Dance Lessons: Who Cut in on You?
Galatians 5:7-12
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
5-10-2020
Run, Forest, Run
A couple of years ago, I met a group of runners out at Humiston Woods for a five mile training run. We were all training for different races and running on the trails provided a different kind of workout.
I had spent a lot of time learning how to run properly - head up, shoulders back, breathing right. But running on trails that were littered with leaves and roots and fallen trees made keeping my head up difficult.
One second I was talking to the runner next to me and the next I was flying through the air. I had caught my foot on a root and literally did a flip. I landed on my backside but slide on some leaves right up to my feet and kept running.
I received a loud ovation from the group of runners who witnessed this feat.
It’s one thing to be tripped up while going out for a jog, but it’s whole different experience when we are tripped up in our spiritual race.
Paul is going to focus on the false teacher’’s influence and their desire to cut in on the Galatians spiritual progress in the verses we will study this morning.
Free To Run
Let me remind you of Paul’s words from last week:
“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.” (Gal 5:1)
By virtue of Jesus’ substitutionary, atoning death on the cross and His resurrection, we have been:
We have been set free from the burden of our sins
We have been set free from the guilt of our sins
We have been set from from empty religion
We are free from the penalty of sin (justification) and from the power of sin (sanctification)
We are free to call God “Abba” has His children
We are free to approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16)
We are set free from the fear of death
I love what Matt Chandler says, “We have been set from from fear-based behavioral modification.”
We no longer fear that God doesn’t love us when we fail. We live in the freedom knowing that grace covers those failures!
Some of you live in shame and guilt and condemnation. You think that God is mad at you for what you did or didn’t do.
But God does not judge us on our performance but on our position in Christ. If you are in Christ, then:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)
Paul makes clear that if the Galatians choose works over grace then Christ would have no value to them, they would be obligated to obey the whole law, and they would be cut from grace.
Remember, the Judaizers had told the Galatians that they were not quite complete as Christians. Yes, trusting in Christ was the beginning but, in order to truly experience the spiritual faith journey, they had to follow the Mosaic Laws, the dietary rules, and, especially, enter the covenant family of the Jews through circumcision.
At the end of the age, when we stand before God in judgement, it won’t matter whether you were circumcised or not, played cards or not, did your quiet time or not. The only way we are getting in is on the merit of another - Jesus Christ!
The only thing that matters in Paul’s mind is “faith expressing itself through love.” This is a practical faith, lived out by the Spirit, that loves God and loves others with intentionality and extravagance.
This is the dance of grace, love, joy and freedom that we’ve been studying these past weeks.
[slide] Remember, those who dance are thought crazy by those who can not hear the music.
If you didn’t watch last week’s sermon, or any of the sermons in this series, you can do so on our Facebook page.
Turn with me to Galatians 5.
Prayer
In verses 1-6 of chapter 5, Paul addresses false doctrine. In verses 7-12, he will address the influence of the false teachers on the churches in Galatia. We’re going to look at 4 ways false teachers effect the church.
[slide] False Teachers Interfere with our Spiritual Race
[slide] “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?” (Gal 5:7)
The Apostle Paul must have been a sports fan because he uses a lot of sports metaphors in his letters. In his first letter to the church at Corinth he writes about boxing. (I Cor 9:26) In Ephesians, he says that we “wrestle not with flesh and blood.” (Ephesians 6:12).
But he loved to use the word picture of our spiritual life as a race. During Paul’s farewell address to the Ephesian elders, he said,
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. (Acts 20:24)
And at the end of his life, he told his young protege Timothy:
“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (I Timothy 4:6-7)
The writer of Hebrews also uses running imagery when talking about the sin that so easily entangles us on our spiritual journey:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
Imagine trying to run The Boston Marathon with a backpack full of bricks. It wouldn’t be fun at all.
That’s what some of you are trying to do right now. You have these sins that hinders you from running free and dancing to the rhythm of grace. Let’s take the back pack off and run with joy!
Here in Galatians, Paul employs the same metaphor and encourages the Galatians - “you were running a good race.”
Paul says, “You were running well, running to the rhythm of grace, head up, shoulders back, breathing steady. You were doing great! What happened? Who cut in on you? Who tripped you up?”
A race in Paul’s day wasn’t around an oval track but to a stick and back. Obviously, tripping was against the rules but as you approached the stick it was nearly impossible not to get jostled around a little.
Many times this might happen by accident.
[side] At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the two favorites were South African Zola Budd and World Champion American Mary Decker. About half way through the race, Budd and Decker collided and Decker fell to the ground and injured her hip. After an investigation, it was concluded that Budd did not intentionally trip Decker.
But other times, it’s no accident at all.
[slide] At the 1938 NCAA Championships in Minnesota, Louie Zamperini was the favorite. Other coaches instructed their runners to sharpen their cleats and stomp on his foot if possible. After the race, Louie was bleeding from a spike being put through his feet, his shins were bloodied, and he had a broken rib.
That was intentional! And that is what Paul said was happening in the Galatian churches. The false teachers, the Judaizers, cut in on them with false doctrine, and tripped them up from obeying the truth.
It wasn’t just about believing or behaving to Paul, it was about obedience to the truth of the Gospel. They were running their race well, but the false teachers had tripped them up. They were telling them that they had to be circumcised in order to be a real Christian. To do this would be to say that Christ death on the cross wasn’t sufficient and Paul wasn’t going to stand for that.
[slide]The False Teachers were not from God
[slide]“That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.” (Gal 5:8)
Who is it that called them?
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all.” (Gal 1:6-7)
It was God who called them, through the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of Paul, to live in the grace of Christ.
Paul says emphatically that these Judiazer’s message did not originate from God. They were teaching a false Gospel of works-based righteousness.
They might have had the credentials and dropped James name, but their message was not from God.
In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes this about false teachers:
“For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness.” (2 Cor 11:14-15)
How can you tell a message is from God? Let’s take a cue from the Bereans:
“Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)
This people didn’t just accept any teaching that came along but “examined the Scriptures” to see if what what was being taught was true.
This is good to do on social media where conspiracy theories and false information seems to be the norm of the day.
How much more important that we do this with Biblical teaching!
Remember how strong Paul was in chapter one about false teaching?
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” (Gal 1:8-9)
[slide] After Robin Williams did the voice of the Genie in the animated movie “Aladdin,” he refused to do any sequels because of conflict with the studio.
In the subsequent movies, other actors voiced the Genie…and it was obvious! It sounded a little like Robin but it wasn’t.
Jesus said that His sheep know His voice.
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)
Let’s make it our aim to know Jesus’ voice so well that when another voice tries to persuade us away from the truth we will know it immediately.
[side] False Teachers Contaminate the Whole Church
[slide] “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” (Gal 5:9)
Paul then quotes this pithy proverb to make his point. He quotes the same proverb to the church at Corinth when talking about about dealing with sin in the church.
In Jewish thought, yeast represented the corrupting power of sin.
In Exodus, Moses instituted a feast to commemorate God bringing Israelites out of Egypt called the “Feast of Unleavened Bread.”
“For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.” (Exodus 12:19-20)
Jewish people would literally sweep their houses clean to make sure there was no yeast there.
In order to make bread, a little ball of already fermented dough when be wrapped into the new dough to make it rise while baking.
Paul is highlighting something that most of us know well. It only takes a small amount of error to throw off an entire church.
I remember reading about a very wise father whose children were pestering him about watching a movie. They said, “It only has a little cussing, nudity, bad stuff. Come on dad, it’s just a little.”
The next day, the dad made brownies and offered them to the kids. He said, “I want you to know that these brownies are 99% good. I did put just a little bit of the dog’s poop in it. But it’s just a little. Dig in!”
The kids got the lesson. The question is, will we?
Part of my job, and the deacons with me, is to protect the doctrine of this church. I take this deadly seriously because I know that even a little bit of false doctrine can throw a church off course.
Matthew records Jesus’ words to his disciples concerning the Pharisees:
“When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matthew 16:5-6)
They didn’t get what He was saying so He explained it further and “Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matt 16:12)
When we hear false teaching, we need to apply Barney Fife theology and “nip it in the bud!”
[slide]False Teachers will Pay the Price
[slide] “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.” (Gal 5:10)
I love Paul’s pastor heart! He expresses confident in them. Well, not in them, right? He is confident “in the Lord” that they will be able to see the sham of the Judiazers.
We have a dear friend that grew up in our student ministry. She loved Jesus and asked the best questions I’ve ever had a student ask.
When she went to college, she became involved with a guy who was not a Christian and started questioning everything. She wandered away from God but He never left her!
Whenever I had a chance to talk to her, I simply said, “You’re going to be okay. I promise. God is good and He loves you. You’re going to be okay.”
She has since rededicated her life to Jesus and serves as a junior high intern at a local church!
She told us that many people judged her and felt it was their job to criticize her. But she said it was my words that kept ringing in her ears - “You’re going to be okay. God is good and He loves you.”
Paul has the same confidence in the Galatians. God is good and He loves them and the Galatians will not fall victim of this false teaching.
He then gives a stern warning to the false teachers. Remember, this letter would have been read out loud in the congregation and they would have been listening intently.
He said that there was a group that was throwing the Galatians “into confusion.” This can be translated “trouble, terrify, disturbed, stir up.”
This wasn’t a passive thing. This group was actively seeking to overthrow Paul’s teaching and were confusing these poor Galatian baby Christians.
Paul says that they, whoever they may be, will have to pay the penalty, which literally means “a heavy judgement.”
One of the scariest verses in the Bible to me is James 3:1:
“Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” (James 3:1)
Those of us who teach and preach will be judge more strictly because we influence those hearing our teaching.
Jesus was brutally honest about these false teachers:
“Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” ( Luke 17:1-2)
The phrase “little ones” in this verse means baby Christians, those who are just starting their spiritual journey with Jesus.
It would be better for those people to be drowned than to have an opportunity to confuse and trouble those who just learning the truth of the Gospel.
Peter says that their condemnation is coming:
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.” (2 Peter 2:1-3)
[slide]False Teachers Persecute True Teachers
Paul then transitions to answer a rumor that the Judaizers had been spreading about him:
[slide]“Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.” (Gal 5:11)
The Judaizers were telling the Galatians that Paul agreed with them! That he was a Jew and been circumcised and taught circumcision. In fact, he circumcised Timothy! See, he’s with us!
Let’s look at Acts 16 real quick and see why Paul circumcised Timothy. He didn’t circumcise him in order for him to be complete in Christ, then the Judaizers have a argument.
“Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.” (Acts 16:1-3)
Timothy was already a believer when Paul circumcised him. Timothy was only half Jewish so, in order for him to go into the synagogues with Paul, he needed to be circumcised.
It had nothing to do with salvation but was for the sake of evangelism!
Paul then asks a simple question - if I’m still preaching circumcision, why I’m I being persecuted everywhere I go by the Jews?
Paul had left that life far behind. He no longer trusted in the Law for his standing with God but knew it was by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone that we are saved.
In every city he traveled to, there were Jews that opposed him and persecuted him. He was slandered, beaten, stone nearly to death, and driven out of town after town.
If he had just said, “Hey listen, Jesus + circumcision is fine. We all love Jesus here. That’s all that matters” he would have been accepted and treated well.
That’s a call we hear in our time today - “we need to get over these little minor theological differences and all realize that we are all God’s children.”
This week, the Pope tweeted this:
“Some ideas cause division to the point that the idea is more important than the Holy Spirit who guides us. May the Lord free us from divisions, and help us understand this great mystery of Jesus: He is everyone's Shepherd, in Him we are all brothers and sisters.”
This is blatantly not true. He is not everyone’s Shepherd, only his sheep follow Him. And we are all created by God but we are not children of God until we have been reconciled to Him by the blood of Jesus Christ.
It’s easy to be non-offensive. But Paul knew the the cross was offensive to the egos of sinful men:
“For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (I Cor 1:21-24)
The Jewish people could not conceive of a Messiah that died on a cross.
Trypho the Jew in a letter to Justin the Christian highlights this attitude:
“But whether Christ should be shamefully crucified, this we are in doubt about. For whosoever is crucified is said in the law to be accursed, so that I am exceedingly incredulous at this point.”
Remember that Paul had already quotes Deuteronomy 21 in chapter 3:
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” (Gal 3:13-14)
The cross offended the Romans and they considered it a most cruel and disgusting punishment. They didn’t allow Roman citizens to be executed that way and, in time, the Latin word “crux” became a cuss word.
The word Paul uses is “scandalon,” where we get our English word “scandalous.”
The cross is a scandal to men and women who do not want to admit their sinfulness and come to repentance. It’s far easier to preach a list of dos and don’ts. People like that. It appeals to our pride. We can earn brownie points with God by being “good.”
John Stott summarizes what these verses are getting at:
“Circumcision stands for a religion of human achievement, of what man can do by his now good works. Christ stands for divine achievement, of what God has done through the finished work of Christ. Circumcision means law, works, and bondage; Christ means grace, faith, and freedom. Every man must choose. The one impossibility is what the Galatians were attempting, namely to add circumcision to Christ and have both. No! Circumcision and Christ are mutually exclusive.”
Cut it Off
Paul ends this section with a verse that many people can’t believe is even in the Bible:
[slide] “As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” (Gal 5:12)
Whoa! What?!
Martin Luther paraphrased this verse by saying, “I wish the knife would slip!”
This is saying what you think it says. There’s some crazy things in the Bible, right Marie?
He calls them “agitators.” This word means to “stir up, or to cause to revolt.”
They were agitating rebellion against Paul and against the Gospel. And Paul makes it clear how he feels about them!
But there is more here than meets the eye. That’s why it’s important to know the cultural context of the book you are studying.
In the region of Galatia, there were a number of pagan gods that the people worshipped. One of them was name Cybele and in order to be a priest in that temple you had to be castrated.
Paul is saying, in effect, if you want to make circumcision a prerequisite for salvation, you are actually just doing the same thing as a the priest of Cybele! You might as well go ahead and castrate themselves.
Also, once a male is castrated, he obviously cannot produce children. So this was another way of saying, “I wish these false teachers would cease from the land altogether.”
This is strong and maybe a bit a crude. But Paul has already made it clear that if anyone preaches a Gospel other than the one he preached, that they should be sent straight to hell before they take anyone else with them!
I saw a tweet from a pastor this week that I thought was appropriate for this sermon:
“If the people in my church paid as much attention to the doctrine of the church that they do to conspiracy theories, we wouldn’t have as many problems as we do.”
Applications
In Paul’s last letter before his death, he wrote these words to Timothy:
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Tim 4:1-4)
Since the beginning of the church, there have been false teachers. Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders still ring true today:
“I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!” (Acts 20:29-30)
We need to be on guard against false teaching. How do we do that? By knowing the Truth so well that when false teaching pops up we can immediately call it what it is.
When the people tasked with discovering counterfeit money are trained, they aren’t give fake bills. They handle real bills until they know the real thing so well that they can spot a fake every time.
As a church, can I encourage each of you to commit to reading the Bible, not because you have to or that you will get brownie points if you do. But so you can know the truth that sets us free?
As a church, can I encourage you to be Bereans and check everything I say against the Bible? I will not be insulted by that. I will be overjoyed.
False teaching is dangerous and causes divisions and conflict in churches. But what it does to individual hearts is far worse.
One of the false teachings that is very popular right now in our culture is the “prosperity gospel.” This false gospel teaches that God wants you to be always healthy and very wealthy.
If you aren’t healthy, well, it’s because you don’t have enough faith, or or have spoken negative words against a prophet of God, or you have yet to learn how to speak your healing into existence.
If you aren’t wealthy, it’s because you don’t understand the law of reaping and sowing. In order to get riches you need to sow a seed, unusually meaning giving money to one of these false teachers, and then have enough faith that God will give you everything you want.
This isn’t a fringe teaching. This is mainstream with churches full of people waiting for God to drop a BMW out of the sky.
Looks at the top podcasts on ITunes. Of the top 20 downloaded podcast this past week, six of them were from prosperity preachers.
I have a friend that went to a church that taught this false doctrine. His story demonstrates the insidiousness of this false teaching.
John’s mother-in-law was sick and the the church told everyone to pray and that she would be healed. (God is like a vending machine in this theology. Press A-7 and He has to give you want you want).
John prayed diligently and fervently but his mother-in-died. A leader from the church told him that it was his fault. He was the weak link in the prayer chain. It was his lack of faith that killed his mother-in-law, who he loved.
This devastated him, to the point of considering suicide. He didn’t go to church for over two years and he constantly begged God to forgive him for his lack of faith.
Someone invited him to a church where the true Gospel was preached and he started understanding that God is not is not so much interested in our health and wealth as He is our heart and soul. He discovered that God is sovereign and can not be manipulated into what we want him to do.
These false teachers had hindered my friend from running his race. They had cut in on, tripped him up, and confused him.
But the Holy Spirit helped him understand that he didn’t “kill” his mother-in-law. We live in a sin-sick world and the death rate is still right at 100%. What did my friend experience when he learned this things? The same thing that Paul is offering the Galatians - freedom! He learned to dance to the real rhythm of grace, joy, peace, and freedom.
[slide] Costi Hinn, the nephew of Benny Hinn, one of the most notorious prosperity Gospel preachers in the history of the church, recently wrote a book entitled, “God, Greed, and the Prosperity Gospel.” I would highly recommend it to you if you are interested in learning more about this false teaching.
[slide] In 1968, the marathon had finished hours before, so the remaining crowd was surprised when a runner came straggling into the Olympic stadium. The Tanzanian runner, John Stephen Akhwari, was limping, his leg bleeding and bandaged, and he was in obvious pain. They cheered him to the finish line.
When asked why he stayed in the race he answered, “My country did not send me 7,000 miles away to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish the race.”
God has called us to run the race marked out for us and “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1:6)
Benediction
"To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 24-25)
