Father, we ask that you would gently pour out your Holy Spirit upon us,
gently and deeply pour out your Holy Spirit deep within us.
And Father, we ask that you would write these words in our hearts,
in the command center of who we are,
so that we will be disciples of Jesus who are gripped by the gospel,
learning to live for your glory.
And all this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Please be seated.
So, I noticed in the newspaper yesterday that there's been a poll done
about what different Canadians think about religious pluralism
and the presence of different religions in Canada.
And I suppose that it depends if you're an optimist or a pessimist.
If you're an optimist, you can say that we're more popular than Muslims.
If you're a pessimist, you could say that we're less unpopular than Muslims.
But that seems to be the result of a particular survey.
In fact, we seem to beat them by a wide margin,
but there's still a majority of Canadians who would find us suspicious.
And one of the things I think that many non-Christians would think about Christians
is that we're obsessed with certain topics,
that we're obsessed with sex, we're obsessed with money,
we're obsessed with power, we're obsessed with rules,
and we like to exclude people.
And that would be, I think, how a lot of Canadians would just sort of think about Canadians,
about Christians like us.
So, the text of Scripture today talks about this very, very much, actually,
and it's a very, very helpful text for us.
I mean, all of the Bible's helpful,
but it's very helpful for us in terms of how we see ourselves
in light of how Canadians see ourselves.
So, if you turn with me in your Bibles to Galatians 5,
Galatians 5, beginning at verse 1,
we'll just see what the Bible has to say.
And those of you who remember, and we're here last week,
last week we talked about Galatians 5, verse 1, but I'll read it again.
It's sort of an unusual verse in Galatians.
Galatians 5, verse 1,
it sort of is just there.
And in some ways, it's the summary of the whole book,
and in another, so it helps you sort of understand what goes before and what comes after.
And so, here it is.
It's a great, great verse, well worth memorizing.
Freedom, Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to yoke of slavery.
And this describes to us the purpose that Jesus came to die on the cross.
He came to die on the cross so that ordinary people like you and me would be free.
That when we put our faith and trust in Jesus,
that there would be a basic freedom bestowed to us.
And that not only are we made free when we put our faith and trust in Jesus,
but God's desire is that this freedom would only get deeper and deeper and stronger and stronger
and a more real presence in our life.
And in the middle of it all, he uses this military analogy, which is stand firm.
If you've seen some old war movies, it's the same type, it's an actual military term,
and it would be as if, you know, the major says to the sergeant,
you and your platoon, you've got to keep that hill.
You can't lose that hill.
You've got to stand fast on that hill and not surrender it.
And that's the exact same image which is used here in this text.
For freedom, Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
And we talked about this last week.
I can't say more about it now other than to say this.
So here's this ringing announcement of freedom and a warning about slavery.
So what is it that you think that Paul, the Bible, is now going to talk about next?
Especially in light of this fact that there is this problem that even though Christ has made us free,
that we could slip into slavery.
So, you know, I think if you were to, for many people, you'd think,
and maybe many Canadians would think, okay, well, here's where the Bible is going to warn us
about being involved in sexual things.
Or maybe it's going to either be one of those contradictory things where it's going to talk about
warn us against money as if it's evil,
or talk about how we've got to give the church lots of money.
Or maybe it's going to now talk about, I don't know, drinking too much.
Or it's going to talk about anger.
It's going to talk about violence.
Or if you're more on the left, now it's going to talk more about injustice or something like that.
And so it's very, very, very striking that after this big declaration of freedom
and this warning that you can slide into slavery,
what's the very first thing that the Bible warns us against?
Religion.
Like, just let that settle for a second.
Not sex and drugs and rock and roll.
Not oppression.
It warns us about religion.
Like, that's actually quite stunning.
And regrettably, it's counterintuitive to most of us Christians.
And it's definitely counterintuitive to Canadians.
That that's what the Bible is going to warn us about.
But that's exactly what the Bible warns us about.
Look at verses 2 to 4 again.
Verses 2 to 4 of Galatians chapter 5.
Look, I, Paul...
So look how it begins.
Verse 2.
Look.
Just look.
