All right, brethren. Thank you,
Art. Galatians chapter 5. And we saw here that every believer,
true believer, born again of God is a child of promise. Child
of promise, saved by God's everlasting covenant promise, born again
of the Spirit of God. And he says in verse 1, Galatians
5.1, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. He says stand fast therefore. Maintain, defend, stand in this
liberty. You and I know by nature we don't
have any ability to stand. But when Christ gives the command,
He gives the power. And it's by His strength that
we stand. He's the Master. Remember what Paul said? He's
the Master. He's able to make His servants
stand. And He makes His people stand
in liberty. Stand in liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free. Now believer, you that are born
of God, this is such a blessing to think about. You've been born
into liberty. Now, we can enter into this because
we're born into a free country. When you were born into this
country, you were born free. You were born into liberty. You didn't do anything to make
that liberty. Somebody died before you fighting
wars to give you that liberty. You were born into it. But we
will fight for that liberty. We want to maintain that liberty
because we love this liberty we have. Brethren, for a believer,
it's better than that because we've been born again of the
Spirit of God into the blessed liberty of God. We've been born
into liberty where Christ has made us free. We didn't do anything
to obtain this liberty. Christ fought the war. He died
himself, willingly, to give us this liberty. And he, by his
power, was going to keep his child standing in this liberty. Now, what is liberty, really? And I know this about myself,
and so I know it about every believer. We just don't enter
in as fully as we should. Every now and then we get glimpses.
One day we're going to know it, and we do know it, but every
now and then we know it and we see it and we understand it,
but we don't know this as we want to know it or as we should
know it. But brethren, liberty is to be
free from sin, completely free from sin. That means not just
free from sin, but to be made the righteousness of God, to
be as righteous as God is, to be as holy as God is, so that
that's how it is and that's how it'll always be. No sin can be
charged to you. You'll never be charged with
sin. You're free. You're free from sin. You're
free from every aspect of sin. The law has nothing to say to
you. God will not condemn you. He won't charge you. You're free. You're free. It means you're
complete in Christ. John said, as Christ is at God's
right hand, so are we in this world. And that's truly what
liberty is. It's knowing that as Christ is,
that's how God says I am right now in this life. before God,
where it matters, that's how I am. Christ is living to God
that I am to. He's right there with God, so
are you, believer. He's complete, He's accepted,
He's no more in this realm of sin, He's no more in the realm
of death, He has eternal life, He's eternally alive, He's right
there with God forever, eternally accepted, so are you, believer. If we enter into that, you talk
about liberty now. That's liberty. And that's the
key to everything we face in this life. Everything. It's when
we forget that's when we get in trouble. That's right. First
of all, this liberty is so that we're free from condemnation
due to sin. Romans 8, look over there with
me. I'm going to be in Romans quite a bit if you want to turn
back and forth with me, but I'm going to show you something.
I hope, I think these are some things that we're going to get
to here that maybe you haven't considered about liberty, but
I pray the Lord teach us to this today. Romans 8, verse 1, we're
free from condemnation. Romans 8, There's therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh but after the spirit. You that have been
born of God, you that are in Christ Jesus, you have no condemnation. The law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus hath made me free, free, free from the law
of sin and death. Free from it. Totally free from
the law of sin and death. Free from sin, free from death.
For what the law couldn't do, and that it was weak through
my flesh, God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be filled full. In us, not by us, not by our
work, but by Christ, it's fulfilled. The righteousness of the law
is fulfilled and we're robed in that righteousness. We're
in Christ, our righteousness. You and I who are born of His
Spirit, walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And as
every born again child of God, you walk after the Spirit. You're
born of Him. Now Christ purges our conscience
from the guilt of sin. He purges it so that we know
there's no more offering for sin. He makes you see there's
no condemnation, there's no more offering. He frees you from the
dead works that kept us in bondage. Our conscience now knows God
will never condemn us. He'll never condemn us, and he
makes you know this, and it's knowing that our old man of sin,
that sin you see in you that's from your flesh, that you know
is from your flesh, this freedom from condemnation and this freedom
he creates in the conscience is knowing the old man in me,
the old man in you, before God is dead, he's been dealt with,
he's crucified, he's gone. He died at Calvary in Christ.
Paul said, I am crucified in Christ. And our new man, the
new man, the only reason you believe God, no man can call
him Lord but by the Spirit of God. If you truly in your heart
believe him and trust him, it's only because you're born of God.
And if you are, you got a new man in you, a new spirit in you.
And that Christ is in that new man, and that new man is in Christ
inseparably, unchangeably, one with Christ. As Christ is, so
are you, believer. You are righteous in Christ,
holy in Christ, accepted in Christ, redeemed in Christ, justified
in Christ, reconciled in Christ, forever one with Christ. That's how it is. No condemnation. Now, to make us know this and
to make us continually rest in this, we had to be created anew
inwardly. We had to have our conscience
purged. We had to be made to see there's
no condemnation. He's given us liberty by the
Holy Spirit entering in and freeing us from that dominating power
of our sinful nature. That sinful nature dominated
us. He reigned over us. We couldn't
believe God. We couldn't receive anything
from God. Every man that had been born
of God can sit and hear the gospel preached, and he may enter into
it with his mind and understand what's being said with his mind,
but he can't believe in his heart. He just can't. because it takes
God making you a new creation, completely new, and that new
man is not the flesh, and that flesh is not the new man. That
new man is Christ in you, one with Christ. And when he does
this, brethren, you know, Paul said in Romans 6, and I encourage
you to read Romans 6, 7, and 8, and read it with thinking
about this right here. You know, Paul began Romans 6
and he said, somebody's gonna say, well, since we're not under
sin, grace is abounded, let us sin that grace may much more
abound. He said, God forbid. But Paul made a statement in
Romans 6, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
He's not saying subjectively you ought not to live in sin,
although that's true. He's saying it's an utter impossibility
before God. That's what you gotta be made
to know. That's how the flesh is mortified. And we needn't
be made to know that about ourselves. We have to be made to know that
about our brethren. Before God, it's impossible because
we're justified. He that is dead is freed from
sin. That means justified. He's freed. That word there is justified.
He's justified. There's no record, past, present,
or future, and shall never be a record of sin. That old sinful
man has died. He's justified. Paul said, it's
God keeping us knowing this in our conscience that frees us
from the dominating power of our sin nature. Listen, Romans
6.14, he said, sin shall not have dominion over you. Here's
why. Listen now carefully. You're
not under the law. What sin is he talking about? Ishmael persecutes Isaac. He's
born of the flesh. There's an Ishmael in you that's
a full-grown, self-righteous Pharisee that wants to go to
the law, make himself righteous, and come to God. The only way
that man's going to be mortified and that evil, horrendous sin
is going to be mortified in you for you toward God and for you
toward your brethren. The only way that's going to
be mortified is to know you're dead. Your old man's dead. He's dead. The law has nothing
to say to him. You're under grace, and so is
your brethren. That's what he has to make us see. You were
the servants of sin. All you were trying to do, whether
you were religious or not, you were trying to come to God by
something in you. Everybody's doing that. Everybody
is. People that try to claim like
they don't believe God, they're trying to make their good outweigh
their bad. And they know they're going to have to face God. But
those that are religious, you know, we lose this thought I think, I've never heard
it really dealt on, but people say well he's a Christian, he
says he believes God, he just don't believe like we do. Ishmael
was circumcised and claimed to be under the same religion as
Isaac, wasn't he? God said he's born of flesh,
he's not born of me, he's not born of me. cast him out. And the only reason Ishmael couldn't
do more damage to Isaac, there was one reason, his father was
in the house and he wouldn't let it happen. And the only reason
that Ishmael in your flesh can't do more damage to the Isaac that's
in you, is your heavenly father's in the house and he won't let
it happen. He gonna mortify your flesh. And he does it by constantly
reminding you, you're dead to the law. Your old man's crucified.
That law's been satisfied. God satisfied his own law. And
you've obeyed this from the heart, that form of doctrine that he
delivered to you so that you were made free from sin and you
became the servants of righteousness. Get what that means, brethren.
Now get what that means. Remember when our Lord told those
Pharisees, Seocal Jews that had been in a Jewish religion, they
came and started following Christ. And He said, if you continue
in my doctrine, you'll know the truth, the gospel, and it'll
set you free. And they said, we were Abraham's
children. We never were in bondage. We
were born free. Well, they were children of Ishmael.
They just didn't know it. They were Ishmaelites. They didn't
know it. They thought they were Isaacs. They were born of flesh. And our Lord said, he that is
the servant of sin, he that commits sin is the servant of sin. We hear that and we think, well,
then whoever's committing adultery and whoever's committing murder
and whatever, they're the servants of sin. Well, that's true. But
those people weren't doing that. You know what they were doing?
They were sitting right where you're sitting, hearing the scriptures
read, claiming to worship God. And you know what they were doing?
They were the servants of sin, committing sin. That's all they
were doing. But Christ said, but when you
hear the gospel, and this doctrine is coming to your heart, and
your conscience is purged, and a new man's created, you're made
free from that sin, and you become the servants of righteousness,
the slaves of righteousness, bound to righteousness. And when
the Son makes you free, you're free indeed. You'll never again
be the servant of sin. And that's true of you, believer,
and that's true of your brothers. Don't forget that. Don't forget
that. And the only way that that we
get there. Now, understand this. The yoke
of bondage is in the heart. Don't forget that. The yoke of
bondage is in the heart. Notice there in verse 3, Paul
said, I testify again to every man that is circumcised, he's
a debtor to the whole law. But then later, Paul told Timothy,
there's no need for you to be circumcised, Timothy. Timothy
was a half Jew. and a half Gentile. He had not
been circumcised. He said, you don't have to be
circumcised for religious reasons to make yourself anything to
God. But he said, now let's circumcise you because we're going to preach
the gospel and I don't want it to be an issue. So circumcision, the
outward act of circumcision, wasn't an issue at Galatia, not
of itself. What was the issue? It was the
heart, it was the motive, it was the reason they were being
circumcised. See, Paul circumcised Timothy
because his heart was love and his motive was free grace and
he knew circumcision's nothing. Doesn't matter. The outward,
whatever's happening outwardly don't matter. That's just outward. It's the heart that matters.
What's in your heart and what's in my heart, that's what matters. These folks here at Galatia,
here's where their heart was. Look down at verse 4. He says, Christ has become of
no effect on you, whosoever you are justified by the law. You've
left grace and you've entered works. There was their heart's
motive. There was their heart's motive.
They were wanting to be justified before God, that's why they felt
like, okay, I believe Christ, he says I'm righteous, but now
these folks are telling me that if I really wanna be justified,
I need to be circumcised too, because they had always been.
And so that was their heart, they were thinking, there's something
else I need to do, I need to be justified. But listen to this
now, I think even more than that, the reason they were doing it
was to be justified before those Jewish brethren. Because here's
what they were saying, those Jews were saying, now that's
fine to believe on Christ, but if you want to be a true Jew,
you don't have to be circumcised. This is what makes you part of
the nation of Israel. And they were doing that to be
justified before men. Now listen, if you do anything
to be seen of men, Now in our heart, if our heart is thinking
we need to add something to what Christ has done, we're entangled
in the yoke of bondage. And if we're doing what we're
doing to be seen of men or because we've been constrained by a man
or compelled by a man, we're in the yoke of bondage. If your religion is because some
other man is religious, and some other man believes this way,
and that's your heart's motive, you're in a yoke of bondage.
Don't do anything because another man does it. Don't do anything
because another man compels you or constrains you. That's a yoke
of bondage. And Christ alone can free us
from that, brethren. He alone can free us from that.
and he asked to free us from it. The motive that he gives
in the heart is said there down in verse 6, at the end, is faith
which works by love. When the motive of a man and
his watchful eye is your motive, when a man's not present and
you'll act one way and you'll be free, You know, but then when
James comes down with his Jewish brethren and you get up from
that table and go over and start conforming to them, there's a
problem in the heart. When men do, believers do what
they do because they're in the company of certain brethren,
I'm telling you something, when that watchful eye of a Pharisee
is on you, you will conform everything you do to that watchful eye and
that ain't being conformed to Christ. That's being conformed
to the yoke of bondage. Only Christ can purge the conscience.
Only Christ can make us have the faith and the strength to
see we're complete in Him. And when He does that, He fills
your heart with love so that what you do, you do for Him. You do it for Him. You might
feel like you still need to be circumcised, but you're doing
it for Him. Or you might feel like you should
observe not eat certain things. You're doing it for Him. Paul
said in Romans 14, it's not just the outward act that makes a
man His or not his, is what's in his heart. Why is he doing
what he's doing? That's the thing, is to be constrained
by Christ. Now, in Romans 7, Paul tells
us the way he gives us this liberty. He makes you see you're dead
to sin first. In Romans 6 to begin, you're
dead to sin. You were crucified with Christ, your old man's dead,
you're dead to sin now. Sin will not have dominion over
you Sin's been destroyed in you. You got to know that. Because
all we see in ourselves is sin. We got to be made to know before
God that sin is destroyed. But here's something else we
got to be made to know. Romans 7 opens and he says, you're also
dead to the law. Because here's what happens.
As soon as you see sin in yourself, this thought comes in your head.
I need to do such and such because of that sin. Now that might appear
to some and think that's a good thing. That ain't a good thing.
If your motive in your heart is, I need to go do such and
such work because of this sin, that's being in a yoke of bondage.
You're trying to put your sin away. You're trying to deal with
your sin. You're trying to make yourself accept the God because
of something you've done. That's not good. What we have
to be made to see over and over, our old man is dead, the sin's
been dealt with, and the law's been satisfied. So that we're
lawfully married to Christ. And just like a husband produces
fruit in his bride and brings forth that fruit, the only way
you bring forth fruit is not by the law, not by your works,
not by men constraining you, not by anything of this earth
and this flesh. It's by Christ our husband filling
you with the spirit and giving you fruit, making fruit in you. That's the only way. That's the
only way. And he has to come and do this
work because, you know how easily we get entangled with his choker
bondage? Brethren, I'm telling you, I know this about myself. My number one sin is prideful
self-righteousness. That's number one. When I speak
about that, and I'm talking about how we've got to be saving that,
the first person I'm condemning on that is me, because that's
my sin. so easily, without even thinking
about it, just, they ought not be doing that.
And here's what's bad, is we have at least thought, if he
was a believer, he wouldn't be doing that. We commit some sin, Immediately
our conscience starts thinking we've got to do some work to
put it away. We've got to do some work to justify it. And
what we're trying to do is soothe our conscience. There's only
one way your conscience can be taken care of. Christ has to
point you to him to see he's dealt with your sin and his blood
purges your conscience to know he saved me. And that breaks
your heart. That brings you to the dust. That's when you really mourn
your sin. That's when you are broken hearted over your sin.
But really the sin that we have to be, and when that happens,
the sin we really have to be mortified from is that sin of
turning back to the law. Brethren, we're righteous in
Christ and he has to purge us over and over and over with his
blood to keep us knowing that and keep us looking to him and
keep our flesh mortified. He has to do it over and over
and over. That's why Paul said to the Galatians,
I'm prevailing till Christ be formed in you. What do you mean?
I want to see you purged from this. Because they were in a
yoke of bondage. This is the fruit of liberty
and it's all of Christ, brethren, only He can do it. We come into
this bondage when we see our brethren sin or we hear of our
brethren's sin and what happens is we become puffed up in our
flesh. We start imputing guilt to somebody. You don't make somebody guilty
by imputing guilt to them. You can impute an evil motive
to them. You don't know their heart. You don't make them have
an evil motive by imputing it to them. Somebody can charge
you all they want to, brethren. That don't make it so. And you
can't do that. But we start condemning. We start
putting constraints on brethren. We start thinking, you shouldn't
do that. You should do this or whatever.
And you know what that does? Here's what it does. Number one,
here's what it does. It brings our brethren into bondage. There's no doubt about that.
But here's what it also does. You remember the Philippian jailer?
His job was to keep the prisoners in prison, in bondage. You know
where he lived? He lived in the prison. And if
we start trying to bring others, and we get entangled in the yoke
of bondage, trying to bring others into bondage, we're in that prison. It's bitterness. You can't have
any relief. You can't even hear the gospel.
Why? You're in the gall of bitterness.
You're in bondage. There ain't but one that can
free you from that, and he does it through this message. I'm
preaching this message to you in hopes the Spirit will come,
and if you're in that bondage, he'll free you from it, because
he's the only one that can do it, and he does it through this
message. I could tell you stop it, I could tell you mortify
that flesh in you, I could do all of that to you. You can't
do it. Could you free yourself from that bondage in the first
hour? Nope. You can't free yourself from it when you come into legal
bondage either. Only he can do it. He's the only
one that can create this fruit in us. And when he does it, brethren,
he really does break your heart. He really does break your heart. And that's the only way that we're going to
be able to help each other and truly help our brethren when
they're in some sin or when they're in the gall of bitterness, when
they're in this legal spirit of bondage. And they're the same
thing, they're just unbelief, they're just the fruit of the
flesh. We're going to look later, we're going to look at all those
works of the flesh. All those works of the flesh, physically,
we all understand what they are. But you know, when we come into
this entanglement in the Yokoban, we're committing every one of
those spiritually. We're committing adultery against
Christ, we're committing murder, everything, everyone of them.
And they're the same. Sin is sin. We have to be freed from that,
but the way he's going to do it in everything he teaches us
in dealing with one another is to deal with one another with
a broken and contrite heart. That's the only way we can. A
soft answer turns away wrath. That's the only answer that God
blesses. He doesn't bless the whip. He
just doesn't. You know what the whip does?
It stirs up strife. It's why I've preached to you
for 14 years and said, don't receive an accusation against
your brethren. That happened one time in a church
I was in. And it got to the point where
everybody that received it couldn't hear the gospel. Why? It turned them to their flesh.
That's sinful, brethren. That is awful to do. And here's
the thing to remember. The preacher that's preaching
has this weight on him all the time. I'm responsible for every
soul here, and I've got to answer to God for you. When you start
leading sinners away from Christ, just know, their blood's on you. That's a serious thing. That's
a serious thing, brethren. But how's God going to use it?
How's he going to bless whatever we say to one another? He's going
to have to first break our hearts. When you come in the dust and
you're low, two worms can meet. Paul said at the end of Romans
7, this warfare is going to be with us till the day we die.
It's going to be. It's condemning legal spirit
toward ourselves and toward our brethren. It's going to be with
us till we die. What's going to free us from this body of
death? I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. He's the only
one. You're carrying around with you a dead body that is just
decaying and dying. That was a Roman torture for
somebody that committed a crime. They strapped a dead body on
their back and they carried it around with them until it decayed
and died. I mean, disintegrated. Think of how awful that would
be. Well, you know what it's like, believer, because you're
carrying around a dead body. But you see, when He makes you
know this in your spirit, true faith and love works by knowing.
We don't know men after the flesh anymore. And the more you know
your completeness in Christ, and know your brethren's completeness
in Christ, you're not gonna judge your brethren based on the outward. They're one in Christ. And they're
complete in Christ. And that will make you deal with
your brethren the way God's dealt with you. and remind them of
that, because it's this message, Paul's declaring it all through
Galatians, this message, Christ was made a curse and freed us
from the curse of the law. He has come and we have received
the Spirit again, not to bondage to fear, we received the Spirit
of adoption, we're not servants anymore, we're children now.
