I'll turn in the scriptures to
Galatians chapter 5. I spend so much time contemplating these
things over and over again, trying to grasp the import of it all,
and this is one of those passages of scripture where you feel as
if sometimes it would be good just to spend a whole half hour
or so just reading it over and over and over again. If it was read and believed by
the professing church, the professing church of today
would not exist. You cannot sustain the religious
life that is so prominent and so well-known and so widespread
and have these verses as words of God before you. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free. And I love that word made. No one is free. No one is ever
free from the entanglements of Satan and sin and this world
and this world's religion unless Christ makes you free. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, he is a debtor to do the whole law. If you go to the law in one point,
you go to the law in every point, and you are under it. You are under it. I love what
Martin Luther said regarding this. He says, for those who
go back under the law, for them Christ has not yet come. The law was there for a purpose
and for a time. We read about that in Galatians
chapter 3. I testify again that every man
that is circumcised is indebted to do the whole law. Christ is
become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified
by the law. You are fallen For we, through the Spirit, wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. Paul, of course, as we know so
well, was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. When it came to legalistic righteousness,
he was perfect. When it came to law abiding,
when it came to food laws, when it came to dress laws, when it
came to worshipping God, he was perfect, he said. You can read
about his testimony in Philippians chapter 3. He was. He was a legalist of
the highest order. He says in verse 13 of chapter
1, he says, for you have heard of my conversation, my life,
in time past, and I love how he describes religion. He says
it's the Jews' religion. It wasn't God's religion. It
wasn't Christ's religion. It wasn't the church's religion.
It's the Jews' religion. how that beyond measure I persecuted
the Church of God and wasted it." That's what people involved
in the Jews' religion or any man's religion will do. They'll
persecute the Church of God, they'll persecute the children
of God, and they'll try and destroy it, and profit it. He profited
in the Jews' religion above many equals in my own nation. He was the star pupil. He was the best of the best,
being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers."
And then he speaks so beautifully of salvation. To be rescued,
to be made free is for God. to do something. He must do something. And I love his description, isn't
it? But when it pleased God. He'll come at a time of His pleasing,
not yours. When it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me that I might preach Him among the heathen. He didn't
need to consult with anyone. He just had a Saviour to proclaim
now. And he had, for the first time,
in meeting the Saviour, he had met himself as he really was,
and in meeting himself he'd also met what that religion was. Justification. Justification
by faith. is the very lifeline of Christianity. It is the door, isn't it? It
is the foundation stone. As Luther said, the Church either
stands or falls on justification by faith. Justification by grace,
righteousness given to people, people made free, free by the
Lord Jesus. He that believeth on the Son
of God has life. Justification by Him, not by
works, not by deeds of the law, not by merit, not by righteousness,
not by my Christian righteousness. You've got to remember that the
people that Paul is speaking here so vehemently against and
the people who have been led astray have been led astray by
five-point Calvinists. Their doctrine in every sense
was absolutely spot on. We would have been embarrassed
at our paucity of knowledge of the Scriptures in the face of
these people. how much they knew the Bible.
We would have been embarrassed by the depth of the morality,
the morality of their life that you could see. And yet they were trusting and
causing others to trust in something that man does. are trusting in something of
their righteousness. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. And Paul is defending the character
of the Lord Jesus before these people. That's what proclaiming
the Gospel is, proclaiming His character, and defending the
Gospel is, again, just proclaiming His character. Christ alone,
the Lord Jesus Christ, is the complete and sufficient Saviour
for sinners. He that has the Son has life. He that has not the Son has not
life. He that believeth on the Son
of God has life. He that believeth not on the
Son of God shall not see life. He that believeth on the Son
of God is forgiven, is pardoned, is justified, no matter how many
his sins are. He that believeth not on Christ
is damned, no matter how few his sins appear to be and how
polished his life is. That is justification by faith. That is righteousness by faith. Paul writes, he says that he
wouldn't give in to them and wouldn't wouldn't get into them
for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might continue with
you. See, human nature always fights
against salvation by sovereign grace alone. It can't tolerate
it, it can't permit it, and religious human nature, especially find
salvation by pure and sovereign grace repulsive, and its preachers
they find people who need to be warned against and need to
be told to stay clear of. Brothers and sisters, if you
are saved, your sins are pardoned and they are forgiven by Christ
alone, not by any works that you have done, not by any holy
living that you have done, not by giving, not by any contribution
on my part whatsoever. It's all of Christ. It's all
of Him and it's all of grace. As Paul says, his sins, his sins,
even though they be as enormous as they were, they are put away,
not because of how good he was, but because as he said, Christ
loved me and gave himself for me. I love thinking again about one
of the greatest acts of faith we see in all of the scriptures
is the thief on the cross. The thief on the cross, saved by the grace of God at
that very last moment of his life. He is saved. He is as saved and as secure,
and as pardoned, and as free, and as holy, and as righteous,
and as blameless before God, as Moses, as David, who was a
man after God's own heart, as Paul, who died a martyr's death,
There's no difference, brothers and sisters. I love what Henry Mayen said.
He said, that man who died for his crimes is as much forgiven
as Paul who died for his Christ. Just listen to it again. That
man who died for his crimes is as much forgiven, as much holy,
as much pardoned, as much loved, as much enjoying the glories
of heaven right now as Paul who died for his Christ. That's what the scriptures teach,
brothers and sisters. It's the glory of God to save
sinners, to the glory of His grace. And of course, the objection
of the religious world is if you preach that, you just give
people an excuse to sin. If they don't have some rules
and some constraints put on them from the pulpit, then people
will just go off and live in wickedness. You've got to offer
them some incentive, some reward, some constraint for their sin. Brothers and sisters, no matter
how righteous that seems in the eyes of men, it is not the Gospel. It is not the Gospel. These so-called
activities that many of us have been involved in, and it's called
zeal for holiness, zeal for a deeper life. It's just a cover. for legalism. It's a smokescreen
to cover self-righteousness. And at the end of the day, those
people that think that they have grown a little bit more in holiness
and have, because of that holiness, the ability to put people under
the same sort of bondage that they are, they don't really think
they're as much a sinner as other people are. Somehow they've managed
to raise themselves up a little step higher, not quite as lost
as everyone else is. Anyone who feels they need a
motive other than Christ, hasn't met him and doesn't know him.
He is, we read in Song of Solomon, he's altogether lovely. He's the cheapest among ten thousands. He's my beloved. He is my friend. He is altogether beautiful. Look to Him, is what the Gospel
says, and don't look anywhere else. The love of Christ constraineth. The love of Christ constraineth
me. His love for me constraineth
me. May the Lord help us. May the
Lord continue to work amongst us to never allow anything, for
any length of time, never allow anything or let anything come
between us and Christ. People come to Christ as sinners,
and sinners do come to Christ. When He's lifted up from the
earth, He will draw all men to Himself. Sinners will come to
Him. They'll come needy, and they
come helpless, and they come broken, as Jeremiah 31.9 says,
with weeping and supplications will I lead them, with tears
of contrition will I lead them. But the weeping and the conviction
makes no contribution to their conversion. It's Christ that
saves our souls. People are sometimes brought
to the realization of the terrors of judgment and the terrors of
hell, and it might, for a time, bring great distress. The time
might be minutes and the time might be years. The time doesn't
matter. It's Christ who saves. It's not how you come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it's not the mess that you
are in before you get to Him. It's Christ who saves. Sinner's call on him was heard
of the thief on the cross, isn't it? He said, Lord, remember me
when you come into your kingdom. The publican cried out, Lord,
be merciful. Lord, be propitious to me, the
sinner. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved." But it's not the calling that
saves. It's Christ who saves. He is
the Redeemer. His blood makes atonement for
our souls. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. His righteousness covers us with
a robe of the very glory of God. Believers do things. Believers
pray. As John Newton said, prayer is
the breath. of a believer. But prayer didn't
save anybody. Prayer didn't die on the cross.
Christ died. Prayer doesn't intercede, Christ
intercedes. Prayer doesn't obey the law,
Christ does. Christians give and Christians
witness, but it's Christ who saves. True redemption produces
holiness of life. Believers are honest. Believers
are givers. Believers are changed outwardly
in so many ways. Believers are made meek and joyful
and faithful and gentle and patient. The people who are saved have
broken and contrite hearts, but broken hearts never save anybody. Contrite spirits didn't save.
