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.
If you have been listening to my preaching for any length of time, you know there is a burden on my heart for the truth, for the purity of the church, for holiness within the church. It isn't gimmicks, tricks and deception that make a church what it ought to be, it is a commitment to a life of integrity and a walk of purity and holiness. It must start at the top, with the pastors, the leaders of the church, and filter all the way down to the congregations. And until the church leadership gets its act together in terms of purity and holiness, there is little hope for the rest of the church. I say this again, not because it's some new and profound revelation, but to refresh your mind for the principals on which I stand and a renewed commitment to the truth.
The race that Paul would be referring to and using as an illustration were the foot races that were ran at various festivals. Here in Galatians, he gives his readers a compliment, he says that they were running a good race. To better understand what Paul means by that, let’s look at a couple of other places where Paul uses the comparison.
In Hebrews 12:1-3, "Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
Who are these great cloud of witnesses? 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.Taking them into account, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.
The picture Paul is drawing for us 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 the Scriptures!
Let us fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus. He is the author and finisher 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 and insignificant. 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.
I Corinthians 9:24-27 says, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. So they do it to obtain a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way as not to run aimlessly; I box in such a way, as to avoid hitting air; but I strictly discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified."
What is he teaching us 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. That everyone who competes goes into strict training.
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? No, not exactly. Paul says to the Galatians, you were doing well, you were doing these things. That is until someone cut in on them. Bringing a distorted doctrine of works and faith.
So, in verse 7 he says, "You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?" That is a rhetorical question, Paul already knows the answer. In fact, 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.
In Matthew chapter 7:15-16, Jesus warns us about false prophets. He warns us about them and he tells us how to recognize them. "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits"
These ravenous wolves do not announce themselves to the sheep, they come in disguise, they come 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 relationship with God. So Jesus teaches us, we will know 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 must examine the fruit of a teacher. I believe we are addressing two areas here, 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 17:11, which says, "Now these people were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." They 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, the centrality of Christianity. The main points of scripture. There are of course, other things which are open to interpretation, issues that are not central to our faith, which can be debated.
In
the lesser, secondary issues, there is room for disagreement, as some things are
not spelled out as completely for us in the Bible, as others. There are even
situations where it is OK for one person to do something, which would
be wrong for another person.
It’s the call that awakens the dead sinner and regenerates him, and gives him life. Not the one who sent these teachers with this persuasion.
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 from it. 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. I assure you, there teaching has no connection to God, no connection to God.
Therefore, 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. What is to become of these false teachers? Paul gives us the answer in verse 10, "I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear the punishment, whoever he is." There is a penalty to be paid! The false teachers, these wolves in sheep’s clothing, have no chance of getting away with their deception, not in the end. The same is true of every wrongdoing that takes place in our lives.
God sees everything, God knows every injustice, every wrongdoing, every false teaching, and soon comes the day, when there will be justice, the penalty will be paid.
In II Peter 2:1-3, Peter teaches us, "But false prophets also appeared among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their indecent behavior, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep."
Be advised, God does not take lightly the corruption, the distortion of His word. He does not take lightly those who would lead His sheep astray. Sooner or later, these false teachers, these wolves in sheep’s clothing, will always get what is due to them!
We find evidence of this in Revelation 2:13-14, "I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold firmly to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality." The teaching of Balaam mentioned here, is religion business for money, that is what false teachers do. That hasn't changed, even today!
Our Lord Jesus, spoke of this in Matthew 16:6, in speaking about the most religious of people, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. "And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."In other words, 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, both circumcision or uncircumcision mean absolutely nothing.
In Closing...
Faith in Christ, isn't difficult to understand, it means I trust Him. I don’t have to indulge myself, because I know He will care for me. I don’t have to compete to make myself feel better, because He loves me unconditionally, just as I am. It's not complicated, nor hard to understand.
It's not about believing modern ideology; it’s about trusting Christ for everything. It’s not about correct thoughts; it’s about laying down all your need to control things. It's allowing the Spirit of God to take control over your life, creating a new creation, a transformation of the heart.
This new creation is everything! Everything worth having, everything worth knowing, everything worth feeling, it's everything worth living for!
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, test what is said against Scripture so you can hold on to what is true, what is Scriptural, and reject what must be rejected.
And if you are in a teaching position in the church, whether you are a Sunday School teacher, Children Church leader, any kind of teaching position. 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 the Word of God. 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 must be prepared, and if someone asks a question that you do not know the answer to, just say so. Say you do not know and look for the answer in Scripture. Never just "wing it," making something up! Whatever you do, do not just say something, for the sake of answering a question, if you are not certain that it is Scriptural.
There is far too
much at stake, and as a teacher you are accountable, you are held to a higher standard.
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen