I've entitled this message, Not
Persuaded by the Truth. Not Persuaded by the Truth. Now Paul says to the church of
Galatia in verse 7 of Galatia chapter 5, You did run well. Who did hinder you that you should
not Obey the truth. Now the word obey in our text
is the word generally translated persuaded. Persuade. Who hath hindered you that you
should not be persuaded by the truth? What persuasion does the
truth have over you? What a question. This is the
second time he said this. Look in chapter 3, verse 1. He said, O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you? Who hath cast a spell upon you
that you should not obey or be persuaded by the truth? The truth ought to have a persuasion
on you and I. In Hebrews chapter 13, verse
17, when The writer of the Hebrews said, obey them that have the
rule over you. This is not talking about submitting
to their authority. It's literally be persuaded by
what they say. Be persuaded. I love the I'm persuaded of Paul's. I love it when he says I'm persuaded.
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. What
a persuasion. What about when he says, I know
whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I've committed to him against that day. Now
the reason Paul believed is he'd been persuaded. Has God persuaded
me? He says to the Galatians, why
are you no longer persuaded by the truth? And he says, you did
run well. There was a time when they did
run well. Now, what is it to run well? Turn to Hebrews chapter
12 and I'll show you what it is to run well. Hebrews chapter 12. Wherefore, verse one, seeing
we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
our faith. Now that's how I run well. looking
only to Jesus. Not looking to myself, not looking
at anybody else, looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of
our faith. Now he says, who hindered you?
He says to the Galatians, you're no longer running well. Something
is different. Somebody has seduced you. That's
what he meant when he says, who has bewitched you? Who has seduced
you that you should not obey the truth? Now, if I'm seduced,
it's my fault. It's my fault. If you're seduced,
it's your fault. But he still says someone has
seduced you. Who has hindered you that you
should no longer be persuaded by the truth? The truth no longer
has an effect on you. You hear it and it doesn't do
anything for you. You need something else. Who
has persuaded you that you should not obey the truth? Now, I love what Pilate said,
after he heard Christ's assertion, I came to bear witness to the
truth. He said, what is truth? You know what I want to do by
the grace of God tonight? I want to answer that question
with a four word phrase. It's the words of our Lord when
he said, I am the truth. May the Lord be our teacher as
we consider that. But before we get into that,
I would like for us to consider some scriptural statements regarding
the truth. In 1 John 2, verse 21, John tells
us that no lie is of the truth. You know the truth never generates
a lie. Never does. No lie is of the
truth. The truth is always the truth.
No lie is of the truth. Our Lord said in John chapter
four, verse 24, God is spirit and they that worship him. must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now, two things necessary
for true worship. God the Holy Spirit. You and
I cannot worship God in the flesh. It can't be done. That's not
worship. It might be something religious, but it's not worship.
And it's absolutely necessary in true worship to have the very
truth of the gospel, the truth of how God saves sinners by Christ. And if that's not absent, there
is no worship. There is no salvation without
a belief and acknowledgement of the truth. Listen to this
scripture. In 2 Thessalonians 2.13, Paul said, we're bound.
to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. You see, there is no sanctification
of spirit without the belief of the truth. There's no salvation
apart from the belief of the truth. In 1 Timothy 2, verse
4, we read of salvation being coming to a knowledge of the
truth. And then we read in 2 Timothy
2, 24, that repentance is an acknowledging of the truth. You
change your mind. You change your mind. You now
acknowledge the truth. You didn't used to believe it.
You do now. You change your mind. In Titus 3.1, we read of the
faith of God's elect, the acknowledging of the truth, which is after
godliness. It comes from godliness, it leads
to godliness. The acknowledging, the recognition,
the embracing, the being persuaded by the truth, where it does something
to me on the inside, I'm persuaded. He says to these people, you're
no longer persuaded by the truth. Our Lord said, In John 17, verse
17, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. There's no sanctification apart
from the truth. Then we read in 1 Corinthians
5, 8 where Paul spoke of the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth. Do you know only the truth is
sincere? Anything else, when it comes right down to it, is
insincere. It's not real. Only the truth
is sincere. And then we read in James 1.18
that the new birth comes only through the truth of his own
will. Begat he us, birthed he us through
the word of truth. There is no being born again
apart from the truth of the gospel. Paul put it this way in Ephesians
1.13, In whom you trusted, after that you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. There wasn't any trusting until
after that you heard the word of truth. Now, think about this. Our Lord looked at some people
in John chapter 8 and he said, if I tell you the truth, and
did he ever do anything but that? If I tell you the truth, why
don't you believe me? And he answered his own question.
He that's of God, heareth God's words. You therefore hear them
not, because you are not of God. You see, for me to really believe
and receive the truth, I'm gonna have to be of God. Not of man,
but of God. God's gonna have to do something
for me. He said in John 18, everyone
that's of the truth, heareth my voice. Now, knowing the truth
makes a man tell the truth. If you know the truth, you tell
the truth. I love that scripture in 1 John 1, verse 8, where it
says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the
truth is not in us. We have no credibility whatsoever. You see, if you have the truth
in you, you tell the truth of yourself. You won't be saying
something like, I have no sin. You'll say, my sin is ever before
me. You'll be honest if you have the truth. We read in 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 10, of those who receive not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. It's one thing to acknowledge,
well, I see the Bible teaches that. I gotta admit, the Bible
does teach that. And it's another thing to receive
it in the love of it. And what do I mean by that? Here's
an example. I see that the Bible teaches
that God elected a people before time began to be saved. You can't
be honest with the scriptures and deny that. God chose who
would be saved. The Lord said, you did not choose
me, but I chose you. According as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him. Now I see the Bible teaches
that, but you know what else? I love it. I love it because I know
if God didn't choose me, I'd never choose Him. I love it. I love divine election because
it glorifies God. It gives Him all the glory. I
don't only see it, I love it. I love Christ's effectual redemption
for the elect. I see the Bible teaches it. He
said, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which you've given me. I see that the Bible does, in
fact, teach that Christ actually accomplished salvation for everybody
he died for. When he said, it is finished,
beloved, it was finished. I see that. Scripture teaches
it. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. He
didn't love everybody. He loved the church, and he gave himself for
it. Feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
He said, I lay down my life for the sheep. There's no doubt that
the Bible teaches that, but you know what? I love this. And let me tell you why I love
it. That means that if Christ died for me, I must be saved. That's why I love this. If you
tell me that Jesus Christ could shed his blood for me and I'd
wind up in hell anyway, you take away the only hope I got. Because
the only hope this sinner has is that Christ actually put away
my sin before I was ever even born. I see that the Bible teaches
God's invincible, irresistible grace. Grace saves, you see, grace saves,
but I don't only see that the Bible teaches it. I'm so thankful
it's that way. We receive the love of the truth,
not just the truth, not just a bare acknowledgement of the
truth, but we receive the love of the truth. And listen to this,
the truth. the truth. I want to know the
truth, don't you? I want to know God's truth. I want to know the
truth. Give me the truth. If you don't give me anything
else, give me the truth. Give me the truth about myself. Give
me the truth about God. Give me the truth about salvation.
Give me the truth. Now, the truth always, without
any exceptions to this, the truth always has something to do with
grace. In John 1 14 we read, the word
was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace
and truth. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now that's such a wonderful
verse of scripture. Anybody gonna say the law is
not true? I wouldn't say that. The law was given by Moses. It's
true, but it's not the truth. It's not truth. If all you got's
the law, you don't have the truth. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, the truth is that
salvation is all of grace. That's the truth. From election
to glorification, and everything in between. Salvation is all
of grace. Now where you have the truth,
you're always going to have grace. And where you have grace, you're
always gonna have the truth. They always go together. And
you know the truth always has powerful implications. As we
look in this book of Galatians, we've been in it for several
months, but you remember there in Galatians chapter two, where
they wanted to circumcise Titus. They said, well, he needs to
be circumcised. I know salvation is by grace.
I know salvation is through Christ, but he needs to be circumcised.
He needs to keep the law. You know what Paul said? He said,
we didn't even give in for a second that the truth of the gospel
might remain. If he would have went ahead and
submitted to Titus being circumcised, he would be denying that Christ
is all in salvation. That's exactly what he would
have been doing. And the same thing happened when Peter was
changing tables. Remember, Peter was eating with
the Gentiles, fellowshipping with the Gentiles, and all of
a sudden some Jews came and he felt uncomfortable. He thought,
they're going to judge me, they're going to criticize me for being
here with these uncircumcised people. So he simply gets up
and walks over and sits on another table with the Jews by that saying,
somehow, You can be a little bit more pleasing, a little bit
more accepting to God by being over here on the Jewish table.
And Paul said, if I would have let that go, the gospel would
have, the truth of the gospel would have exited that place.
And he publicly rebuked Peter before them all for doing that.
that the truth of the gospel might remain. Now, the truth. The truth of the gospel. He said
to these Galatians, he said, you're no longer persuaded. You're
no longer moved. The truth doesn't do anything
for you. What has happened? Truth. Now, one real simple question
before I go on to the what is truth. Can we actually know the
truth? I mean where it's not an act
of presumption, but where I actually know the truth. Well, the Lord
said in John 8, 32, you shall know the truth. And that's true of every believer.
You shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you
free. Now, what that tells me is that
it's not my knowledge of the truth that makes me free. You
see the truth is a person and it's the truth himself who makes
me free. You shall know the truth. You'll
know him And He'll make you free. Now here's the very simple statement
I'd like to make regarding the truth. And I hope I'm persuaded
by this. I hope you're persuaded by this. I hope everybody in
this room is persuaded by this. Because that's what he says to
the Galatians. He said, you're no longer persuaded by the truth.
What happened to you? Why is it that the truth doesn't
do anything for you anymore? You need something else. What
happened? Now, here is the truth. Go ahead and turn with me to
John chapter 14. You know, the Lord doesn't give
us any wiggle room here. And I like it this way, don't
you? I don't want any wiggle room. I wanna get right down
to the brass tacks. John chapter 14. Verse five, Thomas saith unto
him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know
the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way. I am the truth, and I am the
life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. You know the Lord's the only
one that could ever say anything like this. I am the truth. For me to say that, I would feel
like such a hypocrite. I am the truth. I was watching
a professional athlete last week and he called himself the truth.
And I thought, how moronic. The truth? Could you say I am the truth
while you think of how many lies and cover-ups that continually
run through your mind and thoughts and heart? The truth? But the
Lord Jesus could say, I am the truth. How so? Well, first of all, he himself
is the truth concerning all that God is. You see, he is God. So much so that when Philip asked
that dull, dull question, show us the Father, and it sufficeth
us, he said, have I been so long time with you, Philip, and yet
hast thou not known me? Knowest thou not that he that
hath seen me hath seen the Father? If you've seen Jesus Christ,
you've seen all that God is. As a matter of fact, all you
and I are ever going to see of God is Jesus Christ, God the
Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. All you and
I are ever going to see of God is Jesus Christ. Now listen to
this scripture. I love this scripture. I love to quote it. I love to
think about it. It says in Colossians chapter 2, verse 9, In the Lord
Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in a
body, in his body. All the fullness of sovereignty,
absolute sovereignty, control of everything. I loved it when
you read that scripture when they said, what manner of man is this that even
the winds and the sea do obey him? I'd love for somebody to
ask me that question. I'd like to be able to talk to
them about it. Oh, let me tell you what manner of man this is.
This is the God-man. This is the creator of the universe.
This is the absolute sovereign of everything. Oh, wouldn't you? The God-man. All the fullness
of justice. all the fullness of immutability,
all the fullness of wisdom, all the fullness of holiness, all
the fullness of grace, all the fullness of righteousness, everything
that God is, all the fullness of power, it all dwells in the
body of the Lord Jesus Christ. All that God is is seen in Christ. His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince. That's who Jesus Christ is. All the fullness of pure Godhood
dwells in his body. All that God is. He is the truth
regarding God. Everybody has so many erroneous,
people have such whacked out, weird ideas about God, but if
you want to know the truth about God, Jesus Christ is the truth. Now Jesus Christ, listen real
carefully, Jesus Christ is the truth about me. He's the truth about me. I see
the truth about myself, not by looking within. He's the truth
about what I'm not, and he's the truth about what I am. Now,
he's the truth about what I'm not. Here's what I mean by that.
I ain't like him. I'm so unlike him, And if I see
who he really is, I'm just not like him. Not in
and of myself. I'm just not like him. Do you
think you are? Surely not. Surely not. There's
nobody that can even be compared with him. Nobody's like him. No man can be compared to Him
among the sons of men. I'm just not like Him. He's holy.
He's everything that I'm not. I love what the Gadarene demonic
said to him when he said, What have I to do with thee? Jesus,
thou Son of God, have you come to torment me before the time?
What connection is there between us? You're light, I'm darkness.
You're holy, I'm evil. You're good, I'm bad. On and
on and on. What connection is there between
us? That's the way Peter felt when he found out who Christ
was. He said, depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. You don't
want to have anything to do with me. That's who he is. I see who I am through seeing
who he is. I see what I'm not, and when
I see him hanging on the cross, I find out what I am. Now, here's
what I am. If God left me to myself, I'm
not talking about looking within. Now listen, I've got, you know,
you've got, you've got problems. You have, you've got personal
problems, problems on the inside, problems that you're just, oh,
you, me too, me too. But you know what? That doesn't
give the real picture. That doesn't give the real picture.
