2x2 Rules & Regulations
Revised April 20, 2009

Some of the Unwritten Rules in "The Truth" sometimes called "The Standards of the Kingdom"

Unwritten Rules for the Friends

What the Workers Haven't Told You about the Rules & Regulations

Who were the Pharisees?

Does God REALLY Care About Women's Appearances?

Also by Eldon Tenniswood:
1982 California Young Peoples Meetings
1975 California Elders Meetings

DISCLAIMER: This list is not represented to be all inclusive or universal. Customs vary considerably from place to place, worker to worker. The following are general statements regarding the group's beliefs and practices gathered over many years from numerous sources. However, they may not be believed or practiced in total universally. Historically, depending on the time in history and/or the overseer in charge, differences have occurred regionally and likely will continue to occur. And as in any group, some individuals may hold specific beliefs/understandings that differ from the main church body. Corrections, additions, or comments are invited.

Unwritten Rules for the Friends

1. HAIR
FEMALES: Women/girls shall wear their hair long. Women to wear their hair up on their heads, and not hanging down loose. IDEALLY no bangs/fringes--no cutting/trimming their hair ever.
MEN: Shall wear their hair short (no pony tails tolderated) and ideally, will not wear facial hair.
AREA VARIANCES: More and more men are wearing mustaches and beards; some women are wearing their hair down and adopting short hairstyles regardless of the unwritten rule.

2. JEWELRY
PROHIBITED: Necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings (except wedding bands)
PERMISSIBLE: watches, wedding bands, hair jewelry, tie tacks, cuff links
AREA VARIANCES: Class rings, engagements rings common in youth; pins/brooches allowed in some areas.

3. COSMETICS & TATTOOS
IDEALLY: No artificial means of any kind to enhance appearance, ESPECIALLY colored eye shadow, colored nail polish, lipstick, hair coloring.
AREA VARIANCES: Some wear clear nail polish; light unnoticeable make-up.
Those with tattoos got them before/while they were not a part of the group.

4. APPAREL TABOOS
FEMALES: Not to wear slacks/shorts; sleeveless dresses/blouses; short skirts, low necklines, or sundresses. Not to follow fashion trends, and stay a good distance behind the styles “of the world.”
IDEAL: Dress modestly
MALES: No articles of clothing prohibited. Many men do not wear shorts.
AREA VARIANCES: Slacks OK when required to protect modesty in a special activity. Some old-timers believe any activity that would render a women in a dress to be immodest should be avoided. Women on horseback permitted to wear slacks. Some areas: no red or white shoes; no sandals; no bare legs

5. DANCING and MOVIES
AREA VARIANCES: Many rent movies and see them through their Computer monitors or VCRS; Some areas permit attending musicals, plays

6. SWIMMING
PREFERRED: Mixed sex bathing/swimming once discouraged, now becoming more common.
AREA VARIANCES: In some places, women are prohibited from wearing swimsuits, and pin their dresses between their legs and only swim in very private waters. Some Hawaiian, Australian and New Zealand friends wear bikinis.

7. PARTICIPATION IN SPORTS & BANDS
PREFERRED: No participation in organized sports
AREA VARIANCES: Soccer participation allowed in some areas. Golf frowned upon in some areas.

8. SMOKING
PREFERRED: No tobacco/pot smoking of any kinds; no cigarettes, cigars, pipes or chewing tobacco
AREA VARIANCES: NONE!

9. DRINKING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES
IDEAL: No alcoholic beverages imbibed (including wine) in the USA, however, some American friends serve/drink wine with some meals.
AREA VARIANCES: In Europe, beer and wine are drunk, but never spirits; however, that even varies from country to country. Wine is even served at Special Meetings by the workers.

10. TELEVISION
PREFERRED: Not to own or allow a TV in one’s home
AREA VARIANCES: Divided homes given leeway. If workers learn a TV is in the homes, a meeting will not be placed there; or a meeting may be removed for this reason.

10. MUSIC
PREFERRED: No recorded music of any kind, but playing of instruments encouraged.
AREA VARIANCES: Radios and stereos used in many places. Some areas only permitted to play hymns on instruments (especially on Sundays)

11. HOLIDAYS
PREFERRED: Christmas and Easter are not observed as religious holidays. Many friends do not observe the standard, traditional customs of their culture associated with these holidays (no gifts, cards, decorations, special meals, etc.)
AREA VARIANCES: Many exchange gifts and Christmas cards. Some put up decorations and trees (Xmas trees used in New Zealand) Many parents of small children decorate trees, hold Easter egg hunts. Practices vary considerably. Recommended that parents "be wise" with children in this regard.

12. VOTING IN NATION'S ELECTIONS
PREFERRED IN SOME AREAS: Not to Vote. (God is in charge of who becomes a leader/ruler)
AREA VARIANCES: Lenience or no instructions given either way in some areas

13. GAMBLING - TABOO
AREA VARIANCES: Many friends have visited Reno or Las Vegas and participated in gambling, usually as a one-time fun activity.

14 PROFESSIONS
DISCOURAGED: Professions requiring carrying armed weapons; involving entertainment world, such as playing a musical instrument or in a band; sports; hairdressers for women; cosmetologists; vocalists, broadcasters.

15. SERVING IN ARMED SERVICES:
IN WAR TIME: Choose Status of Conscientious Objector where one does not bear arms.
IN PEACE: Some join armed services as a profession--some to obtain special training and education they offer, who could not otherwise afford same.

