False Teachers & the Offense of the Cross

Last week, we had a special time of prayer for our friends T & J and the issues that were happening with their visas. God has handled that issue, and they now have everything they need and are back together! Praise the Lord!

Tonight, we will have the ordination council and service for Wayne Whitlock. If you are an ordained man and want to be a part of the council, it will be held in room 205 at 4:30 this afternoon. The service will follow at 5:30 here in the sanctuary. Please plan to be a part of this time of setting aside Wayne for the task of being a deacon.

Silver Seekers, our monthly meeting for the senior adult ministry, will not meet this month until the SECOND Tuesday, November 12, due to the Scholastic Book Fair for the school this week. Silver Seekers will meet at 10 am on November 12 in Miller Hall.

Mission New Mexico State Mission Offering thru September and October. Goal is $8,000. Received: $10,541. That’s great! Thanks, church!

Finally, the church will be providing Thanksgiving meal boxes for families in need. We can do up to 12 boxes, and each box will contain a turkey or a ham (their preference) and all the fix’ns. If you need a box for Thanksgiving, or if you know a family that does, please contact either Pastor Wayne, or the office and let us know as soon as possible.

Opening

In this letter which we call the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul has been writing to fairly new believers about the problem of works-based righteousness: the idea that we can earn and keep God’s favor just by following rules, instead of by only by faith in Jesus Christ. These false teachers, called Judaizers, have come in and are confusing the Galatian believers by insisting that they needed to basically become Jewish in order to be saved.

In the passage we looked at last week, Paul told the Galatians that they are either completely free in Christ, or they are not free at all: trying to justify ourselves through works was slavery to the law… an all-or-nothing proposal. Instead, if we are in Christ, then we are free to serve God through faith as His Holy Spirit works in our lives, making us more like Jesus as we submit to His working.

In our focal passage this morning, Paul uses several word pictures to address the problem with these false teachers We will consider those same things, as well as why works-righteousness is so tempting, and what our perspective on it should be.

Let’s stand as we read our short focal passage:

Galatians 5:7–12 CSB

7 You were running well. Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth? 8 This persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough. 10 I myself am persuaded in the Lord you will not accept any other view. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty. 11 Now brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 I wish those who are disturbing you might also let themselves be mutilated!

Pray

We’re just going to dive right in this morning with our first point:

1) False teachers hinder.

As a young boy living in Tarsus, Paul would have had the opportunity to go to the gymnasium. For us, we have gyms all over the place. We have lots of choices. We can go any time of day or night, depending on our choice. But in the ancient Roman world, there would generally be only one gymnasium in a city, and even then, not every city had one. But Tarsus did. The gymnasium was the place where young Roman men were trained in athletics and combat.

Here in verse 7, we have what is likely Paul’s first athletic reference in his letters: a reference to a race.

Galatians 5:7 CSB

7 You were running well. Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth?

This isn’t the last time that Paul would use athletic imagery. In fact, Paul often made use of athletic imagery in his letters. I guess you could say that in some ways, he was a sports fan.

When Maggie was a freshman in high school, she ran track for Eldorado. Generally, she was a sprinter, so she ran the 100, 200, 400 (which she hated), and was on a couple of the sprint relay teams. I really enjoyed watching her run. In her races, especially the 100 and 200, lanes were clearly designated, and were permanent. Maggie had to run in her designated lane for the entire race. If she got out of her lane, she would have been disqualified. And if someone came into her lane and slowed her down, there wasn’t really anything she could do about it. She had to stay in her lane.

The Galatians started off in a particular lane. That lane was called “grace.” They were running their grace race well. But then the Judaizers came in with their concept of somehow working to get God’s favor, and it’s like they “cut in” to the lane of grace.

I have to Greek out for a moment here, because Paul did something in this little passage that I think is really cool. The Greek word here for “prevented” could also be translated as “hindered”. Literally, though, it is a compound word formed from the Greek words en, meaning “in” and kopto, meaning “cut.” To “cut in.” It’s truly like a race: someone has “cut in” on the lane of grace that the Galatians were running in, and have thus hindered them from fully trusting in the truth of the Gospel of God’s grace. Keep that word, enkopto in mind for just a bit.

