Galatians chapter 5. The title
of our lesson this morning is The Constant Vow for Liberty.
Now, you remember last week we looked at the allegory of Hagar
and Sarah, saw the necessity to cast out the bondwoman and
her son, which is a picture that the Lord's given us of the necessity
for us to cast out our works of righteousness, to cast out
that mixture of grace and works. Because there can't be any peace
in our hearts as long as our works are there, as long as we're
looking to those works. So we've got to cast them out.
Now, Paul goes on in that vein in chapter five, he's going to
apply that lesson of the allegory that we looked at last week to
our daily lives. Every believer would like more
assurance, enjoys the times that the Lord gives us assurance of
salvation. And we've got to cast out that
bondwoman and her son. We cannot enjoy any assurance
when we're looking at our works. There's no assurance in our faithfulness.
There's no assurance when we look at our love or our giving
or our attitudes. No matter how much faith you
have, is it ever enough? Are you ever satisfied with how
much you love the Lord or love your brethren? It's never enough.
So there's a constant battle for assurance. To quit looking
at those things that we just naturally look at and look to
Christ. Paul here is talking about Christian
liberty. Liberty and freedom. And it's
found in Christ. Not in the things that we do
or our attitudes. So if you want liberty and you
want assurance, we've got to look to Christ. Not look to our
works. And it's a constant battle. A
constant battle. And the battle arises at times
you least expect it. I was always listening to the
radio when I'm in the shower. I was getting out of the shower
Friday morning, and I heard this commercial. I hear these people
on this commercial every so often. It's a husband and wife. He's
a pastor. He reads a passage of Scripture,
and this tells you a lot of what you need to know about him. She's
the one, his wife's the one, normally makes the commentary
on the Scripture. Don't turn there. I'll turn to
it quickly. He read a passage in Psalm 11. And this is what
he read, "'The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked, and
him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked
he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest.
This shall be the portion of their cup.'" He ended that reading,
and his wife made this statement. She said, it doesn't pay to be
wicked. They talk in this religious circle. It doesn't pay to be wicked.
We need to try to be the best person we can be so we don't
get the reward of the wicked. And her husband says, Amen. And
then there's his pause. And quickly she adds, with Jesus. You see the battle there? Christ
was an afterthought. They don't have any idea. Christ is our righteousness.
You do. I hope everybody here understands
that. You've heard it often enough to at least know in your head
Christ is our righteousness. He's the only righteousness we
can ever have. And all of our attempts at righteousness are
failures. Not only do our attempts at righteousness
make us avoid receiving the reward of the wicked, our attempts at
righteousness will give us the reward of the wicked. And we've
got to battle against this now, because it can sound good, doesn't
it sound good to say we ought to be the best person we can
be? Of course we should. That sounds good. We ought to
be the best person we can be. But not to avoid punishment.
Not so that we can have righteousness. The only way we'll ever be righteous
is in Christ. And when you tell people you've
got to go be the best person you can be in order to avoid
the reward of the wicked, you know what you've done? You put
a yoke of bondage on their backs. You just put them in bondage.
And that kind of thinking comes naturally to our flesh, doesn't
it? That kind of thinking will rob a child of God, of their
liberty in Christ, and the assurance of their salvation. The only
way we'll ever be righteous is in Christ. Is that right? Then
look to Him. The only way we cannot be punished
for our sins is if Christ suffered for us. Is that right? and look
to Christ. And stand fast in that. Now,
stand fast. That's what Paul says in verse
1. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free. And be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. Now, the key to this verse is
the statement wherein Christ has made us free. We didn't set
ourselves free. Christ did. Well, then we're
not going to keep ourselves free either. Christ is going to do
that. Salvation is all in Him. Now there are several things
Christ has set the believer free from. He set us free from sin
by dying for us. Now we know he hasn't set us
free from indwelling sin, the sin that's in us, but he set
us free from the dominion of sin. He set us free from the
condemnation of sin by dying for us. Secondly, Christ has
set us free from the moral law as a covenant of works. And he
did that by keeping the law for us. So we don't have to. Now,
if we're free from the moral law, because Christ kept the
law for us, then why do we think we've got to keep it? Christ
has already kept it for us. The early Christ has set us free
from the ceremonial law. You know, the ceremonial law
is all the ceremonies, the days, the feasts, those things that
the law required of the Old Testament. Well, Christ set his people free
from that ceremonial law because he's the fulfillment of all those
ceremonies. They all pointed to Christ, so
we don't have to observe the Sabbath anymore. Christ is our
Sabbath. We don't observe the Passover.
