in verse 1 of chapter 5 is basically
don't let yourself be entangled again. Don't let yourself be
entangled. Don't allow anyone to entangle
you and yoke you in bondage to a system of works. salvation. It doesn't matter if it's the
law, specifically here he's talking about the law, but you can put
in baptism, you can put in going to a certain church, having to
be at that church like the Catholics do and other churches do. You
can do worship on Saturday rather than Sunday. Anything that man
requires you or I to do to be saved is a false gospel. Because
salvation is all of the Lord. It's all in Christ and Him alone.
Nowhere else. So Paul's telling us here, again,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, stand fast. Just stand. Don't move forward. Don't move
backwards. Just stand fast. Therefore, in the liberty, the
freedom, wherewith Christ hath made us free. We're so free,
beloved. And do you know we're saved by the free and sovereign
grace of God, too? We're so free. You know, sometimes
we come in here and we're burdened down by sins and all this, but
you know what? We should come here rejoicing
because, you know, all our sins are forgiven. I was listening
to a preacher this morning, he said, now, he says, you ever
come in, you're just so burdened down, but rejoice, beloved. Rejoice. Do you know, think of
this, I mentioned this, this is the good news, I was in tact,
told Karen and Travis, do you know, do you know that the blood
of Jesus Christ, if you're a believer, has canceled all your sin? And
do you know that not one of your sins can cancel the blood of
Christ? My, isn't that wonderful? Not one thing we do can cancel
the blood of Christ. If we're saved, we're saved forever
in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? That's
a reason to rejoice, isn't it? Oh my, that's reasons for us
to rejoice, beloved. Turn if you would to Colossians
chapter two before we get into Galatians chapter five. I want
to read this little section here in Colossians chapter 2. We are
absolutely free, beloved. Paul's been contrasting grace
and works, and he's now telling us by inspiration of the Holy
Spirit of God that we are absolutely free in Christ. Absolutely free. Why? How can that be that a sinner
can stand justified before God? Well, the answer's in this text,
Colossians chapter 2. Starting in verse 8, beware lest
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions
of men. So while our fathers had done
this all the time, like when I was a Catholic, I'd say, well,
my mom and dad were Catholic. They couldn't be wrong, and their
grandpa, my grandpa was Catholic, he couldn't be wrong. Tradition,
well I found out the system is so absolutely wrong, it's all
works based. There's no grace in it. My, and
we don't hate the people, we don't hate Catholics, we hate
the system. We hate the system of works that
damns people's souls. Right? That's what I despise
is the system. My, and we try, we tell people
about Christ that are in that system and say there's freedom
and liberty in Christ. There's salvation in Christ alone,
not in any work. So he tells us here. Not after
the tradition of man, not after the rudiments of the world, not
after man's philosophy and the rudiments of this world, and
not after Christ. For in him, see all those things
are not after Christ. All those things are contrary
to Christ. Look what he says here. For in
him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And here's
the answer to how can we be justified before God. How can we say all
my sins are forgiven? Here it is, right here. And ye,
okay, put your name in there, Brian. And Brian, and Wayne,
and Karen, Marsha, put your name in there, boy. And ye are complete
in Him. Paul's writing to God's people.
Isn't that wonderful? My, that's wonderful. And Barb
and Jim are complete in them. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my gosh! Which is the head of all principality
and power. In whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made with our hands, and put off the body
and the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried
with him in baptism, wherein ye are also risen with him, through
what? Through the faith and the operation of God. You must be
born again. There it is. Not by anything we've done, but
an operation of God, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? So put
your name in there. You're complaining to him, if you're a believer. Who has raised him from the dead.
