Okay. Turn, if you would, to
Galatians chapter 5. The name of the message is a
little leaven. A little leaven. How much poison does it take
to kill us? Right? Just a drop of poison,
right? We don't need to drink a whole
bottle. Just a drop of poison, like cyanide or something like
that, will kill a person. Will kill a person. And here
we're going to see how much air, how much air can affect the whole
lump. How much error in a church can
affect the whole church? Just a little of it. Just a little
of it. That's why we have to be on guard,
right? That's why we have to be on guard for error. And if someone comes up to your
ear, whispering in your ear about something, you know what you
usually say? Let's go talk to the pastor about
that. Let's go talk to Travis about that. Or let's go talk
to Brian about that. Or let's go talk to Dan about
it. And if you really want to see some fireworks, let's go
talk to Dave about it. Dave, I'm saying you defend the
truth, brother. That's what I'm saying. You defend
the truth. That's how we should be. On guard for error. It's amazing. So let's read Galatians chapter
5. We'll read verses 1 to 12 to
see the context of what Paul's writing here. Last week we looked
at verse 6 where we saw faith works by love. So we're motivated
by love. We're not motivated by rewards,
so-called rewards, are we? We're motivated by love, beloved,
by the love of Christ, what he's done for us. Oh, how amazing
it is. He saved our souls by the shedding
of His precious, precious blood. And He did it willingly for us,
beloved. Oh, it's so wonderful. So wonderful. So let's read Galatians
chapter 5, verses 1 to 12. Our verses today will be verses
7 to 9. We're going to do three verses
today, Lord willing. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. So the false teachers are trying
to yoke them up in the law, remember? You must be circumcised to be
saved, they're telling them. But Paul's preached Christ and
Him crucified to these folks. And he says, behold, I, Paul,
say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Look at that. You want to do something to be
saved? Christ won't profit you at all. Not at all. There's no
profit in that. no profit. For I testify again
to every man that is circumcised that he's a debtor to do the
whole law. You want to live by the law? You've got to do the
whole law. The whole law. My oh my. Christ is become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever you are justified by the law, you are fallen from
grace. Look at that. That's pretty plain, isn't it? For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. Remember we saw that
hope of righteousness, that righteousness by faith, that's eternal life.
We're looking for eternal life because we're already justified
in Christ. But our hope is that one day
we're going to be absolutely sinless. We're going to be in
the presence of the Lord. Oh my, what a day that'll be.
And it says, for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.
You did run well. Now he's talking to these folks
who professed. They professed that they loved
Christ. Look at this. Who did hinder you that you should
not obey the truth? Who hindered you? Who hindered you that you should
not obey the truth? See, the truth had been set before
them, hadn't it? The truth of salvation in Christ and through
Christ alone had been set before them. How do we know that? Look at
Galatians chapter one. Let's go back. Let's go back
four chapters here. Look at this. Start in verse
one. Galatians chapter 1, starting
in verse 1. Paul, an apostle, not of man,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead. Oh my, look at that. And all
the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia.
Here we go. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and
from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins. When
did he do that? At Calvary, right? Shed his blood.
was made a ransom for our souls. Right? That he might deliver
us from this who gave himself our sins that he might deliver
us from this present evil world according to what the will of
God and our Father to whom be glory forever and ever amen so
we see right there even in this letter of correction he's already
set again Christ before them hasn't he this is what I love
about the Apostle Paul and the other they always set Christ
forth before any kind of correction and this corrections always in
love Even what we're seeing here in Galatians 5, there's some
strong language here, but it's always in love. Who hindered
you? Who's hindered you from Christ? Who's hindered you from following
Christ? What has hindered you from following Christ? Right? Oh my. So it says, ye did well,
who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? So verse
7 of Galatians 5, let's go back there. This persuasion cometh
not of him that calleth you. This hindrance, this persuasion
didn't come from God. That's strong language, isn't
it? He's saying these false teachers
aren't sent from God. They're not sent from God. What
are they? Well, we're going to look later
on in 2 Corinthians. They're messengers of Satan. They're ministers. They appear
as ministers of light. And yet, their message is death. There's no salvation in the message. They say, you gotta do this,
and even those crazy TV evangelists, give your seed money, and I won't
tell you my pocket's getting filled, but your money's gonna
increase along with mine, but I won't tell you that, right?