16. SWEARING
PROHIBITED: Not to take the Lord's Name in Vain
AREA VARIANCES: Slang, even "darn" or "gosh" are considered foul language by some.

17. SYMBOLS
PROHIBITED: Christian symbols are not to be displayed on one's body or in one's home, such as the cross, dove, fish, or pictures of Jesus or Scripture, large coffee-table Bibles. Religious greeting cards are not used.

18. MARRIAGE: Going into the work is the highest choice for one's life. Highly discourage marriage to Outsiders. Expected to marry someone within the group.
NO SEX before or outside of marriage.
AREA VARIANCES: Some are asked to quit taking part if they marry an outsider. A marriage between and Insider and outsider is termed a "divided home."

19. REMARRIAGE: Permissible when prior spouse is deceased.
AFTER DIVORCE: PROHIBITED--considered adultery.
AREA VARIANCES: In some areas after remarriage, participation in meetings and emblems denied to parties. In some cases, participation allowed, provided divorce took place BEFORE the person professed; allowed in some cases/areas AFTER some amount of time has elapsed. Customs VARY CONSIDERABLY in the USA, largely depending on the Overseer's preferences. Colorado takes a non-judgmental stand. Other countries tend to be more strict.

20. SUNDAY
To be Day of Rest. No working on Sunday.
Many recreational activities curtailed on Sunday. NO swimming, fishing, attending recreational parks, working of any kind, sewing, washing hair, clothes or cars, gardening, mowing lawn, changing oil in car, housecleaning, shopping, etc.
AREA VARIANCES: Some essential occupations exempted, such as dairy farming, nursing, etc.

21. BAPTISM
REQUIRED in order to go to Heaven.
Failure to observe some of the above Rules has caused some to be denied the rite of Baptism and Communion.

22. MEETINGS and CONVENTIONS
IDEAL: Attend all meetings in your area unless ill. Attend one full convention in your area per year; attending several conventions encouraged. Use King James Version of the Bible primarily; use of other translations becoming more common. Do not read/use any outside Christian books/material, except for a Concordance and Bible Atlas.
AREA VARIANCES: Men to wear ties to Sunday morning meetings.

EXCOMMUNICATION: . The regional Overseers of an area maintain absolute authority over all under their jurisdiction. Decisions made by that Overseer regarding those under his jurisdiction are neither reviewable nor changeable by any other Overseer; unless that Overseer has an Overseer over him. For the excommunicated person, there is no means of appeal.

What the Workers Haven't Told You About The Rules & Regulations

Do you REALLY know what the Bible means by GRACE?

Free in the Spirit
Who hath bewitched you?

I want to read one verse first before we plunge into the whole Book of Galatians. This most famous verse in the Book of Galatians is Galatians 2:20. "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God. who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."

Some people have said that I've only got one thing to talk about and that is law versus grace. Well, I suppose that's true. I suppose every preacher has been shown one thing by God more than another, and he talks about it all the time. God has shown me the grace of God, and the book of Galatians is THE book of the Bible which sums up law versus grace.

This letter that Paul wrote to the Galatians is his earliest letter of the New Testament. It was written either about A.D. 49 or 50-51, right in there somewhere. When you consider that Jesus died in A.D. 33, it was a very short time after Jesus rose again that this letter was written. On top of that, it is one of the most blistering and emotional letters of the New Testament. Some letters of the New Testament come over beautifully cool, like Romans. When Paul wrote Romans, he sat down and obviously planned every chapter so that it would say exactly what he wanted it to say. In Galatians, Paul explodes as probably he doesn't explode in any other letter. Paul is very angry when he writes Galatians, and it comes through. He's got a tongue that is on fire, and a pen that is blazing. He pours out his message in blistering emotional words which enables us to get right inside the heart, as well as the head of Paul. You'll see why in a moment.

Now, what's the background of this letter? We'll never fully understand it until we get right behind it. In a sense, you have to go all the way back to that ancient covenant with Abraham, which begins in Genesis 12, and is repeated in Genesis 15 and 17: the Abrahamic covenant. In that, God said that through Abraham and his seed or his descendants, all nations of the earth would be blessed. That was THE promise--the promise to which Abraham committed himself, which he believed that God would do--the impossible. First of all, you have Abraham with the promise from God. Abraham did absolutely nothing to receive that, except to say, "thank-you".

Then some 400 years later came Mt. Sinai with the giving of the law, the ten commandments, and all that went with that Jewish law. That was just fine. The law came in to point the finger at us, and say you have sinned. You need that promise God made to Abraham very badly. You better say, "thank you." So the law came to show us we were sinners, and point us away to see the promise God made to Abraham--that one would come, who would bless all nations. The trouble is the Jewish people turned that law which was meant to show us we're sinners and point us away to the coming savior into a Way of Salvation, IN ITSELF. Instead of taking it as a pointer, they took it as the thing (Savior) itself.

The Way of Salvation that they began to create was: if you keep that law, then you will be saved. Now the law DID say that, but it was meant to bring us to utter despair, because no one could keep it, if they could read it. When they read it, they said, "There is no way we can keep that!" They thought, "If you could only keep it, it will become to you Salvation."

The people who thought that became a cult, or a sect within the Jews known as the Pharisees. They didn't only have the ten commandments--they enlarged on them, just to make sure they knew what they meant. In fact, they enlarged on them by 2,000 extra commandments, so that you would really know what the ten commandments were saying. These Pharisees were very, very excited about keeping the law. They made it a 24-hour a day job to keep that law, in every detail that they had outlined. They said, "If you will take upon yourself the burden of keeping the law you will be saved." The Pharisees were so excited about it that they went as missionaries from Jerusalem all over the Roman world, and they stopped at every city and turned to the Gentiles and preached to them that if they wanted to be saved that they must take upon themselves the burden of the law and set their whole life to keeping it.