Christ, our Passover, is slain for us. We're free from having
to do all those things. Fourthly, Christ set us free
from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. Why
do we fear being punished because of the curse of the law if Christ
has already made a curse for us? This is what Paul is saying.
Stand fast in that liberty. Christ has set us free from the
fear of death by dying for us. No one will ever die spiritually
if Christ died for them. They'll never die spiritually.
They'll never die eternally. Christ has set us free from those
things. And then he set us free to do some things. Christ has
set his people free. Come into the presence of God
any time you want. You just come to Him any time
you want. You couldn't do that under the law, could you? The
high priest could only come once a year and then only with blood.
But now, in Christ, we can come to the throne room of God at
all times. And we can come with boldness.
That high priest, he came with fear. Fear that he was going
to be struck dead. You're set free from that and
free to call on the Father boldness at all times. That's freedom. Stand fast in that freedom. Don't
let anybody take it away from you. Christ has made us free
to rest in Him. To rest from the law. And He's
made us free to serve Him in love. Not in bondage and fear,
but in love. He set us free to do that. Now
stand fast in that liberty that Christ has given you. This is
a military term. Stand fast. Telling soldiers,
be brave. and be strong in the face of
battle and don't ever retreat. There's no reason to retreat
if Christ is the captain of our salvation. But we need to be
told to stand fast because we've got the same battle on our hands
today with our flesh as Paul did in his day. Now, you know
men are going to take the truth, the blessed truth of the Word
of God and pervert So just in case anybody here, I don't think
anybody here would think this, but anybody hearing this on the
Internet, let me make this plain. This is not liberty to sin. This is not liberty to go out
there and live like the world. Shall we sin that grace may abound?
God forbid. I already sin a whole lot more
than I want to, but Christ has given us liberty from having
to work to pay for that sin. Christ has given us liberty from
working, trying to earn a righteousness that will offset our sin. He's
given us liberty to rest in Christ and come to Him by faith, not
by works. Now stand fast. Stand fast. Don't ever retreat from that
for a moment. Because Paul tells us how diligent
we've got to be about this thing. We've got to be so diligent and
insistent to remain steadfast in the liberty that Christ has
given us because here's how easily we can lose that liberty. If
we do just one work, I mean just one work of righteousness in
order to be more righteous or in order to be saved or make
ourselves more savable for whatever reason, if we do one work of
righteousness to improve our standing with God, we've lost
the freedom entirely that Christ has given us, and we put the
yoke of bondage on our shoulders again. If we do just one work
in order to make the Father more pleased with us than He's already
pleased with us in Christ, we've entangled ourselves in the whole
law. Not just that one thing we try
to do, but the whole law entangled. When I read that word entangled,
I thought those, you see the underwater pictures, they put
up nets to whatever reason they put them up in the ocean. And
you see the fish that were not intended for that net, but they
get caught in it and they die. That's what will happen to you
and me. If we do just one work of righteousness to make God
more pleased with us than he's pleased with us in Christ, we've
entangled ourselves in that net and we'll never escape it. It'll
kill us, just as surely as it does those fish. You know, if
crossing myself helps me hit a baseball, or catch a football,
or avoid a car wreck as I'm going down the road, then if I do that,
I've obligated myself, even though this is not required by the law
in any way, it's a man-made thing, but even if I do a man-made thing
in order to obtain some righteousness or safety in Christ, one God,
then I've obligated myself to do the whole law of God. All
of it. That's how easily we can lose
this freedom. That's why Paul is so insistent
we stand fast. Because if we put this heavy
yoke upon ourselves, we've condemned ourselves to a work that can
never be finished. Why does a man yoke oxen? He always yokes oxen to do some
work, to pull a cart, to plow a field. If I yoke myself to
the law, to plow a field, I condemn myself to a field that can never
be finished. I'll never be able to plow that
field. But the yoke of Christ is light
and easy because Christ already finished the work. Brethren,
He plowed the field, He planted the field, and He's gathering
the harvest. The work's done. When we're under the yoke of
Christ, we quit all the work, because Christ has already finished
all of the work. And if you look at Hebrews chapter
4, He's resting from His work too, and we rest in Him. Hebrews 4 verse 9. Now there remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest, into the rest of Christ, into the person of Christ, he
also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor, desire therefore,
to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example
of unbelief. We enter into that rest through
belief, and we fall from that rest through unbelief, through
faith. So stand fast in him. Now here, verse 2, back in our
text, Paul tells us this, if we think that we can make God
more pleased with us than He's pleased with us in Christ, this
is how serious this is. The righteousness of Christ and
the death of Christ will do us no good. Verse 2, behold, I,
Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. Now, if we do any religious act
in order to add to the righteousness of Christ, in order to improve
our standing with God. We show, first of all, we're
not trusting in Christ in the first place. But if we do any
religious act at all, I don't care what religious act it is,
in order to make ourselves more righteous or more saved or, you
know, have some better standing with God, we get no profit. We get no benefit from the life
of Christ or the death of Christ. You know, people tell you, you
got to walk an eye. You've got to be baptized. You've
got to tithe in order to be saved. Now be careful. All you've got
to do to be saved is trust Christ. Believe Christ. If you believe
Christ, you'll confess Him. You'll confess and you won't
be able to help Him. You'll give and you won't be
able to help Him. But don't make the effect of salvation a requirement
for salvation. Don't get to cart before the
horse now. And that's what they're doing. They're making the effect
of salvation a requirement for salvation. And if you do that,
the life of Christ and the death of Christ will give you no benefit.
If we try to keep the law ourselves in order to have some righteousness,
the righteousness of Christ will never be imputed to us. If we
try to keep the law to make ourselves righteous, the blood of Christ
will never be applied to our heart. Now that's strong preaching,
isn't it? If you do these things, Christ
will profit you nothing. That's strong preaching. Think
who made this statement? Saul of Tarsus used to be the
best at doing just what he's talking about here, keeping the
law outwardly. He was the best at it. What did
God do with him? God made him the best preacher
against it. Paul said, I know what I'm talking about. You do
any of these things, Christ shall profit you nothing. So stand
fast in the liberty that Christ has given us. Let's stand fast
against anything that will draw our attention away from Christ.
Let's stand fast against anything that will draw any of our hope
off of Christ. Now, this is a strategy of our
enemies. You know, we meet here together. We were talking about
this last night. We meet here to worship. And I'm determined, as much as
God gives me the ability, to keep anything out, to keep any
attitude, to keep any activity away that will draw our attention
off Christ. Brethren, we've gathered here
to worship. Now, the strategy of our enemies is to take something,
give us something that will take our attention off Christ, to
ruin that worship of Christ. That's the enemy, that's the
strategy of Satan. To get people to look away from
Christ, to look to anything. And he's not going to deceive
you with awful, horrible, ugly, sinful things. He's going to
take something that looks religious. to get your attention on that
instead of Christ. That's the strategy of false
prophets. Get your attention, make something the issue other
than Christ so you get your attention off Christ onto them. It's the
strategy of the flesh. The flesh that we carry around
with us is our enemy that's always telling us, give me something
to do. Just let me help out a little. There's nothing wrong with me
helping, is there? Let me help out. To give some glory to me and take
it away from Christ. It's the strategy of our enemy,
so stand fast. Let's remember this. Christ doesn't
need any help saving his people. And Christ doesn't need any help
keeping his people either. He's capable. He's completely,
fully able. And when we try to help out,
we've insulted the Savior. Let's help one another out. You
know, we need help. Let's help one another out. You're
not insulting somebody to help them do something that needs
to be done. But we insult the Savior trying to help him do
something that's already done. It's already finished. If we
try to help out by adding some of my works to the righteousness
of Christ, you know what I'm saying? The righteousness of
Christ is not good enough. So I've got to add some of my
own to make this thing complete. If I think I've got to suffer
some, I've got to, you know, just, I've got to suffer some
to make this thing, you know, effectual. Then what I'm saying
is the suffering of Christ is not enough. I've got to suffer
some too for my sin. Oh, I did something sinful. I
feel so bad about it. So I've got to do something to
make up for that. What I'm saying is Christ's suffering was not
enough to put that sin away. I've got to suffer some of my
own. Well, if I think that, Christ is of no profit to me at all.
You see that? Christ will not share his glory
with another. He's going to be the Savior and
do all the saving or he's going to do none of it. Now verse 3,
Paul says, for I testify again to every man that circumcised.
