Okay. Turn in your Bibles, if
you would, to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. We'll continue our study today
in Galatians chapter 5. Back in the 1800s, an old preacher
was passing by a group of young men. He's passing by these young
men. They're doing somersaults. They're
standing on their heads. They're leaping around for joy. And so he approaches one of the
young men. He says, why boys, where ever
are you at? Or in other language, what are
you doing? He says, you seem to be delighted.
And one of the younger men replied, ah, you would be delighted too
if you had been locked up in jail for three months. You would
jump for joy when you come out. And that's what they were doing.
The old preacher agreed that he would do the same, given the
same situation. Then he thought about men and
women who have been called to liberty in Christ and have tasted that the Lord
is gracious and know the sweets of freedom
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. It makes our hearts leap
for joy, doesn't it? Oh my. Born again, blood-washed
children of God. The name of the message is called
the liberty. Called the liberty, called the
freedom. Called the freedom. Freedom and liberty from the
prison house of sin is only found in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. and only comes by the shedding of his precious blood
that redeemed our eternal souls. See, beloved, we've been translated
from darkness to light. We've been taken from the prison
house of sin and unbelief. Now, we still are plagued by
unbelief and we're still plagued by sin, but we as believers are
free. We've been set free from that
prison house. We're free in Christ, beloved. Christ paid all our
debt. Everything we owe, and what a
great debt we owed. Brother Dave, all our debts are
paid in Christ. And they're all, they're done,
they're gone. Paid in full, absolutely. Blotted
out the handwritten ordinances that were against us, that were
contrary to us. He took it out of the way, nailed
it to his cross. Isn't that wonderful? Having defeated principalities
and powers, all our enemies are defeated. Forever! Amen, brother! Forever! My! So I say, sinner friend,
who's still lost in your sins, there's cleansing in the fountain
of Emmanuel's blood. There's cleansing in the blood of Jesus Christ.
So much so that the believer is set free. Isn't that wonderful,
Brother Brian? We're set free, man. My, we've been released from
the prison house of sin. Set free. Set free. What a happy condition. What
a happy condition. And this is right now. Even though
we still live in this world of woe and all this stuff, we're
set free, beloved, in Christ. We're set free. My, again, what a happy condition. Free from the wrath of God, free
from the justice of God, free from the prison house of sin.
And we have found out, haven't we, Brother Zane, that all that
a sinner needs is found in Christ. We found that out by the grace
and by the mercy of God. Now we say a new word, Dave said
it earlier, that we wouldn't have even said, hallelujah, which
means praise ye the Lord in the Hebrew. Or praise ye the Lord in the
scriptures means hallelujah in the Hebrew. Isn't that wonderful? You ever said praise you the
Lord? In Hebrew you're saying hallelujah. Oh my, isn't it wonderful? My,
oh my. And we have been pardoned. We
have been fully pardoned. I mean fully pardoned by the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's wonderful, Asist. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Let's read now Galatians chapter
5. We'll read verses 8 to 15 to
see the context of our verses today. We'll actually be just
looking at one verse, which is verse 13. So as we read this, remember last week we saw that
Paul had written strong language. He said that he would, that these
Judaizers would be cut off. In the Greek, that's amputated
from the body. My oh my. That's strong language. Remember that Greek scholar I
told you about? He said that's some of the strongest language that
Paul uses in his letters. My. And the reason he wishes
them to be amputated is so they won't cause any more trouble
within the body. That's why. And you remember who the true
words of these come from. They're the Holy Spirit's words,
aren't they? Paul's just a pen man. Do you see how serious God
takes his gospel? Do you see how serious it is
for people to mess around with the finished work of Christ?
My, my oh my. Look at verse eight. This persuasion
cometh not of him that calleth you. So he's telling them that
you being persuaded by these Judaizers, it doesn't come from
God. It's not God. It's not God that's persuading
you to leave the finished work of Christ and add man's works.
It's not God. And he says, a little love and
a little of the whole lump. I have confidence in you through
the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded, but he that
troubles you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren,
if I preach circumcision, why do I suffer persecution? He's
saying, if I preach circumcision along with the finished work
of Christ, why am I being persecuted? The whole reason he's being persecuted
is because he's preaching salvation in Christ alone plus nothing.
That's the gospel that will get you persecuted. That's the belief
that will get you persecuted. Men don't mind if you say you
gotta do this and you gotta do that. They're happy to try it.
Do you start saying that salvation is only by Christ plus nothing?
Only through his precious precious blood redeeming our eternal souls?
In your face persecution. Oh yeah. It'll happen. Look what he says here. Then
is the offense of the cross ceased. Remember? We looked at that too.