It really doesn't. What gives the real picture is seeing Christ
Jesus nailed to a cross. hated, knowing that if God left
me to myself, that's exactly what I'd be doing, too. Now,
that's the truth about me. So evil that I would kill the
Son of God. Now, in Christ, I see the truth
regarding God. He said, I am the truth. I say
amen to that, don't you? He's the truth. I see the truth
regarding myself. But I also see, praise the Lord
for this, I see the truth of salvation. Now, what do I mean
by that? Well, when you think of salvation,
you think, well, here's this guy, maybe he was some horrible person. Now, all of a sudden, he's this
real good person, and there's salvation. I mean, look at how
changed he is, and look at how different he is. There's salvation.
No, no. He can do all that without being
saved. A lot of folks have done that. A lot of folks have had
moral reformation. When I see salvation, I don't
see any man come up. I'm like Simeon. Simeon said,
Lord, Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace. I'm ready to
die. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Jesus Christ the Lord is God's
salvation. He is everything in salvation. He's everything. He's all my
righteousness. He's all my redemption. I'm complete
in Him. He's all. And I see God's salvation
in Him. Now, the truth. The truth, the
truth, the truth of who God is, the truth of who I am, the truth
of salvation. And Paul says to the Galatians,
who did hinder you that you would no longer be persuaded by the
truth? What happened to you? You now need something else.
The truth is no longer enough. You're unmoved by the truth and
you're moved by other things. You're like the children of Israel.
That heavenly man is no longer heavenly man. It's light bread.
Unsubstantial. And look what he says back in
our text in Galatians 5 verse 8. He said, you did run well. And Paul loved these people.
He said, you did run well. Who did hinder you that you should
not obey the truth? This persuasion. This persuasion,
you're no longer persuaded by the truth. This persuasion cometh
not of him that calleth you. Now, this persuasion you've allowed
yourself to be seduced by didn't come from him that called you.
This didn't come from the Lord. It didn't come from the Lord.
Remember Galatians 1.6, Paul said, I marvel that you're so
soon removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ. to
the grace of Christ. I want to please God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. Grace. Now, this leaving grace, it didn't
come from Him that calleth you. Now, what was this persuasion
he was talking about? Well, it can be summarized by
the word circumcision. Circumcision. Verse 2 of Galatians chapter
5, Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing. Now, is he talking about physical
circumcision? Is he saying that if you're physically
circumcised, you will not be saved? No. He's not saying that at all. Paul was circumcised. He said
circumcised the eighth day of the stalk of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of the Hebrews, touching law, a Pharisee concerning zeal. I
mean, he was circumcised. Now you'll remember, we've seen
this over and over, that some men had come in to the church
saying, yes, salvation's by grace, but you also need to be circumcised. Yes, salvation is in Christ,
but you also need to be circumcised. You'll be more pleasing to God.
You'll be more acceptable to God, which is what Peter was
doing when he got up from one table and went to the other.
He was saying, well, you're better off, and it was really just fear
of man that caused him to do it. He didn't really believe
that, but that's what he did. He just went from one table to the other.
And that's where Paul rebuked him publicly and how embarrassing
that must have been and said that he did this that the truth
of the gospel might remain. Now circumcision simply represents
law. That's all it represents, law.
Salvation in some way dependent upon what you do. Now of any aspect of salvation,
is dependent upon you doing anything, period, you've gone back to circumcision. Really? Really. If you think any part of your
salvation is ultimately dependent upon you, In the beginning, by
you accepting Christ, you think, well, I accept him, the other
one rejected, I'm saved because I accepted Christ as my personal
Savior. I, with my free will, decided to let him save me. That's
circumcision. That's law. That's all it is,
it's works. Somebody comes along in the middle
of their salvation and they read the Bible, they pray, they put
down the flesh, they try, and they become more and more holy
and less and less sinful and more pleasing to God through
the things they do, that's circumcision. That's circumcision. That's taking
away from Christ being all in salvation. That's all, dude.
It might be under the guise of holiness, but it's not holy.
It's unholy. It's evil. It's circumcision. Somebody comes
along at the last of their salvation, and all of a sudden they get
in some kind of higher reward because of what they've done.
Get above somebody else in heaven. That's circumcision. That's all
it is. It's circumcision. It's law. Look what he says in verse 2.
Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he's a debtor to do the whole
law. Now listen, if you think any
part of salvation is dependent upon you, then it's all dependent
upon you. Every bit of it. You're a debtor to do the whole
law. Verse three, for I testify to
every man that circumcised that he's a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of
you are justified by the law, you're fallen from grace. Now, under the guise of obedience
to the law and obedience to God, they were bringing in this thing
of circumcision and see what God says about it. Do you want any part of salvation
dependent upon you? I don't. That's foolish. That's all it can be called.