The mark of having taken the law was circumcision. In every city there was a synagogue. The Pharisees went there and preached to the Gentiles, who would come, and say, "Take upon yourselves the law--be circumcised." A Jewish congregation would have a mixture of Jews and proselytes. The proselytes were Gentiles who had taken upon themselves the keeping of the law. At the back in a private section, were people called "God-fearers." God-fearers were those who believed everything they said, but just couldn't bring themselves to take upon themselves the yoke of the law. When a man would answer the appeal of a Pharisee, it was said that he would take upon him the yoke of the law. It was like when they put a yoke around an oxen's neck. From then on he was under the control of the driver, and he was pulling the great load behind him. Well the Pharisee said, "You put upon you the yoke of the law, and now you begin to walk under its control. You have joined the congregation of Israel. You are a saved person."

They looked upon the Gentiles who didn't keep the law as sinners. In fact, they didn't call them Gentiles--they simply called them, "sinners." That made all those people wicked who hadn't taken upon themselves the burden of the yoke of the law. We Jews, we who are Pharisees especially, we have the yoke of the law upon us. And by the way, we're looking for Messiah. When Messiah comes, He will set the whole world straight, and He'll be our Lord and King. They said to keep the law--to come under the yoke of the law--that IS salvation. And P.S. Messiah is coming to set the world straight and be my Lord.

When Messiah came, the Lord Jesus Christ, He blew apart ONE company of people, and that was the Pharisees! You remember His most terrible words were spoken to the Pharisees, (Matt. 15, 23; Mark 7, Luke 11:37) because of the way they laid the yoke upon people and made it impossible for them to move. The law, the law! You must do this; you can't do that; you shall go here; you mustn't go there; you may eat that; you can't eat that; you must wear this; you can't wear that. The law, the law; the Rules; the Regulations! And if you keep them ALL, then you'll know God; if you break them, then all is despair.

Jesus came and He picked up their phrase and He used it. He said, "MY yoke is easy. MY burden is light." The law weighs you down. You have to ask yourself every day, "Am I allowed to do this? Can I do that?" Jesus says, "My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Come unto me and I will give you rest." These Pharisees only lay their burdens on you--and you can't bear them. I will give you rest. When Jesus died and rose again, He brought about the blessing of Abraham, long awaited those many years. All men had to do was receive them, and say, "thank you". "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest." (Matt 11:28-30)

In the blood Jesus shed, the New Covenant had come into being. In the resurrection, He came to give salvation with Himself. The early church as a whole didn't understand what Jesus had come to do--not all together. They understood for sure that He had wiped out their sin; they knew He was alive, but He IS the Jewish Messiah, isn't He? And I mean those Gentiles, those sinner-dogs who don't keep the law, could He really have come for them? Of course, if they will become Jews, then He's their Messiah, but you can't really go out there and share Jesus, the Savior, the Lord, the Messiah, with THOSE people. Even Peter thought that for awhile. You'd be surprised how long it took to get their nationalistic Judaism out of their heads.

But there was one fellow who saw it right away. I just wished he'd lived. We would have had another few books in the Bible if he had I'm sure. That was Stephen. Stephen saw it. He began to preach in the synagogues. Remember, in those days there weren't any churches. You were Jews, and that was it. The Christians were these weird Jews--all those who believed Messiah had come. They met in the synagogues; they worshipped on Saturday; they went to the temple; they had the scrolls; they had their rabbis. It was Judaistic. But Stephen was one young fellow in the synagogue who said Jesus Christ is everything. Jesus Christ means that the law has been done away with. Christ is our life. In Jesus Christ, we don't need a temple anymore, for we have become the temple of God. Jesus is alive! It is the end of Judaism. He has fulfilled it completely.

They kind of looked at him, and they didn't know what to make of him. But there was one Pharisee who knew exactly what he was saying, and he rose up like a mad man. His name was Saul of Tarsus. He understood full well what this fellow was saying. He said, "You mean that Jesus is the end of keeping the law? You mean He wipes out all of the Rules and Regulations? You're saying that this Jesus comes inside of you instead? You mean to tell me there are no more sacrifices to be made in the temple because His death was the last sacrifice? Are you saying the temple is to be done away with because He is the end of it all?" And Stephen and Saul of Tarsus battled it out in theological debate. Every time Stephen opened his mouth, Saul lost the argument. So at last, Saul paid off some thugs, and some liars and they twisted Stephen's words just a little bit to make it sound like high treason against the Jewish nation, and they ended up stoning Stephen to death, as you know.

Then Saul said, "I've got to get rid of everybody who names the name of this Jesus, and utterly wipe out this Jesus." Why? What was the issue? None of the Pharisees cared too much about Jesus being the Messiah. That wasn't the issue. You can have Jesus as Messiah. In all the first synagogues and the temple, they didn't mind about Jesus being Messiah. OK, you say He died and rose again--we'll talk about it. If He's Messiah--He's Messiah--we won't argue on that. But if we have to give up keeping the law, now THAT we could never do.

