Today's message is called Fallen
from Grace. Turn if you would to Galatians
chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. As I mentioned
last week, we've learned in this study of the book of Galatians
that our Lord Jesus Christ has given us free use of the gospel
ordinances. Free access to the throne of
his grace, right, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. We now
have access to the Father's throne. And freedom from fear of death. And freedom from judgment by
God in Christ. All by the perfect sin atoning
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. All by his perfect work. And we who are the born-again
blood-washed saints of God, don't ever let anyone entangle you
again in the yoke of bondage. Don't ever allow anyone to entangle
you with something that they supposedly say you must do to be saved or to stay saved even. Folks sometimes say, they use
that verse, he that endures to the end shall be saved. And they
say, see, you've got to endure to the end. Well, I'll tell you
what, I can't endure to the end, can you? Not in my flesh. No, but the scripture says, he
keeps us. He keeps us from falling. Now,
in light of this, it says, fallen from grace. We're going to learn
that Paul's not talking to people who are truly saved. He's talking to people who've
made a profession and are now following these Judaizers. Because
we all know, being taught by the Holy Spirit of God, that
once God has us, once God saved us, we can never be lost. And that's great comfort for
us because we know what we are. We know that if it was up to
us, we'd fall from grace thousands of times a day, wouldn't we?
But it's impossible for the believer to fall from grace, the true
believer. Now the professor who's never
been born again, never really known Christ, made a mere profession,
seems on the outside, you look and say, well, I'll tell you
that person's a Christian. But only God knows the heart,
right? And that's why I encourage you to do this. Make your calling
and election sure. How do we do that? This is how
I do it. Who am I trusting right now?
Don't care about what I might have said in the past. Who am
I trusting right this second? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's my
all in all. Is he yours? He's my everything. He's my everything. He's all
my salvation. Is he yours? Then praise be to
God. That's how you make your election
and call and share. Am I trusting in anything of
myself or is it all in Christ? Well, it's all in Christ for
the believer, right? It's all Him. It's all Him. He has finished
the work perfectly. And now we just rest and trust
in Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ and the work that He finished
for us. That's wonderful. And don't ever, again, don't
ever allow anyone to entangle you again with a system of works
or deeds to obtain God's favor. Because the scripture declares
of God's people in Colossians that we're complete in Him. And
this is so clearly even bought forth in Galatians 5.1. Look
at this. Stand fast, again. Stand fast,
therefore, in your liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free, and
be not again entangled. That means to be in bondage.
And that's what religion does. It yokes us up in bondage. You've
got to do this. You've got to do that to please
God. Do you know, God is not pleased with anything I do. But Wayne Boyd in Christ, God's
pleased with everything I do. Because it's not dependent upon
me. It's dependent upon Christ. He sees Christ. Does he see our
sin anymore? And our iniquity? Even though
we are sinners to the core, aren't we? You ever notice something
though? You don't desire sin like you
used to? Why is that? This flesh battles us every single
day, doesn't it? But we don't desire to let the
flesh overcome the spirit. And only by God's almighty power
In his power alone, do we overcome the flesh. Now we can resist
the devil. Now we can resist the flesh.
It's hard, isn't it? Someone say, well how do you
do that? I just try to focus on Christ and keep him at the
forefront. You wake up in the morning, thank
you Lord for another day. Praise your mighty name. Thank
you for keeping me. I'm going to look to you today.
You're all my salvation. And then we get going through
the day, and we forget the things we said. But then the Lord will
lay somebody on our heart, and we just start praying to him.
You ever notice that? Prayer is wonderful, because
we can do it any time we want. We're not constrained by time.
We can do it whenever we want. whenever we desire. It's wonderful. And remember this, too. You get
to pray. It's a privilege. You say, well,
I have to pray. I get to pray. Isn't that wonderful? It changes the whole perspective
of it, doesn't it? I get to read my Bible. I get to fellowship
with believers. It's wonderful. It changes your
whole perspective on what we have in Christ. Oh, it's wonderful.
