Pastor John Miller continues our study through the book of Galatians with a message through Galatians 5:1-12 titled, âDon’t Fall From Grace.â
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5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. 7 You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. 11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!
We come to the third and last section of Paulâs letter to the Galatians. In Galatians 1 and 2, Paul defended the gospel of Godâs graceâit was personal. In Galatians 3 and 4, Paul explained the gospel of graceâit was doctrinal. Tonight we begin Galatians 5 and 6 where Paul applies the gospel of grace. There are three main divisions in these six chapters of Galatians. Chapters 1 and 2, gospel of grace defended; chapters 3 and 4, the gospel of grace explained or doctrinal; and then chapters 5 and 6 are Godâs grace in living. They are practical as he applies the doctrine of the gospel of Godâs grace.
Why was Paul defending, applying, and explaining the gospel of Godâs grace? The answer is that in the churches of Galatia false teachers known as Judaizers had entered into the churches of Galatia telling the Gentile believers that you cannot be saved unless you become Jews. They were Judaizing (thatâs how we get that term âJudaizingâ) Gentile believers. They were telling them that you have to be circumcised, you have to keep the law of Moses, you have to follow dietary laws, you have to worship on certain holy days, you have to follow these rules and regulations in order to be saved. It wasnât just that we should keep Godâs moral law as believers, it was you cannot be savedâyou cannot be a Christian, you canât go to heavenâunless you do these things. They were actually denying the gospel of Godâs grace by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Paul does what we call a very, very stern epistle which sets forth the argument that weâre saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Scholars call it a polemical argument. That means a very confrontational and a very stern argument where he gets in their face and argues with them that the gospel of grace is the only way that we can be saved; that if those are teaching that we can be saved by being Judaized, then they are teaching false doctrine. It comes to meet us today with, âYou canât be a Christian unless youâre baptized,â or âYou canât be a Christian unless you take Communion,â or âYou canât be a Christian unless you go to our church,â or âYou canât be a Christian unless you follow these rules and regulations and do these things. You gotta go through catechism and you gotta be initiated into our group.â They have their rules and regulations. This is whatâs called legalism, meaning man-made standards in order to be saved and in order to be considered righteous.
The Judaizers were, no doubt, saying this about PaulâŚand we havenât really touched on this yet. We get it tonight in this practical section. They were actually saying that Paul was kind of flip-flopping in that once in a while he would preach circumcision when he was with the Jews, and when he was with the Gentiles, he wouldnât preach circumcision. They were saying that he was kind of a religious or spiritual chameleonâhe just adapts to whatever situations heâs in. This was the accusation they were bringing against Paul, that he was changing his doctrine; so Paul is going to defend the doctrine of grace again in Galatians 5:1-12 as he transitions into the practical.
The first five verses of the practical section are somewhat still doctrinal as well as practical. Beginning in Galatians 5:13, it really gets practical and applicable on how we live by the Spirit, love other people, and we serve others. Weâre not to practice license, weâre not to practice legalism, weâre to live in libertyâwalking in the Spirit, loving other people, serving other people, and bringing glory to God by the way that we live.
In these first twelve verses, Paul deals with the idea of the liberty we have in Christ. Look at Galatians 5:1 real quickly. âStand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.â Then, glance with me quickly at verse 13. He says, âFor, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,â and hereâs the second half of the chapterâs theme, âbut by love serve one another.â Then, he goes on to talk about the Holy Spirit, and it becomes the Spirit chapter of the book of Galatians, how that love is produced by His Spiritâitâs called the fruit of the Spiritâand weâre to lovingly serve others for the glory of God. So, weâre to, âStand fast therefore in the liberty,â weâre to not use our liberty for occasion to serve the flesh but out of love we should serve one another, verse 13.