The whole issue that caused Saul of Tarsus to persecute the church was this:
Is a man to be saved by trusting in Jesus Christ alone?
Or is a man to be saved by keeping the law and trusting Jesus Christ?
The Christians said HE IS THE WAY, the only way, the way plus nothing. That's why Saul of Tarsus felt it was his duty to wipe out every Christian, so the Jewish people could remain clean and pure.

Jesus appeared to Saul upon the road to Damascus, and Saul fell from his horse and cried, "Lord what will you have me to do?" (Acts 9:5). Saul knew what Jesus was doing. He had argued every bit of it out with Stephen. And he knew that in accepting Jesus Christ, He was saying that this was the end of the law; the end of sacrifices; the end of the holy temple. I have come to the person Wwho is everything. He is the one who wiped out my sin; He has become my life within. It took him a long time to put that into words, but he knew it. That's why Saul had such a turn around--because he knew what Jesus was doing. While Saul was out in the desert trying to get his head straight, and trying to hear the voice of God on this great issue, down in Jerusalem something was happening.

Peter went on a tour of all the synagogues. He comes to one place called Joppa, which was on the seaside, and the Holy Spirit gave him that great vision of unclean meats coming down. Remember Peter's answer when the Lord said, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." (Acts 10:13) Peter said something like, "I wouldn't. Don't you know Lord, I'm an orthodox Jew--that's not kosher. I wouldn't touch it." God said, "When I say it's clean--its clean. Eat it!" At that time the Holy Spirit said, "I hope you've got the message, because there are three men downstairs. They want you. You better go with them." When Peter goes downstairs, he looks in horror at the three Gentiles waiting on him.

Orthodox Jews don't even walk beside a Gentile. Don't touch that carpet--that's a Jewish carpet--don't tread on it, you dirty Gentile. Then he remembered God had said, "what I call clean, don't you dare say they're unclean." I had better go with them. I wish we could get into Peter's head. This was the tradition of centuries that Peter had to climb over. He comes to the door of a Gentile. They didn't go inside Gentile houses--why, they would pollute themselves! Peter comes in and stands there, the biggest fish-out-of-water there ever was, and looks around, and says, "You know God spoke to me today, and he showed me that He is yours to worship". As he began to speak to them until the whole house was born again; they were spirit-filled and speaking in tongues.

Peter stood there with his mouth open. But all the Jews that had come with him said, "This is too much--they're Gentiles! They can't speak in tongues! It doesn't belong to them. This is too much! Jesus is OUR Messiah." Peter says, "You know, I'm going to catch it for this." Sure enough when they heard about it in Jerusalem, the leaders of the church said, "Is this a rumor, or is it true? You talked to a Gentile? You dared to share Jesus with someone who wasn't a Jew?" (Acts 11:3) Then Peter told about the vision he'd received. He said, "God sent me. The spirit bade me go. I didn't have much choice about it actually."

While that little furor was going on, some ordinary folk who didn't know how to preach, but who knew how to talk, went north to a great city in Syria, right outside of Israel now, a city made up of Gentiles and a few Jews, called Antioch. When they got there, the Greek word that is used in Acts 11 is that they "gossiped" the gospel. They just talked it all over the place. The result was that Gentiles heard it. Of course, they were born again, spirit filled, and had a marvelous church going, but with no one to lead them. So they sent a notice down to Jerusalem saying, "Send us someone." They said, "A church in Antioch??!! That's Gentile territory--you can't have a church there!"

There was one fellow who knew how to pour oil on troubled waters whose name was Barnabas, and they sent him up to Antioch. The Bible says so perfectly that when Barnabas got there, he saw the grace of God (Acts 11:23). I realize that these Gentiles just said, "thank-you" to God. God gave to them the same as to us, and he became the leading elder there, but he felt he needed someone who could relate to the whole situation. And he remembered Saul of Tarsus from a long time ago. The last time he had seen Saul must have been ten years before. Since then, Saul had gone back home to Tarsus, and was making tents and preaching around. So Barnabas goes to find Saul, and the Bible indicates it took him a long time. Finally, he found him. He says, "Come on back. Come back to Antioch. I want you to assist me in this Jewish-Gentile church." So Saul came back, and there he preached to Gentiles.

There was a famine, which was predicted by one of the prophets in the church, so Barnabas and Saul were elected to go down to Jerusalem with famine relief for the saints in Jerusalem were hungry. They took along Titus, who was 100% Gentile, who had never taken on him the yoke of the law. They took him along to the church in Jerusalem as Exhibit "A." Now look at him, boys. Here is a 100% born-again, spirit-filled fellow who loves God with all his heart. He's not a Jew. God met with him the same as with us. He sat down with Peter and James and John and they talked it all out, and they all agreed that God loved everybody.

Now to US, that doesn't seem like a momentous decision, but it WAS! They were saying that a person can be born-again without keeping the law. You come as a Gentile, without any Rules or Regulations, and just by saying "thank you" for God's gift, God will save you. And you still don't need any Rules, for that gift will come inside of you, and He will be the Rules on the inside. Now that's the issue. THAT was that momentous decision. Saul, who was by now calling himself Paul (Saul is Jewish while Paul is the Greek form of that word) was saying, I'm no longer a Jew-Jew; even my name I've changed, so Greeks can understand me. I'm Paul.

He went back elated. This is fantastic! They'd finally got it from those Jews in Jerusalem--the most hard-liners of all--those who loved the law. In fact, James, leader of the church in Jerusalem, who was the brother of Jesus was so devoted to the keeping of the Jewish law that he went to the times of prayer every day, knelt in the temple until, history tells us, he had knees like camel's knees. He knelt on the hard stones of the temple so much that his knees were calloused like a camel. "James The Camel-kneed," because he prayed so much. These men who were so rigid in the law said, "We understand Jesus Christ saves without any aid of the law. He brought it all to a finale in himself. Go with our blessing."

