know, this is what the legalistic Pharisees did all along. Listen to these, here's some of the things they did and you know these. In Matthew 6, "When you do your alms don't sound a trumpet before you like the hypocrites in the synagogues and in the streets." Whenever they came to give to the Lord, they had a guy blow fanfare, so everybody in town would know they were coming to give their money, big show, big display. I'm a great giver to God, aren't I wonderful?
Verse 5, "And when you pray, don't look like the hypocrites, they love to pray standing in the synagogue and the corner of the streets that they may be seen by men." They didn't care about God. They just wanted everybody know how religious they were. Wonderful spiritual people. Verse 16, "When you fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance. They disfigure their faces that they may appear to fast." You know, sometimes you might meet a Christian like that. What's wrong? You look so sick. Oh yes, I'm fasting.
See. Might as well gourd yourself as do that. I'm not sure that gluttony isn't a better sin than spiritual hypocrisy. There are degrees. Luke 16:15, "And he said unto them, you are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts." Oh ouch. Justify means you make yourself righteous. You are the ones who make yourselves to appear righteous before men, but God knows your hearts. "For that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."
Pretty strong language. Elsewhere in Luke 18:10, you get a good illustration. This guy comes to the temple to pray. He stands with himself in verse 11. Surely nobody else would stand with him. "He prayed with himself, God I thank thee that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, there's that tax collector over there. I fast twice in the week, I give all that I possess." God aren't I something? In Luke Chapter 20, verse 45, "Then in the hearing of all the people," you want to know why Jesus wasn't too popular with scribes, "beware the scribes who desire to walk in long robes." Oh, have you ever seen people like that? Clergy like to flow in the long robes.
And they love salutations in the marketplaces. They love people to say "oh hello scribe." You know they love all those titles. And they like the highest seats in the synagogue. You know there were always those higher seats and they like to be on the high seats, because then they could sit there and the could make their pious faces and all would see. And they like the chief places at feasts. "Who devour widows' houses and for a show make long prayers. The same shall receive greater damnation." Serious. They love to walk in long robes. They love the religious falderal. And they love salutations, titles. They love to be called by titles, spiritual titles. That's the kind of thing that Paul is talking about. They want to make a fair show in the flesh.
Let me show you something interesting. Colossians 2, here's really a key passage. Paul says in effect, this doesn't belong in Christianity, not at all. Colossians 2:8, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ." The rudiments of the world people means the ABC's, elementary teaching. It refers to Old Testament law, circumcision food and all the ceremonies of the mosaic system.
He says, don't let anybody trap you into thinking that all the externals matter. It is not the rudiments. It is not the ABC's, the weak and beggarly elements of Galatians 4:9. It is not the ABC's, the old things that have passed away in the old covenant, it is the things of Christ that matter. Verse 20, "Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world." In other words, when you were crucified with Christ at the moment of faith, you died to all of that old system. He says to Colossians if you've died to that whole thing, why are you carrying it on. And you've got all your dumb little rules, "touch not, taste not, handle not."
They had a whole bunch of little diddly rules, which are to perish with the using. After the commandments and doctrines of men, "these things have indeed a shew of wisdom in self-imposed worship and self-imposed humility." And the rest of the verse means, "and are of no value serving only to indulge the flesh." All of those little picky rules and regulations and ceremonies that were hung on to by Christian Jews did nothing but serve to indulge the flesh in a false kind of self-imposed spirituality.
Now he says, if you've died to all that stuff, why are you carrying it on. It has no place. Drop the phony fasads. It's practical for today. Be what you are. Be what you are. Any religion which is unwilling to accept Jesus Christ as the only all sufficient Savior is an indulgence of the flesh. Anything that gives in to man's self conceit is an indulgence of the flesh. Christ accomplished a perfect work. He accomplished it absolutely. There is nothing left to perfect by your flesh, therefore, the Judaisers were completely out of whack with God's plan when they paraded circumcision as if it had to be a part of salvation.
They wanted to make a display. They wanted to appear to everybody to be very sanctimonious. They loved to make people think they were spiritual by external activities and rules and regulations. And they were calling for circumcision in the case of the Galatians. Parading the works of the flesh. So their first reason then for following the religion of works was to show off spiritually. And I didn't bother to gather a whole bunch of illustrations of this, but they're all over the place. You know, sometimes I turn on the television and I see some ceremony going on in some cathedral or something and I watch all these people parading around in all these robes, with all these titles, going through all this holy mogus or whatever it is, with absolutely no effect. Other than a self-imposed worship. A ritual display in the flesh that affects nothing. But to give everybody the impression that they are very holy people.
When, in fact, the Bible says that if they are not counting on the absolute total sufficiency of the cross, they are to be damned. And so I guess I run 90 miles the other direction from liturgy just to avoid any possible intersection with error. Now there was a se
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