The Truth about False Teachers

, preach this morning. There's a rose on the piano, this morning that is in honor of Haley Joy Sapko. Born to Joe and Kim Sapko, April 17th. the baby is, was 7 pounds, 7 ounces, and according to what it says here, 20 and 2500 inches, long.

So, I guess we're getting more precise nowadays. also, I, just found this out. my cousin from Maryland is, is here. and can I have her stand?

Laurel Burnett, could you stand? Let's welcome her. we got a call from her last night. She, has traveled with a friend to Loma Linda to visit a friend, of hers who's having some, medical issues.

And when she got to Loma Linda, she got to looking at a map and realizing she's not far at all from us. So she called and so, really grateful for that and was not expecting her to be able to make it this morning, but just thrilled to see her. also, the missionary of the week this week, let me just say a few words about this. It's Lee and Diana Whitworth, and there's some information about them in your bulletin.

They are a missionary family in Utah that we as a church have the privilege of supporting, and a lot's been going on in their ministry. just in a nutshell, they sold their church property and they then needed to rent a place while they focused on building on another set of property that they had. had purchased, and they thought they were going to be able to meet in a movie theater, but they got a final word from the theater owner saying, I would rather bulldoze this place and burn it down than rent it to you guys.

so that didn't really work out.

But they are now, my understanding is renting the church property that they sold while they focus between now and November on getting something else built on the property that they purchased, and they, they do need some help. If any of you want to go up to Utah and swing a hammer and, and help them get that built, then great, we may even be able to send a team up there to help them. Also, their daughter Lauren. has had a, a great opportunity to witness, testify of Christ at the school that she attends.

There's a, a Mormon seminary, that like meets for an hour, the students go for an hour to a class on Mormon doctrine and what have you. And they invited Lauren Whitworth to come and share her testimony and to share whatever she wanted to share. And so, they combined the class for that day. So it was, a bunch of kids, in that class along with two Mormon instructors, and Lauren got up there, this teenager, and just shared the, the way of salvation, opened up the Bible and just explained that through the book of Romans.

And she said while she was sharing, the instructors were in the back of the room with their Bibles open and flipping pages and checking to see if the things that she was saying were really so. And it's had a huge impact on some of the kids who have come up to her with a lot of questions. And also, I think it was the week after that, that one of the instructors, Mormon instructors, showed up at Payson Bible Church at a Bible study that they were having on the Book of Galatians of all things.

And after that session was over, Lee, just to help reinforce the lesson, he divided up everyone in attendance.

There was the grace team. and then there was the works team, those who believed in salvation by works, and those who believed in salvation by grace. And this Mormon instructor got put on the grace team, and they would, they acted out an argument, a theological argument, making their case for their own brand of the gospel. And this Mormon instructor actually contributed to the grace argument.

He, he pitched right in and was making arguments for salvation by grace alone and, having internalized what he had heard that day. So Lee said, I don't know if he's a spy. I don't know what's going on, or maybe he's just a seeker and God is working in his heart, but all of that is the fallout of God using Lauren, to just be faithful and to speak the truth in this particular, seminary class. So let's be praying for them.

Guys, this is the missionaries we love to support. And you through your giving have a part of, of their ministry. So just rejoice in what God is doing, be praying for all that is unfolding in the Whitworth ministry from week to week, and just rejoice over the privilege of being able to participate in their ministry through your prayers, and through, you're giving. Well, with that having, been said, we're gonna invite Carlos, one of our pastors to come and continue us through the, continue taking us through the book of Galatians.

And so as you come, Carlos, let's give our brother a warm welcome. I almost forgot to turn the microphone on. Can you hear me? OK.

let us go ahead and begin our time. by praying to God. Pray with me, please. My dear Heavenly Father, we just come before you.

this morning, And we ask, Lord, that You would quiet our hearts before your presence. We ask Lord that you might, draw us into your presence. That you might cause us to have a sense of your glory. Of Your Majesty, of Your Holiness God.

That Father God, that you would see fit in your grace and kindness to minister to us through your word, through your written word. That Lord, you might use me as your appointed instruments this morning in order to communicate your thoughts to your people, God. We come to you, Lord, admitting we confess to you the fact that you alone are holy and that against the backdrop of your greatness and your holiness and your purity, that the holiest one of us in this room. is sinful.

And in much need of your grace. We come to you as one body of believers, acknowledging our need of you, thanking you, Lord, that in Christ, all of our sins have been dealt with, and we have forgiveness and freedom from the guilt and power of sin. Lord, we give you thanks and we give you praise, and as we, open up the passage this morning, we ask that you might illuminate the eyes of our understanding, that we might behold wonderful things from your word, and now we commend this time to you for your glory and for our good, in the name of Jesus Christ, the King of kings, and the Lord of Lords, and all of God's people said, Amen.