The gospel of Godâs grace frees us from legalism and license and allows us to live in liberty. If I were doing a chart on the screen (which I did not do a chart), you would have in the middle âLiberty,â off to the left you would have, âLegalism,â and off to the right you would have, âLiberty,â on the other side. This is also known as license. License means that since weâre saved by Godâs grace and forgiven by Godâs grace, and weâre in Christ, then now we can be free in Christ to live however we want. âIf I want to go out and sin and disobey God, Iâm saved, Iâm forgiven, Iâm going to heaven, Iâm free in Christ, and Iâm going to live however I want to live.â Thatâs called license, and those are the Libertines. They are with us still today. They are Christians that are whatâs also known as (Iâm just giving you these terms so that when you run into them youâll be aware) Antinomianism. That means they are against the law. They are opposing anything that has any standards of righteousness. Itâs kind of a hyper-grace kind of a concept that, âWe can live however we want, weâre under grace.â Certainly, Godâs grace is not a license to sin. God doesnât save us to sin, which will take us back into bondage, God saves us to live in liberty. Amen? Thatâs the theme of these twelve verses. Stand fast in that liberty. Christ has set you free, âand be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage,â the flesh and the law.
In verses 1-12, Paul explains what the believers lose when they turn from Godâs grace to legalism, and we find he uses three pictures. If youâre taking notes, you can write them down. He uses three pictures of what we lose as believers if we turn from Godâs grace and go back into legalism. The first is the picture of a slave under a yoke, and the idea is that we can lose our liberty in Christ and go back into bondage. Thatâs seen in verse 1. Paul says, âStand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,â notice that past tense there. The moment you were converted, you were born again, you were set free in Christ, âand be not entangled again,â thatâs the bondage, the servanthood, âwith the yoke of bondage.â
There are two commandments given in verse 1âone is positive and the other is negative. The positive is in verse 1 where Paul says, âIt is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then.â I was reading that from the NIV, and I did it intentionally. Maybe some of you have the New International Version or a modern version or a New Living Translation. This statement here in verse 1 in the King James translation has, âStand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,â itâs a little ambiguous. Itâs not as clear as it should be. What itâs actually saying, and what it means to communicate, is that Christ has set you free for a purpose. Do you know what that purpose is? To live in freedom. The reason He set us free is so that we will be free. Itâs kind of like, âDuh! What else would He do?â But thatâs what that statement is actually saying. This would actually be the way itâs translated, I like the NIV, âIt is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then.â It is because of freedom that Heâs freed us. He freed us so that we could live in freedom, not so that we can be going back into bondage, which is what happens if I try to live in legalism and I try to follow that path; or if I go to the other side of the spectrum and try to live in license, then Iâll also go back into bondage, like the sin that I was living in before Christ set us free.
Literally, Paul commands them, this is an imperative, âStand,â which literally means to take a stand and to keep on standing. In the Greek tense, itâs stand; and it means to resist legalism, resist license, and to keep standing. Donât be waffling. Donât falter. Donât waver or fall. âStand,â and notice itâs âthe liberty.â He doesnât just say, âStand in liberty,â itâs a specific kind of liberty. Itâs the liberty that Christ brings, and the only true liberty is the liberty that Christ brings. Amen? Whom the Son sets free, is free indeed. In John 8:36, Jesus said, âIf the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.â The sad and tragic thing is that people can experience the rebirth, they can be saved, and then they can come under the influence of false teachers who lead them either into legalism or into license, and both of them will take you back into bondage. So, Christ has set you free, go on living in the freedom that Christ has brought into your life. Heâs freed us from sin, Heâs freed us from self, Heâs freed us from Satan, and Heâs freed us from the law; so stand strong in that freedom.
