But I woke up July the 4th, and
instead of having a song going around and around in my head,
I had a verse of Scripture. And I'm explaining today why
I'm terrible about finding Scriptures. I can usually narrow it down
between Old Testament and New Testament on a good day. But
anyway, I looked it up, and it was Galatians chapter 5 and verse
1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free. and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage." Now, I guess because since it was
Independence Day, it was that word free. I got to contemplating
that morning. And I had the thought that our
language is not God's language. We use the same words, but we
don't have the same understanding of the same words. I always,
for an example, I always think of the word good. To us, good's
a little bit better than average. To God, good is perfect. Nothing
to be added, nothing to be taken away. It's perfect. And then
there's love. Love is all in the Bible. We
use one word for love, and I know at least in the New Testament,
there's several different words for different meanings of love.
But love doesn't always mean the same thing. I was going to
use the example of ice cream and our wives. We love ice cream. I hope we love our wives more.
After the other night, Peggy's ice cream, we're not going to
talk about that. No, that's just... Johnny, I
was laughing. Anyway, you see what I mean?
God's love, and I'll mention it in a minute, and our love
is not always the same meaning for the same word. I got to thinking
about that, free. What we know and think of as
being free. Are we really free? I know personally,
and I'm referencing back to our Independence Day, the fact that
we're here in the United States, but this goes on any country,
anywhere. I could be a speed demon. I could
fly everywhere. I would love to go fast all the
time. But my freedom is limited by
speed limit laws. So I am not completely free.
To keep you safe and me safe and deer safe, I have to tap
it down. Our country. Some may say we're
the freest country in the world. But are we? And especially pay
attention to this point. Our country has given away so
much of its freedom. We do it by treaties. A lot of
that's in the news lately, trade treaties. The United Nations,
being a member of the United Nations, how many times have
the will of this country been thwarted by the Security Council,
by a veto vote of either Russia, China, or one of the other two
or three countries? Now we have NATO, just this past
Friday. A British ship has been more
or less stolen by the country of Iran. An attack on one NATO
country is an attack against all. Britain decides to go to
war, guess what? Because of a treaty we made,
something we've imposed upon ourselves, we may be at war. So just as our nation has willingly
given away some of our freedom, and that's what I mean by talking
about do we really know what completely free is, because we've
never really experienced it. We've always had some kind of
restrictions on our freedom. But just as our nation has given
it away, so it was in Paul's day here in Galatia. The doctrine
I'm going to refer to this morning quite a bit is Christ plus. And that's what the Galatians
were hearing, a doctrine of Christ plus, where plus is anything
that's added to the work that Christ has done, anything. And
that was a doctrine that was beginning to be taught in the
Galatian church. The plus that was here, we've
already seen in our reading this morning. Judaizers had begun
to spread the message in the church there in Galatia that
you only had to not only believe and trust in Christ, but you
also had to adhere to the law of circumcision. The law of circumcision. If you would, turn to Genesis
chapter 17. I wasn't going to do it this
way but I sat there this morning and I thought and thought and
I said, yeah, let's refer back to that so we can see it because
I want to make a statement and I want you to see where I'm coming
from and if you don't agree with me, well then you can just throw
it out. But this is where the law of circumcision was first
given. And remember now, we've already
read talking about the children of promise. This law and this
covenant we're going to read about here was given after the
child was born to Hagar, before the child of promise was born. Verse 1, and when Abram was ninety
years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto
him, I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect. And I will make and pay attention
now to what God's going to do and what man's going to do in
these next ten verses. And I will make my covenant between
me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.' And Abram
fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me,
behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of
many nations. Neither shall thy name any more
be called Abram, but thy name shall be called Abraham, for
a father of many nations have I made thee. and I will make
thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee,
and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant
between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations
for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to
thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and
to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger,
all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I
will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou
shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou and thy seed after thee
in their generations. This is my covenant which you
shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every
man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh
of your foreskin. And it shall be a token of the
covenant betwixt me and you." I skipped over it, but there
is one thing I wanted to point out in my reading there, and
that's verse 5. God changes Abram's name from
Abram to Abraham. Probably most of you have there
in your margins in the definition of Abraham, mine does. But Abram
means great father. Abraham means, as it says here,
father of a great multitude. It's multiplied, I guess, is
the way to put it. But the point I wanted to make
here, we spoke about the children of promise back from Galatians
chapter 4. To me, this is a picture of the
new birth. That's who the children of promise are. They are new
creatures, new creations, people who have been given a new heart. That's who the children of promise
are. Abram has been given a new name.
