SERMON OUTLINE:
Choice #1: Slavery or Freedom? (vs 1).
Choice #2: Law or Grace (vs 2-6).
Choice #3: Circumcision or the Cross (vs 7-12)
Choice #4: The Spirit or the Flesh (vs 13-15)
SERMON BODY
Ill:
• Herbert Asquith was British Liberal prime minister from 1908 to 1916,
• He was in charge and took Britain into World War One.
• On one occasion he spent a weekend at the Waddesdon estate,
• This was owned by the very, very wealthy Rothschild family.
• On one occasion the butler of the house had this conversation with him.
• The butler: "Tea, coffee, or a peach from off the wall, sir?"
• Asquith answered: "Tea, please,"
• The butler: "China, India, or Ceylon, sir?"
• Asquith answered: "China, please."
• The butler: "Lemon, milk, or cream, sir?"
• Asquith answered: "Milk, please,"
• The butler: "Jersey, Hereford, or Shorthorn, sir?"
• TRANSITION: Aren’t you glad that for most of us life is not that complicated.
• But we all have plenty of choices to make each day.
• And when it concerns the things of God, we need to choose wisely.
Quote: Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
“Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice.
Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.”
In this chapter of Galatian’s, the apostle Paul is asking his readers to choose wisely!
• The churches in Galatia (modern day Turkey)
• Were comprised of both Jewish and Gentile converts,
• Some of those Jews, known as Judaizers, who were corrupting the gospel message.
• By adding to it, saying it is Jesus plus keeping the Old Testament Law.
• Yet, Paul and the other apostles had clearly taught that salvation is a gift,
• We receive that gift through faith, when we trust in Jesus Christ.
• It is a grace gift, that we could not earn, or we can do is simply receive it.
• Let’s look at the choices in these verses,
• I want to divide the passage up under four main headings.
Choice #1: Slavery or Freedom? (vs 1).
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
The first choice in these verses is between slavery and freedom.
• This verse tells us why Christ came…he came to set us free.
• This verse tells us what we must do to maintain our freedom…stand firm.
• This verse warns us about what we must avoid…the entangling yoke of slavery.
Ill:
• If you have ever seen a yoke, then this image is easy to understand.
• A yoke ties you to another person or animal.
• e.g. Oxen were yoked together, usually with a straight beam;
• This beam sits atop of the oxen’s necks and connects to U-shaped oxbows.
• This then puts pressure on the shoulders,
• To keep the team moving in the same direction and at the same time.
• e.g. Slaves were yoked together in transportation;
• To control them and stop them running away.
• TRANSITION: Both of those images speak of service and slavery.
• Your freedom and independence have sadly been taken from you.
Note: The apostle Paul says make sure that does not happen!
• To remain free we must be vigilant, observant, on our guard.
• We must be alert to anyone or any teaching that would steal our freedom from us.
• One of the implications of this verse is that;
• It is impossible for us to be enslaved unless we voluntarily allow it to happen.
• No one can chain us up again unless we willingly surrender our freedom.
• So, stand firm, Christian.
• Because it is for freedom that Christ has set you free.
• Quote: New English Bible:
• “Christ has set us free, to be freemen”
We are free men in Christ:
• Before we were Christian’s we were slaves.
• Jesus Christ is our liberator.
• When we trusted Christ (converted) we were emancipated.
• And the Christian life, is a life of freedom.
• The freedom that weaves through this letter is not freedom from sin,
• But rather freedom from the Old Testament law.
Choice #2: Law or Grace (vs 2-6).
“Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is required to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
Ill:
• No-one can try to please God by their best efforts of keeping the rules,
• A good example of this is John Wesley.
• (The seventeenth century Anglican clergyman, evangelist, and joint founder of the Methodist movement)
• Before his conversion:
• He was the son of a clergyman and he became a clergyman himself.
• He was orthodox in belief, faithful in morality, and full of good works.