In verse 1, it took place, I believe, at the moment you were born again. This is one of the blessings of the believer. You were actually redeemed. Now the word âredeemedâ means that He bought us and not only bought us but it means He took us out of the slave market and set us free. If He went into the slave market, we were slaves to sin, He bought us; and the price that He paid to buy us was His own precious blood that He shed upon the cross. Again, we have the cross and His redemptive blood. Then, He takes us out of the slave market of sin, out of the condemnation of law, and sets us free. Paul says, âLook, if you follow these false teachers, youâre going to be a slave again. Youâre going to go back into bondage, so stand in the liberty where you have been set free.â
Notice the negative command now, too. He says in verse 1, ââŚbe not,â so the positive, âStand fast,â and the negative, ââŚbe not entangled again,â and he uses another imagery of a yoke in the idea of bondage. A yoke was a binding device that they would use to put two oxen or two cattle together and hook to a plow to plow their fields. It spoke of a heavy, binding device. He actually says, âDonât go back to that legalistic lifestyle trying to think that you can be saved by keeping the law or sanctified by keeping rituals or rites because thatâs just going to lead you back into a yoke of bondage.â
Itâs interesting that when Peter was dealing with the problem in Acts 15, as well as Paul and the other apostles, as to what the Gentilesâ relationship would be to the law, Peter stood up in this meeting that they had with Jews and Gentiles and said, âWhy should we as Jews put a yoke,â and he uses the same imagery, âof bondage upon the neck of the Gentiles which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?â Itâs kind of like, âWhy are we going to make them keep the law, become Jewish in order to be saved, when we and our fathers were never really able to bear that?â I think of Jesusâ use of this imagery as well when He gave that beautiful promise when He said, âCome unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy ladenâŚTake my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowlyâŚand ye shall find rest unto your souls.â No doubt, Jesus is actually uttering that promise to people that were into the heavy yoke of legalism. The religious leaders of the Jews had put them under all these rites and rituals and laws, and no one could keep them. It was impossible. It was like a heavy burden, a heavy yoke, so Jesus said, âCome to Me if youâre weary, heavy laden. Take My yoke, itâs light, and I will set you free.â What a beautiful picture that is! The first danger of falling into legalism is that you go back into slavery and lose your liberty.
Hereâs the second picture Paul gives and tells of the danger is that of a debtor. He tells us if we go back to the law, we will lose our wealth that we have in Christ, verses 2-6. He says, âBehold, I Paul say unto you,â thatâs an expression that Paul would commonly use. Itâs believed, and I think rightfully so, that he uses that statement, âI Paul say unto you,â when he really wants to get heavy and lay something down very important. Paul was an apostle, and heâs in a sense kind of reminding them that, âIâm the apostle speaking with apostolic authority. I want to tell you something very important.â He says, ââŚif ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.â This is some radical stuff here, and I think it kind of goes right over our head. We donât realize how radical it really is.
I hope I can kind of unpack it a little bit for you and shed some light on it. If you go back and perform the rite of circumcision, then basically you are actually saying no to Christ. Youâre saying no to Godâs grace, and no to your only hope of salvation, âChrist shall profit you nothing.â I donât know about you, but I want Christ to profit me all I can. I need all of Jesus and all that Heâs provided and all He can do for me! Amen? But I donât want to try to do something to replace Him with my own works. Now, circumcision, let me say this before I maybe go on and forget about it, was more than just a physical rite because you say, âWell, whatâs the big deal? Itâs just a little physical rite and ritual. What does it really matter?â Paul is arguing against it because it also represented a system and a method of salvation which actually speaks of human effort and saved by your own works. Thatâs big. It wasnât just, âOh, it doesnât really matter. Itâs just a little rite. Whatâs the big deal?â No. It represents a system of saving yourself. You either save yourself, which you cannot do no more than pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, or Christ saves youâwhich He can and Heâs the only One who can. Paul says itâs very important that you donât go back to these rites and rituals because then Christ will profit you nothing. Iâm going to come back to that.
Verse 3, Paul says, âFor I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law,â you canât pick and choose which portions of the law you want to obey, you have to obey all of it. âChrist is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law,â or literally, youâre trying in self effort to be saved by your good works, âye are fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit,â now he speaks about the blessings of the true believers and uses that âweâ there because Paul is talking about himself and the true believers in Galatia, âFor we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.â
There are two sections in verses 2-6. The first is in verses 2-4. I want you to see it. Paul points out the problems of trying to mix law and grace. Lots of people try to do that still today. They try to combine law and grace. I want you to note three things that you will lose if you try to combine law and grace. First of all, âChrist shall profit you nothing,â we saw there in verse 2. ââŚif ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing,â because it represents a system of salvation by good works. This is why the gospel of Godâs grace is so very important. When Jude says, in his little one-chapter epistle, ââŚearnestly contend,â that phrase actually means fight with all youâve got, âfor the faith which was once,â and for all, âdelivered unto the saints,â because if you get the gospel wrong, then you have salvation wrong; and it can damn your souls to hell. Remember what Paul said in Galatians 1, âBut though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed,â anathema, which means cursed to the lowest hell. Paul takes this very, very seriously.
