Troubling the Troublers

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Your Bibles, Galatians 5.
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Now, we're going to do a larger section today because this is Paul's sort of rapid-fire set of statements that he gives in chapter 5.
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It begins at verse 5 and goes down to verse 12.
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And I want to read verses 1-12 to pick up the context.
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And I want to say a few things that I didn't get to say last week.
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I went long last week because we were talking about internal security, so I didn't get to get into everything that I wanted to say.
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So I'm going to say a few things to finish out last week.
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And then I'm going to look at verses, which last week was verses 2-4.
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And then this week, we're going to look at verses 5-12.
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But let's read all of it to get the context.
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Beginning at verse 1, For freedom Christ has set us free.
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Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
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Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
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I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
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You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law.
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You have fallen from grace.
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For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
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For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love.
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You were running well.
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Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from Him who calls you.
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A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
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I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.
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But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed.
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I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your Word.
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I pray even now that you would push me out of the way, Lord, and that you would take center stage and that you would be the teacher.
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Lord, let this not be about personalities.
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Let this not be about self-interest.
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And certainly let this not be hindered by my own personal failings, Lord, for I am a fallible man.
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But Lord, let it be that your Spirit would teach today the hearts of men.
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And Lord, for the believers, that they would be encouraged in their faith.
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And for those who have not yet come to Christ, that today would be the day that they would bow the knee to Him.
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Lord, make us willing in the day of your power, we pray.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
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Last week, we discussed the concept of warning passages and why Paul would give such a severe warning.
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And if you read verses 2, 3, and 4, you will see that they are a very severe warning.
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He says in verse 2, if you accept circumcision, Christ is no advantage to you.
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He says in verse 3, I testify that everyone who accepts circumcision is obligated to keep the whole law.
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So if you take one part of the law as you're saving grace, then you have to take it all.
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You can't just have one part of the law.
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And then in verse 4, he says, you're severed from Christ if you want to be justified by the law.
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You've fallen from grace.
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You can't have it both ways.
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You have to either have all grace or all law.
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There is no mingling of the two.
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And this section comes across as a very strong warning.
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It's for anyone who would say that yes, I'm saved by grace, but I'm also saved by what I do.
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Paul is saying here, you simply cannot have both.
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You have to choose grace alone or law alone.
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You cannot intermingle the two.
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And there is great value in warning passages.
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And I've had people ask me this, well, pastor, if salvation is secure, and it is, and I taught that last week, but if salvation is secure, why does the Bible have so many warning passages? I mean, there's warning passages here.
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There's warning passages in almost every book of Paul contains some form of warning.
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And Hebrews has five specific passages that all come across as warnings about falling away, about departing the faith, about leaving your first love.
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We see these warnings from the beginning to the end of the New Testament.
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I say, why are they there? The reason why the warning passages are there is because they are a benefit to the church.
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The church has always been, and will always be until the time of Christ's return, a mixed multitude.
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What does that mean? The church is a mixed multitude.
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What I mean by that is the church...
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Oh, you wanted to say...
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No, it's okay.
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It's sort of a rhetorical question, but you know what I mean, though, by mixed multitude? Many nations.
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Every tribe.
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Well, that is true, but that's not what I meant.
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What I meant is the local church is always made up of believers and unbelievers.
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Because there are believers who are truly believers.
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There are unbelievers who have professed faith, but are not truly believers.
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And therefore, the church is a mixed multitude.
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The best example is Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares, right? He says the wheat grows up and the tares grow up with it.
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Now, that particular parable, Jesus is talking about the world.
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Yeah, He's talking about the world there, but we can apply that to the church.
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Within the church, there's true believers and there's false believers.
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Jesus said, on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did I not do this? Did I not do that? And I will say to you, I never knew you, right? So what is the warning passages intended to do? The warning passages are intended to cause all of us not to live in doubt, but to examine ourselves in light of the truth of Scripture.
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I've heard pastors say this, and I have to challenge this.
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I've heard pastors say, you should never examine yourself.
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You should just take for granted that if you have said at some point, you've raised your hand, said a prayer, been baptized, you should hold on to that.
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You should never examine yourself.
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That is against the Scripture.
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2 Corinthians 13.5 says this.
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Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith that is, I would encourage you to memorize this first.
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2 Corinthians 13.5, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith, test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test.
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The whole idea of 2 Corinthians 13.5 is to look at yourself and ask the hard question.
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Am I really a believer? And the warning passages are intended to do two things.
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Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.
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You ever heard that phrase? Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted? You see, if you're sitting there all comfortable and high and mighty and very prideful, you might need a little affliction.
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You might need to be brought down a little.
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You might need to examine your heart because you might have fallen into the pit of pride.
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Likewise, if you're feeling uncomfortable, if you're feeling like maybe you do have some doubts, examining yourself and looking to the fact that you're not examining how good you are, but you're examining whether or not you've truly trusted in Jesus and how good He is, that's an opportunity to find hope and comfort again.
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Because our hope and comfort is not found in us, it's found in Christ.
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I'll tell you this, if you're examining yourself to see how good your works are, you're examining the wrong thing.
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If you're examining yourself to see how faithful you are to Jesus, you're examining the wrong thing.
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Because guess what? You're never gonna have enough good works.
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You're never gonna be faithful enough.
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You're never gonna be perfect.
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But if you're examining yourself to see, am I truly trusting in Him rather than me? Because the hard thing for all of us is always this, we tend to fall from trusting in Christ and trusting in myself.
