Galatians 5 and chapter 1. Galatians
5 1 reads as follows. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ have 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. Stand fast therefore,
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Stand fast therefore. As Paul enters chapter 5 of his
epistle to the Galatians, having exposed the error which had come
in amongst the Galatian churches, this legal error, this perversion
of the gospel, this mixing of the works of the law with the
grace of the gospel. Having exposed this error and
having corrected his hearers by separating law and gospel,
by showing them the nature of their salvation, that they are
justified not by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus
Christ. That through the law Paul and
all true believers, all the believers at Galatia are dead to the law
that they might live unto God. that he is crucified with Christ. Nevertheless he lives, yet not
him, but Christ liveth in him. And the life which Paul, the
life which the believer now lives in the flesh is by the faith
of the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for him. Having made this plain, having
gone back to Abraham, and Abraham's experience having shown that
the law at Sinai was added after that covenant made with Abraham
430 years later and it did not disannul the promises which God
made under Abraham the promises of the gospel having shown that
the law was given unto man to expose his sin, to bring him
in under conviction of sin, to lay him low, to be a schoolmaster
until faith should come, until Christ should come, after which
the believer is no longer under the schoolmaster. having shown that the believer
before coming to faith was once a servant as it were, under the
law, serving the schoolmaster and his demands. And yet when
the time came, when Christ comes in the gospel to such a one,
he comes with the message that they are no longer a servant,
but they are a son of God. adopted as sons by the highest that they even they might be
able to cry unto God the Father, Abba Father. Having shown from the allegories
of the Old Testament that there were two sons one by the bondmaid
and one by the free woman Isaac through Sarah and Ishmael
through Agar which allegorically pictured the difference between
the gospel and the law between that which comes by promise by
the work of God alone and that which comes by the intervention
of man through his works and his attempts to fulfill God's
purposes by man's efforts. Having shown that these things
are distinct and separate. Having exhorted his heroes to
throw out, to cast out the bondwoman and her son. To cast out the
law and the works of the law. Because they are not of the law.
They are free. They are born of God through
the gospel. And in such a state they have
nothing more to do with that law. Having set all this forth
and declared it plainly, Paul comes in chapter 5 to begin to
apply this and the consequence of this. If we're no longer under
the law, if we're under the gospel, What does this mean? What is the conclusion of all
these things? What does it mean in practice
as we live in this world? What does it mean in terms of
a walk of righteousness? What does it mean in terms of
fleeing from sin? What does it mean in terms of
serving God? What does it mean in terms of
loving our brethren? What does it mean? Well Paul begins to speak to
the walk of the believer, speak to the life of the believer and
using three illustrations in chapter five. Three illustrations
of activity. For here he speaks of the activity,
the walk, the spiritual activity of all those free-born sons of
God. For we are not called to be inactive. Faith does not leave
us doing nothing, though we have done nothing to
earn it. Though nothing we do brings faith
or brings our salvation, that does not mean that faith is innate
and inactive. Faith is a living principle and
life is always seen, it's always active. When a baby is born we
soon know it, we hear it, we see it move. Life cannot be contained,
it cannot be quenched. So Paul begins to exhort that
spiritual life, that life of faith in his hearers, to lead
them not back to the yoke of bondage, the law, but to lead
their faith unto Christ in the gospel. He would have them stand,
run, and walk in Christ alone. would have them stand, run and
walk in Christ alone. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ have made us free and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. Verse 7 he did run well Who did
hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? Run, Galatians, run! But run in the truth. Verse 16, This I say then, walk
in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Walk. Stand in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free. Run in the truth unhindered. Walk in the Spirit. For if ye be led of the Spirit,
ye are not under the law. Paul exhorts to spiritual activity. to the stand of the believer
against all error, to their stand in liberty, to their running
unhindered in truth and to their walking in the Spirit of God
nor in the law. Faith is not inactive and how vital this point is to
make given the opposition that comes
to this gospel and these truths. This glorious gospel of the free
grace of God Though it is received gladly
and freely by those in whom God works by His Spirit, by those
who are broken and contrite, by those wretched sinners who've
come to know that they are sinners, who've come to know that they
are lepers before God, that in their flesh there dwelleth no
good thing, that they have no strength by nature, no ability,
no righteousness whatsoever, that they are undone, that they
are corrupt and that in such a state left to themselves the
wrath of God will burn against them and except one come to deliver
them and rescue them, left in such a state, hell is their reward. such as these come to recognize
that there's nothing that they can do to make themselves good
and when they come to the scriptures and when they come to hear the
truth and when they come to hear of God's righteousness and his
righteous requirements they find themselves falling down in despair
They hear of the law, they hear of the righteousness of God as
it is revealed in the law to the extent that the law makes
known God's righteousness. In terms of the righteousness
made known in that law and what is demanded of man they look
at it and they say that's what I want to be, that's what I want
to do but I cannot. The good that I would I cannot
do, the evil that I would not that I do. Rather than it being
a law which leads unto life, it is that which brings unto
death. As Paul has shown in chapter three, is the law then against
the promises of God? No, God forbid. For if there
had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the law never gave life.
It brought condemnation. And it brought all its hearers,
upon whom the Spirit of God worked, to utter despair. For they owned
that what it said was right. They owned that they should love
God with all their heart and they should love their neighbor
as themselves. But they found nothing inside
themselves to give them the strength to do it. So under such a state
they're in utter ruin and despair and when such as these come to
hear the gospel of the free grace of God it's like light shining
straight into darkness. It's like one coming to the door
of their cell and the key turning and opening it up and saying
come out you're free, you're delivered. Your debts have been
paid. There is no more condemnation. Rejoice, go forth. It is like the woman who has
been barren for years and cannot escape and cannot bring forth
the child she longs to. The gospel in power comes unto
her as it says in verse 27 of chapter 4. Rejoice thou barren
that bearest not. Break forth and cry thou that
travailest not. For the desolate have many more
children than she which hath a husband. It's good news, it's tremendous
news. All the law's demands are met
by the Gospel. All that righteousness we long
to have, as the Spirit taught us our need of it, the Gospel
makes known. Everything we long to be true
is made known as true in the Gospel. We long to be perfect. The Gospel makes us perfect.
We long for our sins to be taken away. The Gospel takes every
one of them away. We long to be forgiven by our
God. The Gospel declares free forgiveness
of every sin. We long for there to be peace
where there was only war between us and our maker. The Gospel
declares perfect peace. We long for a God to set his
love upon us, whom once we hated. The Gospel declares an everlasting
and eternal love for all God's chosen in Christ. We long for
the condemnation and the judgment of the Lord to be set aside and
for the cry to be no longer guilty, but not guilty. And the gospel
comes with a voice so loud and so clear. Not guilty. Not guilty. Go free. The gospel comes unto those who
are bound, who are slaves, and sets them at liberty. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free. The gospel makes the captive
free. Now to these To those who are
like these, to those who have walked this path, the pathway
of every child of God, a pathway of the conviction of sin through
the working of the Spirit, through the preparation of the ground
that the gospel seed might be sown and might come onto good
ground and bring forth fruit when these are brought this way. They don't contend against this
gospel that Paul declares. They receive it with gladness. This is good news, tremendous
news. It's not that they hate the law
of God, they love it. They received it, they said that's
what I should be. But they know that there was
no possibility of them fulfilling that law, and that salvation
must come another way. And when they hear that Christ
has not only delivered them from sin, but he has delivered them
from that law that stirred up their sin, they cannot quite
believe it. It takes that God-given faith
that they should believe. it's amazing it's wonderful it's
tremendous they are free free at liberty and yet this message so gladly received
by these is so opposed by so many others because to many the idea that
one should be set forth at liberty not simply from our sins and
the condemnation against them but also from that law of God
that condemned those sins is a dangerous idea they say how can that be How
can you preach that you're no longer under the law? That's dangerous. The law tells
us what sin is and what righteousness is. The law instructs us. If we're to be righteous and
not fall into sin again, we must continue with that law. Take
away the law and you'll have a people who fall into sin. will have none of your liberty
in the gospel. It will just lead to sin. So this truth brings much opposition. Because these misguided proponents
of the law of God, these religious who think they know the scriptures,
and yet stumble at the righteousness of God which is made known in
the gospel as the Jews of old who knew the law and were zealous
for the law and its righteousness stumbled at that stumbling stone
which is Christ and the cross. They stumbled at the righteousness
of God made known at the cross. They stumbled at the truth that
the cross delivered Christ's people once and for all. They stumbled at the idea that
righteousness can come another way without the law. as Romans clearly tells us. This
was a mystery to them, and it's a mystery to many today. As we've
said before, many see two ways and two ways only. They see law
declaring righteousness. No law must mean sin. If believers are to be righteous
in their eyes, they must remain under the law. If believers are
delivered from the law, then they must be back under sin. And they cannot comprehend of
the gospel rightly understood, which says that the gospel delivers
from sin because it delivers from the law. As Paul says in Romans 3, Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the
righteousness without the law is manifested being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. The gospel manifests the righteousness
of God without the law. Apart from the law free from
the law, at liberty from the law, outside of its jurisdiction,
outside of its condemnation, outside of its reach, now the
righteousness of God without the law is manifested. Without the law. Yet this is a mystery to many.