Right now, he's going to remind them of something that he established in chapters 3 and 4.
But he said, look.
I, Paul, see to you that if you accept circumcision,
Christ will be of no advantage to you.
Like, it won't profit you at all.
It's like...
He's going to be completely worthless.
What's an example?
If I said to you,
can I buy that car with the color blue?
Ooh.
You'd go,
George, is this a type of absurdist humor?
Like, you don't buy things with color.
Like, you buy things with money.
And what Paul is saying here is that it's like if you go down the route of circumcision,
which I'm going to explain in a moment,
it's...
That means you've made Christ completely and utterly, you know, worthless.
Like, you can't use Christ to buy whatever it is that religion thinks it's buying.
You just can't do it.
Read verse 2 again.
Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision,
Christ will be of no advantage to you.
I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision...
And just pause here.
When we talked about this quite a few weeks ago,
just remember the Bible would see female circumcision as completely abhorrent.
Female circumcision is always an attempt to enslave women.
To make them not even second-class citizens,
but lower than second-class citizens.
And the Bible would condemn it if it was aware of it.
It's just talking about male circumcision,
which is a very, very different thing.
Read verse 3 again.
I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision
that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
You are severed from Christ,
you who would be justified by the law...
Justified means be made right with God.
By the law, you have fallen away from grace.
It's very, very strong language.
So what is it that Paul is warning them about?
Well, here, if you could put up the first point,
that would be very helpful.
What Paul established earlier is that for religion to work,
in quotation marks,
you need to keep 100% of the rules 100% of the time
and get a score of 100%.
Now, Paul is just saying,
listen, I'm Paul, I'm an apostle,
I'm reminding you of this.
But Paul isn't just saying this because it popped into his head.
He said, listen, if you read the Bible itself,
if you read the Bible itself,
that's what the Bible teaches.
That that's the whole reason why God said,
okay, I know that human beings have this great desire
to justify themselves, become like God,
make themselves right with me as if they're God.
And they think they can do this in their own way,
in their own strength,
in their own power,
in their own imagination.
So in a sense,
in 2 Corinthians talks about it,
that means that we can boast relative to God.
And so I'm just going to, you know,
I'm just going to give you an example.
If you actually want to try to make yourself right with me,
I'm going to sell the problem to you.
I'm going to tell you what the laws are
that you have to do to be holy
and to approach a holy God.
And Paul earlier in chapter 3 and 4 just said,
listen, if you listen to the Bible,
what God says is you've got to keep all of them.
And what does all of them mean?
All means all of them.
All of them means 100% of them.
And you've got to keep them 100% of the time.
And you've got to get a score of 100%.
And if you follow the Bible and you read that,
then what your response should be is one of two things.
What your response should be is,
Lord, have mercy.
That's impossible.
But what's the religious and human response?
Presumption.
And presumption is...
Brian has to keep 100% of the laws,
100% of the time you get 100%.
But, you know, I'm me.
I get a pass on some of them.
Like, I get a pass on the ones that I can't keep.
And I don't have to have...
Because I'm me, I don't have to have 100%.
Like, I just have to have a percent
that basically I'm satisfied and happy with.
And I have to have a percent on that percentage of times.
It sort of is fine with me,
and it's a type of presumption.
And, in fact, actually,
if you want to get the next point,
that would be great.
One perennial counterfeit
to saving faith in Jesus
is presumption.
It's just presumption.
Because we want to try to make our way
right with God,
and, you know,
there's Catholic versions of this,
there's Evangelical Protestant versions of this,
there's traditionalist Anglican versions of this,
there's charismatic versions of this,
there's Eastern...
Like, there's a lot...
There's all sorts of different ways
that we can start to add some types of rules
or rituals that you really have to keep
if you want to be a real Christian,
a serious Christian.
And if you don't keep those types of rules,
you're not a real Christian,
you're not a serious Christian.
But what it is,
is we don't actually keep those.
Like, that's what the Bible constantly establishes.
It doesn't...
We don't keep them.
So what happens is that
we just have basic presumption
that there's just something about me
which gives me a pass.
Or maybe, if I'm very generous,
about us,
the chosen,
the elect,
those of us in this congregation,
those who braved the rude wind's wild lament
to come to church today.
That's a quote from a hymn.
And...
But...
That's the constant aspect
of the religious spirit.
You know, we true Christians
who don't sing to guitars.
We true Christians
who do sing to guitars.
There's something that we start to add
to the gospel of grace
that we think is required.
And we might always worship with it,
with guitars, for instance.
Since that's a simple one.
But Paul is making a fundamental...
You know, a far bigger thing
is that once you start adding things to Jesus
and what he's done for us on the cross,
you're, in a sense,
taking Jesus out of the equation altogether
because God makes us right with himself
by faith alone,
by grace alone.
In other words,
it's all because of God's grace
because we can't keep the rules.
And how do we receive that grace?
We put our faith
and only our faith
in Jesus
and only in Jesus.
And only in Jesus
means Jesus
with nothing added to it whatsoever.
But some of you might say,
George, I'm a little bit...
You say that,
but George,
doesn't Paul...
Doesn't the Bible contradict
what you just said?
Doesn't it say
that you can fall away from grace?
Well, look again at what it says.
Look at verse 3.
I testify again
to every man
who accepts circumcision.
And by the way,
what circumcision meant...
I meant...
I said I was going to explain it.
Paul is going to,
in a moment,
tell us that
it doesn't really matter
whether we're circumcised.
He's using circumcision
sort of as a word
to capture
those who feel
that they have to keep
the Old Testament law.
They need Jesus
plus Moses
to be made right with God.
They need Jesus
plus religious rules
to be made right with God.
And he's using circumcision
as sort of a way
to talk about all of that.
Just as if we want to talk
about big business,
I've used this example before,
we don't necessarily talk about,
you know,
post-industrial
democratic capitalism
and its different mechanisms
in terms of unions
and monetary policy
and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
What we just say
is we talk about Wall Street
or big business
or Bloor Street, right?
And so that's what Paul's using here
with this word circumcision.
He's using it as
not as the act itself
but as sort of a way
of encapturing the desire
to make ourselves right with God
by following rules.
And in this case in particular,
the different rules
revealed in Leviticus, etc.
in the Old Testament
that God had revealed,
Paul establishes earlier,
to sell us the problem,
to bring us to the point
of saying one moment,
if I want to go down this route
of trying to make myself
right with God,
I've got to keep 100%
of the rules,
I've got to keep them
100% of the time
and I've got to get
a score of 100%.
And once that sort of hits you,
you realize that's impossible.
That's completely
and utterly impossible.
And so the whole purpose
is to get us to call out to God
and say,
Lord, have mercy.
Unless you have mercy
and you do something
I cannot do,
I am doomed.
And God,
I can't believe
that you want,
you will just let me be doomed
because I know
that you are a God
of steadfast love,
that you are a God of mercy.
And in a sense,
it's calling out
for the Old Testament saints
to say,
I don't know how
you're going to do it, God.
I don't know what
you're going to do.
But God,
I need mercy.
I need you to do
what only you can do
to make someone like me
right with you.
And Jesus
and his death upon the cross
and resurrection
is God keeping his promise
for all those Old Testament saints
and everyone afterwards
who comes to realize
that keeping,
if our goal
is to make ourselves
right with God
by our actions,
it'll never work.
It'll never work.
The only reason
we think it will work
is because we have
presumption.
that we get a pass
on all the things,
we get a pass
on enough of the things
and get a good enough mark.
And why is it different for me
than those nasty other people,
those nasty Roman Catholics,
if you're a Protestant
or if you're a Catholic,
those nasty Protestants,
was because it's,
well, there's something about us.
I mean,
why wouldn't God give me a pass?
Look at me.
You know?
Now,
we never consciously say that,
but we can see
that those who embark
upon the path of religion
and therefore
are embarking upon presumption
are always going to be insecure.
In fact,
it's one of the reasons
why
for many people,
when they cast off
all religion,
they find it liberating.
Why?
No more pretending.
I don't have to pretend
I actually like to visit
with some old lady
when what I really want to do
is sit down all afternoon,
watch NFL football,
eat potato chips,
and drink beer.
