All right, let's go to Galatians
chapter five. Galatians chapter five. I'm gonna read our text, the
first six verses. Paul writes, In verse 1, 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 ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are
fallen from grace. He's saying Christ is effectual
to someone. He's effectual to his people,
but he's of no effect to you. He's become of no effect to you,
for we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. For in Jesus Christ, Neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love. So the scriptures here, brethren,
tell us to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free. To stand fast means that you
are to stay right there. Don't be moved from the simplicity
which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's everything you need. You
stand right there, you stay right there in Him. He's provided everything
that you need to stand faultless before the throne of God. He's paid the debt, your sins
are put away, everything necessary for the believer has been accomplished
and done in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul speaks of liberty. Liberty which is accomplished
for the people of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who makes us
free. Now, someone might ask, free
from what? That's a good question. What
are we free from? Well, we're free from the bondage
of death. We're free from our sin. We are free from laboring, trying
to work, to remove the stain of sin, free from those works
that cannot save, that fear, that doubt, that worry that I've
not done enough, because we haven't. We haven't done enough. None
of us has done enough to be free of all doubt. But that's why
Christ came. That's why the Father sent Christ.
to remove that burden, that bondage, that fear, doubts, and worries,
and to declare to his child, I've done it all. I've done it
all. Everything necessary I've provided
for you freely, not because you've earned it, not because you deserve
it, I've done it freely in grace, because I love you. Because I
love you, you're my child, and I've done it freely in grace. and we've been made free to worship
God in spirit and in truth. Amen, amen. That's what we're
talking about here. And I've titled this message,
Stand Fast in Christ's Liberty. Now, the majority of this message
is going to be on verse one. Let's read it again. Stand fast
therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. These Galatian
believers whom Paul was writing to, they had been delivered from
spiritual bondage. The Lord delivered him as he
delivers all his people through the preaching of the gospel.
That's how he delivers his people, he delivers them through the
preaching of Christ Crucified, the declaration of what God has
done for you. for his child. We're not up here
telling you what you need to do for God. We're declaring the
good news of what God has done for the sinner, his child, that
one who has no righteousness, no hope in themselves, nothing
to come before God and boast of anything they've done. God
has done it all for the sinner in the Lord Jesus Christ freely. Freely, freely in grace. But
now these brethren were being lured back into spiritual bondage,
back to the law, looking for a righteousness, looking to develop
and mature themselves, looking to do something to add to the
work that Christ had done. Somehow they got it in their
minds that Christ was insufficient. not providing everything. There
was something they needed to do, and that's bondage. We're
always going to come up short because we are sons and daughters
of Adam by nature. In this flesh, we are always
going to come up short. In Adam, when he sinned, we sinned. And just as the Lord told him,
he died spiritually. When he took of that fruit, he
died spiritually. Death had come in, corruption,
ruin, defilement. And that's why we're all corrupt,
ruined, and defiled because we come forth being born of Adam's
seed. That corrupt seed, that's what
we're made of. That's what we're born of. That's
why we're sinners, spiritually dead, unable to save ourselves
or work a righteousness for ourselves. And so these Galatians, had been
delivered from the vain things of man. When Paul was writing
to the Colossians, he said it this way, philosophy, they were
delivered from philosophy, from vain deceit, after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments or the elements of the world and
not after Christ. They were trusting in things
that cannot save, works, will worship, what they do or don't
do. That's what they were trusting
in. And the Lord delivers his people from that, because that's
where we all were. We were seeking a false god,
an idol god. But our Lord saved us through
the preaching of the gospel, declaring what he has done for
sinners. And that's simple. Preaching
that message which seems like such folly to man through that
very simple message. Declaring what he's done is what
the Lord uses and comes to his child, giving them life through
that simple message. Taking of the things of Christ,
making us alive again by the seed of Christ. And so we're
turned away from those things to the living God, but these
now were being turned from Christ. Paul asked them in Galatians
4.15, he said, where then is the blessedness which ye spake
of? You heard, you were rejoicing, you were declaring how that the
Lord had set you free and delivered you from all those vain, foolish
things. Where is that blessedness that
you spake of? You've become entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Who hath bewitched you? so that now you're not obeying
the truth, which is faith, believing that gospel word in Christ. After the Lord saves his people,
we are made free to stand in him who's all our salvation.
But there are some, these brethren, and there are some today, there
are men today, who think that, well, Surely there's something
more than this simplicity in Christ. Surely there's something
more that we've got to do. And so they begin to look to
the law, thinking that it's maturity now and growing in maturity and
in understanding. And Paul says the scriptures
teach not at all. That's actually going backwards.
That's going away from Christ because now you're turning to
the flesh. That's not salvation, that's
not maturity, that's not growth, that's going backwards. That's
going back into bondage and the things of death. Turn over to
2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3, and just stay
there for a moment. 2 Corinthians 3, I wanna look at
verse three and four with you. Verse three, for as much as ye
are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered
by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living
God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. He's saying there, you're not
the disciples of Moses. You're not the epistle written
by Moses and the law of Moses with the law. You're the epistle
of Christ. You've been written with the
blood of Christ. You're Christ's epistle. And
he says, verse four, and such trust have we through Christ
to God. What he's saying there is we're
so confident that Christ is all the sinner needs to stand before
holy God, accepted of him. We're so confident that we preach
Christ crucified because that's what the Lord uses to save his
people. Christ died. It's Christ who
put away your sin. It's Christ who obtained your
salvation. Therefore, we preach Christ.
And God is pleased by his spirit to come into the hearts of his
people and to deliver them from death and to deliver them into
the kingdom of Christ where they live and have fellowship with
holy God and are at peace with him being delivered from bondage
and dead works. He's the full provision. Now,
the liberty spoken of here regards our sin. And I wanna talk about
this now this regarding our sin. We know in our flesh that sin
yet dwells in this flesh. If we're being honest, we confess
that sin is yet present in my flesh. Paul said it this way
in Romans 7.20. Now if I do that, I would not.
It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Sin yet dwells in this flesh. And we're still tempted by sin. We feel its temptation. We feel that attraction of fleshly
things, of momentary pleasures. We feel it. We feel it. The Apostle Peter said it this
way in 1 Peter 2.11, dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims that ye abstain from fleshly lusts which war against
the soul." So we still feel that attraction of sin. We still feel
its temptation and we don't want to do it. We that walk in Christ,
we don't want to do it because then our thoughts and minds are
put on what we've just done. And we're wrapped up in that
bondage of fear and doubt and guilt, and we're just focused
on that rather than loving our brethren and serving them and
being joyful and thankful in the Lord. The Lord turns us again,
but that's why Paul, Peter says, it's not that it destroys you,
it's that Peter says it's making war against your soul. It's making
war. And so sin is yet present and
we feel its temptation. So what liberty does Christ give
us from sin? What is the liberty that he's
talking about? Well, there's three ways in which
I wanna explain this to you this morning. Real quick, let me just
say them. It's the guilt of sin, we are
delivered from the dominion of sin, and we are delivered from
the condemnation of sin. meaning that it no longer dictates
my inheritance. It's not determining whether
I live with my God for all eternity or not. I've been delivered from
that condemnation. So let's look at these three.
First, we are freed from the guilt of sin. Turn over now to
Romans 6. Let's go to Romans 6, verse 6
and 7. Romans 6, 6 and 7. Paul says, knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with him, with Christ, that the body
of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. When Christ was crucified,
when he went to that cross for his people, he went as the atoning
sacrifice as the sin bearer. He came to put away the sin of
his people and we're told in the scripture that he was made
a propitiation for sin. The Apostle John saying it this
way, here in his love, not that we loved God, but that he loved
us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And what that means is in Adam,
in myself, in my sin, in my works, the wrath of God was abiding
on me. God was angry, justly angry with
me because my works are wicked. My works are filthy. My works
are polluted and full of sin. And so I was under the wrath
and anger of God. But when Christ came, the Lamb
of God, the sin-atoning sacrifice, the anger and wrath of God was
taken from me and put upon Christ. It was turned from me to the
Lord Jesus Christ because Christ came to put away my sin. Every child of God, everyone
put in Christ, their sin was laid upon Christ so that the
wrath and anger of God, which justly was against me, was now
turned and put on him. So he turned that wrath from
his child to himself. And therefore, we're free of
the guilt of sin. I bear it no longer. He bore
it in my place. He put it away. He carried that
