Our reading this morning is from
Galatians chapter five, and I want to read the first 15 verses. Galatians chapter five, verses
one to 15. 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 ye 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 has become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, ye 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. Ye did run well, who did hinder
you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh
not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump. I have confidence in you through
the Lord that ye will be none otherwise minded. But he that
troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offence
of the cross ceased. I would, they were even cut off,
which trouble you. For brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law
is fulfilled in this one word, even in this, thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one
another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. I think of all the wise and the
challenging statements of the Apostle Paul in this book of
Galatians, and there are many, many of them. I think it's a
wonderful book. It's a tremendous book that speaks
so highly of the gospel and so clearly of the futility of works. Whether you call those works
the law as the highest manifestation of a works system, or whether
you're simply thinking of anything that's in your life that gives
you a sense of self-righteousness. The Apostle Paul has so clearly
contrasted law and gospel, works and faith, liberty and bondage,
life and death. And the book is full of these
meaningful phrases and sentiments and lessons for us to learn. There is such emphasis in this
book on these points that it is impossible for us to miss
them. But of all of these rich admonitions
that come from this Prince of Epistles, I believe this opening
verse of chapter five is right up there at the top of every
category. stand fast therefore. That word therefore throws us
of course back onto the arguments that the apostle has been giving
to us and so in a sense it's a summary verse, it's the culmination
of his argument. He's shown us so much in these
previous passages, these previous chapters and so he says therefore,
therefore as a result of that, if I've proved these things to
you, if I've been able to show you with some substance, some
clarity, some emphasis, if you've seen through the sincerity of
my argument in these things, stand fast in this liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free. Don't be entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. And I think that these five words,
Christ has made us free. They ought to resonate with us. They ought to echo and re-echo
with us. They ought to feature largely
in every gospel preacher's message and ministry. Christ has made
us free. He has given us liberty. He has
let the prisoner go. And we would do well to layer
up this sweet truth of that which Christ has done for us. not of works. There's no boasting
here. This is grace. Christ has made
us free. It is a gift that he has given
and granted and freely bestowed. He is the one who initiates these
things. Christ has smashed our chains. Christ has snapped that yoke
of bondage. Christ has liberated the captive. Christ has kicked in those dungeon
gates. He has spoiled principalities
and powers. He has usurped dominions. He has overthrown empires. He has smashed shackles. He has shattered prison cells. He has emptied the jails. And it all comes down to this.
Christ has made us free. And that truth ought to be preached,
it ought to be cherished, and it ought to be believed. So if
you go from our service this morning remembering nothing else,
remember the words of this first verse of chapter five of Galatians. Christ hath made us free. Paul is telling us that we are
to stand fast, we are to hold firm, we are to persist, persist
resolutely in this condition, this blessed state that He has
brought us into. We have been brought into a liberty
and in this state it is a right now condition. It is the condition
that we stand in right now. It is something that the Apostle
Paul is enjoining on us to hold fast to, to cherish and to believe. This state into which we have
been brought is to be enjoyed by those who have been brought
into it. It's to cause us joy. It is to
give us pleasure. It is to send a calmness and
a peace into our souls, into our Christian experience, into
our life and our walk and our conversation here upon this earth,
into your relationships in your family. into the conversations
that you have with the people of your society, whatever they
might be, the people you work with, or the people into whose
homes you go, or the people that you deal with, with your various
activities. This is to pervade all of your
character. It is to pervade all of your
soul, all of your attitudes, that Christ has made you free.
You're debtor to no man. You're free men. You're blessed
of God. You are anointed sons and daughters
of the Most High God. You are so privileged upon the
face of this earth that there is not one. And a thousand and
ten thousand who owns the riches of the materialism of this world
can hold a candle to the brightness of the glory which is your possession. Blessed people, you're free in
Christ and he has set you free. This isn't something that we
look forward to. Oh, heaven is going to be wonderful.
Roll on that day. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Roll on that day when we first
enter into the experience of the loveliness of the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ forever. When we open our eyes, not in
death, but in life, and in freedom and in liberty, and in the enjoyment
of all of those blessed privileges and wondrous, unimaginable things
which are laid up in store for us. But this liberty is ours
now and we are encouraged, directed, admonished to stand fast in it
now. Don't forgo it, don't give it
up. Don't let it go cheaply. Don't
succumb to the philosophies and the wisdom of men's theology
that say you have to do this and you have to do that and you
have to be there and you have to live like this, you have to
dress like this, you have to eat these things, you have to
go to these places. You're free in Christ. Because
He has done everything, everything, everything that is required of
His Father. And God the Father could not
look upon you more pleasurably if you laid down your very life. Because all that's needful is
in His Son, in whom He is well pleased. And He is well pleased
in us in Him. This is our inheritance. This
is our possession. This is our treasure. What liberty we have. It is a liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free. Liberty wherewith Christ has
made us free. I guess we don't use the word
wherewith too often these days. I don't use it very much and
probably you don't either. We usually say with which. It's the same thing. This is
the hammer wherewith I hit the nail. But that's what has given us
this blessed state, this liberty wherewith Christ has made us
free. This is the hammer wherewith
He has smashed the chains. He has brought us into the experience
of grace and peace. Let us just think for a few moments
together of some of the ways in which this liberty that we
are to stand fast in has been manifested to the church. How we might think about it with
some concreteness in the practical, in the application ways in which
this has been bestowed so freely to us. And one of those ways is to think
about our great adversary, Satan. We have liberty from Satan. We have liberty from Satan. Have
you any idea Well, I guess we have. We hear
about it a lot. You know, you hear about this
notion that Saren is out there and he is powerful and he is
contending against God and he is trying to raise all the forces
of wickedness and evil and gather his mast armies of minions against
the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and against individual
believers. I remember, you know, times gone
by, hearing people saying that they'd heard this message that
Satan was trying to attack Christian marriages. And so he was sort
of, as it were, bringing all these temptations against young
husbands and wives, young men and women in order to attack
Christian marriages because he felt that he was able thereby
to damage the church and destroy the home life and affect the
children. And this would be a big victory
for him. You know, this is just speculative
nonsense. Satan is a defeated foe. He is defeated. Now that doesn't
mean to say that he isn't a roaring lion. He talks good talk. He has a loud voice, unsettling,
but he's defeated. Our Savior defeated him at the
cross. Our Savior went into his house and he robbed him of his treasure. Our Saviour went into his domain
and three days later, he kicked down that door and he came right
out. You know, he didn't even have
to kick the door down, the angels just came and moved the stone
away. But the Lord Jesus Christ had defeated death. He defeated
hell. He defeated the grave. What does
Satan have to worry us for? This church, of which Jesus Christ
is the head, is his pure bride. And He is safeguarding that church. He is looking after that bride.
He is protecting, let's change the analogy, His little ones,
His children, with all of the strength and determination and
power as any good father would, as any good husband would. Our loving Savior has His hand
upon us. And we are free from the dominion
of Satan over us. He doesn't get to do with us
what he likes. Remember how Satan went in before
God and asked about Job in those days gone by in the Old Testament
narrative that we have? That was in the days before the
Lord Jesus Christ had ever been manifested here upon earth, but
Job wasn't even at Satan's disposal then. And we have liberty from death,
liberty from death. In John 11, verse 26, we read, And these are the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So they're venerable. They're worth believing. Whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die. You know, the Lord turned to
his disciples and he said, do you believe me? Do you believe
me? Believest thou this? This body is like a shell. It's like a temple that we host
our spirit in. And that spirit is a never dying
soul. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
won that spirit. He prizes that spirit. He loves
that spirit. He loves us. And we may be called
upon to lay down this body. But it's getting old and frail
and feeble anyway. It's spent. It's had its day. The Lord Jesus Christ gives us
liberty from the fear of death. We don't have to worry about
what tomorrow will bring. We don't have to worry about
what will happen on the day that we pass. We don't even have to
worry about the process of getting there because he has promised
us grace for the day. He has promised that he will
provide for us every single day. You let these worries get on
top of you. What have you succeeded in doing?
You've succeeded in not standing fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free. Well, that's clever that you
succeeded at that. And why would you want to? Why
would you want to be fraught? Why would you want to be anxious?
Why would you want to be frightened when this calmness and the peace
is made so freely available to us and all we have to do is believe
it? All we have to do is not doubt
it. All we have to do is say that
in the face of every allegation and temptation that might be
thrown up, I trust in the Lord. I believe his word. Whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Hebrews 2 verse 14
says, For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. The Lord
Jesus Christ, Almighty God, became a man. He came into this world
in order to represent us, in order to fulfill a priestly role
and to take up that task. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil. Destroyed. Destroyed. and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. We're delivered out of that bondage. That's the liberty we have. That's
the liberty the apostle is saying stand fast in it. So we've got
liberty from Satan. We've got liberty from death.
We've got liberty from sin. Liberty from sin. Sin no longer
reigns in our mortal bodies. It once did, it once did, but
not any longer. Paul says in Romans 6, verse
11, Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it
in the lusts thereof. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. You see, this liberty that we
have, this grace that we have received, it has An effect. It has ramifications and consequences. It takes us, not in some theoretical
way and presents us with a doctrine or a theology and says, well,
just believe this and everything will be fine. But we live it.
We are to stand fast. That means you plant your feet
in the ground and you stand fast. Like a fastener stands. Fast
is an odd word, isn't it? It kind of carries that idea
of momentum and movement, and yet what it actually means is
that it's stuck. So it's a word that's got contrary
meanings depending on how we use it. But to stand fast is
to stand firm. It is to stand like we are fastened
to the ground. We are fastened to this liberty
with which we have been made free. Sin shall not have dominion
over you. There's a new kid on the block. There's someone else in control
of this house. There's someone else sitting
on the throne of my life. The Lord Jesus Christ is king
today. It used to be someone else. I
used to pursue the lusts of the flesh. I used to be cast hither
and thither without any firm foundation, without anything
to stand on like a cork. on a windy lake, blowing wherever
that wind would choose. But now Christ has made us free
and we are the possessors of such a liberty. And the apostle
says, now you stand on that. There's something substantial
to hold on to. There's something foundational
upon which to build. There's something to give you
some rigidity, some constancy, some ground of faithfulness upon
which to hold. We're free from Satan. We're
free from sin. We're free from the law. Romans
chapter eight, verse two says, for the law of
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death. The law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. There is a law of sin and death
and it's taking millions of people in this world to a lost eternity.
They will populate hell in their thousands, their tens of thousands
and their hundreds of thousands. There will be separation in that
day to come. There will be weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth. There will be cries for mercy,
mercy, mercy. And there will be no mercy. There
will just be justice. There will just be the righteous
desserts of the wicked rebellion of men and women against God. But Christ has fulfilled the
law. Christ has died in our place. Christ has paid the price of
our sin. That precious blood that was
shed has overthrown the rule and the reign and the dominion
of law and of works, so that our works no longer condemn us,
nor does the righteous law have anything to say against us. It
looks down its big long list, it looks under every heading,
it assesses every category and it says no. I can't find anything against
this one. We've searched, we've gone and
looked, we've been in all the books, we've been through all
the indexes, we've even looked it up at the back and we can't
find a single thing against this person. Well then, he's free.