It's Christ. It's Christ who saves. We just
sang it, didn't we? Not the labours of my hands could
fulfil thy laws demands. as a saved man has one passion,
hasn't he? He has one passion, and that's
the glory of his Saviour. We are saved by Christ, we are
complete in Christ, we are redeemed by Christ alone, and Christ in us. produces faith
and he produces obedience and produces prayer. And any man
that doesn't have the Spirit of Christ is none of his. But as all of those things, as
wonderful as they are, they just point us again to the fact that
it's Christ who saves. You begin with Christ and you
move not one little tiny millimetre away from Him. I love what Colossians
2.6 says, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus. How did
you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord? You received Him as a sinner
with nothing to bring. You received Him as a sinner
with no works ever. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. You walk in Him. A knowledge of the Lord Jesus
will bring us to an appreciation and hopefully a growing appreciation
of the revelation of His character and the doctrines which so honour
Him, His absolute solemnity, His perfect, finished redemption,
particularly as He cried out, It is finished. But, sir, you
don't begin Christian life with doctrine. You can teach someone
all of the doctrine. You can teach someone so they
know the doctrines of grace perfectly, and they don't know Christ. So
you begin with Christ. You don't arrive at Christ through
doctrine and religion and ceremony. You begin with Him. That's why He began this passage
of Scripture. His remarkable verses, he says,
stand fast. It means to maintain, to highly
esteem, to defend and don't become entangled again. In religion,
in rituals, in customs, Christ has freed us. freed us from sin,
not the indwelling nature of it, but he's freed us from the
penalty and the punishment and the guilt. There is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. He's freed his people from the
dominion of sin. As Romans 6 says, sin shall no
longer have dominion over you. Why? You would think that he
would then say, now there are some rules for you to obey. Sin
shall not have dominion over you, for you are not. under law. To go back under law is to go
back under sin's dominion. You're not under law, but you're
under grace. You're freed, redeemed from its
power as much as sinners are made conscious of their sins.
They are redeemed from its power and its guilt and its dominion.
They're free. He's freed his people from the
ceremonial law. All of that ceremonial law had
one purpose in mind, and that was to point people to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the Atonement. He is the
Bread. He is the Sacrifice. He is the
High Priest. He is the one who wears those
glorious robes. He is the one that goes into
the Holy of Holies on behalf of his people, carrying their
names on his heart, carrying their names on his shoulder,
the government's on his shoulders. But when he's come, When He has
come, all those shadows have gone away and there is reality
now. Don't go back into that bondage.
Christ has freed us from that. He's freed us from the moral
law as a covenant of works. And that's why He says, behold.
He says, look now. Look. gaze upon your Saviour,
gaze upon the words that He said to you, hold them, look at them
and hold them dear. I say unto you, if you be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing. Circumcision was a right that
was performed on Jewish children when they were eight days old,
and it was an entry into that Jewish way of life and those
Jewish laws. But as the next verse goes on
to say, one part of the law, to be under one part of the law
is to be under every single part of it. All 630 something commandments
you have to obey. You have to obey them perfectly,
you have to obey them completely. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do." Effectively, Paul is saying,
if you do anything, if you do anything in order to be accepted
of God, Christ shall profit you nothing. Anything. One of the things as extraordinary
as when Satan masquerades as an angel of light and sends his
ministers as ministers of so-called light. They don't come preaching
darkness. They come preaching so-called
good things. It seems so logical, doesn't
it? that to put people back under
some laws and some rules that you'll end up producing some
holiness of life. You can do these things to show,
they say, how much you appreciate what Christ has done. And yet
what they end up doing is turning things which are precious, in
a sense, into things which become as a millstone around their necks. Anything you do, no matter how
scriptural it is, no matter how precious it is, no matter how
moral it is, anything you do to make yourself acceptable to
God, to make yourself a little bit more acceptable to God, if
you add anything to Christ, If you add anything in order to
gain some favour with God, at the beginning of your Christian
life, during the Christian life, if you've done something that
gives you some reward, extra reward, another little extra
jewel in your crown that others can boast on you in heaven. Dear,
oh dear. You're not trusting. Quite simply,
they're not trusting, they're not resting, they're not relying
on Christ. If you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. What a shocking statement to
think that Christ and all He is, Christ and all that He is
in blessing, Christ in all that He is in providence, Christ in
all that He is in heaven right now shall profit you nothing. Sometimes I just wish the words
would just be something that God would just teach us and burn
into our hearts. When you stumble and fall like
me, brothers and sisters, the first point that I go to so often
is, now I must do something to make it good. Is that not true
for so many of you? Here I am, I've messed up big
time yet again, and the first thing I want to do is turn around
and say, well, if I do this and I do this and do this, I can
somehow get it right again. Dear, oh dear, there is a glorious
freedom. There is a glorious freedom in
Him. God looks to Him and finds Him
perfectly satisfactory all the time. You see, sin is much bigger,
isn't it? Paul said that when I wish to
do good, sin is right there with me. This morning, I get up early
and I've been reading my Bible and going over my notes and trying
to pray and trying to think of things that the Lord might want
to speak to you. And getting up here and I'm speaking, how
much sin, how much sin has been mixed with every last little
tiny bit of that. You see, as someone said, I forget
who it is, he said, even our tears of repentance need to be
washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to be acceptable
to God. Even our best prayers and our
holiest thoughts are acceptable to God because of the Lord Jesus
and not because of anything in me. If you do anything to gain God's
favour, to gain His acceptance, you have to keep the whole law. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, he is a debtor to the whole law. You have a debt. You go back
and you have a debt. You are putting yourself in debt
and God will make sure that you pay the last penny before you
get out of jail. There is a beauty in the liberty
of Christ, isn't it? Christ alone is my wisdom. Christ alone is my righteousness. He is alone my sanctification. Not him plus some good and righteous
deeds that I do. Christ alone is my redemption. Christ alone is my holiness.
