At last verse. Says marvelous
infinite matchless grace freely bestowed on all who believe it
takes grace to believe without grace, you can't believe. So
when it says, you that are longing to see his face, will you this
moment, his grace received to receive the grace of God, it
takes the grace of God to receive it as well. And it's not a bad
song, but I'm going to say that probably every time we sing it,
that's just a little incorrect there on some of the things they're
saying. A lot of people believe that it's up to them. It's up
to them. I have to receive it. I have
to do this. And we've made it very clear
going through Galatians. And you can turn with me if you want
to Galatians chapter five, that's where our text is found. Many
people All the way back from when Christ was on the earth,
they were making it about what you can see, about what you can
do, about what you should not do. And we see that it is all
of grace, or it's of works, or it's all of works and not of
grace. And in God's church, Galatians
chapter five, In God's church, the one that he purposed before
time ever began, the one that he established, the one that
he built, the one that he purchased by his own blood, the church
of God, where the elect of God are found. I'm not talking about
just a building. I'm talking about Zion, what the Lord hath
built. for his people, for the glory
of God. In this church, God is sovereign. In this church, God is supreme.
In this church, all things are ordered by him and sure. Everything is done by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. He chose to predestinate,
therefore His people were predestinated. He chose to save, therefore His
people were saved. He chose to bring eternal life
to as many as the Father gave to the Son, and by doing so,
all that the Father gave the Son received eternal life. This is His church. This is His
gospel. This church has from the beginning church
was established shortly after Christ. Well, if you want to
think of it from the Lord's perspective, it was established from the foundation
of the work before the foundation of the world. But from our perspective,
the Lord established the church as we know it today with the
apostles on the day they waited for the spirit to be given. And
once the spirit was given on the day of Pentecost, the church
age, if you want to call it, that was established at that
time. And ever since that's happened, there has been those whom the
Lord, and I don't want to deviate from the fact that all things
are by His determinate counsel, so if anything is to happen to
the church, the Lord is the one that allows it to, He's purposed
it to, and it's for our good and for His glory. That point
can't be missed, what I'm about to say. The Lord allows some
things, such as men to come in, or women to come in to this church.
And this could be our church, this particular building, which
is part of the Lord's church. And they sow discord, or they
sow a lie, or they make us believe that we must do something to
acquire salvation, or we must do something in order to prove
our salvation to others, or prove our salvation to ourselves, so
that we can see evidences And that's exactly what's happening
here in Galatia. That's exactly what's happening. The Lord does
this for two reasons. Number one, he does it in order
to sift the wheat from the tares. Whenever this division happened,
Paul sets everything straight by the Lord's message that he
sent to Galatia. But it's for our understanding,
too, that this could happen here or this could happen in any of
the churches. But the second reason, it's to try the Lord's
people's faith. What are you looking to? What
am I looking to? If we never have troubles, if
we never have our faith tried, Paul said this, the tribulation
of our faith worketh patience, and patience experience and experience
hope. Why does it work all that? Because
that hope makes us not ashamed of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which is shed abroad in our heart. Without that trial,
Without that affliction, our faith will not be tried to be
true. The Lord tries our faith. Why?
To see, to make certain that we understand that it's all of
grace. It's all of grace that we believed. It's all of grace
that we were saved. It's all of grace that he keeps
us. It's all by his grace. Now these individuals that come
in, they come in to do one thing and one thing in particular.
to try to attempt to take our focus off of the Lord Jesus Christ
and his finished work, off of the foundation of the gospel,
which is all of grace, all by his choice. They try to add a
work. They try to add something on
the outside that you can see or something that you must do,
a duty or a responsibility. How about a ceremony? How about,
an object, well you have to have this object or you're not truly
a believer. And the Lord says it's not what
is seen with these eyes, for what we see with these eyes it's
carnal but it's what's not seen, it's the eternal, it's the spiritual.
