Untitled Sermon (41)

Call to worship

Please turn with me to as we begin to look at our text for the day.

Galatians 5:1–15 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Read and pray.

The US Secret Service encountered a counterfeit $100 dollar bill that was so close to perfect that it was able to slip past the banks and make its way to the Federal Reserve.

A group of four friends came up with the idea that

The creators of the bill utilized extremely high resolution photos of real $100 dollar bills, a unique paper and even a substance was placed onto the paper to allow it to pass the marker test.

By all accounts, if you were handed this bill, the chances are very high that you wouldn’t notice anything off about this bill and you would gladly put it in your pocket.

By all ways to tell, those who wouldn’t be familiar with counterfeit money would not be able to see the difference.

The group of friends continued their money laundering

Several years went by before the Federal agents would finally catch a break.

This morning I want to talk about the fruit that is produced within a body of Christian believers who are not walking faithfully in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As a Church, we talk often about Christian behavior and mannerisms.

Would anyone like to take a guess as to why it is that we talk about Christian behavior?

I want to take just a moment to encourage you that there has not been a sermon written intentionally to address error within this body apart from maybe a couple.

It’s because true Christians will produce a specific type of character and behavior.

Not that each one of us are to be conformed to one another’s image by any means.

Outside of that, each sermon was merely following the thought of the text that we were looking at.

But there is a mold in which each of us are called to fit into.

While each of us are individuals as a person and many characteristics about who we are will probably never change.

There is much about us that will change.

And this change will be guiding all who are Christ’ into the same mold.

(Slide)

Romans 8:29 ESV

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Look at this verse for just a moment.

Listen to

Yes there is the issue of being predestined.

Most of us here would agree with this idea that God chose to redeem a people for Himself in Christ.

But that is not the depth of that passage.

Instead, what you find here is that those who are predestined are predestined with a purpose.

They are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.

So what does that mean?

What does it mean to be conformed to something?

A standard dictionary definition would say that it means that you comply to a set of rules.

That some set of standards that has been placed upon your life has now become what you have chosen to mold your thoughts and actions around.

You become obedient to what is being asked of you.

And while that idea could be found in a few places of this passage of Scripture, that’s not the key.

Instead the main point of this idea is that those who are Christ’ will be changed into his likeness.

(Slide)

The very character of Jesus becomes the character of those who have been redeemed in Christ.

The way that Jesus would handle Himself becomes what you as a true believer will do.

Not only are you bought with the atoning work of Jesus, but you are now guaranteed to be conformed into His image.

But what happens when this isn’t the case in your life?

What happens when the point of the Church has replaced its whole focus with something made by human hands?

I believe this passage in Galatians really hits a home run with this issue.

Normally I would have preached verses 1-6 on its own but the context really shows that for us today, all 15 verses should be preached together.

So with that in mind, I want to walk this passage backwards for the sake of our journey through the text.

Look with me at verse 15.

(Slide)

Galatians 5:15 ESV

But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

B

Why does biting and devouring one another happen within a Church?

What happens in a congregation that causes people to act in this way?

The answer is simple!

Legalism!

When legalism creeps into the Church, it creates a culture of superiority amongst one another.

(Slide)

Legalism makes people feel superior to one another.

They have finally done it.

They figured out what they must do and now they’ve went and done it.

And because they’ve been able to hit the mark that they’ve created perfectly, they’ve no more need for Christ to do it for them.

And in varying degrees, this creeps into every Church.

I mean just think about this for a moment.

Having been here almost a year, some of what I’m going to say has been seen and experienced by me personally within our Church.

Not in drastic ways but none-the-less, I’ve seen it still within our own Church.

Now know that I am not singling Kirkwood Baptist Church out by any means.

Please, hear me when I say that.

This is not merely an issue here!

Legalism which causes people to devour one another has been in the Church since its foundation.

The very first place you find this in Scripture in dealing with a specific Church is this very letter.

Paul as a first century Christian was very accustomed to dealing with this issue as you’ll see from this text.

This issue of biting and devouring each other was prominent in the Galatian Church.

In every Church that begins to remove itself away from the Gospel, there develops an esteeming of men.

(Slide)

An esteeming of the individuals works and abilities which though they would never say this out loud, it is none the less true.

In fact, it is repulsive.

Their works and abilities become the sole focus of the environment.

And this produces within the Church a form of back-biting that is beyond ungodly.

It creates a culture where people devour one another on the basis of one’s obedience to the standard.