And this is the example that he would use for these Jews.
Their pet point of the law was circumcision. For I testify again
to every man that circumcised that he's a debtor to do the
whole law. If you're circumcised in order
to gain some righteousness, in order to make your salvation
complete, then you're a debtor to do the whole law, not just
circumcision. See, this is the way the covenant
of works and the covenant of grace is. Both of them. They're
all or nothing. It's all works. It's all grace.
Now, men know, they're honest with themselves. They know they
can't keep the whole law. So what they do, and this was
true in Paul's day, it's true in our day. They reduce all of
God's law to one thing. Now, if I just do this one thing,
then I'm saved. Well, they pick the one thing
they like. They pick the one thing they think they can do.
And they think, well, if I do this, God's pleased with me.
That makes salvation Christ plus my pet doctrine, plus my pet
law. And brethren, it's utter foolishness.
And it'll lead to utter damnation. If we think, if we're so foolish,
that we think we can even keep one law, one law, do one good
thing in order to make ourselves more saved. It's going to lead
to our utter damnation because we can't keep one law. But if
God did just give you one law, keep this one law, you'll be
saved. Adam couldn't do it. You think you can? I know I can't.
Christ did all the work of salvation. He did it all. Now stand fast
in the liberty that Christ has given you. He's given you liberty
from that law, from all of it. Christ's people, he has made
his people so free that you're not required to even do one thing.
Not required to even keep one law. Christ did it all. All of salvation, all of justification,
all of sanctification. Now stand fast in that liberty.
Verse 4, Paul says, now this is serious. Christ has become
of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law.
You're fallen from grace. Now, if we try to do anything,
I don't care what it is, just any religious motion in order
to be saved, or in order to be justified, or in order to be
sanctified, keep ourselves clean, Christ will profit you nothing. You won't have any profit from
the life of Christ or the death of Christ. If we try to do anything
in order to have salvation, the life of Christ and the death
of Christ has no effect. Has no effect on our souls. Because if we do anything for
ourselves, Christ will do nothing for us. He's going to be the
Savior of all. He's going to do all the saving
or He'd do none of it. It's either all Christ or all
us. Which do you want? Stand fast in the liberty of
Christ. You see, the flesh, we've got to stand fast because the
flesh, the flesh will allow a mixture of grace and works. The flesh
will allow Ishmael to stay in the house, but Christ won't.
Salvation is either in the righteousness of Christ or in ours. Salvation
is either in the doing and dying of Christ or it's in our doings,
one or the other. Salvation is either in the person
of Christ or in our persons, in our flesh, in our nature.
Now, which is it? It's in Christ. Isn't that what
the Scripture teaches us? And that's good news. For sinners,
this is the best news they ever heard. That Christ accomplished
all of salvation for His people and set them free. Now stand
fast in that liberty. This is good news. Don't ever
lose it. Stand fast in the liberty that
Christ has given you. Then Paul says, if you try to
add to the righteousness of Christ with your works, you've fallen
from grace. Now, people take this falling
from grace out of context all the time. When we read that verse,
you know what it tells us? A person's not fallen from grace
because they commit some horrible sin. A person's not fallen from
grace because they have open sin in their life or they, you
know, do these things that we think are so awful. A person
is fallen from grace when they're the best most righteous guy in
town. And he does those acts of righteousness. He lives that moral outward life
in order to gain favor from God. That's the guy that's fallen
from grace. And that person shows he was never under God's grace
in the first place. You know, anyone who truly believes
Christ, if God has set his grace and mercy upon you, grace is
not going to let us fall. But when a person just rejects
salvation by grace alone, it proves that they're fallen from
grace. They never were objects of God's grace in the first place.
But in verse 5, now here's our assurance of salvation. It's
not in our works, it's in the work of Christ. For we through
the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Now
the believer's hope, what is the thing you hope for most of
all? It's being made righteous in
Christ. To be made perfectly like Him. That's all of our hope. Christ is our hope of righteousness. He's our only hope of righteousness.
So the believer's hope of righteousness is not by our works, is it? It's
by faith. By faith in Christ. Not by works,
by faith. The exact same way Abraham was
made righteous. How was Abraham made righteous?
