Galatians, Galatians chapter
five. Continue our study in the book
of Galatians this morning, Galatians chapter five. And we'll be looking again at
verse one, Galatians five and verse one, the title of the message
this morning is freedom in Christ, freedom in Christ. Chapter 5 and verse 1 says, Stand
fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. freedom in Christ. Last week
we looked at the first part of this. Stand fast. What it was,
what it is for the church of God to stand fast and hold the
line of the gospel of God's free grace in Christ. We who are believers
in Christ, we confess that all salvation, all of our salvation,
From beginning through the middle and to the end is all of God. It is all of God that we are
saved. He chose us, He redeemed us,
He called us, and He will keep us. And none of His will ever
be lost. None of His elect will ever be
lost. And we are to guard this. We
are to constantly be aware of false religion. Constantly we
are to separate ourselves from them. Constantly. We know that Christ, that God
has made Christ to be our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification,
and our redemption. We know that Christ is all our
salvation. And in order to guard against
this truth, we went over the armor of the believer. We are
in a warfare and we should constantly be reminded of this. We fight
not against physical people or physical governments. We fight
against principalities and against powers and rulers of darkness
in high places. And our warfare is one that is
spiritual, not carnal. Not carnal. We're not here to
take over the government and try to force Christianity on
people. That's not what we're here to
do. We're not here to change the laws of this land so that
they match the laws of the gospel. That's not what we're here for.
We are here to proclaim the gospel of God's grace. And we don't
seek a city here. We seek a city whose builder
and maker is God. This is not our home. We're just
passing through. You know, if I had a stranger
come into your house, you had a stranger come in, and he started
trying to make rules, I wouldn't sit too well with you, would
you? Well, friends, we're the strangers. We're the strangers
in this world. It doesn't sit well with them. Because it's not our business.
Our business is the gospel of Jesus Christ and not to compromise
the gospel. Now, this morning, I want us
to look at this liberty that we're to stand fast in. You who
are believers in Christ, we stand fast in the truth of the gospel,
in the righteousness of Christ. We stand fast having the helmet
of salvation. We stand with our feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace, the sword of the Spirit,
the shield of faith. We have all of these things.
Stand fast in them. But all of these things constitute
one thing. Liberty. Stand fast in the freedom
wherewith Christ hath made you free. I want to talk about liberty. We in this country, we use that
word quite often. Liberty. Freedom. Freedom. The word means To rest. The word means to rest. Freedom is rest, isn't it? It's
liberating. It's free. It's free. It's a
restful state. And it comes from the root word
meaning unrestrained. Unrestrained. To go where one
pleases as a citizen. That's what it means. to be unrestrained
as a citizen. I'll tell you, as far as this
country goes, we can right now probably go where we please.
And as long as we're in obedience with the laws of this land, we
can go where we want to. We have freedom to roam. We have
freedom to go and not be arrested for no particular reason. That's
supposed to be the freedom that we have. But we know that man's
freedom is not really free. Now if a man in this time, when
Paul was talking about liberty, he understood this. There were
two types of people. There was a slave and everyone
that was a citizen. You were either one or the other.