My, God raised God from the dead, didn't he? God raised us from
our spiritual death. We were dead and out of, you
know, I ran into a fellow this week. I was talking to him, good
friend of mine, but this just burdened my heart so much. We
got talking about the man's will. And I said, you're telling me,
you're telling me that when man fell, everything fell but his
will. He said, yeah. And so then I talked to him like
I've talked to you guys before, but can a dead man make a decision? Can a dead man do this? You know
what he said to me? Just out of the blue. Because
I had mentioned election to him. He goes, I absolutely despise
the tulip. Total Depravity, Unconditional
Election, Limit of Atonement, Irresistible Grace, Perseverance
of the Saints. This is a man who claims to love
the Bible, claims to believe the Bible, every word in it,
but obviously he doesn't, does he? Because the tulip is just
an acrament. All the tulip is, is basically,
they've taken verses and made them into an acronym that we
can easily remember. It's scripture, beloved. It's
scripture. It's not something, and you know,
people say, well Calvin made it up. No, it was penned after
Calvin died in response to Joseph Arminius's letter about Arminianism. It's actually a response by Calvin's
students from Scripture, what they were taught from Scripture
by Calvin. And he said, I despise that.
And I haven't seen him again. He fell ill a day later. And I'm praying God will have
mercy on him. I really am. So, But when I get to talk to him
again, I'm going to talk to him again about it and say, you know,
you actually, you claim to love the Bible. You claim to believe
the Bible. And I always do it in a gentle spirit. I don't want
to be argumentative. But you just said you despise
the Bible. See, we have to be so careful,
don't we? And the only reason we know that it's truth is because
God, the Holy Spirit is showing us, right? I was in that same
state as that man. When someone told me about election,
I got so mad. I got steaming mad. I was right
there, but God had grace on me. God can have grace. Just lift
them up, right? That's all we got to do. Just
lift them up. Don't get mad when people say that stuff to you.
Just lift them up in prayer and keep giving them scriptures.
Keep giving them scriptures. Because the truth is that the
believer is complete in Christ. And my will had nothing to do
with my salvation. You know whose will had something
to do with my salvation? God's will. Amen, sister. God's
will. God's will. So let's keep that
in mind. So let's read now verses one to six of Galatians with
that in our minds that we are complete in Christ. That not
one of our sins can cancel out the blood of Christ. Now look
at the freedom that Paul's bringing forth here, beloved. Look at
this. This is absolutely wonderful. Stand fast, therefore, in the
freedom and the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. And
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul,
say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
There is no profit in works-based salvation, none, not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy
he saved us. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised
that he is indebted to do the whole law. It says, Christ has
become of no effect to you. Whosoever you are justified by
the law, you have 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. Let us consider verse 4 again.
I didn't get the finish last time, but let's read what it
says. It says, Christ has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever you are justified by
the law, you are fallen from grace." Now this important truth
has to be emphasized, that a believer cannot be saved and then lost.
It's absolutely impossible. There's absolutely no way that
God our Father will save a person and then cast them away. Remember
what I said at the first, that not one of our sins has the power
to cancel the blood of Christ? Not one. Not one. If we're saved,
we're saved. We're secure in Christ. All our
sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. And how do we know
this? Well, we know because the Lord said, all that the Father
gave me shall come to me. In him that cometh to me, I will
know where I is cast out. So there's absolutely no way
that the Lord Jesus Christ, our blessed charity, or allow one
that he purchased with his blood to be lost. That's comforting
for us. So those he saved, he saved forever.
Isn't that wonderful? That's wonderful. So I got good
news today. Wonderful news today. Turn with
me, if you would, to John chapter 10, verse 27 to 30. And here's
the words of the Messiah. Remember, whenever we see the
Lord Jesus Christ speaking, He's the Messiah. Christ is the Messiah
in the Greek. Look what he says here. Look
at this, verses 27 to 30, John chapter 10. This is the Messiah
himself saying this. My sheep hear my voice. Now there
was a time when we didn't hear the voice of God, right? And
it's not an audible voice we hear. We hear it through the
preaching of the gospel, don't we? Look at this. My sheep hear my
voice. You've given us hearing ears,
beloved. And I know them. I gnuska them. I know them intimately. And they follow me. Is there
any doubt there? Does it say, well, they might?
You know, if they make a decision, they might. It doesn't say that,
does it? It says, they shall, and they
follow me. And I give unto them, what? What
does he give unto us? Eternal life. Do you know what
the hope of righteousness is? It's not our justification because
we're already justified in Christ, right? Clothed in righteousness.