Christ alone is my mediator. If you add anything to him, even
a simple act like circumcision, even a simple thing like keeping
a Sabbath day. Christ shall profit you nothing
and you are a debtor to do the whole law. Just turn over to
Colossians chapter 2 and let's read what God the Holy Spirit
says about circumcision. True circumcision, true circumcision. He says, we started in verse
6 a little while ago, As you therefore have received Him,
so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established
in the faith as you have been taught, abounding therefore therein
with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world. He's talking about the law. and
the application of it by worldly men, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily." How much of the fullness of the Godhead
did the Lord Jesus bear bodily? All of it. God was in Christ Jesus, reconciling
the world to Himself. He is fully God. He is God the
Son. And you are complete in Him. It's one of those places where
you wish that they'd used the same word twice, because that's
exactly the same word as fullness. And you are full in Him. which is the head of all principality
and power, in whom you also are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands." This is the true circumcision, in the
putting off of the body, of the sins, of the flesh, by the circumcision
of Christ. That's circumcision. taking a man or a young boy and
putting a knife to them, doing it with hands, is not the circumcision
of Christ. Buried with him, go on, buried
with him in baptism, where also you are risen with him through
faith of the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has quickened, He has
made alive together with Him, having forgiven a few of your
trespasses, And then you have to do something to forgive all
your trespasses. And what else has he done? Verse
14, he's blotted out the handwriting of ordinances which was, he's
blotted out the law which was against us brothers and sisters.
God's children love the law of God. And they love it when they
see it in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He blotted out
the handwriting of ordinances which was against us and which
was contrary to us. He took it out of the way, nailing
it to the cross. So to get back to the law, and
to be under the law as a rule of moral governance, you have
to go now, according to the Word of God, you have to go to the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to crawl up there and
you have to go past His broken body, that bleeding Saviour there,
and you have to wipe His blood off it and say, now I will do
it. May God preserve us from that. If you go back to the law to
do one thing, you're under obligation to do it all. Christ shall profit
you nothing. You're a debtor to do the whole
law. If you have Christ, you have
it all. People talk about sanctification
by the law. I wish they would be drawn by
the Lord to read what He says in these words. Christ, verse
4, has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified
by the law." If at any point you think anything of your justification
has anything to do with anything you have done, that's what he's
talking about by justification, by the law. And Christ has become
of no effect unto you. no effect, not just a little
bit lessened effect, of no effect. And of course, there is that
phrase that's so bandied about by religion in such an extraordinarily
unhelpful way, isn't it? We've got to be very careful
of cliched phrases in religion, and we need to go back and test
them all against the Word of God. you have fallen from grace. So common understanding of course
is that when people fall from grace they are sort of saved
today or they're lost tomorrow or someone has fallen from grace
when they have become a drunkard for a while or when they've fallen
into some serious and particular sin or they're no longer going
to church, they've fallen from grace. That's how so often, is
that right? Is that how often it's portrayed? What's this verse saying? This
verse is saying, the word of God is saying that this verse
of scripture has nothing whatsoever to do with the saved man who
falls. We'll deal with that in Galatians
chapter 6, you can read about it there. But these are people
who are zealous, so zealous, they're zealously seeking heaven. They're not those who fall into
some sin. They are the most diligent religious
people. They took all of their pharisaical
zeal, they added Christ to it, and then kept their pharisaical
zeal. They're the most diligent people
in church. They're not someone who stopped going to church.
