Is This of God?
Galatians: Getting the Gospel Right • Sermon • Submitted
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1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!
Folks, this is some strong language here!
It’s not the kind of polite language that you might tend to hear in church.
I think most of us understand what Paul is saying in verse 12. And if you don’t, you can ask someone after the service without me getting to graphic up here.
Paul feels very strongly about this message of getting the Gospel, right.
Proclaiming the Gospel of Freedom.
And as we go along, I feel myself becoming more passionate about it as well.
This passion was strengthened this past week, as I was freeing up some space in my email inbox, deleting old emails.
I was just about to push the delete button when I spotted a headline in a certain email that read
We’re Experiencing Another Reformation, and Not in a Good Way.
We’re Experiencing Another Reformation, and Not in a Good Way.
In this article they talked about how Christians in America are moving away from Biblical teaching, not toward. We are being reformed, but not in a good way.
And they based their findings on a survey that was done by the Barna Group
In this survey, Barna basically asked people whether they agreed or disagreed with certain biblical truths
There were a number of categories, but this one jumped out at me.
Christians from different denominations were asked to state whether they agreed or disagreed with this statement:
People cannot earn a place in Heaven by being good or doing enough good works:
% Disagree
Catholics: 85%
Mainline Protestant (Lutherans, Prebyterians): 61%
Pentecostals: 49%
Evangelicals: 58%!
If you took a snapshot of the churches in this community and in Iowa City, and you took average people from each church and gathered them together in this room,
Over half of them would possibly think, “Yeah, I think that if you try hard enough and are good enough, God couldn’t help but let you into heaven”.
I believe now more than ever, the Gospel of Salvation and being made righteous by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ must be proclaimed and taught.
Last Sunday, I shared some things that are on my heart as we think about this subject of “getting the gospel right”.
And maybe you had a lot of questions as you left the church last Sunday.
“What does he believe anyway?
Is he saying that anything goes? Are there no absolutes? What’s going on here?”
I trust that it is becoming apparent by now that my desire for us is that we deal openly and honestly with heart issues.
It’s fairly easy and straight forward to make rules about how we should live and practice, and mandate that we should follow them
But it’s a much harder thing to ask us to deal with what is in our hearts, and to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us from the INSIDE out.
Too often, I think we have tried to do it the other way. From the outside, IN.
In other words, if you are disciplined enough, and really teach yourself to live Biblical commands, your heart will follow.
And maybe there is something to that, but generally it doesn’t seem to work. It sure hasn’t worked very well in my life.
And if it were that easy and straight forward, then why do we still have so many issues and divisions in churches that have pages of rules for folks to conform to?
It’s because the heart is still the heart, and we do what we do because we want what we want.
So, as we think about how does God want us to live, both on a personal level, and as a church
I believe that from this passage that we just read, there are some questions that we can ask ourselves
Does it lay a heavy burden on me? (vs. 1)
For Freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery
Galatians 2:4-5 “4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.”
Honest question: has anyone ever felt that being a Believer, or being part of a church is a heavy burden, almost too heavy to bear.
I wonder how many people have left the church because of burdens that were placed on them which just seemed to heavy to bear.
It happens in Mennonite churches, Baptist churches, all different denominations
It’s called legalism.
And it can happens so subtly, and it can seem so “spiritual” and right
Nobody really wants to be legalistic or find themselves in a legalistic church, but it happens. A LOT
It can be burdens that others place on us.
Hey, I see you are reading your Bible and it seems like you are really getting into the Word.
yeah
Well, havent you read where it says to do...”this”?
No, I hadn’t noticed that
Oh yeah. I mean, that’s what really pleases the Lord, if you do…this
And before the Holy Spirit has a chance to show you and teach you about it, you feel a weight placed on you
A weight to do something that you don’t understand, in order to “measure up” some how.
Legalism can be burdens that I place on myself
Expectations to be someone that I’m not. or excel in areas that I’m not gifted in
Expectations to act in certain ways that make me “acceptable” to God or to others
Paul entreats the Galatians. He pleads with them: “STAND FIRM! Don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery
“But I thought that following Jesus, being a Christian, was supposed to be a weighty and a heavy thing”
I mean, didn’t Jesus say, “Take up your cross and follow me?” That sounds pretty heavy and weighty to me
Sounds like we are supposed to be pretty serious about our lives.
Yes, Jesus did say, “take up your cross”. He did say, “count the cost of being my disciple”
But He also said, Matthew 11:28-30 “28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””
How can this be? How can He say, “Take up your cross and follow. And, my burdens are light?”
It’s because our life in Christ, our relationship with him is one that should be founded on love FOR him.
We’ve talked about this many times
He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
And in 1 John 5 it says that His commands are not burdensome.
Why, because we LOVE Him.
Church life becomes burdensome, often too heavy of a burden to bear when we focus on obedience
And we don’t teach people what it means to LOVE him. We say, “Just do this, and your feelings should follow”.
But do we present Jesus who is worthy to be loved? or a taskmaster who is laying heavy burdens on me?
Very closely related to this question is this next question:
Does it put the onus (responsibility) for your righteousness on me? (vs. 2-3)
Galatians 5:2-3 “2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.”
Paul makes it clear that if you submit to the requirements of the law, even in this one area, Christ will have no value to you
And in doing this, you put the whole responsibility for your salvation and being made right with God, on your own shoulders.
And we think, how silly! I would never do that!
Yet, it is so easy to do and we find ourselves slipping into this mindset so easily.
Maybe for us it looks like...
Oh, I’m so glad that I’m not as “Liberal” as those folks over there.