• He did ministry in prisons, sweatshops, and slums.
• He gave food, clothing, and education to slum children.
• He observed both Saturday and Sunday as the Sabbath.
• He sailed from England to the American colonies as a missionary.
• He studied his Bible, prayed, fasted, and gave regularly.
• Yet all the time, he was bound in the chains of his own religious efforts,
• Because he trusted in what he could do to make himself right before God,
• Instead of trusting in what Jesus had done.
• One evening (May 24, 1738) Wesley was persuaded to attend a meeting,
• Wesley records these great words in his journal:
"In the evening, I went very unwillingly to a Society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ; Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
• Later, he came to “trust in Christ, in Christ only for salvation,”
• And came to an inner assurance that he was now forgiven, saved, and a son of God.
• Looking back on all his religious activity before he was truly saved, he said:
• “I had even then the faith of a servant, though not that of a son.”
• TRANSITION: The apostle Paul will remind these Galatian Christians,
• We are not made right with God by keeping the Law,
• So, the second choice the apostle Paul brings before this Church;
• And those who read this letter involves law verses grace.
• And in verses 2-4,
• The apostle Paul will explain the disastrous consequences;
• Of choosing to go back to the law as a means of trying to please God.
Note:
• He uses circumcision as an example.
• Because that was the issue troubling these Galatian Christian’s.
• The Judaizers were insisting that Gentiles (non-Jews) got circumcised,
• To them it seemed like a small thing to do.
• A simple operation on the body,
• Seemed like such a small concession to make, thought the Judaizers.
• But when it comes to freedom, there are no “small concessions.”
• Tiny decisions have enormous consequences.
• And the apostle Paul says, that if you give in to the Judaizers;
• Then you cause yourself all sorts of problems!
• Ans he mentions three of those problems that you will bring upon yourself.
FIRST: IF YOU GIVE IN TO THE JUDAIZERS …CHRIST IS OF NO BENEFIT TO YOU (VS 2).
“Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.”
• This verse needs to be compared with verse 6;
• “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value”.
• In verse 6 the apostle Paul says that circumcision itself;
• Doesn’t really matter one way or the other.
• Circumcision is not a meritorious act and it’s not a sin.
• But to be circumcised under these circumstances;
• Changes the implications of that act.
• Because it means you would be to reject the gospel of the grace of God.
• It would be saying, “Christ is not enough for me. I need to be circumcised, too.”
• In that case, you have lost the benefits that Christ came to secure for you.
• You have turned from freedom into the chains of slavery to the law.
SECOND: IF YOU GIVE IN TO THE JUDAIZERS …YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO OBEY THE WHOLE LAW (VS 3).
“Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is required to obey the whole law.”
Ill:
• The law is not a self-service cafeteria where you can say:
“I’d like a helping of circumcision, but I don’t want any sacrifices.
I’m going to hold off keeping those kosha food laws,
But I’ll take on board keeping some of those feast days.”
• TRANSITION: It doesn’t work that way.
• The law of God is an all-or-nothing proposition.
Ill:
• As James wrote in his letter (chapter 2 verse 10).
• “if you offend in one point of the law, you’re guilty of breaking the whole law”.
• In other words, it stands, and it falls as one.
• i.e. The law is like a pearl necklace;
• If it is broken in one any one place, then you will lose the lot!
• So, the apostle Paul says,
• Don’t go in the door of circumcision thinking you can stop there.
• Once you walk through that door, you’re obligated to keep the whole law;
• All of it, all the time!
THIRD: IF YOU GIVE IN TO THE JUDAIZERS …. YOU HAVE ABANDONED THE GOSPEL OF GRACE (VS 4).
“You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace”
Note:
• I do not believe that this verse is primarily about losing your salvation.
• Remember to interpret this verse in context.
• And the context is you cannot live by both law and grace.
• You are either saved by the law/works or by grace/faith,
• But you cannot have them both!