I want to begin this morning by sharing a brief illustration.

This is something that had happened to me about 7 years ago, I suppose, and I was, I was in my kitchen and I noticed on the kitchen counter that there was a bottle of medicine, some Advil that had been opened and the lid was, was still off of the bottle. OK, so I tucked that in the back of my memory bank somewhere, open bottle of Tylenol or Advil or whatever it was. And then a little later, I am walking through the hallway of my house and as I'm walking through the hallway, I noticed to the side of me in the room, my, my little boy, Andrew at the time was 2 years old and surrounding him was some vomit.

And he was in the process of still getting sick.

He was vomiting even as I observed him. And so, honestly, I, I, I, I made the connection between the Advil and my son getting sick and I assumed that he had swallowed some of the medicine. I wasn't sure how much he swallowed, but, for those of you who are parents, you can imagine. That I must have had a, just a, a million thoughts going through my mind.

my, my main concern was, had he swallowed the bottle, or some of the, the medicine that was in the bottle. And so, what, what does, what does a dad in my situation, what do I do in a situation like that? What does a loving father who is concerned about his child do in a time like this? Well, you probably guessed it.

I tasted my son's vomit. That's for you teenage boys out there. I tasted his vomit in order to make sure that he hadn't swallowed any of the medication. And fortunately, it seemed as if he didn't.

You see, we will undergo extreme measures when we are concerned about those we love. It is appropriate to do so. When you are concerned about someone you love and care about, it is totally appropriate to go to extreme measures in order to ensure their safety. What I did was not crazy.

It was appropriate in lieu of my concern. I wanted to be sure that all was well with my son. Similarly, in our passage this morning, the apostle Paul is concerned about the well-being of his readers. He is concerned about their spiritual well-being.

He is concerned that they were going to swallow a very deadly pill, and he is Taking action to ensure their protection, he is concerned that they were going to give way to legalism. He is concerned that they were going to be circumcised and to embrace a full on works-oriented approach to salvation. Fortunately for Paul, he does not have to taste their vomit, but he does have to communicate to them the truth about false teachers. And so This passage this morning, the apostle Paul will present 8 truths about false teachers in order to motivate his readers to reject a false gospel and to embrace the true gospel.

He presents again 8 truths about false teachers in order to motivate them to reject a false gospel and to once again embrace a true gospel. If you would turn in your Bibles with me then to Galatians chapter 5, we will look at verses 7 through 12. I want to begin by reading the passage and then we will break it apart verse by verse. Turn to Galatians 5, beginning in verse 7 through 12, and I would ask for you guys to please stand with me at the reading of God's word.

Please stand as we read God's word together. Galatians 5, beginning in verse 7, if you have the Pew Bible, you can look on page 149 in the New Testament. Galatians 5:7. Paul says, you were running well.

Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view but the one who is disturbing you.

He will bear his judgment, whoever he is. But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.

May God bless the reading of His word and please have a seat. Again, Paul presents 8 truths about false teachers in order to motivate his readers to reject a false gospel and to embrace the true gospel. Truth number 1 about false teachers they hinder those who run well. Look at verse 7A with me.

He says, You were running well. You were running well. Running here is being used by Paul as he uses it elsewhere in the scriptures as a Metaphor for the Christian life, he says you were running. Running requires effort.

It requires perseverance. The Christian life is a life of effort and perseverance, the ultimate goal being that we would cross the finish line in first place, that we would win this race that the Lord has marked out for us. And so he is referring to the Christian life as a life of running. You were running well, he says, and notice that the word running here is in the imperfect.

Active. That's Greek terminology. This is what it means. It implies repetitive action in the past.

Paul says at a time in your past you were in a habitual ongoing sense. You were running, and he says you were running well. And so these people, these believers could look back in their life and they could recall a season in which they received the gospel, embraced it, and consequently they were running well. And it was a way of life.

It was a habit of life. It wasn't just a one time run, a one time little short race, but they had habitually been running well is what the apostle is saying. And running well in Paul's mind would include the following qualities. Now what does it mean to run well?

What does it mean? Well, those who were running well were embracing the true gospel. They were totally embracing the true gospel. The time in which Paul and his missionary companions came along and proclaimed to them the gospel, they received it.

They understood that they were sinners in need of a savior. And that the Lord Jesus Christ was crushed at the cross for them so that they could experience salvation, and they received the gospel via faith. They believed it and consequently, as a result of believing the gospel, they were also engaged in a life of being led by the Holy Spirit. They were being led by the Spirit.

They were walking by the Spirit. They were filled with the Spirit, keeping in step with God. Spirit. They were engaged in the life of being led by the Spirit.

Incidentally, Paul has to, has to help them. He has to instruct them in their understanding of what that meant again later on here in the book of Galatians. They were not just embracing the true gospel, they were not just engaged in the life of being led by the Spirit, but when they were running well, they were experiencing the power of God, the Spirit as well. The apostle Paul earlier makes That the fact that there were miracles being performed among them as they were experiencing collectively the power of God the Spirit in their midst and also furthermore they were evidencing the fruits of God the Spirit in their lives, the fruit of the Spirit.

You could look at their lives and you could see very clearly the fruits of love and joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You would look at these guys. Life and you would be like wow, there is something just powerful at work in these guys and these people to whom he was writing, they would affirm the fact themselves that yes, there was a time in our lives as a church and even as individuals, there was a time in which we were running very well.

There was a time in which the power of the gospel was unleashing itself in our ministry.

However, as Paul goes on to say, you were running well. Who hindered you? Those running well had been hindered. This speaks of the fact that as they are on this, on this marathon, as they are running this race, someone came along and tripped them up.

Someone came along and got in the way and caused them to fall over. They, they were brought to the place, as a result of this, someone or these folks, these false teachers, they were brought to the place to where they were now no longer running well anymore. You were running well. Who hindered you?

They were hindered by false teachers. They were not running well anymore. And perhaps as you stop to give thought to this, you have friends. Believers in Christ who at one point in their lives had been running well.

They were running well, but through the influence of false teachers, through a failure to embrace the gospel and all of its simplicity, somehow they got off the beaten track and they are stumbling and falling, and they, they're not running well anymore. I submit to you here that it is possible for genuine believers to not run well. That's what this passage reveals to me. It is definitely possible that it could be said of genuine believers, you were running well, but right now you are not running well, OK?

There is a possibility of genuine believers struggling in their run, failing to run well. And so thus false teachers are seeking to hinder those who run well, but this raises the question how do they hinder those who run well? What are they doing? What are they saying in order to be a hindrance?

And this brings us to the second point. This brings us to truth number 2 about false teachers. They hinder those who run well by teaching. Teaching a false gospel 7B.

Look at the text with me. He says, Who hindered you from obeying the truth? The truth here is clearly a reference to the gospel. The truth here is clearly a reference to the fact that a man is saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.

The truth here is the belief that a sinful man can experience salvation through the Savior and not through his own works at all, but he must accept and believe in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that Christ Himself was crushed by Almighty God the Father in his place, and all of the wrath of the Father towards his sin was placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And that there is absolutely nothing that he can do whatsoever in order to make himself right before God. No good work can enter, can earn him the right of entry into hell, into heaven.

He must accept through faith the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is the truth, and they were deviating from the truth. They had been tripped up and they were falling away from the truth. They were falling away from it in an intellectual sense, and they were falling away from it in a practical sense. They were practically departing from the truth because note what he says who hindered you from obeying the truth.

The truth is something to be obeyed. And they were failing. And I would suggest to you here that, that, that belief will always impact behavior and their fundamental problem is, is in their belief system they were going astray and consequently in their behavior, they were going astray. They had deviated from the gospel.

You see, it is imperative. That we never deviate from the truth of the gospel, and God help us here as a body and as individuals that we never deviate from our sense of the greatness of the gospel and that we, are, are amazed by it and blown away by it, that all of my sin, all of our sin, has been, has been nailed to the cross, and we bear it no more. May we always be amazed at the fact that our sins, the multitude of our sins, has been completely forgiven in Christ, that He died for every single last one of them, past, present, and future.

May we always be amazed by that.

May we never deviate from the truth of the gospel. This is essential to our running. Well, this is absolutely essential to our running well. Rehearsing gospel truths daily will protect us from the destructive forces of heresy and consequent sin.

I will never forget when I graduated from the first seminary that I went to, International School of Theology. Upon graduation, there were a number of speakers, a number of the professors were given to us like that final charge as you enter into ministry. These are the things to keep in mind. And one old professor who had been a believer for 50+ years, he stood up before us.

He didn't have a whole lot to say, but the one thing he said is this, I have been a believer for some 50+ years and in the last two years of my life, I have been preaching the gospel to myself every day, and I have come to discover that that is the very best thing that I could have been doing. In all of my life, there has been absolutely nothing that has impacted and transformed me more than me proclaiming the gospel to myself on a daily basis. This is one old professor who in a sense was communicating, I had been blowing it for like the 1st 50 years of my Christianity and when finally I began proclaiming the gospel to myself, I found that I was able to experience more fully the life that God had designed for me.

Please read with me the words of one famous theologian here.

Listen to what he says in his book, preaching the gospel to myself every day. I don't think it's funny. Preaching the gospel to my, for those of you who don't know, this is what Pastor Milton has said. He says preaching the gospel to myself every day has made more of a difference in my life than any other discipline I have ever practiced.

