GALATIANS 5:2-12 | SOMETHING SIMILAR ISN’T THE SAME

We weren’t able to go with them on this trip, which was fine as they were able to make there way through Yellowstone and enjoy the scenery for themselves.

When they finally made it back late that night, we asked them how was their trip.

They talked about the beautiful waterfalls, Old Faithful, the boiling water pots.

And then we asked the question that seems to always come next: Did you see any animals?

They began to share the usual suspects: Bison and Elk.

Then they shared the more rare wildlife: they had seen a bear.

But then they mentioned one that threw me for a loop… they said the saw a Caribou.

Now there was just one problem… there are no caribou in Yellowstone.

I began to scratch my head at this new revelation.

“Are you sure it wasn’t an elk”… “No, we saw elk, they responded.”

“It had antlers, and was like a really large dear.”

It was then I realized they had seen a Mule Deer.

They had only ever seen small whitetail deer, and this extra large animal with antlers was no deer they had ever seen

So obviously it must be a caribou.

You know, I’ve seen pictures of caribou…

They have antlers… four legs… similar hair… four hooves (not paws)… there are a lot of similarities between a mule deer and a caribou.

But it isn’t the similarities that separate them… it’s the differences.

EXPLANATION: Here in Galatians 5, for the final time, Paul is going to address this matter of these false teachers that had come in teaching things contrary to the Gospel.

For the past 4 chapters, Paul has beat to death this point that salvation is either by our works, or by faith.

He has been trying his best to win back some of those young converts that once followed the true Gospel but had been led astray by false teachers with unbiblical beliefs.

And now for a final time, Paul is going to bring some concluding arguments to the table.

And as we will see here, Paul does not point to the similarities in their beliefs…

No he brings to the forefront their differences.

APPLICATION: Friend, do you realize that not all beliefs are the same?

Not all beliefs within various religious sects are the same.

If they were, we wouldn’t have so many different religions out there.

ILLUSTRATION: Just a couple weeks ago I was witnessing to a gentleman and he said, “I’m just not religious”

My response was, “Neither am I… I fact I don’t like religion.”

He began to tell me and the guy with me that his mom was catholic, his girlfriend was mormon, and he didn’t really go to church.

And then he said something I’ve heard too many times to count, “I just think if I do my best and I’m a good person, it’ll all work out in the end.”

APPLICATION: Do you realize that both he and the Bible can’t be right.

What he said he believed and what the Bible says are contrary to each other, so they can’t both be right.

In fact their are three different options.

ILLUSTRATION: If I asked you if it was rainy or sunny outside today, some might say it’s sunny.

Some might say it’s rainy.

But there is a third possibility… you could both be wrong and it’s cloudy.

APPLICATION: Friend, there are so many beliefs out there today, so many religions, and while many have similarities, they cannot all be true.

So my challenge to you today is to determine if you are going to allow the Bible to be your final authority, or will you allow some other religion to be your final authority.

Today, I come to you as the apostle Paul came to these believers in Galatia… not as a Baptist… but as much as possible, as a Biblicist.

I want to challenge you that there are not many ways to heaven.

There are not many truths

There is one way and one truth, and that is through what this book has to say.

For a few moments, let’s listen to the Apostle Paul as he addresses this eternally vital truth one final time… And I hope you will settle things in your heart, once and for all!

V.2-6, A TESTAMENT

Galatians 5:2–6 KJV 1900

Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

EXPLANATION: Paul here is not drawing attention to a surgical procedure, but rather a religious position.

These false teachers had proclaimed the numerous works that a person was required to follow to earn eternal life.

The act of circumcision was another hoop that fell in line with the OT Law that a person was required to jump through.

Along with the birth right and other works of the law that we mentioned in earlier chapters.

Paul testifies of the incredible flaw in the thinking that works were necessary for salvation.

“If it is by the works that you can do, then leave Christ out of the equation.”

“But if you are going to leave Christ out of the equation you must keep the whole law, not just the pieces you want to pick and choose!”

ILLUSTRATION: You see those who hold to religion as their access to a right standing with God, like to pick and choose the parts they will follow.

They are like the Pharisee that entered the temple in Luke 18:11-12

Luke 18:11–12 KJV 1900

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

EXPLANATION: They love to point to those aspects of religion that they are able to keep and everyone will be able to see.

But Paul makes clear, if you are going to obtain your righteousness by your keeping of the law, you don’t just get to pick and choose, you must keep all 613 laws!

