Clark, Robert: Studies In Galatians-11 ~ Galatians 5:7-12

If you have a Bible, I would like you to turn to the book of Galatians, please, chapter five. We'll read from verse seven. Galatians chapter five, reading from verse seven through twelve. We'd like to talk a little bit on how to run well. You did run well. Who did hinder you that you 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 you 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? This then is the offense of the cross, or then is the offense of the cross ceased. I would they were even cut off, which troubled you. This particular portion is in the opening remarks of the section that gives us a lot of personal exhortations concerning our life in the light of the truths that we have learned in the previous months as we have studied the first four chapters. The apostle now begins to press very pertinently, very pointedly, truths home upon your soul and mine. And he is suggesting that there was a marked failure in the Galatians' life, and that failure was not always so. It was by reason of false teachers. He described in the first section that we read of this chapter, the first six verses, that the actual teaching itself and what it led to, the false teaching that was propagated in the early church and in Asia Minor, or now known as Turkey, it led to Christ being of no effect, the death of the Lord being of little or no value, and the people had fallen from grace. Now, he says, it's not only the teaching, but it's the teachers themselves, and these have had a great deal of influence upon you, have led you astray and confused your real spiritual lives. He makes three things here, a commendation, and then a condemnation, and then gives some correction. When I was a young boy, I aspired very much to be able to participate with some of those who were older than I in playing baseball. And one of the things that stood out in my mind, or did, was the impression that I received when I would go to a neighborhood park and it was late in the winter, there would still be snow on the ground, and where it had melted, it would be very marshy and boggy, and there'd be four or five men in very heavy sweat suits and bundled up, and we'd be jogging around the local park. These men became very well known in baseball. Their names were Chuck Connors and Ralph Houck and Bobby Brown and a few other that were lesser known men. They're older than myself, much taller. I, being afflicted with a typical Scotchman shortness of leg and wind, I would jog along with them. I was only twelve or thirteen years old, and I'd try to match stride for stride as they ran. And I would get once around the park and then start walking and do less and less, and they ran, and they ran. And I soon found out that if ever I was to be able to play in a hundred degrees of heat and humidity and stay on my feet and run and be able to do well for two games of a double header in the middle of the summer, I was going to have to learn to run a few miles without stopping as fast as I was able to do, and just be able to keep doing that. And I began to run more and more, and I was very thankful as I grew a little bit older that I had learned to run and to run well and not allow the footing of the underground, wherever you were running, whatever the circumstance, to interfere with the stride or your progress. I don't know what was on Paul's mind, but he goes back to the Greek games in the stadium and uses a figure that he uses three or four times in his epistles. And in the present continuous sense, he said here, or I should rather say the past past continuous sense, he says to these people in verse seven, you were running well. Now, wherever the apostle in his own life alludes to running, he has a particular topic in his mind. I always thought it was just the Christian life in general, but wherever the apostle talks of running, he speaks of his own apostolic calling and the effectiveness of his own personal ministry. He speaks of him running and running to determine his apostolic calling and teaching to be valid. He speaks of his teaching to the Corin- uh, to the Philippian believers, and he speaks to them there that they should run and run well. The analogy of the physical games and the activity and the application of diligent striving to develop breathing and stride and health and strength of leg was the whole emphasis he's putting here. Now he says, in a brief recapitulation, he says to the Galatians, you did run well. You were running well. Who did hinder you? Something has happened to these folks. He commends them because they were running well. Earlier in the chapter, we might have not noticed that in chapter two and verse two, he uses the same word. I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run or had run in vain. And here he's describing his apostolic ministry again. This particular appointed call that was his, that destiny that he had to fulfill in the service of God, was his race to run. It wasn't just generally his Christian life, but it was that particular call and appointment that was his. Have I been teaching Gentiles something that is wrong? Am I now wrong in coming to Jerusalem? Is my running wrong, or have I run in vain? Is there some confusion? And now he says to these, you were running. What is the Christian calling? Maybe we'll be able to tell by the development of his thought. You and I, as Christians, have not all been called to apostolic teaching, but we all have a calling. Each of us, as God's children, have a definite sphere of service, a race to enter into that I must unencumber myself in order to fulfill. I trust that you know, rather than just aimlessly attend services, piddle along through life with little to be accomplished, and always bearing a burden of what's it all about, what's it for? I suggest if that's your disposition as a child of God, you were running well, for you found no difficulty when you were first converted. You knew what God desired for you. Your first love held you in his arms, held him before you. Your fervence, your devotion, your zeal, your hunger for the word of God, your enjoyment of