Turn in your Bibles to the book
of Galatians. Galatians chapter 5. Stand fast therefore, in 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 you 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. You 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. Some years ago, a dear friend of mine and to many
of you, by the name of Les Tardy, he made a sign for me. He made a placard, if you will,
and he did it as the master calligrapher that he is, everyone being a
work of art, but it had on it what I believe was an old English
proverb. And it says this, Love rules his
kingdom without a sword. Love rules his kingdom without
a sword." And I've thought about that saying,
that old proverb, quite a number of times since then, and in light
of what the Bible teaches us, in truth, this can only be said
of God. Because only God is love. We read that in the Scriptures. God is love. He is the only being,
the only person that is love. So in truth, that is the only
way that such a saying can be really
true. Love rules His kingdom without
a sword. And what the Bible tells us is
that He has done what He's done for His people because of what
He is. His love for His elect ones moved
Him to act for them. He didn't do anything He's done
in order to get them to love Him. He's done what He's done
because He loved them and loved them with an everlasting love. If you'll hold your place and
turn over just a few pages actually to Ephesians 1 and look down
at this fourth verse, Most Greek scholars, I think,
believe that the last two words of verse 4 actually are a part
of verse 5. So that statement is this, in
love, in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will."
You see, if you throw out Divine predestination, you have to throw
out divine love. In love, He predestinated His
people to be conformed to His Son, to the adoption of children
in Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will. And not only that, only His kingdom
has any love as a part of it. The kingdom of Satan, the God
of this world, has no real love. does not act in love, and neither
do any of the kingdoms of this world. His kingdom, God who is
love, His kingdom is the only kingdom that love is any part
of. And only His true gospel has
anything to do with love Because his love is only in Christ Jesus. That's how Paul described it. The love of God which is in Christ
Jesus. It is only for his people, these
loved ones, that he has put in this kingdom. outside of this kingdom. He rules
only with the sword. Oh, He does rule. There are none
that go far enough, hide best enough to escape where His kingdom
goes in the broad sense. But in that broad kingdom, He
rules only with a just sword. And whenever men and women say,
as they will say in that day, standing before the King Himself,
when they'll speak of all that they've done, done many wonderful
works in Your name, preached in Your name, cast out devils
in your name. He'll say to them, Depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. I never loved you. I never loved
you. And this kingdom, the true Kingdom
of God, or Kingdom of Heaven as it is described in the New
Testament, it is built on the greatest act of love ever. It is built on the substitutionary
death of God's Son. It is built on and rests in His
act of love that He displayed when He died on the cross. That's the greatest act of love
that has ever been exhibited. And He died in this death of
the cross as it's described, and in that death He made manifest
God's love in action. So many present the love of God
as just God having a feeling of love. But joined with God's
love is His ability. And so, if He loves, He acts
in love, and His acts of love toward His people chiefly center
around the greatest act of love. And that's the cross death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that same sword, that same
just sword that characterizes God's authority and rule, and
most especially His justice in the matter of sin, that same
sword He thrust into the bosom of His Son. He buried it to the
hilt. in the Lord Jesus Christ on that
cross. When He hung there on that cross
and stood as the sin-bearer and the representative of God's people,
the people that God loved, He bore their sins in His own bosom
on the tree and just smote Him. Just like Zechariah said in his
prophecy, Awake, awake, O sword, and smite the shepherd. And there are a multitude of
people who talk often about the love of God, and they present
God as a God of love, but they know really nothing about the
greatest act of His love. That act of love was an act of
love for a particular people. He laid down His life for His
sheep. That act of love was an act to
satisfy justice on the matter of their sin. That act of love
was the work of righteousness in all of time and eternity. That act of love was the blood-shedding
of Christ in the matter of our sins that He might redeem us
to God. And this is the love of God. And so love is the principle
of how He rules this kingdom. And I'm talking about right down
to the chastening of His people. Everything that God does, For
his people is an act of love." Like I said, right down to chastising
them. Because the apostles tell us,
he says, whom he loves, he chastens. Everything flows out of this
love that is in Christ Jesus. And that simply means that love
precedes every act of God to us. And God's love is the cause
of everything, and it produces and motivates every truly obedient
act in this kingdom, starting with Christ Himself. Paul writes in Romans 5, and
he says, "...by one man's obedience the many were made righteous."
He writes in Philippians, and he tells us that Christ became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Why did He
do that? Why did He come into this world? Why did He go to that cross? Why did He die in our place and
suffer in the matter of our sin? He did it in love. And when you read about what
Christ did, especially concerning His death for sin, it always
flows out of the love of God. Look over in 1 John 3. 1 John
3, and this is verse 16. Now, there are a lot of people who know a lot
about John 3.16. This is 1 John 3.16. He says,
"...hereby perceive we the love of God, Isn't it amazing that people
can talk about the love of God and they have little or nothing
to say about the cross and the death of Christ? Hereby perceive
we the love of God because He laid down His life for us and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. How do we know the love of God?
He said, because He laid down His life for us. Greater love
hath no man than this, than to lay down His life for His friends. Look over in chapter 4 of 1 John
and verse 10, where He says, Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us. He loved us and He didn't sit
in heaven just saying or expressing in some sentimental sense, I
love my people. It says, He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. It all came out
of His love. It's all because of His love.
That everlasting love in Christ for His people. Turn over to
Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2 and listen
to what the Apostle Paul says in verse 20. He said, I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Why did he do that? What motivated
Him to come and give Himself, His perfect, holy, glorious,
sinless Self for us? Because He loved us. Nobody made
Him do it. Nobody deserved that He do it
for them. He did it because He loved us. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
5, just a few pages over to Ephesians chapter 5, when He has given
us this example for husbands and wives, and He says this in
verse 25, Ephesians 5.25, he says, "...husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it." That's
why He gave Himself for the church. That's the example of why husbands
are to love their wives. He loved the church and he gave
himself for it. Now that's the person of love. But there's something that I
want us to make sure we understand. And that is that love is also
– now I'm not talking about soap opera love, I'm not talking about
love like people say they have one another, going to love each
other eternally, and the next thing you know they're divorced.
I'm not talking about that kind of love. I'm talking about the
love of God which is in Christ, and the love He produces in His
people. You see, love is also the principle
and the motivating factor in all true obedience and service
by the people of God's kingdom. Not outward compulsion. Not outward coercion. but inward love. Not the Ten Commandments hanging
on the wall, whether they're written in stone or on paper,
but His law written in our hearts. And there is a big difference. Because as it was in Paul's day,
so is it in this day, that men and women are always trying to
mix law and grace, or law and love as it was, and seeking to
bring others under bondage into a kind of slavery whereby men
and women are supposedly serving God because they ought to. Because it's their duty. And
so they spend all their times preaching and teaching and writing
about what it is to live the Christian life. What it is that
you ought to be doing. What it is that you ought to
be seeking after. And that's just the wrong principle. You see, love is the principle. And love is the one and great
motivating factor in all of service and all of obedience and of all
that the Lord's people are doing in His true kingdom. Because love begets love. We love Him, surely not like
we ought to, and surely not like we want to, but we do love Him
if we be His believing child. Why is it? Because He first loved
us. But that's not the way it is
in all the false religions of this world. That's not the way
it is in all the godless preaching and all the works mongering that
goes on in the name of God, especially in our day. Because those people, They use two principles. They're like mad dogs almost,
nipping on you from the one side, biting at you on the other side
all the time. You're always being told this
and then to counter that you're being told that. And all it does is bring men
and women under even greater bondage. But one is this, false
religion promises you a reward. You know, you'll get a bigger
mansion in heaven, or maybe you'll get more money in your bank account,
maybe you'll have perfect health, or maybe you'll have this. If
you just do this, God will bless you. They don't have the Word of God
to back that up. But they key on that one thing
in our flesh that's so hard to ever get rid of and we never
do apart from God's grace, and that is the notion that we can
do something to please God. We can add to Him in some way.
And if we'll add to Him some way, He'll add to us in some
way. If we'll do something for Him,
He'll do something for us. And if you do this or that or
the other, and the list is longer than I ever would have time or
understanding to name it, but the list goes on and on and on,
that if you'll do these things or this thing, then you'll have
a bigger reward in heaven, you'll have a bigger mansion in heaven,
you'll have something better in heaven, you'll have more medals
in heaven, or whatever it is. But let me ask you this, how
can that be if salvation is all of grace." Is that not unmerited
favor? Undeserved love? Undeserved favor? And not only that, how does that
line up with the fact that the Bible says that Christ is all? If the child of God, by God's
grace, has been given Christ, the Son of God's love, by the
way, if we've been given Christ, what else is there to get if
He's all? You can't coax me with a carrot. You can't hold over my head a
bigger place, or a mansion, or whatever it is. If I've got Christ,
And He is, as God says, and He really is everything. What else could you give me? And yet people are promised this
and that and the other. Unregenerated men and women.
Nothing but flesh. Offered things that appeal to
the flesh. If you do this and that and the
other. But there's also another bad
dog they turn loose. And that is the threat and fear
of punishment. Well, if I don't get them with
this one, I'll get them with that one. I'll scare them. I'll tell them
if they don't do these things, they're going to hell. I'll tell
them if they don't do these things, God won't bless them. I'll tell
them if they don't give this, God will take that." But he said, "...perfect love
casteth out fear." Let me ask you this, if Christ bore all
my punishment on the cross, What have I to fear? If He actually
suffered in my place, hanging on that cross, and satisfied
God's justice in the matter of sin for me, what have I to fear? If He really put away all my
sin, if He really died the death that I was due, if He really
redeemed me from all my sin, redeemed me to God, What do I
have to fear? The worst is already behind me.