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Like the person I ask, I say, brother, do you believe you're gonna go to heaven? Yes, because I'm doing well.
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If you believe you're going to heaven because you're doing well, then you have totally misunderstood the gospel.
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The only reason anyone should believe they're going to heaven is because Christ has done everything that I could not do and I'm trusting completely in Him.
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It's not you plus Christ.
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That's Paul's point.
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It's not you and your works and Christ and His works added together make this perfect Christian.
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No, you bring nothing to the table in regard to your salvation except for the sin that makes your salvation necessary.
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You don't bring any good works to the table.
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You don't bring any righteousness to the table.
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You cling to Him alone.
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Yes, sir, go ahead.
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Um, I get a lot of times when I feel that way, too, like I can't bring nothing to the table and I have to realize that He who's in me is better than I who's in the world.
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Yep, and that's the key, right? We have to learn to trust in Christ.
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And that takes, it takes us having to be honest about ourselves.
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It takes us having to be real about our failings.
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And so I do believe that the warning passages have great value to the church.
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They can have, they can have the effect of causing someone who hasn't come to Christ to realize they have.
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And they can cause someone who is in Christ to examine themselves and find that maybe they're trusting in themselves more than they should be.
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And so the warning passages have great value for us as believers.
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They act as prods, encouraging us to self-examine.
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Now, after we have the warning passages to verse four, Paul then focuses his attention for the next few verses on the false teachers who have been his, who have been the reason for this book.
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What are they called? Not the Antichrist, that Antichrist is a generic term for people who are opposed to Christ.
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The Judaizers.
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The Judaizers, those are the ones.
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It's okay, it's okay.
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Somebody else said it, I heard somebody say it.
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The Judaizers had been teaching.
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See, Paul comes in, he establishes a church based on grace alone through faith alone, right? He comes in, he establishes a church on the gospel.
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Then he leaves to start another church.
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Another group comes in, the Judaizers, and they say, hey, listen, I know what Paul taught you about grace and faith, but I'm here to tell you, you also have to keep the law.
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You have to be circumcised.
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Remember, these are mainly Gentile people, so they're telling them that you have to essentially become Jewish, because the first step to becoming a Jew is circumcision.
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But then you also have to maintain the dietary restrictions, and the dietary restrictions, of course, go along with circumcision, because that's all part of being Jewish.
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You gotta maintain the Sabbath, that's all part of being Jewish.
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And so there are these laws that are added to the gospel, and Paul is writing the book of Galatians to say, no, if you think you're going to be saved by the law, then you're replacing the cross.
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You're replacing the cross with what you do.
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It's either what Christ did or what you do, and if you replace what Christ did with what you do, then you're trusting in yourself and not in Him.
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So that is what brings us to verses 5-12.
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And what I've titled today, Troubling the Troublers.
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That sounds kind of like a funny title, maybe, but Troubling the Troublers, because that's what Paul calls these people.
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He calls them Troublers.
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Who is troubling you? And Paul is going to say some things to these people and about these people that are tremendously harsh.
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And when I say tremendously harsh, the verse 12 is very harsh, and that's why I hope to get there today.
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I wanna go through this relatively at a brisk pace, because it's like a crescendo.
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I don't know if you know what that is, but in music, when you start low and you build up to a loud, like a cymbal crash or a loud trumpet blast, that's called a crescendo, starting small and growing, right? That's what we see here.
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Starting in verse 5, he's going to begin rapid fire statements, each one building on the last one until he gets to verse 12, and verse 12 is like the nail.
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It's the boom! It's the cymbal crash, and it's right in the face, as if he were standing across from the Judaizers, poking them in the chest, saying, you have to understand what you've done, the danger, and when you see what he says, I think you'll understand what I mean by poking them in the chest.
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He is right in their face.
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Some people think that that's wrong.
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Some people think that as Christians, we have to always be weak-mouthed.
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For those who think that, have never really studied Paul or Christ, because all Paul is doing here is mirroring the Savior Himself, who was never weak-mouthed when He spoke to the wolves.
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Jesus was kind to the sheep, but He was harsh with the wolves.
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And that's a key difference.
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If you're kind to the wolves, you're not being kind to the sheep.
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Amen.
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And so there is a time when you have to be harsh with the wolves to protect the sheep.
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And that's what we see here.
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So, let's look first, beginning at verse 5.
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He says, for through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
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Notice where he says, we ourselves.
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He's making a distinction in verse 5.
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He's making a distinction between those who trust in law and those who don't.
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Notice verse 4.
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He says, you who would trust in the law.
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Right? Again, let me pull it back out.
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Verse 4, you are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen from grace.
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Notice you, you, you in that passage.
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But then he comes to 5, but we ourselves are waiting eagerly for righteousness.
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So he's making a distinction between the two.
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You are the ones trusting in law.
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We are waiting for righteousness.
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You say, what does it mean to be waiting for righteousness? There's coming a day when we will all be judged, right? The Bible says, for it is appointed to every man once to die, and after this is judgment.
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By the way, if you don't believe that, let me remind you today that that is sacred Scripture that tells you that you're going to die.
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You say, I know I'm going to die.
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Yeah, but it also says you're going to be judged.
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And as sure as you will die, you will also be judged.
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And you will either be found righteous or you will not.
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And your righteousness will either be based on the righteousness of Christ or it will not be righteous at all.
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You will be declared righteous because of the work of Jesus or you will be declared unrighteous or wicked.