sin away so that it is removed from the child of God. And God
no longer sees you in the stain of sin. You're covered with the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're free from all those
dead works. We're free from that guilt and
laboring in dead things that cannot save us. We're set at
liberty. If you were standing in the courthouse
with God as the judge, he would tell you, there's no sin. It's
been put away. You're free to go. You're free. Christ has set you free. He's
put away that debt that you owe. Top lady, that hymn writer, said
it this way, if Christ my discharge has procured and freely in my
place endured the whole of wrath divine, God will not payment
twice demand, first at my dying savior's hand and then again
at mine. Turn then my soul to joy and
rest. The merits of my great high priest
have bought my liberty. Trust in his all-sufficient blood,
ending my banishment from God, for Jesus died for me. He's put it away, amen. Second,
we understand our liberty from sin is with regards to the dominion
of sin. Let's look once more at verse
6, Romans 6, 6. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. The body of sin is
the enmity that is in us by nature, that enmity against the true
and living God. That enmity which despises the
salvation of God and does things its own way and worships idols
and false gods and does it its own filthy works. That's enmity
in us. That's the rebellion that's in us by nature in Adam. So let's
illustrate this looking at Adam and Eve. If you'd like to follow
along, go to Genesis 3. Genesis 3, we're just gonna look
at two verses there, seven and eight. to illustrate this point so that
you can see what enmity against the true and living God looks
like. All right, Genesis 3.7. So we're
told that Adam ate that fruit from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. And it says, the eyes of them both, when Adam
took that bite, when he bit it, the eyes of them both were opened.
And they knew that they were naked. So now they could see. They knew good and evil. And
they judged themselves to be naked. What did they do? They
tried to cover their own nakedness. It says, and they sewed fig leaves
together and made themselves aprons. They made a covering. We see their self-righteousness. That enmity was already there. Just like God said, in the day
you eat of it, you shall surely die. They died spiritually immediately. So that the first thing they
thought to do was self-righteousness. We need to provide a covering
for our shame, for our shame. And everyone who turns to their
own works to provide a covering for their sin is gonna stand
before holy God in that day and be ashamed because what we do
in this flesh is no covering. We can provide no covering to
cover our shame, our nakedness before God. Then we see how that
they sought a refuge from God. Look at verse eight. They heard
the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. They didn't run
to God when they heard him. crying and weeping and confessing,
Lord, we've messed up. We've sinned. We did exactly
what you told us not to do. We did it and now we're naked.
Now we've ruined everything, Lord. Have mercy on us. Forgive
us, Lord. Forgive us, have mercy. No, they
sought a refuge from the Lord. They tried to hide from him.
That's the enmity. We're seeking a refuge from God. And when men go to the law for
righteousness, they're saying to God, stay back. I got this. I messed up. I'll fix it. I got
it. Don't judge me, Lord. Don't judge
me. Don't come. Stay back. I'll take
care of it. I got the law. I'll fix it. Just
keep yourself at bay. Don't come near me, Lord. I got
this. And that's what we do. That's
the enmity in man that seeks his own covering, his own righteousness,
and seeks a refuge from God. And that's what Christ restored
for his people. That's what he did. He delivered
us from death and doing dead works and doing those things
I cannot save. And he delivered us into his
kingdom, in his love, in his life, in his light, so that now
we have fellowship with God. Now we have peace with holy God. He's established that peace so
that now that enmity is put away. We're not seeking to run from
God. Now we come wanting to hear the Lord. Now we want to have
fellowship with the true and living God. We want to know him.
We want to hear his words. We love him. because the enmity
has been put away. The dominion of sin that kept
us laboring in that bondage has been put away by Christ in the
new birth. Turn over to Colossians 2, verse
11 and 12. Colossians 2, 11 and 12. So it says there, in whom also
ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, right? We can't circumcise this wicked
heart with the works of our hands in this flesh, in the putting
off of the body of the sins of the flesh, that's what it is,
the body of sins, right? We've been delivered from that
dominion by the circumcision of Christ. buried with him in
baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith
of the operation, the work of God, who hath raised him from
the dead. Brethren, that's the new birth
that we now rejoice in because we are made alive, new creatures
in Christ. This is what our Lord was saying
when he said, Nicodemus, You religious person, you self-righteous,
God-hating man, ye must be born again. That's the new birth.
