07/29/2007
“Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing” (Gal 5:2-6)
There is an old fable about a wolf in sheep’s clothing. One of Aesop’s fables.
A wolf had his eye on a certain flock of sheep, but he couldn’t get any of the sheep he wanted because of the vigilance of the shepherd and his dogs.
Then he saw the skin of a sheep that had been flayed, so he put the skin on as a costume and went among the sheep as one of their own.
The lamb who belonged to the sheep the wolf was wearing began following the wolf in sheep’s clothing. He led the lamb apart from the rest of the sheep and made a meal of her.
The wolf was able to deceive the sheep and keep feasting on them for some time.
But eventually, the shepherd, in examining his sheep, discovered the wolf, and killed him.
This story is an illustration of the fact that we should not follow blindly, that looks can be deceiving, and that in the end, the wolf gets what’s coming to him.
I want us to keep these things in mind as we read our passage in Galatians:
Gal 5: 7-12 (NIV) 7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. 11 Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
Pray
Today as we look at this passage, I want to touch on 3 concepts
I. The Race
II. The Ravenous Wolf
III. The Retribution
I. THE RACE (The Christian life as a race):
Comparing the Christian life to a race is something that Paul likes to do quite a bit.
We see references to running a race in 1Corinthians, here in Galatians, in Philippians, and in 2nd Timothy where Paul says he has fought the good fight, finished the race, he has kept the faith.
The race that Paul would be referring to and using as an illustration were the foot races that were ran at various festivals.
In Galatians, He gives his readers a compliment, he says that they were running a good race.
To understand what Paul means by that, let’s look at a couple of other places where Paul uses the comparison.
First we will look in Hebrews, chapter 12, the first 3 verses.
He 12: 1-3 (NIV) 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
The great cloud of witnesses, who are they? Anytime we see the word therefore at the beginning of a passage, we know that we need to look at the passages just before this one to see what the “Therefore” is there for.
In chapter 11 of Hebrews, He is talking about the heroes of the faith, those who went before us who suffered for their faith. These are the cloud of witnesses.
Taking them into account, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,
The picture here is like a race in a stadium, with a great crowd watching. When you run that race, you don’t carry anything with you that would burden you and slow you down, you get rid of that stuff so you can run the race, and you don’t want anything that you could get tangled up in, you have to be free from that stuff so you can run the race.
In our Christian walk, there are things that can weigh us down, sin that can entangle us, we need to be free of those things. Like a foot race, our life has but a single goal, a single focus, Jesus and His glory.
That is why we need to examine everything in our life to be sure that only those things that help us in moving toward the goal.
Actually, since it is God who does the work in us and it is only through His power that the goal of His glory is achieved, what we need to do is stay out of the way. Get rid of anything that hinders that progress or entangles us.
Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Our race is marked out for us. It is marked out for us by the word of God. Everything you need to run the race, to live your life, is in Here (hold up Bible).
Let us FIX OUR EYES ON JESUS. He IS the author and perfecter of our faith.
It is through His power we are saved, and through His power that we are changed. His Holy Spirit works in our hearts to conform us to His image, to make us more like Jesus.
Our Focus needs to be on Him. Our attention needs to be on Him.
Our Focus needs to be on Jesus, and who He is and what He has done.
His death on the cross as payment for our sins, His resurrection, His defeat of sin, death and satan, and His ascension to the right Hand of God.
Seeing all that He endured for us, makes the trials that we go through in our life seem small. Thinking of all He did and all he went through for us should give us strength, His strength. That should keep us from becoming weary in our walk and losing heart.
So our FOCUS should be on JESUS, and we need to drop anything that has the potential to hinder our walk with Him.
Let’s turn to the passage in 1 Corinthians:
1Cor 9: 24-27 (NIV) 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
What is he saying here? In verse 24 he is not saying that only 1 person will be saved, His point is that we should run in such a way as to get the prize, we should run to win, we should not just be out for a leisurely stroll or a jog, we have a goal, God’s glory and our spiritual development, and we strive for that goal.
Everyone who competes goes into strict training.
In a similar passage in 1Ti 4:7, Paul says, and I like the wording in the NASB to “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”
Our Christian life should include discipline.
Paul says he does not run aimlessly, he does not just fight like a man beating the air, He makes his body his slave – that’s discipline
We need discipline when it comes to praying, reading our bible, studying our bible, meeting together for worship and praise, spending quiet time with God, meditating on scripture and His character and nature, listening for His voice, We need discipline in our Christian life. That is why we call these things Spiritual disciplines.
And these things are necessary in our Christian life. This is how we keep our hearts and minds open to His instruction, His guidance, His leadership in our life.
All these things we need to run the race well.
So our Focus is on Jesus, we drop anything that may hinder us, and we discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. Is that it? Is that all we need to worry about?
Not exactly.
Paul says to the Galatians, you were doing well, you were doing these things. Then what happened?
Someone cut in on them.
II. THE RAVENOUS WOLF (Who Cut in on you – wolves in sheep’s clothing)
Gal 5: 7 (NIV) 7 ... Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?
This is a rhetorical question, who cut in on you, Paul knows the answer. He has been talking about them for 4 chapters. The false teachers cut in on the Galatians and have kept them from obeying the truth.
False brothers, false teachers, false prophets, this is not a new subject in the Bible.
Jesus warns us about false prophets in Matthew 7. He warns us about them and he tells us how to recognize them.
The warning is in verse 7
Mt 7: 15 (NIV) "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
This is a picture like our fable, the wolf doesn’t announce himself to the sheep, he comes in disguise, he comes in deception. It is the same with the false teachers. On the outside, they look fine, they look harmless, even helpful, they fit in with the rest of the church crowd.
But on the inside, they are ferocious wolves, and their goal is to lead the flock astray, away from the truth, and toward mortal peril, toward danger and lies.
No one wants to be misled, no one wants to be distracted from the truth, no one wants to hinder their own relationship with God, so how do we know who these false prophets are? How do we discern the wolves among the sheep?
Jesus helps us out in verse 16-20:
Mt 7: 16-20 (NIV) By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
By their fruit you will recognize them. You will know them by what they produce.
Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes? No, someone might be able to stick a grape on the end of a thorn, but we can certainly tell by looking at the overall nature of the thorn bush that the fruit is not natural to the bush.
Likewise, we examine the fruit of a teacher. I believe we are addressing two areas, the personal fruit of the teacher himself, produced in his own life in accordance with his character, and the teaching itself.
A bad tree cannot produce good fruit. Likewise, A teacher with severe character flaws, one who either does not have the Holy Spirit in him to conform him to the image of Jesus, or is resisting the Holy Spirit and continually producing rotten fruit in his or her own life, this kind of teacher we must stay away from. They may include the truth, or at least part of it, in their teaching, but like a grape stuck on a thorn bush, there is also danger, and we can see, by what is produced in the teachers life, if they are living out the truth in their own life. We can see if they are a good tree or a bad one.
We can also look at the teachings themselves as the fruit of the teacher, as what the teacher is producing. How do we tell if the fruit of their teaching is good or bad?
The Bible gives us a great example in Acts 17:
Acts 17: 11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true
The Bereans didn’t just take Paul’s word as the truth, they examined the Scriptures every day to see if what he said was true.
God’s word is the standard.
It is very simple really, if my teaching agrees with Scripture, then it is worth listening to.
If what I teach goes against scripture, then my teaching should be rejected.
We are talking about the essentials of Christianity. The main and plain things of scripture.
There are things that are open to interpretation, and issues not central to our faith that can be debated.
In secondary issues, there is room for disagreement, and some things are not spelled out completely for us in the Bible, there are even situations where it is OK for one person to do something, but it would be wrong for another person.
We will talk more about that next week.
But you can be assured, that for every single situation that comes up, there is a solid Biblical principal that does apply.
So, once we have identified a false teaching or a false teacher, is it enough tag him in our mind as a false teacher and ignore Him?
No, we need to act, because there is more at stake here, more than just ourselves to consider.