I don't have to pretend
I like these people.
I can just go to the bar
and if I don't fit in
with the people in this bar,
I just go to another bar.
I just keep going
to different bars
until I'm either,
you know,
sufficiently blitzed
or I find a group of people
who just sort of fit with me,
you know?
But, you know,
in a bar,
they just sort of live
and let live.
And so for many people,
it's why they actually feel
a sense of liberation
when they leave religion.
But the Bible here,
remember,
the Bible says that
the gospel is not good religion.
The Bible,
the gospel is not good advice.
The gospel is not good rules.
The gospel is not good requirements.
The gospel is good news.
And what is that good news?
God has done with power
and accomplished with power
something that we human beings
can never do ourselves.
God has done something
in the person of his son
in his death upon the cross
that we receive purely and utterly
because he is gracious and merciful
and all we do is put our hands out
in faith and trust
and he gives us
what we cannot accomplish
when we put our faith and trust in Jesus.
And why has God done this?
God has done this.
So that you and I can be free.
And so you and I can grow in freedom.
So one of the things that has to die in us
is our presumption.
Like it's very hard
because presumption is very addictive.
presumption is very, very addictive.
But you know, as the gospel grips me,
it's not, I mean, it still can be very, very hard
when maybe one of my kids reminds me
of something that I did to hurt them many years ago.
And that can be very hard
and it can upset my view of myself
and my view of what I was like as a dad.
You know, but at the end of the day,
what do I have to say?
That in light of the cross,
I know that I'm a sinner.
And in light of the cross,
I know that I've not been perfect,
can't be perfect, will never be perfect.
And in light of the cross,
I can think about the fact that
I'm only made right with God
by what Jesus has done
and my sins have been forgiven.
And my identity and my security
do not come from trying to get people
to think I've succeeded 100% of the time
and 100% of the laws with 100% mark.
And so as we are gripped by the gospel,
there's the possibility that our security
and our identity is now
in what God has,
a destiny that God has given me.
And I can say to my kids,
hopefully,
without having to spend 10 years
in therapy and remorse
and beating myself up,
I'm really sorry that I hurt you.
I am really, really sorry that I hurt you.
Or to our friends,
or to our parents,
or to our spouse,
or to our employers.
You see,
presumption,
the more we are dictated
and ruled by presumption,
the harder it will be
to both accept responsibility
and ask for forgiveness.
But the more we are gripped
by the gospel,
then whether we realize it or not,
there is something within us
which is grounding us
and shaping us
and propelling us
and drawing us
to a type of security
and identity
based on God
accomplishing something for us
that begins to free me up
to acknowledge lack
and sin
and ask for forgiveness
as I apologize.
If you could put up
the next point.
Once I am gripped
by God's grace,
he will never let me go.
This text in verse 5
about falling away
from grace,
it's to be sort of understood
in two ways.
The one way
is to understand
that, you know,
what I've just described
by being sort of gripped
by the gospel
and that once we're gripped
by the gospel,
but there is this older
Christian terminology
called backsliding.
It's old-fashioned terminology,
but it's been lost
by the church,
but we should get it.
I mean,
this is what the Bible
teaches us,
that it is possible
for me to slip back
into presumption,
slip back into rules,
slip back into legalism.
That's called backsliding.
You're falling away,
but once God's grace has me,
I can't lose it.
Why?
Because it's God's,
not mine.
That's why.
It's God's grace,
not my presumption.
And the second thing is,
and this is what Paul
is talking about here,
he's writing to a church,
and it's not always clear
in any local congregation
all who are in fact Christ's.
And for those who have yet,
not yet come to Christ
in a saving way
and are feeling
that this new thing
is better because
it's religion,
then Paul is warning them
that if you go down
that route,
you're walking away
from Christ,
you're cutting yourself
away from grace,
and what are you walking to?
Presumption.
And let me tell you,
in a marriage or relationship,
presumption really helps
a marriage.
Not, okay,
I'm saying the opposite.
Presumption ruins relationships
and ruins life.