Listen to verse one in the Greek literal Bible. It says, in freedom
Christ has set us free. This is the Greek literal Bible.
Stand firm, therefore, and do not be entangled again in the
yoke of slavery. So what Paul's telling us there
is if you want to be under the law, it's a yoke of slavery.
Don't be entangled. Stand fast in the freedom. We're
free, beloved. I know for me, I don't always
understand how free we are, but we are incredibly free in Christ.
Incredibly free. My. Let's read this section again,
verses 1 to 6 in Galatians chapter 5. It says, Stand fast, therefore,
in the liberty, the freedom, 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, so now the
Judaizers said you had to be circumcised to be saved. And
again, what about the women? Right? Because only a man can
be circumcised. They don't think, oh my. Christ
shall profit you nothing. Nothing. For I testify again
to every man that is circumcised that he is indebted to do the
whole law. You want to say you have to be circumcised to be
saved? You've got to live the whole law. You got to obey the
whole law. Well, that's impossible. But
see, these Judaizers didn't believe that. They were so full of self-righteousness,
they thought they fulfilled the law. Remember Paul? Remember
what Paul said? He said, before the Lord saved
me, I thought I was blameless before the law. That's how these
Judaizers think. They think they're blameless
before the law. And yet, they're just dead dog sinners like us.
Oh, my. Their eyes are blinded. They're
in the darkness. We were there, but praise God,
the Lord took us out of the darkness and brought us into the light
of Christ. It says, Christ has become of no effect unto you.
He's absolutely no effect. His work has no effect upon you,
upon those who believe they can be saved by their own works,
mixed with his. It's so clear, isn't it? No effect. Whosoever you are justified by
the law, you have fallen from grace. You see, we can deduce from this
what's being said here is that they actually believed that they
were justified by the law. That's what he's saying. Did
you notice that? They didn't believe Christ fulfilled
the law in their room and place. They believed that Christ died
for sinners. Then they said, you've got to
do this to be saved. Oh my. So they truly didn't believe
that Christ died for sinners. Do you see? Because they were
saying this is man's way. This is the way to God. Something
you have to do. And you know what? There's absolutely
nothing new under the sun. It's still going on today. Man
still saying, you got to do this to be saved. You got to do that.
All kinds of things. Things we, I imagine if you started,
I'm not going to waste my time on it, but if you started researching
some of that stuff, it'd just be endless. Different religions
and what they believe you have to do to be saved. Oh my. The worst ones are the ones that
mix Christ with it. He's spitting in God's eye. Oh
my. It says here, for we through
the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. So
right here we see they're not born again. But we, through the
Spirit, we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Now we wait. We wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. Who's our hope in? Our hope is
in the one who is our righteousness, right? You see how it ties in
there? The hope of righteousness by faith, that's Christ. That's
Christ. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availed anything, no uncircumcision. Doesn't matter if you're circumcised
or uncircumcised, that's what Paul's saying. That's something that man does. But faith which worketh by love,
God-given faith that works by love, love for the Father, love
for the Son, love for the Gospel, love for God's people, all things
that were foreign to us when we were dead in trespasses and
sins. My. You know, when Adam fell, Love
for God was replaced by love for self. Love for God was replaced by
love for self. It's incredible. And God will deal with all men
by our works, which will lead to the damnation of one's soul,
all together by Christ's works. There's only two ways he's going
to deal with men, men in their own works or men by Christ's
works. If God deals with man in his
own works, it leads to the damnation of their soul if they die without
Christ. If God deals with man in Christ's works, enter into
the joy of my rest. Isn't that wonderful? All because
of what he's done. All because of what he's done. So to add anything to the perfect
work of Christ is to ruin it. add any works of man to the perfect
work of Christ is to ruin it. It's, as Paul was saying here,
it's unprofitable. It doesn't help anyone. Once
you add man's works, you've ruined grace. Because you've mixed with