fellowship, not merely services, but just God's people. Your careful desire to study and learn and grow, the manner in which you carried tracts in your pocket and shared with others, the willingness to bend the knee in prayer and bless him and worship him. The zeal and the heartiness that you found in your earlier life. You were running well. What does hinder you? The word hinder is an unusual word. It means to cut out or to cut away in order to impede progress. We find that the disposition and personal relationship between a husband and wife can hinder prayer in First Peter three seven. We find that Satan, the evil one, will work overtime in order to hinder, to cut away and impede the progress of the apostle as he seeks to serve. There are many things that come in to cut away out of our life, to pull back and to impede, to thwart us in our general development and growth. And we want to spend just a few moments, very simply, but very honestly, looking at what the apostle is saying here, and then applying them to our lives. First to determine conscientiously, what did he say to those people, and then what is the message from me today? The commendation is twofold. He says in verse seven, you were running well. They carried on well and began their life. They seemed to sense and know what God had for them and carried on in it. In verse ten, he makes another statement. I have confidence in you through the Lord. Another commendation. The implication of the phrasing here in the Greek language is that he has confidence that the Lord will be in them. I have confidence in you through the Lord. The idea is that the Lord, he can put his trust in the vessels there at Galatia because he is confident the Lord will carry on his agency of work, that he will work in their hearts. That's very delightful, but it's a sad commentary upon them, isn't it? It's a commendation. What he's actually saying is, I have great confidence that God will somehow continue to work in you. Isn't it sad, though, that their ascribing to this form of teaching, their coolness of heart, the detachment from the apostle, has made it that he cannot personally, genuinely have confidence in them. This word confidence is going to appear a number of times. It's one basic word that's used three times, and I am sure that the apostle here is making a little play on words. The word confidence is translated a number of different ways, but in the Greek language it's the same word, and it literally means to persuade, to have some influence get a hold of our thinking and give us an inward persuasion. Sometimes it is called obey because of what we are persuaded to do. Sometimes it's believe by reason that our mind is persuaded and we trust or commit ourselves. Here it is confidence. He has gathered information concerning God and is sure he is persuaded that God will work through these believers. But he uses the word three times here in our text. You did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion, there's our word, cometh not of him that calleth you. I have confidence in you through the Lord. So we have obey, persuasion, and confidence, all the same word, and he's making a play on this word to try to motivate these people and cause them to realize with a clever little use of grammar and language, to just make a little bit of a touch or impact. He said, I am persuaded concerning God. You have been persuaded by somebody, and that persuasion has led you away from the truth. If I am ever to believe anything in this world, it must be God and his word. You and I are living in an age of tolerance. The intellects of the world resent dogmatism, because that means that they cannot be tolerant. It means that they must come to a critical juncture and make a decision. Now, Christianity is a series of crises, and you must make decisions. The whole thrust of this book is, it's either grace or works. It's either heaven or hell. It's either circumcision or Christ. There's no other way. There's two roads to walk, and you must make decisions. And there's no such thing as tolerance in spiritual things. There's tolerance as far as we are humanly, and there's grace and judgment and patience and kindness. But when it comes to doctrinal truths, the core of our Christian faith, there is no such vacillation, no such areas of gray. It is truth or error, and he is striking out valiantly and firmly against these that have come in with a corrupt, perverted teaching. It seemed like such a little company of Jewish men that had such a little variance of difference, and why not subscribe to that great profession of old that had Abraham and Moses and Jacob and Joseph and all the patriarchs and the mighty prophets? Why not identify yourself with them? Why not go along with them and be circumcised? Why not accept this kind of teaching? Why not believe the laws of Moses? Why not try to keep these holidays? Certainly it's a blessing to God. If he said it was good for the Jew, it must be good for us Gentiles. Ah, how subtly it creeps in, and he handles it in a sentence. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little bit of perversion, a little bit of careful persuasion, and your whole life is diluted. Is it not so that those of you who are thirty years old or older, that you are doing things today and saying things and going places that you never would have done a decade ago? Isn't it true that twenty years ago, as a young, vibrant Christian, you would have passed a center of criticism against some that are doing the same thing that we do today? Has our faith changed? No. We were running well. What's us hinder? What's come in to cut away the pathway, to break our stride, to absorb our interests, to deter our steps. What does hinder that you do not obey the truth? The word obey is our word persuasion. It might be best illustrated from the, the book of Acts. In Acts twenty seven, let me read you a little paragraph. Acts twenty seven and verse ten: He said unto them, this is Paul on board a ship, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading of the ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless, the centurion