He has been made a new creature with a new heart, Abraham. But back to verse 11. At the
end of the verse there, and this is why I wanted you to read it
with me. You remember all that God had done and then He comes,
you'll keep my covenant and this is what you're going to do. You're
going to be circumcised. And the reason for it is here
at the end of verse 11. It shall be a token of the covenant
betwixt me and you. If I'm mistaken, and that's why
I wanted you to read it with me, but is it the purpose of
man's part of this covenant? is that he needs something to
remind him that God keeps His promises. These are practically
the same words from Genesis 9, 13. When God promised a rainbow,
why? He says, I do set my bow in the
cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and
the earth. The fact that He'll never flood
it completely and destroy all life again. It just seems to me that these
words here in Genesis that circumcision is just a reminder of what sinful
and forgetful and doubtful creatures we are. That's why we need or
these males needed this permanent reminder to trust and believe
God. That seems to me to be the purpose
of circumcision. So return back to Galatians for
me. But now this epistle, and if you read the whole thing,
it only takes you 20-30 minutes to read the whole thing, it's
Paul's argument against the adherence to this law which some of the
Gentile members of the church, they had already began submitting
themselves to it. Paul is just adamant that salvation
is not Christ plus. It is only Christ. And teaching
and preaching anything that adds to Christ is nothing short of
what he calls a perversion earlier in this book of Scripture. Now
Paul makes several arguments, and like I say, you can read
it and read it for yourself fairly quickly. He makes several arguments
about bringing circumcision into the church and to the work that
Christ has done. Verse 3 of chapter 5, For I testify
again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the
whole law. Paul's telling them that you
can't pick and choose. You can't do one law because
you think you can do that and forget the rest. No, keeping
the law is all or nothing. He reminds the Galatians earlier
in this book of Scripture, back in verse 6 of chapter 3. He reminds them of Abraham, which,
you know, of course, Abraham was given this law. He said,
even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted, or as my
Bible has it defined here, as it was imputed to him for righteousness. Abraham was not righteous before
God for any work he did, including circumcision. It was not circumcision
that placed Isaac on that altar. It was faith. Faith. Paul also
used a personal example. He talked about Titus. He, along
with Barnabas and Titus, they went to Jerusalem, met with some
of the apostles. They did not require Titus to
be circumcised, so he gives that as evidence that circumcision
does not need to be added to the gospel that had been preached
unto them. But to me, the strongest evidence
he gives in the whole book of Scripture that nothing needs
to be added is right here in verse 1 of chapter 5. Christ
hath made us free. We are first free from any outward
symbol or token. That was one that showed one
to be a member of Abraham's physical seed. But now that we have Christ,
we have another token. Romans 2, verses 28 and 29. For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward
in the flesh. But he is a Jew, he is a descendant,
a spiritual descendant of Abraham, which is one inwardly. And circumcision
is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter,
whose praise is not of man, but of God. True circumcision lies
where true faith does, in the heart. The spiritual seed of
Adam are circumcised of heart. But it goes further than just
this one law, this one law of circumcision. The spiritual seed
are free from the constrictions of the law. The law is full of
do's and don'ts, eat this, don't eat that, keep this, give that,
go here, not there, do it then, not now. All these rules and
regulations have passed by and are no longer required of the
children of promise. You probably have it close by,
Galatians 3.19. Folks, the seed has come. The seed is Christ. And just a few verses later,
Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that
we might be justified by faith. But after faith is come, we are
no longer under a schoolmaster. Those to whom God has given,
and it is a gift, but those to whom God has given faith in Christ,
they are free from the control and the power of the law. But
now Paul just doesn't put this sentence in the middle of his
letter. He provides ample evidence of his conclusion that Christ
hath made us free. So I want to look at some of
that evidence here this morning. Turn back to chapter 1, verse
4. How has Christ made us free? It begins here, who gave himself
for our sins. And of course, to find out who
the who is, look back in verse 3. Paul writes, Our Lord Jesus
Christ. Note he uses the full name. It encompasses all of Him. He
is a deity, He is human nature, He is King, our Redeemer, Substitute,
Sacrifice, Brother, Husband, all of Christ. Gave Himself for
our sins. And I found it interesting. You
know, we all know the Scripture. I think John quoted it last week. It comes from Colossians. For
I am determined to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. In Colossians, it's over in chapter
2. Here in Galatians, he gets to
verse 4. Christ and Him crucified. That's
all He's determined to know. Notice what really struck me
when I began sitting down and looking at this verse is the
voluntary nature. Christ gave Himself. Not forced, gave Himself. And His purpose for doing it.