And this is why Paul has to exhort the believers to stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ have made us free and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Because to stay in this truth,
to stay in this liberty, to not be deceived by the reasonableness
and the persuasiveness of that which would put us back under
law requires a stand which is firm and which is sure. This stand is not inactive. It requires a deliberate looking
unto Christ, a deliberate stand in the truth of the gospel, a
constant turning from error, constant looking of faith. When the eye is turned from faith
and the gospel back to the things of the flesh back to the wisdom
of man back to the reason of man then you'll find yourself
as it were stood in a river that sweeps you away. This standing
is not the standing as it were in a dry place in an easy place
but it is as it were standing in the midst of a flowing river
or on the top of a rock surrounded by the strongest of winds. There
is that constant opposition, that constant pressure to be
moved off this place. Faith must stand. and it must stand in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free. Because Christ has made
us free. Absolutely free. He's brought
us into a freedom that none other can know. Except you are brought
to know this freedom then you have had no concept of freedom. Some will speak of wanting to
be free. People in the world speak of
being a free spirit living as they like. And yet their freedom
is utter bondage because all they mean by freedom is freedom
from commands, freedom from rule, freedom from restrictions, from
any others that tell them what to do. Freedom to do what their
evil heart determines. And their evil heart just causes
them to sin every day and as they sin the shackles of the
law tighten around their arms and their feet and though they
dance and play now the chains tighten and to that day when
their life comes to a close and those chains are tightened fast
and God says you are guilty You have broken the law's every demand. Away from me. And they are led into a place
of darkness. There's no freedom where there's sin. There's no
freedom in these things. And when Christ has made the
believer free, free from the law, has not left him in sin. He has not freed his children
that they may sin because there's no liberty where we are bound
by sin. This freedom is a true freedom
This gospel freedom is that which delivers us from sin, from the
nature of sin, from our old man, from the flesh, from the condemnation
of the flesh, from the guilt, from the law that stirs up the
flesh and the sin. It's that which brings us into
righteousness, it's that which brings us into peace with God.
It's that which puts faith in the heart that we may live and
walk by love, that we may look unto Christ, that we may hear
His voice, that we may walk with Him, that we may be led of the
Spirit. It's that which takes the dead
and makes them to live. is that which makes the living
walk in union with their God. It's true freedom. True freedom. There's no more bondage, no more
captivity, no more condemnation. We're free, entirely free. And not just free from the commands
of this law, this yoke of bondage of which Paul has spoken, that
which was added because of transgressions, that which condemned us, that
which exposed us as sinners, not just free from its commands,
but free from the sin which it condemned. Free from that which
the law was given to condemn. Yes, it's true freedom. License
is not liberty. When Paul calls his hearers to
stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free. It is not license. And those
who reject this gospel and contend against it with the accusation
that such a free grace gospel only leads unto license have
no idea of the liberty wherewith Christ have made us free. For
this liberty is not license and the child of God does not want
to sin. The child of God is not led to
sin. The child of God who walks in
the Spirit does not seek to be sinning. He does not want to
sin, he does not desire to sin, he does not see his liberty as
a freedom to sin. He hates the sins that he once
did. He loves the righteousness of
God in Jesus Christ. He loves God and his will. He longs to be led by the Spirit
in the path of righteousness. and this gospel brings a liberty
to walk in such a way to walk in such a way where there is
no condemnation where the believer knows that nothing that he is
now is of his doing that he is a new creation and that his being
a new creation is because God created him anew and that the
life he has is that which God has given him and that the faith
he has is that which God has given him and that the righteousness
he has is that which God has given him and that all his life
all his walk all his righteousness is because God has given him
it and because God leads him in it. Left to himself Should he turn
to his own strength in the flesh? Should he turn to his own wisdom
as he had in the old man Adam? He falls down flat. There's no
strength, there's no wisdom and there's no ability in the flesh.