This is what false teachers do. They hinder people from believing the truth of God’s Word, of God’s promise, of God’s grace, of God’s Gospel. They don’t trust it themselves, and so they teach others not to trust it either. Jesus clearly called out the Pharisees and scribes for doing exactly that:

Jesus clearly called out the Pharisees and scribes for being a hindrance to the people:

Luke 11:52 CSB

52 “Woe to you experts in the law! You have taken away the key to knowledge. You didn’t go in yourselves, and you hindered those who were trying to go in.”

luke

Back in Galatians, as we have already seen in our study, the issue with the Judaizers was that they thought that Gentiles had to basically become Jews in order to be saved. A major part of that was circumcision. Here at the end of this passage, Paul makes a very interesting word play:

Galatians 5:12 CSB

12 I wish those who are disturbing you might also let themselves be mutilated!

Some translations are a little more graphic than the CSB in how they translate exactly what Paul is wishing on these false teachers. What Paul is saying here is a double wordplay. He is speaking of his response to their teaching on circumcision, so when he says “mutilated”, in the Greek, the word is apokopto. Remember what kopto meant? “Cut.” Instead of en, or “in”, the Greek apo means “off.” This is why the NIV and the ESV, for example, translate this word as “emasculate.” So Paul says that these false teachers have “cut in” with the idea of circumcision, and now wishes that they would be “cut off” as a result. A play on circumcision, and a play on cutting from verse 7.

But I like to see one additional possible grace-filled facet of this wish of Paul’s. The Hebrew people, which the Judaizers were a part of, did not allow eunuchs to participate in the assembly of God’s people, according to . They were to be “cut off” from the people of Israel. The Judaizers were placing so much faith in the works of the flesh. Perhaps Paul wishes that they would meet this fate of becoming eunuchs for that very reason: if they could no longer trust in their circumcision for their right standing with God, all they would have left is the Gospel of Jesus. In a way, their trust in the works of the flesh was hindering even themselves.

So first, false teachers hinder. But false teachers also lie.

2) False teachers lie.

These people had come in and told the Galatian Christians that they were telling them the truth of God’s word: that since the Jewish people were God’s people, then even with Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, you had to be Jewish to be right with God.

But Paul clearly denounces their assertion that they had come from God in verse 8:

Galatians 5:8 CSB

8 This persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.

3) False teachers contaminate.

They were lying. They said that they came from God, when in fact, they hadn’t. They claimed to speak for God, when in fact, they didn’t. The fact of the matter, as we saw in chapter 1, is that they were preaching a “false gospel” that wasn’t good news at all.

Think about the Garden of Eden. The adversary, the devil, came in and tempted Eve. And what did he tempt her with? False teaching in the form of a lie. He led her to believe that God had somehow kept something good from humanity by not allowing them to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But they already had this beautiful relationship with God. They had everything good, because God is good, and everything He had made to that point was good. The only thing they got from eating the fruit was discovering what evil was. And it was all because they believed the lie.

It’s a lie of the flesh and of the devil that we could even begin to earn what God has graciously offered through faith in Christ. Eric Metaxas, in his biography of Martin Luther, said this in his evaluation of Luther’s concept of grace:

Once we embrace Christ, we are instantly made righteous because of his righteousness, and not because of anything we have done or could do. So our good works do not earn us God’s favor. That favor we already possess, even through we are sinners who sin and cannot help sinning. By turning to God in faith—as sinners who understand that we are sinners—and by crying out for God’s help, we do all we can by acknowledging our helplessness. At this point—in which our faith acknowledges the truth of our situation—we are instantly clothed with the righteousness of God. And it is now our gratitude to God for this free gift of His righteousness and salvation that makes us want to please Him with our good works. We do them not out of grievous and legalistic duty or out of a hope to earn His favor but out of sheer gratitude for the favor we already have.

False teachers will lie and say they are from God, when they aren’t. False teachers will lie and say that there’s another gospel, when there isn’t. False teachers will lie and say that there’s another way, but there’s not. Salvation and the right standing with God that comes with it are only found in Jesus, and only received by faith.

And that’s the Gospel truth.

3) False teachers contaminate.

Just as false teachers hinder and lie, they also contaminate the purity of the message of the Gospel with their false teachings. They often do so a little at a time, over time. Paul used what was likely an old adage by that point to express this thought:

Galatians 5:9 CSB

9 A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough.

I don’t bake. But I did really like my science classes. Yeast was what was used for leavening bread back in Paul’s day (and it often still is). Baking powder wasn’t invented until the mid 1800’s. Anyway, yeast is a little living organism. It eats the sugars and starches in dough, and then gives off carbon dioxide, which is what gives yeasty bread all the air pockets. A tablespoon of dry yeast will leaven a dough made with up to 6 cups of flour. That’s a little bit of yeast compared to 96 times as much flour.

Jesus warned against the same kind of contamination of legalism as the Galatians were experiencing when He spoke of the Jewish leaders:

Likewise, Paul says that just a little bit of false teaching can impact a lot of people and lead them on a path toward sin. He used this same picture with the church in Corinth when he corrected them for their acceptance not of false teaching, but in overlooking heinous sin in the congregation:

Matthew 16:6 CSB

6 Then Jesus told them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

1 Corinthians 5:6 CSB

6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough?

1 Corinthians 5:6 CSB

6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough?

1 Corinthians 5:6–8 CSB

6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The false teachers in Galatia were contaminating the pure hope that these new believers had in the Gospel. We must also be on guard, as Jesus said to the disciples, so that we can see and respond to false teaching early and decisively.

But

But ultimately, the false teachers will not get away with their hindering, lying, and contaminating.

4) False teachers will pay.

In verse 10, Paul speaks to two things: what he believes about the Galatians’ faith, and what the false teachers have to look forward to.

Galatians 5:10 CSB

10 I myself am persuaded in the Lord you will not accept any other view. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty.

First, as kind of a side note from this point, Paul is certain that the Galatians will (assumably once they read Paul’s letter) agree with him completely and turn away from the Judaizers and back to trust in the work of Jesus for their justification. He is confident of both their faith and their understanding. He does not doubt that they are truly saved.

He is also confident that those who are troubling the Galatians will pay the penalty for their sinful false teaching. He does not say what the penalty is, but I know this:

Matthew 12:33–37 CSB

33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit will be good, or make the tree bad and its fruit will be bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. 34 Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. 35 A good person produces good things from his storeroom of good, and an evil person produces evil things from his storeroom of evil. 36 I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

2 Corinthians 5:10 CSB

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Be warned. Teachers will be judged more strictly, according to :

2 Corinthians 5:10 CSB

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

We will still have to give an answer to our Lord for what we do, so be warned: Teachers will be judged more strictly, according to :

James 3:1 CSB

1 Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment.

Yeah, this isn’t sobering at all… as I stand up here teaching, and knowing that what I say right now will be on the internet on Monday for others to hear. There’s a reason that Paul told Timothy to “pay close attention to [his] life and teaching.” If you’re going to teach, teach the truth of the Gospel, because it is the truth of the Gospel that “will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Tim 4:16)

5) False teachers persecute true teachers.

The last point that we see in this little passage is that false teachers persecute true teachers. As we saw back in 4:16-17, and then again in verse 29, the false teachers were trying to get the Galatians to turn their backs on their relationship with Paul:

Galatians 5:11 CSB

11 Now brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.

I’ll admit that I’m confused by Paul’s statement “if I still preach circumcision.” Opinions are many on this. I’ll give you my thoughts, and if you disagree with me, that’s cool. I wonder if here, Paul is again looking back at his preconversion days, as he did back in 1:13-14:

Galatians 1:13–14 CSB

13 For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it. 14 I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.

Part of his “extreme zealous”ness for the Jewish traditions would have been to proclaim, as the Judaizers now did, that circumcision was absolutely necessary for a man to be justified before God. A Gentile proselyte to the Hebrew faith had to be circumcised. If Paul had indeed “advanced in Judaism” beyond many of his contemporaries, he likely had worked to make proselytes at some point. So he very likely had, before his conversion, preached the necessity of circumcision for justification to Gentiles. But again, this is a conjecture on my part.

But now, the fact that Paul was being persecuted by the Judaizers showed clearly that he wasn’t preaching that circumcision was necessary. Why was he being persecuted for preaching freedom in Christ?

Because of the offense of the cross.

If Paul were still preaching that a work of the flesh like circumcision was necessary for salvation, then he would have stopped being offensive to those who trusted completely in those works of the flesh—who felt that their following the rules in a way obligated God to save them or justify them. They would have left him alone, because they would have agreed with him. This is what he means when he says that the offense of the cross would have been “abolished.”

1 Corinthians 1:18 CSB

18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.

But Paul was preaching the offensive message of the cross, not salvation through the flesh.

The cross is

This is the message of the cross: That Jesus died as our substitute, taking the wrath of God against all of our sin on Himself, because we cannot pay the debt that we owe because of our sin. If we place our faith in the work of Christ done on that cross, then we are saved. And according to Scripture, we will live forever with Jesus because He not only defeated sin, but he defeated death as well by rising from the grave.

The message of the cross of Christ is a declaration of our complete need for His work, and our absolute inability to save ourselves. It’s either a stumbling block, or the power of God for salvation:

1 Corinthians 1:18 CSB

18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.

False teachers will persecute true teachers, because the true teachers are preaching the word of the cross. The false teachers see that as foolishness.

Closing

This morning, we will be taking the Lord’s Supper together, remembering what Jesus has done on the cross for us. Before we do that, however, I want to offer a brief time of invitation.

If you are a believer, but not a member of the Eastern Hills family, you are welcome to take the Supper with us this morning as a visiting brother or sister in the Lord. However, if you believe that God is calling you to join with this church in membership, then come and share that during this time before the Supper. Trevor, Camille, and I will be down here to receive you and celebrate that decision.

But if you are not a believer, I want to challenge you this morning:

Trust in the finished work of Christ for your salvation and for your right standing before God today, not in what you can do. The Galatians were under the sway of false teachers who said that Jesus hadn’t taken care of all that was necessary for their salvation. That was a lie. Jesus’ sacrifice is total, complete, and perfect. He paid all that was necessary for us to be forgiven, saved, and adopted into God’s family as His beloved children. By God’s grace through faith in what Christ has done, you can be saved this morning, right where you are. But we would love to celebrate that with you, so please come and share with one of us.

As the band comes, let’s pray together.

Pray

Lord’s Supper

Call down the deacons to serve.

As the deacons come, I want to say that if you are not a believer, please do not take the Supper this morning. I don’t say this to offend or exclude, but according to Scripture, taking the Lord’s Supper is a declaration of the truth of the Lord Jesus’s death on the cross. If you don’t believe that, know that we love you and are so glad you’re here. We would relish the opportunity to answer any questions you have about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hopefully our taking the Supper is a testimony to you of the unity and love that we have as believers, and will itself be a testimony of Jesus’s love to you.

Today, through taking these elements together, we are declaring as one family what Jesus has done for us by His blood.

Distribute the bread to the deacons.

records that Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples.

Luke 22:19 CSB

19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Have someone give thanks for the bread.

Have someone pray over the bread.

then says that Jesus said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”

Distribute the cup to the deacons.

Luke records that Jesus also treated the cup in the same way after supper.

Have someone give thanks for the cup.

The Scripture records that Jesus said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

Send the deacons back. Pray.

Call down the ushers for the morning offering.

Invite guests to the parlor.

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