Galatians Part 3: God’s Word Rather Than Man’s

What we've tried to do in our sermon series outline is that each section we are working through has a headline. The headline for this section is “Jesus means freedom to follow God instead of man, including ourselves.” I think that’s an important distinction because most of the time, when we think about following man instead of God, we think of being influenced by other people. But I want to make this distinction: yes, we can be influenced by others, but Jesus is also setting us free from following ourselves.

The influence of man isn’t just everyone around us—it starts within us. Being influenced and stubborn in my own self-righteousness also begins in my heart. So, this isn’t an invitation to blame other people for the bad things in the world and say, “I just need to stop following them and follow only God.” It’s also an invitation to start looking inward, to see where these things happen, and how they work in and among us as we attempt to have relationships with others. Does that make sense?

The first thing we need to understand is that the gospel defeats our self-reliance. You and I are not set free so we can be self-reliant; we are set free so we can rely on God. Self-reliance is slavery—that's the part we need to see.

As we go through this, I want us to understand a couple of things. There are truths in Scripture, and I can’t remember where I heard this, but I heard it a couple of months ago: there are truths in the scriptures and in our faith, especially as we talk about building the house of God. We—the Church of God, the people of God—are built up as a house. The foundation of that house is Jesus—his life, death, resurrection, identity. All of it. Everything we know and believe about Jesus—who He is and what He has done and continues to do—is the foundation of the house.

If the building is not built on that foundation, number one, it’s not Christianity. Number two, it will not stand. So, we have a firm and clear foundation. On top of that foundation, we have what we call in the church load-bearing walls.

Now, if you’re familiar with construction, you know what I’m talking about. If not, here’s what that means: there’s a foundation, and then there are walls that bear the weight of the roof and transfer it down to the foundation. If you’re in your house and you want to knock a wall out, the first thing a contractor will ask is, “Is it load-bearing?” Because if you knock out a load-bearing wall, you compromise the integrity of the house. Even with a solid foundation, the house will be compromised if we tamper with key parts of the structure.

This is important for us to understand because, in the church, people sometimes talk about faith in ways that compromise these load-bearing walls. False gospels or slight twists to the truth may seem subtle, but they weaken the whole structure. If we build on compromised load-bearing walls, we’re increasing the likelihood that the house will fall. As we add more weight and structure to the house, if those walls are weak, the house won’t stand.

This is what Paul was passionate about in his letter to the Galatians: the gospel and the gospel alone. When we start adding to the foundation, whatever we add must align with the gospel. Anything that doesn't align with the gospel is building a structure that won’t last.

Those load-bearing walls are what we might call secondary issues—things we can have healthy disagreements about—but we must get the load-bearing walls right. When it comes to these things, we have to submit our will to God. And here’s the difficult truth for us to accept: that submission to God’s will is freedom. True freedom is doing it God’s way, not our way.

We’re not talking about freedom in the way the world talks about it. If Jesus’s purpose was to restore us to a right relationship with God, that right relationship reflects what we see in Genesis 1 and 2, before sin entered the world in Genesis 3. Everything Jesus has done is to restore us to that right relationship with God, not to allow us to do whatever we want or to perfectly keep the law. That’s the issue Paul was addressing in Galatians: the gospel defeats self-reliance.

Paul says in Galatians 1:10, “For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Paul was facing opposition from a group called the Judaizers, who believed that Gentiles had to adopt Jewish practices, like keeping food laws and circumcision, to truly follow Christ. They also believed Jews who became Christians had to continue keeping the law. Essentially, they were adding to the foundation of Christ in a way that was improper.

The Judaizers were adding self-reliance to the gospel. They were saying, “Yes, rely on Jesus, but also rely on yourself.” It’s the gospel of performance—the idea that Jesus saves us, but we still have to earn God’s approval by how we act. It’s a lie that says, “I have to do this, or God will look at me differently.” That’s the burden of performance the Judaizers were placing on new Gentile believers. They were saying that Jesus isn’t enough, but that’s where Paul draws the line.

Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
Jesus plus anything equals nothing.

If we add anything to the gospel of Jesus, we no longer have the gospel. Paul reminds us that the gospel he preached did not come from man but was received through a revelation of Jesus Christ. He wasn't seeking to please men but was serving Christ.