There's only sin again. and he hates that and he wants
to turn from that and he knows that in the flesh he has no strength
to turn from that but he can only mortify the deeds of the
flesh he can only walk in the ways of God as God leads him
by the spirit and if he is to be led by the spirit he must
have his faith his gaze set upon Christ in the gospel a gospel
which reveals under him the righteousness of God, a gospel which he loves,
a gospel which weighs he loves, a gospel in which he rejoices,
a gospel of liberty. He knows that this liberty is
not licensed. He knows it's not. He knows from
painful and bitter experience that every day that he takes
that liberty of the gospel and abuses it in order to indulge
his flesh that he puts himself back under bondage. That love,
that communion he has with his God becomes darkened. That father of his whom he cries
to in tenderness, Abba, Father, seems remote. And that law from
which he's been delivered seems to ring its condemnations again
in his ears. He cannot turn from Christ to
his own ways, to his own flesh, to his own strength. without
realising by bitter experience that that way is only death as
it always was and that he needs Christ and his grace in his gospel
to lift him up. Every day he turns to indulge
his flesh, he falls down. and he waits there helpless for
God the Spirit to come again in mercy and to pick him up and
to say come back, look unto Christ who has done it all. This liberty is not licensed. No true believer who has any
experience of this pathway continues to indulge in this license every
time they do they reap the bitter rewards of so into the flesh
and they're taught again the wonderful rewards that come through
so into the spirit As Paul will go on to teach in chapter 6.
He that serve to his flesh, love the flesh, reap corruption. But
he that serve to the spiritual, of the spirit, reap life everlasting. Let us not be weary in well-doing. For in due season we reap if
we faint not. Don't feed the flesh. Turn from
it. Look unto Christ. How is this flesh fed? How does
one get back into such a way? Well I'll tell you the quickest
way to get back in such a state and that's to begin to set your
gaze back upon that law. That's to begin to set your gaze
upon your pathway in terms of things you feel you should do
and shouldn't do. and attempt to keep those things
by your own strength. This is to be entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. It is to turn from Christ and
his cross. It is to turn the gaze of faith
away from that which the Spirit would point us to, back unto
that which we would look to. It is to turn from that inner
communion with God by the Spirit of God to that which is merely
outward. It is to go to the scriptures
in an outward fashion and to say, well it says there this,
I'm going to do that. And to shut our ears to that
still small voice of the Spirit within that tells us today Walk
this way now. When we're entangled again with
the yoke of bondage, the inner life of the spirit grows cold. We cease to look unto Christ
and we look at our own way and our own things and it only brings ruin and despair. It only brings ruin and despair.
Paul says, I say unto you, if you be circumcised, if you go
to the law, if you go to the flesh, if you turn to any of
these things, Christ will profit you nothing. You can either do
these things yourself in your own strength, or you look entirely
unto Christ, recognizing that you are nothing and he is all. Christ has become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are
fallen from grace. You may say well I'm not seeking
to be justified by the law but I am seeking to live my life
to be sanctified by it. But your gaze is still set upon
the law and what you must do in your strength. You're falling
from grace. Nowhere are we exhorted to look
to the law as our rule to walk this life of faith. Faith is
called to look to Christ in the Gospel. As Paul goes on, we through
the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. We're not to go back that way. We look through the Spirit. We
hope for the righteousness of God that is in the Gospel. That
righteousness in Christ. which He brought in at the cross.
Keep your gaze upon Him at the cross. Keep your gaze upon the
One who set you free. Keep your gaze upon Him who set
you free and how He set you free. Remember where you came from. Remember what you were. Remember
how you were delivered. Look unto Him in His suffering. Look unto Christ who loved you
and gave himself for you. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made you free. Look unto him. Look unto him. You'll only know
liberty as you look unto him. You'll only know the freedom
of sin as you look unto him. Christ has delivered us from
everything he's delivered us from sin he's delivered us from
the law but he's not delivered us from the law that we might
break it but he's delivered us from the law that we might fulfill
its every demand because of that righteousness which he has brought
in that answers its every demand. and we fulfill its every demand
as we look unto Christ and see that he answered every condemnation
of the law against us by his blood. Whenever the accuser should
come alongside and find us in a moment of weakness and say,
does not the law say thou shalt? Does not the law say thou shalt
not? What have you done? Our answer is not to get up and
to say, yes, I have. I must drive harder. Tomorrow
I will do better. But our answer is to look unto
the cross and to say, I have done nothing. Because at that
cross, every one of those sins that you accuse me with is blotted
out. There's the answer to the law,
blood shed freely for me. There's my righteousness. There's
my salvation. There's my hope. That's my answer. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free. When we look there, We
know our liberty. When we look to Christ upon the
cross, we know that we are free. We know. When we look to the
law, we feel that we are bound again. But in Christ we are free. Free. The law speaks of righteousness. But all who turn to it find themselves
plunging back under sin. There's no liberty in the law.
