015 A Shocking Solution to Heresy

Galatians 5:7-12

June 29, 2014

Well certainly by now you have a pretty good handle

On what was occurring in the region of Galatia.

Paul preached the gospel, but the Judaizers had come in telling the Galatians to be circumcised for their salvation, and Paul is writing to refute that notion.

So, if we were to overly simplify what is occurring here,

It is good old fashioned case of a false prophet

Coming in to deceive God’s people.

Without a doubt one of the most dangerous aspects of false prophets,

Is not just that they pervert the truth,

But that they pervert the truth while making you think they are not.

False prophets and false teachers

Seem to have an uncanny ability to get people to drop their guard.

They seem to have a real knack for being believable.

After all Paul said about them:

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.”

They are deceptive and they are good at it.

They are believable in some regards and effective at deception.

Jesus referred to them in this way:

Matthew 7:15 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

They have the ability to look safe…

They have the ability to sound safe…

But they are anything but safe…

And this is what Paul is out to reveal again tonight.

He has already directly exposed the dangers of legalism

And now Paul gives his raw and shocking thoughts

About those who proclaim it.

There are four points to Paul’s message tonight as we see the shocking solution to Heresy.

#1 SOBERING OBSERVATION

Galatians 5:7-9

In order to fully blow the whistle on these false prophets

Paul first needs to help the Galatians see the effect of their presence.

Jesus told us how to spot false prophets.

· It’s not their appearance…

· It’s not their religious speech…

· It’s not their hygiene…

“you will know them by their fruit”

Look at what they produce.

Paul is helping the Galatians see the fruit of the Judaizers.

If you are curious about the effect something is having on your life, Just look at your life before it, and look at your life now.

Would you say your walk with Christ is better or worse?

So, before the Judaizers, were where the Galatians?

“You were running well”

But where are they now?

Disobedient – “hindered you from obeying”

As we have learned recently on Sunday mornings,

We know that the Christian life is often compared to a race.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

We are called to run the race.

That means that if at any time we quit running

It is considered disobedience.

It doesn’t matter why we quit, but if we quit it is disobedience.

Well the Galatians stopped “running well” – why?

They were “hindered”

The word “hindered” translates ENKOPTO

“to cut into, impede, detain”

The NIV translates that phrase “Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying?”

That giving the picture of someone who was running,

But then another runner cut in front of them and kept them from running.

In Greek culture, ENKOPTO was a word used of someone who would cut a trench in a road, or put a log across the road to impede traffic and delay progress.

And that is precisely what Paul is referring to here.

Their objective was not to help you run the race…

Their objective was not to encourage you to run harder…

Their objective was not to show you how to run more efficiently…

Their objective was to keep you from running.

They hindered you.

They cut in on you.

They laid a log in the road to stop you.

They were the type of hindrances that the writer of Hebrews warned about.

Hebrews 12:12-17 “Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”

· They were those who caused you to come “short of the grace of God”

· They were the “godless” people who had emotion, but no genuine relationship.

And when they were done with you, you were not more obedient,

In fact by the time they were done, you were disobedient.

Their objective was not to help you, it was to hinder you.

Jeremiah 23:32 "Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams," declares the LORD, "and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit," declares the LORD.

In fact, the opposite has always been true.

Jeremiah 23:26-27 "How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?”

You may think false prophets are harmless, but they are not.

Their purpose is to stop you from running the race God intended.

And Paul wants the Galatians to see that.

In the Galatians case,

· It was to get you to quit trusting Christ and to start trusting the Law.

· It was to get you to no longer enjoy the redemption that Christ provided, but instead to cause you to embrace the traditions of Judaism.

And Paul is adamant about this:

(8) “This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.”

First Paul reveals their objective.

Here Paul reveal their origin.

And namely, that these men did not come from God.

Now we know that persuasion can be a powerful thing.

2 Corinthians 5:11 “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.”

The power of persuasion is an effective tool.

The problem is that the persuasion of these men

“did not come from Him who calls you.”

They are persuasive, but it isn’t from God.

That is to say that the teaching of these men

Was not the result of the study of Scripture.

And incidentally we get a lot of that kind of persuasion today.

You remember the Methodist Pastor –

Frank Schaefer ousted for performing the marriage of his gay son.

HE WAS REINSTATED TUESDAY

Now why do you suppose that is?

Do you suppose it’s because they were reading the Bible and discerned that God was ok with homosexuality?

Of course not, the Bible is pretty clear on that subject.

Homosexuality is an abomination to God.

Frank Schaefer himself said: “The church really listens to my counsel and they listens to the LGBT community in our church when they make this ruling…I follow my conscience and I will follow my conscience in the future.”

And now being moved to Sana Barbara and is excited because the weather in Santa Barbara is always up and Santa Barbara is beautiful.

There is a lot of persuasion in the world today,

But not all of it comes from God.

Jeremiah 23:28-29

"The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?" declares the LORD. "Is not My word like fire?" declares the LORD, "and like a hammer which shatters a rock?”

Ezekiel 13:8-11 “Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, "Because you have spoken falsehood and seen a lie, therefore behold, I am against you," declares the Lord GOD. "So My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will have no place in the council of My people, nor will they be written down in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel, that you may know that I am the Lord GOD. "It is definitely because they have misled My people by saying, 'Peace!' when there is no peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash; so tell those who plaster it over with whitewash, that it will fall. A flooding rain will come, and you, O hailstones, will fall; and a violent wind will break out.”

And there is the danger with these men.

Paul wants the Galatians to see their objective and their origin.

What they taught did not line up with Scripture.

Can I remind you again that not everyone who claims to speak from the Lord actually does?

Paul also wanted the Galatians to observe the OUTCOME of their ministry.

(9) “A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.”

It spreads

It influences

False prophets do not operate in a vacuum, they affect people.

Many of you watched some of the Strange Fire videos with us on Wednesday night.

I never showed you Conrad Mbewe

Simply because I wasn’t sure if you could understand him or not.

But Conrad Mbewe is from Zambia and he preached on

“The African Import of Charismatic Chaos”

Namely that now charismatic doctrine is the mainline Christian doctrine of Africa,

And is being intermingled with the doctrine of the witch doctors

To push the same old religion with new lingo.

HOW DID THIS STUFF GET ALL THE WAY TO AFRICA?

“a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.”

When they hinder you and persuade you contrary to the word of God,

What they do will spread from you to others.

It is a dangerous thing.

These men may talk smooth and look good,

But take inventory of your spiritual journey and you will see that

· You are not more obedient,

· You are not more Biblical,

· You are not more holy since these men came into your life.

In fact, the opposite is true.

So open your eyes and see what these men are doing to you.

It is Paul’s sobering observation.

#2 SINCERE BELIEF

Galatians 5:10

Here we find that despite all the uncertainty surrounding these false teachers PAUL IS NOT A MAN IN DISARRAY.

In fact Paul is supremely confident.

“I have confidence”

He is angry, but he is not afraid of defeat.

What is Paul confident of?

“that you will adopt no other view;”

What view is he referring to?

That these men did not come from God and they do not benefit the people in the least.

Now I think that is a pretty bold statement.

· I mean we know how attached people can get to their leaders.

· We’ve all seen pastors that we knew were false teachers and yet we all know

people who follow them religiously.

It is amazing to me the size of the congregations of men like Joel Olsteen.

And yet there are people who will fight for him.

So how can Paul be so confident that the Galatians will adopt his view that these men are not from God?

Because Paul knows where these men are headed.

“but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.”

Paul knew that the Galatians would adopt his view,

Because these men would be judged.

One thing that is certain in Scripture is that

There will be false teachers and they will all be judged.

2 Peter 2:1-3 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

In that same chapter Peter would go on to explain how

God knows how to deliver the righteous

And at the same time keep the wicked under judgment.

But people who cause others to stumble,

Or who hinder their race are in grave danger with God.

Matthew 18:6-7 “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!”

Paul knows where these false teachers are headed,

And when that happens Paul knows that even the Galatians

Will see them for what they are.

Now that may not happen tonight

It may not happen tomorrow.

But someday all the false prophets will be judged

And every single human will adopt the view

That those men were not of God.

Paul has no doubt what the final verdict on these men will be.

His concern is the number of people

Influenced by them before that day comes.

But these men will be judged and you will see that I am right.

His Sobering Observation

His Sincere Belief

#3 SIMPLE DEFENSE

Galatians 5:11

I told you that one of the problems with false teachers

Is that they can be so slick and so smooth.

They want to lead you into deception

Without you knowing you are headed into deception.

And because of that they no doubt used all sorts of tactics.

Certainly they quoted Old Testament passages out of context regarding circumcision.

But this verse makes it clear that they also told the Galatians that even Paul was an advocate of circumcision.

In short, they like you to think they are right in line

With those who are known to be orthodox.

· Robert Schuler used to love to have Billy Graham on.

· TBN loves to have orthodox preachers on their show (Men like

Charles Stanley or David Jeremiah)

They gain credibility by making you think they are in line

With those whom we know to be orthodox.

And no doubt the Judaizers did this with Paul.

They obviously had said that Paul was also an advocate of circumcision.