That's all they're after. Just a false gospel. Enriching
themselves. Garbed in religion. These Judaizers
really are no different because they're, you know, anyone preaching
a false gospel is the same as the Judaizers. They're trying
to take glory from God and have man try to save themselves, which
we know is impossible, right? And how do we know that? Brother
Tom, we've talked about this. It's so true. I heard a preacher
this week, I was listening to a preacher this week, he goes, it's by revelation.
That's the only way. See, we can't even boast in what
we know, can we? Because it just comes from God.
It's amazing. That's why we give Him all the
glory. That's why we give Him all the praise. That's why our
hearts leap for joy at the sound of the gospel being preached.
Amen. That's right. We love it. Look at what he says here. This
persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little eleven,
eleveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you, through
the Lord, that you will be none otherwise minded, but he that
trebuth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be." All false teachers
will bear their judgment. They're going to face God one
day. They're going to face God one
day. Oh my. And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense
of the cross ceased? Look at that. If I yet preach
circumcision, he's not going to preach circumcision to be
saved. No man would be offended by that. But they'd be offended when you
say there's nothing you can do to save yourself. See? And that's what Paul was preaching.
He said Christ gave himself for our sins. Nothing we could do
could gain us merit and favor with God. So he says, then is
the offense of the cross ceased. So the offense of the cross is
salvations of the Lord. There's nothing we bring except
our sin. And there's no way for us to
save ourselves. This is what makes God's grace so incredible,
beloved. that Christ, Jesus Christ our
Lord, God in the flesh, redeemed us at the cross. The mighty God,
the Holy One of Israel, the Ancient of Days, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord
of Righteousness, died in our room and place to save our souls. Isn't it wonderful? Oh, it's
so wonderful. So these Judaism, they're not
teaching good news. No, they're teaching something
man's got to do. But the good news of the gospel
is Christ did it all. He's done. He's finished, beloved. It's wonderful. Oh, it's so wonderful. And again, last week we looked
at verse 6. Let's read that again. For in
Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth nor anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. There's what we're motivated
by now. Love. The love of Christ. What He's
done for us. We're not seeking rewards. We're
not seeking accolades, are we? We love the Lord. And so because
we love him, we willingly serve him. Right? I had a boss. I think I've told
you guys about him in the past. This man, I was low man. I was low man. You couldn't get
any lower than where I was at. And I'm up on the side of a trailer
doing sign painting, painting, I think it was a Coke truck we
were doing. Coca-Cola, we used to paint them by hand back then.
and rolling the lettering on, and I hear sweeping behind me.
Shh, shh, shh. And I look, and there's the boss,
the owner of the company, sweeping the floor. And I said, Ernie,
what are you doing? And he goes, I wouldn't make
you do anything I wouldn't do myself. You know what that made
me? That made me love that man, because
he made me feel like I wasn't inferior to him. You see, We serve God. We serve God because
we love him. Because of what he's done for
us. He became a man. He left heaven. Now, Ernie humbled
himself by sweeping, but nowhere near what the Lord did when he
humbled himself and became a man. The Creator came to this world
on a mission. to save his people from their
sins. And that's us, beloved. In wonder
of wonders, he cried, it is finished. Oh, let me just live in that,
Lord. Let me just live in that truth, right? Let us just live
in it. It's finished. It's finished. God don't remember
my sins anymore! Hallelujah to that, right? Oh
my, isn't it wonderful? It's wonderful, isn't it? It's
truth, rest, perfect peace and rest. Now what disturbs our peace
and rest? Ourselves. Hey, I'm right there, right?
Oh, but what rest we have in Christ, beloved. What rest we
have in Him. My oh my. And so now, because
of that rest, because of what He's done for us, we're now motivated
by love to serve Him. We're motivated by love. Doesn't
matter the circumstances we're in, whether we're rich or poor,
whether we're in the middle, whether we're up or down, We're
motivated now to serve him by love. And let me tell you something,
all things, all things work together for
the good, for those who are the call. All things. All the good stuff
and all the bad stuff. I was listening to a preacher
this week and he mentioned the cake mix stuff, just like you
did Dave. All the things he said, everything in our life is put
in there, it was awesome. As you had mentioned that before,
and I was like, my gosh, there it is. You gotta write something
about that, man. But all things work for good. And now we know that, right?
Now we know that. We didn't know it before we were
saved. And then, so now we're motivated by love. Love. God in Christ loves me so much
that He died for me? Why? Because He chose me in eternity? in Christ, and in Christ to accomplish
that which was purposed and planned, came into time and space, and
gave his life for his people. How can that not motivate us?