When they got back to Antioch, the call of God came upon Barnabas and Paul, (Acts 13:2) and they went on a missionary journey. They went first to the island Cyprus; there they preached the gospel to Jews and Gentiles, announcing with joy that you can be saved without becoming a Jew; you can be saved without taking on the yoke of the law. Then they set across the sea and came to a part of the country that is called Galatia. In Galatia, they preached at another town called Antioch, which is not the same one as they had left. They went on to Iconium, to Lystra, and to Derbe, and the surrounding region. In all those places they preached to Jews first, but then they opened the doors of the synagogues, and half the city came in--all born-again, spiritual-filled Christians. There was the most marvelous time of rejoicing, and everyone was congratulating each other that now Messiah has come to all nations--no longer do you have to become a Jew and keep the rigid law. You're free through the Lord Jesus Christ!

They come back to Antioch, and it was at that time that Peter came on a visit to Antioch. Now, Peter had been there back in Jerusalem when he and Paul had really talked this out. But now he comes on a visit, and the first day he was there, he acts free. He doesn't keep the kosher laws--he eats with Gentiles, which no Jew was supposed to do. He lives in every way like a Gentile, free from the yoke of the law.

Also on a visit came a little group of Pharisees. Oh, you could tell who they were--the way they cut their beard; they had blue at the end of their coat. They were Pharisees, but they were Christians. They said, "Jesus was Messiah. He's Lord, of course," but when they sat down, they had their table over there, because they wouldn't eat with Gentiles. Then with horror, they turned around and saw Peter eating with Gentiles! They turned to each other and talked about this lax loose church where there is no regard for the law! Then they see Barnabas also eating with Gentiles! In fact, they see Jews, Jews, Jews, everywhere eating with Gentiles! "This is terrible--they're not keeping kosher laws--they're not keeping the law!!"

After the meal, they can't contain themselves any longer, and they go over to Peter and say, "How can you do this, Peter? Don't you realize, we're from Jerusalem. It's a long time since you've been to Jerusalem, Peter, that's obvious. Now, Peter, for the sake of all your Jewish brothers, who are still keeping the law, all this freedom--you can't do that. What will they say? They'll be so upset if they see that you're not keeping the law! You've got to come under that bondage for the sake of all your Jewish brothers who expect you to be under bondage!"

Peter was never much of a one to stand up for himself. He felt that same cold gut feeling as he did in the courtyard when the girl had said, "Aren't you one of His disciples?" Peter sort of felt all awkward. I mean, he was only a fisherman, and these were Pharisees and they looked so important. They said, "Peter don't rock the boat. Now whatever you see--that's between you and God, but don't rock the boat! If you go and stand like this, and eat like a Gentile, and say we're free in Christ, the Jews will never understand--they'll get all upset! Peter, think of Jerusalem. Be loyal, Peter, be loyal to Jerusalem! It doesn't matter what you see between you and God."

The second day, Peter couldn't even eat--he got indigestion. It was terrible! By the third day, he was sitting over there with the Jews, and going through all the ceremonial washing of the Jews. And all the Pharisees sat there--they'd got their big plum. They'd established it: You HAVE TO KEEP THE LAW, and Jesus Christ is Lord. The law is the way of salvation. Paul walked in to get his meal, and he looked in horror. What had come over Peter? The next day Barnabas had joined Peter. Barnabas, who had travelled with him all through Galatia, and who had preached to Gentiles! Barnabas is sitting over there acting as if he was under all the yoke of the law which he came out of in Judaism!

Finally, Paul can stand it no longer. He waited until everybody had gathered, and then he stood up and pointed at Peter. Basically, to paraphrase it, he said, "You hypocrite! You come here and you eat like a Gentile; you act like a Gentile; you know Christ has set you free; and then when they turn up, you haven't got the guts to say that you're free. So you begin to live like a Jew and lay the burden upon every Gentile that he's got to take upon him the yoke of the law."

If Peter was as quick to give in to pressure, he was also very quick to repent. When the Lord turned and looked upon Peter in the courtyard, he wept (Matt. 26:75). When Paul rebuked him, he repented, and came and sat where be belonged. The Pharisee-Christians, in that they acknowledged that Jesus was Lord with their mouths, were stung to fury. They never forgave Paul for that--never! They left in a hurry. They went off on their missionary journey to make Christian-Pharisees out of the world.

Paul begins this third chapter of his letter to the Galatians, by pouring out his heart. "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you...before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you." He said, "Right before your eyes the Holy Spirit portrayed Jesus Christ crucified! Now, you've been bewitched, or your eyes have been averted."

Have you ever seen a weasel come up to a rabbit and get the rabbit's eyes, and mesmerize the rabbit? While the rabbit is standing there to be killed, having been hypnotized, the weasel comes and gets the rabbit in the throat. That's the word that Paul uses here. You've been "bewitched" or "hypnotized". He said, "Your eyes were on Jesus Christ, and you realized that your entire salvation hung upon Him being crucified and Him being risen again. Now someone has bewitched you. Your eyes have been drawn away from Christ, and have been drawn elsewhere, and you're now looking at a list of Rules and Regulations as your hope of salvation. How could you do it? There is only one thing I want to find out: Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the spirit, are you now going to be perfected by the flesh?"