How I deal with the person right in front of me and how I think about politics—these loadbearing walls have implications right here in front of me, and they have vast implications across the face of the Earth. You and I are called to clearly stand uncompromisingly when it comes to these things. In both cases—whether in the right relationship here, or how we deal with here—what we get are whispers of lies, just like Peter.

Peter sought to not make an enemy with these certain people, so he compromised. And what did Paul call him? A hypocrite. In Philippians chapter 3, Paul says this about himself: "Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh." Okay, I have confidence in what I do. I have confidence in self-reliance—that’s what he's calling the flesh. "If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more."

I mean, that sounds pretty arrogant: "Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee." We think of "Pharisee" as a derogatory term. A Pharisee was someone who existed in the office of the church and, in their social structure, that was at the top. It required keeping the law, so if you were a Pharisee, you were something. "As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church." You want to know how zealous I was for my faith? I persecuted the church. I arrested and had people killed. I watched people get killed and approved of it—that's how zealous I was for my faith. "As to righteousness under the law, blameless."

So if Paul kept the law in his actions perfectly, okay, let’s go back to the gospel. Is the gospel about not sinning? Or is righteousness before God simply not doing anything wrong? I mean, yes, at the core, but we've boiled it down to what we do. So if Paul says, "I kept the law perfectly," what's the problem? Here’s the problem: on the road to Damascus, he comes face to face with the resurrected Jesus. Now, his outward righteousness comes face to face with true holiness. And do you know what he sees himself as? The chief of sinners.

This is what happens every time somebody comes face to face with the holiness of God. They say things like, "Woe is me." Our outward workings of righteousness mean nothing if what is growing inside of us is poisonous, sinful, vile, selfish—right?—self-pleasing, people-pleasing crap. Paul actually refers to it as something maybe even more inappropriate for church, but he is standing firm on the gospel.

You and I live in a day when standing firm in the gospel is so hard. Here’s why: because we don’t know where it is all the time. Again, this is such a hot topic, I can't avoid it. But do you know how angry it makes me? Do you know how angry it makes me when—first of all—I can't watch anything on YouTube without being force-fed political ads? And there’s one in particular that makes me so angry.

I want us to understand that a particular Oregon candidate would be so hateful—would be so hateful as to rob women of their choice and to remove health care. I’m not saying that to be derogatory of anybody; I’m saying that to be derogatory of a lie that is being told to us, and it’s being told to us again and again and again and again and again and again and again. Everywhere you look, there are so-called Christian celebrities, Christian athletes, saying, "This is the most important thing to me in this election: women's choice." That’s the most important thing to us—our choice.

Do we hear Frank Sinatra’s words in our head? That is not the most important thing. It never has been, never will be if we seek to follow Jesus. The most important thing in all of life is what? What He says. Wanting our choice is what got us here in the first place, and we just keep doubling down on it, thinking that somehow it's going to end up differently.

This is Paul's zeal now for the gospel. It's the same zeal that he had when he was persecuting the church. We will not be moved from this truth, and the load-bearing walls that are built upon it—we will not compromise. This is why Paul was stoned—we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, probably to death—was jailed, beaten dozens of times, and eventually had his head chopped off. Because he wouldn’t compromise on this.

Let me just tell you something: I'm reading a book right now called The Patient Ferment of the Early Church. It is one of the best books I’ve ever read. And really, what it is, is the writings of the early church fathers that we just talked about, okay? The guys that were discipled by the apostles. And this author is like, "What did these guys write about?" Maybe we can glean some things for our day from what they were emphasizing. Do you know what they emphasized? It seems like more than anything in their writings: patience.

You want to talk about countercultural? We live in the most impatient day that has ever existed on planet Earth. What does it look like to stand firm in what Galatians would say is the fruit of the Spirit? This idea that we could live in a society that is rejecting God and spouting lies all day, every day—what would it look like for us to not only exist, but exist like the early church did?