That's circumcision, which only Christ can work in the heart
of his child. And by grace, he does it. He
does. This is what Paul was speaking
of, this power, when he said in Philippians 3.10, that I may
know him. and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death. That same power which raised
Christ from the dead is the power and grace that raises us from
that spiritual death and gives us life in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the power. That's what
we wanna know. Lord, I don't wanna be found
standing in my own righteousness with my own little fig leaf apron
that I've made. Lord, take all that off the table.
I don't want any of it. I want to be found in that righteousness
of Christ. Let me be seen in His righteousness. I just want His robe. I don't
want no trinkets, nothing of mine. Let me be found in Him. And so now, brethren, we that
have been raised from death and dead works and been given life
in Christ, we rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. That's not our confidence anymore.
We don't want any part of it, just like Paul. We don't want
nothing to do with it. So Christ delivers us from that enmity
which had dominion over us, and he's given us life in himself,
liberty in himself. And finally, the liberty that
we have in Christ is we are delivered from the condemnation, that damning
power of sin. My inheritance and you that hope
in Christ, our inheritance is in Christ. We don't stand in
the inheritance of Adam and his seed anymore. We've been born
again of the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not my inheritance. That's the inheritance of those
who are born of Adam's seed and have not been born again, who
haven't been given life in the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been
raised again, made new by the Lord Jesus Christ, born of His
incorruptible seed. And therefore, that wrath of
God which yet abides upon the sons and daughters of Adam, standing
in that inheritance, that wrath is not ours. That's not our inheritance. That's not what's waiting for
us. We have a good hope, a sure hope,
founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness and what
He has done for His people and it pleases God to make this known
to you his child, to comfort your hearts, to bless your hearts
this day, to know that I stand in Christ. He's all my hope. How do I know I stand in Christ?
He's all your hope. You have no hope in your own
works, in your own righteousness. Your hope is in Christ. That's
not of the flesh. That's of the spirit of God.
He gives that to his child whom he loves. It says in Colossians
2, 14 and 15, that everything which was contrary to us, Christ
took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. That means everything
that stood opposed to your coming to God, to stand before his throne
and fall, that's everything that stood in the way, Christ has
removed. put it away. Every debt I owed,
every bit of it that I owed, Christ has paid it all. And everything
you need, Christ has provided it all freely in himself. You don't need anything outside
of Christ. It's given all in him, in him
alone. That's the liberty, brethren,
wherewith Christ hath made you free. Made free in Christ. So it says in verse back in Galatians
5.1, Stand fast. You highly esteem it. You defend
it. You stand right here. Don't be
moved from this liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. And
don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. That law
isn't going to add anything that Christ can't add. And it won't
add it. It'll just weigh you down. Look
to Christ. And so this bondage which was
laboring under the law for righteousness, with all its fears and doubts
and worries and trouble that it caused. That's been put away,
and we stand in the righteousness of Christ alone. Our circumcision
or our uncircumcision profits us anything. If your salvation
is founded upon the works of your flesh, Christ shall profit
you nothing. Nothing, be done with that. You
look to Christ and rest in him alone. And it says there, well,
how do I make myself righteous then? What do I gotta do? Don't
I have to do something? Paul said it this way in verse five,
for we through the Spirit wait, wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. We stay in Christ, we follow
him, we believe. That's how confident we are in
Christ that he's the one teaching. He's feeding me. Each week we
come and hear the gospel and we're taught of the Lord. We're
encouraged and reminded of what he has done for us. And he blesses our heart and
comforts us right there in Christ. For in Jesus Christ, neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts, brethren. Let's close in prayer, and then
we'll be dismissed for about 10 to 15 minutes. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace, your wisdom, your
salvation, provided freely and fully in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, you've provided everything
in him, and we're so thankful. We thank you for delivering us
from this body of sin, this enmity, the guilt of sin, the dominion
of sin, and the condemnation of it, everything in Christ. Lord, we pray that you would
indeed bless our hearts with this word, that you would teach
us and instruct us and keep us standing right there in that
liberty which Christ has obtained for his people. Lord, we pray
for those that are suffering, those that are sick, those that
have troubles, those that have doubts and fears, that you would
turn our hearts to Christ, that you would bless your people this
day that you would help us to walk in love and in faith, trusting
our Lord, joyful and rejoicing in the salvation which you've
provided freely in him for us. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen.