Galatians 5:1-15
Confusion No More!
Introduction
A. It ain’t over till its over. You know who said that?
B. Yogi Berra. That line makes sense.
C. Most of the things he said, makes you scratch your head
D. Yogi is know as the master of confusion and double speak like:
a. This is like déjà vu all over again
b. You can observe a lot just by watching
c. You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going because you might not get there
d. I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early
e. Baseball is 90% mental – The other half is physical
f. A nickel isn’t worth a dime today
g. It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking to much
h. If you come to a fork in the road, take it
i. If the fans don’t come out to the park, you cant stop them
j. If aint the heat; it’s the humility
k. You should always go to other people funerals; otherwise, they wont come to yours
l. I didn’t really say everything I said
E. Yogi was not the only person to get confused
F. This world can be confusing
G. That is why Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians to clear up some confusion
H. And today we are going to clear up the confusion. Confusion no more
I. We are going to look at
a. What is important
b. Who should I follow
c. What command Should I keep
I. (1-6) What is Important?
A. Explanation
1. The False teachers of the land, as we have said the past couple of weeks, were teaching that a lot of things were important
2. Specifically the Old Testament Law
3. In order to be a “real Christian” you had to follow the Old Testament Law
4. You had to be bound to the law
5. If you were not following the law then you were just another Pagan
6. By doing this you essentially then are saying never mind what Jesus did, it is not good enough for me
7. And you are putting yourself under complete and total control of the law
8. You are telling Christ that you would rather do it yourself
9. We know that no one has ever gained admission into heaven by following the law
10. If you mess up on just one little part of the law, your done, not do over, no 2nd chances done
11. By putting that emphases on circumcision, you become obligate to obey the whole law
B. Application
1. What is important then? What do we need to focus on?
2. Look at verse 6, In fact I want to encourage you to memorize this verse, We haven’t done this is a while but lets do it, it is our verse of the week
3. (Read 6)
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
4. There is something real appealing about reducing Christianity to a list of do’s and don’ts,
a) Some people list might end up real strict, others would go to the other side and be really loose
5. But we like list, we like to know what to do what is expect
6. We do not want to have to think about our decision or make hard choices
7. We want everything to be able to shove a list in our pocket and before we make any choice look at the list and find what the list says
8. That is not the way the Gospel works, the Gospel is not about a list of do’s and don’ts
9. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love
10. With true faith the love part will come out.
11. True faith is never just a pure intellectual decision
12. True faith had better encompass your entire being
C. Illustration
1. I cam across a quote several years ago that I have not been able to shake.
2. “People make rules to prevent from making decisions”
3. That is exactly what was happening in Galatians
4. And that is still happening here is America
5. We have people getting bent out of shape because of this or that
6. (Think about maybe adding some specific this and that)
7. When none of that is important
8. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love!
II. (7-12) Who Should I Follow?
A. Explanation
1. Paul is probably to the point of tears when he is writing this section
2. Wanting so much for the Galatians just to be on the right path
3. And here they are off the race course
4. No longer following the course that they should
5. Now if you look at verse 8,
That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.
you will notice Paul does not try and state how and why this happen
a) If this was someone misleading them such as a false teacher
b) Or if it was Satan himself
6. But the point it there were off the course
7. A very wise saying “a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough
8. If you have every made bread you know you put in tons of flour and only a little bit of yeast, that little bit of yeast is powerful
9. The same is true with this false teaching stuff
10. A little begins to corrupt the entire, in this case, church
11. Paul is still upset that all of this happens. When you read verses 11 and 12 you get a glimpse at how mad Paul really is at all of this.
B. Application
1. Now what can we learn from this.
2. False teachers will come, false teachers are one of Satan’s favorite technique.
3. These false teachers will be convincing
4. They will sound like it makes sense
5. On top of it all they will be able a lot of time to use Scripture
6. They will twist Scripture out of context, then they will have other follow them so they have this huge following
7. Jesus warned us about this happening. He said (Read Mathew 24:24) For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible
8. So how do we prevent this from happening?
9. How do we make sure that we follow the one that we are suppose to follow
10. The way to make sure is to spend time reading the Bible
C. Illustration
1. People have gotten much better today and counter fitting money. The colors are near perfect the quality is exceptional
2. However, no one has ever been able to exactly duplicate these bills.
3. There is always something that is different
4. In order to know what is different you have to study the real money and know what it is like and know what is were, then you can tell the differences with the counterfeit
5. The same is true with God
6. By studying God, by reading the Bible, you will know God’s word. You will understand God’s word, you will be able to say “That is God’s word”
7. And you will be able to say that is not God’s word
III. (13-15) Which Command Should I Keep?
A. Explanation
1. So Paul has been telling them that they need not to follow the Law
2. Now if you stop and try and put yourself in that situation
3. You have been living under the oppression of this very strict set of rules for a long time,
4. And now you are free from all that so what do you do? Let’s Party!
5. Not Exactly. Paul tells us not to use a freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather serve one another in love
6. We are warned against doing whatever we feel like when we feel like it.
7. See that is a bad understanding of freedom. With freedom there is responsibility, there is things that we have to do to maintain our freedom and show our respect for the freedom that we have
8. Then notice what it says in verse 14 (Read 14)
The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself.
9. That is the command that is the most important
10. Not if you are circumcised or not, not what dietary law you follow, but to love our Neighbors as ourselves
B. Illustration
1. Think about the life of Christ. He did not have to come down to earth, He had it good up in Heaven. But He did. He did not have to take the punishment for our sins, but He did. He did not have to choose the cross, but He did. Why?
2. Mark 10:45 “For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many
C. Application
1. What does this mean for us?
2. It means that we have freedom
3. We are not bond to a set of rules we do not have to do this or do that we are free
4. Free to serve. Free to love one another
5. Free to go over to someone house and rake their leaves
6. Free to stop alongside the road and help someone change a tire
7. Free to show our love to our neighbors
8. Because we love our neighbors, there are certain things that despite the fact there is freedom we should not do.
9. Language is interesting. There are words today that we should not say that several years ago would have been fine. There are also words today that we can say that if we were to say back then we would get our mouth washed out with soap
10. So because of our freedom, we should be able to say what we want right? NO!
11. I try really hard not to swear, not because I do not have the freedom, but because I do not want to be a distraction for another person
12. I have freedom, but first and foremost I choose love
Conclusion
A. We have said it before and we will say it again
B. Christianity is not a system of do’s and don’ts
C. Christianity is a relationship
D. To have that relationship we must have faith in what Christ did on that Cross
E. Christianity is not about what you eat, what you do, Circumcision, clothing, hairstyle
F. Those things are not important, what is important faith expressing itself through love
G. What about you?
a. Have you been focus on the things that are not important and forgot to keep the most important thing that most important thing?
b. Have you been more worried about what others think rather then God?
c. Have you been too preoccupied with yourself that you have forgotten the command to love your neighbors?
H. If any of these are you, you need to go to God
I. If any of these are you, you need to get these things right with God
J. The Alter is opened if you want to do it here, if you want to do it at your seat, fine, just do it
K. You have been cleared to freely serve God, It’s Go time!
L. (Pray)
