If a church is flourishing and she is not only increasing in numbers but the members are growing spiritually as well, the word of God is preached, souls are saved, families are strengthened, the believers are spiritual, and the children grow up to be the leaders of tomorrow, it is a most wonderful thing, right? When that happens, who will be most unhappy? The devil.
When Jesus was crucified on the cross of Calvary and he said, "It is finished," which means the work of salvation was finished, the devil cannot do anything against the cross or against the salvation of the believers. But what he would do is to hinder the believers from being effective as a church. One of the devil's modus operandi is to use false teachings to confuse the believers so they would deviate from the truth. The purpose is to cause the believers to stop serving and glorifying God, to stop preaching and teaching God's word, to stop evangelism, stop discipleship, stop all these spiritual programs, fellowships, so the church will slowly die. This is what we want to learn from today's passage in Galatians 5:7-12. If you have your Bibles, please turn to this passage. Allow me to read for you Galatians 5:7:
"He did run well who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be."
Verse 11, "And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased."
"I would they were even cut off which trouble you."
The Lord blessed the reading of His holy and sacred word.
The title of our message is "The Danger of False Teaching." Our first point is false teaching will hinder the believer. Let us begin with verse 7. Paul said to the Galatians, "Ye did run well." The phrase "ye did run well" is a picture of an athlete running in a race. Throughout the New Testament, the Christian life has often been described as a race. You and I are running a race, and we need to run well. We need to finish it well too. For example, the Bible tells us as the Christian runs the race, he must lay aside every weight and the sins that hinder him according to Hebrews 12:1. He must run according to the rules and regulations so he will not be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:24). He must run by holding fast to the word of life so he will not run in vain (Philippians 2:16). He must run with his eyes focused on the finishing line in order to win the prize (Philippians 3:14). These are just some of the examples of Christians running the race.
Apparently, the Christians in the Church of Galatia were running very well. In other words, they were trusting the grace of God, living their lives in faith or by faith, and in obedience to God's word. They were growing spiritually. Then all of a sudden, something unexpected happened. It was as if someone came from the sidelines and interfered with their running. That is the meaning of the word "hinder." The literal meaning means to cut in or cut off the runner by getting in front of him to block him, to stumble him, or to cause him to deviate from his path. So Paul asked the Galatians this question, "You have learned and accepted all the spiritual truth that I have taught you. You were doing very well. What has happened to you? Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?"
It was not as if Paul did not know who had hindered the Galatians. It was a rhetorical question because he already knew who their enemy was. It was the false teachers and the Judaizers who had cut into their path and caused them to deviate from God's grace and faith to the legalism of works and the law. My friends, this same thing can also happen to anyone of us in this room. In the past, we have seen many Christians very zealous for the truth, obedient to God, actively serving God, always attending meetings, Bible studies, fellowships. Like the Galatians, they were running very well. Then all of a sudden, they were hindered. They slowly drifted away from the truth. They were no longer enthusiastic and passionate about spiritual things. Eventually, they slowly faded away from the scene. Some of them are our children, our parents, our friends. And we would ask the same question, "What has happened to you? How could you turn away from the truth so quickly? You once accepted all these truths. How could you just walk away like this?"
How did the false teachers and Judaizers manage to hinder the Galatians? Well, the method in which they used was by deceptive persuasion. They would come up with all kinds of teachings, fanciful ideas, opinions, suggestions, and preferences that were very attractive and convincing. So much so that the Galatians, who were running very well, could be sidetracked. But Paul said very emphatically that this kind of teaching was not from God. This is our second point: False teaching is not from God. Look at verse 8, "This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you."
The one who sovereignly called and saved the Galatians was none other than God himself. Why was Paul so sure that this persuasion was not from God? Firstly, God will always call a person to gravitate towards His truth, not away from His truth. He will never call the person to disobey His truth. Secondly, God's teaching will always cause a person to persevere, press on, and run the race well. It will never hinder the person. Sometimes all we need to do is just pause and ask ourselves, if this teaching is according to scriptures and if it is spiritually good and acceptable, why am I not growing spiritually? Why am I becoming more and more worldly? Why am I moving further and further away from God, not closer to Him? Why am I not worshiping Him, loving Him, serving Him, and obeying His word?
Of course, it could be due to our rebellious nature. But the point is, true faithful teaching, when it is accepted, will lead to true faithful living. It is good for you to sometimes encourage the preacher, "Oh, that was a good message." If the message is good, then it must lead to faithful living. What is the use of a message being good, but it leads you to nowhere? False teachers can appear to be very sincere, friendly, caring, loving, articulative, impressive, and persuasive. The most dangerous part is that false teachers tend to come within the church. So they could be our friends, our leaders, our church members. That makes it very difficult for us to reject them, right? But no matter who they are, if their teaching is not in line with God's word, then we ought to reject them.
Some people may say, "The preacher or the minister has taught a lot of good things, but just a little bit of deviation from the truth. What harm can a little false teaching do
to us? Just a little bit, but the rest, they are all very good. What can that little bit do to us?" Well, Paul moved on to the next point. The false teaching will contaminate the church. Verse 9, "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Here Paul used the illustration of baking bread. Most of us are familiar with baking bread. You add a bit of leaven or yeast in order to raise the dough. In the Bible, the word leaven is often used to represent sin. It is also used to represent false teaching. And he emphasized the powerful influence sin and false teaching has on us. For example, in Matthew 16:6, Jesus warned His disciples, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." In other words, be careful of the false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. In 1 Corinthians 5:1, Paul said to the believers that it was actually reported that there was fornication happening in the Corinthian Church. It was a kind of sexual immorality that even the pagans could not accept. That one of the church members who slept with his father's wife or his stepmother. That was a horrendous sin. But amazingly, the Corinthians were able to tolerate that kind of sin. They thought of themselves as being so loving that they could accept that kind of sin. They even thought of themselves as spiritual, and they were very, very proud. Paul had to rebuke them and said, "Your boasting is not good." And then he quoted this same phrase, "Do you not know that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" He was referring to the sin.
It was the same situation in the church at Galatia. The Galatians allowed the false teachers to teach a little bit of heresy here and there. A little bit of falsehood is spread and corrupted the thinking and the lives of the people. Before they knew it, the whole church was contaminated. Like sin, false teaching can multiply and spread throughout the whole body of believers, the church. By way of illustration, it is just like one single cell of cancer. When it is not dealt with, it will spread throughout the whole physical body. We all know that. Perhaps a better illustration today relevant to us would be COVID-19. Let's say you know someone has COVID-19. Will you still shake his hand, hug him, or kiss him, knowing that he has that deadly virus? Most certainly not. Do you know what is most interesting? We will never say it is unloving when we try to remove any traces of cancer cells in our bodies. We will never say it is unloving when we try to avoid someone who has COVID-19. But when we deal with false teachings in the church, oftentimes we will be accused of being unloving, unkind, not understanding, hypocritical, and so forth. Ask ourselves this question, which is more dangerous, cancer and COVID-19 which can only destroy this physical body or false teaching which can destroy the soul of a man? Cancer or COVID-19 cannot destroy B.T. church. At most, it can take away your life. But false teaching can. Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, once said, allow me to rephrase what he said. "For the lack of a nail, the horseshoe was lost; for the lack of a horseshoe, the horse was lost; for the lack of a horse, the rider was lost; for the lack of a rider, the battle was lost." The moral of his story is this, to lose a battle may be a great disaster, but when you trace the root problem which led to this great disaster, it is actually just a little nail. It doesn't take much to create a great disaster. That is the moral of the story. When we put this into the spiritual perspective, what about spiritual disaster? All it takes to destroy the church, all it takes to destroy our spiritual lives, the spiritual lives of our children is just one single false teaching, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
God forbids if one day B.T. church is destroyed, no more B.T. church or it becomes a church that is no longer faithful to God's word. All of us, when we trace the root problem that led to this great spiritual disaster, it is one single false teaching, a little leaven. That is why we must be very careful. Our fourth point is the propagators of false teaching will be judged. False teachers will be judged. Verse 10, "I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be."
Paul had just warned the Galatians about the dangers of false teaching and suddenly he turned around and he said, "You will be all right. I have confidence in you." Why did he do that? The phrase "ye will have none otherwise minded" simply means you will take no other views other than the one I preached to you. How could Paul be so sure about that? How could he be so sure that in his absence with the false teachers lurking around that the Galatians would still be able to turn around and hold onto the truth that he preached? Was he so arrogant to believe that his preaching is so powerful that they will remember and they will turn around? Well, the emphasis is in the phrase, "through the Lord." With men, with Paul, it is impossible, but with God, all things are made possible.
Paul understood that the church belonged to Christ. Christ was in charge of establishing the church and sustaining the church. He also knew that the Believers who were truly born again, they would love the word of God. They would search the scriptures to find out what was true and false. When they realized that these false teachings were contrary to biblical truth, they would reject. So Paul's confidence was not in himself, it was in the Lord, it was in those whom God had sovereignly called and saved. Those whom God has saved, Jesus himself said no man, not even false teachers, could pluck them out of my hand (John 10:28). Paul believed that with all his heart. If the church and the Believers belong to Christ, anyone who tries to destroy the church and the Believers, do you think God does not know? Will he not deal with them? Most certainly he will. Therefore Paul went on to say, "But he that trouble you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he may be."
Recently, someone shared with me about his frustration regarding all those deceptive faith-healing evangelists, all those health, wealth, and prosperity Gospel preachers like Benny Hinn, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Joel Osteen, and so forth. With their deceptions, they had made hundreds of millions, not in their lifetime, on a yearly basis, hundreds of millions. So this brother in Christ was very troubled and he asked, "Where is God's judgment? Will God not judge these people who had troubled his church and the Believers?" Well, be very sure, God is not mocked. Anyone who propagates deception, anyone who troubles the church, destroys the church and the Believers, his judgment will surely come, whether in this life or in the life to come, it will surely come.
Our fifth point is false teachers will persecute true teachers (verse 11), "And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the Cross ceased?" Apparently, there were some people who had accused Paul of preaching circumcision as necessary for salvation. Remember, Paul himself said in Philippians 3:5, "I am circumcised the eighth day," right? He said that Paul had Timothy circumcised so Timothy could reach out to the Jews. The Jews would accept him because of that. They accused him that he was just like the Judaizers, the false teachers. See, Paul was also preaching the need for circumcision. You see, Paul was never against the Jewish practices, he himself was a Jew. So he was circumcised on the eighth day. Timothy was half-Jew, so Paul had him circumcised. There's nothing wrong with that. What Paul was against was when the Judaizers started to teach circumcision was necessary for salvation. Those are two very different things. There will always be people who will twist and turn what you say. There will always be people who try to cast doubts on the integrity of God's servants, whether they be pastors, preachers, elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers. The moment they notice an apparent crack in your life or something you have said or done that appears to be ambiguous, they will try to amplify, exaggerate, or misrepresent you so that the church members will reject your leadership and abandon you. That is the work of the devil. Paul had to defend himself, therefore he said, "If I was like the false teachers and Judaizers and I had preached circumcision was necessary for salvation, I will be accepted by them. Why was I then being persecuted by them? If I had preached circumcision was necessary for salvation, then it is no longer the work of Christ on the cross of Calvary alone. If that is the case, then my preaching of the Cross is no longer offensive."
Think about this, if Paul were to preach, "Salvation is by the cross, salvation is by faith, salvation is by grace, plus circumcision, plus the law, plus good works, and anything else," he would not be persecuted, he would be welcomed by the people. He'll be well-accepted by the vast majority. That was essentially what Paul was trying to say. My friends, is it not true that if we want to be accepted, if we want to be welcomed by the vast majority, all we need to do is just to compromise the truth? People will invite us, people would welcome us, people will accept us. We would hold hands with all the ecumenical churches. But the moment we take a stand for God's truth, the moment we preach, "Jesus is exclusively the only way to salvation," the moment we emphasize the five solas, only by faith alone, only by grace alone, only by Christ alone, only Scriptures alone, and to the glory of God alone, people will be offended, surely they would be, you and I will be rejected. But we would rather be on the Lord's side than on the wrong side. Although we may be accepted by the world, by the vast majority, but we are lingering on the wrong side. God forbids.
This leads us to our final point: The false teachers should be dealt with firmly. Let us look at verse 12. Paul said this, "I would they were even cut off which trouble you." The word "cut off" can be translated as amputate, mutilate, or castrate. Remember, the false teachers and Judaizers were teaching that salvation must include circumcision. Here Paul says, "I would rather that those who trouble you, those who teach circumcision was necessary for salvation, that they would castrate themselves." Based on the language used here, it might appear as if Paul was angry and he lost his temper, but that is not the case because we need to understand the historical background of Galatia.
Let me explain it to you briefly. At that time in Asia Minor, there was this popular cult worshiping the goddess Cybele. Like all the other paganistic religions, they would have all kinds of rituals and sacrificial offerings. But in order to achieve the supreme act of religious devotion, many of the male worshippers would castrate themselves. All the priests were self-made eunuchs. The Galatians were very familiar with this cultic group, so they knew about all these paganistic practices. With this background in mind, Paul argued, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, had given the ultimate price of dying on the cross of Calvary, shedding his precious blood. If you are going to undo the work of Christ on the cross by demanding circumcision, thinking that you can please God by your circumcision, Paul says, why not go all the way? Be like the male worshippers of the goddess Cybele, castrate yourselves, because that is the supreme act of religious devotion. In other words, if you believe in circumcision as necessary for salvation, you are just like the pagans. They also believe in human achievements to appease their gods. Why don't you follow the pagans and do the most extreme self-mutilation? By that, then you can achieve the supreme act of religious devotion.
So Paul did not lose his temper. It was not an outburst. It was a rational argument or reasoning. He was firmly dealing with the false teachers. He had to firmly put a stop to their false teachings. We do not have to lose our Christian testimonies. We just need to be firm in the face of false teachers and false teachings. We need to be very, very firm. Our Lord Jesus himself was very gracious and patient with the sinners, the publicans, the tax collectors. But when it came to the scribes and Pharisees, he always dealt with them very firmly. Why? Because they were spiritual leaders and as leaders came the influence. They could influence the people greatly. That was the reason why we must always deal with those who are in authority and as they preach false doctrines, teachings, they must be dealt with very firmly because of their great influence.
My friends, false teaching is extremely dangerous because it will hinder the believer. It will render you and I ineffective in the Church of Jesus Christ. We may still be coming to church week after week, but because of this indoctrination of the false teachings, we will no longer be effective for our Lord and Savior. It is not from God. God will never cause a person to move away from his truth. It is always to gravitate toward his truth. God will never cause a person to disobey his truth. It will contaminate the whole church if you allow a little heresy here, a little bit of false teaching there, and you say, "Well, let's be gracious, let's be understanding, let's be loving," like the Corinthian Church which was so loving in their own eyes that they will accept the sin of a man sleeping with his own stepmother. How horrendous when that happens. The Bible tells us, "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Before we know it, the whole church will be destroyed.
Ultimately, false teachers will be judged. God will not tolerate. He will not allow it to happen. He will not allow his true church to be destroyed by these false teachers. Whether they face his judgment in this life or in the life to come, his judgment will surely come, 100%. False teachers will persecute true believers, true teachers. If you are teaching the truth, well, do not be discouraged if you face persecution. It will come from all those who are opposed to God's truth, all those who propagate deception. And false teachers should be dealt with firmly.
Finally, as believers, all of us desire to grow spiritually, right? We want our children to grow up in an environment whereby the word of God is preached faithfully. We want a church that is faithful. We want our unbelieving loved ones and friends to come to church to hear the pure gospel, not a diluted gospel that cannot save. That can only happen if false teaching is kept out of the church. And the only way we can do that is that all of us must stand together. All of us must study the Bible diligently. All of us must faithfully defend and guard the word of God with all our hearts, soul, and life. By the grace, mercy, and power of God, we can do it. With men, it is impossible, but with God, all things are made possible. May the Lord have mercy on B.T. church so that as long as the Lord Jesus would t in his return, this church will still remain faithful. Preachers may come and go, pastors may come and go, but God will protect and preserve the church.
Let us pray, our Father in heaven, we thank thee for this passage that we are able to consider. May thou help us to remember, help us to apply thy word into our lives. Indeed, we love thy church. Thou hast put us into this local church. We who are true believers, we belong to the universal church. And we want to serve thee while we are still alive in this local community. We want this local church to remain faithful today, for as long as our Lord Jesus will t in his return. Help us to stand together as a church. Help us to be diligent in the study of thy word. Help us to be bold and courageous to guard and to defend thy word with our lives. We cannot do this but unless thou will grant us thy grace, mercy, and power. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.