Not only is it ungodly, it is in-fact repulsive to Christ.

In any Church which develops a legalistic mentality and attitude, there will also come with it a form of arrogance and pride based upon external actions or inactions.

No, no, no, this is what we do here!

Oh, I don’t do that! I’m a Christian.

And before anyone in this room can raise up an attitude which would claim that they can’t be included in this group, let me go ahead and say it.

Each of us is guilty of this.

Did you hear me?

“WE” are all guilty of this!

Some maybe more than others but there is not a single person in this room who has been brought unto salvation and has perfectly understood this issue.

We all have at some point in our life had a list of rules that a Christian needed to conform to and if someone in the group didn’t conform, WATCH OUT!

We will either be the first one to go and tell the Elders of the Church or at the very least, we’ll whisper the actions of that person to our wives and husbands.

Generally speaking it comes in the form of gossip with one another.

A person’s phone will ring and as soon as they’ve heard the news of what so and so is doing, they immediately continue to spread that information along.

They begin this process of devouring one another and for what?

To make themselves feel better?

To examine the life of another person and measure themselves on the basis of what their brother or sister in Christ is doing?

As Christians, we develop this mental list of what I believe a Christian should be conformed to.

And on the basis of my own personal list, I begin running each person through my checklist.

And God forbid you fail to meet my standard...

Now this is not to say that there is no standard and that there is no conformity.

The difference though is that one conforms to my image and the other conforms to Christ’ image.

Conformity to Christ’ image is very Biblical.

(Slide)

In fact, it’s the goal!

Conformity to what Pastor Cory says is not!

You see the difference here?

Each of us as individual Christians are free to have our own set of convictions that we believe to line up with God’s Word.

But when our convictions don’t line up with Scripture, we must be willing to change our convictions.

You are free to have convictions that you place upon yourself, just make sure they line up with God’s Word as it is rightly divided.

And the convictions that we have, they cannot be placed upon another individual.

Especially in the arena of Christian liberty.

When one esteems one way over another and is convicted of it and is not in sin either way, that is Christian liberty.

That’s why the Church Covenant clearly states the we will not judge another on the basis of Christian Liberty.

No matter how much we think that our personal convictions might benefit someone else, if they don’t see it our way, than all is well.

We cannot demand one another to be conformed to our standard because what that produces is a form of legalism.

The liberty of the conscience is there for this very reason.

And we are not to judge one another in these things for by judging them in their freedom, we have esteemed ourselves to be the judge over them.

Another reason for this is that as Christians, when you try to place your own standard upon other people, you will sow nothing but discord and discontentment.

Not only does it sow discord, it takes away from the Gospel!

(Slide)

Listen to Paul in verses 2.

Galatians 5:2 ESV

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

If you choose to accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

(Slide)

If instead of Jesus, you want to be dependent upon external things, Christ will not benefit you.

That is the very heart of legalism.

It takes what only God can do which is to develop a sense of a standard upon your life.

Applying your standard upon others and mandating it upon them

And now somehow, though every human being throughout all of human history has failed to be right before God on their own, now somehow you can make that happen!

Do you realize how blasphemous that is?

That you, even though Scripture which clearly teaches that you can never have any righteousness of your own, now somehow think that you can do it!

Most researchers agree that close to 108 billion people have lived on this earth in total and not one of them outside of Jesus could follow the law perfectly.

Not one of them apart from Jesus had the ability to have their own righteousness.

Yet as human beings with a sin filled nature, we somehow see that as a challenge.

Somehow in our tiny little brains we see the odds as being 1-in-108 billion and we somehow think that we’ve got a shot.

And once again before anyone in here objects, this is the nature of who we are as human beings.

This was and occasionally still is who I am!

Do you realize that I used to be legalistic as can be?

Many years ago I created a standard which appeared to be the mold of a Christian in my mind and I tried to apply that to everyone.

And anyone I met who didn’t conform to my pre-set ideology of what I thought a Christian should look like, well that person obviously can’t be saved.

Those were seriously my thoughts and actually even many of my conversations.

And I bet if you were completely honest with yourself, this lies in the depth of your heart as well.

The truth of the matter is that I thought that my odds of beating that 1-in-108 billion statistic was pretty good.

And honestly, this is all of us.

Now listen, I know that sounds really rude and maybe it is, but how ridiculous are we to think that we could be the one.

We could be the one to be right before God on the basis of our

Now some might say, “you know Cory, I’ve not ever said that.”

While that’s probably very true, you don’t need to verbally say something in order for it to be common thought.

You don’t need to say anything if your actions speak for themselves.

Do you think the Judiazers ever said out loud that Jesus wasn’t enough?

The point is that they didn’t have to!

It was their very actions and everything that they added to the Gospel which spoke for itself.

They didn’t need to say that Jesus wasn’t enough because when they began adding to Jesus’ commands, their actions spoke for themselves.

Their actions spoke for themselves.

By adding anything to the Gospel, they were saying Jesus wasn’t enough and when we do it, we aren’t saying anything different.

So let me ask you a question and its going to be a very personal question.

I don’t want an answer out loud, I just want you to think about this for a moment.

How many people over the years have you personally tried to conform to your own idea of the Gospel?

Now I know that I’m not speaking out of line as I’ve heard the stories by many of you here this morning.

Every single one of you has stories about this person and that situation.

How so and so did this to them and this person did that to this one.

How this one wasn’t complying and therefore, here was the end result.

Story after story I have heard where something was done and in almost every single story, do you know what was missing?

Being conformed to the image of Jesus.

People were expected to be conformed to the image of men and not of Christ.

Almost all of these accounts have told the story of a Church which had allowed themselves to be removed from the core of the Cross.

(Slide)

There was an expectation to be conformed to the image of man and his rules.

And the second someone didn’t conform to this image, they were ostracized.

And remember, I’m not talking about being conformed to the image of

Listen, I’m not trying to use any of these statements to cut like a knife so that you can have a gaping wound.

I want to use the Word of God perform surgery and to remove some things that should have never been there.

And because God’s Word is sharp, it will cut deep and it may hurt for a while.

But that wound is not to be left open.

Instead that wound in the heart is given comfort.

The greatest comforter mankind has ever known is right here to offer care and place the salve of the Gospel upon those wounds.

But like a physician, we’ve got to get to the root of everything before we can talk about recovery.

And to get to the root, we have to understand something.

Legalism is a major issue.

For the sake of today, let’s define legalism.

Most of the time what people hear when we use the word legalism is the idea that God has a standard that He holds you to as a Christian.

And because of that standard you better fall in line.

But that’s not what the term means at all.

Of course God has a standard that He places upon believers lives.

God even has a standard by which He places upon the unbeliever as well.

No instead what we mean by this term is simply this;

Legalism is the addition to what the Bible actually states and an expectation of someone to follow this extra-biblical addition.

(Slide)

Legalism is passing judgment upon another on disputable matters.

So if truth be told, each of us in this room would be guilty of this.

Just think for a moment when you last saw a Christian doing something that you personally cannot do and yet is not condemned in Scripture.

What were your thoughts?

Did you pass judgment?

If you’re normal like me than you can only say yes.

You can only say yes.

Legalism chips away at the Gospel, little by little.

(Slide)

Legalism within the Church is a cancer!

It is a cancer which begins very small and often goes unnoticed.

One person begins to lead and teach an idea within the body that sounds good and could maybe even be justified with some Scripture.

And as it grows within the body there will often be discomforts but nothing that can’t be handled.

Statements such as “I know this isn’t comfortable to do this way but this is what the Lord would have you to do.”

It’s nothing that can’t be adjusted to live with.

Yet at some point in time, the tumor gets so large that it eats away at everything that you are.

And at that point, you are left with two options.

You can either see a doctor to know if there is any hope of it being removed.

Or you can allow that tumor to kill you.

In terms of the Christian life, you can ask the Lord to conform your heart to His standard which is Jesus.

Or you can encounter spiritual death.

Those who are truly born of the Spirit, they don’t have a choice in this matter.

There will come a time in their life that the Lord Himself will remove the cancer of legalism in one way or another.

He will cut away every form of pride and arrogance that comes with legalism and it will hurt like crazy.

God will cause them to see that this Christian life is all of Christ Jesus or it is nothing!

And I can promise you when that time comes, it is not comfortable for the Christian.

It’s not comfortable but it has to be done.

Legalism chips away at the Gospel, little by little and because of that, it begins to produce a distorted Gospel and it must be removed.

But when God removes this hurdle from our life, do you how freeing it is?

It’s as if in that moment, the weight of the whole world was upon your shoulders and you had the joy of feeling that burden be lifted.

It’s freeing for sure, but it is not comfortable at all while its happening!

