Galatians 3: What False Teachers and False Teaching are You Choosing to Run Your Life?Ruin or run...the choice is yours.
If you’re in the resident congregation turn off your electronic devices and put them away. Let this be a place where you aren’t distracted by the world.
Welcome To BARAH MINISTRIES
Rory Clark Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…an intimate, local Christian Church with a worldwide impact. My name is Pastor Rory Clark. Thanks for listening to this Bible lesson!
Why did God the Father create Barah Ministries?
Through Barah Ministries, God the Father gives you a place to learn that His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ is God.Colossians, Chapter 2, Verse 9 makes it clear…
COLOSSIANS 2:9 For in (the Lord) Jesus Christ, all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form…
The Bible refers to Jesus Christ in many different ways…He is the Messiah…He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world…He is the King of Israel…He is the Alpha and the Omega (the first and the last)…He is the GREAT I AM…He is the Sovereign God of the Universe…He is the Light of men, and in Him, there is no darkness at all. It is a pleasure and a blessing to worship the ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD.
At Barah Ministries, we make a difference by teaching the Word of God verse-by-versefrom God’s perspective and not from man’s perspective. The ministry is primarily for Christians who want a deep, intimate, and personal relationship with the Lord through the study of His Word. Second Peter, Chapter 3, Verses 14 to 16 say this…
SECOND PETER 3:14 Therefore…beloved (divinely loved believers in Christ)…while you look for a new heaven and a new earth to come from God…keep on being diligent to be found by Him in peace…spotless…and blameless…
SECOND PETER 3:15 …and regard the patience of our Lord as His desire for all to come to salvation…just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you (in letters that became Biblical)…
SECOND PETER 3:16 …as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these same things…in which letters are some things that are hard to understand…which the untaught and unstable distort, just as they distort the rest of the Scripturesto their own destruction.
The Bible is a supernatural provision from the Lord to help us learn His thinking… is not just a bunch of stories. It has no contradictions and it is the absolute truth. Just because it is hard to understand does not mean it is confusing. It may just be that you are easily deceived! The Bible requires effort on your part to learn! We implore you to always compare what is taught here at Barah Ministries to what the Bible says. It’s a Christian’s responsibility!
God has an enemy, Satan, who is destructive and deceitful. God made Satan ‘the ruler of this world’ for a finite time. In John, Chapter 12, Verse 31, the Lord says…
JOHN 12:31 “Now judgment is upon this world…now the ruler of this world (Satan) will be cast out (he will be dethroned at a future time).”
Satan exists. He isa creature. He is not a “symbol” of evil some false teachers claim. He is not a concept. He isn’t a cartoon character with a red epidermis and a pitchfork. He is a perfect, gorgeous, well-dressed, former officer angel, and a brilliant genius. The sad thing is Satan is an impostor. He is a creature who pretends to be as powerful as God to deceive othersfor his own fraudulent gain.
Satan encourages you to reject the idea of God, which is called atheism…saying there is no God…and Satan encourages you to reject the idea that anyone can be clear about God…agnosticism…claiming the “mysteries of God can’t be known.”Revelation, Chapter 12, Verse 9 says…
REVELATION 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down (from heaven at a future time)…the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan…who deceives the whole world…
God is not mysterious. He is crystal clear and always predictable in His approach to the human race. If not for God’s protective power, we believers in Christ would be defenseless against Satan’s deception and his destruction.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON What False Teachers and False Teaching are You Choosing to Run Your Life?
LESSON INTRODUCTION
One of the things the Lord teaches in the Word of God is what to doand what not to do in life. Then in Second Corinthians, Chapter 13, Verse 5, the Lord exhorts you to…
SECOND CORINTHIANS 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith…examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves (believers in Christ)…that Jesus Christ is indwelling you—unless indeed you fail the test?
As we studied in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, and now as we study Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we have been learning about false teachers and false teaching. As you learn, are you examining yourselves? Who are your false teachers? What false teaching runs your life? In our final lesson of the summer, you’ll get an opportunity to reflect on the things you have been learning from the Lord in these two revealing letters.
OPENING SONG INTRODUCTION
Let’s hear some music!False teachers in the Galatian region claim Jesus Christ’s work at the Cross is not sufficient for salvation. They recommend that works be added to faith to accomplish salvation. June Murphy thinks the Bible says something different in her song MY CROSS MADE YOU GOOD ENOUGH, a song that is sung from God's perspective.
MUSIC OPENING SONG Let’s Sing the Lord’s Praises
MY CROSS MADE YOU GOOD ENOUGH June Murphy
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray...
We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
Thank you Father for separating the truth from lies…thank you for giving us the Word of God, the Bible as the rudder that steers us to the truth…thank you for giving us God the Holy Spirit to lead us into all the truth…help us reflect on how we select teachers, what we learn from them, and whether the teaching is effective…
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...Amen.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON What False Teachers and False Teaching are You Choosing to Run Your Life?
LESSON PART ONE
We continue our study of Paul's letter to the churches he established in Galatia, a region in modern-day Turkey. We have completed our study of the first two chapters. Let's remind ourselves of what the Lord is teaching us through Paul in these chapters of this insightful letter.
After Paul established the churches at Galatia, false teachers known as Judaizers infiltrated the area with false teaching, introducing a different gospel message of salvation. Galatians, Chapter 1, Verse 6…
GALATIANS 1:6 I (Paul) am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel…
To achieve their deceptive end, the Judaizers attacked Paul’s authority, inferring that Paul made up his own gospel message. Paul rejected their claim. Galatians, Chapter 1, Verses 11 and 12…
GALATIANS 1:11 For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not a gospel that comes from a man.
GALATIANS 1:12 For I neither received it from man…nor was I taught it by a man…but I received the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
The Judaizers also claim that Christ’s work at the Cross was not sufficient for salvation by suggesting that works need to be added to faith for salvation. In Galatians, Chapter 2, Verse 16, the apostle Paul rejects this idea…
GALATIANS 2:16a …a man is not justified by doing the works of the Mosaic Law…a man is justified through faith in Christ Jesus alone…
Galatians, Chapter 2, Verse 21…
GALATIANS 2:21 I (Paul) do not nullify the grace of God…for if righteousness comes through keeping the Mosaic Law…then Christ died needlessly.”
Now let’s look at what Paul has to say to the gullible Galatian believers in the first part of Galatians, Chapter 3…
GALATIANS 3:1 You foolish Galatians…who has bewitched you? Before whose eyes was Jesus Christ publicly portrayed as crucified?
GALATIANS 3:2 This is the only thing I (Paul) want to find out from you…did you receive God the Holy Spirit by the works of the Mosaic Law or by hearing with faith?
GALATIANS 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun (your salvation) by (the baptism of) God the Holy Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
GALATIANS 3:4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
GALATIANS 3:5 So then, does God the Father who provides you with God the Holy Spirit and He who works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Mosaic Law or by hearing with faith?
GALATIANS 3:6 Even so Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was reckoned to him (credited to his account) as righteousness.
GALATIANS 3:7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.
GALATIANS 3:8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”
GALATIANS 3:9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
GALATIANS 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the Mosaic Law are under a curse…for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.”
GALATIANS 3:11 Now that no one is justified by the Mosaic Law before God is evident…for, “The righteous man shall live by faith (in Christ alone).”
GALATIANS 3:12 However, the Mosaic Law is not of faith…on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.”
GALATIANS 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Mosaic Law…having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”—
GALATIANS 3:14 (Christ did this)…in order that in union with Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of God the Holy Spirit through faith.
We’ll begin learning this passage verse-by-verse next week. Today, let’s use this lesson to reflect on a few thought-provoking questions.
Henry Brookes Adams, a nineteenth-century American historian, journalist, and academic says this…
ABOUT TEACHERS Teachers affect eternity…they can never tell where their influence stops. Henry Brookes Adams
He’s right. True teachers affect your eternity and false teachers affect your eternity. When false teachers teach you what they know, is it valuable to you? I was talking to a teen-age boy recently. I asked him if wanted to be rich when he grew up. He said, "Yes!" I asked him how he planned to do it. He said, "By exploiting willingly ignorant people.” False teachers do the same. What are some of the things you are willingly ignorant about that make the work of false teachers in your life effective?