You remember when Paul was put in prison and he said, I'm a
Roman. I'm a citizen." And that guy,
the captain, was scared. He said, how is it that you're
a citizen? He said, I bought my citizenship, how did you get
yours? He said, I was born free. And
that guy was scared because Paul had rights as a Roman citizen. If Paul was a slave, he would
not have those liberties, those rights. So a slave was not protected
by the law of the land. A slave was only at the will
of his master. He could only go where his master
told him to go. Ah, but a man who's a citizen,
he had the right to roam, a right to be free. To be unrestrained. And you see, the law, if he was
a righteous citizen, the law was on his side. It was not against
him. The law protected his liberty. We who are believers in Christ
are to stand by faith in our liberty. Unrestrained citizenship. Unrestrained citizenship. Stand
fast in your freedom, in your liberty, that we are unrestrained
citizens of heaven. You see, we're not unrestrained
citizens of this world. If we're in this country and
this country falls and goes into slavery or whatever, bondage,
you see, we're not going to be free to move about where we want
to. They may throw men in prison
and they're not able to move where they want to, but I'll
tell you what, that does not mean they're not free citizens
of heaven. We are free citizens of heaven
and we're not seeking an earthly life here. We're not seeking
to root down here forever. Our our citizenship is in heaven. And we're not to be rooted down
by the cares of this life. We are sojourners and pilgrims
on our way to the celestial city. We're on our way to the celestial
city just passing through. Therefore, believers, we are
free. citizens of heaven protected by the king of heaven. Now is
that not something? I mean, it's one thing to be
protected by the laws of men. They can't always protect us,
can they? They can't always be there when
someone robs us or tries to kill us. They can't be there. But
the king of heaven, we are protected by the king of heaven and nothing
happens to us without his permission. Nothing at all. Nothing at all. We're protected also by the law. The law that was once against
us, friend, is now for us. Isn't that great? The law that
was once against us now protects us from everything. Why? Because in Christ we have the
righteousness of God. The law can do nothing to the
righteous. Paul said, the law is good if
it's used lawfully. Isn't that right? The law is
good. Nobody here denies the law is not good. The law is good. Thou shalt not lie. That's good. There's nothing wrong with that
law. It's perfect. The problem is me. The problem
is my inability to obey the law. But God, who is rich in mercy,
has given us the full righteousness of Christ. You see, the law is
for the murderer. The law is for
the unrighteous. Well, see, that's not me. The
law is not for me. The only thing the law is to
do now is to say, hey, he goes free. He goes free. And that's
what the law does to every believer in Christ. We are free in Christ. We are free no matter what circumstances
of life come our way. No matter what men do to us.
And not even our own sin can deprive us of this liberty. Not
even our own transgressions. Not even our own unbelief. Scripture says even when we are
unbelieving, He cannot deny Himself. Isn't that wonderful? Because
I know many times our faith is not very big. It's so small.
It's so small. Well, how can this be? How can
we have such liberty? Well, look at your text. Stand
fast, therefore, in the liberty. What liberty? Wherewith Christ
hath made us free. This is not just any liberty.
We're not to stand fast in just any old freedom. We are to stand
fast in the freedom that Christ hath made for us. The freedom
that He procured on our behalf, that's the freedom that we're
to stand fast in. That's it. There is no other
freedom. Don't stand fast in this freedom
of this country. Don't stand fast in that. That
thing's moving, it's constantly weighing, and it'll soon... I
know this. It will soon collapse underneath
the weight of bondage. Every kingdom has done this.
Every kingdom. And this one will too. We pray
not to see it in our life or our children's life, but it will
come. It will come. So don't stand
fast in that. There's no hope there. You're
going to get discouraged and disappointed. But stand fast
in this, in the liberty Christ made us free. Well, what did
Christ make us free from? Free from sin. Christ hath made us free from
sin. Now we know that we were all
born in sin. We all received our nature from
our Father and His Father all the way to Adam. We all received
the same nature. A dead one. A dead one. Now Gil, you may have been a
little bit more moral than I was. But I'll tell you what, we had
the same nature. We were born with the same nature. We were
born at different times. We were born in different societies.
We were born in different ages. But we had the same nature, which
is a sin nature, and we were bound to it. Bound to it. Sin to the natural man is good
and pleasant. When we were living in sin, it
was to us good and pleasant. Now, I'll tell you, our conscience
may be pricked. We may have had a conscience
of what we've done, but at the time you did it, it's what you
and I wanted to do. We didn't do anything. Somebody
didn't make us sin. We did it on our own. We did
it on our own. It's because we were in bondage
to sin. And I'll tell you, the more that
a lost man continues down this road of sin, the more his conscience
becomes seared, and the less guilt he feels for sin. And the less guilt a man feels
for sin, the more free he thinks he is. Isn't that right? You
see all these people running around, all these gay rights
movements and they're running around and these advocates for
fornication and all these things. You know, they're running around
and saying, look, I'm so free and Christians are bound. You
guys are so bound up and look at me, I'm free to do anything
I want to. No, he's bound and we're free. He can't do anything but sin. He can't do anything but sin.
He's bound to it. And the more he sins, the more
he likes it. The more he likes it, the more he sins. That hole
in his heart just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and he tries
to fill it with every device of sin he could imagine, and
he still has no peace. Why? He's enslaved. Chains of
sin. The world's idea of freedom is
unrestrained sin. You see, man wants to get rid
of the conscience. He wants to get rid of guilt
so he can do what he longs to do. Sin. And the ultimate end of
that is to try to do away with his knowledge of God. That's
what he wants to do. He wants to do away with his
knowledge of God. So he starts learning and becomes academic
and then tries by academic wisdom to dismiss God. We know that's
a silly thing. That is a foolish thing. And these men defy God. We saw
this, I believe, on Wednesday in Psalm 73. He said, these men,
there's no bands in their death. You see these men that don't
believe, that are atheists, you know, they're running headlong
to the grave and say, I don't fear the grave because there's
nothing after it. And man, they just seem so bold.
They seem so arrogant in their faith that there is no God. It's just foolish thinking it
only tries to. To free their conscience so they
can send more, but we who have believed on Christ, we've been
delivered from sin. And we know the opposite is true,
sin is the opposite of freedom. It's bondage, isn't it? It's
bondage. We know that sin is opposite
from freedom, it's bondage, and sin enslaves the souls of men
to the justice and judgment of God. The scripture says, the
soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. But praise God that Christ
has come and made us free from the very thing that would cause
our eternal death. He came to free us from sin. From sin. We no doubt are born
into sin and guilty of breaking God's law and hating God even
as others. If there's anyone that knows
this bondage, you as believers understand what I'm saying. You
understand what it is to be in bondage only because you know
what it is to be free. You know what it is to be free.
Wicked men desire to be free from conscience, but we desire
only to be free absolutely and completely from all sin. That
is the desire of our heart. Believers, stand fast in this
assurance and have this hope and peace constantly gird about
you daily that Christ has set us free from all our sins. Well, how did he do this? He
bore our sins in his own body on the tree. That's how he did
it. Substitution. Substitution. God in great grace,
willing to save us, willing only by His grace to choose us from
eternity, purposed that Christ be our surety and our Redeemer. God in great grace purposed that
Christ was to come and bear our sins, bear the guilt of our sins. Friends, God will not punish,
will not punish a man unless he is found guilty. That would
be unjust, wouldn't it? It'd be unjust. Yet God the Son,
the sinless Son of God, was made to bear our guilt, so
much so it became His. It became His. Now, in that time it became His. We know He sinned not. Even when
our sins were bore on Him, even when He was found under the justice
of God, having our iniquity, yet He sinned not. So therefore,
He was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God who was made sin
for us. The great mystery of the transaction
of God And therefore, because He bore
all the justice of God for our sins, our sins are gone. The guilt of our sins are gone. And God will never judge us according
to our sins. Never. Why? We don't have any. Well, pastor, I know I do. I know you still bear this old
nature. But every sin that we have committed,
every sin you are right now committing, and every sin you will commit
in this body have already been paid for by the blood of Jesus
Christ, and not one remains. Not one remains. I like that
in Jeremiah 50, I believe it is, where the sins of Israel
shall be searched for and not found. You see, God's justice
is always looking for sin, isn't it? It has to. It must punish
all sin. But you know what? He won't find
any in us. Because Christ has set us free. Free. The Scripture says He had blotted
out our sins as a thick cloud. You know, when those books of
God's justice are opened in the judgment, you see, under our
name, there'll be a lot of blotting. It won't be, but blotted! And
at the side, it'll be written, See the other book. Then there's
a book of life. And there's our name. Righteous. Righteous. Why? Christ made us
free from sin. Christ made us free from sin.
Now then, this freedom is not a freedom to sin, is it? We know that. Anybody who preaches
the gospel of God's free grace will at some time be called an
antinomian. Someone who is against all law. Someone who believes that you
can sin as you please because God and grace has saved you.
No. If Christ saved us from our sins, he didn't save us to sin.
We hate sin. We who believe hate sin. We despise
it because we know what it cost our Savior. And we do all to
neglect sin. We try to abstain from the very
appearance of evil, even if it looks evil. Believer, get away
from it. Get away from it. We're not free to sin. By no
means does any believer Believe that. But I know this, we are
free from all sin. All the penalty of sin. You know
what? We're free from the power of
sin too. Power of sin. Sin hath no more dominion over
us like it did. We're not enslaved to it anymore
because we have a new heart, a new desire, a new affection
for righteousness. John said this, he that is righteous
will be righteous. Is that not true? Of course it
is. That's simple. That's that's
not complicated. And so you see people running
around confessing Christ, but man, they don't have any life,
fruits or evidences of it. There's there's something wrong
with that, isn't it? Something wrong with that. Because I'll
tell you, if they want to sin. They're not free from it. If
that's what they want. Number two, we are free from
the law. free from the law. All men are
born under the dominion of God's law, whether the written law
in stone or the one on our hearts. But all men are under the law.
And because men in the carnal mind are bound to sin, he is
neither willing to be subject to the law, nor can he be. Because sin is
all he wants to do, the law is the last thing he wants to hear.
The law is the last thing he wants to hear. In Romans chapter 8, flip over
there, Romans chapter 8. See this in verse 7. Scripture says, Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject It's not willing
to be subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. He's not able. Because he is
bound by his sin, he is not able to obey the law of God. It's
an impossibility. But because man will not and
cannot obey the law, never excuses him from it. Isn't that the excuse that most
people give concerning that, well, if I can't obey the law,
then why in the world God give it? You know, it's all God's
fault. That's what they want to say.
It's God's fault. No, your sin is yours. It's the
only thing you can claim. That's it. It's the only thing
we claim as our own. And God's law is perfect. There's
nothing wrong with God's law. And so therefore, man, when they
hear the law, they hate it. They want to do away with it.
Religious men believe that the law is a means of righteousness. It is because they don't understand
the law. You see, religious men think
the law is something that God would use, and the only way they
use it is unlawfully, by taking things that they want to obey,
or they think they can obey, and changing everything else.
But this is bondage, the bondage of the law. You see, the bondage
of the law is in this, that whosoever does not do all
that is written in the law is guilty. The law of God is an all or nothing
principle. There is no mix and match. There
is no take this and leave this. In other words, you can't follow
the Ten Commandments without offering sacrifices. You can't
offer sacrifices unless you follow the judicial governmental law. You see, the law is the law is
the law. There's no part of the law that
is not to be obeyed or done away with. It's not enough that a
man even knows the law. He must do it. He must do it. And whosoever does not obey the
law, God says he's cursed. He's hopeless. He's unable to
recover himself. That's the only thing the law
can do. It can either bless you for being
absolutely perfectly obedient, or it can curse you. That's it.
There's no middle ground. There's no redemption in the
law for sin. The law demanded our obedience.
and righteousness. Therefore, Jesus Christ was made
flesh so that He might honor God's law in our stead. You see, Christ didn't just pay
for our sins. He also brought in that righteousness
that we could not bring in. He gave us His very own righteousness
that He merited Himself as a man. The scripture says that concerning
the servant of God. That he was to come and fulfill
all righteousness. To honor the law. And so by honoring the law. By
providing our righteousness, what more can the law demand
of us? What more can it demand but righteousness? It demands righteousness. We
have righteousness. Therefore, the scripture says,
to us who believe, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. To who? To everyone that believes. You see, He has made us free
from the law in every aspect. Therefore, be not entangled with
that yoke of bondage ever again. Don't do it. Grace, grace, all of grace. Just keep saying that. Keep hoping
in Christ. Faith in Christ hath freed us
from the law and it has no more dominion over us in any aspect. Now, the things contained in
the law. We desire those things. But I'll tell you what, I don't
need a piece of paper on the wall to tell me that. You don't
need it written in stone to remind me of that, because I have the
love of God written in my heart. You see, I am restrained by the
love of Christ. I'm not restrained by law. I'm
under the law of love, the law of faith, but not the law of
works. And lastly, He has freed us from
death. Friends, we were born dead. But everyone who believes
in Christ, we know this, that we were free from death. Have you been resurrected? Blessed is He that hath part
in the first resurrection. What is that? That's the resurrection
of the soul. It's new life. It's being born
again of the Spirit of God. Blessed is he who has part in
this, because he shall not have his part in the second death. What's the second death? Well,
the first death was the death in Adam. The second death is
the death in Hell. You see, God has freed us from
both. Christ has freed us from the death of our nature. He's
freed us also from the death of hell. Stand in that. You keep your eye on that. And don't be entangled with anything
else. Stand in grace. Stand in liberty. Because Christ
hath made you free. Not you. Not me. We did not make ourselves free. He made us free. And if He did
it, it's done. It's done. Free in Christ. I
pray God blesses to your hearts.