Evening to everyone. You can turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Galatians, Galatians chapter five. Galatians five, as we continue slowly through this book of the Apostle Paul, we're nearing the end. We have looked previously at verses one through six of Galatians 5, so we're going to pick up this evening at verse seven and look at 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 this evening.
So I'm gonna read though beginning at verse one. and through to verse 15. So this is Galatians 5, beginning at verse 1, the word of God. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law. You have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love. You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from him who calls you.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 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. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? then the offense of the cross has ceased.
I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. Amen. Let's go to God in prayer. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your truth. We pray that you would help us in this time of preaching to honor your name, to be focused, to glorify and praise you who have brought us forth from the deadness of sin to life and light in Christ Jesus. Help us by your spirit to be illuminated by your truth that we might leave this place singing the praises of our God, rejoicing in Christ. seeking to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of His gospel. And we pray in His name.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, as we've been working through this book, we've been noting that Paul is defending the doctrine of justification by faith alone. He's railing against errorists who are teaching that Christ is good, yes, but we must also obey the Mosaic law, the ceremonies, the calendars, circumcision primarily, in order ultimately to be accepted before God and by God. Paul would have nothing of that, calling such a truth anathema, damning to hell in his first chapter anyone who would seek to propagate such a gospel that casts into the mud of error the very perfect and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this section, Galatians 5, began with a banner statement, For their context, that freedom would have been twofold.
Firstly and primarily, freedom from the guilt and condemnation and the power of sin, the domain of Satan and condemnation for the violation of the law of God. Liberty in Christ, blessed salvation that comes by virtue of the liberator, Jesus Christ. And as well, the liberty that would have been or that is the freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law. Freedom from the yoke of circumcision, of obedience to ceremonies, and all of those things that the Bible itself calls a yoke of bondage.
In fact, the Apostle Paul calls it here in verse one, that exact thing, a yoke of bondage. And so their freedom existed in those two particular realities, again, primarily that liberty that comes by virtue of the perfect and finished work of Jesus Christ. And so Paul now comes to this section here, and
Five Headings Introduced
we're gonna look at verses seven through 12 under five brief headings, and those are these, the question asked, the assessment given, the verdict rendered, the offense retained, and the imprecation pronounced, and we'll look at all of those things and explain them as we move along. So
The Question Asked
first off, the question asked. First, before the question is asked, though it's part of it and it sets it up, we read this simple statement, you ran well. This statement is given, and Paul is acknowledging, from their conversion to Christianity up until a particular point, they ran the Christian race well. They believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
They have their trust and their confidence in God and in the work of Christ. They're all about the work of the gospel, proclaiming Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They're all about the ordinances given by Jesus, the head of the church, for the church to be engaged in new covenant worship and all of those blessed things, the ordinances of the gospel. But there came a time when this stopped.
And this observation of their former progress is set against the reality of their present languishing and their present foundering being affected by error, being affected by heretical teachers. And so we use this sort of language in our own lives, sort of, a similar language. You know, if someone in the workplace, if you're a manager in the workplace or even a fellow employee in the workplace and there's been an employee for the longest time who has worked well. They've showed up on time.
They've done their work. They've perhaps even, you know, stayed a little bit longer. They're not the ones that swipe out at 4.53. They wait until 5.07 or whatever it might be.
They've been working well. And then they start to show up late. They start to perhaps become a little bit lazy and not do the same measure of performance that they used to do. You may say, we're doing so well, what happened?
That's what the Apostle Paul is doing here. You ran well, and then the question is asked, who hindered you from obeying the truth? This is not really a question as in a general inquiry into the matter. Who did this?
But rather it's a rhetorical device, it's a rhetorical question of reproach that the Apostle Paul is issuing here. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? Back up with me a little bit to some previous verses in Paul's book here to the churches of Galatia. Notice this sort of tenor, this sort of style, this sort of righteous and wholesome reproach that the apostle brings first in Galatians 1 at verse 6.