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And the difference is whether or not you have received the Lord Jesus Christ.
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It's very, very simple.
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And Paul says, we ourselves eagerly await that day, the hope of righteousness.
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That day when the Lord who has already declared us righteous because of the work of the cross, manifests that declaration when He welcomes us into the Kingdom as being among His saints, being His righteous people.
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Verse 6, For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
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Notice this is Paul's point ever since the beginning of the book.
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They've been saying you have to be circumcised.
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And Paul says no.
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Circumcision or uncircumcision doesn't count for anything.
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Now why would he say that? Don't we have an entire Old Testament that says you have to be circumcised? Or else you're not a part of the commonwealth of Israel? Yes.
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But what has changed? What has changed is we are no longer under the old covenant.
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We are part of a new covenant established not through circumcision, but through the blood of Jesus Christ.
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And we are welcomed into that covenant not by works, but by faith in that Savior.
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Therefore, whether you're circumcised or not does not matter.
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What matters is if you have faith working through love.
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Now that phrase faith working through love is very important.
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It tells us two things.
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Number one, faith always works.
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You say, well, what do you mean? In the book of James, James tells us very clearly that if we have faith, but it doesn't manifest in a working out of that faith, then it's not true faith.
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James says it like this.
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He says, you show me your faith.
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Or you tell me about your faith and I'll show you my faith by what I do.
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Right? That's his saying.
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My faith manifests in what I do.
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That doesn't mean that those works save me, but those works demonstrate my faith.
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It's like this.
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A tree which has fruit hanging off of it and it's perpetually producing that fruit is showing itself to be a good tree.
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The fruit doesn't make it good.
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The fruit is the result of it being good.
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But if a tree is withered, there's no fruit on the vine, there's no fruit hanging from the branches.
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If the tree is dead and when you break a branch, it snaps and there's no living sap within it like the living fluid that flows through us like blood to a human is sap to a tree.
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If there's no sap in the tree and it breaks and it snaps, then that tree is dead.
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Right? And that's the way James talks about faith and works.
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And Paul says here, our faith works through love.
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And there's the distinction.
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I want to take a question real quick.
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Faith works through love, not through law, because when we do works, it's not simply to satisfy the law, but it's in obedience to Him who loves us.
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It's love for the Savior.
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When I do good works, it's not because I want to satisfy God's commands, it's because I love Him and I want to do what He wants me to do.
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It's like when I do what my Father wants me to do, my earthly father, it's not because I have to, it's because I love Him and I want to do it.
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Okay, Bobby, go ahead.
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Yeah, we were talking about this verse the other day, yesterday, like verse 24 in James 2.24, it says, you see that a man is justified by the word alone.
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Yes.
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Is that what you were talking about? Yeah, that's the only place in the Bible where faith alone is used, and that's often used by Roman Catholics and others to say, see, it's not by faith alone, but we're justified by our works.
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But in the context of James, when we remember, we have to always compare Scripture with Scripture.
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In the context of James, James is referring to the difference between a living faith and a dead faith.
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And he says this earlier.
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He says, if you say you have faith, but no works, can that faith save you? And the phrase that is in the Greek.
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That refers to a type of faith.
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And he goes on to describe that type of faith as a dead faith.
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And he's saying, can dead faith save you? No.
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How do you know the difference between dead faith and living faith? Living faith has works, dead faith doesn't.
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And therefore, we must trust in Christ with a living faith, not a dead faith.
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If you have a dead faith, you don't have a faith at all.
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It's not real.
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Therefore, in that context, when men look at what we do, and that's why he says, you see that we're justified by works.
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From the perspective of men, they can't see my belief, but they can see what I do.
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And therefore, my faith is demonstrated by what I do.
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He says, you see that man is justified by works.
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Not God.
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God does not justify us by what we do.
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But if I look at you, brother, and I say, I see you loving the Scripture, I see you loving the Lord, I see you doing these things, that tells me you believe.
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It's like the person who says to me, I believe in Jesus, but I have no desire to go to church, I have no desire to read His Word, I have no desire to do good, I have no desire to do these things.
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I say, why do you think you believe? And why would I have any confidence in your faith? Not you, but in that person, right? The person who says those things.
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Because James's point is not what we say, but what we do that defines us.
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Because anybody can say I'm a Christian, but it's what we do that actually determines.
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So his you see was, like you said, you see.
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You see a man is justified by works.
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Yeah, he wasn't saying you see that a man is justified.
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No, he's saying what you perceive.
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Little words like that, little phrases, sometimes we put a modern context into them, but looking back at the actual phraseology, in fact, the phrase, that faith, which is used earlier, I think up in, I don't remember what, verse 12 or whatever, because that's verse 24, but the one where it says, can that faith save you? That is a very important section because Paul is differentiating between two different types of faith, living faith and dead faith.
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Okay, so, and again, people say, well, why do you say faith alone saves? Because of the whole of Scripture, not just James.
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If all we had was James, I do think that it could lead us to some other conclusions.
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But when we have to compare James with Paul and with Jesus and with the whole of the New Testament, even John, whosoever believeth in him will not perish.
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It's all based on faith.
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And James wants us to know that faith is a living thing, not a dead thing.
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In fact, James is one of the earliest books written in the New Testament.
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So it could be argued, and I've actually talked about this in the past, it could be argued that James's epistle is later clarified by the writings of Paul.
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Because if he's writing in the 40s and Paul writes primarily in the 50s and 60s, we see this book is already within rotation within the church, and Paul is writing as almost, not a corrector, but a clarifier to what James has said.