I find myself sinning less, but just as importantly, I find myself recovering my footing more quickly after sinning due to the immediate comfort found in the gospel. I have also I found that when I am absorbed in the gospel, everything else I am supposed to be towards God and others seems to flow out of me more naturally and passionately. Doing right is not always easy, but it is never more easy than when one is breathing deeply the atmosphere of the gospel. What a great quote there.

And so let me encourage you, so that you're not hindered by those who teach a false gospel to create for yourself an environment in which you are being surrounded with the truths of the gospel daily and regularly. Listen to gospel-centered music. Listen to music that brings to your attention the gospel and the truths relative to the gospel. Memorize passages of God's word that center on the gospel.

Listen to sermons by preachers who affirm the centrality of the gospel for daily living and who are passionate about Its proclamation and its application. Allow yourself to be fed by the gospel. Connect the gospel to those areas of your life in which you battle and struggle. Learn how to make the connection between whatever sin you're struggling with and the gospel.

And note that through the power of the gospel you actually have freedom so that you don't have to be bound to the sin that is holding you captive. Develop the discipline of proclaiming gospel truths in your prayer life so that as you come to the Lord daily, some of that time, perhaps much of that time, should be spent just rehearsing the gospel, just praising the Lord and thanking the Lord as you speak the gospel to the Lord and to yourself, as you remind yourself and as you thank God for the fact that all of my sin has been atoned for at the cross and that I am now free before You, oh God.

I am free from the guilt and from the power of sin, and I can know with confidence that You by Your grace will cause me to persevere and at the end of the day I will behold you face to face. I will be at a place at some point yet in the future where I will no longer even have the ability to sin.

And just rehearse these gospel truths to yourself. Meditate upon the cross and think about the fact that the Son of God was crushed in your place, that He, He was, he was killed for you, that by His stripes you are healed, that by His wounds you are made whole. Meditate on the cross, and I would in your prayers and I would also say proclaim the gospel to yourself on a daily basis. That's what the Psalmist does in a sense.

The psalmist says, Why are you so downcast, O my soul? See, he's speaking to himself. Why is it, it's like this schizophrenic experience he's having. Why is it that you are so downcast?

But that is totally biblically appropriate. Speak to yourself the gospel and encourage your soul through the gospel, and God through the gospel can lift your spirit and encourage you and bring you to the place to where it cannot be said of you. You were running well. What happened?

Who hindered you? What hindered you? And so thus, They will hinder those who run well by teaching a false gospel. The antidote to that is to be, is to be just breathing in the environment of the true gospel.

And so Paul, as he presents us with the truth about false teachers, is going to go on to explain the source of their false gospel. This is the source. Point number 3, truth number 3, their teaching does not originate from God. But from the devil.

Look at 5:8 with me. He says this persuasion did not come from him who calls you. More literally, this persuasion did not come from the one calling you. OK.

Track with me here. The persuasion, of course, is the persuasion of a false gospel. It is a gospel that says that you need to do something in order to make yourself right before God. It is a gospel that says, what, by your own works can you become acceptable to God.

It is a gospel that essentially says that What Christ did on the cross for you is not enough. That is not sufficient, but there is something else you must do. There is something else you must add, you must, you must do good works in order to merit salvation, in order to earn the right for yourself to go into heaven when you die. And so this is the persuasion and Paul says, what, This is not of the Lord.

This is not of the one calling you. Please note with me, the one calling you is a present, active participle. Basically, the idea is God right now as I speak is calling you. This persuasion that tripped you up, it is not from the one who, as I speak to you right now, is calling you.

What a blessing to know that God is actively calling his people into a deeper experience of the gospel. And he is speaking to them, encouraging them, wanting them to step into the arena in which they are experiencing the gospel and all of its fullness. These Galatians had been tripped up. They had been hindered.

They weren't running well. And nevertheless, God comes into their lives and God says through the apostle Paul, I am calling you into an experience of the gospel. And so I don't know where, where you guys are at. No doubt many of you are experiencing the gospel in fullness and you're encouraging the gospel.

Some of you may feel that you've been tripped up. Some of you may be, may feel discouraged. Some of you may look in the past and you say, what, I had been running well, but I am not anymore. And I want to serve this morning that God through His word is the one who is calling you right now as I speak, and He opens up the doors wide to the gospel experience and he says via faith, step into it.

You may have been tripped up, you may not be running well, but in the arena of the gospel, you have forgiveness. And you can be delivered from that. You can come to the place to where you are running well once again. What a blessing.

You see, again, he says, this persuasion did not come from him who calls you. By way of implication, it comes from the devil. OK? This false gospel that had been presented to these Galatians was demonic in origin.