I want Christ to do it all. And I don't want anything else.
That's it. Now, look what he says in verse
nine. A little leaven, just a little. Doesn't take much. Any. A little
leaven. leaveneth the whole lump. Now you put just a little bit
of yeast in the dough, what's going to happen? It's going to work its way through
the whole batch. It's going to rise, it's going
to swell, it's going to be filled with hot air. Light bread, puffed
out, puffy, filled with pride, filled with arrogance, filled
with self-righteousness. You put just a little, any yeast
in the batch of dough, and it's gonna work its way through the
whole thing. It does every single time. You put one work in salvation,
one thing, dependent upon something you do, beginning, middle, or
end, like I just said, and you make the whole thing of works. Turn with me to Romans 11. Verse 1, I say then, had God
cast away his people, God forbid, for I also am an Israelite of
the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast
away his people, which he foreknew. What ye not what the scripture
saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession of God against Israel,
saying, Lord, they've killed thy prophets, they've digged
down thine altars, and I'm left alone and may seek my life. But
what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to
myself 7,000 men that have not bowed the knee to the image of
Baal. Even so then at this present time, there is also a remnant
according to the election of grace. and if by grace. How much of election is by grace?
How much? Can you answer that? If it was
before the foundation of the world, do you know how much of
it was by grace? It was all of grace. Let me ask you another
question. How much of justification is
by grace? Any less than election? And you know election's all of
grace. So is every other aspect of salvation. It's all of grace. Now look what he says. And if
by grace, verse six, then is it no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, don't
call it grace. That's no grace. Otherwise, work
is no more work. Now, grace and works, law and
gospel exclude one another. They cannot be mixed. To hold to the one is to reject
the other, or to reject one is to hold to the other. Grace and
works cannot be mixed. And if you put one little bit
of yeast in that batch, the whole thing will be leavened. One little
work and it's all of works. Now look what he says in verse
10. Even though he'd been speaking to them like this, And he spoke
to them rough throughout this book, but look what he says now.
He says, I have confidence in you through the Lord. I have confidence in you through
the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded. Now his confidence
was through the Lord, wasn't it? And you know, I was, in light
of that, I thought of this verse of scripture. where Paul said to the Philippians,
knowing that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform
it. You see, they look like they
were going bad, didn't they? They look like they were in the
state of apostasy. Paul knew this. He said, if the
Lord's done something for you, he'll carry it out. He'll continue
it. I've got confidence in you through
the Lord. If the Lord has begun this good
work, he will continue it. It can't get messed up. I have
confidence in you through the Lord that you will be none otherwise
minded, but he that troubleth you, He that has brought in this
seducing doctrine. He that has brought in circumcision. He that has brought in law. He
that has bewitched you. And they had been bewitched.
He said, oh foolish Galatians, who bewitched you? Who put you
under your spell? Look at this language he uses.
He says, he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment. That's talking about wrath. Whosoever he be. I don't care
what he claims. Look what he said in Galatians
chapter 1 verses 8 and 9. He said, but though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we preached unto you, let him be what? Accursed. Damned. Now was Paul being unloving?
No, but he was speaking the mind of God. If any man preach any
other gospel, let him be damned. And then he says, just in case
someone didn't hear me, verse nine, as we said before, so say
I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than
that which you've received, that which was gospel to you, let
him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or
God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
You know, I hope we'll remember this. If men are pleased with
our gospel, that's not good, is it? That's not good at all. Paul says, if I please men, I
wouldn't even be the servant of Christ. Now, I pray for myself and for you, that
we will always be persuaded by the truth. Not simply persuaded
by the preacher or by some kind of oratory, but persuaded by
the truth. Christ said, I am the truth. The truth of who God is, the
truth of who I am, and the truth of salvation. Oh may that always
persuade me. And you know what I'll do if
I'm persuaded? I'll believe. You see, belief
comes from being persuaded. You're persuaded that He is the
truth. You're persuaded that He is all that God is. You're
persuaded you are who you are through seeing Him. You really
believe that. And you're persuaded that He is salvation and you
will trust Him. May God cause every one of us
to be persuaded by the truth. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and Lord, We will not be persuaded by truth
unless you persuade us. So Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we might be persuaded by the truth for Christ's sake. Lord, may you give us grace to
believe the truth, to preach the truth, to rest in the truth,
and to know the truth himself is the one who's made us free.
Now bless this word for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen. You got Duane?