Galatians 5:9
"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."
Now
in common language what's leaven? Yeast. And when we put yeast into the
dough it's not just going to leaven some of it, but rather all of it.
Now it's the same way with false teaching. If we let a little bit of
false teaching in as leaven it isn't long before it permeates the whole,
one leads to another and so forth until the whole is nothing but sin.
For those of us who know our Bible, what has happened to Christendom in
general? It's been leavened. Christianity today is leavened. All the
things that the Scriptures and Christianity stood against 1500-1600
years ago are now part and parcel of everyday experience. The sin that
so easily beset the world after Satan was kicked out of heaven, no more
to be an accuser of the brethren is so easily accepted in all the
churches. For it has become the habit of the many but not the few.
We'll
never forget a long time ago when we visited a church up North in
Wisconsin when we were there. And the pastor there made such a
tremendous point. All of the things of the world came knocking at the
Church's door and the Church said, "Yeah we can accommodate that, we can
live with that." And then it wasn't long that the door opened a little
wider and some of the other worlds stuff came in and the Church said,
"Yeah we can also live with that." And now you see the doors are wide
open and you can't tell the difference between the Church and the world.
What happened? "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."
Now that one little church dried up and is no longer around. But the
analogy is the same for the church as a whole. Now verse 10.
Galatians 5:10
"I have confidence in you..."
See
Paul didn't give up on those people. He's not going to throw them to
the wolves he's still hanging in there and trusting that he's going to
bring them back to the truth. But like we said earlier on the basis of
what he wrote to Timothy what happened? They didn't come back, because
he said in II Timothy 1:15 "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me;..." And
this is where these people were. They were in Galatia in Asia Minor,
but at this point in time this apostle still has not given up on the
fact that he's going to bring them back into the truth of this Gospel of
the Grace of God.
Galatians 5:10
"I
have confidence in you though the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise
minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he
be."
Now those are strong words aren't
they? In other words Paul is saying, "Whoever it is that is bringing in
this false teaching, and is leading you away from the Gospel of Grace,
his judgment is sure." He's going to one day stand before the Great
White Throne where only lost people and the unbelieving will stand, and
he's going to be judged, absolutely they are. We've said for years that
preachers and theologians who mislead people are going to have the
hottest corner in the lake of fire, because they are misleading
multitudes. Sad to say not many are listening not only to us but to the
Holy Spirit. They're not hearing the warnings of Paul in the Corinthian
letters or even here in this letter or the Epistle of Hebrews.
We know when we pick up this Book, we don't care if we're a Sunday School teacher, or if we're just leading a small devotional, every time we pick up this Book we
are accepting a tremendous responsibility, and don't think we don't
take it seriously. We never take teaching or sharing the Word of God
lightly. We also have to understand that if we would be guilty of
misleading someone to the place of missing heaven's glory then we would
have to answer for it. But so far we have never felt guilty of that. We
feel as though we've had so many people express a joy of salvation that
it just sort of puts the stamp of God's approval on His ministry. Over
and over people who have been steeped in their particular background,
Sunday School teachers, and church officers say, "For the first time in
my life I now know what it is to have a real salvation experience."
Well
if the Lord isn't blessing it then that could never happen. So we have
to feel that we are presenting the Word as close to the Truth as is
humanly possibly. We'd be scared of presenting an error. Now we're not
saying that we're above error because we're human, and we don't expect
everyone to agree with us on every thing, but on these
fundamentals of Who Christ is. That He was of virgin born, that He is
God the Creator, and that He has finished the atoning work of the Cross,
His death, burial, and resurrection has completed every bit of God's
requirement for our full salvation. He's coming again, and we will never
compromise those things. We'd rather go back and just simply stay in
our nothingness than teach or share any other way.
We
suppose a lot of people think we should have never opened our mouth,
but this is why we sound bold at times. See, we don't have to depend on
some denominational retirement account. We don't depend on a salary from
any of this, and if we were booted out of all of this situation then we
could just go back to our nothingness full time. We give God all the
thanks and glory for it is through His Grace that we do what we do.
We're going to proclaim the Truth as the Lord lays it upon us even as
the Apostle Paul did, and he said -
Galatians 1:10
"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." And listen, we're far more fearful of God and want to please Him more than we do men. So here in verse 10 Paul says -
Galatians 5:10b
"...but he that troubleth you (with his false teaching) shall bear his judgement, whosoever he be." It
didn't matter whether this false teacher was highly educated, a
philosopher, or a high man in Judaism, it doesn't matter. Paul says,
"This person will one day stand in judgment."
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