the perfect sinatonic work of Christ, sin. Our sin. Our sin. My oh my. And it's no
longer, once you add man's works, it's no longer biblical salvation. Listen, turn if you would to
Romans chapter 225. I found this verse while I was studying for
this. Look at this. Biblical salvation is so clear, and biblical
salvation is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, right, plus
nothing. It's only in him. By grace he
is saved, through faith and that not of yourselves. It's a gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, right? So it's
all through Christ. It's not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, right? Look at this. Look at this in
Romans 2.25. I've never seen this till this
week. Look at this. For circumcision
profits if you do the law, but if you are a transgressor of
the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Look at
this. For circumcision profits if you
do the law. Can we do the law? No, but Christ fulfilled the
law for us, didn't he? You see? But if you are a transgressor
of the law, so Paul says, you want to be saved by your circumcision
plus faith in Christ? He told us over here in Galatians
that Christ don't profit you nothing. Look what it says there. But if you're a transgressor
of the law, if you think that you can be saved by your own
works, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Doesn't
even matter. Isn't that amazing? That ties
so much into what we're reading in Galatians chapter 5, doesn't
it? I saw that verse and I went, wow, look at that. I've read
that hundreds of times and never saw that. But there it is. So
clear, isn't it? It's so clear. So that we who are the redeemed
of the Lord content ourselves in the perfect finished work
of Christ. Just be content in the fact that he saved us, in
the fact that it was by his work. And we had nothing to do with
it. We are literally just receivers of the gift of God, aren't we?
You give somebody a gift, you buy it, you purchase it, you
put it together, and you give it to the person. They don't
have to do nothing, do they? They just receive the gift. See,
in our natural state, we can't receive the gift. But when we're born again, given
faith to believe, just like that too, right? Christ can save you
without you moving a muscle, just like that, right? And we
gladly receive that gift, don't we? We're overwhelmed at the
gift of God in Christ. Oh, it's magnificent. It's absolutely
magnificent. And then look at verses 2 and
3 here in Galatians chapter 5. It says, Behold, I, Paul, say
that if you be circumcised, so remember that verse we read in Romans chapter 2 said, but
if you're a transgression of the law, your circumcision has
become uncircumcision. So these guys, they're thinking
that they're fulfilling one part of the law, but Paul says you've
got to fulfill it all. If you're going to live by the
law, you're a debtor to the whole law, not just one or two things
you can pick and choose. So look at this. Behold, I, Paul,
say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
There's no profit in Christ if a man is seeking to be saved
by circumcision and belief in Christ or by any of the law. Any of the law. Let's just say
that. Any of the law. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he's a debtor to do the whole
law. I'll tell you what. Eh, brother? Man. I don't want anything near
that, do you? Praise God. Christ fulfilled the law for
us. He fulfilled it perfectly. He honored God's law in our place. Isn't that amazing? He fully
satisfied God's law. So again, it's like spitting
in God's face when someone says, well, if I do this, and it doesn't
have to be circumcision. It can be baptism. It can be
going to church on Saturday. It can be all kinds of things
that people yoke people with, right? Oh, you've got to do this. You've got to do that. Any of
that stuff to be saved. My goodness. No, we're saved
in Christ, beloved. And we can rest in that. You
see the freedom that we have? We have freedom from all the
religious bondage. That's what Paul's bringing forth
here. Because the law leads to bondage. The law says, if you
sin, it's death. So Paul very clearly here, again
remember here the true author is the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit of God. God the Holy Spirit's the true author. He's laying
it out before us, the Holy Spirit, that if you are gonna say, well
I'm gonna follow this part of the law, then you're indebted
to do it all. Indebted to do it all. Aren't
you thankful Christ is our rest? He's our Sabbath, right? He's
our Sabbath. We meet on Sundays here and Wednesdays.
But we could, you know, we could meet on Fridays and Mondays.
It wouldn't matter. It really wouldn't. People say,
what are you talking about? How can you say that? It's true.