So, Paul doesn't just sort of
warn them about these counterfeits,
but he also then reminds them
in a very, very powerful,
densely packed text.
He reminds them powerfully
of faith, hope, and love.
And by talking about faith,
hope, and love,
he helps them to understand
if the counterfeit
of Christian faith
is presumption.
What does true faith look like?
Verses 5 and 6
of chapter 5.
For through the Spirit,
that's the Holy Spirit,
by faith,
we ourselves
eagerly wait
for the hope
of righteousness.
For in Christ Jesus,
neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision
counts for anything,
but only faith
working
through
love.
It's a very dense text.
For through
the Holy Spirit,
by faith,
we ourselves
eagerly wait
for the hope
of righteousness.
Now, here,
there's a,
one of the things
that was really powerful
for me this summer
when I spent time
in Angola,
is it,
and some of you
who speak multiple languages,
you already know this,
but it was very powerful
put to me
because I had to speak
and I would be
regularly translated
into Portuguese
and sometimes
into one of other,
the other tribal languages.
And,
and one of the things
that constantly came to me,
especially afterwards,
is that people would debrief,
is how sometimes
even simple words
in English
had no equivalent,
no simple equivalent
in the other language.
And then sometimes,
I would just say,
like my 10 words in a row,
and the other person
would speak
for a couple of minutes
and it was always
very funny
because sometimes
they'd be interrupted
by somebody
in the congregation
and they'd have
a little bit
of a conversation
about how to try
to translate
some simple word.
I gave the example
how in the tribal
language group,
they have,
I can't remember
the exact number,
but it's something
like 27 different words
for spirits,
but they don't have
a generic word for it.
And every spirit
is basically
what we would call
a demon.
So when I just said
something about
the Holy Spirit,
it caused this
long conversation.
So why am I saying this?
Because of the word hope
here in the text.
The word hope
in the text.
If you look again
at verse 5,
it says this,
For through the spirit,
by faith,
we ourselves
eagerly wait
for the hope
of righteousness.
Now,
in Canadian English,
what does hope mean?
Hope means
something weak.
I hope
the senators
win the Stanley Cup
before Matt Duchesne
goes somewhere else.
Now,
what do you folks
think about that?
Do you think
I'd bet
all of my
RRSPs on Matt?
No,
you'd want to have me
going for therapy
or something
if I did something
like that.
You'd say,
George,
that's a foolish thing
because,
I mean,
what are the odds?
You can hope for it
but it's just like a,
just sort of hope.
In the Bible,
hope doesn't mean that.
Hope basically means
assurance.
A type of humble
or blessed
assurance.
difference.
And there's no way
to translate that
even easily
into English
without having
a couple of sentences.
By the way,
it's one of the reasons
why
it's part of God's
original intention
that there be
local churches
because
we're all called
to read the Bible
as individuals
but we can't just
read the Bible
as individuals.
We need people
to help us
read the Bible,
to help us
to understand it
and explain it.
One of the things
that you should pray
for me
is that
when I preach
and teach
that at the end
of it
you are more able
to read the Bible
for yourself
in an accurate way.
So just,
could you put up
the next point?
Here's the first thing.
It's very,
very interesting.
Remember,
the way the world
sees us
is that we're
obsessed with money,
we're obsessed
with sex,
we're obsessed
with power
but here
Paul is saying
the gospel
calls us
to freedom,
the gospel
makes us free
and then it warns us
and what does it warn us?
It warns us first
about religion
and now it's going
to start to try
to explain once again
what the gospel is.
One of the things
it does
is it talks about hope
and the fact
of the matter is
is that
we hunger
for hope,
for true hope.
We warn our friends
that this is a false hope,
that it's a vain hope,
that it's a foolish hope,
that it's a,
you know,
I don't know,
you know,
my Toronto friends
in Toronto
would say
it's a vain hope
to hope
that the Senators
will ever win
the Stanley Cup,
George,
because the Leafs
are going to win
the Stanley Cup
many times
before Ottawa
ever wins.
So that's,
you know,
that's a joke,
right?