Yet it is not comfortable.

I’m serious!

Look around this very room for just a moment.

This Church used to be packed and God in His Sovereign decree split everything wide open.

And in that time of splitting everything wide open, those who were His remained faithful to Him.

Maybe not here.

They might not be here now.

But somewhere they remained faithful.

Those who were predestined to be conformed to Christ’ image began to go through a process of surgery from the Spirit.

And those who were being conformed to the image of man through legalism ran to what they had been desiring for many years.

They had no actual Gospel of redemption in Christ Jesus but a Gospel of men.

A Gospel of men which will only hold onto a person for so long.

And at that breaking point, those people who were being conformed to image of men are finally free from the law that had bound them.

That is what happened here!

As tragic as that might sound to you this morning, that is what it appears that God has done within this Church.

For the last 10 months I have been trying to give an overview of what the Gospel looks like on ground level.

An overview of understanding the law and the Gospel.

Sometimes I’m sure it felt boring as can be but it was none the less my point to reveal what the Gospel looks like with boots on the ground approach.

And today is the culmination of much of what has been talked about.

The truth is, many things that were taught here actually hindered a lot of you.

Look at verse 7.

Galatians 5:7 ESV

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

Now I don’t want you to misunderstand what I’m getting ready to say so please hear me all the way out in this.

I have no doubt as to why most of you either moved here or came to this Church.

I have no doubt that even in the midst of all of the chaos, many thought that they were doing the Lord’s will.

The problem though is this, having a right heart motivation doesn’t stop you from being wrong or doing wrong.

Sometimes that right heart motivation is a saving grace but it doesn’t stop you from doing the wrong thing.

Think about Uzzah for a moment.

The man was walking beside the Ark of the Covenant and when the Oxen stumbled, Uzzah reached his hand out to stabilize the Ark and God struck him dead.

But if the truth be known, the problem was not the system Church as many would believe.

Now I’ve no way of knowing the intentions of a mans heart but think about this for a second.

This man in all appearances had a hearts desire to protect the Ark of the Covenant because it belonged to the Lord.

And his good heart motivation got him killed.

Now I realize there’s some overreaching there on my part.

Some things could be different and maybe he had ill intentions, I honestly don’t know.

Yet none-the-less here is what I do know and its this, the man reached out to grab something with what appeared to be good intentions and a good heart and instead of him going home the hero, he had to be carried home dead!

A good heart motivation doesn’t prevent us from making mistakes.

So I said all that to say this;

I know also that many came here to get away from the system Church.

Yet If the truth be known, the problem was not the system Church as many would believe.

And here’s how I know.

The very same distortion that was taking place out there in the world of the system Church happened here as well.

The distortion just revealed itself in a different form.

Out in the system Church the rise of liberalism and a distorted Gospel was being proclaimed.

Here, Liberalism wasn’t the issue but in several ways, a distorted Gospel was.

Instead of some sleazy theology about Jesus, we were adding to the Gospel in various ways.

Now I know many would object to that statement.

But brother Roberts hit the nail on the head this last week when he was here.

He spoke about women and dresses.

What he didn’t say though was what I have been told concerning that issue by many of you here today.

For a woman to not wear a dress was basically a revealer of her spiritual state.

She refused to be in submission and therefore she couldn’t possibly be saved.

That is nothing more than adding to the Gospel.

That is nothing more than a distorted Gospel.

And listen, I’m not picking on dresses.

Frankly, I could care less as long as both men and women dress in modesty!

If they dress modestly, they are walking in obedience to Scripture.

But to say that something is a requirement and reveals your spiritual state is nothing more than a hindrance to the Gospel.

And that applies to so much more than merely women wearing a dress.

It applies to anything that is placed upon the same tier as the Gospel.

(Slide)

Galatians 5:9 ESV

A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Paul says that a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Listen, It doesn’t take very much leaven to wind up with a distorted Gospel.

And all across this land there is a multitude of distorted Gospels.

Whether it is in the Prosperity Gospel movement or in the fundamentalist Church.

A little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump.

Do you want to know why I push education on anyone who wants to be a pastor?

Because you’re forced to study these issues and because of that, God will often allow you to see distortions in the Gospel in ways that many others cannot.

You know why I said that the Elders training class was going to take at least a year and those men would be graded by their effort?

It’s because they need to be able to see that small speck of leaven before it infiltrates the whole body.

Why should we safeguard the pulpit?

Because the leaven doesn’t always come from within the Church.

Sometimes it comes from outside and is something that is just a minor distortion.

Yet when you’re dealing with something as major as eternity, that little bit of leaven will steer you way off course.

And that my friends is a major ordeal!

Any form of leaven within the body is to be dealt with.

It’s dealt with because it steers the whole congregation off course and creates a people who esteem themselves and not Jesus.

And in that thought I need to say this and its not going to go over very well when I do but it does need to be said.

If you are the leaven that will infect the whole Church, its time for you to become teachable.

Either be teachable per Scripture as God commands for all of us or God will remove you.

Now I say that not wanting a single soul to walk out of that door and not come back.

Instead, I am saying that as a warning straight from God’s Word.

You called me as your elder to safeguard this flock, not to be conformed to its image.

And because of that, there is only two options for those who are leaven within the Church.

Become teachable as I pray that all of us would be teachable so that we can be conformed to Christ’ image.

Or be not confused, God at some point will remove you.

I as your elder won’t need to remove you.

The rest of the leadership of the Church won’t need to remove you.

God will remove you and as much as I pray that never happens, the truth is that those who are leaven won’t stay where their voice is not heard.

Now and understand everything I am saying to you.

and I pray that never happens.

I am not saying you need to leave.

In fact I pray for a teachable spirit to be within all of us.

That includes myself and anyone else in leadership.

We are called to be teachable, yet so is the congregation.

We are called to be conformed to the image of Christ.

And to be real honest, each of us have enough baggage, we really don’t have the time to be concerned with leaven that will point us away from Jesus.

There are far greater issues to be concerned with outside of tertiary issues.

A Church striving after Christ will not have time to consider someone’s legalistic frame of mind.

It can’t consider those thoughts and remain focused on Jesus.

It can either be focused upon Jesus and be an encouragement for each person to pursue the Lord with love in Christ.

Or it can be a Church that is so concerned with one another and each others actions that you focus only on what everyone else is doing and not about yourself.

The Church that is in love with Jesus doesn’t focus on what everyone else is doing right or wrong because they have enough to worry about for themselves.

Galatians 5:14 ESV

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

(Slide)

That’s why you find in the idea of loving your neighbor as yourself.

That’s there because that becomes the focus of the Church who is pursuing Christ Jesus.

The Biblical Church is so consumed with Jesus as their redeemer that they have no time for biting and devouring one another.

They really only have time to love one another as they’ve been called to.

So my question I guess would be this, which Church are we going to be?

I’m not going to ask which one you want because you don’t get a choice to your approach.

You can either be Christ Church or you can be something else that is centered around man.

But you cannot be both!

You cannot be both!

Listen, I don’t say these things to be a bully.

Frankly I have no joy in anything that sounds like bullying this body.

The people in this room who are a redeemed people in Jesus Christ, how dare anyone think they have the right to bully Jesus’ bride.

I say this because as your pastor, I need you to see the truth.

And you can tell me at the end of this day that you never want me to preach here again or that I am the worst pastor you’ve ever had.

But I say all this in love to reveal the greatness of Jesus.

Kirkwood Baptist Church.

I want to show you that in many ways, this Church had become the Galatian Church.

In a few ways there is still some of those tendencies.

Just like there is in every Church.

The Church at Star City.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

That is the most beautiful aspect of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Whatever name you want on the fence out front.

There is forgiveness offered even in corporate repentance as a Body.

History tells us that the Galatian Church did actually repent of where they had been led astray.

Are we ready to humble ourselves and become teachable?

Are we ready to be conformed into the image of Christ?

Are we ready to receive Paul’s words in this letter as being the final word of caution which causes each of us to pursue after Jesus?

And listen, I know what some of you in here today heard me say when I mentioned being teachable

God how I pray that we would be able to say that about this body.

That we would be a people ready and willing to submit to the Lord through His Word.

Sometimes I’m sure it felt boring as can be but it was none the less my point to reveal what the Gospel looks like with boots on the ground.

And today is the culmination of much of what has been talked about.

That we would humble ourselves to your call upon our lives.

That we would exalt Christ and retract our own set of standards.

May we always be able to say that this Church, Kirkwood Baptist Church, always seeks to be like Jesus and not like men.

May we always be a people restored in the Gospel of Christ alone.

Let’s pray.

Real Christianity conforms you to the image of Jesus.

Fake Christianity conforms you to the image of man and his law.