There's no righteousness that comes through the law. When you
turn and look at the law you break it. This might seem a mystery
to many. And yet it's true. Because the
law simply condemns our flesh. and finds us guilty. But when
we look away from the Law to Christ alone, though we reject
none of the Law's demands and commands, though we say Amen
to everything that it says, as we say Amen to the whole of the
Scriptures, the whole of the Word of God as coming from God's
mouth, though we say everything that Law says is right, Yet we
look away from it unto Christ. And as we look unto Christ, we
fulfil it. The only fulfilment of the law
comes through looking away from the law unto Christ. Stand fast
therefore. Stand fast. If you should be
tempted to go back unto the law, you're on your own. God doesn't
mix these things. He'll either do everything to
save us, everything to bring in righteousness, everything
to lead us, everything to cause us to walk. He'll either lead
us by his spirit alone or he'll leave us to ourselves. We may say well what purpose,
what use is there of the law? Paul has already asked the question,
wherefore then serveth the law? He has given us the answer that
it was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to
whom the promise was made. He has told us that seed having
come, faith having come, we are no longer under it. But many
will say, but surely what the Ten Commandments say is still
true. Surely it's right not to murder, it's right not to commit
adultery, it's right not to covet. These things are true are they
not? And yet you say you're not under
the law. You seem to throw those things
out. Do you therefore think it's okay
now as a believer to murder, to lust, to covet? Of course not. Of course not. And nowhere does
Paul declare that this is so and it is mere confusion to think
that when one says that we are no longer under the law that
this means that we are now free to break that law or that we
should want to, we don't. We are free from that which condemns
us through that law. We are free from those commands
that address us and stir up the rebellion against those commands
and bring us back unto sin. The believer who looks unto Christ
and walks in the Spirit with a new life and with God-given
faith will never want to murder. The believer who looks to the
Spirit and looks to Christ in the Gospel covets only the glory
of God and the things of God. He cares not for his own things.
He covets not the praise and the adoration of man. Whereas
those who go to the law for righteousness love the praise and the adoration
of man. The believer is not against what
the law says. Indeed the believer loves the
whole word of God, all the scriptures, the law included, rightly understood,
rightly divided, rightly discerned. He says amen to all of its commands. And yet he knows that they are
met in Christ in the gospel. and despite all the persuasive
arguments, despite all which would entangle, despite all the
arguments that oh well is it not then our guide? Is it not
right to speak of it as our rule? He knows that these will not
wash because he knows that our rule as Paul says in chapter
6 and verse 15 and 16 is that of being a new creature. Our
rule of life is not an external word upon the pages of scripture
in the Old Testament. Our rule of life is a new creature,
that life, that union with God in the Spirit. This is our rule
and this rule applied as the Spirit leads. The Spirit leads
his own and the Spirit takes from all the scripture and he
speaks that scripture unto his own every day, every moment,
at the right time, according to the circumstances in which
the child of God finds himself. One day the Spirit will say,
go this way. Another day the Spirit will say,
stand still. One day the Spirit will say,
wait and pray. Another day the Spirit will say,
get up, go forth. Every word He brings can be taken
from the Scriptures. And yet He knows when to take
it, when to speak it. when to apply it. The legalist
just has a set of laws fixed external that he puts on a poster
and sticks on his wall and every day he says I must, I must, I
must not, I must not and he tries to apply the same things to the
same circumstances every day and every day he finds they condemn
him. The legalist walk is external, it's outward because he has not
this life of God within. It's all addressed in the flesh,
it's all dead. The child of God stands, runs
and walks in the gospel alone. he stands in liberty he runs
in the truth and he walks by the spirit and the spirit when
the spirit chooses takes the truth from all the scripture
the law included the new testament whatever applies whenever it
applies he takes as his rule all the gospel all the truth
and he speaks it whenever and says this is the way today walk
ye in it go this way go that way and the believer will only
walk the right way when he's attentive to the voice of the
spirit he will only hear when he has the hearing of faith attuned
to the voice of the spirit He will only stand as God causes
him to stand in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made him free. Should
he turn in any way, shape or fashion to law or to a legalizing
of the gospel in any fashion, then he is lost. Then he falls,
then he stumbles to be picked up again. Then he finds himself
crushed under conviction. But in this gospel way, in this
way of the Spirit, in this standing, running and walking, he finds
a liberty, a freedom. A freedom from condemnation. A freedom from others finding
fault. A freedom from these saying this
and saying that. A freedom to look unto God and
to love and to walk and to live as he would live. A freedom to
be right with God and a freedom to have peace with God. A freedom
to walk in righteousness. A freedom from condemnation. A freedom. and a liberty. What do you know of this? What
do you know of this? What do you know of this life?
Oh believer, be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Be not entangled. Look unto Christ and Christ alone,
who has done it all and who through his spirit will bring all to
pass. He will lead you by the right
way. Lead not unto your own understanding,
but look by faith unto God. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free. Amen.