And yet that's what they do. If that one doesn't get you cornered
and get you on the right path, then surely this one will, and
they'll turn that one loose on you. We'll cause them to be afraid. That if they mess up, they'll
drop off into hell immediately. Or if they fail or fall to do
these things, they'll fall out of favor with God. They'll be
lost. They even say, you'll fall from
grace. And they use this text to say
it. What Paul is saying here is just
exactly the opposite. He said, if you seek to add anything
to the grace of God and the work of Christ, the love of God by
which all these things come to His people, if you seek to please
God any other way, then you are fallen from grace. You are not
saved by grace. You know, there are not many
people saved by grace. But I'll tell you who is. Those
that God the Spirit has taught their hearts to know this truth
above all others. And that is, that there is no
way they could ever save themselves. There is nothing that they could
ever do to get from God. There is nothing that they could
ever do to undo their sin. And if they are saved, it will
have to be through the love and mercy of God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But preachers in our day, they
use these things to get people to do the things they want. In
other words, if I'm preaching to you, and I'm feeding you a
steady diet, and I'm telling you things to do, and all these
things telling you all about what you ought to do, and you
feel like you've got to do them, that makes you a slave, doesn't
it? That's all you are, is a slave. You may think you're a holy slave,
I don't know, you may think you're a righteous slave, but all you
are is a slave. And you're not doing what God
says to do, you're doing what a man says to do, and he therefore
has power over you, enslaves you, and keeps you in the path
that he thinks is right. They use these things to get
you to work. You know, we've got bigger buildings
to build. We've got bigger programs to
fund. They do these things to get men
and women to give, or to be faithful as they say, or to continue,
or as that word I hate, do your duty. Is this about duty? I thought it was about grace. But true believers, that is those
who are saved by God's free grace, those who have been loved with
this everlasting love, they serve God, they obey God, they do these
things out of love for Him. Somebody says, well, if you tell
people to do that, there's no telling what they'll do. This is the only way that men
and women ever do anything that God commands. Somebody has said
in years past, they said this, they said, love God and do what
you will. There's a sense in which that's
right. But I'm afraid that fails to take into consideration one
lingering fact, and that is that we still possess this old fallen
nature. No. It's love God and do what
He says. It's love Him and out of that
love, do what He says. He's not given us a blank slate. He's given us His Word. My mother
and daddy, they loved me, I don't have any doubt about it whatsoever. And they told me some things
to do. But when I was off by myself, the motivating factor for every
obedience by me was not fear or promise of reward, It was
always that I loved them. How could I do this if I loved
them? What would it do to them if I
loved them? How could I do this if they had
done so much for me? That was always what had a grip
on me more than anything else. I could get over a whipping in
a few minutes. If I didn't get something, I'd
be over it in a little while. But if I loved Him, if I loved
Him, what I did was out of that love. And you know God gives
us a picture of that. Look back over in the book of
Exodus. In the book of Exodus, in chapter
21, where we read about what God
says that these Israelites, what they were to do concerning the
Hebrew servant. Exodus 21, "'Now these are the
judgments which thou shalt set before them, If thou buy an Hebrew
servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go
out free for nothing." Does that mean he worked all he should
work? No. It meant God said, this is
when he goes free. And he goes free for nothing.
That's grace. That's what God does for His
people. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his
wife shall go out with him. And if his master has given him
a wife, and she hath borne him sons and daughters, the wife
and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out
by himself." But, but, and if the servant, shall plainly
say..." Now by all legal standings, he can go free. He can go free. He's a free man. "...but if the
servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children,
I will not go out free." Now you understand now you're a free
man. You understand you can go out,
walk right out of here, nobody will say anything to you about
it. You just go free. You do understand
that. But I love my Master. I love
my wife and my children. I don't want to leave this house.
And I won't be serving out of bondage. I won't be serving because
I have to. I'll be serving because I love
my Master and my wife and my children." And God said, you
take that man. You take that man. His Master
shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the
door and unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear
through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever." He'll punch
a hole through his ear with that sharp object, and everybody that
sees him, They'll see Him when they walk in the Master's house.
He may be sweeping the floor. He may be cleaning the wall. He may be fixing the food. Whatever
it is He's doing, when they see that mark, they'll know He's
a willing bondservant. That's what Paul called himself,
a willing bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's serving
Him because He wants to. We're not serving Christ in order
to keep ourselves out of hell, nor are we serving Him in order
to get ourselves into heaven. We're not doing it because of
reward. We're not doing it because of
fear and threat. We're doing it because we love
Him. And we love Him because He first loved us. He loved us
and gave Himself for us. And having seen and entered into
God's kingdom, being born again, as John says in John 3, and seeing
and entering this kingdom revealed by God's Spirit, they live and
they love and they act in love. You can turn over to Galatians
5, the latter part, And see where the apostle talks there about
the fruit of the Spirit. Not what we do naturally. This
is produced by the Spirit of God that dwells in God's people.