It says here in verse 4 that He might deliver us from this
present evil word. You have to think, when a Jew used the word deliver,
you know, when I got to reflecting on Independence Day, the word
free, a Jew would use the word deliver. I think they'd have
to reference back to being released from bondage in Egypt. And think
for just a second how they were delivered. They did not rise
up in rebellion. They were beaten down and worn
down people. Practically some were worked
to death. An outside army did not come
and defeat the Egyptians for them. And yes, of course, Moses
did say a few words and he did raise his staff a few times,
but for the most part, his role was that he served as a messenger
between God and the people and Pharaoh. When you look closely
at the events of Israel's deliverance, just like earlier in the covenant
with Abraham, God did it all. If you did take the opportunity
to listen to John Friday night, he mentioned that. He may have
mentioned it last Thursday. God could have used any kind
of means to do it. But he used the natural elements
of the world that he created to send plagues which finally
led to Pharaoh relenting and let Jacob's children grow. That
sounds so much like the covenant back in Genesis 17. God does
it all. Man had no part in it. The same does go here. Christ
has delivered His bride from this present evil word by giving
Himself for their sins. Now Christ does say in John 14
that I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there you may be also. So he did come to remove
his brothers and sisters from this world to spend eternity
with him, but Paul writes here of this present evil world. In the light of Paul's writings
in this epistle of stamping out Christ plus circumcision, I have
to believe that Paul believes that what he's speaking about
here is adding anything to the work of the Savior. Anything
added to what Christ has done is a perversion. It is evil.
And if that is the case, there is a lot of evil in our present.
And the verse here ends, according to the will of God and our Father. And this goes along with John
chapter 6 and verse 38. Christ says, for I came down
from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that
sent me. Now, folks, that's a picture
of love. That is true love. I mentioned
it earlier, speaking about our language. This love, and God is love, it
goes beyond my comprehension. I cannot explain it to you. How
it is the Father's will to send His Son to save a people, an
undeserving people. I sat down yesterday and I got
caught on this verse for a long time. And I'm just saying the
highlights. I'm not even delving deep into
it. I don't know that I have words to explain what it meant
to me as I studied this verse of Scripture, but I had a moment
with it. John mentioned, I believe, on
Thursday night here recently, we all need to take some time
and just alone time with the Scriptures. Verses like this
will do your world a good. Don't see how far you can read.
You don't need to read four chapters in a day to make sure you get
through with the Bible and this and that. If you see one that
speaks to you, spend some time on it. You'll find a blessing. I sat there and I looked at it,
and I looked at it, and honestly, it just humbled me that God could
do this for a sinner. But it also left me with gratitude
that Christ has died and saved the people. But to bring us back to what
we're talking about, or the theme of the day, does this verse give
us any indication whatsoever that Christ needs anything added
to what He has done? No, it is Christ who gave Himself
for our sins. We turn over to chapter 3. And
there are several of these, but I'm only going to mention a couple
this morning of what I call the ample evidence of Paul being
able to say Christ hath made us free. Chapter 3 and verse
10, Galatians. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall
live by faith. And the law is not a faith, but
the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." Now
the law of God does serve a purpose and it's not to just be tossed
out and I hope that's not the impression I'm giving you this
morning. The law helps us to keep order in this world. Thou
shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal. As far as I know, every
country's got The law is against those. Where do you think we
get them from? If murder was legal, Marie would
have had me out of here a long time ago, rightfully. I'm glad
she's not here. She might think about it. But
anyway, the law keeps man out of continual chaos. And I've already quoted here
from Galatians 3 that the law serves as a schoolmaster. And
what does a schoolmaster do? Brings us to Christ. Those of
you who have faith in Christ, you very well know of the whipping
you took from that schoolmaster. You took a whipping from the
law when the Spirit revealed to your heart what a sinner you
are. And where did it leave you? It left you with nowhere to run
but to Christ, didn't it? Nowhere to run but Christ. And
it is true that our Bibles have plenty of verses that say things
such as, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. But I have to think that when Paul begins here in verse
10, for as many as are of the works of the law, he is specifically
referencing those who are relying in some form or fashion on keeping
the law for justification. He squelches any hope in that
right here in verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law
in the sight of God. No man is justified by the law
in the sight of God. We cannot keep the law, none
of us. No matter how good we may be
compared to each other, we all fall short. Now let's move to what Christ
has done for us. Verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Christ made a curse for us. So when did this happen? Once
again we see Christ on the cross. His bride has broken the law.
She stands cursed. She, too, is a debtor to the
law, just as Christ did. Yet, Christ hangs in her stead
on the tree. He suffered that indignity for
her. He takes the wrath of God at its full force as he's punished
for her sins. Then he cries out and he dies.