By love, right? How can we not be motivated by
love for God? God himself, beloved, God himself
has saved us. God himself. We do not understand
the mystery of godliness, that God became a man, but we believe
it by God's grace, don't we? And it's our hope. Our only hope. You have no hope outside of Christ.
We have no other hope, beloved. None. Now let's read verses 7
to 9 now. So he's writing these Galatians.
They've been bewitched. They've been bewitched by these
Judeans. They've been seduced into believing
a lie. Some of them, not all of them,
but some of them have. And he's writing to all the churches
in Galatia, because they've all been infected by these Judaizers. And Paul doesn't know whose wheat
and whose tares does he. So he writes this letter to the
whole church, the whole church. And look what he says here. He
says, you did run well. Who did hinder you? Who did hinder
you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh
not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump. So he's saying, you listen to these false teachers.
These false teachers didn't come from God. See the words, ye did
run well. That means that Not only had
they heard the gospel of God's sovereign grace, but it also
means that they made a profession of faith. They made a profession
of faith. And many of those in the glacier
area who had heard Paul preach, had turned from idols. Remember,
they're just a bunch of Gentile dogs. They've turned from idols
to serve the living and true God, just like the Thessalonians
that we saw in chapter 1, I believe it is, of 1 Thessalonians. They turned from idols to serve
the living God. Do you know we turn from idols
to serve the living God? You know what I turn from? My
will. I used to think man's will was,
oh, I knew nothing. I knew nothing. But I thought
I knew a lot. And God humbles us, doesn't he?
He teaches us. And you're right, Dave. We've
turned from self. Our self is an idol. Our self is an idol. We've turned from that, haven't
we? I turn from idols. I used to
battle those stupid statues and put candles on that stuff. I
don't even know. You know, when I look back, I
thought I knew nothing. I knew I was so devoid of any
knowledge of God. You know why I did it? Because
someone told me that you're supposed to do that. That's why I did
it. My, that's that generational
stuff, right? My great-grandpa was a Catholic,
my grandpa was a Catholic, my mom was a Catholic, and so I
got to be a Catholic too. No. You must be born again. You must be. You must be born
again, beloved. So look what he says here. This
persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. Now these Judaizers,
they'd come into the churches and said, faith alone in Christ
is not enough. What? That's what they did. They said that. And they publicly
professed that Christ was not enough, that you had to be circumcised
to be saved as well. So what's that? That's another
gospel, isn't it? And Paul hits it head on, didn't
he, in chapter 1, when he said this perversion, this is not
a God, it's a perversion of the gospel. And we have many people
just like these Judaizers, many preachers all around this nation
just like that. And you know what? I'll tell
you something. All us preachers, we know if it wasn't for the
grace of God and we were preaching, we'd be preaching the same thing. But praise be to God. He's revealed
himself to us. He's taught us the truth. And
now, I'll tell you why. You can't keep our mouth shut.
Right? You talk to us fellow preachers,
we can't keep our mouth shut about Christ. It's true. It's true. We just want to preach
the goodness of God, the mercy of God in Christ. My oh my. And false teachers are just blind
leaders leading the blind. That's all they are. That's all
they are. And eventually they'll both fall in the ditch if God
doesn't save them, right? just like we would have if it
weren't for the mercy of God. Oh, isn't it wonderful? When
God saves us, He turns us away. He turns us away from our works
to look to Christ and His perfect redeeming work is all done. I preach a salvation that's done. It's already finished. Isn't
that wonderful? So if it's already finished and
here we are in 2023 and He died and What, 2,000 years ago? What's
that mean? That means it's finished. Those words, it is finished,
have the same meaning today as they did 2,000 years ago for
the believer. It's finished. You know, we have
a hard time believing that, don't we? And sometimes our religious garbs
are still on us. Sometimes some grave clothes
fall away. And you're like, oh, there goes
another piece. I'm free in Christ. He finished the work. I have
nothing I have to do at all. Praise be to God. I'm redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. I'm redeemed! Redeemed by the
blood of the Lamb! And our hearts fill with joy,
don't they? Just joy. It's so wonderful. It's so wonderful. Let's read these verses again.
You did run well, verse 7, Galatians 5, verse 7. You did run well.
Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion
cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. So Paul again is asking in verse
7, you ran well. Remember the life of a believer
is like running a race. And he's saying, you ran well.
You ran well. Man, you took off. You're running
well. And then he says here that some
of them are being seduced by the false teachers away from
the one true gospel. He says, who did hinder you? Amen. Fill in the bag full of
rocks. Dave always mentions that when
you're running a race, you just have your shorts or your placard,
and false religion is, we're running the race, beloved, and
it's like somebody puts a bag of rocks on us. Right? Heavy, heavy burden. That's
what religion's like. And it hinders you. So much so,
so much so that we're actually, might end up on the sidelines,
gasping. Right? But if we're one of the
Lord's, He always, He always, He always comes and restores
us, doesn't He? Now, here's something interesting.
See the word, who did hinder you that you should not obey
the truth? That word, hinder, in the verse 7, listen to this,
it means to strike, to beat, or drive back, to hinder. It's
an Olympic expression related to a race, meaning to come across
the course in such a manner as to jostle and throw a participant
out of the way. Look at that. Who threw you out
of the way? Who threw you out of the race?
Now that changes that whole word, doesn't it? It's not just hindering
somebody by grabbing them. It's actually jostling them and
slamming them and knocking them out of the race. Yeah. Because they're off the track,
aren't they? There's only one way to life,
right? Eternal life. That's through
Christ. There's a broad way that leads
to destruction, isn't there? But there's only one way that
leads to Christ, and that's salvation through Christ, in Christ, and
by Christ alone. Right? My. Then in verse 8, look at this. Paul quickly lets them know that
their hindrances was not from God. It's not from God. God's not the one knocking you
off. It's man. It's false teachers. The word
persuasion there, listen to this, in the Greek it means to be persuaded.
Paul uses this word in order to chide the Galatians for having
turned to the teaching of the Judaizers and for no longer being
convinced of the truth. Now, now look at this. In verse
8, he uses this word to warn the Galatians that the persuasion
brought about by the Judaizers is not the conviction that comes
from God. You know, remember when the Holy
Spirit was working on us and we were convicted of our sins?
We may have believed a lie before and then we're convicted of our
sins. We're like, Oh Lord, I need you. I need you. Oh my. And they've went from a reliance
on Christ alone to a reliance on man and man-made
doctrine. See? This is how serious this is.
This is how serious this is. They're relying now from their
stubborn hearts on the doctrine of man. Who knows more, man or God? Who sent his son to be the only
way? No wonder our God's a jealous
God. He sent his only begotten son.
The Father sent his only begotten son to save his people from their
sins. No wonder our God's a jealous
God. And in the death, burial, and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, again, it's been set
before them, as we saw in chapter 1. They already have heard the
truth, beloved. It's been set before them. And
then here comes these Judaizers, and they're seducing them. And
Paul's telling them clearly here, this didn't come from God. So if a man or a woman comes
to you and says, salvation's in Christ, and go into church
on Saturday, or salvation's in Christ through baptism. They're no different than the
Judaizers. That's a false gospel. Or salvation's only through the
church. That's even a false gospel, isn't
it? Salvation, beloved, is only in Christ. in Christ alone. There's no other hope outside
of Christ. There's not even a stitch of
hope for us outside of Christ. Not even a stitch of hope. My oh my. So we clearly see that
the Galatian churches have been told that the blood of Jesus
Christ atoned for their sins. We saw that in chapter one, didn't
we? They've been told that. That the death of Christ reconciled
them to God. And they'd been told by the preaching
of the gospel, Paul clearly preached the gospel to them, didn't he?
He clearly preached Christ and Him crucified. We know in Corinthians,
he says, I'm determined to preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified. So we know what he preached. And some of them had professed
his finished work as their only acceptance, and they did run
well. They ran well. And some had believed the false
teachers. Some had been hindered. Some
had been hindered. Some had made merely professions
of Christ. And when them false teachers
came and said, well, you know, you've got to do something to be saved
along with Christ. They believed it. Because they
never were born again. And then there were some that
were fence sitting. See, we as believers have to
be careful. And I want you, I want you, beloved,
to always check what I preach. Is it the truth? Be Bereans.
Be Bereans. Search the scriptures to see
if it's true. See if it's true. Paul said that. Paul lifted up
the briands because they did that, right? I had somebody write
me, and they're asking me this week about something at their
church. And I said, well, that's the preacher's prerogative to
do that, right? He can do whatever they want
in that situation. But, see, she was just checking
to see, well, you know, is that okay? And I don't get involved
in a lot of that stuff. I just stay away. I preach right
here. Right here. This is where I'm
called. I don't want to get involved.
There's trouble sometimes that way. And this person's not like
that, of course. They're not at all like that.