You see, when He reveals the kingdom to them, when they see
and enter by faith the kingdom of God, it's because God has
entered into them. And so in verse 22, contrasting
the fruit of flesh, Paul says in verse 22 of Galatians 5, but
the fruit of the Spirit. Look at the very first thing.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love. Love. And then out of that
flows joy, Peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. The Spirit of God sheds abroad
in our hearts the love of God. And out of that love flows the
acts of love. Because of love. Paul said, the love of Christ
constrains me. It's got a hold of me. It keeps
me from being oftentimes what I would be, causes me to do oftentimes
things I wouldn't naturally do. Why? Because the love of Christ
has got a hold of me. And it will not let me go. And so when Paul writes here
in Galatians chapter 5, he gets down to that sixth verse, he
says, "...For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision, which was
a part of that law that was given, neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which works by love." Faith which works by love. Not a sense of duty, not a chore,
not in drudgery, but works by love. Let me ask you, in our most basic
relationships, Why, you husbands, do you do
the things that you do for your wives? Or why, you wives, do
you do the things that you do for your husbands? Out of duty? That must be a pitiful existence
in a relationship if it's just merely duty and what you ought
to do. There can be no joy in that. There can be no pleasure in that.
No delight in that. No satisfaction in that. But
what an easy thing it is to do out of love. When you do something
out of love, you enjoy it more than the recipients of it. I used to kid myself, my wife
often times, not all that many years ago,
when we both began to get old, I'd tell her this, I'd say, well,
I've dedicated the rest of my life to making you happy. I'm
sure I have failed at that miserably, but when you find more joy in
what you do for the one you love, than you do in having those things
done to you. What a joy that is. When somebody
says, well, why'd you do that? Because I love you. I just love
you. Because I wanted to. Because
I took a delight in it. Because it made me happier to
do it. Then it will ever make you happy.
I hear people say this, I can't go so-and-so, I got to go to
church. No, you don't. No, you don't. Thank God I want to come. I want to worship God. Say, well,
we ought to give something. Well, don't if you ought to.
Because God loves a cheerful giver. It's a grace that He gives. Well, I reckon I ought to read
my Bible. Yes, I ought to go hear the Gospel. The thing that God says about
those unbelievers, those reprobates, one thing He says that singles
them out is this, He said, they receive not the love of the truth, I sat down while Joe was praying
after reading that psalm. And the thought came to me, Lord,
I must be your child. Because just to read that, just
to read what you say, brings me great joy, gives me peace,
gives me comfort, gives me hope, just to read what you say. And then he says, this is the
motivation for our helping our brethren. If He so loved us,
so we ought to love our brethren. I felt a lot of that of late
and I'm thankful. He said, we know that we've passed
from death unto life because we love the brethren. Why do
we love them? Many be like me, not so lovable. But we love them because Christ
loved us. He loved us, so we ought to love
one another. We labor. The Apostle in Hebrews
says, For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor
of love which you have showed toward His name, in that ye have
ministered to the saints and do minister. It's a labor of
love. Paul says, stand fast in the
liberty. Why is he writing this epistle? What does he care if somebody
comes in to the churches in Galatia and preaches a mixture of law
and grace and preaches legalism and all these other kinds of
things and puts people under bonds? No skin off his nose,
is it? Afraid so. because he loves them. In one place he'll say, am I
becoming your enemy because I told you the truth? No. You see, you
don't love somebody if you don't tell them the truth. Especially
the truth of God. Love is not a mixture of law
and grace. It's all love. where Paul says
it's all law. It's all grace, or it's all works. But it's never going to be a
mixture of the two. God give us grace to be willing
bondservants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because there's no drudgery
in His vineyard. There's no obligating bondage.
No fear of not getting all, no fear of facing His wrath. We
don't labor for life, we labor as living ones. We don't labor
to gain acceptance, but we labor as those who are already accepted
in the Beloved. True liberty is always characterized
by love. Love rules His kingdom without
a sword. That's true in the light of Scripture.
That's true of God's love for His people. That's true of their
love for Him and His people. Because the sword has already
been satisfied in the dying of Christ, in that great act of
love. Our Father, this morning we thank
you for your great mercy to us, for your love immeasurable, unexplainable,
and so undeserved. Cause your Spirit to produce that fruit of which
love is the great part in our hearts, that it might be demonstrated
in our lives because You first loved us and gave Yourself for
us. Help us, we pray. Have mercy
upon us. In Christ's name, Amen.