If Christ is my Sabbath and he's your Sabbath, we could meet any
day of the week we wanted to, right? And worship God. We could
meet every day if we wanted to and worship God, couldn't we?
Because Christ is our Sabbath. He's our Sabbath, beloved. It's
wonderful. We meet more on Sundays because
back in the day, too, everything was closed, right? Now everything's
open. But back in the day, you could
roll a bowling ball down my hometown street and not hit anyone on
Sunday morning. No one. Not even hit a car, unless
you were rolling down the church aisle. But other than that, there was
nothing going on. Restaurants were closed. Stores
were closed. My dad used to say, well, they
rolled up the sidewalk Saturday night. It was like that. And Sunday was family day. After
you went to church, it was family day. You know what else you did? You went to mom's or grandma's,
and you had amazing meals, didn't you? Oh, it's wonderful. But anytime somebody's trying
to yoke somebody under something you have to do, beloved, don't
ever let that happen again. Stand fast in the freedom that
we have in Christ. Stand fast in that freedom because
we are so free. Oh my. We must keep these words. In context, these verses, 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 indebted to do the whole
law. We always have to keep the scripture in context, always. Beware of people who tear verses
out of context and try to make a whole doctrine of it. Church
of Christ, Church of Christ. Repent and be baptized. That's
what they, well, see, you got to be baptized to be saved. Nope,
that's not what that's saying. No, no, no, no, no, no. My goodness. Oh my goodness. Man will tear
everything up and just make false doctrines out of all kinds of
things. Baptism does not save, Christ
saves, right? And only Christ. speaking in
tongues, and the supposed second baptism of the Holy Spirit doesn't
save anyone. As a matter of fact, it's just
a bunch of gibberish. Because the languages, the tongues, the
Greek word underlying, and this is something for you if someone
starts talking about tongues, the Greek word underlying the
word tongues in the Greek is defined as knowing language.
It's a knowing language, not some gibberish. It's a known
language. So we must keep this in context
with the subject of this holy inspired epistle. As the difference,
what we're looking at, what the context of what we're looking
at is the difference between law and grace. So we have to
keep that in the forefront. I know I keep reminding us, but
I'm going to keep reminding us. That's the context of this whole
epistle, is the difference between law and grace. Especially in
the section we're in right now. Because we saw that allegory
in chapter 4 that Paul gave us, and now he's opening it up even
more. He's opening it up even more
that the law won't profit you if you're looking to it for salvation.
My, oh my. Now, there's nothing wrong with
circumcision if it's done for health purposes. There's nothing
wrong with that at all. Nothing wrong with that at all.
But if a man submits to circumcision to make themselves more acceptable
to God, that's wrong. That's wrong. Look at this. He says, behold,
I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ, now
I'm going to tell you something. Every time you see Christ in
the New Testament, you know what that word is in Greek? Messiah. Keep that in mind when you're
reading the scriptures. And think of this. Peter professed that
Christ was the Messiah. He said, thou art the Messiah. So every time you see that word
Christ, just remember that when you're reading. It's Messiah. So, behold, I, Paul, say unto
you that if you be circumcised, the Messiah shall profit you.
And the profit you there is one word in the Greek. It means to
be useful or benefit. He's of no benefit to those who
think they need to be circumcised to be saved. Christ shall profit
you nothing. And in the Greek, that means
nothing, not at all. So, I'll read it. Behold, I,
Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, the Messiah shall
shall not be useful and have no benefit, not a thing, nothing. Look at that. Isn't that incredible? So Paul's clearly bringing forth
here that if one submits to circumcision to find favor with God, it don't
profit you nothing, nothing at all. Just like baptism, if you're
a false professor, you're just getting wet. I got wet twice. Until the Lord
saved me. I got wet twice in religion. My oh my. Then the Lord saved
me. And then I was baptized. Isn't
that amazing? Oh my, isn't that amazing? Christ must be received as our
only and sufficient Redeemer. If we add anything, even if it's
performed in a religious way, to the person and work of Christ,
to gain God's favor, whether it be circumcision, baptism,
fasting, praying at certain times, or doing good for others. A lot
of people use that. Well, I do good. I give groceries
away and gas. They have a big grocery gas giveaway
up here. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Go and get the gas. I asked my buddy, my buddy Jim,
I go, I go, did you go get that gas that was free? And he said,
yeah. And I said, my wife told me you'd
be right there, right? And he goes, well, I got to witness
the four people that didn't know anything about Christ like this,
and they were supposedly out there for Christ. Because I got
$2 a gallon off my gas. I said, well, good for you. I'm sorry, I was just, just humored
me there when, you know. So, so, but people think that
they do these things and they, and, and those things are good,
aren't they? They're good things to do. But they, they don't gain
any merit and favor with God at all. Exactly. That's exactly, and it's going
to burn up. Yep, he instillable, Dave said.