That's where the Lord is found, by faith alone, his faith given. All of the other things just
point to man, not the Lord Jesus Christ. The message that these
imposters, deceivers, we can call them snakes, we can call
them wolves in sheep clothing, their message is a message of
peace. But what did the Lord say they're
gonna cry at the end? Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Their message is not a message
of peace, it is a message of confusion. Anytime you hear someone
preaching and they say that salvations of the Lord salvations by grace
alone, but they add a work to it. Well, that's confusing, isn't
it? Why? Because it's not the truth. It's the lie. Salvation
is all of grace, and it's all by the Lord. These men and women
do everything in their power to disannul or to attempt to
make void or try to destroy one thing, and that is the truth.
And how do they do that? How do you disannul or how do
you attempt to disannul or discredit or devalue the finished work
of Christ? Well, it's simple, just adding
one thing to it or taking away one thing from it. Understand
if I get up here and I preach to you that God elected a people
Christ died for those people the Spirit regenerates those
people and were kept by his power Salvations of the Lord and it's
not up to us. It's up to the Lord and then I turn around and
say but I You have to do this. I've just completely erased everything
I said in the beginning. I have added to the finished
work of Christ by that one interjection. In the gospel, there is no interjections
but one, and it's but God who is rich in mercy. It's not but
Caleb did something or but you did something. It's but God who
is rich in mercy. We're in his great love, he loved
us. What did he do with that love? Sent forth his son to be
the propitiation for his people's sin. This is all Him. This is all about Him. And Paul's
telling the Galatians, you ran with patience. You ran the course.
Who hath hindered you? Means who hath pushed you back?
Who put you farther back than you were? You were going. Next
Sunday, Lord willing, we're gonna look at the race. I had to determine
this Sunday which one I was gonna do, but to run a race is to literally
look to Christ from the time that He calls you to the time
that you die. That's running the race. It's
always him being your focal point. It's not something you physically
see. Boy, I've been running the race a long time. Excuse me. Look how far I've came. Look
what a good job I'm doing. That's not running the race.
That's looking to self. These individuals would take
away God-given peace and joy that is found in true worship
by the Spirit and by his truth. That's where our true joy and
peace lies, is in him, in him alone. The Lord calls this, You
know, I realized this was a long intro. That's okay. Lord calls
this the leaven of the Pharisees in Matthew, in Mark and in Luke. He calls this the leaven of the
Pharisees. And he says, beware the leaven
of the Pharisees. The leaven of the Pharisees is
hypocrisy. He tells them it's hypocrisy.
It's an impossibility is what it is. He refers to their doctrine
as being hypocrisy. Now Paul says the same thing
to Galatia and that's why, We needed to have an understanding
of everything I've just said so that we can understand what
he's saying, verses seven through nine of Galatians five. Let's
read that together. Ye did run well. Who did hinder
you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh
not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump. I've titled this message, The
Lie of the Leaven. The Lie of the Leaven. The leaven
is just simply yeast that they would put in bread. And I'll
elaborate more on that later. But the yeast is what causes
bread to rise. But it's a picture of sin and
it's a picture of works. And that's what Paul's trying
to say. If you put your works to it, you've disannulled it.
You've voided it for yourself. You can't put your hand to it.
And that's the whole point. Think about bread that you make.