This is the real problem. This is where it comes down to you and me. How did we come to God? Think this through, because when I talk to people privately, I hear this over and over again. We came to God with nothing; knowing we were guilty; knowing we had nothing going for us; hardly daring to believe that God loved us; and we realized that God loves us in spite of what we do. We realized that we couldn't earn that love, but that the love is given, and we came to receive that love freely. How come we now think that if we don't keep certain Rules, that we will demerit the love that we never merited? Do you follow the argument? How can you demerit that which you never merited in the first place? God loved you, when you didn't deserve it. God came to you and everything that happened to you in new birth was an operation of the Holy Spirit. Now, do you think you will continue that operation by the works of the flesh? God began it with a miracle. Do you think He needs your self-effort, struggling and trying to keep it? God began it--shall man finish it? This is what Paul is saying. "You began by being born again as an operation of the Spirit; now you turn back, and say, 'I've got to keep all these Rules in order to be a Christian.'"

The problem which was found in the Galatians is uniquely for people who want to please God. You know, if you don't want to please God, this is no problem for you. If you don't really care whether you murder someone, or steal, or if you don't care if you think thoughts of hate or lust; if you don't care about those things, then this isn't a problem to you. This is a problem, and also a glorious deliverance for the person who really wants to please God. That's the issue: "I want to please Him. This is too simple to think that the way I began is the way I carry on. Of course, God loved me when I didn't deserve it, but now I really should do something for God, shouldn't I? Do you follow the problem?" This is where the Galatians are.

So now Paul begins to explain to them this whole thing of faith in Christ, as opposed to struggling to keep the law. He begins in 3:6, "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." The words in verse 6 are a quotation from Gen. 15:6. You can read that fully in Gen 15, where it is a peak in Abraham's experience. He has already obeyed God, but now he stands looking at the utter impossibility of the whole situation. God has said impossible words to Abraham. Abraham realizes that he cannot do anything to bring those words to pass, but if God said it, then, Abraham believed God. Utterly impossible, he cast himself on God and believed Him. The Bible says he "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." It wasn't that he struggled to be right with God. He simply relaxed into the arms of God, and said, "Here I am--I can do no more."

"Now," said Paul, "the same is true today." We believe today--not struggle to please Him. That word "believe" there, is a word which means "say the amen." Belief isn't a struggle. You don't sit there with your eyes tightly closed saying, "I believe, I believe, I really do, honest I do." And then feel, "Do I believe, or not?" And then struggle some more to believe. Belief is not something you struggle at, or initiate. Belief is a response to God. God said something--you respond to that which He said. And your response to Him is "saying the amen." It means, "I agree with you there; that's right, Amen." Therefore, when God says something, I say, "amen". Now, don't ask me how it's going to happen, but if you said it God, then amen, it's right. I commit myself. In fact, the word "believe" means to take yourself and to hand yourself over to someone else, and just lay there. You believe. Abraham believed God.

You see these people were coming along saying, "Keep all the Rules; keep the law." Paul comes along and says, "Hey, just a minute. The law came in 400 some years AFTER Abraham. Abraham was before all the Rules. There were no Rules when Abraham came to God. Therefore, it is in Abraham that God shows us how to come to Him." How do you come to God? With your hands raised in helplessness, and just dump yourself on Him. You say, "Amen". You say, "God, you said you loved me, so here I am. I'll say `amen' to that. I don't understand how you could. I know I've never earned it; I don't merit it. I've never thought about it much til now, but here I am. I'll say the `amen'. If you say, `Come to me', I come. I give myself away to you."

Abraham believed God. God said, "I've made you right with Myself. You didn't have to do anything. You just gave yourself to me, and I made you right with Myself." So therefore, being made right with God is NOT based on keeping the Rules; being accepted by God is not based on keeping the ten commandments. It IS based on faith; on responding to what God has done; on responding to what God says; and giving myself away with Him.

Abraham was before the Rules. Therefore, God said to him, "This is what I'm going to do through you. In you and your seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen. 12) So Abraham committed himself to God. Galatians 3:8 says, "The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify (that is, to make right) the heathen (Gentiles) through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, `In thee shall all nations be blessed.'" When God said, "ALL nations shall be blessed," Paul says this is for more than the Jewish people. It's for everybody, not just that little group of people who received the Rules at Mt. Sinai. It's for every nation through you, Abraham--the way you have come and given yourself away to me. Through you, ALL nations of the earth shall be blessed. Not just the Jews, but ALL. And it says "shall be BLESSED." "And," said Paul, "you should understand that when God said that all nations one day would be blessed through Abraham and his seed--that means the gospel. Abraham didn't understand the gospel then, but that was what God was talking about. He said He "preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand". But one day through his seed all nations of the earth would hear the good news, and would be able to receive it so simply.

Now he makes a big point about this in Gal 3:16. He said, "Through Abraham and his seed". Now, the seed of Abraham brings up a BIG question. WHO is the seed of Abraham? The word "seed" is a different kind of a word. If you had one seed in your hand, you would say I have A (singular) seed in my hand. But if you had a handful of them, you would still say I have a handful of seed (plural). Right? So the word "seed" can be singular or plural, depending on the context.

First of all, Abraham did have a multitude of seed. He had many, many--the whole nation of Israel came through Abraham. "But", said Paul, "did you notice he is speaking about the SEED-singular?" So when God says to Abraham, "Through you and your seed," he did not really mean the nation of Israel. He meant the ONE seed of Abraham who is Jesus. That is why you have that long genealogy in Luke 3, and in Matthew 1--to show you that Jesus descends all the way from Abraham. Jesus is that ONE descendant. He is that seed of Abraham. "Although Israel is the seed in one sense", Paul said, "in the absolute sense, Jesus is the seed of Abraham".