Satan has been deceiving mankind since the beginning of creation. Consider Adam and Eve. It was Satan who came along and tripped him up. Satan had been deceiving the saints of God or at least trying to deceive the saints of God, trying to attack the work of God throughout Old Testament history.

And then we get into New Testament history. We get into the book of Galatians and obviously, Satan was on the attack. Satan had raised up these false teachers who would contradict and, and, and, and, and, and undermine the gospel. He raised these guys up to come to the Galatians to get them to be tripped up and what?

He's alive and well. He is working and he is seeking to trip up and even today, Satan is seeking to wreak havoc in the church. He is seeking to attack. Those of you who perhaps are care group leaders, don't be surprised if in your attempt to live to the glory of God, Satan would come along and want to trip you up.

Those of you who are involved in some Sunday school ministry, maybe you're teaching, don't be surprised if Satan wants to come along and try to trip you up. Those of you sensing being called to the ministry and trying to take steps forward in order to, prepare yourself to get ready for that, don't be surprised if Satan would want to come along and trip you up, and especially if you are true to the true gospel and want to proclaim it and do so indeed. Those of you who are out there witnessing to your neighbors and to your family and to your friends, perhaps going out there on the streets or in the courthouses or wherever you're going in order to proclaim the gospel, do not be surprised if, if Satan would come along to want to trip you up.

You can't expect it.

Some of you have experienced great ministry in your life, but somewhere along the way, Satan has come along and discouraged you. But mark this, it is Satan who wants to destroy the work of God as he wants to proclaim his gospel to the people of God. And don't allow him to trip you up. Realize that Satan is at work, but you can stand firm, resist, and he will flee from you.

Again, this point, their teaching does not originate from God. I want to quickly read some quotes of teaching in our day to day that does not originate from God. I don't want to say a whole lot about these quotes. I just want to read them to you and I have left the authors of these quotes unknown, so don't even try to guess who they are.

Listen to these quotes. The first one. If I could write a prescription for the women of the world, I would provide each of them with a healthy dose of self-esteem and personal worth. I have no doubt that this is their greatest need.

Yet Scripture says Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. The The greatest need is not the need for self-esteem, but the need for forgiveness from Savior. Look at the second quote with me. He says, Before we'll see how sinful we are as a self-protective agent, we must first feel how disappointed we are as a vulnerable victim.

We must first feel how disappointed we are as a vulnerable victim. That's our primary need to realize that we have been victims. We have been hurt, and until we come to grips with that, then we can be at a place where we can see our sin and recognize our need for the Savior. But Scripture says nothing of that, does it?

Moving on to the next quote, the gosling. The gosling, it's like a baby goose, I think the gosling is vulnerable to imprinting for only a few seconds after he hatches from the shell. If that opportunity is lost, it cannot be regained later. In other words, there is a critical brief period in the life of the gosling when this instinctual learning is possible.

At some point then it's no longer possible. There is also a critical period when certain kinds of instruction are possible in the life of a child. There is a brief period during childhood. When youngsters are vulnerable to religious training.

But if you missed that period, you may as well forget it because they will no longer ever be able to experience what is necessary for them to be mature adults. That is what he is trying to say. But yet I submit to you that through the power of the gospel, I don't care what your upbringing has been, I don't care how bad your parents have been in your upbringing. You can through the power of the gospel, live to the glory of God, experience the gospel, and manifest the fruit of the Spirit in your lives.

praise the Lord. I praise the Lord because if I look at my upbringing and I look at my childhood, I came from a broken, dysfunctional family. There was divorce in my background and no one explained to me the gospel. And does that therefore mean that I have no ability to get to the place where before God and through the power of the gospel I can't live in victory in Christ?

No way. There is too much power in the gospel. Continuing on in the quotes, the goal of counsel is twofold to ease the immediate problems caused by codependency and to prevent damage in the future, both to the codependence and The generations following the goal of counsel, and this is coming from a biblical counselor if you will, the goal is twofold to ease the immediate problems of codependence. The goal and council is the glory of God and the growth of His people.

The goal in counseling is that God is magnified, that the people of God learn how to walk in the power of the Spirit, and that they learn how to walk in the freedom that is theirs. Not to do away with the circumstances of life that may be a cause of, of difficulty for them, but to embrace those circumstances and to live to the glory of God in the midst of those circumstances, that is the goal. The next quote, What if you don't accept Christ at all? And by the way, this comes from Larry King Live.

He's interviewing another very famous pastor. I believe this pastor has the biggest church in all of America, and Larry King Live is interviewing this guy. He asked the question, what if you don't accept Christ at all? I am very careful about saying who will and won't go to heaven.

I spent a lot of time, I've spent a lot of time in India with my father, and I don't know all about the religion, but I know that they love God and I've seen their sincerity. That, brothers and sisters, in my view is a blatant attack on the gospel itself. Christ says the only way to the Father is through me. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sins.

By his stripes we are healed. And yet he would say that, what, I'm not so sure. Next quote. But we hold that the physical death of Jesus did not touch the sin issue at all.

A Christian preacher said this, We hold that the physical death of Jesus did not touch the sin issue at all. Next one, do you think that the punishment for our sin was for Jesus to die on the cross? That is a rhetorical question and the implied answer is no, no, no, our salvation has nothing to do with the death of Jesus on the cross. That is blasphemy.

That is a false gospel, and the apostle Paul, if he were alive today, would take issue with this false gospel. The next quote, and I will say who said this, this Is a person that doesn't profess to be a Christian, at least in my understanding. anyway, Oprah Winfrey, listen to what this guru of, of spiritual truth has to say. She says, and forgive me if that came across disrespectful.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I'm just getting caught up in the moment here. Listen to what this, this woman has to say. There are many paths to what you referring to a conservative evangelical call God.

Her path might be something else. Her loving kindness and generosity may bring her to the place you want to go. There cannot possibly be only one way. Well, Jesus Christ again says, there is only one way, that is through me, and she is in error for what it is that she's saying.

And I have heard many Christians say, I think she may be a believer. I'm not sure, but she's such a good woman. She's, she, she may be a believer. Well, if, if she's gonna say something like that, you would definitely be right in doubting whether or not she is a believer.

And so far, we have learned a number of truths about false teachers. Number 1, they seek to hinder those who run well. Number 2, they seek to hinder those who run well by teaching a false gospel. Thirdly, we have just looked at their teaching does not originate from God, but from the devil.

We have seen some demonic quotes, if you will. And now Paul goes on to describe the effect. Of their false gospel. Number 4, their little heresy results in widespread destruction.

Their little heresy results in widespread destruction. Look at verse 9 with me. It says a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. This is perhaps a proverbial saying, and Paul is going to pick up on this saying, and he is going to use it and quote it to communicate the point that their little heresy results in widespread destruction.

You see, these, these, these, Galatian readers, they, they were doing well, they're getting tripped up and, and these, these false teachers of the gospel, these false gospel teachers come along and they're gonna introduce to them heresy, but they're not gonna jump right to circumcision necessarily. They're gonna start with something, a, a little less and then they're gonna find Progress to the place of you've got to get circumcised. OK, they'll get to that. They're going to begin, for example, by trying to encourage them to obey special days and months and seasons and years, and we see that in Galatians 4:10 they were beginning to obey those things which comes out of the Old Testament law.

And then over the course of time they were being asked to get to the place where they just Fully embraced it all and just, get circumcised and so they're moving toward the need for God's people to undergo circumcision as necessary to complete one's salvation. You see what's happening is that ultimately the Judaizers are causing the Galatians again as I've said, to move away from the very heart of the gospel, emphasizing the need for works in order to be saved. And you and I, brothers and sisters, let's not deceive ourselves into thinking that we cannot be Galatian-like.

It is very possible that we can be Galatian-like ourselves.

We must beware of the possibility of deviating from the gospel. We want the gospel to be central to everything we believe and do. May it be that we are never guilty of allowing the leaven of legalism. Them to creep in and distance us from the true experience of the gospel.

This is having a form of godliness but denying its power. This is cleaning up the outside of the cup while being full of corruption on the inside. May we forever remain true to the very essence of the gospel that we are sinners saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And as we read through this passage, it can be very disconcerting.

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Their little heresy results in widespread destruction. While it is disconcerting that this can happen, it is very encouraging to note the next truth about false teachers. Follow with me truth number 5.

This truth about false teachers says that their teaching will not destroy genuine believers. And Pastor Milton gave to us an excellent sermon last week on the topic of, of perseverance of the saints. If you didn't hear it, I commend it to you because he covers this very well in that sermon. But nevertheless, this, their teaching will not destroy genuine believers.

Verse 10A. Paul says, I have confidence in you, in the Lord. Ultimately his confidence is in the Lord. Ultimately, he knows that he who began the work will complete it.

Ultimately, he is totally Confident that they will persevere because God will cause them to persevere. Ultimately he is confident without any doubt in his mind that they are in the double clutch of the Savior and God the Father, that Christ has them in his hand, the Father has them in the hand, and they are held securely in the love of Christ, and that nothing can ever separate them, that He who began the work will complete it. Paul knows this, and on the basis of that and trust in the sovereignty and the power of God to save those who belong to him, he is absolutely confident.

That the false gospel teaching, the teaching of these false teachers will not destroy these genuine believers.

I have confidence in you and the Lord. That you will adopt no other view. You are, you are going to embrace what I have had to say to you. See, Paul, he has written to them a few chapters already of gospel truth.

He's trying to bring to their memory once again the truth of the gospel, helping them to understand that a man is saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, and he has just hammered that all over the. Place in Galatians and Paul essentially is saying, I know that you, because I trust by God's grace, you are genuine believers, you will embrace the teaching that I present to you. God will use my proclamation of the gospel in your lives as you read it, so that as a result, you will be running well again.

And so genuine believers, even though they get tripped up, even they may not be running well.

When they hear the true gospel, there is something within them that will respond to that effectual calling of God to where they will embrace that gospel once again and be renewed afresh in the joy of the Lord, knowing that they are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone and that they've got freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ to be all that He calls them to be. The apostle Paul is confident in God's work in the life of those who are his. This reminds us of the fact that God is faithful.

This is a great encouragement.

God's elect will persevere. They may go through a season of not running well, but at the end of the day, they will by God's grace persevere unto the end. Praise the Lord. False teachers cannot destroy genuine believers.

However, As we turn to a sober note, a sobering note, it is important to know the next truth about false teachers. Number 6, false teachers will be judged. Look at verse 10B. Paul says, but the one who is disturbing you, the one who has delivered to you a false gospel, the one who by Satan has influenced you to be tripped up, the one disturbing you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.

You see, God will judge those supposed. Teachers who lead his sheep astray. God is not pleased when supposed teachers out there lead the people of God astray through the proclamation of a false gospel, through insisting on salvation by, by, by, through Christ and by works as well. God is not pleased with that.

This judgment speaks of ultimate damnation and the fires of hell. What a sobering thought. These false teachers are in for a rude awakening. Their motives may be great.

They may be trying in the sincerity of their heart to do what is right before God, but they are off base. They are off track. They are proclaiming a false gospel, and God is not pleased with that. You see, this reveals the very heart of God concerning the gospel.

He is passionate about the gospel. God is passionate about this truth that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. He is passionate about the fact that our salvation has everything to do with Christ and Christ alone and His finished work on the cross for us. God is passionate about that.

And the, in this passage also reveals to us the very anger of God towards these false teachers. It also reveals, I believe, his love for his people. God says, I love you so much that I am not pleased when anyone comes along and messes with you. God says, I love you so much that if anyone comes along and presents to you a false gospel, they will be damned.

I will not be pleased with them. I love you so much that I will raise up men like the apostle Paul, who will come along and proclaim to you the true gospel so that you might be running well again. God is deeply committed and again, going back to the passage, the one calling you right now in the present, present tense active, he is the one right now calling you into an experience of the gospel in all of its fullness. And so we learned from this passage then that false teachers will be judged.

They will be judged for their refusal to accept the true gospel. They will be judged for proclaiming a false gospel. They will be judged for causing God's people to stumble, and they will be judged, I believe, because of the next truth about false teachers. Truth number 7, false teachers misrepresent true teachers of the gospel.

Listen to what the apostle Paul says by way of defending himself, he says, but I, brethren, in verse 11, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? You see, he was being accused of preaching circumcision. He was accused of being wishy-washy in his Gospel approach. The Judaizers said to the Galatians, Yo, Galatians, that Paul?

He, he, he's OK with circumcision. In fact, he preaches it. He advocates it. They totally misunderstood what Paul was doing.

They totally misunderstood Paul. Yeah, Paul was totally cool with circumcision. For example, Timothy. Paul had Timothy circumcised.

Why? Because Timothy had a Jewish parent and Timothy was going to minister to Jews, and Paul knew that if the Jews knew that he came from Jewish origin but he was not circumcised, that would interfere with Timothy's ability to proclaim to them the gospel and Paul wanted to remove that barrier so that he could proclaim the gospel without that being a barrier. Circumcision isn't really the issue. It is fine to be circumcised.

OK, but the problem is, is when you attach circumcision to salvation, that is where the problem is. And they were accusing the apostle Paul of being wishy-washy, with the Gentiles, he says you don't need to be circumcised. He's just trying to get those people to follow him. And with the Jews, he said, he's saying, be circumcised, that's what he does with Timothy and they're totally misunderstanding him and really what Paul is ultimately concerned about is the proclamation and the advancement of the gospel.

He says, I've become all things to all people that I might win some. He is passionate about the proclamation of the gospel. The problem here, however, the reason why Paul is taking issue with the Patience is because circumcision was essential for salvation and such heresy requires a response, and this is why Paul is responding to it. It is a damnable doctrine.

In fact, earlier in Galatians, Paul says, if anyone should proclaim another gospel, Other than that which you have heard, let him be accursed. If I or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a false gospel, or anyone else should proclaim to you a false gospel, let him be accursed. And so I would submit to you that Paul had the very heart of God himself concerning the gospel and the importance and the centrality of it. They misrepresent true teachers of the gospel.

You see, they failed to understand that there are times in which one's actions may be appropriate and other times in which those same actions might be inappropriate. It was right for Timothy to be circumcised while wrong for the Galatians to be circumcised. The difference involves the meaning, the motive, and the purpose of the dead. Well, let us hasten on to the last point.

Truth number 8 about the false teachers, they are to be confronted. They are to be confronted. Notice what Paul says, and by the way, the whole tone has been one of confrontation, I think. But notice what he says.

it's just boiling to the surface now. Finally, he just lets out and he says, would that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. Ouch. Would that those who are troubling you would castrate themselves and become eunuchs.

You see, in this day and age in the Galatian era, there was a mystery cult, the cult of Cybele. And the priests in this cult would castrate themselves in service to the idolatrous cult of Cybele. Paul encourages the Judaizers to go ahead and join them in their stance against the Jews. He basically says, Why don't you just fly the flag and be what it is that you are and make it obvious so that everyone can see, go ahead and just make yourself a eunuch, and in the process you are joining those priests who worship Cybele.

Be like them. That may be what it is that Paul is thinking. There is a passage in Judea. Detronomy 23:1.

Listen to this passage. No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord. Paul perhaps is using this verse in an ironic sense, saying that the Judaizers may as well go all the way in their heretical approach and castrate themselves in their attempt to be true, and in actuality, they would be cutting themselves off from the true faith completely and entirely, going the full distance. In accordance with what it is that they really are at the end of the day, no different than the pagans who are out there who reject the gospel.

It is clear that an attack on the gospel ought to invoke a reaction. Paul understands that the glory of God, the greatness of the pure gospel, and the growth of the people of God is all at stake, and thus I would submit to you that his temperament is totally understandable. some might say, was it OK for Paul to wish this upon the Judaizers, keeping in mind that Paul was speaking as an apostle under the inspiration of God as the word is being inscripturated. In essence, what we have just read in this passage is the very heart of God towards these false teachers.

Why don't they just go all the way and emasculate themselves? Keep in mind that Paul at the end of the day is responsible to God, not to man. Perhaps we should let God be the judge of Paul in this instance. Even Jesus said, it is better for a man to die than to cause a believer to stumble, so Paul is being Jesus-like here in his approach.

The Galatians were being led astray, the gospel was under attack. Paul loved both the Galatians and the gospel. It therefore seems appropriate for him to be upset. Rather than say shame on Paul for using such strong terminology about these Judaizers, perhaps we should say instead, shame on me for my comparative indifference.

Shame on me because I don't get worked up in a way similar to the apostle Paul. I would submit to you that we should get worked up, but as we get worked up, As we respond to heresy and to false teachers, our response should be informed by the following, by the following, by tears, I believe. later on in Paul's life to the, to the Philippians, he talks about the, how does he describe them, enemies of the cross of Christ, but in the very same passage, he refers to himself as weeping for them.

There ought to be a sense in which we are broken by the reality that these false teachers are going to hell, and we ought to weep for them and weep over the influence that they are oftentimes able to exert.

Our approach, our response should be informed by humility. Apart from the grace of God, there go I. I'm no better than them. our approach should be shaped, should be shaped by honesty, that we would be honest, speak the truth in love.

Don't let them, go on their way without confronting that respectfully, kindly, lovingly, humbly. We ought to be concerned. And so, we have examined the truth about false teachers. Number 1, they hinder those who run well.

2, they hinder those who run well by teaching a false gospel. 3, their teaching does not originate from God but from the devil. Number 4, their little heresy results in widespread destruction. Number 5, their teaching will not destroy genuine believers.

6, they will be judged. 7, they misrepresent true teachers of the gospel. And then 8, they are to be confronted. You see, the apostle Paul became aware that the Galatian believers were in danger and wanted to ensure that they resist swallowing a bottle of harmful pills.

Thus, he presents these eight truths in order to motivate his readers to reject the false gospel and to embrace the true gospel and just by Way of extension, God is speaking to us right now, and He says embrace the true gospel. Experience it even more fully than what perhaps you are experiencing it right now. Embrace the gospel, be passionate about the gospel, protect it and defend it, proclaim the gospel. I want to ask you to join with me in prayer.

A dear Heavenly Father, we just come before you right now and we thank You, Lord, for your word. And we just pray, Father, that you would have encouraged us by it, Lord. Thank you for the fact that those who were not running well could through the power of the gospel come to a place in which they were running well again. Oh God, thank you, and help us, Lord, to be passionate about the gospel and to proclaim it, Lord.

That Lord, your people would be built up and established in the truth. Father God, as we take a minute here to worship you in song, maybe worship you in a way that would honor you, reminding ourselves of the truths of the gospel. Father God, we thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.