If any of you have ever seen bread being made, what has to
be done to it? It has to be kneaded. It has
to be worked, right? You can't just put leaven on
top of it, hope for the best. You have to, you have to knead
the dough. That's a work, isn't it? And that's the picture is
the Lord saying, no, it's not by works of righteousness, which
we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. That's
the message. So the lie of the leaven would
say these, these false preachers, we don't, We don't do these works
for our righteousness, or we don't do this as part of our
salvation, but we do this as obedience unto God. We keep the
law because God commanded us to. The Lord told us that the
conclusion is this, love God and keep his commandments. He
wasn't talking about the Ten Commandments. Christ summed up
the Ten Commandments by saying, love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. And the second is like unto the
first, love your neighbor as yourself. You summed up the whole
law there, because the first five of the Ten Commandments
is unto the Lord, and the second five of the Ten Commandments
is unto men and women. It's civil. So how do we keep
the law? Look to Christ who is the end
of the law. Look to Christ who is the end
of the law. Are you saying we're lawless? We actually have been
given the law of love. What does that mean? We love
God and we love his commandments because he's shown us by those
commandments that we're sinners and we can't please God, but
we don't go to the law for righteousness because righteousness can't be
obtained by the law. Paul said already here in Galatians,
the flesh, no flesh can be justified by the deeds of the law. So we
don't go to that for our righteousness. And these false preachers would
say the same thing. They would also add that there
has to be evidence. And I find that a lot of people
that I have dealt with, when it comes to the law or when it
comes to works or when it comes to things like that, that we
try to be as clear as we can on, they say, well, you have
to have evidence. that you've passed from darkness
into light. You have to have evidence that
you've been born again. You have to have some evidence
that God has saved you. And what they're saying is, is
you should have some works that you can look at and see yourself
getting better. Or have some works that you can
see to say, okay, now I know God has saved me because I did
this. You know, 10 years ago, man,
I'd have got out of the car and told that guy how I really felt
about him, but you know, I didn't do that. I feel like the Lord
saved me and he is changing me. He is changing me. The Lord doesn't
change this nature, brethren. This nature remains exactly as
horrid and as sinful and as ugly as it ever has been. But you
know what he gives us? He gives us a new heart, a new
heart. He gives us his spirit. He gives us the nature that looks
to him alone by faith. This is our only hope. These
men are saying, no, you need some evidence on the outside.
And the Lord said, I weigh the heart. I look on the inward man,
not the external man, not what you do on the outside. If we
look at what we're doing on the outside, all we're doing is becoming
guilty of the entire law. That's what Paul's point is here.
Well, these men say, well, if you don't preach that our obedience
to the law is necessary, You're just saying that you could just
live a lascivious life, lawless, ungodly lifestyle. You can live
without consequence. You can do whatever you want
to. Like, well, the Lord doesn't promote that. He absolutely does
not. That's correct. Paul said, should we continue
in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. What does that mean?
That means the believer believes the Lord Jesus Christ and looks
to Him as all of their righteousness, all of their wisdom, all of their
sanctification and redemption. We never examine self to say,
okay, am I doing a good job? And if you can say that you're
doing a good job, you're probably not doing a good job. It's just
how it is. I can never, and you know this
is true, we can never look at ourself and say, man, I feel
like I've gotten so much better. I've gotten so much, there'll
be days that I'll do something and it's like what Paul said,
why in the world did I do that? Why did I make that decision?
I feel guilty, I feel ashamed, Lord have mercy on me. And what
does that cause you to do? Flee to Christ. It doesn't cause
you to say, well, okay, let me see what I did last week instead.
Let me see what I did yesterday instead. Well, I did better yesterday,
so I can get back. No, we don't do that in our lives.
Who do we look to? Where does our assurance of faith
come from? It comes from Him. It doesn't come from us, and
it doesn't come from each other. Our assurance of faith comes
from Christ, because faith looks to Christ. If you find yourself
believing, it's because he's given you faith to believe. If
you can't believe, it's because he hasn't given you faith to
believe. These men would also say, Anyone who opposes keeping the
Sabbath, there's a lot of people that I know that still try to
observe the Sabbath and not a one of them are actually keeping
it. You know how strict that law was? I mean, I'll just give
you an example. You couldn't move your body over
a certain span. I think it was a mile. You could
do physically no work whatsoever. The dishes are going to have
to stay in the sink. You understand what I'm saying? That's a work.
Floor's going to have to stay dirty. That's just how it was. You couldn't do anything. And
these people, they act like they're keeping the Sabbath that's going
to be honoring to God. You know, it's actually blasphemy
because Christ is the Sabbath. If I desire to keep the Sabbath,
my desire should be looking unto Christ, who is the Sabbath. He
is the Sabbath. He's whom the Lord rested upon.
Well, they might not say that, but they might say, well, like
these Galatians said, you have to be circumcised. Yeah, you
believe by grace, but you have to be circumcised or you're not
a believer. You're not a believer. The Lord
never said that. Lord never said that. That was a token of a promised
covenant. That's what that was. That's
all that the circumcision ever was. It wasn't for righteousness.