But we warn each other
about false hopes,
vain hopes,
counterfeit hopes,
but we all know
that human beings
need hope,
we crave hope,
we starve,
and when we start
to come to a point
in time
when we feel
that there is no hope,
that all we have
is despair,
and in the middle of it,
if you could put up
the next point,
what Paul says here
is that the Holy Spirit
grows in Christians
a humble assurance
that we are not doomed,
but that in Jesus Christ
crucified,
we will one day
walk in the garden
with God
naked and unashamed.
This is not presumption
because, you see,
the Holy Spirit works.
When it says by faith,
it doesn't just mean,
well, I have faith in this
or faith in that.
No, it means
every time you see
the word faith
here in this context,
it's always for saying
about faith
in Jesus Christ
and Him crucified.
Faith in God's
powerful,
effective grace
that we receive
when we,
by faith,
believe what God,
receive what God
has done for us
in the person of His Son.
And so the Holy Spirit
both draws us
to a saving faith
in Jesus,
but the Holy Spirit
doesn't just draw us
to a faith
in the saving work
of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit,
one of the things
the Holy Spirit
quietly does in our lives
is continually draw us
back to Jesus
and Him crucified.
And part of the work
of the Holy Spirit
in our lives
isn't just to have us
have certain emotions,
you know,
we all want to have
great emotions,
right,
or emotions
that we find pleasant.
But the work
of the Holy Spirit
isn't a work
of emotions primarily,
it's work in this text
to constantly bring us
back to this faith
in Jesus Christ
and Him crucified
and what it is
that God has accomplished
in the person
of His Son.
And what He's accomplished
in us
is that it is now
not my ability
to follow rules
that makes me right
with God,
but Jesus'
perfect obedience,
His perfect rule-keeping,
His death
upon the cross
that deals
with my shame,
that deals
with my failures,
that deals
with my outright evil
and my outright lack,
and that it's
His wholeness
and His completeness
and His perfect sacrifice
made actual
here on earth.
And God,
through this,
does something
which I can never do,
but He does,
and He does it completely
without reservation.
He does it fully,
and that when I put
my hands out
because He said,
George,
if you just put
your hand out,
I will give you
a promise that will
make you mine forever,
and mine forever
means mine forever,
and when I put
my hand out
and He gives me Jesus
and He takes my hand,
He will never
let me go.
And in a sense,
when I put my faith
in Jesus,
the final word
about me
from the only person
who matters,
who is God Himself,
has now been spoken,
and I know it,
that there might be
times I backslide,
there will be times
I backslide.
There are definitely
aspects of sin
within me
that I have to deal with,
but I am not doomed.
In Christ,
my destiny
is that one day
I,
with others
who are Christ's,
will walk in the garden
once again with God
in the cool of the day,
and I will be naked
and unashamed.
That is a blessed assurance.
That is the Christian hope.
And it's the opposite
of presumption,
because it's based,
in a sense,
on giving up any hope
in my own power
and abilities,
and my own specialness.
And saying,
only God,
only you.
And look what else it does.
He also describes
what faith is again
in the very next verse.
So verse 5 again,
for through the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit,
by faith,
we ourselves
eagerly wait.
In other words,
we eagerly have
an assurance
for the hope
of righteousness.
The righteousness here
once again means
being right with God
in a way that's right.
verse 6,
for in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision
or uncircumcision
counts for anything.
It doesn't matter
if you're circumcised
or uncircumcised.
Go ahead.
If you're a guy,
get circumcised.
Circumcise your boys
if you want.
Don't circumcise them.
It doesn't matter.
It's just a personal preference.
But what matters?
Verse 6,
only faith
working
through
love.
Only faith
working
through love.
Now there's a Latin phrase
which I'm not going
to try to say
because I don't know
how to pronounce Latin.
This actually,
one of the things
just recently
we celebrated
or many people
celebrate the 500th
anniversary
of the Reformation
and one of the things
which slipped
into the medieval church,
the medieval church
was in fact
the complete opposite
of what this verse says.
And there's a Roman,
there's a Latin phrase
for it.
But basically
in the medieval church
they began to say
that what works
is that love,
my love
forms faith.
So that love
comes first.
So what does that mean?
