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)
SERMON BODY
ill.
• Well, it’s good to be with you on Father’s Day.
• I like the description given by a small boy who said,
• "Father’s Day is just like Mother’s Day, Only you don’t spend as much on the gift."
Quote: The American humourist and author Mark Twain said,
"When I was a boy of 14 my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. but when I got to 21, I was astonished at how much the old man learned in 7 years."
This morning I have been asked to speak on Galatians Chapter 5 verses 1-12.
• The passage breaks down into three choices.
• Three options that each Christian must make daily.
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.
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.
Ill:
• We see this problem today.
• Two weeks ago, I was at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park London.
• The first person to approach me turned out to be a Seventh-Day Adventist.
• His gospel/message is, Jesus plus ‘Sabbath’ keeping.
• Now he could not show me one verse in the New Testament that asks ne to do that,
• The book of Acts (The history book of the early Church).
• Shows the Church worshipping on the first day of the week (Sunday).
• e.g. Acts chapter 20 verse 7: “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread.”
• e.g. 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verses 1-2:
• "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week."
Note just for reference on the Sabbath/Sunday:
• The phrase “the first day of the week” appears eight times,
• In the most widely used English translations of the New Testament.
• Based on this reading of the text, along with various supplemental passages,
• (e.g., Revelation chapter 1 verse 10),
• Christians assemble to worship God on Sunday.
• Upon looking at the Greek text, however,
• Some have questioned the integrity of the translation “the first day of the week,”
• Wondering if a better wording would be “the Sabbath day.”
• Admittedly, a form of the Greek word for sabbath (sabbaton or sabbatou),
• Does appear in each of the eight passages translated “first day of the week.”
• For example, in Acts chapter 20 verse 7.
• This phrase is translated from the Greek mia ton sabbaton.
• However, sabbaton (or sabbatou),
• Is never translated as “the Sabbath day” in these passages.
• Why? Because the word is used in these contexts (as Greek scholars overwhelmingly agree) to denote a “week” (Perschbacher, 1990, p. 364), “a period of seven days” (Danker, et al., 2000, p. 910; cf. Thayer, 1962, p. 566).
• According to R.C.H. Lenski, since “The Jews had no names for the weekdays,”
• They “designated them with reference to their Sabbath” (1943, p. 1148).
• Thus, mia ton sabbaton means “the first (day) with reference to the Sabbath,”
• i.e., the first (day) following the Sabbath (Lenski, p. 1148),
• Or, as we would say in 21st century English, “the first day of the week.”
Note:
• Yet, Paul and the other apostles had clearly taught that salvation is a gift,
• We receive that gift through faith, the moment 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 three choices in these verses,
• Three decisions we must make if we want to enjoy a victorious Christian life.
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.”
Ill:
• I love this video clip posted on Facebook.
• Man in car releasing birds that he purchased from street-seller.
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/shorts/U5OAYl1h1VI?feature=share
• TRANSITION: If we enjoy watching a net full of captive birds being set free,
• How much more should we enjoy a person being set free?
That is the first choice in these verses - slavery and freedom.
• This verse tells us why Christ came,
• (a). “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”
• He came to give us freedom, to give us liberty.
• (b). This verse also tells us what we must do to maintain our freedom,
• Stand firm, then,”
• “Stand fast or firm, remain determined, stalwart, and unyielding, in your position.
• (c). This verse then warns us about what we must avoid,
• “do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
• Avoid being entangled again and tied up by the yoke of slavery.
Ill:
• If you have ever seen a yoke, then this image is easy to understand.
• A yoke ties two animals or sadly, two people, two slaves together.
• 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 to stop them running away.
• TRANSITION: Both of those images speak of service and slavery.
• Your freedom and independence had sadly been taken from you.
Note: The apostle Paul says to Christians make sure that does not happen to you!
• To remain free we must be vigilant, observant, on our guard.
• We must be alert to anyone or any false teaching,
• That would steal our freedom from us.
• These false teachers and false teachings can seem like the genuine article.
• But they are fake so be vigilant, observant, on our guard.
• e.g. Fake £10 note can look real if we are not careful.
Note:
• 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”
• Before these people became Christian’s they were slaves.
• To the Jewish Law and to religion, traditions and practices.
• But Jesus Christ is our liberator.
• When we trusted Christ (i.e. converted),
• We were emancipated from the Jewish Law and from religion, traditions & practices.
• 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:
• Someone had noticed that the word "father,"
• Appears in the dictionary just before the word "fatigued"
• And just after the word "fathead."
• So to all us fatigued, fathead fathers, “Happy Father's Day!”
• TRANSITION: The problem with religion is it will make you feel "fatigued"
• Because you will never be religious or good enough.
• Religion is it will make you feel "fathead"
• Because knowledge will make us compare ourselves to others,
• And it “puffs up” it make us feel superior to others.
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.
• Circumcision is a surgical procedure,
• It removes the foreskin, the skin that covers the tip of the penis.
• All Jewish boys are circumcised on the eighth day after birth.
• Not to be circumcised is to be, “outside the covenant”
• (Genesis chapter 17 verse 14).
“Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant”
• TRANSITION:
• The Christians from a Jewish background were insisting that Gentiles (non-Jews),
• Were circumcised like them.
• To •these Christians from a Jewish background,
• 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!
• And 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.”
• Note also 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 rejecting 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 obligated 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 the Law and 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 offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!”
Ill:
• Chariots of fire.
• Harold Abrahams fails and says, “I had to look for him!”
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/uyg0dSwjF5I
• TRANSITION: Harold’s words,
• “I had to look for him, it’s absolutely fundamental you never look!”
• The apostle Paul says, Do not be distracted!
Note: A subtle change.
• In these verses the apostle Paul;
• Moves on from addressing the false teaching to addressing the false teachers.
• He moves from the false teaching that said; Christians needed to be circumcised.
• To addressing the false teachers themselves.
• He lists five dangers of living by the law instead of living by grace.
• For the sake of time.
• 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 this controversy,
• By a simple compromise,
• If only he would preach Jesus plus circumcision,
• His critics would be happy and would have left him alone.
• But that was something the apostle Paul would not do.
• The cross was the centre of his faith.
• This is the message he was called to proclaim.
• Only 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?
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=eDhact8nx8nRQhj1BiO3QhFzJ87ThSW6