When Paul's writing this to the Galatians, the hope of righteousness
by faith is the hope of heaven. The hope of eternal life. The
hope of eternal life. And look what it says here. Who
gives eternal life? Look at this. And I give unto
them. The unwilling are made willing.
Isn't that wonderful? And I give unto them eternal
life. That's what it is. It's eternal
life. It's not temporary. It's eternal. And they shall
what? Now let this just bless your
soul. And they shall never. That's God in the flesh saying
that. That's not Peter, James, or John. That's God in the flesh and the
Holy Spirit has it recorded for us. He's saying, he's saying,
Brian, you'll never perish. Put your name in there. All born
again believers shall never perish. Woo, my, isn't that wonderful?
That's good news, isn't it? Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. No scheme of man, no scheme of
man can ever pluck us out of the Father's hands. No scheme
of man. No scheme of the devil, no scheme
of man can ever pluck us out of his hand, beloved. Hallelujah. That's good news, isn't it? That's
good news. My father which giveth them me
is greater than what? See, see, you know what's happened
nowadays? Man, like my buddy over there, I told him this too.
I said, you need to be careful that your will is not an idol.
because he's vaulted his will way up here, and he's put God
down here. God is subservient to his will,
and I said, buddy, it's the other way around. Your will is subservient
to your nature, and if you have a dead nature, you'll never serve
God. But if you're born again, now
you want to serve God, right? We all know that. Look at the
change God brought in us, right? We went from not wanting anything
to do with God to wanting to be with God's people and hearing
the gospel and rejoicing. Some of you have been here 50,
60 years listening to the gospel, right? In different churches
and places. Isn't it wonderful? Does it ever
get old? Never, eh? It never gets old.
It just keeps getting better, doesn't it? It just keeps getting
better and better and better. My, no man's able to pluck us
out of the Father's hand. My Father which gave me is greater
than all. Like, I mean everyone, right? All means all there in the Greek.
Doesn't mean mostly or some. See, religion's the only place
where all doesn't mean all, shell doesn't mean shell, and dead
doesn't mean dead, right? But in grace, it means what it
says, and we believe it by the grace of God. Look at this. My
Father what's given me is greater than all, and no man is able
to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. They're one. So it's not possible
for God to bestow his sovereign free grace upon a sinner and
then rescind it. He just won't do it. He just
won't do it. All who are born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, all the blood-washed saints of God, shall not perish. Shall not. That's what he's telling
us here. Now many make a profession, don't
they? Many make a profession in Glacier here. Those are the
ones Paul's saying they can fall from grace because they never
had grace. Isn't that amazing? They never had it. If they continued
in the religious belief, in the religions of works trying to
be justified by the law, then John Gill says they've fallen
from grace. He says this, from the grace which they profess
to have, or from the gospel of the grace of God from whence
they were removed through the influence of false teachers.
They never were believers. They looked like it. They sounded
like it. But they weren't born again.
They weren't born again. John the Apostle says they went
out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of
us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went
out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us. Now, people have used that verse
as a weapon, and it should never be weaponized. God's sheep can
wander away. We all have, haven't we? All
of us, we've wandered away. Sometimes we can be attending
church and in our hearts we've wandered far away, right? But God just lovingly draws us
back, doesn't he? You know, I'll tell you what,
when that happens, I've had it happen, when that happens, the
gospel's even sweeter than it was before. It's even sweeter. I've experienced that. It's even
sweeter. You say, well, preacher, preacher,
you tell me your heart wanders sometimes? Oh, yeah. Yeah. We're prone to wander, as that
song says. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. But you know what? Praise God.
He's got a hold on us. He won't let us go. Right? Oh, it's wonderful. Now let's
read verse 5 here. It says, For we, through the
Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. The word
for there draws our attention back, back to the previous verse,
right? Verse 4. Draws us back, making
an obvious distinction between those who profess Christ and
those who do not profess Christ. See, those who profess Christ
have fallen from grace. Those who truly are born-again
blood-washed saints, they have a hope of righteousness. That's
what it's bringing forth. For we, Paul speaking to the
saints, through the spirit, now there's who does all the work,
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. We through the spirit,
we wait for this hope of righteousness. Turn back to one chapter, chapter
four. We will see there that God sent
his spirit into our hearts, right? Whereby we now cry, I have a
father. He did that so that the righteousness of God would be
revealed in us, that we'd be born again, that we'd be given
faith to believe, because it's nothing we can muster up. Look
at this, starting in verse 1, Galatians 4. Now I say that the
heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from the servant,
though he be lord of all, but is under tutors and governors
until the time appointed of the father. Even so, when we were
children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world.
But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of
his Son into your hearts, crying, I have a father. Now see the
words, I just found this out this week. See the words there,
you're gonna love this. Those words there that says,
hath sent forth, that's one word in the Greek. You always hear
me say Christ was sent on a mission, right? And that mission was to
save his people from their sins. You know what the underlying
Greek word means, to send forth, that is on a mission. God the Holy Spirit sent on a
mission to regenerate us, to give us faith to believe. wonderful,
sent by God, sent by Christ, we know, because Christ said,
I'll send a comforter. When I saw that, my heart was rejoicing,
because see, by our nature, we wouldn't be seeking the Holy
Spirit. We wouldn't be seeking God, would we? So he sent forth,
just like David said about Mephibosheth, go and fetch him. The old time
we used to call this fetching grace. He's sent by the Father
to fetch us. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, I love
it. It's just so exciting, because
it shows you salvation's all of the Lord. It's all of Him.
It's all of Him. My, and because you have sons,
God has sent forth the spirit of a son into your hearts, crying,
I have a father. So you know what this brings forth? God saves
His people on purpose. You're saved on purpose. So am
I. Isn't that wonderful? were saved on purpose. Christ
redeemed us on purpose. The Father chose us in eternity
in Christ on purpose. The Spirit sent to us on purpose.
God's purpose. God's purpose. to redeem God's
people. Christ is sent to redeem them.
The Holy Spirit sent on the mission from God to regenerate them.
And every sheep for whom Christ died for shall be saved. Forever. Forever. And then verse 7, Wherefore
thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an
heir of God through Christ. So the Holy Spirit fills our
hearts with joy in believing that Jesus Christ is our only
hope. He gives us faith to believe. He gives us faith to believe.
Oh my. And Christ has already entered
into heaven for us. So much so that it's said that
we're seated in the heavenly places with him already. It's wonderful, I'll tell you
what. And the Holy Spirit gives us faith to believe, gives us
faith to look to Christ after we're born again. People always
say, what comes first, faith or regeneration? Regeneration
has to come first. It has to, you must be born again.
Otherwise we have no faith. And then faith's a gift from
God. It's wonderful. By the power of God, the Holy
Spirit, and the miracle of His sovereign grace, we renounce
any of our works, right? We've renounced our works, saying
we can't be saved by anything we do. It's only by Christ and
His free and sovereign grace. It's all based upon what He's
done for us. And we fled to Christ. He's the refuge of our soul now,
isn't He? He's the only hope this sinner
has standing before you. Is it so for you? Isn't it wonderful? God's done that on purpose. God
saved us on purpose. Let's read verse 5 now. Again.
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. Again, this righteousness which is spoken of here is not
justifying righteousness, because that only comes in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness, right? So I was looking at Gale
and Hawker and several different commentators on this. And they
bought forth that this, again, isn't justifying righteousness
because that's imputed to us by the Father and put on us by
the Father, applied by the Holy Spirit of God to the redeemed
of the Lord. And the justifying righteousness
of Christ is what we currently, as born-again blood-washed people,
have. We already have that. We're clothed in it. We can't
see it, but we're already clothed in it. Isn't that wonderful? So it's not something we're hoping
for. What are we hoping for? Heaven. to be fully and freely freed
from sin. Isn't that wonderful? In Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Eternal glory and joy is what's
being brought forth here. It's called in our text, hope,
because it's the object of hope, or what is hope for? Christ is
the object of our hope, and He's our eternal salvation, right?
We can't see him, but one day we will. Oh, we're going to see
him face to face, brother. And it'll be wonderful. We're
going to behold the nails prints in his hands and his feet. And
we're going to see millions of angels bowing down before him,
millions of people bowing down before him, saying, and we'll
be there. And we'll sing the same song.
Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Worthy is the lamb that was slain
to receive glory and honor and praise. My, what a day that'll
be. That's a hope, isn't it? See
the hope we have? The hope of righteousness? My,
and none but those who've been made righteous will be there. And we've only been made righteous
through Christ. in Christ alone. So we will enjoy
this hope which will then become sight only because of the finished
work of Christ. All because that he shed his
precious blood for us. We were plunged to death in Adam. Everything fell into our will,
didn't it? There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that seek it after God. There's none that
understand the things. Think of what you know now about
Christ. Did you know any of it before
you were saved? I had no clue who God was. In everything I
know now, I can take no glory in it because God showed it all
to me. Right? And we rejoice in that, don't
we? That it's all Him. That He gets all the glory, all
the honor, and all the praise, because He alone is worthy. There's
no one else worthy. I'm not worthy of no commendation
or nothing. Oh, He gets it all. He gets it
all, beloved. Give it all to Him. Through the
person, blood, and sacrifice of Christ, we have a hope. We
have an eternal hope, beloved. It's called the hope of righteousness
here. My, it's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Listen
to these words spoken by Christ himself in John 17. He says,
he says this, these words speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes
to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son,
that thy son also may glorify thee as thou has given him power
over all flesh. Right? That he should give eternal
life. That's the hope of righteousness
for us. Eternal life. And He gives it. And He gave
it to us freely. He gave it to us according to
His mercy and His grace. And He gave it to us because
He loved us with an everlasting love. That we can't understand,
but it's true. And we rest, don't we rest in
the fact that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever? That He doesn't
change? Because we're like this. I am.
I'm just like one of them roller coasters, eh? And he's just that constant peace,
joy, happiness. My, oh, my. If we keep our eyes
set upon him, we'll have peace. We'll have rest, beloved. if
we can keep our eyes on him. These works faith Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said father the hours come glorify
thy son that thy son also may glorify thee as thou has given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou has given him. There's election. wonder of wonders. God gave us
to Christ in eternity. I can't get over that and I'm
going to keep preaching it though. I'll tell you why. That's wonderful
news. as thou has given them power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou has given. And this is life eternal, that they might
know thee. Oh my, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou
has sent. Remember that? Sent. Now we've
seen today that Christ is sent by the Father, and now we've
seen the Holy Spirit sent on the mission too, isn't he? How this gives us hope for our
loved ones. and our friends, and our co-workers, and our family.
We do not know who God's people are, so just keep praying for
them. Keep lifting them up. Oh, may God have mercy and grace
upon them. And take note, this hope, look
at Galatians 5 again, for we through the Spirit, by the Spirit's
work, by the operation of God, remember we saw in Colossians
2 right at the beginning, by the operation of God, for we
through the Spirit, Wait for the hope of righteousness by
faith. This hope is not something we can muster up, beloved. Nothing
we can muster up. No, no. It comes to us from God
the Holy Spirit. We're born again. Trust in Christ
now. All by the power of God. And
one day soon, I'll tell you what. You know, people always ask me,
when's Christ coming back? I say, well, we're a day closer
now. Right? I don't know. But I know this.
I know we're a day closer. Today we're a day closer to His
coming. He might not come in our lifetime, but He might. I
don't know. I have no clue. I'm not going to say when He's
coming. I don't know. I can't tell you something I don't know,
right? It's like a man can't preach if he don't know Christ.
Oh Lord save me. I can tell you a little bit I
know about Him. And when God saves a soul, beloved,
when God saves a sinner, He saves them for eternity. Well, we say,
hallelujah, what a Savior is Jesus Christ our Lord. My, oh,
my.