Because the early church didn’t just survive. Three hundred years after Jesus died, they went from a tiny, tiny band of fledgling, sometimes confused, followers of Jesus to the official religion of the Roman Empire. How did that happen? It happened through men and women who were uncompromising in the gospel, built on the gospel in uncompromising ways, and were persecuted and persecuted and persecuted. As they were persecuted, Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit caused the church to explode.

You want to have an impact on our country? Don’t compromise the gospel. You want to have an impact on our community? Don’t compromise the gospel. Don’t be self-righteous, and don’t be self-reliant. We show grace towards others while not compromising the truth.

Man, that's a razor's edge. But we're not going to take the world’s definition of self-righteous, okay? See, that’s another thing. We’re going to take the Bible's definition, and we’re going to stand on it. We are going to love, and we are going to pray for the people that we know are going that way, and that way, and that way, and that way—while we stand.

This is what this passage is all about. We have been set free, and we have been given the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can remain free. Don’t take another yoke.

Like, I want to say, be like Titus. Right? Titus is the guy that Paul takes with him to Jerusalem. He’s like, "We didn’t give in for a second." Titus didn’t get circumcised. No. None of us are facing that, but what are the things in your life that you’re tempted to give in to, whether in here or out there? How are we still submitting? What are the ways in which we are still submitting to a yoke of slavery, either to please ourselves or to please others? What are the ways in which we are—let me reword this—what are the ways in which we are refusing to submit to God?

This is the question that each of us has to ask ourselves. The self-examination which—then let me just say this—it’s the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. So that thing, whatever it is—that thing that’s bubbling up inside of you—hopefully, that is not condemnation. That is the sweet voice of the Holy Spirit in the kindness of God calling you home.

Who do you need to forgive? What are the ways in which you are thinking about life that need to be corrected? He’s calling you home.

This is what we mean when we talk about coming back to the foot of the cross, because this is where we bring that stuff. It’s not just wrong actions or wrong words—it’s wrong belief that leads to those things. So we want to dig down to the belief and examine the belief. Where we are believing lies, we replace it with truth. And the lie, we bring to the foot of the cross, and we go, "There you go, Jesus." And what does He give us? Freedom, grace, love, peace.

We all know people that live this way. They’re baffling even to us as Christians sometimes. You know somebody that’s just walking in the Spirit, confessing their sins, and uncompromising in the gospel? They just seem untouchable. Those people are never arrogant or proud—you know what I’m saying? They’re such an anomaly. How can somebody walk in such grace and truth at the same time? It’s so weird.

That’s a picture. Let me just say something, okay? Because what happens now is that we start to compare, right? What is that? What are we seeing? Jesus. We’re not seeing that person; we’re seeing Jesus. As soon as we start to compare ourselves to that person, right—it’s like surgery. You remember the game, what was it—Operation, right? As soon as we start to compare ourselves with other people—there’s the buzzer.

I always thought they should replace that game with, instead of the buzzer, a shock. Like, let's add a little electric shock. Let’s up the ante a little bit. Don’t do it. God’s not calling you to be like that person. God’s not calling you to please that person or please yourself through your therapeutic actions to try to be more good. God’s calling you to right relationship with Him.

Again, it’s a razor’s edge, and it takes daily self-examination. Daily. This is why we want you to be deep in your Scriptures. This is why we study the Bible. This is why we teach the Bible. It’s why we sing about the Bible—because this is where we find the truth in a world of lies.

This is what Galatians is about. So let’s stand firm.

We’re going to sing some more. We’re going to celebrate communion together. You’re going to be invited to write down prayer requests on the card. And here’s what I want you to do: I want you to do all of those things in light of this text, okay? When you sing, I don’t want you to sing words that are true because you feel them. I want you to sing words that are true because God says they’re true. Do we see the difference?

Sometimes we need to sing to ourselves because the words on the screen don’t match what’s going on in here. It’s the same way as when we read the Scriptures—sometimes the pages of the Scriptures don’t match what’s in here. Now, I’m not saying the words on the screen or the Bible are wrong, but what I’m saying is they can highlight what’s going wrong in here. Then we can come back to the cross. We can submit to His lordship. He is the King of the universe, the Creator of all things, and He wants to be with me. He loves me.

That’s what you and I are invited into every single day. That’s the relationship. That’s Christianity.