Galatians chapter 5 We're looking
at the first six verses this morning I'm entitled this standing
fast in faith and love Standing fast in faith and love the Apostle
here says stand fast therefore I 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, that he is a debtor to the whole law.
Christ is become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you who
are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace. For we, the sons of liberty,
those who are set free, those who are called to stand fast,
we, how do we do this? Here it is, through the Spirit.
Through the Spirit. Wait. This is how we stand fast. Wait. We stand fast through the
Spirit. Wait. We wait for the hope of
righteousness. How? By faith. By faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love."
Now, the apostle here begins this chapter reminding us that
this is a call to the sons of liberty. You who are born again
of the Spirit of God, you who are like Isaac, you who are sons
of promise, you who are under the covenant of divine grace,
born of the Spirit of God. You remember, like Isaac, we
were born from a dead womb. We were born dead in sins, enslaved
to sin. We were under the condemnation
of God and by no means could justify ourselves. How often
does God remind us of that? How often in Scripture are we
reminded of that? I remember one man told me, you
just preach too much about my sin. Well, sin reminds me of my need.
My nature reminds me of where I came from. And I was born dead,
but God in grace, but God in grace gave us life. By the grace
of faith, we have now believed on Him, on Christ alone. And we who believe on Him are
justified before God, but not by law, not by law. But by faith, the faith of Jesus
Christ, the faith of Jesus Christ is our grounds for justification. And by His obedience and blood
alone, we are saved. The word salvation is a big word,
isn't it? It encompasses the whole doctrine
of salvation. My justification, my sanctification,
my redemption, My life, my wisdom, eternal life, it's all encompassed
in this by the faith of Christ. That's how my salvation was obtained. That's how yours was obtained.
Then how was it received? You received it by faith. You
received it by the grace of faith. And so Paul calls us. Now, is
this speaking to you? Because this is who this text
is called to, those of us who profess to be saved by grace
through faith in the work and person of Jesus Christ alone.
This is who he's speaking to. And he calls us to what? Stand fast. Hold fast. Anchor fast. Don't be moved. Don't be seduced. Don't be swayed. Don't be tempted. Stand your
ground. It's a military term. It's used
on the battlefield so as not to give ground to the enemy,
not one inch of ground. Stand fast. And seeing we are engaged in
a warfare, we are engaged in a spiritual struggle, we must
stand our ground concerning the gospel and not give any consent,
any credit to those who preach another gospel. We're not to
move. Be strong. That's what he told
Joshua in the Old Testament. He said, Be strong and of good
courage. That's what it means here. For
we are all soldiers." But listen, we're soldiers in a fortified city. So this word, stand fast, is
as he's talking to soldiers standing on the wall of a fortified city. He says, stand fast. This wall
will hold. Stand fast. This won't cave. Stay in the city. It's a well-fortified
city, a well-supplied city. And those who are outside of
this fortification, outside of Christ, are refuge. They call us to come out from
Christ. Isn't that right? All our enemies,
we are as soldiers in the fortified city, well supplied, have all
we need inside this city. We don't need to go outside this
city. Everything Christ has supplied for us, we are safe from their
arrows, safe from their catapults of accusations. We are safe in
Christ. And He feeds us daily by His
Word. We are watered by His Spirit,
washed by His blood daily. We don't need to go outside these
walls. He's saying, stand fast inside. Yeah, we're surrounded,
friends. We're surrounded by enemies,
and they are calling us every day to come out. They want us to come out from
our refuge and stand in our own strength. They call us out to
stand in our own obedience. They call us out to stand in
our own righteousness. They call us out so that we should
not stand in the perfect redemption, the perfect righteousness, and
the perfect salvation, sanctification, and wisdom of Christ. That's
what false religion desires of you, that you come out. And Paul
says, don't do it. Stand fast right where you are,
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free. They would have us walk in our
own wisdom. That's what the world would have
you do. What you believe just don't make
sense. I don't care. I don't care whether it makes
sense to you or not. I'm staying right in Christ.
This is my refuge." That's what he's telling us, not to go out,
not to wander in human reasoning and human wisdom. For the world,
by wisdom, what? Knew not God. Knew not God. Worldly wisdom is to merit. Isn't that right? That's the
world's wisdom as to how to approach God, is by merit, by works, in
order to obtain redemption, obtain righteousness and sanctification.
By works. That's worldly wisdom. These
outside the refuge call for us to come out and with them and to pile dung
and mud and filth of their self-righteousness upon the walls of our refuge."
Now, can you imagine that? Outside this walled city, there's
people out there piling dung around the wall and said, look,
this is our refuge. We're piling up dung. You need
to come on out here and pile up some dung with us. That's
my refuge. Come on outside your strong wall.
Come down here with your own righteousness like me and pile
it up. Oh, no. No. Therefore, we are to hold fast
within the gates. Let us put on the whole armor
of God and hold our ground as we wait, as we watch the Lord
vanquish our foes. You know, that's how many times
that I'm thinking of Hezekiah right now. He was in that fortified
city. God promised that they'd be okay.
There he was, laying out those letters of his enemies. His enemies
surrounded him. And God said, don't you worry
about that. I'll take care of them. You just
stay right in that city. I'm going to go out there and
I'll deal with them. Friends, we're not to move from this truth.
Jesus Christ is all our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We're not to move from that.
Why? Because that gives me liberty. I have freedom. Freedom from
the guilt of sin, freedom from the power of sin, and the promise
of freedom from presence of sin, based on His wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Hold fast. Stand fast in Christ,
and what? Be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. You know, the only remedy for
bondage is to remain fixed on the liberty of Christ. That's
the remedy for not being entangled. This flesh, your flesh wants
to be entangled. It does. By nature, this old
man still craves to be entangled with law. And the only remedy
for that is to stand fast in the liberty of Christ. That melts
all chains. Therefore we are at rest. We who are at rest must hold
fast in your resting. You're resting? Well, this is
what it means to hold fast. Keep resting. Don't quit resting. For the law only genders bondage
and slavery, whereas Christ only genders life and freedom. So now Paul speaks to all who
would return. In these next couple of verses,
he gives warning, warning to anyone seduced, anyone who contemplates
to go outside of Christ, anyone who contemplates not to hold
fast in the perfect liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, but
yet somehow add one thing to Him. If you are tempted to add
one thing to Him, Paul gives a very stern warning. He says,
Behold, I say unto you that if you be circumcised, This was
the main point of contention in this church, circumcision.
But there were many others. It was not just circumcision.
He says, Christ shall profit you nothing. So if you be circumcised,
what Paul is saying is, if you adopt any part of the law. He's alluding to say circumcision,
but you could put any part of the law in that place of circumcision. If you observe the feast day. If you Seek to use the Ten Commandments
as a rule of life. If you adopt tithing, if you
adopt Sabbath worship, those things that are according to
the law, if you do any of these things, Christ shall profit you
nothing. If you are adopting any part
of the law for your justification, sanctification, or redemption, Christ shall profit you nothing. If you take these things as a
means of merit before God, no matter how sincere... Religious people are sincere.
Now, you cannot tell me they're not sincere. I don't think that they're faking
their sincerity. I want to give them at least
the benefit of the doubt. They're sincere. Paul says, of
his people, I bear them record that they have a zeal for God.
Now listen, I bear them record that this religious world is
zealous. They're zealous. They're sincere
in their obedience, and they are really trying what they think
to honor God. But listen, no matter how sincere
a man's effort is, Paul is telling you plainly, if you add it, if
you add it, no matter how sincere you are, how zealous you are
for the honor and glory of God, it's of no value to your soul.
It will not benefit you in any measure before God. Yes, it will
benefit you before man. It will benefit you. If you see
a man, and he's moral, and he's good, and he does good things
for people, people are going to love him. People are going
to like him. It's going to benefit him. But not before God. Not before God. Why is that? Because Christ's
salvation is not applied to him. The carnal mind and reasoning
of the flesh is this, working and doing yields profit. Now that's the carnal reasoning
of man. And it may be in carnal things.
Now listen, you go out and you get a job and you work hard.
It should profit you, shouldn't it? I mean, that's just common
sense. We all apply that to be true, that you should work hard
at your job. You should be out there giving
it your best, and that should benefit you. But this doesn't
work in spiritual things. It may work in carnal things,
but it doesn't work in spiritual matters. Doing and working and
meriting by law profits nothing. Matter of fact, Paul's going
to tell us it doesn't profit, but rather indebts you. It makes you indebted. The more
a man works to earn God's favor, the more he is indebted. Not the more he profits. All
legal religion is bound up in the idea of doing something.
some active obedience or will worship in order to build merit
before God. But this is put to rest. This
is put to rest. Paul says, if you take and add
anything of the law for merit, then Christ shall profit you
what? Nothing. How sad. Can you imagine
the terror of the man who built his life around merit? and died and stood before God
immediately opening his eyes in hell instead of heaven. What
he thought was going to be his profit ended to be his debt. Friends, there is only one thing
that will profit the souls of men, and that's Jesus Christ,
whom He crucified. That is the only thing of profit.
That is the only benefit for the soul. That is the only salvation
for the soul of sinners, of this sinner and that sinner. The only
hope is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And without Him, there
is no justification. Without Him, there is no sanctification. Without Him, there is no wisdom
or righteousness. He is all. And the moment you add one thing
to Him, He disappears. That's it. It's an all-or-nothing
principle, and it's very simple. It's not complicated. The moment
you add anything to Him, you have nothing of Him. You're left alone to stand before
God on the grounds of your own obedience. In fact, when a man adds one
work of the law, Paul says, instead of profit, what is it? Look at
that. Verse 3, I testify again to every man that is circumcised
that he is a debtor. Now he's not going to be profited.
He's going in debt. To what? The whole law. The whole
law. Now those who take one law have
left the refuge of Christ And they have bowed under the whole
law every jot and tittle, every precept, every aspect, every
second of every day, every thought, every word, every deed now is
indebted to obedience to the whole law of God, which we know
is impossible. How many times have people, you
know, that are trying to live by the law, you ask them how
they do it? How you doing on that? Well,
I'm trying. No. The law never asks anything
about trying. The law demands perfect, absolute
obedience or death. No man has ever done it. No man
can do it. And so then, without Christ,
Without Christ, there's no hope. Scripture says, it's very clear,
Romans 3, as it's written, there's none righteous, no, not one.
There's none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all together become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good, no, not one. Therefore, By the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Paul says Christ is of no effect. Look at verse 4. He says, Christ
then is become. You who profess Christ, you who
profess to believe in grace, you have now taken this one law,
you have rejected Christ, and therefore Christ is not your
prophet, you are indebted to the whole law, and Christ is
become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you are fallen from grace." What is the effect of
Christ? What was His effect? His effect
on the believer is perfect, complete salvation. That's His effect
to me. That's His effect to you, who are not under the law. Complete
and perfect salvation. But if you take the law to justify
you, then Christ will have no effect. None of those effects
will be yours. You will have no justification.
You will have no sanctification. You will have no righteousness. And then what does He say? Whosoever
you are. I just, it don't matter. I think
this is wonderful. It doesn't matter. Whosoever
you are, I don't care what you've done, what you've professed. If you've been a preacher or
you've been a faithful member of a church or you've been good
and you've opened hospitals or you've done good to the poor
or whatever, I don't care who you are, Paul said. Whosoever
you are, Christ is of no effect to you if you've taken the law. And he says this, you are fallen
from grace. Now, what does this last phrase mean, you are fallen
from grace? Now, some people are going to take that and say,
ah, see, that teaches that you can be saved and then lost. Well, we know that's foolishness
because none of the other Scriptures teach that. You can't take one
phrase and create a doctrine except it be in conjunction with
the whole Word. What did Jesus say? Of all that
the Father giveth me, I should lose what? Nothing. Jesus said
to those sheep, He said to my sheep, hear my voice, and I know
them, and they follow me, and I give unto them what? Eternal
life. And they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hands. So, we know that this is obviously
not talking about being saved and then being lost after one's
saved. None of those the Father chose,
none of those Christ redeemed, none of those quickened by the
Spirit will ever perish. That's good. I think I'm going
to stay in this castle. I think I'm going to stand on
this ground. Nor will those who Christ purchased
fail to come to Him. He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And Him that cometh to me I will
never, no wise, cast out." I like this, in Revelation 4 and 24,
how many elders were there? Twenty-four elders. You notice
how many seats there were? There were twenty-four seats,
weren't there? Twenty-four elders, twenty-four seats. Not one less,
not one more. That means that all the elect
will be there. All the redeemed will be there.
Not one shall be missing. Not one. shall fail of the grace
of God." God tell you this, there are many who profess to believe. There are many who, false professors,
who outwardly profess faith in Christ, And they bask in the
light of the Gospel for a while. They seem to receive it. Like these Galatians. Paul says,
listen, you would have plucked out your eyes. You so trusted
in Christ. You so trusted in faith that
you didn't need eyes to see. But now I'm your enemy. Something's
changed. These profess, they bask in the
Gospel, but over time, troubles, trials, persecutions, temptations
of sin, and like these Galatians, some are seduced to religious
bondage and law, so as to leave the Gospel, leave Christ. And all who are not born again
of the Spirit of God will fall from the covenant of grace. They
will leave the gospel, they will leave Christ in order to add
their works and merits, even in spite of the plain teaching
of Scripture. Even in spite of what they professed
wants to believe, they go away. And what is this evidence of? It is evidence that they never
believed to begin with. It's only manifestation of what
was really taking place on the inside. Go over to John. John had this problem in the
church there, and he wanted to comfort the believers. And listen,
you and I, when we see men fall away, it's very discouraging,
isn't it? It's very heart-wrenching. To
see people that you loved and called brother and see them go
away into another gospel. John had this experience in the
church there. Go to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 18. He said, little children, it's
the last time. As you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even
so now there are many Antichrists. Whereby we may know that it is
the last time. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would have no doubt continued with us. But here's the reason
they went out. But they went out that they might
be made manifest, they were not of us. You see, what it is to
fall from grace is just a manifestation of what you really are. If a man falls, if a man leaves
the gospel, it is only a clear, evident manifestation he was
never one of us to begin with. That there is no salvation in
him. And so then, there is no salvation
in the law of God. Hear the Word of God, there's
no salvation. The covenant of grace and the
covenant of law are two distinct and separate covenants. So then
lay hold, Paul says. Abandon the law and cling to
Christ. Because to lay hold of Christ
is to abandon the law. And to lay hold of the law is
to abandon Christ. That's the whole teaching here.
Stand fast. Lay hold on Christ and Christ
alone. If you lay hold of the law, you
have let go of Christ, you have fallen from grace and proven
nothing to be but a reprobate. You've proven nothing to be but
lost. Therefore, now look at the motivation
He gives. We who stand fast. Look at the
motivation and the power by which we stand fast. He said, for we.
Sons of liberty. You sons of promise, we through
the Spirit. Through the Spirit. Only the believer in Christ has
the Spirit of God. Only the believer in Christ. And what is the evidence that
we have the Spirit of God? Anyone can say it, can't they?
How many people say they have the Spirit of God? All religion
says they have the Spirit of God. What's the evidence of having
the Spirit? Faith. Faith in Christ alone. There's a man, he says he has
faith, and there he's clinging to the law. That man has not
faith in Christ, and he has not the Spirit of God. The man who
is clinging to Christ alone, we, through the Spirit, we alone
have the Spirit of God. And faith is the evidence. Not
speaking in tongues, not coming in front of the church, that's
not evidence of the Spirit. Not your obedience to the law
or baptism or the Lord's Supper. Judas had all that, didn't he?
Judas baptized. Judas ate the Lord's Supper.
Judas professed to believe. That's not evidence. Faith in
Christ alone is evidence. And listen, the true evidence
of faith is this. Do I have true faith? What's
the evidence of true faith? Well, really there's two. Endurance.
Faith always endures. If it's true faith, we through
the Spirit do what? Wait. Wait for what? Wait for
the revelation, the manifestation of this righteousness Christ
has given us. Do you see that righteousness
now? Look in the mirror. Do you see the righteousness
of Christ as you look in the mirror? No. John says it does
not yet appear what we shall be. But I know when He appears,
we're going to be just like Him, righteous. So what are we doing? Are we working for righteousness
during this time? No, we're waiting for it. We're
waiting for the full manifestation of this righteousness. How? Through
the Spirit by faith. And faith endures to the end. He that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. So true faith is standing fast
in Christ, not letting go of Him, holding on only to Him. And what then is the motivation
and manifestation of true faith? It's this, love. Look at this
in verse six. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but what? Faith which worketh
by love. The law motivates by fear. Faith is motivated by love. Now listen, my faith is not motivated
by my love for God. Is your faith motivated by your
love for God? No. It's motivated by His love for
me. I can't stand on my love. My
love is so fluctuating, it varies so fast, it's hot, it's cold,
it's indifferent. But my hope is in His love. That's eternal, immutable, unchanging. His love by which He sent Christ
to die for my sins and rise again for my justification. His love
that now intercedes for me constantly, perpetually, forgiving me of
my sins and transgressions and keeps His eye and hand upon me
at all times and all the way to the grave and then one day
He will raise me again incorruptible, undefiled. And so what are we
to do to hold fast? We are to wait how to wait through
the spirit by faith and motivated by love now listen believers
we know this that Works good works are important Good works
are important James says, you know without works your faith
is dead True faith works It doesn't work to obtain merit. It works because of His merit,
His love. It's motivated by His love. You
and I desire to serve God. We do. We desire to serve God.
We desire to be righteous. Do you not want to be righteous?
Do we not struggle against sin? Yes, we do constantly, perpetually
struggle against sin. And what's the motivation of
this? Legalists are struggling against sin to obtain righteousness. We struggle against sin because
we have righteousness. Righteousness that Christ has
already merited by His love and grace and applied to our hearts. Therefore we are motivated not
by law but by love And so then, seeing the love
of Christ, seeing the love of the Father, seeing what He has
done for us, given us His Spirit, seeing that we have been born
again by the Spirit of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, what
does He tell us? Stand fast in that. Don't be
moved. Hold fast, because anyone who
doesn't You've fallen from grace. You've proven only to be lost. May God keep us in Christ. Hold us. And I'm thankful for
that because if He's left up to me to keep me in Christ, I
couldn't keep myself in Him. Could you? I couldn't keep this
faith and love. May God help us in these things.