The offense of the cross is salvation in Christ alone. The fact that
Christ died for his people and no one else is offensive to the
natural man. The preaching of the total depravity
of man is offensive to man. The preaching of election, God's
choice of whom he saves is extremely offensive to religious men and
women. My oh my. And then he says here,
I would that they even, I would they were even amputated in the
Greek, which trouble you. Amputated, cut off from the body.
Now here's our verse for today. For brethren, you have been called
into liberty. Only use not liberty for occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the laws
fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. But if you bite and devour one
another, take heed that ye not be consumed of one another. Our verse for today, look at
this. For brethren, that ties, that's a tie-in to all that we've
heard before. For brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another. So the fore-brethren, you've
been called into liberty, is transitional now, in this portion
of the text, is transitional, reaching back to all that's preceded
it. and summing up the whole preceding argument for Christian
liberty, and looking ahead to what falls, which he'll be speaking
about this all the way into chapter six. Now remember, there was
no chapter breaks when this was written. It was a letter. Man,
we put chapter breaks, and then sometimes you're like, why did
they put it there? Right? So I like to read this as a letter
and just continue to read it with no breaks. It's wonderful. When you read it, don't look
at chapter 6, just keep reading the text. We have a tendency
to look at chapter 6 or chapter 5. We all do it. But read it
as a letter. Read it as a letter. It flows
much better. So it's transitional, it reaches
back to that which preceded it, and summing it all up, and then
looking ahead to that which follows. And we see in verses 13 to 15
an induction to a whole new aspect of the matter of Christian liberty,
which is the danger of abusing it. There's a danger in abusing Christian
liberty. That's why sometimes when we
preach that we're free in Christ, absolutely free, legalists will
say, well, you're an antinomian. No, I am not an antinomian. Spurgeon
was accused of being an antinomian, and so I'm in good company. So
was Paul. So we're in good company. My oh my, but I am not an antinomian. We cannot go out that door and
do whatever we want. And we're going to see that.
There's a warning here. There's a warning for us. Let's read
verses 13 to 15. For brethren, you have been called
into liberty, that's freedom in the Greek, only use not liberty
for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Now look at that. Use not that freedom for an occasion
to the flesh. Don't say, well, And I've been
guilty to say, well, I'm only a sinner. I've been guilty of
that. My goodness. Oh, I got convicted
when I put this message together about that. Let me tell you.
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now, we were talking about this,
Brother Zane, not long ago. One of the fruits of the Spirit
is love. Where there's love for the brethren
and love for one another, there's the spirit. But where there's
anger and disputing and strife and not showing love, that's
the flesh. That's the flesh. I'll tell you. If a person confesses Christ
and is angry and mean and rotten all the time, they're probably
not saved. Especially if there's a pattern
of it. Because we can all get mean and
angry and rotten sometimes, right? Yeah, more than where it met.
But when there's a pattern of that, through years, there's
something wrong, beloved. There's something wrong. He says, for the law is fulfilled
in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Christ did that for us, didn't he? But that doesn't excuse us
from loving our neighbor. Right? But if you bite and devour
one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another.
I used to live in a subdivision. It was hard for me to love my
neighbor, because this fellow next door, he blasted music so
loud that it would make the wall on the one side of my house shake. And he's a gangbanger, so we
went over there, tried to get him to calm down. He just blew
us off like it was nothing. I'll call the cops a couple times.
Started to go down a little bit. What do you do? Praise God he
moved me here. I don't have to listen to that.
We nicknamed him Max because he played his music on max volume. But I had a hard time loving
that fella. I'll be honest with you, I didn't
love him. You know what? Yeah. But see,
it shows us that we can only love our neighbors in Christ,
right? But we're still commanded to
be, and the whole thing we've seen a couple weeks ago, we are
motivated now by love, by the love of God in our hearts, right?
We're not the same people we were at one time. Amen, brother. Amen, brother Dave. We're not.
We're changed people. Changed men, changed women in
Christ, aren't we? Born again by that blessed Holy
Spirit of God, the blessed Holy Spirit of God. My oh my. And it says this in verse 15,
but if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you're
not consumed of one another. That's what will happen. Oh my. People just start leaving. They
had enough of it. Had enough of it, right? My.
Aren't you thankful for the peace that we have now? Isn't it amazing,
the peace that's here? It's absolutely incredible, isn't
it? That's the Holy Spirit working. That's Him. He's done that here.
Isn't it wonderful? It's absolutely amazing. It's
a joy to come to church now, isn't it? My oh my. Not that it wasn't a joy before,
but there was tension in the air. Now, it's joy. Oh, praise his mighty name for
the unity in Christ. Yes, that's right, brother. And
that unity comes about by love. Right? How can two walk together
except they be agreed? Can't walk with someone if you
have opposite views or even things that you think should be done. Can't walk. Now there's blessed
unity, isn't there? Oh, my. Again, these three verses
before us bring a very important transition between liberty in
Christ and the wrong use of liberty. The wrong use of liberty. Paul,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, gives us a much needed,
clear, practical instruction about walking in the Spirit.
This blessed truth is so important for we who are believers. Here
he tells us this liberty is the liberty of love. It's the liberty
of love, look at verse 13. For brethren, you have been called
into liberty, only use not that liberty for the occasion to the
flesh, but by love serve one another. There are two great evils which
our fallen human nature constantly is drawn to and needs to be avoided by we
who are believers. The sisiousness is defined as
a noun that means the lack of moral restraint, especially in
sexual behavior. It can also mean a disregard
for laws, rules, or normal or moral norms. And both legalism
and licentiousness are evil products of the flesh. They're products
of the flesh. And Paul's devoted a larger part
of this epistle to the task of exposing and denouncing legalism,
right? He's already done that, right
up to now. And denouncing self-righteousness
and the arrogance of the Judaizers, whoever attempted to bring God's
saint under the oppressive yoke of legal bondage. So they were
trying to yoke those who were free, the Judaizers are trying
to yoke them down. And Paul's again stressing, you're
free in Christ. You're free. And how that makes our soul just
leap for joy. It's wonderful. My. And both legalism and licentiousness
are evil products again of the flesh. My oh my. Now he turns to the subject of
licentiousness. And we'll contrast the fruits
of the flesh with the fruits of the spirit. We're going to
see that in a couple weeks. He's going to show us, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God, the difference between the fruit
of the spirit and the fruit of the flesh. First the flesh, then
the spirit. Now, it may seem strange that
legalism, when it's prominent, produces licentiousness. But it's not a self-contradiction.
Legalism gives birth to malice, strife, heresy, and slander. Who was ever more legalistic
than the Pharisees? They were legalistic, weren't
they? Oh my. Legalist, where the Pharisee
prayed three times a day, he fasted twice in a week, gave
tithes of all that he had, he kept the Sabbath, he ate no unclean
thing. He was a legalistic moralist. And he let people know it too.
I was telling, I was telling, Jake called me last night and
I was telling him, I saw this vanity sign the other day. Well
no, it was last year. You know what the guy had on
his sign? Preacher. What? He wants everybody in this
world to know he's a preacher. Well, I wonder what happens when
somebody cuts him off. I don't think he does in his
mind. Oh my, you guys. Dave, that's
awesome. Oh. Oh my. He just wants everybody
to know he's a preacher. And these Pharisees, they went
around in their robes. See the guys with the collar
today? They want everybody to know how religious they are.
You see one of God's preachers when he's not preaching? He's
in a t-shirt and walking around, mingling with everybody. One
of the guys across the road says, you're not like any other preacher
I know. You dress like me. And I said, that's because I
am like you. Come on. Oh my, you guys. Oh
my. But who was ever more licentious
than the? And then the Pharisee as well.
He was both legalistic and he was licentious. He slandered
the Son of God. He tried to trick the Savior
into speaking against the law of Moses against Caesar. And
also remember that it was a band of religious legalists, Pharisees,
who took a woman in adultery and bought her before Christ,
but left their body behind. A lot of commentators think that
they caught her with a Pharisee. Oh my, what did the Lord say?
After he said, he who has no sin cast the first stone. And
from the eldest to the youngest, they started disappearing. And then there was no one to
accuse him. And he said, go and sin no more. That was one of
his sheep, beloved. My, oh my. And she wouldn't sin
anymore in Christ, right? even though she still sinned
after that, but in Christ. She's one of his lost sheep,
man. Oh my, pain and fall, brother. Pain and fall. So religious legalists,
they also took up stones to slay the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
they crucified the Lord of Glory, but that was all according to
the foreknowledge of God, right? To satisfy their own lusts. So
it's not surprising, therefore, that Paul brings in this solemn
warning against the sensuousness right upon the heels of such
a strong condemnation of legalism? Beloved, we are free, but our
freedom in Christ is not a license to sin. It's not a license for
us to sin. Rather, our freedom in Christ
is the blessed liberty of love. And now to those who've been
accustomed to regard the law as the only controlling factor
that stands in the way of self-indulgence in sin and free reign in sin,
to those who have not been accustomed to the highest standard of ethics,
the teaching of Christian liberty might easily mean that there's
nothing to stand in way of an unrestrained indulgence of one's
own impulses. That's why people say to you,
if I believe like you believe, I could go and do whatever I
want. They have no understanding of grace. They have no understanding
of the grace, do they, Zane? They have no understanding. They
do not understand the constraining, restraining grace of God in Christ. My, oh my. Turn, if you would,
to Romans chapter six. Now, Paul ran into this stuff.
He ran into this stuff in his ministry. He ran into people
saying, Brother Dave, they told me, well, you just go ahead and
sin. And let's see what he says here in Romans chapter 6 about
this. He ran into all kinds of these legalists. Look at this,
Romans chapter 6, verses 1 to 2. Oh my. What shall we then say? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? There it is. Shall we continue
in sin? So folks say to us, well I can
just go and do what I want. Paul says, will we continue in
sin? God forbid. You see? No, that's
contrary to grace, isn't it? My, then look a little bit further
down, verse 12. We'll read the verse 18. Let not sin therefore
reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust
thereof. Neither yield your members as
instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God. So when that temptation comes,
let us by the grace of God plead to Christ. Plead to Christ. Please help me with this. Oh
my. But yield yourselves unto God
as those that are alive from the dead. We've been raised from
the dead, beloved, we're dead spiritually. And your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have
dominion over you. It once had dominion over us.
It once was so controlling over us. Now we can fight it by the
grace of God, by the mercy of God. Oh my. For ye are not under the law,
but under grace. Look at, isn't that wonderful words, Dave? For
you're not under the law, but under grace. Here it goes again.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not
under the law? See, there it is again. There's
that same question. I can go and do whatever I want.
That's basically what they're saying to him. He says, but then
shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace?
God forbid. He says it again. God forbid. Know ye not that
to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are,
to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto
righteousness? But God be thanked that ye were
servants of sin, but have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you, being then made free from sin. Look
at that, Brother Travis. We're free from sin. Being therefore
then made free from sin. That's a statement of fact. Yeah, it's just like so. Yeah.
Being therefore, being then made free from sin, ye became servants
of righteousness. How are we made free from sin? Only in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yeah, amen, brother. Beloved God, when Jesus Christ,
God's sacrificial lamb, when he offered himself up, he hung
on that cruel cross 2,000 years ago, he was made a curse for
us, for his people, all those he represented. Therefore, our
blessed Redeemer delivered us, he delivered us from the curse
of the law. We've been delivered from under
the law, beloved. Oh, that's wonderful news, isn't
it? Oh, and Jesus Christ perfectly honored. Sister, he perfectly
honored God's law for you and I and for all his people. Perfectly,
perfectly, absolutely perfectly. My, it's wonderful. And therefore,
we are free. And you know, the only righteousness
that God will accept is the righteousness of Christ. It has to be perfect,
right? I did my Thai to them. I said,
look hun, I did my Thai perfectly, like this. And then in my head
goes, no, they're not perfect. Isn't that funny how the Holy
Spirit just gives us little reminders? There's only one, and what came
in my mind was there's only one perfect and that's the Holy Spirit
of God. I was just thinking my tie looked good, but no. It's
just amazing though, isn't it? But that's a good reminder for
us, isn't it? It looks good, thanks Dave. It's a good reminder
for us though, isn't it? That he's the only one perfect.
Everything I do is tainted with sin. Everything. Oh my. And so because he's righteous
and his righteousness is the only righteousness that God will
accept, the scripture declares this, that Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness for his people. So you see how much error the
Judaizers are in then, adding something man does to the finished
work of Christ? They've just made it void. How much, remember the helium
balloon John Claude said about? John Claude said grace is like
a helium balloon, balloon full of helium. Just take a little
pin, it doesn't deflate the balloon right away, but what happens
over time? That's what happens if you put
a pinprick of works into grace. Just a pinprick. Oh my. So rejoice, beloved God. God
himself has brought it out, the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us. God himself did that. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the God man, he brought it out, the handwriting of ordinances
that were against us. It's washed clean in his blood, beloved.
Isn't it wonderful? Oh, and he took out those handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, that were contrary to us.
Oh, guilty, guilty, guilty, Wayne. And nailed it to his cross. What
a Savior, beloved. What a Redeemer is Jesus Christ,
our Lord. My, took it out of the way. Took
it out of the way, kneeling at the cross. So now we're free.
Free. Free from the condemnation of
sin. Free from the power of sin. Oh, my. And the Holy Spirit not only
reveals to us that we're not under the law of Moses, But he
set us free from temple worship, free from animal sacrifices,
free from observance of holy days, free from circumcision,
free from external rituals, free from the power of darkness, free
from the power of Satan, and free from the power of sin. Delivered. Absolutely fully delivered, beloved. Hallelujah. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my,
I tell ya. So rejoice, remember this, if
the Son shall make you free. You're free indeed, amen brother.
You're free indeed. See how this ties in? What blessed
liberty we have in Christ. Now Christian liberty is not
to be abused. It's not to be an excuse to fulfill the lust
of the flesh. And if we forget rules of moderation
or if we make liberty a stumbling block to weaker Christians, that's
the other thing too. There's things that I can do
in Christ that I'm free to do. But if I'm with a brother or
sister, right, that'll make them stumble. Never do it. Never do
it in front of them. Never. Never. You have the freedom to
do that in your own home? Or if you're not with them somewhere,
but never do it in front of, make a brother or sister stumble.
Never. Never. And that's what, yeah,
amen. Stumble is struggling and falling
over the fact. Paul used eating meat to an idol
as an example. He said, okay, here, Paul said,
I can eat this meat that's offered to the idol. I can mow down that
stake like it's nothing. But if I have a brother that
came out worshiping that idol, and he's with me, right? He may be going, oh my gosh,
how's he doing? That'll make him stumble. That'll
give him trouble. That'll give him unrest. There's
no peace in that for him. So Paul says, I won't eat that
in front of him. I'm not going to do that in front of him. Because
I don't want to make him stumble. I don't want him to get anxious.
I don't want him to think, how can my brother Paul eat this
stuff? He's supposed to be a born-again Christian. Now Paul's got the
liberty to do that, doesn't he? But he says, I won't do that
because I don't want to hurt my younger brother or my weaker
brother. See, it's so important for us
to do that. So important for us to do that. Oh my. So we've been called unto liberty,
but we're not to use that liberty in an abusive way. In an abusive
way. It's an occasion to the flesh.
And those who believe that grace gives them license to sin, they
don't have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them. I'll tell you
that right now. They don't. They think, I can go do whatever
I want. God will forgive me. That is not the Spirit of Christ.
I'm telling you flat out. That's not the Spirit of Christ. In all of God's born-again blood-washed
saints are aware of the weakness of our flesh. We're not like
those who've deceived themselves into believing that they have
ceased from sin. No, we understand that we sin
every day. Oh, we're so weak. We're so weak. And we don't like
that they've deceived themselves into believing That they've ceased
from sin, because they haven't. I've got a friend, I talk to
him, he talks like everybody else is a sinner but him. My oh my. We're all sinners. And God's
given us His Holy Spirit, and Christ who dwells in us causes
us to hate sin and to love righteousness. Let's read verse 13 again. And
I'll read it with the Greek, which means freedom for liberty.
For brethren, you have been called into freedom. Only use not freedom
for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
And again, the Holy Spirit, by the pen of Paul, showing us the
excellence of the gospel throughout this epistle, and has denounced
all possibility that sinners can be justified by human works.
Turn, if you would, to Galatians chapter three. I'm gonna go a
little longer here. He has shown us in Galatians 3 that a man
cannot be justified by any works which he does. My oh my, and keep note of verse
3 here. It says, O foolish Galatians,
starting in verse 1, who hath bewitched you? Who put you under
a spell that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus
Christ has been evidently set forth crucified among you? Paul
set forth before them the salvations only in Christ. This only will
I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the
works of the law, or by the hearing of the faith? Are ye so foolish? Look at this. Having begun in
the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? See, he just hits
it head on, doesn't he? Head on. Have ye suffered so
many things in vain, if it yet be in vain? He therefore that
ministereth to you in the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you,
doeth he by the works of the law, or by the hearing of the
faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to
him for righteousness. Know ye, therefore, that they which are
of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. In the Scriptures,
foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached
before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, And thee shall all nations
be blessed. So then they which be of the faith are blessed with
faithful Abraham. Note in verse 3 there, Are ye
so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect
by the flesh? Oh my, what a question, eh? That solves everything right
there, doesn't it? Can a man take fire into his
prison without being burned? Proverbs says nope. Can a man
walk on coals and his feet won't be burned? No. Can a man play around with
adding to the finished work of Christ and be saved? Nope. It's all by the free grace of
God. I didn't get to the end. Next week, we'll look at that
last part about love. I knew when I was putting that
together, it was too long, Wayne. So, man, oh, man. Oh, my. Oh, man. Brother Kevin, can you
close us in prayer, brother?