Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
Galatians chapter five. This is Paul's epistle or letter
to the Galatian churches in Asia Minor, churches that he had been
used of God to begin. Paul went into these Gentile
areas. He was called the apostle to
the Gentiles, which that doesn't mean that he didn't preach to
any Jews, he did, many. In fact, usually when he went
into these places in the Gentile world, there was a Jewish synagogue
there, and Paul would often go there first to preach the gospel
of God's grace in Christ. And so this is what he did in
the churches at Galatia. And so here he wrote this epistle
to admonish many of these Galatian professing believers because
they had been drawn away from the grace of God, their profession
of grace, to the law, to the bondage of the law. And so today's
message is entitled, Called Unto Liberty. You'll find that phrase
in verse 13 of Galatians 5. He says, for brethren, you have
been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Now, I've dealt
with this many times, how these professing believers, the first
thing you need to understand about them is that they professed
belief in the true gospel of God's grace in the glorious person
and the finished work of Christ. The true gospel, you know, there
are many false gospels. And false gospels usually do
several things. You can talk about a lot of things
to expose false gospel. Paul said in Galatians 1, if
we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel, one of a different
kind, than that which we've preached, let them be anathema. They're
cursed of God. False gospels are deadly. And
that's why you need to be careful, especially today when there are
so many denominations who believe so many different things concerning
salvation and how it comes about, how it's preserved, all of these
things. You need to be a listener. You
need to follow the Bible. Are they preaching according
to the word of God? And I know, listen, I've often
said the gospel is a simple message of eternal salvation and glory. based on the righteousness of
Christ, His obedience unto death as the surety, the substitute,
and the redeemer of His people, the preserver of His people.
I mentioned this last week how salvation, if you're saved by
the grace of God in Christ, you cannot lose that salvation. Now,
that doesn't give you an excuse to sin. That's one of the things
Paul has in mind here, but there's another thing you need to see
about this occasion to the flesh. And what he has in mind here
is those who are encouraged to keep the law in order to be saved. And he says that's bondage. He'd
shown that in the illustration of Sarah and Hagar, Abraham's
wife and his bondmate. and Isaac and Ishmael. And he
says up in verse one of Galatians 5, stand fast therefore in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. And here's one of the things
that these false teachers were teaching. They were teaching
that, okay, you Gentiles who claim to be saved, you have to
be circumcised in order to be really saved, in order to be
really righteous. And here's what Paul said to
them in verse two. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if you
be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Now, did
you hear that? If you be circumcised, now what
he means by that is if you're circumcised, if you get circumcised,
you males, all right? You're Gentile male back then
and you hadn't been circumcised of the flesh like the Jews, like
the physical descendants of Abraham. He's telling them if you be circumcised,
if you allow them to do that, thinking that that contributes
to your salvation, thinking that that makes you holy or makes
you more righteous than you already are in Christ, he says Christ
will profit you nothing. That's a denial of Christ. And
that, listen, that not only refers to circumcision, it comes to
any act of obedience. There's a denomination who claims
that you must be baptized in order to be saved. Christ will
profit you nothing if that's what you believe. My friend,
believer's baptism, that ordinance, was not given to the children
of God in order to be saved. Believer's baptism is a confession
of a person already having been saved. that when Christ died,
I died with Him. That's why we're immersed into
the water. When Christ was buried, I was buried with Him, and when
Christ arose again, I rose again with Him. He's my representative,
my substitute, my surety, my redeemer, and He's my keeper. So these false gospels of bondage,
they always make salvation conditioned on sinners at some stage, to
some degree, in some way. And they always measure righteousness
on a sliding scale. But my friend, salvation comes
to sinners by a perfect righteousness, which can only be found in the
Lord Jesus Christ, based upon His doing and His dying and His
resurrection. So he says in verse 3 of Galatians
5, For I testify again to every man that is circumcised for that
reason now, to be saved or to be made righteous, that he's
a debtor to do the whole law. In other words, if you think
that you're being circumcised has anything to do with attaining
or maintaining salvation, you're a debtor to the law. Now, I'm
not a debtor to the law because Christ paid my debt. I'm not
under the law, I'm under grace. And that doesn't mean that I
can just go out and be a sinful person and throw caution to the
wind and never seek to obey God and never repent of my sins or
have sorrow over my sins. No. It simply means the law cannot
condemn me for my sins because I cannot be charged with my sins. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. The
law and my sins cannot condemn me. Who is he that condemneth?
It's Christ that died. Yea, rather, is risen again and
is seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make
intercession for me. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. And so he says in verse four,
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whoever of you are
justified by the law. See, that's the context of this.
If you think circumcision or any act of obedience, baptism,
church going, charity, self-denial, if you think any act of obedience
contributes to justifying you before God, you're falling from
grace, he says. Now that doesn't mean you lose
your salvation. It means you're falling away
from that which you plead. I've heard preachers preach legalistic
messages. If you don't do this, you can't
be saved, blah, blah, blah. And you ask them after the message,
don't you believe salvation by grace? And they'll say, oh yes,
we believe salvation by grace. Those who believe you must be
baptized in order to be saved, they'll tell you they believe
salvation by grace, but they don't know what grace is. And
they're lying to you. They're falling from grace. They're
falling away from what they profess. That's what that means. Because
if you're saved by grace, you'll stay saved. God will keep you.
And so you're falling from grace. He says in verse five, for we
through the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, wait for the hope
of righteousness by faith. Now what is that righteousness
by faith? It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to His
people. accounted, charged to his people. David spoke of that as Paul quoted
him in Romans chapter 4 and verse 6, speaking of the blessedness
of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. And that's, when David said that,
and when he wrote Psalm 32, he said, blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, whose sins are forgiven, See,
that's what it is to be justified, to be forgiven of all my sins,
not based upon what I do or what I decide. It's not based upon
my will. I've heard preachers say, the
moment you give your heart to Jesus, your sins are forgiven.
Not so. Your sins are forgiven by the
blood of Christ. And if you're one for whom He
died, you will, in time, be saved. You will be brought to faith.
Your heart will be given to you to believe on Him. And so in
verse 6 he says, For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth
anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Now faith, working by love, means
this. It means seeking to obey God. not because you're afraid of
being kicked out of the family or going to hell, not trying
to earn your rewards, but faith which worketh by love is that
which comes motivated by grace, motivated by love. motivated
by gratitude. Thank you, Lord. That's what
it is. So he says in verse seven, you
did run well, who did hinder you that you should not obey
the truth? What he means by that is when
Paul came in and preached the gospel to these folks, he says
you started out well, believing in Christ, resting in Christ,
claiming that anyway, but who hindered you? who came in and
with their false doctrine drive you back, that's what it is,
from looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith,
that you should not obey the truth, the gospel truth, salvation
conditioned on Christ. Verse eight, this persuasion
cometh not of him that calleth you. In other words, the Holy
Spirit is not hindering you in this way. He's not preaching.
There's two things I can tell you about the Holy Spirit that
he will not do. I can tell you a lot of things about it. But
in this context, there's two things I can tell you about the
Holy Spirit. He will never encourage obedience motivated by legalism,
by law, by works. and He will never discourage
sin as motivated by earned rewards. The Holy Spirit does encourage
and motivate God's people to obedience, but it's by faith
that works by love. Obeying God because you love
Him. And of course, we know that we still fall short, so that
we always need His grace. So he says in verse nine, now
listen to this, he says, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Doesn't take much. Cooks or bakers,
you know when you mix up your flour and you put a little bit
of yeast in there, it spreads all the way throughout the dough.
Only a little bit. And that's the way it is with
false doctrine. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. It doesn't
take much. They say, well, you've got to
be baptized, and that's it. Well, that's a little leaven.
You've got to be circumcised. You've got to do this. You've
got to do that in order to be saved. You see, I quote this
all the time, you know, for by grace are you saved through faith,
that not of yourselves, the gift of God, lest it not of works,
lest any man should boast. And it says in verse 10 of Ephesians
2, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto,
not because of, but unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. That just takes a little. Somebody once said that rat poison
is 98% good food. I don't know about that, I'm
no chemist, and I'm certainly not going to eat rat poison.
But the point is this, it doesn't take much poison to spread throughout
the whole lung, not much yeast. So he says in verse 10, now listen
to Paul, he's trying to encourage them to look unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of their faith, and not to the law, not
to their works. And he says in verse 10, I have
confidence in you through the Lord, that you will be none otherwise
minded, but he that troubles you shall bear his judgment,
whosoever he be. Paul says, I have confidence
that you will, you will be called back from this error. And that's
Paul's desire for them. But those who promote this error,
They're gonna bear their judgment, whoever he is, doesn't matter
who he is. I don't care if he's a well-respected
preacher, who's got a big following, if he promotes the error of salvation,
conditioned on sinners in any way, to any degree, at any stage,
he's gonna bear his judgment. He's gonna get what he deserves. See, and that's why we who believe
grace, oh Lord, don't give me what I deserve. Don't give me
what I've earned. I need grace that reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And
so Paul says, and I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision,
why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. You see, the offense of the cross,
is that when Christ is preached, Christ crucified, it exposes
all the false gospels to be what they are, deadly poison. John
wrote of this in John 3 and verse 19 when he said, this is the
condemnation that light has come into the world. That's the gospel
of Christ who is our light. And men love darkness and hate
the light because their deeds are evil. Now their deeds there
refers to their efforts to try to keep the law. And it looks
good to the natural man. Looks good to people. But it's
an abomination in God's sight. Because God doesn't save sinners
based on their works. That's evil. That's evil deeds. That's dead works. That's fruit
unto death. Salvation is by grace. And grace reigns through righteousness,
not by our works. but by Jesus Christ and Him alone. He is our righteousness. So he
says, and he said, now, if I preached what they preached, they wouldn't
be troubling me. They wouldn't be persecuting me because the
offense of the cross would be moved, be removed. So he says
in verse 12, I would that they were even cut off, which trouble
you. That word cut off there means
mutilated. You know, they're trying to get you, these men
circumcised and they circum, he said, how would they just
cut off all together? He says, verse 13, for brethren,
you have been called unto liberty. There you go. Called unto liberty,
the liberty of God's grace. Not liberty to sin. We sin enough,
but liberty to obey, liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh. Don't use your liberty to go
back under the law, trying to save yourself or earn your rewards
based upon your obedience, but by love serve one another. Paul
spoke of this liberty over in Romans chapter six. Let me read
a portion from that. In verse 17 of Romans chapter
six, he says, but God be thanked that you were the servants or
the slaves of sin. Now that's bondage, bondage. The bondage of the law whereby
sinners believe that they can be saved or they can be right
with God or made right or made righteous by their works. That's
what he says, that's a slave to sin. You say, well, slave
to sin, that's talking about a drug addict or an alcoholic
or a sex addict. No, they are slaves to sin, don't
get me wrong. But what he's talking about here
is people trying to be saved by their efforts to stop those
things and to do right. Now, should people, for example,
should the alcoholic reform his character and conduct and stop
drinking? Yes. Should the drug addict go
to a rehab center and get cleaned out and stop taking drugs? Yes. Should the thief stop stealing?
Yes. Should the adulterer stop committing
adultery? Yes, all of that's true. But
none of that will save you. None of that will make you righteous
in God's sight. You say, those are things we
should do. But the only way to be right with God, the only way
to be justified is by the blood and the righteousness of Christ. His righteousness imputed. So
you were the servants of sin. Now here, a servant of sin is
an unbeliever, unregenerate person, trying to be saved by their works.
And he says, but you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you. You've obeyed from the heart.
Now that's the new heart that God gives his people in the new
birth. And you've obeyed that doctrine,
that gospel, that teaching that brings a sinner away from himself
and to Christ for salvation and all of its blessing. And you
were delivered to it. So in verse 7, 18, he says, being
then made free, liberated from sin, you became the servants
of righteousness. Now, what is a servant of righteousness?
It's a sinner saved by grace, a believer, resting in Christ
for all salvation, resting in Christ for all righteousness,
resting in Christ for all glory. And that's what he's saying.
Go back to Galatians 5 now, I tell you. He says, you were called
unto liberty, you were called unto Christ, that's freedom.
That's the liberty of grace. And again, it's not liberty to
sin, It's liberty to obey in a way that God is pleased because
that obedience is not directed toward earning your way into
God's favor. but it's directed toward the
glory of God. It's like Matthew 5, 16. Let
your light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and do what? Glorify your Father which is
in heaven. The light there is not the good
works. The light there is the light
of Christ, the gospel light that shines on the obedience of a
believer as that which glorifies God and not himself. You see,
that's what that's talking about. So he says, by love serve one
another, verse 14 of Galatians 5. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Motivated by love, see. Verse
15 says, but if you bite and devour one another, take heed
that you be not consumed of one another. Legalism, self-righteous
religion, causes people to bite and devour one another. judge
each other improperly, self-righteously, divide, all of that. But the
love of grace brings people together in realizing that we're all unworthy. I have no more claim upon God's
favor and God's blessings than any other person based upon my
works. You understand that? My claim
of salvation is based upon the works of Christ. It's based upon
His merits. I have no merit before God. I've
said this a lot from the pulpit of our church and here on this
TV program, that if God right now were to judge me based upon
my best efforts to be obedient, I would be condemned. But thank
God he doesn't judge his people based upon their efforts to obey.
He judges his people in Christ. And they stand before him washed
in the blood of Christ, washed from all their sins. Christ paid
the debt. He satisfied justice. He brought
forth ever the grace of God through what he accomplished as our surety,
substitute, and redeemer. And so he judges us as washed
in the blood of Christ. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes us white as snow. That's what we are. Nothing but
the blood of Jesus. And He judges me righteous based
upon Christ's righteousness, His merits, His obedience unto
death, imputed, charged, accounted to me. My sins were accounted
to Him. My debt was put upon Him. And
He paid my debt in full by the price of His obedience, His suffering
unto death. And I have His righteousness
accounted to me. And that's the righteousness
of faith. Because it's based on His faithfulness to accomplish
Him in His suffering unto death on the cross, which means He
was successful because He died, He was buried, He arose again
the third day. He stands now as the intercessor,
the mediator of His people. pleading the merits of his own
righteousness on their behalf. Now that's freedom. And that
opens up the way to be a servant of righteousness, an obedient
child of God, which is a struggle because we still have the flesh
to fight after. And I'm gonna deal with that
in the following verses here in another message. We have a
righteousness that answers, we who believe now, by God-given
faith, having been born again by the Spirit, All right, having
been brought from unbelief to faith in Christ, we have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. Christ accomplished
it all. We had no part in it, except
He stood as my surety, my substitute, my redeemer. He's my life giver. He's my protector and preserver,
and He will bring me unto glory by the grace of God. It's all
grace. God's righteousness through Christ. That's what it's all about. And
so he says, but he says in verse 16 of Galatians 5, this I say
then, walk in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and you shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walk according to the Spirit's
leadership and motivation and power. And how do we do that?
By following the word of God. Walk according to the Word of
God. Do believers have rules and regulations and commandments
that they follow or are to follow? Yes, we have them, but not to
be saved. It's because we already are saved.
And that's what the Spirit does. The Spirit indwells us by His
Word imprinted upon our hearts. The Spirit has been imparted
to us. Righteousness is imputed. Life is imparted. Faith is imparted
to our minds. And the Spirit will always lead
God's people to Christ, to rest in the liberty, that's what we've
been called to, called unto liberty of grace. I hope you'll join
us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
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today and may the Lord be with you.