Write this down, âChrist shall profit you nothing.â Before Christ, we were spiritually dead and bankrupt. At our conversion, we became rich in Christ. Read Ephesians 1 where it says that in Christ weâre, ââŚblessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,â Jesus. We were chosen by God the Father, redeemed by God the Son, we were sealed by God the Holy Spirit. In chapter 1, Paul talks about all the blessings that are for all believers because theyâre in Christ. Do you want to lose that? Do you want to become spiritually bankrupt again?
I believe that Paul is, in context, talking to people who have not really been saved and are in danger of substituting faith in Christ for good works. Itâs a very dangerous thing because their souls will be damned and lost. There are a lot of religious systems today under the label of Christianity that have salvation by rites, works, and ritualsâcatechism, confirmation, the sacraments, baptismâall of the things that they combine to say, âYou must do these in order to get to heaven,â when the Bible actually says Christ did it all on the cross, and His work is finished. Amen? All thatâs left for us to do is open our hearts and hands by faith and receive that finished work of salvation that Christ has given to us. On the cross, Jesus paid it all.
Write down Colossians 2:10 and kind of spend some time in that verse meditating on it. Paul says, âAnd ye,â as a believer, âare complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.â That word âcompleteâ in Colossians 2:10 is a nautical term. It means youâre shipshape, fully rigged, and ready to sail; so you donât need circumcision, baptism, all these rites and rituals because youâre complete in Christ and you have salvation. What more do you need?
Notice the second thing that we lose if we try to mix law and grace. You become ââŚa debtor to do the whole law,â this is that imagery of becoming a debtor or youâre bankrupt and have nothing. Notice verse 3. âFor I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.â When he talks about fallen from grace, in just a minute, he talks about youâve fallen from the sphere of grace; but here, youâre living in the sphere of law, and youâre a debtor to the entire law. Do you know that if youâre going to live under law, youâre going to have to keep it all? You canât pick and choose and say, âWell, Iâll take a little of that, and a little of that, and a little of this.â Itâs like a smorgasbord or something like thatâwhen you go to a restaurant and kind of pick what you want to eat. You try to decide what is going to be best and kind of pick and choose. You canât do that with the law of God. Either you are keeping Godâs law entirely or you are saved by Godâs grace.
Thereâs no way anyone can keep Godâs law. For one thing, God also looks at our attitudes. Remember when Jesus said, âIf you look lustfully after someone, you can actually commit adultery in your heart. If you have anger and hatred towards somebody,â the Bible says, âThou shalt not murder.â You say, âIâve never murdered anybody.â If youâve driven the freeways in California, youâve murdered somebody. Itâs like the little boy that said, âMommy, why when Daddy drives, all the idiots come out? There are never any idiots on the highway when Mommy drives.â If you have anger in your heart, youâve committed murder. God looks at the heart. Weâve all fallen short of Godâs standards. You canât pick and choose the laws you want to keep. Someone used the illustration of someone driving their car and they run a red light. The policeman pulls them over, and the driver says, âOfficer, I know I ran the red light, but, you know, Iâve never committed adultery,â I donât recommend you try to use this to get out of a ticket, âIâve never robbed a bank. Iâve never murdered anyone. Iâve never done any of those horrible things. Why are you going to ticket me because Iâve run the red light?â
I shouldnât confess this, but I thought about this today. When I was in South Carolina several weeks ago, I donât know what it was, the rent-a-car, just jet lagged, or whatever it was. I was convinced that their yellow lights are shorter than our yellow lights. About every other intersection, all weekend that I was there, I was running a red light. Itâs a miracle that Pastor Miller wasnât put in jail in South Carolina. Iâm thinking, Man, those yellow lights are so short and quick. In California, they last longer than they do here. I went through so many red lights, it was crazy. Thank God I didnât get caught. I did confess my sin, and God has forgiven me, 1 John 1:9.
You canât, you know, âWell, I know I ran a red light, but I havenât done this and I havenât done that.â Whoever breaks one law has broken the whole law. Youâre a law breaker. How many links in the chain does it take to break the chain? Just one link, and so we are condemned by our own sin. We become a debtor to the law.
The third thing, verse 4, is that we also fall from grace. This is the phrase that really concerns a lot of people and confuses many. What does it mean to fall from grace? I donât know that I can say with absolute certainty, thereâs three or four different interpretations of this concept, but what I can say with certainty, at least I am firmly convinced, is that heâs not saying that you can lose your salvation. Thatâs not the topic of the text. Thatâs out of context with the whole tenor of the verse that is being written here to the Galatians. Heâs talking about falling into legalism and trusting legalism to be saved, which cannot save. Heâs talking about people who arenât saved, who are trying to be saved by their own works. Heâs not talking about people who are saved that will be lost if they donât continue in Godâs grace. I believe that once youâve been regenerated, once youâve been born again, that you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of promise and that you cannot be unregenerated, you cannot be separated, from the love of God.
What I do think that Paul most likely is saying here is that you fall from the sphere of grace and the concept of living in grace. First, heâs actually speaking to nonbelievers that instead of trusting Christ for salvation, would trust circumcision and their own good works, and they fall from grace. If heâs talking to a believer, heâs saying that you are going into legalism and youâre going to live in bondage rather than the liberty where Christ has set you free, which is most likely what Paul is referring there to. Heâs not saying you lose your salvation. He says youâre not living anymore in the sphere of grace. Weâre saved by grace, weâre sustained by grace, everything we do is the grace of God, and thatâs how weâre to live or else we can fall from grace and go back into bondage and become spiritual debtors and not be able to enjoy the benefits and the blessings of our salvation and growing in sanctification in likeness to Christ.
Paul closes, verses 5-6, with these two quick privileges of the true believer who trusts Christ by faith and relies on the Holy Spirit. The first one is the âhope of righteousness,â verse 5, and the second one is faith that produces love. He says, âFor we through the Spirit,â and heâs going to have a lot to say about the Holy Spirit in the next section, but continues, âwait for the hope of righteousness by faith.â I believe that Paul is talking about the third phase of our salvation known as glorification, when we get to heaven. Heâs not talking about justification, which is by faith, heâs talking about glorificationâthatâs when we get to go to heaven, and itâs the completion of our salvation. When he says that by the Holy Spiritâs power, weâre waiting for the hope of righteousness which comes to us because of our faith in Jesus Christ, heâs actually saying that we live by faith, and we look by faith, to be finally and fully, completely redeemed and glorified and in the presence of the Lord, and we stand before the throne in Him complete.
I do want you to note in verse 5, Paul doesnât say that we work for the hope of righteousness by faith, but ââŚwait for the hope of righteousness by faith.â That hope is our future hope of being in heaven with Christ. It comes to us by faith in Christ, and itâs confirmed, witnessed to us, by the Spirit of Christ. In verse 6, âFor in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.â Saving faith produces love. If you have truly been saved by faith, and you have Godâs Holy Spirit living in you, you will actually produce the fruit of the Spirit, the love the Spirit brings. Weâre going to get that as we come to the end of the chapter of Galatians 5. Basically, heâs saying that we are true believers, we have a hope of one day being in heaven, we wait in the power of the Spirit by faith for that to happen, not by working or performing rites or rituals, and that our faith will actually produce love, which is the work of the Holy Spirit. Itâs a way of saying, at the end of verse 6, that we work out our own salvation or that we bring it to completion, that is, living by faith, producing works, not to save us, but as a result.
The last, and third, section, verses 7-12, we see the picture or the image of a runner. If you try to mix law and grace, or you go back to legalism, youâll lose your direction. You actually fall out of the race. He says, âYe did run well,â hereâs the image of a race, âwho did hinder you,â which means they cut in front of you and knocked you out of your lane, âthat ye should not obey the truth? 8 This persuasion,â and in the context here, this is a reference to this teaching, this doctrine that comes from the false teachers, âcometh not of him that calleth you,â in other words itâs not from God. Verse 9, âA little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you,â referring to the false teachers, âshall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. 11 And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased. 12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you.â Iâm not going to tarry on these verses because weâll come back to them in a couple of weeks when we pick up our study in Galatians.
I want you to note these six dangers of the false teachers in this text. In verse 7, they hinder you; in verse 8, they persuade you by their false teachings; in verse 9, theyâre corrupting you; in verse 10, theyâre troubling you; in verse 11, they are persecuting Paul; and in verse 12, theyâre unsettling you. Those are the influences that the false teachers had upon the believers that were there in Galatia and maybe even some Gentiles who were not yet saved and were not true believers.
Notice in verse 7, real quickly, he says, ââŚwho did hinder you,â these false teachers, these Judaizers, have knocked you out of your lane. I love this expression in verse 7. Paul loved to draw analogy from the athletic realm. In Greece they had the Greek athletic games. They had running and would run in a race. They had a lane that they would run in, like racing today on a track. He says, âThese teachers are like someone who has cut into your lane and knocked you out of your lane and cut you out of the race, preventing you from running well.â They, ââŚhinder you,â that phrase literally means they cut you off, they cut into your lane and disqualified you from running the race because you stepped out of your lane as well. They hindered them. This legalism hinders these believers.
Secondly, verse 8, they seek to persuade you. âThis persuasion,â this teaching, this doctrine, it is not from God. If it doesnât align with Scripture, if itâs not the true gospel, itâs pretty simple, itâs not from God. Itâs not Godâs Word. For the believer, the authority lies in the Scriptures. It sounds so elementary and so basic to me, I chuckle a little bit, yet itâs so sad that so many believers, so many spiritual leaders, so many churches today do not look to the Bible for their source of authority. They go everywhere elseâchurch tradition, experience, intellect, culture, you name itâbut they donât turn to the authority of Godâs Word because they donât have a high view of Scripture that itâs the inerrant, infallible, Word of God, that itâs sufficient and itâs clear for us today. All that we believe and all that we practice must be clearly founded on Godâs Word or else weâre not really following God, hearing from God, or doing the will of God. We need to make sure that weâre biblical. There is nothing more important for you as a Christian than to be biblical in your thoughts and in your view of life, to have a Christian world view that is filtered through the lens of Scripture because this persuasion, this doctrine, this teaching, is not from God, verse 8, ââŚnot of him that calleth you.â
Thirdly, verse 9, it was corrupting them. Paul says, âDonât you know that, âA little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.ââ He uses another imagery here that weâre not that familiar with. In Judaism, leavenâŚwhich by the way was a little piece of fermented dough. It would be what we call yeast today. It was a little piece of fermented dough that they would actually put in the bread when they baked it to soften it and cause it to rise. It was a symbol in the Bible of evil, thatâs why in the Passover their bread was unleavened. They would take the leaven out of their bread, and even in some of the offerings that did include leaven, it was just a reminder of manâs sin and that the blood of Christ would forgive and cleanse it. Leaven, in this case and in other cases of Scripture, is a reference to evil. âDonât you know that theyâre influencing you in a sinful, evil way?â
It has another application as well. Leaven is a small little piece of yeast that influences a whole loaf of bread and causes it to rise. Itâs used as a picture of somethingâlisten carefullyâthat starts small and grows. You say, âOkay, Iâm with you pastor. Whatâs the big deal?â False doctrine in a church may start small, but it will grow. We canât compromise. We have to stand on truth. We cannot have âpeace at any price.â Purity can only come first, then unity. In a church, in your life, in your own personal, private life, if you compromise, and you make allowance for leavenâevil or lack of truth or not doctrinally sound thoughts, biblically true ideas and doctrinesâitâll grow. It wonât stay dormant. It wonât stay alone. It will influence you. Itâll end up in some kind of wicked behavior or greater doctrinal error or deviancy. It will end up in total apostasy, so you have to purge out the leaven. Itâs so very important.