So right here at the beginning of things, men are learning to rest in God; learning to receive God's gift; learning to say "amen" to what God has said--that's how you do it. That's the way to be saved, in response to God's promise. And that promise was that "In you and your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed". So, said Paul, "That is Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ shall all nations of the earth be blessed--Jews, Gentiles, it doesn't make any difference." If you will say "thank you" to His gift Who is Jesus, you're there--NOT because you kept the Rules, and NOT because you tried very hard, but because you receive God's gift, and because you said "thank you." You said "amen" to what God gave. Then you have the same faith as Abraham had, and you're the true children of Abraham. Do you follow Paul's argument here?

Now, says Paul, in Galatians 3:17, if you want to, go to Moses and Mt. Sinai, that came some 400 plus years later. Now if God made a promise to Abraham, do you think he's going to change it 400 years later? It was more than a promise--it was a covenant. You can't just walk in and change a covenant. Certainly God can't do that. Here comes something else. Here's the ten commandments. If you look at it, to begin with, it looks as if God has changed His mind; as if God said, "Now I've changed my mind; it isn't that you just say "amen" to me, and give yourself away to me. Now, you've got to keep the ten commandments, and do your best. If you do your very best, I'll accept you; if not, you've had it." Has God changed his mind? This is the great dilemma. We seem to have two Bibles here. One says you just surrender to God, and the other says keep the Rules. . "No", said Paul, "you've missed the point." The law of God had a purpose. Now you people who want Rules, you keep the Rules, and discover what it's all about. You've got to keep them ALL though.

There are only 30 sins possible to commit. You keep the ten commandments in word, thought, and deed. 3 x 10 = 30. The first nine are easy, quite honestly, because they appeal to the outward man. They appeal to how I act. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart,soul mind, strength". Well, as long as you don't get inside my head, you can read your bible, pray and meditate, and it looks as if you're loving the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength, and your neighbor as yourself. As long as you don't do something terrible to your neighbor, you look as if you're keeping them. Then as long as you don't murder someone or steal or commit adultery--well, you're getting on down the list, and it looks pretty good for you.

You remember when the rich young ruler came to Jesus? Have you ever really read this account closely? He didn't give him the ten commandments. He gave him nine--He left one off. Then the young man said, "All these have I kept from my youth up". Well, sure, most of us have kept the first nine--as far as it goes. It's that last one: "Thou shalt not covet". That one is in old English, so no one understands what it means. What does "covet" mean? A good way of restating that last commandment is, "You must not even WANT to break the other nine". Suddenly, the other nine take on a formidable look! Now, I have to go back. I may have outwardly loved the Lord God with all my heart, BUT DID I WANT TO? That changes that one, right there. I may have gone through all manner of worship, but did I WANT to? I may have looked as if I loved my neighbor, but did I WANT to! I may not have murdered someone, but did I WANT to, you know? It's working at the heart of things. That's what Jesus meant when He said that you may have never committed adultery, but if you look upon a woman with lust, you've committed it already in your heart. It's what 1 John 2 means, when it says if you hate your brother, you are a murderer; you've come to that last commandment. Paul says in Rom. 7 that it was the last commandment that got him. He said I thought I was a fantastic fellow, until I read the words "Thou shalt not covet."

God established how a man comes to Him. You come by faith giving yourself away to Him. But now the law or rules come in. Now, if you want to live by the book of rules, you better do it properly, for the Bible says you've got to keep EVERY ONE, if you're going to keep them at all. The result is the law of God leads you to Absolute Despair. That is what the ten commandments are for--to lead you to Absolute Despair. For when you look at them, you realize you are guilty. You take a second look, and you realize you are more guilty than you ever thought you were. You decide you are going to struggle to do better, and you realize you are not only guilty, but you are utterly helpless to be any better. And then you have another struggle, and realize that you're probably going to get worse. You realize your utter helplessness.

The Law of God is like a mirror--that's all. Look in the mirror, and you see yourself covered in dirt and grease. You knew you were dirty, but this is ridiculous--you didn't realize you were as dirty as this! The mirror is doing its work. The mirror is condemning you. The mirror on the wall is saying, "You are dirty." Now what shall I do? I will struggle to get the dust off my face, but in fact, it gets worse. You've seen the little boy with grease on this side of his face struggling to get it off--while he has it on the other side too. The more you struggle to get it off, the worse it is. You look back in the mirror and it's still there. It hasn't changed. It doesn't sympathize. It doesn't cover anything up. In fact, the longer you look, the worse you seem. That's the law of God--ever pointing its finger of condemnation.

There is nothing wrong with God's law--it's beautiful--as long as you know why God put it there. He said, "This is the way to me. You say, "Amen" to my words; you give yourself to me through Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham. That's how you do it. I've given you the ten commandments just to make sure you know how badly you need to do it--to show you that you are guilty and in despair." But, you see, some people will not turn to Christ. They will insist on coming to the ten commandments again and again. I will struggle to be better. You turn to the ten commandments and say, "Please forgive me." How can I be forgiven? You go to your mirror--pointing its condemning finger at you. Ask of the mirror, "Please forgive me! Please, mirror, clean my face!" Do you realize (this is ridiculous!), that the only way that mirror can alleviate your despair at your face is by being broken? The only way it can help you is to be taken away. While it's there, it can't do anything else, but tell you the truth. If you don't like the truth, and if you want to alleviate the despair, then break the mirror. But the mirror can't help you. The law of God, the ten commandments, all the Rules and Regulations, can only tell you how bad you are. If you come that way to find forgiveness, you'll only find greater despair. If you will try hard to keep it, it will only make you more guilty.