When we return from the break we’ll take the offering, and then we’ll see some of the false teachers and false teaching that affect us in our lives today.
FIVE-MINUTE BREAK NOBODY Casting Crowns
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON What False Teachers and False Teaching Are You Choosing to Run Your Life?
OFFERING INTRODUCTION
God the Father loves all of His creatures unconditionally…and He loves us so much…that He gave His Son to save us. God the Father is not conflicted about giving. Are you? First John, Chapter 3, Verses 17 and 18 say this…
FIRST JOHN 3:17 …whoever has the world’s goods…and sees his brother in need…and closes his heart against him…how does the unconditional love of God abide in this person?
FIRST JOHN 3:18 Little children (believers in Christ)…let us not love unconditionally with word or with tongue (love is not talk)…but let us love unconditionally with deeds and in truth.
Let this be a time in your life when you realize what God the Father is able can do with what we give. Realize how important giving is as it makes life an amazing experience for those in need. Be generous with the gifts your God has given you… as Deacon Denny exhorts…we use our time gifts…we use our talent gifts…AND we use our treasure gifts.
Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with one of his always inspiring offering messages.
THE OFFERING Deacon Denny Goodall
OFFERING VERSE
ROMANS 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love...give preference to one another in honor...
OFFERING SONG THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU Instrumental Version
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON What False Teachers and False Teaching are You Choosing to Run Your Life?
LESSON PART TWO
It’s a great question.
Who are some of the false teachers of today? People learn from Google, from Facebook, from Instagram and from Twitter, spending countless hours ingesting information. Is what you are learning from these sourcestrue knowledge or false knowledge? For the most part, these platforms contain the rambling of people who don’t know what they are talking about.
When you have a problem, you need a solution. When you go to false teachers for the solution, you have to ask yourself, “Did my teacher’s solution solve the problem? That’s what makes Biblical wisdom so great…there is a divine solution for every human problem, and the Lord’s solutions always work.
In schools, children often ask the question, “Where do we come from?” Perhaps you have taught your children the creation story from Genesis, Chapters 1 and 2. False teachers teach Darwin’s “theory” of evolution. Which do your children believe?
When you have a health problem and you go to doctors for a solution, do you evaluate if the solution they propose works? Many doctors in the medical community have a “pills mentality.” They offer a pill for every problem you have. When you watch television, the money-rich pharmaceutical industry is always influencing you to tell your doctor what to prescribe. Do you research what your doctors prescribe? Do you know how it works and the negative things it does to your body?
Is Tylenol safe? Is Advil safe? When your doctor prescribes a muscle relaxer, do you know what it does and if it is safe? When you have high blood pressure and your doctor prescribes a pill, do you know what it does? Is it safe? If we’re being honest, we place total confidence in doctors and find out when it is too late that their solution for our medical problem did more harm than good, even though The Hippocratic Oath doctors take…a standard of professional ethics…asks them to not harm.
Who are your teachers in the financial world? Are they true teachers or false teachers? Renowned author Robert Kiyosaki, author of the book Rich Dad-Poor Dad asks, “What are teachers in schools teaching you about money?” Kiyosaki thinks false teachers teach everyone to get a job, work hard at it, make money, save money, go into debt, and pay taxes. But Kiyosaki thinks the rich play by a different set of rules.
Quite often we accept the lies of false financial teachers. A simple example is the thirty-year fixed mortgage. You buy a house, you get a mortgage, and then your money is tied up in the house with no access to it. As you pay down the mortgage, you pay interest to the bank first, long before you pay off the part of the loan that makes the house yours. Then in the middle of this paydown, false financial teachers encourage you to refinance, they charge you to do it, and you start the thirty-year cycle of financial slavery all over again. You are charged for the privilege of digging a bigger financial hole for yourself.
You buy investments that pay your "financial advisors" without paying you. That's why we call them brokers. Often, that’s what they make you… broker. But have you ever invested in financial education to create a financial plan that pays you?
You’re encouraged to look forward to retirement at age sixty-five. Many adopt this false philosophy. Did you know that actuarial tables say a non-smoker who reaches age sixty-five will probably live to be ninety? What will you do for the following twenty-five years? How will you pay yourself?
Did you know retirees experience mental health issues such as depression and anxiety? Retiring from work is a major life change that can bring more stress than benefits. Some studies have linked retirement to a decline in health.
Retirement can be discombobulating! Your days lose their structure, and a sense of lethargy can creep in. Left to your own devices, it’s easy to fall into bad habits – like oversleeping and forgoing exercise. The recommendation is to establish a new daily routine when you retire.
What about the issue of replacing income in an inflationary environment, and preparing for an unknown future of healthcare and long-term care costs?
In the spiritual realm, the most important realm in your life, what false teachers and false teachings are you committed to? The Judaizers offered legalism as a false spiritual life. Christianity is like a jar of pure water. Then false teachers come along and mix oil into the water. Yet oil and water do not mix. Faith in Christ and doing work for your own salvation are mutually exclusive. Are you allowing yourself to be duped?
Let’s take another look at Galatians, Chapter 3, Verses 1 to 14…
GALATIANS 3:1 You foolish Galatians…who has bewitched you? Before whose eyes was Jesus Christ publicly portrayed as crucified?
GALATIANS 3:2 This is the only thing I (Paul) want to find out from you…did you receive God the Holy Spirit by the works of the Mosaic Law or by hearing with faith?
GALATIANS 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun (your salvation) by (the baptism of) God the Holy Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
GALATIANS 3:4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
GALATIANS 3:5 So then, does God the Father who provides you with God the Holy Spirit and He who works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Mosaic Law or by hearing with faith?
GALATIANS 3:6 Even so Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was reckoned to him (credited to his account) as righteousness.
GALATIANS 3:7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.
GALATIANS 3:8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”
GALATIANS 3:9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
GALATIANS 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the Mosaic Law are under a curse…for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.”
GALATIANS 3:11 Now that no one is justified by the Mosaic Law before God is evident…for, “The righteous man shall live by faith (in Christ alone).”
GALATIANS 3:12 However, the Mosaic Law is not of faith…on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.”
GALATIANS 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Mosaic Law…having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”—
GALATIANS 3:14 (Christ did this)…in order that in union with Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of God the Holy Spirit through faith.
The false teachers claimed that if the Galatian believers truly want to be saved they need to add to their faith in Christ because His work at the Cross is not sufficient to save. They recommended adding. They contend that believing in Christ is fine, but you also need to be circumcised if you are male, you need the proper diet, you need to give to the poor, you need to follow feast and holy days, you need to go to church…all things you do to help God save you.
Are the false teachers with their false teaching the right things…things that benefit you? Do God’s works plus your works equal salvation and justification? Hardly.
As you reflect on your own life between now and next week…ask yourself what false teachers and false teachings you are using to run your life. You can find true teachers anytime if you are looking for them…and the Lord Jesus Christ is the truest teacher of all.
THE GOSPEL MESSAGE The Good News of Jesus Christ’s Salvation Offer to the Human Race
The closing moments of our lesson today could be the ten most important minutes of your life.
GOD WANTS YOU! He Wants You Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life
This gospel message…the good news concerning the Lord Jesus Christ’s salvation offer is for the benefit of believers in Christ. The Lord wants you to feel secure in your position in union with Christ. First Peter, Chapter 3, Verse 15 says…
FIRST PETER 3:15 …believers…sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts…always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope (the absolute confidence from your faith in Christ) that is in you…yet give the account with gentleness and respect…
The gospel message…this message…is especially is for unbelievers, so you can be saved.
Whether you know it or not, you were born a sinner. That’s bad news for you. The Bible says that being saved…salvation…is exactly what ALL humans need from the moment of physical birth. Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verse 1…
EPHESIANS 2:1 At physical birth, all mankind were born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins…
First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 22 says…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:22a For all in union with Adam at physical birth (and that is every human who comes to earth) are set to die the second death in the Lake of Fire…
What does God want for unbelievers? Two things. First and foremost, GOD WANTS YOU TO BE SAVED…First Timothy, Chapter 2, Verses 3 and 4…
FIRST TIMOTHY 2:3 This is what is good and acceptable in the sight of the God who is our Savior…the Lord Jesus Christ…
FIRST TIMOTHY 2:4 …who desires all men to be saved and for all men to come to the knowledge of the truth.