He's free. The doors open and out he goes. He's free. The law has nothing to say against
us because it finds every demand that ever it made satisfied in
our substitute, in our surety, in the one who didn't just put
his hand in his pocket and pull out his checkbook or his wallet
and pay over the debt, but who went to the cross and opened
his hands and opened his side and let flow precious blood to
the cleansing of our sins. This is our Saviour. This is
the one who is our salvation. Jonah said, Salvation is of the
Lord. Jacob said, I've waited for your
salvation. Simeon said, Mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. Let thy servant depart in peace. And the Lord's people in eternity
will sing hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah to the one who has
saved their souls for time and for eternity. We have liberty. If the Son therefore shall make
you free, says John, ye shall be free indeed. And that's been
Paul's whole argument in this book of Galatians. That's the message. That's been
what he's been directing to. And when he says to the people
here, be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage, that
covers everything. That covers the Ten Commandments,
that covers the ceremonial law, that covers the ritual of religion,
that covers the particular moral code that your little club or
your little country or your little group of friends happen to impose
at any particular time in the history of mankind. Everything
is under that. Don't be entangled with that. Don't think that there's something
that you can bring to the party. Because everything has been provided. Everything has been satisfied.
That's his argument. Don't get tied up in works and
religious doing, legal observance. And you see, Circumcision was
the mark of that. That was just the mark. I guess
you all know what circumcision was. It was a sign that was put
into the body of the Jews. It was physically there in their
body. You get circumcised, you can't
uncircumcise somebody. That mark was there for life.
That mark was there for keeps. And what it said, was that that
child that was circumcised was under the obligations to live
by that code. Now they circumcised that child
on the eighth day. So there was nothing of free
will as far as that was concerned. And that's actually the futility
of even viewing paedo-baptism as something that can be laid
upon the Old Testament circumcision as being in any way a modern
fulfilment of that Old Testament practice. It's nothing to do
with it, baptism. But here we see This liberty
being spoken of as being a shaking off of this circumcision, this
idea. In verse six of our chapter. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. In verse 2 of Galatians 5, Paul
says, If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. You don't get anything physically
cut into you any longer because these are spiritual things and
this circumcision is of the heart. It's a spiritual circumcision. If you go under any form of law,
obedience. If you think that you're going
to be able to live by some standard that is pleasing to God, it's
got to be absolutely perfect in the extreme. And even at that,
it's not possible. You can put the cleanest water
through a dirty pipe, and that's dirty water at the end of the
pipe. Why is that? Because the pipe's dirty. Because
you're dirty. And you can do the best things,
you can do the purest things from the purest motives, but
it comes out of a dirty flesh and a dirty heart. You need to see through that
nonsense, that nonsense of religion. You need to see through the foolishness. Paul is saying to these Galatians,
you need to see through the foolishness of these religious hacks that
are trying to win you over to their camp, to their side. Christ won't profit you anything
if you do that. But if you stand fast in the
liberty with which Christ has made us free. Christ will profit
you something. He will. If you get circumcised,
I, Paul, say unto you, if ye be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. Because you've turned your back
on him. You've gone your own way, you've done your own thing,
you've followed your own path. And Christ will profit you nothing.
I just want us to pause for a moment and think about that. Because
religion today, and it can be any kind you want, from the nearest
thing that we have to this Pauline position, the nearest thing you
have, and you can be as Calvinistic as the day is long. You can be
as doctrinally sound as the day is long and fail. to understand
what Paul is saying here, have a work system as part of your
religion, or you can be as wild and fanciful in your religious
esoteric ideas that you could possibly be. It doesn't matter.
That whole gamut, that whole spectrum of man's religious ideas
and construction, Christ profits you nothing. Christ profits you nothing. People say, do you believe that
Arminians can be saved? Well, I do believe that Arminians
can be saved because I was an Arminian once. But when I was,
Christ was profiting me nothing. Do you believe that people have
any self-righteousness can be saved? Well, yes, they can be,
but they've got to give up their self-righteousness. They've got
to give up their good works because Christ will profit them nothing
if they hold fast to that at the cost and the expense of holding
fast to the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Nothing. All I want is for Christ to profit
me something. Something. Anything. Just the knowledge that I have
something from Christ will satisfy this man, will satisfy this soul. I'm looking forward to what the
Lord has for me. It's a beautiful little verse.