By faith. Abraham believed God. And it
was counted to him for righteousness. And if we're made righteous,
it's going to be the exact same way. By faith. Look at Romans
chapter 9. Romans 9 verse 30. What shall we say then? That
the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, they
didn't follow after righteousness through the law. have attained
to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel,
which followed after the law of righteousness, they followed
after righteousness by the law diligently. They have not attained
to the law of righteousness. Wherefore, because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, and
they stumbled at that stumbling stone. They stumbled at Christ
because they didn't believe him. And a believer is made righteous
by faith. that's given to us in the new
birth by the Holy Spirit. That's the only way we're going
to know Christ. That's the only way we're going to love Him.
That's the only way we're going to see Him. It's by the Holy Spirit giving us
life and showing us Christ, giving us faith in Him. Now, back in
our text, Galatians 5, verse 6. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision. But all that matters is faith.
which worketh by love." Now once we're in Christ, we're complete. If God's put us in His Son, we're
everything God requires. Completely righteous. Completely
justified. Completely saved. Nothing we
can do to make ourselves more complete. We're complete in Christ. So you need me, or I need me.
It doesn't matter. All it's going to do is affect
your body, not your soul. You can choose to not eat meat
if you want to. All it's going to do is make
your meal not taste as good. Or you can eat meat if you want
to and it's probably not as healthy as eating all vegetables. But
either way, all it does is affect your flesh. You can observe a
day or not observe a day. It makes no difference to your
soul. You can observe the Sabbath or not observe the Sabbath. You
can celebrate Christmas and open up presents and have fun with
your family. You cannot. It doesn't matter. All that's
going to affect is your happiness on that day and the happiness
of those around you. But it cannot affect your soul
in any positive way. It can affect your soul in a
negative way if you do it in order to be righteous. If you
do it in order to be better than somebody else, it will have a
negative effect on your soul. It will damn your soul or rob
you of liberty and assurance in Christ. Is my salvation, your salvation,
answer this question, is it dependent on Christ keeping the law or
are you keeping the law? Dependent on Christ, isn't it? Then why
do I feel like I'm not saved when I don't keep the law like
I should? It's just flesh trying to rob me of that liberty. If
you want liberty, look to Christ. That's not to say believers don't
work, because they do. Believers are active in service,
but they're not active in the works of the law. They're active
in faith, and that faith works by love. Believers don't work
and serve one another, serve the Lord out of a hope to get
anything from God. That's the attitude of a mercenary.
That's not the attitude of a child. A believer works out of love
and thanksgiving. Because we do believe God. Because
God's given us the gift of faith. A believer does live an honest
life. A believer strives to live an honest life. Not to get something
from God, but out of love for God. We want to honor Him. We
desire our lives to honor Him, not detract from the Gospel and
the Savior that we love. A believer does try to do the
right thing. They really do. But they do it out of love for
God, not of faith in Christ, because we're looking to Him.
A believer does want to help others out. And they do it out
of love. Love for the Savior and love
for their brethren. They even do it out of an attitude
of love for the people of the world. You all are easy to love. Boy, there's something out there.
Do something for them because you love them. My Lord loves
people. Shouldn't I? A believer does what he does
out of love. A believer gives out of love.
Not because he's commanded to tithe. Not because I have to.
Because I want to. And a believer's faithful. A
believer's faithful. Paul's telling us to stand fast.
Be faithful. A believer's faithful to the
Lord. Out of love. And the best illustration that
I can think of for that's marriage. I ought to be faithful to my
wife. I ought to. And I am. By God's
grace, I'm faithful to her. But not because I have to. Because
I want to. Out of love. I don't want to
betray her love and her trust because I love her. I ought to
give to her. I ought to protect her. I ought
to provide for her. And I do. But not because I have
to. Not because I'm commanded she
better provide for her or else. It's because I love her. And
I want to. I don't need anybody to stand over my shoulder and
tell me to do that or make sure I'm doing it. I do it because
I can. Out of love. And that's the way
a believer is faithful to the Lord. Not because somebody's
watching over your shoulder and demanding you do these things.
Not because you're afraid you're going to lose your salvation.
It's out of love. And when we do what we do out
of love, you can't even call it work, really, can you? Really,
you can't. It's a joy if you're doing it
out of love. And that's the difference between
law and grace. The difference between law and
grace is why you do what you do. Under the law, it's because
you have to, out of a motive of fear. But under grace, it's
from a motive of love. That's the difference. So stand
fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us
free. And don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. All right, well, may the Lord
bless that too.