• Remember this;
• If you add anything to grace it is no longer grace
• One work added to grace would render it no more grace.
Ill:
• On March 4th, 2018.
• Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were deliberately poisoned,
• They were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury.
• Infected by the Novichok (Russian for ‘newcomer’ or ‘newbie’) poison,
• Novichok is among the most-deadly nerve agents ever created.
• TRANSITION: Novichok agents can take the form of an ultrafine powder,
• If you were to add a tiny bit of that poison to a glass of pure water,
• It would render it no more a glass of pure water;
• But a glass of deadly poisoned water.
• The gospel of grace becomes poisoned;
• When just one human work is added to the plan of salvation
• The Judaizers were corrupting that message by saying;
• The gospel is Jesus plus keeping the Law.
• And so once again the apostle Paul deals with this false idea.
• It is impossible to receive Christ,
• That is to admit that you cannot save yourself,
• And then receive circumcision, there by claiming you can!
Ill:
• I like the equation that says:
• Jesus + nothing = everything!
Choice #3: Circumcision or the Cross (vs 7-12)
“You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 ‘A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.’ 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offence of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!”
In these verses the apostle Paul;
• Moves on from addressing the false teaching that said;
• Christians needed to be circumcised.
• To addressing the false teachers themselves.
• In fact, there are five dangers listed here,
• Five dangers of living by the law instead of living by grace.
• I will give you the skeleton, you can put your own meat on it later.
• FIRST: It stops our spiritual progress (vs 7).
• “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?”
• SECOND: It pulls us away from God (vs 8).
• “That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you”
• THIRD: It leads to other errors (vs 9).
• “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough”
• FOURTH: It produces spiritual confusion (vs 10).
• “I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be”
• FIFTH: It removes the stigma of the Cross (vs 11).
• “Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished”
I will make a comment on this last point:
• The apostle Paul could have easily avoided the controversy that followed him around,
• If only he would stop preaching the cross of Christ as the only hope of salvation.
• If only he would start preaching Jesus plus circumcision,
• His critics would be happy and would have left him alone.
• But that was something Paul would not do.
• The cross was the centre of his faith.
• Others might preach circumcision, but he would only preach Christ crucified.
• Because in the cross there is forgiveness, freedom, liberation, new life, abundant life,
• There is access to God, membership in God’s family, redemption, reconciliation,
• There is peace with God, eternal life, and the hope of heaven.
• Question:
• Why would anyone exchange all that for failed legalism?
Choice #4: The Spirit or the Flesh (vs 13-15)
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”
These verses (13-15) really flow all the way down to the end of the chapter,
• In fact, verse 16 (if I can steal an extra verse),
• Perfectly illustrates that choice:
• N.I.V.:
• “So, I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
• G.N.B.:
• “What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives,
• and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature.”
The Judaizers were teaching that freedom in Christ leads to license.
• They were arguing, the those who emphasise grace or law keeping,
• Can and will leave to please their physical bodies,
• e.g. they will get drunk or become sexually immoral.
• But the Judaizers were wrong.
• The apostle Paul’s words in verse 13 make it clear;
• That, the freedom which the gospel gives is not the freedom TO sin,
• But freedom FROM sin.
• Biblical freedom does not cater to the flesh/old nature,
• But crucifies it (vs 24).
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
• If we choose to indulge the flesh/old nature then that is slavery to it,
• And it is not freedom at all.
Note:
• Verse 13 is a key verse because it is a transitional verse.
• It takes us from the teaching against works salvation to working out your salvation.
• Freedom is not an excuse to sin, but rather an excuse to serve.
• Freedom is a call to love.
• The apostle Paul urges the Galatian believers to “through love serve one another”
• The gospel of grace sets us free from sin.
• So that we can serve one another.
• Our relationships with others are not based on sensuality.
• But on genuine concern, genuine love leading to genuine service.