believed, he was persuaded by the master of the ship and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul. Here is our word, persuasion. There was two places to be, either the ship is going to have difficulty and be damaged and sunk, or else we're not going to. The ship owner says, no such nonsense, this is a good, strong ship, and they were persuaded. And so, as a result, they went along. Paul said, God says that this is going to be so. The ship is going to have difficulty. He says, no, they were persuaded to be believing, and so they, they went on an act. They were persuaded, they made up their mind, and they made a decision. They believed from their inner persuasion, they committed themselves to the ship and trusted the vessel. What have you been persuaded of? Something has come into your life. Now, I say this so broadly, and it's directed to those of us who are God's children. I say it so broadly because I affirm it strongly in my own soul, knowing my own weakness and seeking to be as honest as I possibly can before God, I know the encroachment, the deceit, the cunning, the almost imperceptible avenues that are introduced into my thinking and my life, and unless I strongly discipline myself to circumscribe my life and the path that I run by this book, I know that I will slow down in my pace. I know that I will be derelict in my duty. I know that I am very easily hindered and persuaded not to obey the truth. You were running well. What does hinder you? What's come and intruded itself into the path? You notice that this hindrance led to not obey, not to obey the truth, or not to be persuaded of the truth that would issue in some kind of an action. It's also, this hindrance is a persuasion. Verse eight: this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. This influence that has won you over to a different path of life, this has not come from him that has called you. And the Greek language is in the present continuous sense, and it must be impressed upon our soul. This is a title of God that layeth free, him that calleth you. Actually, in our language, we would say, to get most grammatically accurate, he that is calling you. In this particular portion, we are not in the doctrinal, we're in the practical, and it is no longer the sovereign appointed call of God that is irrevocable, that's just as good as salvation, foreknowledge, election, and glorification. That's call, that's appointment, that's sovereign power that belongs to God on the behalf of all of his. But this word here is this way that you have been persuaded of something does not come from him that is in the process and is still calling you. When God calls us, he calls us to be separate from this world, and our life is a perpetual beckoning on the part of God, drawing us away from the tentacles of this society, this world system in which we live, and all of its thinking processes and all of its patterns of life. And the apostle says, this persuasion, this hindrance, this that has caused you not to be persuaded in obedience to the truth, this does not come from the God that's calling you. It may be that he's not sure that they are the called. I wonder if our loved ones are sure that we are the called. I wonder if my life marks out the evidence that I belong to God because I am running well, devoutly pursuing that which God has appointed for me. A portion like this is so simple, so grammatically clear, so accurate, so cuttingly penetrating. It needs very little commentary. You were running well. What has hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from the God that is calling you. Notice then what he calls this persuasion, this hindrance, this disobedience. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Every hindrance to my Christian life, it appears, whatever it is that's caused me to stumble, is a hindrance, and it's going to be called leaven. In the word of God, leaven is only used once literally, and that in the New Testament. And all the rest of the times it's used symbolically, never of good, never of profit, but always of evil and corruption. In First Corinthians chapter five, a congregation of Christians there, the apostle says to them by the Spirit of God, your glorying is not good. Your pride in your own gifts and abilities and calling is not good. Your glorying is not good. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. These people were so proud about being Christians, so smugly self-satisfied of their various gifts, even the phenomenal gift of speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues. So satiated in the flesh were they with themselves, they tolerated the most putrid and rancid of immorality in the congregation. They said the little leaven has leavened the whole lot. What you have tolerated in your own life has spread, and you've tolerated it here. The leaven is moral evil. In Matthew chapter sixteen and verse six, the Lord speaks to his followers, and he says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. That's doctrinal leaven, doctrinal evil, perverted teaching, pride, hypocrisy, religious self-satisfaction that so dilutes the force of a man's character that he has no perception into that which is reality, redemptive reality. Oh, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? You were running well. What has hindered you now? What has come along to negate your pathway in development, so much so that you're persuaded that it's right not to believe the truth? This persuasion has never come from the God that's called you. No, this is a little leaven that permeates and leavens the whole lump. Now, it's a very abrupt allusion to the effect that yeast will have in the dough. It's mixed in, it begins to inflate immediately operates and works. Leave it quiet and alone, or if it isn't needed and pummeled and done, it'll begin to inflate. Ego, knowledge, puffing up, self-satisfaction, grandiose attitude. That's not Christianity. What is it? It's the stripping away. It's the narrowing down of diligent application. It's the struggle and self-discipline of a runner with his eyes set on a goal that nothing must interfere, never breaking his stride, breathing regularly with a dynamic force within, and the only thing that impels is the inner spirit when his legs are locked in the machinery of running, he can't breathe anymore, and there's a burning intake in his body, yet his mind says, go, drive, go, and he pursues. He goes on. That is the calling of a Christian. You were running. What does hinder us? Can we be honest in the quietness of our own soul and ask? For these poor folks, it was false teachers, doctrinal deception. And we needn't be surprised by the evil one reveals himself as an angel of light. Why wouldn't his servants and ministers? And there's all kind of cunning teaching that take a fragment of a verse and build on a paragraph, get a little thought here, throw in a few prophetic utterances that are totally irrelevant in their context, but they seem to be. There are people in our land, as best as I can un- understand, there are people in our land that are actually moving out of the country or anticipating it because Kohatuk is bringing the end of the age in January. I received a little bulletin that was put on the windshield of my car one day. I was in Romano's, uh, parking lot, and this thing, forty days in the end of the world. I took it home and read it. I couldn't believe it, and I read it again. I think there's thirty two or thirty three statements in it, the most irrelevant, incoherent, inconsistent logic and thought, words taken out of their context from Holy Scriptures, human thoughts wrapped around them, and there's people that are believing that. Well, thank God you're not part of that company. But what kind of teaching do you believe? What kind of instruction from the Word of God have you accepted? Is the persuasion that's governing your life and causing you to indulge in this and gratify that and spend your time and money there and give up that and reject this, has that come from the Word of God? What form of subtle inroads have crept into your life and mine? We were running well. Look back in your own life. The youngest of us can look back and remember when we loved the Lord with first love, when we were really enamored with spiritual things. We believed in heaven and hell, and we sought to tell others of Christ. We were running well. A little leaven leavens the whole lot. The leaven comes in in the things of the world. The Apostle John knew that, and how graciously and yet firmly he says, love not this world system, this whole economy and way of life. For the love of this world and all the things that has to do with this world, they're just the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. And all the machinery of society and civilization is only going to wrap itself around us and envelop us and so enamor us that we'll follow some other alien persuasion, and the little leaven will leaven the whole lot. I think most of us would be highly dishonest if we weren't candid enough to say, yes, the world affects my thinking. I am conformed in many ways to the world. The world dictates clothing, so I buy it and put it on. The world dictates social life, so I participate in it and think, well, it'll be all right, or somehow I'll bear a witness. The world dictates this for gain. If importance is having so many vehicles or having such a size of a house, well, then I'll just fall into that. We're all part of this. Is that what God is saying is really important? Do I really feel that those things are significant? It's painful. When we really appraise what the Lord has to say, that the love of the world and the love of the Father are not compatible. Friendship with the world is spiritual adultery. We become enemies of God, and that little bit of leaven leavens the whole. It's not only the world, it's some of our own private things. Nothing quite so innocuous as a hobby, a little necessary outlet, a little time-consuming effort to break with reality and occupy my hands or fill my imagination or give me a little bit of change or relief. But the little leaven sometimes affects the whole, and pretty soon my whole calendar becomes rearranged around the hobby. What does the Lord say? He said, lay aside every waste. The man that's in the race doesn't carry his hobby on his back. He doesn't lug around these little extras. He's in a race. And it's not that the sins and the grossness and the wickedness, it's the weights that are encumbering. Why, it's the lightest pair of trunks and the frailest form of shoe, just adequate to bear him along, fleet as he runs. Now, we're not denouncing Hobby, and don't be, you know, block out the rest of our thoughts now because you're not allowed to have a hobby. You can be in the world, and you can be a world politician if you'd like, and be a devout Christian, if you're a devout Christian, and if you're not going to allow it to hinder you, and you can be deeply involved in this and that and the other and hobbies and what all, if you can still run the way you started out, running well for the Lord, not allowing anything to hinder your obedience to the word of God, and putting primary emphasis, but the little things creep in, and they begin to take over our thinking and redirect and rearrange until we surrender our whole person to the little outlets that we have. I am persuaded that this pervert, this persuasion is not from him that is calling. It's a little leaven that leavens the whole lot, a little misconception, the wrong doctrine. Why, there's just such a little Jewish company, and what can a few little preachers do to disturb and cause upset? They can ruin the whole Christian church of Galatia, and that's what they did. Just a few Jewish preachers, just ornamenting the gospel, and it corrupted the message and ruined the testimony of God, and they become cold, hardened, backbiting legalists that were bound up by rules and regulations, and the grace of God was negated. Christ had died in vain. A little leaven leavens the whole lot. The old association. Now, it's a painful thing to see good men go bad just by reason of companionship. Think of the privilege of Lot traveling with Abraham, but he didn't do any good for Sodom, did he? He didn't do one bit for Sodom, but that's what he chose. He lost his wife, his own sanctity, destroyed his own family, lost all that he had except what he could carry on his back. Poor lot, bad association. Think of Jehoshaphat, one of the finest of the kings, one of the better kings of the nation of Israel, but he saw an opportunity to make an affinity with Ahab, which is a wicked man. And so he made a little amount of life, preserve himself in the throne, keep his power, get a little political effect, so he amalgamated with Ahab. And then he even went as far in two Chronicles eighteen and two or three, Then he tells Ahab, well, you and I are the same. Well, we're just like, we're Jewish people, practically the same. And by the time he got to chapter nineteen, he was denounced because he loved those that hated godliness. He'd become so involved just through a political alliance, just a piece of paper for military strategy, that his whole life was diluted, and he ended up loving those that hate God. I wonder where my best friends are. Are they those that love the Lord? A little leaven will leaven the whole lump. How can we run well? That's what he's going to tell us in the remaining part of the chapter. The way to run well is to acknowledge the presence and the authority of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. Beloved of God, there's only one way for you as a child of God to be thoroughly happy. There is only one way for me as a believer to be thoroughly enjoying things spiritual. That's not any grandiose plan of becoming a missionary, great preacher, or world leader. It's just doing today what God wants for me. Just doing today what God wants. Can I go back to that little boy running? He had to learn to shorten his pace. He had to learn to run a little bit less. He had to learn that he could only do today what was necessary in order that years later he'd be able to do a little bit more and be a little bit more advanced. The same way with you, your Christian life, wherever you are, whatever your status, whatever your capacities, whatever God has called you to, do today what God desires. Be sensitive of conscience that the little leaven will not permeate our whole. That when we are persuaded, we are persuaded on the basis of a clear conscience of what the word of God teaches. Learn to run well. What's going to hinder us? Many, many things that have been purposely put there to thwart your progress. It'll be loved ones and family and business and home and society and on and on and on, the long list goes. And the little bit of leaven today will permeate the whole. May God give us the grace and the strength and the encouragement to have keen perceiving minds, to look to the core and say, is this based upon what God wants? I am not going to be hindered. I am not going to surrender to that conflict. I am not going to give up the integrity of my own personal Christian experience in life and yield to some whimsical doctrine or impurity there, a thought there, a behavior here. I am not going to be destroyed from running well. You see, it rests entirely upon you. And how can we get there? What does the Spirit of God say? How is he going to enable us? This is what comes up next week in our study of the Lord's not return. The ministry of the Holy Spirit and what he has called us to and his present power in our lives to help us to run well. In Hebrews chapter twelve, um there's a verse that is very appropriate for us to read here. Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, and I take that to be the great household of faith that's gone before the patriarchal characters mentioned in the preceding chapter, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Your race is different than mine. Your pathway may be more circuitous, it may be more direct. God may have for you a short dash and just a few years left to live for him, or he may have a long, long road ahead, but run with patience the race that's set before us. How? We have to have a goal. There must be something before me, looking unto Jesus, the author and the completer of faith. We have to take our eyes off of this world and off of its anticipations and all of its temptations, take our eyes off of what man thinks and feels, and center my heart and mind upon our blessed Lord and Savior. Has Christ died in vain for you, or is he the one that's set before you, and have you set your eyes on that, and you're running with patience the race that's set before you? I pray that God would touch our hearts and give ourselves a little exercise of soul, that we might be good runners, faithful runners, looking to Jesus. Don't allow anything to hinder, for Christ's sake. Shall we pray? Our God and Father, we enter thy presence in the name of our blessed Lord and Savior, and how we thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ. We must confess to thee our many weaknesses, must acknowledge, blessed God, that there are things in this life, in this world, that easily persuade, persuade me to be lazy or indifferent or careless or neglectful, casual and disobedient to thy word, cool of heart, deeply devoted to something other than thy will for my life. And Father and God, I pray that a little warning would be adequate, that the inspired record would linger in my soul, and I might be found helping myself, and that each of us would see what is our hindrances, and confessing them, that we might be cleansed from all unrighteousness. Help us to lay aside the weights of this world and life. Help us to run faithfully and well. Gracious God, enable us and strengthen us, we ask, that we would not be persuaded other than by Thyself, and that the integrity and devotion and submission of our daily lives, so we know that there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Bless thy word to our heart, we ask. We pray for every family that's represented here. Pray that our lives would be so markedly changed and refreshed and blessed that thou would bring us home to our loved ones with the desire to share with others and bear a testimony for thee. We pray these things in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.