Following Paul's argument here, the law of God comes to condemn you. But God has already told us the way to be saved. Now He gives us the law to show us sin until the promised seed, who is Christ, should come. If you can imagine history as a time line. Here's Abraham, and he is the established foundational way of a man coming to God. In comes the law, and the law shows up sin, until everyone is screaming to be saved. The seed of Abraham, the promise that he believed in, arrives in the form of Jesus. And the law says, "Now, there!" That's like: I am looking in the mirror and being condemned, and it points me to the soap and says, "Now, there, wash yourself". So the law pointed me to Christ, and said, "Now HE can save you from your sin."

Along with the law, came the curse of the law. You've got to understand this. In the Old Testament, God made it abundantly plain that if a man would break that law I mean break it in word, thought or deed (not just one of the biggies), then the curse of that law would come upon you. That wasn't God merely getting even--that was a built-in fact. You jump out of a window, and you'll always fall downward. That's a fact. It isn't that God is being mean to you and getting even. The law of gravity is built in. So if I go against the law of God, I shall inevitably find I shall meet with curse. It's the way it is.

There's a restaurant just outside of New York City. The parking lot drops off on a precipice. Right there is a little tiny railing. As you drive your car up, there's a sign there which says "No Parking Beyond this Point". Good! I wouldn't call that a restriction--that's a blessing! That's like the ten commandments. The ten commandments say "No Parking Beyond this Point". If you do, there is the curse of the law.

Let's read parts of the curse of the law. Look at Deuteronomy 28:20-27; 37, 39-42, 45 and 48. This is only a PART of the curse of the law, but I think it sums it up. Now, you realize our situation. We have all broken the law in thirty ways--all of us in a good many ways. Let that sink in. Sometimes, we've never even thought about it. Therefore, we are exposed to the curse of the law. How shall we escape the curse of the God that comes upon the man who has broken His law? There is no way to escape it. The mirror can't forgive. You look in the mirror, and it tells you the truth. The truth is we've broken the law, and the curse of the law is upon us. Also Deut. 21:23 says that, "cursed with God's curse is the man who is hung upon a tree". A man who has committed crime was to be hung upon a tree, and the semblance of the curse of God would be resting upon him for his crime.

Here in Galatians 3, Paul says you realize how this all happened, don't you? You who have broken the law; you who could never keep the law; you who were under the curse of the law--now Christ is come, the seed of Abraham, and He took upon Himself the curse of God's law. We broke it--He took its curse. And that's why He had to die upon the cross. Gal. 3:13: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." Have you ever wondered why Jesus had to die the kind of death that He died? He could have just died, couldn't He? Why wasn't He stoned? Why wasn't He murdered some other way? Why did He have to die in exactly the way that He did die? It was because He had to take our breaking the ten commandments to Himself, and in taking the ten commandments to Himself that we had broken, He had to take to Himself the curse that was upon us.

The curse of the law that we just read about in Deuteronomy had to be a part of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. No. 1, He had to be hung upon a tree--He was hung upon the cross. That was a sign to the whole world that the curse rested upon this man. He's broken the law. Remember that Jesus cried, "I thirst." In fact, in the Old Testament, the prophecies describing that death describe that thirsting as his jaws sticking together. Deut. 28:23-24 said that the curse of the law was that the water should turn to dust and the sky would be bronze above you, that the earth would be hard through the sun. The curse of the law is you shall be in thirst, Deut. 28:48. Jesus thirsted. He had to go through that dehydration to feel in His own body the fatality of the curse. We read in Deut. 28:48 that the curse was nakedness. Jesus was stripped naked before he was hung upon the cross. Why all of that? Was it necessary? YES! In that one man, not only was our sin met, but the curse of our sin. All of our sicknesses and our pain met in Jesus too. All those sicknesses we read of that were part of the law; all the pain, and the fiery fever and the hurt of the human race, went through the nerves and muscles of the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore our curse in bearing our sin. Paul says in Galatians 3:13 that He became a curse. He didn't only bear it--he became that curse. If you could see the anger of God against sin, then look at Jesus on the cross. In looking at Jesus on the cross, you see what sin is, and you see what the curse is, and you see the anger of God.

When I tried to keep the law and struggled by the Rules, it brought me to death, because I realized I couldn't do it. My pride that said, "I can", finally said "What's the use? I can't". In despair, my pride died, but then I looked at the cross, and realized all the sin I had committed had been taken there, and that was dead too. So I had died to my pride, and the man I once was with all my sin, that man, too, was taken to the cross. He was dead. It is no wonder that Paul says, "I was crucified with Christ". Do you see this double-death that everyone has gone through, if you are a Christian? You are dead! You are dead to trying to be better; you're dead to trying to keep any Rules. You've already come to despair. You know you can't do it. It's part of repentance, "I've changed my mind about myself". I'm not the fellow I thought I was. I cannot do it. I've also realized that man I was who couldn't do it, and also was very active in sin, that man has been nailed to the cross with Christ. The whole curse of the law was laid on Jesus.
That leaves me free.

Who hath bewitched you??

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Printed by Permission of M. Smith
July 3, 2008

 

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