That's so true. So true. Nothing, nothing to
it. Christ don't profit nothing from
that, does he? Nothing. Oh my. So Christ must be received
as our only Redeemer. The only way we can be saved. And we fully trust in Him. But if we're attempting to add
our righteousness to His work, He don't profit us nothing. His
work doesn't profit us at all. Isn't that? It's pretty clear,
isn't it? It's pretty clear. And to be, to try to be saved
by your own works is actually to show contempt to God. You're
saying that the sacrifice of his son wasn't good enough. Oh my, that man needs to add
something to it. Well if we could be saved by
anything we did, then Christ never would have come to this
earth, right? There'd be no need. But you know what? We're dead
dog sinners. And we needed to be saved, didn't
we? And we who are the redeemed say, praise God, Christ, the
Messiah, save me. Save me all according to his
mercy and grace, by the shedding of his precious, precious blood,
to give his life for me. I'm redeemed! Are you? Isn't
it wonderful? We're redeemed, beloved. Oh,
that song, redeemed, redeemed. How I love to proclaim it! Oh
my! We're redeemed, beloved. Look at verse 3, it says, now
again I testify to every man receiving circumcision that he's
a debtor to do the whole law. That's in the Greek literal Bible
there, and it says for if a man think himself to be something,
oh I'm over in chapter 6, for I testify that to every man that
is circumcised that he's a debtor to do the whole law, verse 3.
Oh my. And it says there, now I testify,
that's witness in the Greek, so he's saying now I witness
to every man receiving circumcision that he's a debtor, that means
to be indebted. He's indebted to do the whole
law. That means all of it in the Greek, complete. Whole there
is complete law in the Greek. He's a debtor to do the whole
law. He's actually indebted to it. And that's impossible, right? So what will that lead to? The
damnation of their soul. For any man or woman to be accepted
by God on the basis of what he does, he must be perfect. So
if we say, well, I'm accepted by God by what I do, they're
proclaiming themselves perfect. Because the only way God will
accept us is if we're perfect. Well, we've got a problem, don't
we? Because every one of us born in this world, the seed of Adam,
are born dead in trespasses. We're born imperfect. We're born
imperfect. You ever notice, too, how God
changed it? We used to think we were OK. We used to think
we were good. Now we're like, I am so imperfect,
it's not funny. We see every flaw in ourselves,
don't we? But see, God don't see that in Christ with us. Isn't
that wonderful? Oh, so good. It's so good. It's
so good. So every man, woman, and child
born of Adam, all the men and women and children on this earth
were all born dead in trespasses, and there was only one man that
perfectly fits what God requires. The perfect man. The man Christ
Jesus. So in order for anyone to be
accepted before God, they have to be perfect. Aren't you thankful
that Christ is our substitute? The perfect man is our substitute. The perfect man is our redeemer. God in the flesh is the perfect
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Messiah. Isn't that wonderful? He's, oh my, oh my, it just gets
better. Doesn't it get better and better?
The more we hear this glorious gospel, it just gets better and
better, beloved. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was formed in the womb of the Virgin by the power of God. Therefore, he was not conceived
in sin. From conception to the end of his life on this earth,
the Lord Jesus Christ was, and he still is, the spotless, perfect
Lamb of God. the perfect man, the perfect
sacrifice for our sins. And God has now accepted every
chosen sinner, every sinner he chose in Christ, is now accepted
in the beloved, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So that
which God purposed and planned in time, or outside of time and
space and eternity, came to pass in time. And he invented time
for Christ to come into this world. This world was invented,
made, created so that Christ could come into this world to
redeem our eternal souls. My, my. And think of this, all the things,
all things going on in this world are for his glory and our good. Want to think about something?
There's something to think about. Sister Kathy, you're in the medical
field. All the medical breakthroughs that have ever happened in this
world are for God's elect. And everybody else gets the residual
effects. Isn't that amazing? To keep us
to the point in time when God will take us home. I'm on medication
for my diabetes. If I wasn't on that, diabetes
would have killed me. But God in his providence has
me on that and utilizing it, it's wonderful. It's wonderful.
Brings my sugar down, right? So that I can, I can't go crazy
on what I eat, but I'm still alive until that, but on that
one day when God calls me home, there is nothing in this world
medically that will ever stop me from the Lord taking me home.
And it's just so true. Right? Isn't it wonderful to
look at everything in the perspective of God's providence? Now bring
it home, our salvation. Right home, the little piece
of dust that I am and you are, right? Oh my. There was a day ordained
when through the preaching of the gospel, we'd hear the shepherd's
voice. And the Holy Spirit come and
regenerated us, and we've never been the same since, have we? Because we can't wait to get
home to heaven. Oh, this world is not my home.
I'm just passing through. I love that old song. It's so
true. It's so true. Oh my, so we in Adam cannot fail
one, one jot or tittle of the law. We're lawbreakers. But Christ
fulfilled it all in our room and place, the great substitute.
And his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, turn if you would
to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Do you know,
do you know that Christ is a stumbling
stone to most. But to we who are the elect of
God, the chosen of God, the redeemed of the Lord, He's our cornerstone. He's the foundation of our faith. Look at this in Romans chapter
9, starting in verse 30, we'll go to verse 33. What shall we
say then? that the Gentiles, which fall
not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even
the righteousness which is of faith." Now remember, Paul's
writing to Galatians, they're all Gentiles up there. But look
at this. Now think of this too, these
Judaists. It must have made them so mad to think that these Gentile
dogs, that's me, these Gentile dogs were supposedly saved and
made righteous by just having faith. You talk to a false teacher and
they will get mad when you tell them salvation is by faith in
Christ alone plus nothing. They will get mad. I've talked
to quite a few of them. They get mad because it offends their
pride and it goes totally against what they teach. Look at this
though. What should we then say? That
the Gentiles would fall not after righteousness. So we didn't have
the law, right? Israel had the law at this time. The Gentiles were still under
the law. We know that because every man's under the law. But
what he's bringing forth here is that Israel had the law. They
were the ones that were the keepers of it. But none of the Gentile
nations had anything to do with that. They were just dogs. Look
at this though, look at this. Which fall not after righteousness,
have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which
is of faith. Isn't that, that's a magnificent
verse. It tells us that our righteousness comes to us through Christ by
faith in Christ. And it's all the work of God,
salvation's all of God. It says, but Israel which fall
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law
of righteousness. Trying to be saved by something
they do. Wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as
it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at the stumbling
stone. So they sought to be justified
by their own works. As it is written, behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, and whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed. Hallelujah. What a Savior is
Jesus Christ our Lord, beloved. Our salvation is all of Christ,
all of the Messiah. So remember that, too, when you're
reading the scriptures and you see Christ there. That's Messiah,
right? He was sent to save us from what?
From our sins. Because we can't save ourselves
from sins, no matter what we try to do. No matter what it
is religion tries to tell you, can't save. Salvation's only
in, and through, and by the perfect, complete work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we say amen, don't we? Amen. Brother Brian, can you
close us in prayer?