They were baptised. They're not people who won't
be baptised. These people are tithing. They're
not someone who's not giving. These people are keeping days.
They're not someone who's not keeping a Sabbath day. These
people are circumcised. They're not someone who's not
circumcised. They're doing everything. He's speaking of those who've
fallen from grace. He's speaking of the most zealously
moral, upright, religious people you can imagine. They're the
ones that have fallen from grace, brothers and sisters. He's done something. He's doing,
not just a little bit, he's doing absolutely everything that's
laid out before him. But he's doing it in order to
find favour with God. He's doing it in order to be
seen of men. He's doing it in order to have
something to boast of. It's just remarkable how often
you meet people in religion and almost immediately when they
know that you have something to do with Christianity, they
want to tell you something that they've done. How often do you meet it? They want to tell you, I've done
this and I'm doing that and I've done my Bible reading and I've
had this experience and I've done those things and I've done
those things. The busy, zealous ones who have something to talk
about, they're the ones that have fallen from grace. The average
person would think that they are the most upright, upstanding
Christians that the world has ever seen. He's departed from
grace. He's the one that's left the
grace of God. He's the one that's left the
grace of God and gone to work, gone back to something that he
has done. Still talking lots about the
Lord Jesus, but talking about Jesus plus his activities. The
poor, stumbling, broken-hearted sinner. crying out to the Lord, coming
up out of the wilderness, continually coming up out of the wilderness,
leaning on her Beloved, not walking upright and marching by herself,
but leaning, leaning helplessly on the Beloved. He hasn't fallen
from grace. It's the religious person, the
religious person, and these people are in the pulpits in these churches.
It's the religious person in the pulpit, so clean and so whitewashed
and so polished, and presenting his polishing in such a way that
you almost dare not say anything against him because he looks
so, so shiny. Kavik, the so-called good Christian
tithing, giving, doing, he's fallen from grace. If you're
trying to find favour with God by what you have done, you've
fallen from grace. Salvation is either all of grace
or it's all of works. I know we quote the verse often,
but it's good just to see that God says it not just a man standing
here. Romans 11, 6, 4, If by grace,
then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. If it be of works, then it is
no more of grace, otherwise work is no more work. The grace of
God, the grace of God is sovereign grace. It's always sovereign. The grace of God comes to people,
if it's grace it comes without any merit in the person who is
the recipient. Not any merit in what they have
done, not in any merit in what they are doing, not in any merit
in what they will do. And grace of God, the true grace
of God is saving grace. Those who are saved are saved
and called. I love that verse in 2 Timothy
1. He has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. As we spoke last week, there
is a holy God. There is a throne of righteousness. an immaculate, an unchanging
and a perfectly holy throne. If you dare think that you can
bring one little tiny thing that you ever have done or think that
you might do to that throne of grace, God won't have it. He will not have it. The believer just wants the Lord
Jesus Christ to go into the Holy of Holies, carrying my name on
his heart, going in there with his own blood and pleading for
me. I want him to deal with the Father
all by himself. I don't want to have to present
anything and I'm so thankful to God that I don't have to at
all. It is the starkest contrast,
isn't it? One of the most challenging passages
of scripture for those who want to think that they can do something
is in Matthew 7. What an extraordinary end there
is for those who believe that they have something to bring
to God on that day. The Lord Jesus said, didn't he,
not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven. And he's talking about
religious people here. But he that doeth the will of
my Father which is heaven, many will say to me on that day, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? And Jesus doesn't
deny their prophecies. And in thy name cast out devils,
and he doesn't deny their exorcisms. And in thy name done many wonderful
works, and he doesn't deny the works that they did. And then,
and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity, ye that are lawless. Those who try to keep the law
are lawless. And this is grace, this is the
work of grace. And He hath made us kings and
priests unto God and His Father. Sometime soon I'm going to bring
a message on the word made in the New Testament. It is extraordinary
how many, many times it speaks of His work. It's a creative
work. It requires as much of the glory
of God to create a universe, as it does to save a sinner. He has made us. It's creative. He has made us kings and priests
unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Let's pray.