Brethren if you will please open
to Galatians chapter 5 Probably heard recently in this past week.
We live in uncertain times You heard that a lot That is wrong
We may not be certain about what our times have for us, but our
Lord is certain We have we have not only a sovereign God. We
have a holy God. That's where our hope comes from
but in this time in our country There's beginning to this country
in the world putting restraints on people. We're seeing some
changes to the rules of gathering, seeing some changes in the rules
of travel, seeing changes, maybe more changes in the near future.
We don't know what may hold. We're uncertain. But many people
support these ideas and guidance. Some of them don't. Many people
feel like they are being held captive. They're being overly
managed. Feel like they're in bondage.
Something we can relate to, can't we? That's what Paul's been speaking
of this whole book of Galatians. Talking about that bondage of
the law. That's just something we read about. That's something
in that Bible book. We start experiencing things.
Well, there's rules now and we're bound to those rules. There's
consequences if you don't keep it. We understand that. The Lord
sends these things sometimes to teach us very basic lessons,
don't He? But people feel like they have
no liberty. For the child of God, our liberty is not found
in this world. Our freedom's not of this time
that we live in. Our liberation is eternal. Our
liberty is eternal. Our liberty is in Christ. He's
eternal. Galatians 5 verse 1 says, Stand
fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free, and be not entangled again in 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. 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. We've seen several times throughout
this book of Galatians and throughout Romans and we'll continue to
see this. It's that old, old story that we need to hear often,
isn't it? That turning to the law will not profit someone. Going to works will not profit. Turning to anything other than
Christ is damnation. He's our only hope. Our freedom,
our liberty, it's not found in Law of Moses. It's not found
in the Levitical law. It's found only in the Savior,
the Son of God, Jesus Christ. That's it. Paul says there, stand
fast. Therefore, in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free and not be entangled again in the
yoke of bondage. I would like us to be reminded
of the liberty we have in Christ always. What our liberation,
source of our liberation. I want us to stand fast in Him. Stand fast on that rock. Have
our feet firmly planted. Stand fast on the promises of
God. But to understand liberty, to understand the liberty that
we have in Christ, we have to understand what we're liberated
from. Through Christ's effectual work of redemption, His effectual
work of justification, His effectual work of sanctification, We're
liberated from sin. We're liberated from the ceremonial
law. And I'll raise some eyebrows
on this. We're liberated from the moral
law. The Lord has given us these things
for us to stand fast on. And there'll be a lot of contention
because to understand what you're liberated from means you have
to admit you're in need of liberation. A lot of people say, well, Christ
died for sinners and He cleansed us of our sins. Of both of my
sins. They don't have many, do they? He cleansed me from me. Sin's
a noun. But first I want us to look at
He's liberated us from sin. For all those that Christ died
for, for His sheep, you are freed from sin. David wrote this, for as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy towards
them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far have He removed our transgressions from us."
That's a beautiful saying. You go north, as soon as you
get to the North Pole, you keep walking straight, you're going
to head south. But if you go east, you keep walking east,
you ain't never going to start going west. It's apart. Peter put it this way, who his
own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we
being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes
ye are healed." We're dead to sins. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
10. The Lord's freed us from sin
separated us as far as the east is from the west That's how far
we are from our transgressions. If we're dead to sin, can we
do something for it? Can we add something to that?
Look at Hebrews 10, verse 16. This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my
laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them,
and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Verse
18, now where the remission of sins, now where remission of
these is, that's remission of sins, there is no more offering
for sin. If it's gone, there's no more
offering for it. We can't add anything to the
remission of sins. What's completed, we cannot continue
to do. Let's think about that. We can
think back to us older folks. Think back to high school. younger
and you relive some things. I keep reliving a couple basketball
games, shots I missed, and I can think how it turned out different,
and I can keep working towards it. I can go practice free throws.
I can't change the outcome of that game, can I? I can't do
it. It's completed. That game's finished. If the
remission for sins is finished, we can't add anything to it,
and we can't change it. Isn't that a blessing? We can't
do it, and we can't undo it. Romans 8, chapter 1. Let's turn
over there. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, verse 1. I'm
sorry, I said that backwards. Romans 8, verse 1. There is therefore now, right
now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law
of the spirit of life and Jesus Christ have made me free from
the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do
that it was weak through this flesh, that I am God sending
his own son and likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
Freed from sin is much more than getting back to moral innocency.
Being freed from sin was the reset button. It didn't set you
back to zero and now you have to keep it. Being freed from
sin, we're freed from us and we're made righteous. We're given
cross righteousness. It's a two-fold blessing, isn't
it? Since we're dead to sin, we're separated from our sin,
we have a new nature put in us and it's without sin. It's unable
to sin. We turn over to Romans chapter
7. Robert Hawker wrote this about a believer. He said, Jesus hath
freed him from all the condemnation of sin, but not from the sorrows
of it. Romans chapter 7. We speak often
of this war within us. The regenerated, the saved, the
redeemed child of God has two natures in them. It's at war. An old man and a new man, they
fight. They go back and forth. We might be freed from that sin,
but we still see the sorrows of it, don't we? Romans 7 and
verse 18. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not. But the evil, which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that I would not,
it is no more I that do it, but sin dwelleth in me. I find then
a law. It's not a theory. Paul finds
a law, doesn't he? This is a rule. I find then a
law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For
I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another
law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am!" There's that sorrowful over your sin,
aren't you? Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." Some people war with unbelief.
Others don't. Some folks will say, that's not
me. I don't have that war going on inside of me. Maybe you don't
have two natures. Some people argue that the Lord
doesn't give us a new nature. He polishes up the old one. You don't believe in two natures
until you have two of them. The Apostle felt those things. Boy,
that's a comfort to me. I'm worth standing here today. After learning of God's grace
in Christ, do we just get so good on this earth that we don't
sin anymore? Do we put those things away and sin something
we used to do a long time ago when we were babes in Christ,
but now we're big boys and girls? We've grown up. Those things
have fell off of me, haven't they? Turn to 1 John. 1 John chapter 1. I thought I'd never hear that as
often as I have, but I've had people look me in the eye and
say, I used to sin, but I don't in this flesh anymore. Look here
what John says. 1 John chapter 1 verse 8. If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us. If we confess our sin, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. And he says it again, verse 10.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word
is not in us. We say, well, I'll stop sinning.
You're making God a liar. He said all flesh is grass. All
has come short of the glory of God. We've been freed from the
penalty and the power of sin, but we still have the temptation
of sin, don't we? We still live in this body of flesh and sin
is still with us. Sin used to be king in the believer's
life, and then Christ comes in, that new spirit comes in, quickens
us, gives us a new life, and sin goes from the king to the
pauper. It gets demoted. Henry said this, Christ sits
on the throne of a believer's heart, but sin sits on the back
porch. It's there, but it does not reign.
My sins are ever before me, but it doesn't reign. We've been
saved from the power of sin. It means it doesn't reign over
us. We've been saved from the penalty of sin. There's no condemnation
between us and God. And we've been saved from the
practice of sin. Not that we don't perform, Sin,
we don't commit sin, but the practice I always thought of
the lawyers and doctors. They have practices, don't they?
I don't want to go to a doctor that's practicing. I want one
that's good at it. But that's the word means that that's that's
what they've devoted themselves to. They've devoted their life
to that. That's the man I want working
on me. We don't practice sin. We're not devoted to sin. We
don't commit our lives to serving sin, do we? We hate sin. And
when we find it in us, We despise it. We don't try to justify it.
We just want rid of it, don't we? Someday it'll be gone. John also wrote, whosoever is
born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him
and he cannot sin because he is born of God. The new man put
in us cannot sin in the eyes of God. It's holy. We don't understand
those things. We put words to them, we put
definitions to those words. We can't grasp it. I can't. That's
not a fact to fight and argue against. That's something to
rejoice in. I don't want to dispute those
words. They'll come a day, I'll have no sin. I'll be like Christ. I'll get seen, get to be with
him. Worship him the way he deserves to be worshiped. Alright, let's
turn over to Acts 15. So we saw that we're liberated
from sin, but we're liberated from the ceremonial law. Acts 15.1. This is a declaration, this is
the whole... I forgot to remind you when we
started. The whole book of Galatians is
written that people came in to these believers and said, we
believe just what you believe. I'm a five-point Calvinist or
whatever. The Lord saved a people and Christ
came here and he accomplished everything for them. He died
on the cross. He was risen again. He's going to keep his people
forever. But you've got to be circumcised. And we can insert
anything in that. work, then we can insert anything
in that work now. Nothing's changed. Look here
at Acts 15.1. And certain men, which came down
from Judea, taught the brethren, they came down from headquarters
and said, except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you
cannot be saved. You can believe all these things.
You can believe Christ died for a people and he took all of their
sin away. Liberators from sin, but there's
a ceremony you have to keep. You have to do something. What's
that nowadays? Well, you have to join the church.
You have to be baptized. You have to take the Lord's table.
You have to keep the Sabbath. So, our Sabbath's not a day,
it's a person. Our rest isn't a time from sunrise
to sunset. Our rest is eternal in Christ. Circumcision is of the heart,
not of the flesh. It's a heart work. Physical circumcision
is a token. It was a symbol. That's what
it says there in Genesis 17. It's given as a token. But it's
a symbol of what happened on the inside. Just an outward show
to remind us. We're free from those washings.
We're free from the feasts, the days, the sacrifices, the offerings. Everybody likes to talk about
tithing. You know, you're supposed to tithe everything. If you have
a mustard plant or a pepper plant, whatever comes off of that thing,
you have to give 10% of that seed. You always put sand with
lettuce seeds to scatter them, because lettuce seeds are so
tiny and they stick together. You've got to mix a little sand
in it so you can broadcast them. If I had a lettuce plant that
went to seed, I owe 10% of that seed. We'll see that later as
to do we understand what these laws are. with what's required
of people. The Lord's accomplished
all that. These folks come in, they say,
people say. You have to do something to enter
into glory. But out of the Lord's complete wisdom, he gave us the
thief on the cross, didn't he? Could that man wash his hands?
They're nailed to a tree. He couldn't walk up an aisle.
His feet were nailed to it. He couldn't take the Lord's Supper.
He couldn't enter that baptismal pool. He couldn't make any burnt
offerings. He was nailed to a tree. What
could he do? Look to Christ. He could turn his head. He could
believe on the Son of God. That's what was required of us.
We've been freed from all those other things. Believe on the
Lord. You don't have to keep those laws. What else? Let's look over Galatians chapter
3. We've been liberated from the
moral law. I didn't say we've been liberated
from morals. We've been liberated from the moral law. We're free
from the Ten Commandments as a covenant of works. We don't
have to perform that to be accepted to the Lord. We're freed from
it as a curse. Because I can't perform it, I'm
required to. That's a curse to me. and were
freed from it as a means of sanctification. Galatians 3 says, O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ has evidently been set forth,
crucified among you? Christ has been preached to you.
We brought the gospel to you. This only what I've learned of
you, You tell me this, received ye the Spirit by works of the
law or by the hearing of faith? How'd you, how'd the Lord save
you? Did you do something or did somebody
tell you about it? Here in verse three, are ye so
foolish having begun in the Spirit, having been justified in the
Spirit? Are ye now made perfect? Are
ye holy? Are you sanctified by the flesh? If the Lord saved you, are you
going to sanctify yourselves? He had to do the saving. He'll
have to do the sanctifying, won't he? But believers hate sin, especially
in themselves. We love the holy, perfect law
of God. If the Lord's freed me from that
moral law, from having to be bound to it as a curse or bound
to it as a covenant, I don't despise it. David said, and I
delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. God's law
is majestic. It's perfect. I don't want to
break his law. I want to honor his law. That's
the law that Christ fulfilled perfectly. If I'm able to be
made like Christ and be with him, I will someday live completely
within the bounds of that perfect law. And I won't have to try. That'll be my nature. And thought,
word, and deed, because my heart will be perfect, just as He's
perfect. If we want to be with Christ,
we have to be made like Him. We have to be made holy. We don't
look for a reason to sin, and we do not look for a reason to
justify the sins that we find in ourselves. But being freed
from the moral law, free from looking to that law for justification,
from looking to it for acceptance, That law doesn't accept me. I'm
accepted in the beloved. And from looking at the law for
sanctification, make myself holy. But we desire to be holy. We
desire to keep God's law. We can't stand unrighteousness.
That new man in me can't. It's like Christ. The Lord wrote
this. Speaking of Christ, thou lovest
righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Is the law something we need
to be freed from? Is it something we want to be freed
from? Apostle, I ask those there in
Galatia, do you hear what it says? Do we truly know what we
are freed from? Let's turn over to Exodus 20.
When we speak of the law in the scriptures, or you hear somebody
preaching, there's a couple different things that can mean. One, the
law can mean the whole Bible, the written word of God. It can
mean the Mosaic Law, the Ten Commandments. It can mean the
Levitical Law or the Precepts. We're looking today at the Ten
Commandments or Exodus 20 in verse 3. As Paul asked them, do you hear
what this law says? If someone says you're a freak,
you say, I want to keep it. Do you really? Do you know what
you're asking? Exodus 20 verse 3, thou shalt have no other gods
before me. What are the gods we put before
the God? What does that mean? Activities, possessions, our
family. Is that more important in a moment? A twinkling of the eyes, is that
more important than God is? Ourselves? I like a lot of people, I like
me best. Anything that has our hearts
attention, other than Christ only, look into him and the glory
that's deserved to God Almighty. It robs him of his majesty. We
put something before him. Look here in verse 4. Thou shalt
not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything
that is in heaven above, or that is on earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth. Do you have any pictures of fish
on your wall? Me and Jared caught a big ol'
salmon up in Alaska. I got a picture of that in my
house. I violated the law of God if I put myself under it.
If that's what I want to serve, I can't do that. We think it's
enough. Well, I took all the crosses down and pictures of
Jesus out of my house, I'm good. Do you have pictures of your
family on the wall? That's what's required. Verse 7 says, Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Do we use
the Lord's name in any other way that does something other
than giving Him all the glory? and all the praise that's deserved
to Him. We don't have to be profane. We don't have to cuss to use
the Lord's name in vain. If we even use His name correctly,
but without a heart that knows Him perfectly, loves Him perfectly,
we're in violation of His law. Those old scribes, they would
come to Elohim and go to transcribe the Bible. They'd go outside.
They'd wash their hands. They would come back in, they'd
write the word, and they'd go back out and wash their hands
again. We honor the name of God above that. Verse 8, remember
the Sabbath to keep it holy. Keeping a physical day of the
Sabbath is still expected in a lot of circles. And they always
keep Sunday. If you want to keep it, keep
Saturday. That's the seventh day. Keep the right bay if you're
going to try to keep it, but if you try to keep it, you have
to keep the rest of the law. Verse 12, honor thy father and
thy mother. That means never think a thought
that is not full of respect, full of honor, full of fear,
and full of love towards your parents. How do we get around that? That's
when they come out with the age of accountability. Like, well
I didn't do that until I was maybe 14, 15 years old. Well,
let's bump the age up to there until it starts counting. The
Lord doesn't give an age there, does he? Honor your parents.
Love them. Men knew they couldn't keep that.
That's why they changed it. Verse 13, Thou shalt not kill.
It's not enough not to just kill someone, but to not even have
an ill thought towards someone. Our Master said that in Matthew
Five, whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgment. And he also said, whoever shall
say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. If you just think
that your brother's acting foolishly, like that was dumb. He murdered him. Verse 14, thou
shalt not commit adultery. First off, the allowance for
divorce was fornication. People said, well, you're not
allowed to divorce except for fornication. But fornication
wasn't cheating. Fornication was in that time,
if a man married a woman and he found out she was unpure after
they got married, he was allowed to annul the marriage. That was
the only thing I was talking about. Secondly, it's not just the physical
act of adultery, but it's the lust of the eyes. For men and
women, if you're going to justify yourselves before God, or you're
going to sanctify yourselves before God, I'm going to become
more holy. You can't ever before, now, or in the future, look with
anything but the lust of the eyes. If you're going to sanctify
yourself, that applies the same as justification. Some will say, well that's just
natural, you can't help it. Exactly. You hit the nail on
the head. I can't keep from that, it's
just in me. You're right. Verse 15, Thou shalt not steal.
You know, you can, this has brought up to me a lot growing up. Henry
always said it and John Chapman wrote a beautiful pamphlet. It's like a long article on working
as a believer in the workplace. I'd love to get a copy of that,
but if any of y'all have it, give it to me. But you can steal
Break the law of God by taking too long of a lunch break. You
rob the company of time, don't you? Well, I had a five minute
break, but I'll just, I'll go use the restroom after my break
and then I'll go back to work. You violated the law of God.
We don't think much of those things. He does. Verse 16, Thou shalt not bear
false witness against thy neighbor. What is a false witness? Oh,
that's lying. You can't lie. Well, yes, that's
true. You can't lie. But we've looked
before. What's a witness do in court? You tell what you saw.
You just go tell it. You can't bear a false witness. You can't think you're telling
the truth and accidentally tell a lie. If I said, you know, it
was 100 degrees outside the other day. My thermometer was broke
and it was only 95. I bared a false witness. Some people say that's foolish.
We're just thinking foolishness. Proverbs 24 says the thought
of foolishness is sin. It says there in verse 17, Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his
ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. The only
way to not covet is to be absolutely content with anything that we
have. So I didn't covet my neighbor's
car. I don't want his car. I just
want one like his. We have to be completely content with everything
and every situation we have. If I got a really bad headache,
I ought to say amen. My back hurts. The Lord's just
praising. If we preach the law, this is
what's required of us. If I come in like those in Acts
15, those people in Galatia, those brethren that's coming
to those brethren in Rome, you have to be circumcised. Well,
you can believe God, but you have to be baptized if you're
going to be saved. I have to keep the whole law. Not the way I think I need to
keep it. I have to keep it the way the Lord says it's to be
kept. If we look at the law, if God
allows us to see that in us we have no ability whatsoever, what
are we going to do? Run as fast as you can directly
to Calvary. Cling to that cross of Christ.
That's the only hope we have. I look at that law, when I was
studying this this week, I said, I can't be under that. I can't
do that. I don't want to be in there.
I want to be freed from that. If somebody put me under it,
I don't want to hear it. Kevin, you have to do some stuff. I
want to be freed from it. Now we've seen what's required
of us. I ask myself, I ask you what
Paul asked the Galatians. Tell me you desire that be under
the law. Do you want to be under this law? Do you not hear what
the law says? Christ freed us from the power
of sin and the penalty of sin. And He's freed us from the ceremonial
law, and He's freed us from the moral law. So what do we have now? We have
freedom. We have freedom for the gospel
ordinances. We can freely enter that pool
of baptism. Without bondage, without thought,
without worry, Christ took care of it. I'm going to tell everybody,
I was buried with Him and I rose with Him. I'm all submerged in
Him, as we looked the other night, committal. I'm buried with Him,
immersed in Him. We're free to access that throne
of grace. Come boldly, therefore, to the throne of grace. You can
go to my Father and ask Him of anything. We're free from death. Death has no power over us. We're
free from judgment. This is what Paul said when he
said, Stand fast in the liberty that Christ has given us. Don't
return to bondage. Remember what he's freed us from.
Get a good hard grasp of it. Get a good picture of it. That's
what the Lord took from us. Do we see now how Paul called
those Galatians foolish? Do you want to return to Sinai
or do you want to go to Calvary? I get foolish. It's in my nature,
and I try to keep those things and put restrictions on myself. Run to Calvary. But when we see
this freedom, do we want to find a reason to sin? Well, you've
been freed from all these things, so now you're going to go rob
banks. Why would I want to? Of course not. We have a desire to serve the
Savior, don't we? We want to honor Him. He honored
that law. I want to honor that law. Fear of men putting us into bondage. I don't want to be under that
bondage. I don't want you to be under that bondage. How can
they? They can't put us under bondage
because we're free. The Lord saved us from it. We're about
to sing this song, but I put it here, I want to read it. When
peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea
billows roll, Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say it
is well with my soul. I've been liberated, it's well.
Whatever my lot is, though Satan should buff it, though trials
should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ
hath regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for
my soul. The Lord saw how helpless I was.
He shed his blood for me. All is well. O sin! My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought, my sin not in part but the whole, it was nailed to the
cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord,
O my soul. And if we truly see what Christ
has accomplished for us, we want to be with Him, don't we? O Lord, haste the day. When
the faith shall be sought, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll.
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend. Even so,
it is well with my soul." We're free from all those things that
we worry about. We're free from uncertainty. We have a sovereign God sitting
on the throne right now. We don't need to worry about
any of that. Kevin, you haven't kept the law. That's okay. I
want to. The Lord's freed me from it. They said, you got a week to
live. That's okay. I'm free from death. I'm free
from judgment. I'll get to see Him face to face. That's where
I want to be. I don't want to be looking at
that law. I want to be looking at the one that saved me from the law. I hope the same
for you. Let's pray together. Father, we're in such need. how thankful we
are that You've sent a Savior for us. Let us look to Him, Lord. Don't let us look to ourselves
and worry if we've accomplished enough to satisfy You, if we
find some ways of making ourselves holy before You. Let us look
to our justification, Christ. Let us look to our sanctification,
Your Son. He is the resurrection, Lord.
Let us be thankful for Him. Keep our hearts tuned to Him
always. In these troubled times, thank You for sending them, Lord.
Thank You for the trials. We know that Your sovereign hand
does all things well. Be with our brethren everywhere,
Lord, as they suffer and the things that You've sent them.
Give them, turn their hearts I want to see the sweetness,
the freedom that we have, the liberty. Let us stand fast on
that rock of Christ. Keep us concreted to Him. It's
in His name that we pray. Amen.