It wasn't to obtain righteousness or because you have obtained
righteousness. It was simply a token unto Abraham for the
promise of the covenant. If we, and I promise you, if
we, and I pray the Lord causes us to meet for many, many years
together, The longer we meet and the more word gets out of
what we preach, Christ is all, the more we're going to be hated
for the truth's sake. There's nobody that's loved for the truth's
sake except for by those who love the truth. That's the truth
of the matter. these people that's going to
come in and they're going to say, well, that means you do
whatever you want to do and nothing matters. We don't preach that.
We don't we don't preach a lifestyle that there's consequences for
actions. There's consequences for actions.
If I choose to do something immoral, there could be some consequences
for those actions. So we use what understanding
we have but not as part of salvation. Common sense goes a long way,
doesn't it? We want to live unto our Lord.
It's the furthest thing from the truth to say we just live
because nothing matters. That's not true. We know it does.
But we look to Christ to order and provide. I'll tell you what
the scripture says. The lot falls in the lap. Every
decision you'll ever make, everything you'll ever do, the lot falls
in the lap. But the entire disposing is of
the Lord, the entire disposing. We seek his face. We beg for
his mercy, for his grace, and the entire disposing is going
to be of him and by him for your good and for his glory. That's
what he promised. That's what he promised. That's
how we live our life. That's how we live our life. We live
into the law of love written on our heart for God and his
gospel. We don't live into the law of works. Living into love
isn't a work, is it? Think about that. You that are
married, do you do things for your spouse selflessly ever?
I would hope so. Some people don't. But I hope
that's the case. We selflessly might do this or selflessly might
do that. And then again, we may do it just so we can get something
else out of the spouse. I don't know. But the point I'm
making is we serve one another by love. And the more we love
and the more we serve, the less and less it feels like work.
Is that not true? Do you know, is that true in your life too?
What you do to your children? Does it feel like work whenever
you're doing something and you know that they're appreciative
and you're giving unto them? It's the same thing. We labor unto
one another and unto the Lord, not as part of our righteousness,
not as evidence of our righteousness, but that's just the law that's
been given to us now. We love one another. Doesn't
seem like much of a law, does it? Why? It's the heart of salvation. It's the result of salvation. It's what the Lord gives freely
by His grace. Well, notice verse nine with
me again. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Leaven is a picture
of sin. Leaven is a picture of good works.
Do you remember the very first Passover? When the Lord told
Moses, when they were still in bondage in Egypt, he said unto
them, tonight I'm going to pass over you. Take a lamb and kill
it and put the blood of the lamb upon the doorpost and upon the
lintel. And when I see the blood, I will pass by you. But he also
told him this, go inside the house and shut the door and don't
look outside. and eat unleavened bread and
bitter herbs. Now, why did he tell him to do
that? He said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. He
didn't say when I see you eating the unleavened bread and bitter
herbs, did he? He didn't say that. But why did
they need to do that? What was the point of it? Because
it was a token unto them of their bitterness, that their deliverance
through the unleavened bread was going to come without their
hand in it whatsoever. That's what leaven represents,
his works. That they're not going to be able to say, okay, look
what I have done. And the bitter herbs represented
the bitter bondage that they had been in for 400 years. That's
why they did that. And the Lord miraculously brings
them out of Egypt the next morning, doesn't he? Miraculously brings
them out. It's the first time the unleavened
bread is mentioned. Unleavened bread, it also symbolizes
the putting off of the flesh or putting off of former things,
putting off the old life of bondage and sin. We're no longer under
bondage. And Paul's saying here, if you go back to the law, even
the tiniest bit of leaven, it will leaven the whole lump. Don't
do it. Don't do it. Or you're back under bondage. You're back under the law before
God. You're guilty. You're guilty. That's just what
Paul's message is here. In doing so, by returning back
to the law, by saying it's not by grace alone, it's not his
work alone, it's not his blood alone, but it's what I do, that
little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump. We've made something
else our righteousness. Aren't you glad the Lord says
God forbid throughout scripture? What does that mean? If you're
his, he won't allow you to stay in that state. He will keep you. He will not allow you to find
a righteousness outside of Christ and live your life believing
in that is your righteousness. He won't do it. He will not allow
it. He will not allow it. He will keep you. He'll bring
you back unto him. Well, once the lie comes in,
brethren, the lie of the leaven, it soon runs through everything.
It corrupts the whole gospel. It nullifies the work of Christ
for us. If we preach it, it has to be
stamped out immediately. It can't be tolerated in the
least bit. Because if we allow it to, we're preaching a corrupt
gospel, a gospel that's not profitable. God will not honor any other
gospel but his gospel. God will not honor any other
gospel but his gospel. No exceptions. Paul has established here that
those who operate in that realm, the realm of the law in any way,
are fallen from grace. Faith is in the realm of looking
to Christ, not self. Works is in the realm of looking
to self, not Christ. It's that simple. It's one or
the other. Everything that we believe is
one or the other. It's either Christ is all, and there's a
big old period at the end of that, or exclamation point, Or
it's Christ is all, comma, but. It's what it comes down to. It's
really what it comes down to. Something that's so true about
this passage here is faith does not originate, manifest, or it's
not given because of the works of the law. That's the lie of
the leaven. If you work the law, the lie of the leaven is, is
that faith will manifest itself, or faith is going to originate
because of something you do or something you have refrained.
It's not true. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the word. The word is Jesus Christ. He
must give it. He must give it. How do we know
that? Well, look at verse eight. It
tells us, this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
It's not of God. It didn't come from God. It originated
in the heart of man. It originated in the heart of
Satan before time ever began. This is the lie. This is the
lie, that man can be saved by will worship, by self works of
righteousness. It's not true. It's not true.
It comes down to self-recognition, just like Satan from the beginning. Lucifer said, I will do this. That was, look at me. Isn't that
what that is? I will do this. Eve, same way, when she saw that
the tree was good for food, to make one wise, she took of it. She wanted that wisdom. She wanted
that understanding. She thought the taste would be
good. And Adam did the same thing. It's the lie from the beginning.
Brethren, faith only recognizes one. It never recognizes self.
It never looks to self. It never examines self. If you're looking at yourself,
it's not of faith. It's not of the Lord. Faith looks to the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. It only recognizes him. It never
ever will point to us. So, I kind of broke up this message
in two different parts. That was the first part. Because
the second part's three questions. So how do I know My gospel is
the gospel, or the gospel that has a little bit of leaven in
it. I need to know that. And I think you need to know
that. Because if we have leaven, I pray the Lord, get rid of it.
Get rid of it. Is my gospel the gospel, or is
it tainted with leaven? Well, ask yourself three questions.
Does my gospel declare I am justified freely by His grace, or is there
something I have to do in order for me to be justified before
the Lord? Am I justified freely by His
grace, or is there something I must do to be justified before
the Lord? Secondly, did Christ completely,
indisputably, distinctly save His people from their sin, or
is there something I must do for salvation to be effective,
for salvation to be effectual? Did God distinctly, specifically,
intentionally save His people from their sin? Or is there something
I must do in order to be saved from my sin? You say, why is
that a point to make? Because there's so many people
that believe you're not saved until you do something. What
do I mean by do something? Well, to be very clear about
it, a lot of people believe you have to come down to an altar
and pray a prayer. A lot of people believe you have to pray the
sinner's prayer. I'll tell you this, the thief on the cross
never prayed the sinner's prayer. It's not in Scripture, it didn't
happen. What did he say? Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. Have mercy on me, the sinner. And where does that
prayer come from? Does that originate in your heart
of sin? Lord's already given you a new
heart if you pray that. He's already been merciful and gracious
unto you to receive his truth and to beg for Christ because
you see yourself as the sinner. So does my gospel declare that
Jesus Christ successfully redeemed his people from their sin, or
is there something I must do to be redeemed, to be saved,
And lastly, who gets all the glory in our gospel? Who gets all the glory in our
gospel? Is there any glory whereby I
can look at myself or you can look at yourself and it says,
look at what I have done. Do I get any glory in this gospel
whatsoever? Because if I do, it's not God's
gospel, it's my gospel. It's the gospel we preach, and
I'm calling it my gospel, what we preach, because the Lord's
given it to us to preach, to declare. But it's his gospel
that's given. Either it's his gospel or it's
a man-made gospel. That's as simple as I can be.
Who gets the glory in this gospel? If we answer these, we'll have
no doubt if our gospel is the lie of linen or if it's God's
gospel, if it's the truth. Those three questions. Am I justified
freely by his grace, or do I need something to do, or do I have
to do something in order to be justified before God, before
his throne? God justified his people freely
by his grace. It's recorded in scripture, isn't
it? Being justified freely by his grace, we have peace with
God. Not going to have, Not, here's
something you have to do even though you're justified to have
peace with God. No, Christ made peace on the cross by the death
and sacrifice of himself unto God. He made peace. And the scripture
said, in doing so, he broke down the middle wall of partition.
What was that? That was the veil that separated
us from the holiest of holies. We can now enter boldly to the
throne of grace, having obtained mercy to find grace to help in
the time of need because Jesus Christ justified his people freely
by his grace. Is justification all by grace
or does God need me to do something in order for me to be justified?
Well, I'll remind you this. The question is, does God need
me? God doesn't need anyone or anything. He's God. He's God, He's the
ruler and sustainer of all the inhabitants of the earth and
heaven and hell. He doesn't need me or you for
anything. God's not a God that's in need.
See, you and I are needy. We have needs. We need food,
we need clothing, we need shelter. Those are basic needs. There's
other things that we need. Some of us has health problems.
Some of us might need medicine. Some of us might need this or
might need that. God doesn't need anything. Doesn't need anything. Everything
he required, he fulfilled in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He completed, everything he required of you to be saved,
he gave, Christ did it. Christ fulfilled it all in himself.
God does not need anyone or anything. He is not dependent. You know,
you and I are dependent, aren't we? We come to service and we're
dependent of his spirit. We're dependent of his truth.
We're dependent upon him being willing to give us eyes to see,
ears to hear. He's not depending on you for
anything. Boy, that's good news, isn't
it? He's not depending on you. Everything that he needs, he
has. He's the author and the finisher
of faith. He's the alpha and the omega
of all things. God is not dependent, we are. So am I justified freely by grace
or does he need me to do something? He doesn't need me for anything.
His people are justified freely by His grace. He created everything
for His glory and chose to save His people to predestinate them
to be made the very righteousness of God in Him. The Lord Jesus Christ, and I
wrote these four words, completely, indisputably, distinctly, and
entirely saved every single one of His people from their sin.
So is it up to me to be saved? Or did Christ save his people
from their sin? The Lord completely, distinctly,
indisputably, and entirely saved his people from their sin. One time on the cross of Calvary,
they're already gone. He's not waiting on me to do anything
for my sin to be gone. He already took them away. Last question was this, who gets
all the glory? Did we get any glory in God's
salvation? If we did, we would look at ourselves and brag about
it. Paul said this, and I think I have this written down next
hour too, so you're gonna hear this verse several times this morning,
but it says, and I quote this a lot, you probably have it memorized
by now. For by grace are you saved through faith, in that
not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. So if I'm saved by grace through
faith, is it my faith or his? Is it going to do me any good? It's not spiritual faith. It's
faith of, we have faith when we sit in a chair. That ain't
going to help me at all. There's that kind of faith. We're talking
about God-given faith. God-given faith looks to Christ
alone. He has to give that. Once he gives it, he does call
it your faith because it's the gift of God. We just said that.
But it's not of works. Let's say he mentioned both.
So who gets all the glory if it's all of grace and it's all
by faith bestowed? He does. He does. And the Lord's people love it
that way. The Lord's people love it that
way. Forever and ever, he will get all the glory. So in closing,
beware of the lie of the Pharisees, the lie of the leaven, the lie
of the leaven. Where there's nothing but death,
look to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Never look to anything seen,
but look to that which is unseen by faith, the finished work of
Christ. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would
take these words and you would bless it to our understanding
for your glory. In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.