· After all, Paul had been circumcised when he was 8 days old.

· Beyond that it was Paul who circumcised Timothy on their missionary journey.

Certainly the Galatians had been told that Paul was for it

And that circumcision was necessary.

But Paul is refuting that notion with everything he has right there.

And how do we know that Paul is not a proponent or preacher of circumcision?

He is persecuted.

“if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?”

People may be persecuted for various reasons today,

But there was one main reason why Paul was persecuted.

· Paul was persecuted NOT because he loved Jesus.

· Paul was persecuted because he was a threat to Judaism.

· The Jews hated the church because it threatened their traditions.

· The Jews hated Jesus because He threatened their traditions.

They loved the things the way they had always been

And Jesus threatened to undo it.

You may remember when Steven was stoned,

They didn’t stone him because he loved Jesus.

Acts 6:13 “They put forward false witnesses who said, "This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law;”

The Jews persecuted them because they threatened their traditions.

But how was Paul or Steven a threat to their traditions?

BECAUSE THEY PREACHED THE CROSS.

The cross crushes any notion

That you can be righteous through your religious works.

If man can earn righteousness through his religion

Then Christ died for no purpose.

The very fact that God would crush His only Son, whom He loved

Was a tremendous indicator that there was no other way.

And in the cross, not only was Jesus glorified, but years of Jewish tradition and religious practice were rendered useless.

That is why the cross was offensive to Jews…

That is why the cross was a stumbling block…

It wasn’t that they hated Jesus in and of Himself,

It was that they were unwilling to see their religion as useless.

And Paul says that is why he is persecuted.

But if Paul preached Jesus and circumcision “Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.”

In other words, if Paul preaches Jesus and circumcision (as he was accused of doing) then the Jews would not have been offended by that, and would not have persecuted him.

But the fact that he was persecuted was a clear indicator

That he did not condone circumcision

And that he was not on the same side as the Judaizers.

You could not follow the Judaizers and Paul

Paul is here to expose them.

· Paul would not have gone on their TV show

· Paul wanted you to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are not the same.

His Sobering Observation His Sincere Belief His Simple Defense

#4 SHOCKING WISH

Galatians 5:12

Without a doubt this is the harshest and most direct statement

Paul makes in all of Scripture.

“I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”

In case the language there is too politically correct for you to fully swallow…

Paul says “I wish these people who are so keen on circumcision would just go all the way and fully emasculate themselves from the body”

He basically says, “They are the foreskins that need to be removed!”

Now if me saying that causes you to gasp a little,

Then you just had the response that Paul was looking for.

There was shock factor involved here.

He wanted the Galatians to know how serious he was.

Jesus used the same type of shock factor with His crowds.

Matthew 5:29-30 "If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. "If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”

That was a shocking statement, but after He was finished you get the idea.

Sin is to be avoided at all cost.

Paul is pretty shocking here as well, but again you get the point.

This heresy needs to be completely eradicated.

This cannot be tolerated

This cannot be condoned

This cannot be rephrased

THIS HAS TO BE TOTALLY REMOVED

Paul wants these men and their doctrine to be gone!

1 Timothy 1:18-20 “This command I entrust to you, Timothy,my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.”

That is without a doubt a harsh statement.

What did these guys do that Paul would hand them over to Satan?

Hymenaeus:

2 Timothy 2:17-18 “and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.”

Alexander

2 Timothy 4:14-15 “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching.”

These men basically did the same thing the Judaizers were doing.

They spread wrong doctrine and perverted true doctrine

And Paul knew of only one solution.

Get rid of these men.

They had to be totally eradicated.

They had to be circumcised from the church.

“I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”

THAT IS THE SHOCKING SOLUTION TO HERESY.

· It cannot be reasoned with…

· It cannot be toned down…

· It cannot be rephrased…

· It certainly cannot be tolerated…

IT MUST BE CUT OFF AND THROWN OUT LIKE A GENTILE FORESKIN.

(Any doubts left as to what Paul thought of it?)

Paul and Jesus had all sorts of compassion on sinful people.

We find them mixing it up with the least of these all the time.

But they had absolutely no tolerance

For those who led others into sin.

TURN TO:

Luke 11:37-52

Can you believe Jesus was so offensive to someone who had invited Him for supper?

JESUS HAD NO TOLERANCE FOR HERESY AND THOSE WHO HINDERED OTHERS FROM RUNNING THE RACE GOD HAD FOR THEM.

We saw last week the losses of legalism.

· You lose Christ

· You lose Freedom

· You lose Grace

· You lose Glory

So there is no way we can ever tolerate those who preach it.

IT MUST BE CUT OFF AND THROWN ASIDE.