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Yeah.
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James was Jesus's brother, correct? Yeah, James is the half-brother of Jesus, yep.
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And so is Jude.
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James and Jude, both.
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James and Jude? Hmm? Yeah.
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I knew there wasn't a contradiction.
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No, I know, and that's what I'm saying, but to help see why there's not, I think the dating helps.
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If you see James as coming much earlier than Paul, then you can see Paul as coming along to clarify, yes, no one is saying that faith would be dead, but everyone is saying that faith is the instrumental cause of salvation.
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Yes.
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Is there a correlation of the name Jacob and James? Yes.
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Yeah, there is no James in Hebrew.
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Actually, there would be no J sound anyway, because there's no J letter.
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There's no J letter in Hebrew.
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There's no J letter in Greek.
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J is a Germanic letter.
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It wouldn't come around for much later.
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So most of the names that we use are actually Latinized versions, so Iacobus would have been James in Latin.
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But, well, it would have been James in Latin.
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So you have Iacobus in Hebrew, and would be James to us.
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But yeah, it would be more like Jacob.
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Yeah.
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All right, so, okay.
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So that gets us to verse six, and again, any one of these verses, we could stop on, but I really wanna get to verse 12.
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Not, so, because again, Paul is saying, whether or not you're circumcised isn't the point.
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The point is whether or not you believe, and your faith is going to work itself out in love.
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And we're gonna see this beginning at verse 13, when he starts to show the application of all this.
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One second, but when he begins to show the application of all this, because he's going to start looking at the fruit of the Spirit.
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The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control.
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That's how this looks.
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That's what faith looks like.
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Okay, go ahead.
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When he's talking about faith is love.
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Faith works itself out in love.
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It works itself out in love.
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When you show God's love, love's an action word, so.
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And faith is, yes, and that's how faith is demonstrated to be alive, is by love.
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And then in 1 Corinthians 13, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
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If I have all the faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
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And so love is the working out of our faith.
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And so it could rightfully be said, if we do not love, we do not have faith.
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Because that's what the book of 1 John says, right? It says, if you say you love God, but do not love your neighbor, you are a liar.
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Or love your brother, rather.
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If you say you love, if you say you love a God, you can't see.
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But you can't love the person you do see.
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Then there's a problem.
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So yes, faith works itself out in love.
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Now we get three statements of challenge.
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This is Paul speaking to the Galatians, but he's speaking to them about the Judaizers.
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Listen to these three statements.
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Verse seven, you were running well.
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Who hindered you from obeying the truth? He's actually asking them, who is it that took you off course? Now the word hindered there is important, and you're going to see why in a minute.
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Because the word hindered in Greek means to cut off.
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You ever been in traffic and someone cut you off? They hindered your path? That's exactly right, DJ, and that's what the point is.
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Who cut you off? Now you say, well, why is that important? Because that phrase, cut, is going to become very important in verse 12.
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So keep it in your mind.
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He's asking, who cut you off? Later, he's going to say something else about cutting that's very important.
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So keep that in mind.
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So he says, you were running well.
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Who cut you off from obeying the truth? This persuasion, or this teaching, the word persuasion there actually means doctrine or teaching.
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This doctrine is not from Him who calls you.
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Now, Him who calls you, who is that? Yeah, the Holy Spirit, it's God.
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The one who called you out of darkness into light is God.
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Paul's not talking about himself, he's talking about the Lord.
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This teaching about the law, about circumcision, this isn't from God.
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Who's it from then? The devil.
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I love what Martin Luther says on this passage.
27:03
I've been reading his commentary, preparing for these lessons, and Luther said this.
27:07
He said, the devil is a cunning persuader.
27:12
And he says, who has persuaded you? Ultimately, it's the devil using the Judaizers to persuade people not to believe the Gospel.
27:19
You know, the thing is, the devil is not always trying to get you to do evil.
27:29
That's true, but what I'm saying is the devil could encourage you to do good if he could get you to trust in your goodness rather than Christ's.
27:38
That's right.
27:39
Think of it like this.
27:40
If I were the devil, and I wanted to create a religion, it would not be Satanism.
27:47
It would not be the teachings of Anton LaVey or the Satanist church.
27:53
If I wanted to create a religion, it would look like this.
27:56
Everybody would be clean cut.
27:58
Everybody would love one another and treat each other well.
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Everyone would be well off and well taken care of.
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But the religion would be devoid of Christ and the Gospel.
28:10
Ladies and gentlemen, that's Mormonism.
28:12
Yeah.
28:14
So what did you say? How did you paraphrase it in? It was...
28:20
The devil is a cunning persuader.
28:22
He will always try to give you something to replace Christ.
28:27
And Mormonism is a Christ replacement.
28:30
It replaces the true Christ with a false Christ.
28:33
And it looks great on the outside.
28:35
They're nice looking people.
28:36
They're nice looking families.
28:39
Everybody's clean cut.
28:40
Everybody's well off.
28:42
Everybody's eating well.
28:43
I mean, look at Mitt Romney.
28:45
Very presidential looking fellow.
28:48
Lost as a goose, but looks very presidential.
28:54
Biblical Christianity has more in common with Islam than it does with Mormonism.
29:02
I don't want to...
29:03
Now I could have taken myself down a right turn.
29:04
I don't want to go down that road.
29:06
But I'll talk about that another time.
29:07
The point is, Mormonism is a religion, I believe, established by Satan to give people who want a fake righteousness an opportunity to have it.
29:19
I don't trust anybody that don't drink coffee.
29:23
I don't allow, I don't trust.
29:24
They don't trust any, yeah.
29:27
You don't allow coffee? No.
29:31
So verse nine.
29:36
Verse seven, you were running well.
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Who hindered you from obeying the truth? Who cut you off? Verse eight, this persuasion or this teaching is not from God, not from Him who calls you.
29:45
Who's it from? It's from the devil.
29:46
Verse nine, a little leaven leavens a whole lump.
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That is an Old Covenant, Old Testament colloquial phrase.
29:55
That's a statement, a very commonly used phrase.
29:58
Jesus used it.
29:59
A little leaven leavens a whole lump.
30:01
Why is Paul using it here? Because he's talking about the danger of letting in a little bit of false teaching.
30:05
What's the little false teaching? You gotta be circumcised.
30:08
What happens if you take that false teaching? It's gonna grow.
30:10
You go from having to be circumcised to having to accept the dietary laws, going to having to accept the dietary laws, having to accept the festivals and the feasts, and it grows, right? And a little bit of false teaching in allows it to expand.
30:25
Leaven is the stuff that goes into dough that causes it to grow.
30:30
And a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump.
30:33
Yes, sir.
30:33
So basically, it's that small compromise.
30:36
That's right.
30:37
It's a small compromise with the doctrine of Scripture.
30:43
It's the small compromise and you giving way to it, right? Now, verse 10, it's almost like Paul puts the brakes on because verse 10, he actually takes a second to say, but I have confidence in you.
31:04
But actually, it's not what he says.
31:06
He says, 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.
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So this is Paul appealing to the Galatians.
31:22
Here's the bad.
31:23
The bad is accepting circumcision for salvation, but I have confidence in the Lord that that's not what you're gonna do.
31:30
But I'm not talking about you.
31:32
I'm talking about the one who troubled you.
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I'm talking about the one who taught you this.
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I'm talking about the one who has brought this false teaching to you.
31:42
He is going to bear the penalty, whoever he is.
31:46
And the thing is, I'm not sure that Paul doesn't know who it is.
31:50
He might not, but he's not saying his name outright, possibly because of confusion, possibly because he's trying to save his reputation, not calling him out by name.
32:04
Paul will do that.
32:05
I mean, he calls out other people by name.
32:06
Alexander the coppersmith, he called him out by name.
32:08
He calls out other people by name.
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But this guy, he said, whoever this person is, or whoever these people are, whoever these Judaizers are, they're gonna bear the penalty of having taken you and cutting you off from the truth.
32:23
Now, verse 11, again, it seems kind of weird.
32:26
And here's the thing.
32:27
The reason why I think these statements seem so disjointed is because Paul is emotional.
32:33
Don't ever again, don't ever think emotions are necessarily bad.
32:36
Paul is upset.
32:38
Why is Paul upset? Because of false teaching.
32:42
He's very upset.
32:43
We get so, today we get so accustomed to hearing false teachers.
32:50
Turn on TBN, false teachers.
32:52
Turn on the Christian television station, whatever.
32:57
There was a time I was having a Bible study at my house.
32:59
And I used to have satellite TV.
33:01
I had like 400 stations or whatever.
33:02
I don't have that anymore, but I used to.
33:05
And it had like 13 Christian stations.
33:07
It was like 401, 402, 403.
33:09
And it was the Catholic station, and this, and this, and this, and this.
33:12
And it was like 13 stations in a row.
33:14
And I was having a group of young people over for a Bible study.
33:17
And I said, in the Bible study, I said, I can turn my television on at any time.
33:24
And I can show heresy being preached any hour of any day.
33:31
Now I knew, I sort of had a lot because there was a Catholic station, but I mean.
33:37
But what I'm saying is, I sort of, you know, I kind of, you know, I had the, what's that? Yeah, but the point is I turned, I didn't no longer turn the television on for more than five seconds.
33:52
And Frederick K.
33:53
Price was on preaching.
33:55
And if you don't know who that is, he's a false teacher.
33:58
Dangerous false teacher.
34:00
Who's that? He's a friend of Kenneth Hayden.
34:02
Yeah, all those guys.
34:03
They're all, they all fish in the same boat.
34:07
And it's all sailing the same direction too.
34:10
I'm thinking.
34:12
But Freddie Price was preaching.
34:14
And he said some crazy stuff.
34:16
And the kids were surprised.
34:17
Wow, I didn't realize it was so common.
34:20
All you have to do is turn the TV on at any time of day and you can hear false teachers.
34:24
And the problem is that's desensitized us to false teaching.
34:27
To the point now that if I say something about a false teacher, I get people emailing me, sending me Facebook messages, sending me YouTube comments when I put stuff on YouTube.
34:37
Oh, how could you dare speak against Benny Hinn? He's a false teacher.
34:42
And please don't come to me after this defending Benny Hinn because shame on you.
34:48
If you would do such a thing.
34:51
Don't come to me defending Joyce Meyer.
34:52
Don't come to me defending Benny Hinn.
34:54
And don't come to me defending, what's the Texas guy? Osteen, please don't.
35:01
Todd Bentley.
35:05
Yeah, yeah, we'll ask permission.
35:11
We'll get that done.
35:12
No, Todd Bentley.
35:13
I did a video called Exposing Todd Bentley Year.
35:16
I did that video in 08.