Look at verse five of this chapter. And those of you that have good
memories, as well as remembering the liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free, try and remember verse five as well. Look at this. We, through the Spirit, wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. The hope of righteousness
by faith. That's glory. The hope of righteousness
is our eternal life. The hope that we have in this
world is entering into the fullness of that eternal life, that eternal
glory, that heavenly possession of being with the Lord. That's
our hope of righteousness. But you have it by faith, by
faith alone that comes. The hope of righteousness is
by faith. And I just want to profit something
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If I can have that hope of righteousness,
if Christ will mediate something to me in this world, in this
family, in this life, in this environment, in this weary world
in which I have to walk, if Christ will profit me something, just
some little thing, just a morsel from His table, it'll be enough. But if Christ profits me nothing,
Oh, what a terrible position to be in. The hopelessness, the
hopelessness of being without righteousness before a holy God. Man-made religion wants to change
the world for Jesus. And Jesus himself says, if you
follow that, I will profit you nothing. There's no profit in it except
the empty applause of similarly deceived people. They'll cheer
you. They'll pat your back. Goodness,
let me tell you this, they'll even bury you with a fanfare. They'll clap their hands, they'll
say well done as they put you in a box and they put you in
the earth. They'll say he's in heaven today. Upon what grounds? Well because he was a good man. Because he loved his family.
Because he tried his best. Because he was there at church.
Because he never let the collection bag pass without putting something
significant in it. and Christ profited him nothing. Lord, make us humble, make us
faithful, make us to trust in that complete sufficiency for
all our righteousness, for every need and for the ground of our
hope of eternal salvation. Galatians 5 verse 3 says, I testify
again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the
whole law. Verse 4, Christ has become of
no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Now I've tried to show in this
series of studies that we've been doing that when we're speaking
of the law, we're speaking of any kind of works. Any kind of
works by which we imagine God is inclined to lean towards us
favorably as a result of that. And if you think that there's
anything that you can do that inclines God towards you in love,
in mercy, in blessing or grace, then you might as well do the
whole law as perfectly as you can. because you've fallen from
grace. You've fallen from grace. You've
no right to testify about grace. You've no right to say that you
believe in grace. I wish these people would be
in some way honest. They have their legalism, they
have their works, and they try to meld these things together,
blend it. They say, yes, we believe in
Jesus, but of course you've got to do these things. Of course
you've got to live a good life. Of course you've got to be obedient
to the law. And it's just said with such
ease and familiarity that they imagine that it must be the way
that it is. And Paul says, you've fallen
from grace. You can't have these two things together. Christ profits you nothing. Christ has become of no effect. Well, I want Christ to profit
me something. And I want Christ to be of some
effect to me. And I want him to be of some
effect to you. What a blessing it is to have
the Spirit bear witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. to experience something of the
entrance of light and life and love and liberty into our souls
because Christ has effected that in us. To know whom we have believed
and to rejoice in it. He goes on to say, Verse six,
for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything
nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. You have
to have Christ for anything to avail. You have to have Him. We, through the Spirit, wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. Through the Spirit,
not by our doings, but unconditionally by a free gift of sovereign grace. We wait for the hope of righteousness,
the promise, the fulfilment of the inheritance that is set before
us, eternal life and the heavenly glory that shall be ours. By
faith, we wait for that. The righteousness we possess
is not by works, but it is God's righteousness by faith in Jesus
Christ. For by grace are ye saved, through
faith, that not of yourself, it is the gift of God. To be in Christ is to have forsaken
all man-made religion. It is to have let go all the
criteria that people would make, all the conditions that they
would impose for peace with God, and simply to trust in the love
and the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. Paul says in verse
13 of this chapter, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Salvation is the salvation of
liberty. It comes by the free gift of
God. It is entirely His mercy and
His goodness. It is entirely of His gift. You want to deny God the privilege
of giving you a gift by insisting that you're going to do things
your way? Works for the believer in Christ
is finished. We are not called to law, but
we are called to Christ, to believe in him, to trust in him, to rest
in him for time and for eternity. May he give us the grace to do
so. Amen.