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. The question in our text tonight is this similar sort of marveling. The Apostle Paul, with a marvel in the key of reproach, is saying, why have you so soon turned away from him who called you in the grace of Christ? to a different gospel. Also in Galatians 2 at verse 4, we read there, and this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.
This text, a little different, it serves as the backdrop for what Paul is saying in Galatians 5 and verse 7. Now, notice again and recall chapter 3 and verse 1, where we read there another question in the key of reproach that the Apostle Paul asked previously, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. It's this repeated pattern that the Apostle Paul is engaged in in order to have these Galatians to consider their former run, where they ran well in the Christian race, and then to bring them to answer, to bring them to the court of consideration as to why they were now languishing and floundering in entertaining error. And also one other text, Galatians 4 at verse 15.
Galatians 4 and verse 15. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" These repeated questions that the Apostle Paul gives in order that the Galatians might snap out of the madness of the entertaining of the error of the errorists.
That was a long statement. Listen to it later, it might make sense. But they were entertaining error, and Paul, as it were, apostolically is shaking them with a wholesome reproach, seeking that they might return back to a race run well. And this question isn't, who hindered the truth of the gospel, though that would still be a legitimate question, but it's who hindered you from obeying the truth.
In other words, yes, and to the greater degree, condemnation is upon these errorists who are teaching false doctrine, But you heard them. The blame isn't solely on the outside agents who came in to spy out the liberty of the Christians in Galatia, but also for those who were giving the ear to the error, entertaining it, and perhaps appropriating bits of it. Remember, Paul is writing to the churches of Galatia, And he is speaking to, he's writing to Christians. No doubt the letter would have landed upon the ears of those who were outside of Christ, but Paul is shaking those who ran the race well.
And then
The Assessment Given
we see the assessment given in verses 8 and 9. This assessment given, Paul says first in verse 8, this persuasion does not come from him who calls you. This doctrine that you are entertaining, this doctrine that I'm warning you from appropriating, taking on, and actually believing, this particular doctrine does not come from the God who called you. It does not come from the God who called you, and it does not come from the ministers of God, gospel ministers, that proclaimed the truth to you.
Paul, including himself in that. Let's just remind ourselves of a verse that we already read, but now in a particular, different context. I marvel, verse six, that you are turning of chapter one, that you are turning away so soon from, notice, him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel. So back to our verse, this persuasion does not come from him who calls you.
The message of these errorists, the message of these false teachers, it's not from God. They are false teachers. The proclamations of these errorists come from the mouths of, to use Gil's language, emissaries of Satan. John Gil writes on this, he says, the notion they were persuaded to give into that circumcision and the works of the law were necessary to salvation, and that these were to be joined with the righteousness of Christ for justification, such a conceit as this could never be of God, nor any evangelical minister, but must be of Satan or his emissaries, the false apostles.
So this persuasion does not, of course, come from him who called you. The one who called you brought the glory of the gospel of Christ's exclusive salvation. That it's Christ alone who saves. That the one who gave his life for guilty sinners and was raised the third day, our salvation is in him.
Our hope is not in, our trust is not in our inglorious selves and the best of our works, and it's not in our inglorious selves and the best of our works attached to Christ's glory and the perfection of His works. It's Christ alone. It's by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And then there's this sort of proverbial statement or Jewish idiom that the Apostle Paul has used elsewhere that he uses again here in verse nine.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump. This is an observation by the Apostle Paul, a statement by the Apostle Paul, perhaps in anticipation to objections to the severity of his reproach. You know, Paul, come on, man. It's just a handful of false teachers.
It's just a few people in Galatia dragged over to entertain and appropriate this error. It's just a... It's not that big of a deal. Paul says, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
He's using the, I'm no master of the knowledge of bread. I don't bake it. But he's using the imagery of a little piece of dough that's kept back from a previous batch and put into the dough of a new loaf that permeates and grows and fills the entirety of the loaf. That's the imagery here.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Doctrinal error that is allowed to creep in is like a cancer that is left, that grows, that spreads, and that affects the whole body. It is a serious matter, the Apostle Paul is saying, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. And then
The Verdict Rendered
we see this verdict rendered in verse 10. There is a verdict that is rendered here in verse 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. There are two things here.
There's confidence in two things. First off, this statement here that we have in 10a, I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will have no other mind.
Confidence in God's Keeping
Paul is not saying that his faith or trust rested in the Galatians, in the power of their will, in the strength of their faith and of their volitional capabilities. It comes with the weight of Philippians Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ. In other words, the weight of Paul's confidence here is in that small clause, in the Lord. I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind.
Paul has confidence in his God, in the God of the Galatian Christians, that they will persevere until the end. Because he knows that God does keep his own. He knows that the Great Shepherd has his people in the inviolable grip of his sovereign hand. He keeps those who are his.
Those whom he calls from out of darkness into marvelous light, he keeps until that great day and everlastingly. And so Paul has confidence in that, even in the midst of these hindering them from obeying the truth, even in the midst of these who will bear their judgment, he has confidence that the Lord will keep his own. And that's a blessed thing that we have. that our perseverance does not depend upon our own free will, to quote the Confession, but upon the immutability of the decree of election flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father, upon the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ and union with Him, upon the abiding of the Holy Spirit and the certainty of the covenant of grace. We have an inviolable salvation in our God, and Paul rests his confidence in that God who holds us in that unbreakable grip.
And then he has this other clause, so he has confidence in the Lord for Christians, his fellow saints, and
Judgment on the Troublers
he also has confidence in the Lord that these troublers will receive judgment. Notice that second part of verse 10, but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. Paul seemingly moves from plural troublers, to sort of a single particular person, a chief troubler perhaps, or the leader of these heretics. Gill writes, the principle of the false teachers, not principle, P-L-E, but principle, P-A-L, of the false teachers, and most famous for his learning, knowledge, gifts, and abilities, and who had done and was likely to do the most mischief among them, and was a troubler of God's Israel, and of the pure waters of the sanctuary. he unsettled their minds and caused them to halt between two, Moses and Christ, law and gospel, and the doctrines of justification by works and by the righteousness of Christ, the one being what gave true solid peace and comfort, the other introduced confusion, distress, and fears." You see the difference between the true and saving gospel and messages that may even be close, to the gospel but are marked by error.
Remember that definition of discernment. Discernment isn't necessarily only the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, but the divinely informed ability to distinguish between right and almost right. You know, these errorists were preaching Jesus Christ, they were preaching the person and the works of Jesus Christ. They would use language like grace, like faith, like redemption, like reconciliation, salvation.
But they were smuggling in our own obediences in this scheme of salvation. And so, It is the case that the pure and saving gospel is that one that gives true and solid peace and comfort, and any other gospel that seeks to smuggle in the works of the individual, that brings confusion, distress, and fears. And isn't that the case? If salvation depends in a measure upon our own righteousnesses, Great weight and great fear and no peace and no comfort.
But praise God that having been justified by faith alone in Christ alone, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And notice this language, this language of bearing judgment, this false teacher, he shall bear his judgment, whoever he is, this false teacher, and truly all false teachers will receive their comeuppance. their condemnation, their punishment, their damnation. Let's remind ourselves again of another verse that came after the verse that we've already read twice in Galatians 1 at verse 8. False teachers, this one, whoever he is, and all false teachers will receive their condemnation, verse eight of chapter one.
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have preached, let him be accursed. let him be damned to hell, let him be anathema, let him be cut off, let him be devoted to divine destruction. That is what's at stake in the proclamation of the true and saving gospel, or that's what's at stake with respect to those who would come in and seek to teach. any other Gospel than that which was proclaimed. That which was proclaimed, which is exclusively the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of all who believe in Him.
Putting trust in other things to save us, other than Christ or in addition to Christ, is what's highlighted by this language of, he shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. It highlights the gravity of the error, the significance the seriousness of the error. We heard that in Pastor Butler's sermon this morning with regards to putting faith in anything other than the Most High God. Some put their faith in chariots, some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
If we could appropriate that text and put it in the mouth of the Apostle Paul sort of a conception of what he might say to these heretics, or rather to these Galatian Christians, some trust in circumcision, some trust in the observance of calendars, some trust in ceremonies, but we Galatian Christians will trust in our redeeming King. We will remember the name of Christ as the one who perfectly and exclusively saves.
The Offense Retained
We move on then to verse 11 and the offense retained. That might sound interesting, but it's a good type of offense. The offense retained. Notice verse 11 of chapter five, and I brethren, excuse me, verse 11.
And I brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. Paul is essentially saying positively and not in the framing of a question that he does not preach circumcision but preaches the truth and so the offense of the cross is retained. That stumbling block to Jews and to Judaizers that Christ and the perfection of his life, death, and resurrection is that which exclusively avails for the salvation of sinners. and I brethren, if I still preach persecution, circumcision, why am I persecuted?
Why do I still suffer persecution? The very evidence, perhaps the claim was that Paul was preaching circumcision in addition to Christ in order to be saved, that that was a charge leveled against the apostle from someone who would know why because he certainly preached against that reality. Or perhaps the false teachers were trying to claim the authority of Paul in their preaching of circumcision as requisite for salvation. Whatever the case may be, any claims that the Apostle Paul was a preacher of circumcision are dashed to pieces by the fact that he suffered at the hands of persecutors for the message he proclaimed.
That's what Paul is saying here. I'm persecuted, so how can you say, how can it be said that I preach circumcision? And not only was he persecuted, but he was persecuted by those who were proclaiming the very message that he is opposing. Remember verse six of five, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love.
And he had already written at verse three, and I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised, that is religious circumcision in order to be justified, not circumcision generally or medically considered. Indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. Paul preached against this truth that he is charged with having preached.
And the evidence of this is that he suffers persecution at the hands of those opposers of the true and saving gospel. And he uses this language here, then the offense of the cross has ceased. Now, if Paul was preaching circumcision, then the offense of the cross has ceased. Remember what the offense of the cross is,
The Offense of the Cross Defined
if you turn with me to 1 Corinthians. What is the offense of the cross? Again, offense used in a good way. It offends the delicate sensitivities of those in their madness who are opposed to the gospel of saving grace.
In 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks faith. foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God." The offense of the cross comes to the unbelieving and the wicked, tentacled minds of those who are in opposition to the gospel of saving grace, and it is an offense to them.
And think about the folly, the colossal folly and madness of being opposed to a message where you have blessed salvation exclusively in one who has come down from on high to assume our humanity, to suffer the shame and the ignominy of this lower sinful world, to suffer at the hands of persecutors himself, to have murderous opposition the entirety of his life, even from a child, they had to flee to Egypt in order to escape Herod's murderous edict. He comes back to engage in his messianic endeavors, and he is from every angle opposed from those in his own time, and yet he goes to the cross, In despising the shame, He endures the cross for the joy of bringing a multitude of sons and daughters to glory. The madness to oppose so glorious a message, the madness to attach and to assume that our own works contribute to our salvation. Think about someone on that last, that great and final day of judgment.
And these who were the troublers of Galatia are standing there with their litany of things as to why they must be accepted by God. Yet, yes, Christ, but also circumcision, calendar observance, ceremonies, These things, with these things I merit my salvation. The madness and the folly of attaching, appending, connecting anything to the perfect and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. The offense of the cross is retained.
The proper preaching of the cross and the exclusivity of the cross of Christ for salvation was an offense and a stumbling block both to the Jews and to the Judaizers. And the offense of the cross is taken away if circumcision, calendar observance, and ceremonies are pressed upon the consciences of men for justification.
The Imprecation Pronounced
And lastly, we see this language in verse 12. Notice in verse 12, we see this imprecation pronounced. An imprecation pronounced, I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off. It's interesting language that the Apostle Paul is using here.
It's sort of juxtaposed with or connected to circumcision. Remember that circumcision is a cutting off. And Paul is essentially saying, he's using a word that was used for castration, for the emasculation of men. He's sort of saying in a sense, and perhaps figuratively, if you're gonna cut yourselves off in circumcision in order to be accepted before God, why don't you just go the full way and cut yourself off entirely?
The language here of imprecation, that language to pray against, to call down judgment upon someone, is properly offered up out of zeal for the glory of God, out of zeal for the gospel of saving grace, and out of love for God's people. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off." The language is similar to the language that Paul uses in Philippians 3, where he juxtaposes circumcision with the word mutilation, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, Beware of the mutilation for we Christians are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Paul's desire is that these false teachers would be cut off, stopped in their tracks as bringers of evil things and cast away from the true community here of the Galatian Christians. There may be an allusion to the cult of Sibyl in the Galatian region where devotees of Sibyl, priests of this pagan goddess, would castrate themselves in ecstatic religious ceremonies.
And so Paul could be saying that to these preachers of circumcision, if the cutting off of flesh saves, why not go all the way like these pagan priests? There may be an allusion as well to Deuteronomy 23.1, He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. Paul wants these to be excluded from the congregation of the Lord because they are false teachers. They are perverting the gospel of truth.
They are seeking to steal away those who have liberty in Christ Jesus to be once again in bondage. And so
Application
just four things as we close. First, we ought to pray that we will run the race well. Paul begins this section by saying, you ran well, then that's a good thing. We should pray for ourselves and pray for each other that God would give us the race, that God would give us the grace that we would run the race well as Christians.
We should never, deliberately or not deliberately, I don't know how we can prevent that one, but we should never be found in a place of complacency and a place of just, you know, floating adrift in the waters of our religion. We should be actively engaged as Christians in the race that we're running and pray that we'll run it well. One of the ways that we can run it well is what you're doing right now. You're sitting in a pew in church and you're worshiping the triune God of heaven and earth and rejoicing in Jesus Christ the Savior.
That's good. Run the race well. We need to secondly reject error. We need to have that discernment that not only distinguishes between the right and the wrong, but the right and the almost right, lest we allow leaven to enter into the lump and to permeate the entirety of it. we should rejoice in the truth.
As much as Paul is engaging in reproach in the letter to the Galatians, as much as he has, and it's not a cold reproach, it's a spiritual father, the apostle Paul, with a pastoral and fatherly love for these Galatian Christians. And as much as he wants them to cast off and reject error, he wants them as well to rejoice in the truth. Those who reject error rejoice in the truth. Why do we reject error?
Because we love the truth. We love the truth of a triune God. We love the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator between God and man, very man and very God, yet one Christ. We love the doctrine of justification by faith alone, of a perfect atonement. of salvation for sinners, of forgiveness, and an imputed righteousness that is received by faith alone.
And lastly, we ought to, and it's connected to all of this, we ought to be jealous for the purity of the church's doctrine. As much as, and we should be, as much as we ought to be opposed to errors of a practical nature, as much as we ought to be opposed to adultery and murder and, you know, Sabbath, terrible Sabbath breaking and all sorts of things, we ought to be jealous as well for those, for the truth and zealous for, jealous for the purity of the church's doctrine. To be opposed to practical things, but to just sort of turn the other way in the face of doctrinal errors, or to not be animated by a desire that the church of the living Christ is pure with respect to the truth, is to fail in the race that we ought to run well. We ought to pray daily for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, for those ministers in pulpits who are tasked with the heavy responsibility of proclaiming the truth to people and praying that there would be no persuasion other than that persuasion that our salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Blessed salvation. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for We pray that you would help us to take in your word, to appropriate what we read, what we hear. We pray that you would help us in this lower world, by your grace, to run the race well. We pray that by the sent spirit, sent by the exalted Christ, that we would be able to reject error, that we would rejoice in the truth, and that we would be jealous for the purity of the doctrine. of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do help us in this lower world by grace to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of grace and cause us to look forward to the next Lord's Day Sabbath where we may do all of this again rejoicing in our God and singing the praises of our Christ.
And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.