Oh, I’m so glad that I’m not as “strict” as those folks over there
I think that I (we) have just the right form of expressing our faith
What is this attitude expressing? It is what Paul is talking about in verses 2-3. It is taking what Christ did and putting the responsibility on my own shoulders
And if this is how we think, then Christ is of no value to us.
Do you hear that? NO VALUE
So often we think, Well, I can have both. I can have Jesus, and I can have....what?
Tradition?
Methods of worship
Our heritage/culture?
These are all things that we do. And we feel responsible to do certain things or live a certain way
Church is full of things that we argue about that have to be a certain way:
Baptism, music, service orders
I read a story about a controversy surrounding a Catholic priest who wasn’t getting the prescribed wording quite correct when he did his baptisms. The Catholic church was considering nullifying over 3000 baptisms that he had performed, because he hadn’t gotten the wording quite correct.
Why are these things such an issue? Because we feel a responsibility to get it right.
Here’s a question: If I had the power to lay before you a choice: You can have Jesus, or be a Mennonite.
Which would you choose?
Obviously I don’t have the power to lay that before you, but if there is a serious hesitation in my mind about which one I would choose, then I would question
How valuable is Jesus to me?
Paul says, there is no middle ground. Either Christ is everything, or He is NO VALUE to you. Pretty serious stuff
Does it distance me from Jesus (vs 4)
Galatians 5:4 “4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”
You know, there are a lot of things that we can introduce into our lives which have the effect of pulling us away from Christ.
The old Blue Book had things in there that we were to stay away from:
Movie Theaters,
TV,
Certain types of music
Why were those things in there? Because our pastors were concerned that we were not distracted by things, that pulled us away from Christ.
But it’s not just “bad” things that take us away from Christ
It’s also things we do that seem good.
As I asked last Sunday, what was wrong with circumcision? Everything seemed right with circumcision!
What’s wrong with requiring a prayer veiling for church membership or certain ways to dress
Well, again, nothing really. But that’s not the question.
The true question is: Does this draw me to Jesus? If not, then I am being cut off from Him.
Again, Paul does not mince words here.
If you insist on taking this burden and responsibility for being right before God on yourself, then not only is Christ of no value to you, you have been severed from Christ.
Cut off from Him
he uses this word very intentionally I believe
Circumcision is a cutting of the skin
Dependence on the law, is a cutting away of the life and freedom that I have in Christ
Paul says, “You think that you are cutting away at your skin to make yourself acceptable to God. But you are actually cutting yourself off from Him!
Again, there seems to be very little room for middle ground.
It seems like that is how it is in all aspects of the Christian life
Jesus demands 100% of our allegiance to Him, or we are not His disciple.
Paul says, you are either moving toward Christ, being drawn toward Him in all that you introduce into your life or you are being cut off from Him!
This is really convicting stuff!
Does it cause me to stumble? (vs. 7)
Galatians 5:7-8 “7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8
It’s like Olympic runners racing for the ultimate crown, Olympic glory
And someone comes up behind the lead runner and clips a ball and chain to his ankle. What’s going to happen?
There are things that can cause me or others to stumble
Paul is talking about living free here. vs. 1: For freedom, Christ has set you free.
But living free has its responsibilities,
We are going to talk more about this next week, but as we consider how God wants us to live, This is a really important question to consider.
Is it going to cause me or someone else to stumble?
Does it cause confusion? (vs. 12) “I wish those who unsettle you...
Does it cause you to be uneasy, unsettled, confused?
You know, as I look around Christianity in the USA, there is enough confusion to make your head spin.
Honestly, I admit to being confused about our way of life, many times.
On the evening that we had church question night, someone asked about this word “conservative”. Are we still conservative? What does that mean?
It’s probably deserves a longer answer than what I can give this morning, but the short answer is, I DON’T KNOW!
And I’m confused about what that even means.
The folks from some churches look at us and say, yeah, they’re a little more conservative over there
And the folks from other churches look at us and say, “They are pretty liberal over there”
I’ve read of a conservative group breaking off and saying that they are trying to get back to being a New Testament church.
Meanwhile, over here, there is another group that looks differently and worships differently saying, “We are a New Testament Church”
One leader says, This is what you have to do.
And another leader says, this is what you have to do.
Who is really teaching the truth and which expression of Christianity is the right one or best one?
And Paul says to the Galatians, “Let’s cut to the chase. Who is hindering you from obeying the Truth?” (vs. 7)
That
And the truth is not in what someone says we have to do,
It’s not in the labels that we use to identify ourselves with.
The truth is found in the Person of Jesus Christ and the truth is, that He has done everything necessary to make those who believe right with their God.
And as a Believer, you have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, as Jesus calls Him in John.
Are you living by the Spirit? Is there something that someone is telling you that you have to do in order to be righteous?
Does it make you feel confused, unsettled?
Then examine it prayerfully and very carefully.
And Paul’s heart is in pain for his brothers in Galatia.
He goes back to using the same language that he used in chapter 1 where he said without apology, “If anyone is preaching a different Gospel to you, let that man be accursed and suffer the wrath of God”
And here he says, I wish a person like that would emasculate himself.
Again, I think most of us know what he means!
Folks, Paul is echoing God’s heart for His church.
Some of us have had children or have children now. You know how protective you feel about your children.
When they are hurting, or when something painful happens to them, or if you feel that they are being led astray somehow,
That lion inside of you rises up, your hackles rise up, and you get ready to do battle.
If that’s how you feel about your children, how do you suppose that God feels about His church.
How protective do you think that he is for His flock?
As we consider how God wants us to live, I think these are good questions to ask
Does it lay a heavy burden on me
Does it put the responsibility on me?
Does it distance me from Jesus
Does it cause me to stumble
Does it cause confusion?