A lot of churches donât want to deal with that kind of a thing, âOh, itâs okay. Just leave it alone. We donât care. You can believe whatever you want to believe. Letâs just all hold hands and sing âKumbaya,â and love one another and all get along.â We are to love each other but we are to, in love, speak the truth. Amen? Speak the truth in love, not to compromise truth for the sake of unity. Donât do it in your personal life, donât do it in your marriage, donât do it in your family, donât do it on the job, donât do it in the church. Have a standard of holiness and base it on Godâs Word. They were being corrupted.
Fourthly, they were troubled. This speaks of mentally and spiritually. False doctrine will trouble and upset you, knock you off balance. In verse 11, they were persecuting Paul. He says, âAnd I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision,â this is the clear reference where evidently the Judaizers that were saying that Paul was a chameleon and that he would sometimes preach circumcision when it was convenient and the grace of God when it was convenient. When he was with the Gentiles, heâs preaching Godâs grace alone; when heâs with the Jews, heâs preaching circumcision. Heâs changing his doctrine.
There are a lot of people that do that same thing today. Theyâll change their doctrine to placate to people they want to win instead of taking a stand for truth. Paul says, âOkay, these guys say that I am preaching circumcision, hereâs the question, ââŚwhy do I yet suffer persecution?â Paul says, âThen why are they persecuting me?â He says, âThe answer is because Iâm preaching the cross, the finished, all sufficient work of Christ on the cross,â grace alone, faith alone, in Christ alone, and thatâs an offense to the proud, religious heart of man. The cross is an offense to the religious manâat least a proper understanding of the crossâbecause it annihilates pride. It humbles us to realize, I canât save myself. I have to come naked, empty-handed, and trust in Christ alone. Paul says, âIâm being persecuted because I preach the cross.â
In closing, notice verse 12, âI would they were even cut off which trouble you.â This is Paulâs polemic argument. Heâs very stern, very in your face, and we canât be clear on what Paul means here, but it could mean that heâs saying, âI hope that they just get out of the church, that they cut themselves off from their relationship to you.â Many biblical scholars feel that itâs a play on words, and that itâs actually saying they should mutilate themselves, âThey run around with their knives wanting to circumcise all these Gentiles, they ought to take it to themselves and cut themselves off.â If you donât believe me, you can research it yourself and check it out. Itâs like, âGet down, Paul the Apostle.â Heâs like really, really smoking hot on this issue. He says, âI wish they would mutilate themselves who trouble you.â
The word âtroubleâ there means unsettle you. The word was actually used. Itâs a different word from âtroubleâ in verse 10. The word âtroubleâ in verse 12 was used of unsettling someone or literally to drive someone from his house, to run them out of town, to drive them out of their house, so they are unsettling you.
Let me wrap this up. Iâve gone longer than I wanted to tonight. How do we stand fast in our liberty in Christ? Weâre going to see this all the way through the rest of the book of Galatians, but I wanted to summarize it in closing. There are three things. Write them down. First, depend on the grace of God. How do you stand in the liberty where Christ has set you free and not slip into legalism or license? You constantly live a life of dependence upon Godâs grace.
Secondly, you yield to the Spirit of God. You live in dependence upon the grace of God, which is tied in with the idea of living in dependence upon the Spirit of God. Thirdly, you live for the glory of God. You might throw in there that you live to serve others, but thatâs what it means to live in dependence on the Spirit of God, for the glory of God. You depend on Godâs grace, yield to Godâs Spirit, and you live for Godâs glory remembering the cross of Christ is the finished work. Thereâs no need to look for Moses or the law to finish what Jesus Christ accomplished. When He died on the cross He said, âIt is finished.â He didnât say, âWait for Moses to come and finish the job.â âFor the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,â so donât lose your liberty and become a slave, donât lose your wealth and go back into debt, donât lose your direction and keep running the race that God has set before you. Letâs pray.
Pastor John Miller continues our study through the book of Galatians with a message through Galatians 5:1-12 titled, âDon’t Fall From Grace.â
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