Paul goes so far as to say in v.4, not that someone could lose their salvation but that they had left the very principle of grace.

What is that principle?

The grace cannot be earned or deserved!

ILLUSTRATION: We have tried to demonstrate with principle to our kids.

If you listen or if you are good at Costco, maybe we can split an ice cream before we leave.

But as we make our way through the store something snatches their mind and they become a rabid animal.

To the point that when we are checking out it is clear that they don’t deserve any ice cream.

But on a couple of occasions I have looked at the kids and I’ve told them, “You have done nothing to deserve this, you understand that right?”

“In fact, you did everything you could not to deserve this.”

“But daddy is going to show you grace and give you something you don’t deserve and didn’t earn.”

APPLICATION: Your right standing with God has nothing to do with what you could do to earn it or deserve it.

It is completely based on God’s grace!

And that doesn’t change after your salvation!

One of the ways we no that we cannot lose our salvation is because if it was based on what we could do to keep it, we would lose it.

But it isn’t based on what we have done or didn’t do… it’s based on the undeserved grace of God!

You see to add anything to the grace of God is to completely take away from the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

As one preacher said it, “Christ supplemented is Christ supplanted.”

Works based salvation and works based acceptance doesn’t just take away from the sacrifice of Christ, it attempts to completely nullify the sacrifice of Christ.

It is to rob Christ of His greatest glory, that He died to pay for your sins and mine, and it is to attribute some of that glory on ourselves!

EXPLANATION: Paul testifies in v.5-6, that it is only by our faith in what Christ already did that we have access to the righteousness of Christ!

It’s interesting what he writes in v.6… Some were glorying in the fact that they weren’t trying to do it by the law, while others were bragging about trying to do it by the law, and Paul says neither one of you have anything to glory in.

The only glory should be in Christ and our faith we have put in His sacrifice.

Because there is a difference between a works base religion that points to what I’ve done… and the Biblical sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

A TESTAMENT

V.7-9, A PERSUASION

Galatians 5:7–9 KJV 1900

Ye 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.

EXPLANATION: Paul once again turns his readers and our attention to the reality, this wasn’t some change they had come to based on their careful study of the Scriptures.

No it was from someone who had come in a led them astray with their unbiblical teachings.

Now you can mark it down, these people that came in weren’t dressed like the antichrist.

They didn’t come in and try to throw out the Scriptures… that would have thrown up red flags.

No they came in subtly with many of the same teachings.

And then they tried to slip in their false teachings here and there.

In fact the word persuasion in the Greek as another interpretation… Deception.

ILLUSTRATION: Do you remember the story in the garden with Eve?

Genesis 3:1–5 KJV 1900

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Eve didn’t clearly know God’s Word, and Satan took advantage of that opportunity to twist the truth of God.

APPLICATION: One of the dangers of so many false religions is that they so often have many similarities to the truth.

But it is the differences from the true Gospel that separates them from the truth!

And it doesn’t take much to turn from the truth of the Gospel.

EXPLANATION: Paul said it this way in v.9

ILLUSTRATION: I am not a baker and I do not claim to be.

But I do know it takes only a little yeast to make the loaf of bread rise.

EXPLANATION: Paul says, “It only takes a little false teaching to do a great deal of damage.”

ILLUSTRATION: I was recently talking with a preacher who shared with me an experience he had at a church he had visited.

At the church, the teacher of a class submitted to the class, “I don’t know why we don’t do things with the other churches in our town. I mean the catholics and the mormons believe pretty much the same things we do.”

APPLICATION: Now let’s be clear what I am about to say.

I am not saying that a person that holds to a different religion, specifically mormonism or Catholicism because those are a couple big ones out here, that they are bad people.

Neither am I saying that a person that goes to a Catholic or mormon church can’t be saved.

But hear clearly what I am about to say… You cannot hold to and live by the teachings at a Catholic or mormon church, and be truly saved.

Why?

Because in Catholic doctrine there are 7 sacraments that a person must keep to gain eternal life.

Ephesians 2:8–9 KJV 1900

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Titus 3:5 KJV 1900

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Romans 10:9–10 KJV 1900

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The Mormon religion believes in an alternate Jesus.

Mormon doctrine teaches that Jesus Christ was the “spirit child” of heavenly father and heavenly mother before life began on earth.

They also believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers, both born from heavenly father and heavenly mother.

They do not believe in a physical eternal hell as the Bible states, but rather they believe the people who rejected their gospel will be in a temporary spirit world upon death where they will be in anguish caused by the knowledge of their sins and unclean state.

Now what does the Bible say?

John 1:1–3 KJV 1900

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:14 KJV 1900

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Philippians 2:6–11 KJV 1900

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Colossians 1:12–17 KJV 1900

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Hebrews 1:8 KJV 1900

But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

Had enough proof? Well how about a little more!

In John 8, Jesus is being challenged by the Jews and Jesus states His eternality.

John 8:58 KJV 1900

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

They knew exactly what “I AM” Jesus was calling Himself

In John 10 Jesus declares in John 10:30-33

John 10:30–33 KJV 1900

I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

And by the way, there is a day coming when everyone will recognize exactly Who Jesus is.

Because at the end of that tribulation period, Revelation 19:11-16

Revelation 19:11–16 KJV 1900

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Yes Jesus Christ always has been and always will be God!

And it doesn’t matter if you don’t fully understand that!

The Bible says it, that settles it, and we must by faith believe it!

And by the way, while Jesus was on this earth, He spent more time talking about the reality of an eternal hell than he did about heaven, so you can mark that down to.

I’m not trying to be hateful this morning, that isn’t my goal.

I kinda feel like Paul just a little bit from Galatians 4:16

Galatians 4:16 KJV 1900

Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

Friend, I just want to be clear and relevant in our day and age, because while we may not have a Jewish religious teacher trying to make us keep the Law, we certainly have an plenty of religion that may carry similarities, but it is definitely the difference that separates them from biblical Christianity!

A TESTAMENT, A PERSUASION

V.10-12, A CONFIDENCE

Galatians 5:10–12 KJV 1900

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. 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.

EXPLANATION: Paul finishes with a few confident statements to conclude his defense of the Gospel of grace vs works.

He begins with a sweet encouragement.

He tells them, “I’m confident that you know what is right and you will follow what is right.”

APPLICATION: There’s just something sweet when someone comes alongside and encourages you.

Friend, when is the last time you encouraged someone?

There is enough discouragement going around, it’d be good to encourage someone.

Encourage someone to stay faithful

Encourage someone that you notice they are doing right

Encourage someone that you care about them

Proverbs 25:11 KJV 1900

A word fitly spoken Is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

It doesn’t mean that we cover sin or don’t encourage growth… but when we can communicate, “I’m confident in you”, I can tell you, it sure goes a long way.

EXPLANATION: Paul then tells them, “I’m confident the false teachers will have their day.”

For those who have intentionally led others contrary to the Word of God, Paul makes clear, there is a day of judgment coming for them.

APPLICATION: Friend, can I tell you, this is one of the great burdens of preaching the Word of God.

I don’t ever want to preach something contrary to the Word of God… I don’t want to twist the verses to fit my narrative.

Because I know one day I will give an account for the words I have said.

James humbly challenged his readers in James 3:1

James 3:1 KJV 1900

My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

One day, I will stand before God for the words I have preached to you today and each week.

And I hope and pray on that day I don’t have to say that I preached in my flesh.

That I twisted the Scriptures to get across my agenda.

Oh God help me to faithfully and fully preach this Book!

But there will be some on that day who have taught and preached contrary to the Word of God and led people astray… and truly on that day, they will receive the great condemnation!

They will be judged for leading others astray.

EXPLANATION: Then Paul gives a confident defense of his preaching in v.11, and a confident wish in v.12.

He says, “I just wish God would take out those false teachers.”

“I just wish God would remove them”

APPLICATION: You know sometimes I feel that way… I just wish God would remove the ones that are trying to lead people astray.

I wish God would just make it so obvious to people that they are being led astray.

Friend, hear the heart of this preacher… don’t swallow the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil that desire to lead you contrary to God’s Word.

I wish I could stand in front of you with a big sign that says, “Don’t go that way!”

But ultimately, that is the roll of the Holy Spirit.

And as we are going to see in the coming weeks, you have to choose to be led of the Spirit and not your flesh!

CONCLUSION

Friend, hear the Testament, the Persuasion, the Confidence from the apostle Paul!

Just because something is similar doesn’t make it the same.

And when it comes to our eternity there is only one way to heave… and it’s the Bible way.

Friend, be a Biblicist this morning.

Make this book your final authority, not some religion and follow the clear teaching of the Word of God.

There is only one way to heaven… and it’s through Jesus Christ alone… nothing more and nothing less.

If you’ve never received the grace of God and been truly saved, why don’t you receive Him this morning.

If you have received Him as your Savior, then let’s get in the trenches and encourage others not to be led astray!

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