35:18
It's got 250,000 downloads.
35:23
Todd Bentley is a faith healer that goes around whacking people.
35:27
And I don't mean like whacking them, like be healed.
35:30
I mean, bam, he got kicked the lady right in the head.
35:33
And if I'm lying, I'm dying.
35:35
Kicked her right in the face with a boot.
35:43
But she didn't need it at all.
35:45
Yeah, what did he say? And she fell under the power of God.
35:52
What a wild situation.
35:56
Not to get off on a rabbit trail, but how come there's no TV shows with Jehovah Witness or Mormon preachers on TV? How come none of them, I've never seen a TV evangelist or public preacher that had a public ministry that represented either one of them? I mean, I'm glad, don't get me wrong, but they all do their thing through like little grass roots, not door to door.
36:21
Well, BYU does have a station, I think.
36:24
So that's Mormons, the Brigham Young.
36:27
That's only in Salt Lake though, right? I don't know, I'm just saying, I don't have an answer.
36:31
I just kind of came to my mind.
36:33
I think BYU does some stuff.
36:34
I don't know the answer to that question.
36:36
I really don't.
36:37
That's a good question.
36:38
I don't know why they don't because they do seem to be eager to get their stuff out, but they've always sort of had this method of door to door going.
36:46
I think it's easier if they do it door to door.
36:52
Absolutely, but the Mormons have started doing, I'll get you, David, one second.
36:56
One of the things that Mormons have done, they've produced commercials.
37:00
I've seen a few.
37:01
And so they've produced a lot of things to try to appeal, we are another denomination.
37:07
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
37:08
We've got a musical in Brooklyn, in church.
37:10
Well, that's not, but that's not good.
37:13
David, what are we gonna ask? I was a Mormon for 20 years.
37:16
Okay.
37:17
And they do have their own stations.
37:19
It's just, you gotta know where to look for them.
37:21
Gotcha, that's what I was saying.
37:22
I don't know.
37:22
I didn't know if they would or not.
37:25
There's never, you ever seen a Jehovah Witness church with windows? None of their churches has windows.
37:30
That's, but, but, but, but.
37:31
I'm just, that's weird.
37:32
Well, it is, but let me, let me, let me respond to that because I've, having taught on Jehovah Witnesses and Mormonism, they do have a, they do have what I consider to be somewhat of a legitimate reason for that.
37:45
They, they try to do everything they can as cheaply as they can, especially the building of their kingdom halls and windows cost money and windows are, increase the cost of building and increase the time it takes to build.
37:57
And therefore their argument for not having windows is simply it's an unnecessary luxury.
38:03
Again, I don't, I'm not saying I'm, I'm not defending them.
38:06
I'm saying that's the reason, right? They're not saying we don't like windows or we're afraid for people to look in because that's the way it's often been.
38:12
It's often been perceived as they're afraid to have people see what they're doing.
38:16
But their response is, no, it has nothing to do with that.
38:18
It's got to do with expense and unnecessary luxuries that we don't need.
38:22
So, and a lot of churches today don't have windows if you think about it.
38:25
A lot of churches.
38:26
Well, I mean, none in the whole nowhere.
38:28
Not even the pastor's office has a little, Yeah, yeah.
38:31
Door hole to look at.
38:31
What's the weather like today? Yeah, so again, I think sometimes we, we, we, we see things like that and it increases the, thank you.
38:43
It increases the mystery of what they're doing and seems really weird.
38:46
And there are some weird things in Jehovah Witness theology.
38:49
There's some very weird things in Mormon theology.
38:51
So I'm sure David could probably tell us about some of the strange things that happen that nobody ever sees.
38:57
But like I said, I didn't mean to get off on that.
39:00
Got it, got it.
39:00
No, no, no, no, no.
39:01
Really, really trying to get to verse 12 here.
39:04
So verse 10, the one who's troubling you will bear the penalty.
39:08
Verse 11, and again, it seems like he's going off track, but he's not.
39:11
He's staying together.
39:13
Verse 11, he says, but I, brothers, excuse me, if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed.
39:25
Now, Paul is interjecting himself into this.
39:28
Why is Paul interjecting himself into this argument? Because he has been accused by the Judaizers of not preaching the true Gospel.
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Remember, that's what this whole book is about.
39:43
Paul went and established a church at Galatia.
39:46
The Judaizers come.
39:47
Paul didn't give you the whole story.
39:49
Paul didn't give you the whole Gospel.
39:51
And Paul says here, if I still preach circumcision, why am I being persecuted? What is he trying to say? What he's saying is, if I were preaching circumcision, they would accept me.
40:07
But the very fact that they're persecuting me is demonstration that that's not what I'm preaching.
40:16
You say, well, why would he even bring that up? Because apparently, one of the things that they said, and I do think this is an inference drawn from this text and other texts, one of the things that they said was, when Paul preached the Gospel to you, he left out circumcision, but he preaches circumcision elsewhere.
40:34
As if to say, Paul didn't give you the whole story, but he gave the whole story elsewhere.
40:40
Yeah.
40:41
That's right, casting doubt.
40:44
And Paul says, if I were preaching circumcision, why would they be persecuting me? I'm not preaching circumcision anywhere.
40:51
Anywhere.
40:53
In fact, if I were preaching circumcision, the offense of the cross would be removed.
41:01
What does that mean? The whole reason why the cross was offensive was because it said all or nothing.