What the Lord DOES NOT WANT FOR UNBELIEVERS is highlighted in Second Peter, Chapter 3, Verse 9…
SECOND PETER 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise of salvation, as some accuse Him of...instead, He is patient toward you unbelievers…NOT WISHING FOR ANY OF YOU TO PERISH IN THE LAKE OF FIRE…but for all of you to come to repentance (achange of mind about having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ).
This immutable and irrevocable fact may contradict the thoughts placed in your head by God’s enemy through false teachers with the false teaching of religions that contend that God is always disappointed in you because you sin, and that you have to work to please Him.
The Bible provides a different perspective. The Lord gives you a written account of the absolute truth…His exact thinking. John, Chapter 20, Verses 30 and 31…
JOHN 20:30 Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book (the Bible)…
JOHN 20:31 …but these things written here in the Bible have been written so that you may BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ (The Jewish Messiah)…the Son of Godin human form…and that by believing in Him you may have the resurrection life in Hisname.
Do you know the truth, especially the truth about who God is as a Person, and the truth about what He has done to save you?
Maybe you don’t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! Maybe you don’t think He is God! Maybe you don’t think the Bible is His exact thinking. Maybe you don’t even think you need to be saved.
The Bible says all who are spiritually dead need to be saved…they need spiritual life. The Lord Jesus Christ volunteered for the task of saving you. Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verses 4 and 5 say…
EPHESIANS 2:4 But God the Father…being rich in mercy…because of His great unconditional love with which He loved all of us…
EPHESIANS 2:5 …even when we were spiritually dead in our transgressions…made us believers in Christ spiritually alive in union with Christ…by His grace you have been saved…
Who is this God who saves you? The apostle Paul describes the Lord Jesus Christ in First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 3 and 4…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:3 For I (the apostle Paul) delivered to you believers in Christ as of primary importance the gospel message I also received from God…that it was Jesus Christ who died for our sins according to the Old Testament Scriptures…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:4 …and that He was buried…and that He was resurrected from the dead on the third day…according to the Old Testament Scriptures…
Because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, RIGHT WHERE YOU SIT RIGHT NOWyou can have eternal life…the resurrection life…by taking the suggestion in Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 31…
ACTS 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved by God, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”
So heed the warning and accept the invitation of John, Chapter 3, Verse 36…
JOHN 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has the resurrection life right at that moment…but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life…instead the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.”
The Lake of Fire is a literal place, and it will be your eternal home if you reject a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts, Chapter 4, Verse 12…
ACTS 4:12 “…there is salvation in no one else…for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved (except the name of the Lord Jesus Christ).”
You don’t have to work to be saved…it’s a free gift from a gracious God…Titus, Chapter 3, Verse 5…
TITUS 3:5 The Lord Jesus Christ saved us…not on the basis of deeds which we have done in self-righteousness…but according to His mercy…by the washing of regeneration and through the renewing by God the Holy Spirit…
There is no excuse for not knowing how to be saved. It’s SO simple. Why? It’s simple because God does the saving for you. All you have to do is invest your gift of faith…a gift you received from a loving God…and place that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation. Do it now! There is no time to waste.
CLOSING SONG INTRODUCTION
Let’s close with music! False teachers say who we are as believers in Christ. Hillsong Worship encourages us to see ourselves as God sees us in their song WHO YOU SAY I AM.
MUSIC CLOSING SONG Let’s Sing the Lord’s Praises
WHO YOU SAY I AM Hillsong Worship
CLOSING PRAYER Let us pray...
Almighty God and Father…
Thank you for offering us freedom instead of bondage…help us evaluate our lives so we can rid ourselves of false teachers and false teaching…
…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...Amen.
DISCUSSING THE LESSON AND PRAYER CIRCLE
Join us Live or on Zoom Immediately Following the Lesson
GOT BIBLICAL QUESTIONS?
Ask the Pastor pastor@barahministries.com
KEEP ON STUDYING THE WORD OF GOD!
Thanks for coming! Thanks for watching! Thanks for listening!
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