Why? For the soul that sinneth shall surely die. He dies for
her. He is given all. He's left all. He left heaven to walk in her
shoes. He's been afflicted for her sins. Probably worst of all, he's been
separated from his Father. For sin cannot be in the presence
of the Father. He has been made sin. For He
hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him." Jesus, the perfect
man, without sin, made sin, made a curse. But what's the result? What's
the result? Well, the result is, all that
has been forfeited by Adam in the fall, and all that has been
forfeited by ourselves in our own practice, in our own sinning,
as it says here at the beginning of verse 13, they have been redeemed. Redeemed, in short, it's a way
to pay another's debt, but it has a little deeper meaning than
that. There's no bargaining in this.
It has to be an equivalent payment. An equivalent payment. And since
the law cries death, that's what he had to pay. In the case for
each and every one of his bride, his elect, he died. And now that it is done that,
they have been redeemed. Everything that they have lost,
both in the fall with Adam and in their own doings, it has been
replaced. I'd be remiss not to mention
the equivalent payment he made. 1 Peter 1, verses 18 and 19. What did Christ pay to redeem
His children? Forasmuch as you know that you
were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot." Is there any work of man that needs contributing
to this price that has already been paid? That's what Paul is bringing
to these people. Christ has done it all. Circumcision
need not be added. And best I can tell, Paul and
others did a pretty good job of eradicating this false doctrine. I'm no world religionist, but
I don't know of any religion that practices it not mainstream
anymore today. So why am I bringing this subject
to us today? First, it's just in some small
way to show what Christ has done for His people. And I'm sure
I'm repeating myself from the last time I was here, but if
you love Christ, you can never tire of reflecting on just what
He has done for you, to see it here in Scripture. But I also
do it second as a warning, a warning to all of us that when you add
anything, you nullify the work He did. As it said here in chapter
5, you make it of none effect. I'll put it in my words, if you
can keep one law, why can't you keep them all? And if you can
do that, why do you need Christ at all? Of course you can. Paul says it this way in Galatians
3.21, is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid,
for if there had been a law given which could have given life,
verily righteousness should have been by the law. Now, the Judaizers may very well
have been the very first so-called Christians preaching Christ plus
some type of work, some type of keeping the law or doing something
to help Christ. And just because this perversion
is no longer prevalent, it doesn't mean that there aren't plenty
of Christians. And that's what Judaizers were.
They were false Christians. There are plenty of religions
today promoting a Christ-plus theology. It does take different
forms. We're talking major religions
here. People we know sitting in churches today hearing this
kind of things. There are some that practice
infant baptism. You get the impression that they
figure, well, they got to make sure that child is baptized in
case God can't get it done later. There's many people, they spend
more time arguing about we're supposed to be worshiping, having
church on Saturday because that's what they consider the true Sabbath,
that they forget to worship the true Sabbath, Christ. You got some eating wafers. And
I believe when that practice began, it was just a symbol,
it was a token. of Christ entering into you.
But now people believe that that's really what's going on. Just
as I tried to explain earlier, we no longer need a token. We
have Christ. There's more subtle ways also.
I don't remember the last time I went to a church except for
a funeral that wasn't a Sovereign Grace Church. So I'm out of the
thing, you know, exactly what I was going there besides the
jumping up and down and carrying on. And I got a friend of mine. I shouldn't even say it. I read
up on his website the other day what his church is promoting.
And I got the impression that they want to be the next McDonald's.
All they wanted to do was franchise. I mean, they talked about it,
but that's another subject. But all kinds of things are going
on. But I just remember growing up, Sunday school attendance
was a big thing. They made a law out of attending
Sunday school. I would feel so guilty when I would miss a Sunday.
Forget about what you're supposed to be there worshiping. It was
all about just being there. Tithing, of course, and we all
need to give more, but it's not a law. Christ needs nothing added
to Him. But the real reason I came to
you this morning this way, I'm going to wind it down. I talk about myself, but I think
maybe I talk about myself, I might include a couple of you here.
We're talking about not adding anything to what Christ has done. I stand before you and I look
around and I don't know of anyone more unworthy to be standing
up here. I'm the meanest one here. I know my heart. Petty, revengeful,
ill-tempered. I get to carry it on sometimes.
I'm a plumb embarrassment to myself. And even more, I'm an embarrassment
to God. So many scriptures on, without
a better way to say it, behavior. I fail so often that here's what
Got me thinking about this and how I fail so much. So often
when I, as my mama used to say, as I show myself, so often after
I show myself, what's the first thing I do? I get on myself. Curtis, straighten up. That's
turning to the wrong one. That's turning to my works. No. Turn to Christ. He has done it
all. He has done it all. And thank
God He has. Because in myself, I can do nothing. We're just born thinking God
needs a helping hand. Nowhere at all does this Bible
give us any impression of that. We're just so hard-headed. Even
those of us who profess to love and worship Christ, like me,
fall into that do-it-for-myself mode. No, folks. Look to Christ. As we've already sung this morning,
Christ is all. All you need. Amen.