Well I have to
love the sacrament.
I have to love
the blessed virgin.
I have to love
the poor.
I have to love
the institution.
I have to do
these types of acts
of love.
And as I do
these types of love,
then faith
in Christ
will be formed
by which I'm saved.
But this text says
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Faith
working
through love.
If you could put up
the next point
that would be great.
Saving faith
in Jesus Christ
crucified
expresses itself
in self-giving love.
See, how is one of the ways
that we understand
that we've come
to a saving faith
in Jesus Christ?
Not that automatically
we become like
a Mother Teresa.
but that as this gospel
of grace grips us
and we put our faith
and trust in him,
that as God's grace,
as Jesus
and his self-giving death
upon the cross,
as that starts to ground us
and shape us
and nudge us
and draw us,
one of the things
that we find
being expressed
in our being gripped
by this gospel truth
is that
we start to express
and do things
that are self-giving love.
We do.
But some of you might say
I have to wrap this up.
Isn't God mean?
Didn't Paul say something
in this text
that John read
just a few minutes ago?
Isn't he very mean?
Doesn't Paul say
that men who want
to go down this route
should castrate themselves,
cut off their male
sexual member?
Well, he does actually.
I don't know
if you caught that.
Look at verses 7 through 12.
You were running well.
Who hindered you
from obeying the truth?
This persuasion
and the word
in the original language
here, persuasion here,
persuasion in English
is a neutral word.
It's a good word.
But in the original language
it has a bit of a sense
of like what the con man
does to persuade you.
There's a sense there
in the original language.
This persuasion
is not from him
who calls you.
A little leaven
leavens the whole lump.
In other words,
once false teaching
comes into your church,
it's going to go
throughout the entire church.
It's going to touch everything.
And then he says,
I have confidence
in the Lord
that you,
that he's a plural,
you,
the congregation
will take no other view
and the one
who is troubling you
will bear the penalty
whoever he is.
In other words,
he's just saying,
listen,
at the end of the day,
God is going to deal with this.
God's going to deal with this.
We have to deal with it
in terms of maybe
excluding them
from teaching,
but God will deal with them.
But if I, brothers,
still preach circumcision,
because maybe
the false teachers
were saying
that Paul used to
be very zealous for it,
which is true.
Maybe he's referring
to the fact
that he had
Timothy circumcised
for ministry
amongst the Gentiles,
but whatever it is,
they're twisting things.
He says,
why am I still
being persecuted?
In that case,
the offense of the cross
has been removed.
I wish those
who unsettle you
would emasculate themselves.
As long as he doesn't
do anything,
it's a very, very,
you know,
if you ever read,
I don't think
this is a spoiler,
but if you ever read
the really excellent novel
World War Z,
don't see the movie,
read the book.
In fact,
the book has virtually
nothing to do
with the movie.
And one of the things
in the book
is that there's
a guy who becomes
very rich
by selling
an antidote.
He says that
if you take this,
it will mean
that you won't
become a zombie
if you're bit
by a zombie.
And it's a lie.
And it's part
of the dynamic
of the book.
And,
I mean,
wouldn't you hate
somebody?
Like,
wouldn't you just
want some
unbelievable punishment
to happen to somebody
who willingly
becomes rich
selling false
confidences
to people?
You see,
part of the reason
that we have trouble
with Paul's language
is that we,
at the end of the day,
we start to slide
into the Canadian belief
that the gospel
and religion
is just like talking
about ice cream flavors.
It doesn't really matter
in terms of our
eternal destiny.
But if we're gripped
with this idea
that there really is
our eternal destiny
hangs on this,
then this is not
extreme language.
But here's the thing.
If you could put up
the next point,
I'm going to have to
run through my points
quickly.
Embrace the offense
of the cross of Christ.
Embrace the gospel.
That's what Paul
is saying here, right?
He's saying
the gospel is an offense.
Why is it an offense?
Because the gospel
tells us
our rules won't work.
The gospel warns us
about presumption.
The gospel warns us
about these things.
It undercuts our pride.
It undercuts our boasting.
It undercuts our thinking
that we're superior
because we're Anglicans
or because we're white
or because we're black
or because we're Canadians
or because we're Africans
or because we're Chinese.
That the gospel
keeps relativizing this
and undercutting this
and offering a completely
and utterly different way
of being made right with God.
It relativizes things
that we want to make
absolutes out of.
It is constantly an offense
and Paul is saying
I've embraced
the offense of the cross.
That's the gospel.
Could you do it too?
Just in closing,
look at verses 13 and 14
because Paul once again
goes back to the theme
of the letter.
For you were called
to freedom,
brothers and sisters.
Only do not use your freedom
as an opportunity
for the flesh,
but through love
serve one another.
for the whole law
is fulfilled in one word.
You shall love your neighbor
as yourself.
But if you bite
and devour one another,
watch out that you are not
consumed by one another.
You see,
if you understand
the whole law
is assumed in one word,
one phrase,
you shall love your neighbor
as yourself,
whoever believes
that they had done that
100% of the time
and gotten 100%.
Who other than someone
with proud presumption?
Just if you could put up
the next point.
So what Paul is saying here
is another perennial counterfeit
to saving faith in Jesus
is self-serving faith.
Why?
Because the self-serving faith
is a religious faith
that means that we can just
serve our appetites.
It's wanting to give ourselves,
hearing about the gospel
and then thinking
that if we just sort of
mentally assent
to a certain thing
or do a few rules,
that it means we can do
whatever we want in our life,
but at the end of the day
we're going to go to heaven.
It's not getting this whole
being cut
and our whole need
for God's mercy
and dependence.
It's not understanding
that giving ourselves
to Christ
and the gospel
means that we will now
have this pressure
that comes from within
for self-denying,
self-effacing love
that is good
for the other person.
And when Paul says
this one whole verse
summarizes the whole law,
if you could put up
the next point,
the law that he's saying
that true love
is a form of goodness
and holiness
which energizes me
to give myself
for the good
and holiness
of the other
to the glory of God.
Why?
Because what does
the law do?
The law talks about
the holiness of God.
It talks about goodness.
It talks about truth.
If you read
the Old Testament
for the first books
of Moses,
it talks about beauty
as well.
And so he's not saying
that love is just
somehow something like
give me, give me, give me
or having a particular feeling
that love
is at one with goodness
and love is at one
with holiness
and love is at one
with goodness
and holiness
and is at one
with desiring
to be with the God
who loves,
who is good
and who is holy.
And it means that
if I'm going to do
true love,
if I'm acting
in a loving way
to another person,
it's not going to be
something that hurts them,
that wounds them,
that leads them
far from God.
That my act
of self-giving love
is going to be
something that is good,
that serves them
in a way
that's good for them
and in a way
that is holy,
that in a sense
fits them for God
or draws them
close to God
and that that
is what happens
when we put our faith
in Christ
is that this energy
comes to move us
in this direction.
And why does the world
need the gospel then
if you could put up
the final point?
We hunger for love.
Every single person
that we will meet
hungers for hope
and hungers for love.
they might not realize it
but they hunger for God
and they might not realize it
but they hunger
for what only God
can do
and has done
in the person of his son.
Please stand.
Father,
your word warns us
about presumption.
Father,
may your Holy Spirit
move and work
in our lives
to help presumption
die in us
and create within us,
Father,
rather than presumption
to be more gripped
by true faith
in the gospel.
And Father,
your word warns us
of the possibility
that our faith
is just a matter
of serving ourselves
and that we can be deceived.
And Father,
we ask that your Holy Spirit
and your word
would work in our lives
to lead us away
from self-deception
and lead us, Father,
towards having a true faith
which expresses itself
in such a love.
And Father,
we do hunger
and we do thirst
ourselves
for love
and for hope.
And we thank you,
Father,
that you both
meet our thirst
in the person
of your son
and that as you
meet our thirst,
you create
an even deeper thirst,
a thirst which is
filled with joy
as you draw us
to yourself.
Father,
may your Holy Spirit
make us disciples
of Jesus
who are gripped
by the gospel,
learning to live
for your glory.
And we ask this
in the name of Jesus.
Amen.