41:13
But if you could have the cross and circumcision and dietary laws, and if you could have the cross plus all these other things, it wouldn't be offensive anymore.
41:20
It'd be like going into a group of, well, any religion, but let's say Muslims.
41:30
Well, for now, let's say if I walked into a group of Muslims and I said, hey, I want you to believe in Jesus, but you don't have to give up anything.
41:36
You can still believe in Allah, you can still do your five daily prayers, you can still do your pilgrimage to Mecca, you can still have all of the things that go with being a Muslim, all we want you to do is believe in Jesus.
41:45
You don't have to believe he's the son of God because we know you guys don't like that.
41:48
You don't have to believe he died on the cross because we know you don't believe that, but we still want you to believe in Jesus.
41:52
Would you do that if it doesn't cost me anything? If it doesn't change anything, what's the big deal? And that's Paul's point.
42:01
If I were preaching circumcision, then I wouldn't be preaching the cross because the cross says I don't need that.
42:08
The cross says I don't have to have that.
42:10
The cross says it's the only thing.
42:14
So if I were still preaching circumcision, the offense of the cross would have been removed.
42:22
Now, verse 12.
42:24
As I said, I've been trying to get to verse 12.
42:26
This is the harsh section, and I've still got a few minutes, so I'll have a few minutes to spend with it.
42:33
I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.
42:44
He says, no, no, it's fine.
42:48
No, I wish those who unsettle you, those people who are giving you trouble, I wish they would emasculate themselves.
43:01
Now, let's talk for a minute.
43:03
I wanna give you a picture.
43:10
Sometimes I forget this is a room of men.
43:13
Jesus.
43:15
All right.
43:24
The word circumcise means to cut around.
43:33
Think of the word circumference, around, right? To circumcise means a circum or circumference incision, a cutting around, all right? You understand the word circumcision.
43:46
What I want you to understand is the play on words that Paul is giving, okay? Because that's what this is.
43:53
You really almost have to understand a little bit about the original language to really get the sanctified sarcasm that's happening here.
44:03
Because the whole point of the book is circumcision.
44:06
They're telling you that you have to be circumcised to be a Christian.
44:10
Cut around.
44:11
Now, go back up and you see earlier when he says, who hindered you, verse seven, what did we say the word hinder means? Hinder means to cut off.
44:27
So now, thinking of it in terms of language, they're telling you, you have to cut around.
44:36
In doing so, they've cut you off.
44:41
I wish that they, the ESV says emasculate, which literally means it's the same root as this word.
44:59
So it means also to cut off.
45:03
So the same root of the word in verse seven of hinder is the same root of the word in verse 12 as to cut off.
45:12
So having said that, there's two ways to understand this passage.
45:17
And I believe, I do believe it has a double meaning.
45:22
Now, I don't, what I mean, you have to be careful because I've said before, and I do believe this, I don't believe any passage has multiple meanings.
45:29
I believe every passage has one meaning, but one phrase can have a double, well, double entendre usually refers to something unseemly, which I guess in this sense could be a little unseemly because he's using a curse-based language.
45:45
But if he said, I wish they were cut off, that might just mean removed from you.
45:51
Like I said, if you cut a tumor off and got rid of it, right? What the word actually means is to castrate, to cut it off.
46:08
And the intention of the Apostle Paul is to say, if they're telling you that you got to cut around, I wish they would just cut it off.
46:22
Yeah.
46:24
He says, if they're telling you that you got to cut around to be in Christ, I'm telling you it'd be better if they just cut it off because they're trusting in the wrong thing.
46:38
Now you might say, I can't believe the Apostle Paul, I can't believe that a man of God would use such language.
46:48
Paul is using the language of severity because of the severity of the subject.
46:59
This is, so again, it can have a double meaning.
47:02
I wish they were cut off from you.
47:04
Yes, I believe it means that.
47:05
But in fact, how many of you have different translations? I have the ESV.
47:10
The ESV says emasculate.
47:11
What does emasculate mean? It means to cut off your genitals.
47:15
That's what emasculate means.
47:17
That's what the English term to emasculate yourself means.
47:21
Verse 12, Galatians 5.12.
47:23
So if anybody has a different translation, give me a different translation.
47:26
Yes.
47:26
Mine says castrate.
47:28
Castrate, thank you.
47:29
And what version is that, brother? CSV.
47:33
Yeah, and that's attempting to give a modern understanding.
47:36
Mine says cut themselves off.
47:38
See, cut themselves off refers more to like them leaving.
47:41
And that's what I'm saying, I think it does have a double meaning.
47:43
Yes, sir.
47:47
Okay, so a little simpler, doesn't really expose so much.
47:53
Yeah, mine says I only wish these teachers who want you to cut yourselves by being circumcised would cut themselves off from you and leave you alone.
48:01
Yeah, see, again, you see how the different translations are handling it.
48:05
Some, I think, are softening Paul's words.
48:07
Sort of what yours just did.
48:09
Sort of softens it.
48:10
Sort of what his did.
48:11
Sort of softens it.
48:12
But the one, the CSV, the castrate, that's putting it right out there.
48:16
So you say, well, pastor, which one's right? I think they're both getting the idea because I think that's the double meaning.
48:22
I wish, because I don't think Paul really wants you to, wants them to cut themselves any more than when Jesus said cut your hand off to keep yourself from sinning.
48:28
He's not literally advocating self-mutilation, but he's exaggerating the point.
48:34
He's using what's called hyperbole or an exaggerated example.