And you remind each other of that, you remind your brethren
of that, they remind you of that, and this is what the Lord blesses,
and that's how He mortifies that legal bondage to spirit and how
He mortifies your sin, whatever other sin it is. That's the only
way He does it. He alone can do it. To know you're complete in Him.
That's why He said, don't let a man judge you in meat or drink
or respect of a holy day or a new moon or a Sabbath day. Those
are shadows. The body's Christ. They have a form. They look like
there's something about them. that's noble, but it's being
puffed up in the flesh when a man starts putting his constraints
on you, it's just a form of well-worship, that's all it is. It's in you
and me, brethren. We're not talking about those
people out there, we're talking about the Ishmael in you and me. How's
that Ishmael gonna be mortified? Christ has to come again and
remind you, your body's been crucified, the law's fulfilled,
I've put a new man in you, and he purges that, he strengthens
that new man, and he mortifies that Ishmael in us. That's the
only way. It's the only way we'll be free.
And what did Paul, after he gave all of that encouragement to
not let anybody beguile you, don't let them trick you of the
reward you have in Christ, the freedom and liberty you have
in Christ. Don't let them bring you back into bondage. What did
he say is gonna mortify our flesh? If you're risen with Christ,
set your affection on Him. If I could do one thing, if I
could tell you one thing that's gonna help you And I don't care.
I don't even know your situation. I don't even know what particularly
is troubling you. I know something, but I don't
know what particularly is troubling you. But I can tell you the one
cure for it. Set your affection on Christ above, not on things
on this earth. Why are you acting like your
life's in this world? That's what Paul said. Why are
you focusing on touch, not taste, not handle, not accusing and
excusing one another? Set your affection on things
above. That's where you are. Your life's
there. And when He appears, you're going to appear with Him in glory.
Well, are you just going to ignore this sin? No, I'm not. That's
the only way it's going to be mortified. See, our flesh don't believe
that. The devil in me and you, we've got a full-grown devil
in us. Those men that came there making accusations against Paul,
you know what their motive was? To turn those brethren from the
gospel of Christ and make them stop hearing Christ. And it was
working. And you know what Paul came and did? He said, turn back
and look at Christ. Look to the serpent. That's the
only way, that one on the cross, it's the only way the serpents
are going to be destroyed and you're going to be saved from
being bitten. That's it. And the flesh don't believe that.
The flesh don't believe that. If you're risen with Christ,
seek Him. Liberty is having access to the throne of grace, brethren.
I'm going to hurry. I'm going to finish here. Liberty
is coming to the throne. We have a high priest and we
can come to the throne of grace. Now, when we have that liberty,
why do we have it? So we can come there and ask
for grace to help in time of need. You see, once we've spoken
the truth to one another, we can't make it affectionate. We
can't mortify the flesh. I can't. I can't. Some people
turn the gospel into a law and try to make somebody believe
it. I can't make you believe it. I can't mortify the flesh
in you. How's it going to be mortified?
I have to wait on Him. I have to go to Him and say,
Lord, would you bless it? Would you come and bless it?
Paul later there, he says, I have confidence, not in you, I have
confidence in Christ that he's going to make you hear this.
And he's going to mortify your flesh and save you. So we have
this liberty. You wouldn't be accepted of God
in his holy place if you weren't as holy as God. He couldn't have
nothing to do with you. But in Christ you can. So come
to him and ask for him. And he's freed you from the wages
of death, brethren. It's death. It's death. It's
that freedom. It's that being afraid of dying
that keeps us in bondage. This is the motivation for most
people in religion. They're scared of going to hell.
Well, I'm not just scared of going to hell. I want to know
Christ. That's what a believer wants to know. Heaven for a believer
is Christ. Not just an escape from hell.
But that's all a man who's scared of death wants. I just want to
be saved from hell. But see, there's also this fear of death
when we start seeing sin in ourself and sin in our brethren, we start
getting afraid of that. And so what do we do? We start
looking at fleshly means to fix it. We gotta have liberty. If
my brother's Christ and he's in this yoke of bondage, whether
it be legal or sinful, and I hate to even say it that way, they're
both sin. But whatever it is, I know this, the Lord's freed
him from death, he's not gonna be separated from Christ. So
I don't have to, that'll keep my flesh mortified from looking
to extra means besides this gospel. I don't care what the problem
is, brethren. I don't care what it is. The answer is go to your
brethren and remind them of what Christ has done. That's it. It's the only message he blessed
to unite you with Christ and with your brethren in the first
hour. And that's the only message he'll bless to unite you with
Christ and your brethren in any trouble, in any trouble. Preach Christ. My pastor, one
time we was in an awful mess and oh, it was terrible. Now
you couldn't hear it was, is he preaching to us? Is he preaching
to them? I hope they hear that. I hope
they hear that. And that's just the devil. That's the yoke of
bondage, the entanglement of bondage right there. And you
know what my pastor did? He stood in the pulpit and preached
Christ. He was the target. And he stood
there and preached Christ to us. And you know how God saved
us out of it? He blessed that message to our
heart. And we finally quit all that bondage and realized it's
all Him. That's my hope, brethren. That's
my hope. I can't change a heart. I can't
change your heart. I can't change my heart. Certainly
can't change anybody else's. My hope is that I'm preaching
this message for everybody I love with all my heart, and I'm hoping
they hear it, and I'm hoping God blesses it. That's my only
hope. I love you, I want you to hear
this. It's why I've been preaching it. It's our only hope. And it's
a message Christ to bless. Look there in verse 15, in Christ
neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision. I'm sorry,
Galatians 6, 15. Neither circumcision avails nor
uncircumcision. You know, I'm sure there was
people sitting there that day when Paul said that, when he
sent this letter, and they heard it read. There was brethren there
that had not submitted to circumcision. They believed Christ. They had
not submitted to circumcision. And I guarantee you there was
a thought in their heart. We told you not to submit to that
circumcision. That circumcision didn't avail you. We knew that.
That's why we didn't submit to it. Paul said, you're not submitting
to it. It didn't avail anything either.
That's not what made you just. That's not what made you righteous.
Oh, that brother shouldn't have done that sin. I, what we're
saying is I hadn't done that. Well, that didn't make you righteous.
You're not doing it. And it didn't condemn him doing
it. How so? Because in Christ, he's
a new creation. In Christ he is as Christ is,
and that has not changed by anything that's been done good or bad
in our flesh, brethren. The sooner we can get a hold
of that, the sooner we can be settled when whatever goes on
around us and know that that flesh won't be puffed up and
trying to take matters in and out. He'll keep you humble to
know Christ has got this. And it's through the message
of him that he's gonna continue to mortify and keep his people's
state on him. You get that? What matters is a new creation. What does it mean if I'm crucified
to the world and the world is crucified to me? Think about
that. Do you think Don Fortner is worried
about anything that takes place in this world? Right now? If you're right now in this world
and you're dead to it and it's dead to you, then what we do
shouldn't alter us too much, it shouldn't affect us too much.
What our brethren do shouldn't change that too much. I'm not
saying sin, if you get that from what I'm saying, then I pray
God deliver you from that bondage. What I'm saying is, we have liberty in Christ and
that's not gonna change. And if I'm in sin, Christ has
dealt with me, And here's the thing, he may have dealt with
your brother and brought him to repentance and faith, and
you've not been dealt with yet. You're still being a yoga bondage
toward him. And he's already dealt with your
brother, he just not come deal with you now. But you see what
he's gonna do is, we're gonna bring us all right down here
on the same level. At the feet of Christ, looking
to our master who alone makes us stand. It makes our brethren
stand. Lord, whatever you do, it be
good. That's a good place to be. That's the only place to
be. All right, I'm done. I've gone
longer than I meant to. All right, brethren. Pray God
will bless that.