Gal 5: 8-9 (NIV) 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough
That kind of persuasion does not come from God, it comes from the enemy. Remember that. The source of false teaching that misleads people, leads them away from Jesus, the source is the enemy, Satan.
The teacher is not the enemy, and our approach regarding the teacher should be one of love, correction and restoration. The teacher is not the enemy, the enemy is the enemy.
And once the enemy gets a foothold through a false teaching or doctrine, it spreads like a disease through the whole church, like yeast works through the whole batch of dough.
There is a lot at stake here. We cannot afford to turn our head when we identify false teaching. It’s not enough to stop listening, it’s not enough to simply run away.
We must work to stop it, we must work to remove it, we must work together to eliminate any foothold the enemy could use against us.
We Must test all things in light of scripture, and hold on to what is good, that is, hold on to that which agrees with scripture.
And what is to become of the false teacher, one who neglects to rightly divide the word of truth, or one who intentionally misleads the sheep?
III. THE RETRIBUTION (The Penalty will be paid)
Gal 5: 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be.
Just as in our fable the wolf will eventually be discovered, The false teachers, those wolves in sheep’s clothing, have no chance of getting away with their deception, not in the end. That is true of every wrongdoing that takes place in our lives.
God sees everything, God knows every injustice, every wrongdoing, every false teaching, and there will be justice, the penalty will be paid.
Let me read to you from 2nd Peter regarding the fate of false teachers.
2Pt 2L 1-3(NIV) 1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
God does not take lightly the mis-use of His word. He does not take lightly those who would lead his sheep astray.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing always get what is coming to them, sooner, or later.
Lets take a quick look at the last 2 verses of our passage:
Gal 5: 11-12 (NIV) 11 Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
In verse 11, Paul is evidently responding to a false accusation being made against him. It looks as though the false teachers were saying that Paul agreed with their position on circumcision. Paul is setting the record straight here, which should have been pretty clear already.
In verse 12, we have another statement that again must be taken in context.
Paul is not really advocating the castration of the false teachers in Galatia. He is making this statement for emphasis, stressing how very serious a situation they are creating with their false teaching.
As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way, while they have out the knife and they are in the mood to do some cutting, Paul says, why don’t they just go all the way with it, it would mean just as much as circumcision does. Paul has already made the point that in Jesus Christ, circumcision or uncircumcision mean nothing.
So what are you going to do with this information today?
What does this mean to you, sitting here in the pew at Hopewell Baptist Church?
Well, first of all is your Race.
Have you started your race, or do you need to meet Jesus today, Do you need to accept Him as your Lord and Savoir?
If you are running the race, are you running your race in such a way as to get the prize? Or are you doing just enough to get by?
Are you training yourself for the purpose of godliness?
Or are you just floating along, seeing where the current takes you?
Are you doing your part? Submitting to the Holy Spirit, asking for Him to make changes in your heart, expecting Him to make changes?
How are you running your race?
Then there is your responsibility as you sit under someone’s teaching.
Do you test what is taught against scripture, or do you just take what is said for granted?
I love it when people ask me questions about something I have said. It shows me that they are listening, and that they are taking it seriously, and they want to know if what I am teaching is valid.
And it goes beyond these walls too. When you listen to Christian teaching on radio, or see it on TV, or read it in a book, or hear it from a neighbor, be like the bereans and test what is said against scripture so you can hold on to what is true, what is scriptural, and reject what needs to be rejected.
And if you are in a teaching position in the church, if you are a Sunday School teacher, Children Church leader, any kind of teaching position. Parents, you have a teaching position in the church.
If you teach others about Jesus and the Bible, you need to understand what is at stake. You need to take your responsibility seriously.
If you teach, you need to study. If you teach, you have a responsibility to know what you are talking about. That doesn’t mean you have to know everything, but you should prepare, and if someone asks a question that you do not know the answer to, just say so. Say you do not know and see if you can find the answer in scripture.
Whatever you do, do not just say something if you are unsure that it is scriptural. There is too much at stake, and as a teacher you are held to a higher standard.
Pray