48:37
Jesus says your right hand caused you to sin, what do you do? Cut it off.
48:41
Should Christians be walking around like this all the time? Because my right hand sins.
48:44
You know, should we all be walking around? No, it's a hyperbole.
48:47
It's an extreme example.
48:49
And Paul's saying, I wish those who trouble you would be, one translation says be made eunuchs.
48:57
That's castration.
49:04
Yeah, so the language here, they cut you off.
49:09
I wish they would be cut off.
49:11
They have hindered you.
49:14
They will bear the penalty.
49:17
Again, Paul is troubling the troublers.
49:21
Yes, Peter.
49:22
I got a question, but it's more pertaining to verse 11.
49:26
Mine says, brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? And I mean, that's because Paul, obviously, Hebrew Hebrews, he used to be the Jew of Jews.
49:38
Yeah.
49:39
I imagine he used, I mean, that's what he preached before Christ.
49:42
Yes, yeah.
49:43
And I do think, again, like I said, I think there are people who have accused him of continuing to preach that, specifically based on Acts 16.
49:49
Because you remember after, in Acts 15, he argued that you don't have to be circumcised, but then in Acts 16, he demanded that Timothy be circumcised.
49:56
So some people think he's a hypocrite, they accuse him.
50:01
No, he said, Timothy, if we're gonna go and minister to the Jews, you have to be circumcised.
50:07
Well, but it was to satisfy the Jewish people, but it was not for salvation.
50:14
It was so that he would be welcomed into the synagogues and whatever.
50:17
I heard a bunch of questions.
50:18
I don't mean to get off subject.
50:19
Who had a question? Nobody? Okay.
50:25
I wanna read a, go ahead.
50:27
Did you have? Oh, no, no, no.
50:28
I wanna read a quote for you.
50:32
This is from Martin Luther.
50:33
Again, I love this guy.
50:36
Even though I think he would have excommunicated me from his church, because, well, I mean, they all would have.
50:43
Calvin and him both would have had much different views than I do on baptism and the ministry of the church.
50:50
So we would have had, but on the gospel, these men were solid.
50:56
And this is what he says.
50:58
This is Luther's comment on verse 12.
51:01
"'It hardly seems befitting an apostle "'not only to denounce the false apostles "'as troublers of the church "'and to consign them to the devil, "'but also to wish that they were utterly cut off.
51:15
"'What else would you call it but plain cursing? "'But when things have, excuse me, "'when things have come to such a pass "'that God and His word are openly blasphemed, "'then we must say, "'Blessed be God and His word, "'and cursed be everything "'that is contrary to God and His word, "'even though it should be an apostle "'or even an angel from heaven.
51:42
"'Paul does right to curse these troublers of the Galatians, "'wishing that they were cut off "'and rooted out of the church of God "'and that their doctrine might perish forever.
51:51
"'Such cursing is a gift of the Holy Ghost.'" So what Luther is saying here is while it may seem to us harsh language, this is the language of the Holy Spirit who's inspiring this to be written.
52:13
So this curse is not from Paul only, but this curse, this statement, this sanctified sarcasm is a work or a word from the Holy Spirit of God.
52:29
Now, I wanna draw to a close by saying this.
52:35
Harsh words should not be the default language of the Christian.
52:47
We should not be known as people who are constantly harsh in our tone, who are constantly harsh in our rhetoric, who are constantly harsh in our language.
53:02
In fact, I would say that we should always remember Proverbs 15, verse one.
53:07
What does it say? A soft word turns away wrath.
53:13
So when we are sharing the gospel, we should not be prideful and arrogant.
53:19
When we are seeking to win a brother to Christ, we should not use harsh and overtly sarcastic language.
53:29
However, there comes a time where the wolves have to be called out.
53:40
Doug Wilson is sometimes, you probably don't know who he is, but he's a preacher.
53:48
He's a very controversial man because he does use a lot of sanctified sarcasm.
53:55
But in one of his books, he made a good point.
53:58
And I mentioned it earlier, but I wanna flesh it out now as I close.
54:02
He was the one who said, kindness to wolves is hostility to sheep.
54:07
But in his book, what he said in a more long point, and I don't have it written down, I'm giving it to you from memory, but basically what he said was this.
54:15
Shepherds should be kind to sheep.
54:18
Sheep should be kind to shepherds, but shepherds should never be kind to wolves.
54:27
Because kindness to wolves is hostility to the sheep.
54:34
And if you try to bring the wolves and the sheep together, all you end up with is well-fed wolves.
54:46
That's right.
54:47
So the point that Wilson is making, and I think Paul is, to bring this back to Paul's words, Paul is not speaking to the sheep.
54:56
When he talked to the Galatians, the sheep, he was kind to them.
55:00
He said, I think better things of you.
55:01
I think the Lord is doing better with you.
55:03
We believe in Christ and we look forward to righteousness, but they are bearing the penalty.
55:09
And they would be better to cut themselves off than to continue to preach this false teaching.
55:14
When it comes to false teachers, there is no room for compromise.
55:23
They must be abandoned, cut off.
55:28
Do not compromise with false teachers.
55:31
Cut them off.
55:34
Let's pray.
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Father, thank You for this time to study.
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Thank You for the Word of God, which is the light to our path.
55:41
And I thank You for the Apostle Paul, who even in sanctified sarcasm demonstrates a love for the sheep and a willingness to stand against the wolves.
55:50
Thank You, Lord, for all Your blessings.
55:51
In Jesus' name, amen.