But it was just a sincere question about something. And I just answered
it and said, well, that's up to the preacher. Do whatever
they want. Check what we preach. Search the scriptures. And if
a man tells you not to do that, then you know there's something
wrong. Right? There's something wrong there.
So some of these professing people, people who profess Christ, they've
been bewitched by these false teachers. All they are is works
mongers, that's all they are, they're just works-based preachers.
And they're still around us, they're still around us. Turn
if you would to, here we go, 2 Corinthians chapter 11, 13.
How do we know, how do we know that Satan has sowed ministers
who appear to be ministers of righteousness, but you know how
you can tell them apart? They claim to be ministers of
righteousness. You know what they do? See, gospel
preachers are ministers of righteousness, right? We preach salvation in
Christ, by Christ, through Christ, and with absolutely nothing that
we contribute. But these false teachers, they
always say, You got to do this to be saved as well. You got
to go, you got to be, you got to speak in tongues to be saved.
Or you got to, you got to be baptized to be saved. Along with
believing on Christ. See, they, they appear to be,
they appear to be ministers of righteousness. Look at this.
And this is right from scripture. Second Corinthians chapter 11
verses 13 to 15. For such are false apostles.
Who's Paul speaking about? We're going to find out who's
Paul speaking about here in 2 Corinthians 11, 13 to 15. Charlie, you knew
some of these fellows, right? The Lord took you out of that
stuff, took me out of it too. My oh my, look at this. For such
are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Sometimes they even
say this. Just bow your head and repeat
a prayer. And now you're saved. See? See how subtle it is? Where's
the Holy Spirit in that? You must be born again. Right? Where's the Holy Spirit? And
bow your head, repeat a prayer. And all of a sudden, a man is
pronouncing someone else saved. I'll ask you this. Who can truly
know if you're saved? God and us, right? That's the only two people who
can know if we're saved or not. Well, God's not. God's God. But
ourselves? And sometimes even our heart
can deceive us, right? I used to think when I was in
prison, I thought I was fine, and I thought everybody else
was the most horrible Christians that ever lived. But I found
out I was dead in trespasses and sins, had no hope. And then when the Lord saved
me, what did we find out? I'm the chief of sinners. Right
here. I don't have trouble right here.
I don't got to look nowhere else. Just look right here. Right? Oh my. And the folks come up
and tell you that, well, you know, you're not walking with
the Lord if you don't read your Bible ten times a day and pray
all this stuff and, you know. Isn't it nice to lay in your
bed in the morning and just thank God for another day? Just say, thank you Lord. Thank
you for another day. Please walk with me and give
me the grace and strength I need to face this day. Remember the
prayer of the publican? Remember the Pharisee? Oh, I
do all these things, I do all this stuff. In the prayer of
the publican, and he went home justified. God, be merciful to
me, a sinner. That's a pretty short prayer,
isn't it? And that man went home justified,
born again of the Holy Spirit of God. Oh my. My oh my. So we got these folks
all around us. All around us. The scripture
declares, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. There's nothing else in there, is there? It's not believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and be circumcised and be saved.
It's not. Just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. Let's look at verse 9 quick. A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. Some of those who were in the
Galatian churches were persuaded by the Judaizers, and they might
say, you know, why is Paul so upset? Why is Paul so upset? They might say, we don't embrace
the whole Jewish family, only circumcision, so why is he so
upset? Because he knows a little leaven,
leaven is the whole lump, a little drop of poison will kill you.
and especially when it comes to salvation in and through Christ
alone. If we add any of man's works,
it is void. It's no longer salvation. So this is so serious. That's why we gospel preachers
proclaim that salvation's of the Lord. It's in Christ alone,
and there's no other hope for sinners outside of him. In man's
work, a little error, a little error, just a pinprick of error
leavens the whole lump. So let us be on guard as believers. Let us be on guard. My oh my. Now the pastor of the church
is mostly responsible in keeping the true gospel before the saints
under his ministry and by God's grace I'll do that. And not only do we do this by
the preaching of Christ every time we preach, but also by exposing
false doctrine. Just like Paul's doing. Exposing
false doctrine. And again, we're blessed in this
group to have men and women who know the Bible. who can discern truth from error. I'm going to tell you this. I
didn't get to finish what I'm going to have to repeat some
stuff again next week. This seems to be an ongoing thing.
But remember this. Praise God for the fact that
you have hearing ears and seeing eyes to look to Christ alone. What a Savior, what a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ, our Lord. My, my, oh my. Brother Travis, can you close
us in prayer?