You can open your Bibles with
me, if you will, to Galatians 5. But in introducing this subject,
the believer's hope, I want to make three very important statements. The first of which is this, salvation
by grace, by God's grace, through faith. That's the very heart,
substance, and essence of the gospel. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. And as long as this message is
preached, then the truth of the gospel is maintained. Scripture teaches us that God's
grace alone, the Father's grace alone, purpose salvation, planned
salvation, provided salvation, and keeps us safe, the Father. The Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is the one, only, complete Redeemer of His people, and the sufficient
Redeemer. And the Holy Spirit alone quickens
us, convicts us, calls us, applies all the blessings of redemption
to us. The Father chose us, the Son
redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit calls us. Salvation by the grace
of God. That's the gospel, and it's the
only gospel. And as long as it's preached,
that truth is maintained. And the second statement is this.
Salvation by grace through faith is the only real hope that a
guilty sinner has. That's the only real hope of
salvation, redemption, eternal life that a sinner has, is this
gospel of God's grace. The Apostle Paul said, neither
is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Now
here's the remedy. Listen carefully. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. That's the remedy. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, be lifted up. Now here's the result, that
whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but have everlasting
life. That's the result, that's the
remedy, that's the result. And here's the reason, for God
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." That's
the only real hope that a guilty sinner has, that God's remedy, God's results, and God's reason,
he loved us. We didn't love him. He loved us and sent his Son
to be the perpetuation for our sin. Here's the third statement. Salvation by grace through faith
is still, is still contrary to human nature and offensive to
the natural mind. It is salvation by grace by Father,
Son, Holy Spirit. It's still offensive to the natural
man. The greatest enemies The greatest
enemies of salvation by grace through faith are not found among
the profane of the world and the worldly people. You know
where the greatest enemies and opposition to the true gospel
is found? Among the religious people. That's
just so. They're found among the religious
people, the keepers of religion. the keepers of tradition, the
keepers of rituals and ceremonies and laws of men, commandments
of men. Those are the people that hate
the gospel. The profane and the worldly, they don't care about
the gospel. It's hated by religious folks.
That's right, listen. It was the religious community
that cried crucify him. We will not have this man reign
over us. Crucify him. Give us Barabbas. It was the religious community
and crowd and leaders that cried crucify him. It was a religious
Saul of Tarsus who sought to destroy the church. The most self-righteous, blameless,
religionist in that day. was opposed to the gospel of
Christ Jesus, and sought to destroy the church. It was the religious
leaders who killed the apostles, who sent the martyrs to the stake, and sent them to dungeons, and
put them to death. It was the religious crowd. So
then, here's my text, verse 1, Galatians 5. So then, this being
true, stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free. Stand fast. What is Paul saying
here? Defend it. Highly esteem it, this gospel
of God's grace. Hold fast to this gospel of God's
grace. Maintain it with all the power
that God gives you. Stand fast in the liberty where
Christ, by his grace, has set us free. The Father, by his love,
has set us free. The blood of Christ has set us
free. Hold fast to this truth. The
Heavenly Father said of Christ, He has sent me to preach glad
tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty
to the captives. He has sent me to open the prison
to the captives and set free them that are bruised. The Father
has done that and given us freedom, redeemed us from captivity and
from bondage. So stand fast in the liberty
where with Christ by his grace and blood and righteousness has
set us free. Now, what is this freedom? Now
listen to this, listen to me. Here is the freedom that he's
given us, the liberty of Christ. Number one, he has made us free
from sin. That's right. He has freed us
from sin. He that is dead is free from
sin. He died that he might live, and
we died in him that we might live, free from sin. Now then,
listen to me. He has not freed us from the
indwelling of sin. That's right. My sins are ever before me. He
has not freed me from the temptation of sin. Even our Lord was tempted
in all points as we are. And we'll still have temptation. He has freed us not from the
guilt of it. Because as David said, my sins
are ever before me and I pray for forgiveness every day. Well
what has he freed us from if he hasn't freed us from the indwelling
of it and the temptation to it? and the guilt that bears upon
our soul. He's freed us from the damning
power of sin. He's freed us from the damning,
the penalty of sin. And secondly, he's freed us from
the dominion of sin. Sin shall not reign over you. You see that? Stand fast in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Freed from sin,
he that's dead is freed from sin. Freed from its penalty,
freed from its dominion. And sin, while it does tempt
us and trouble us, it doesn't control us. It does not reign
over us. We're not the servants of sin,
we're the servants of our Lord. And we pray the forgiveness of
our sins. And we pray for the day when
we shall not only be delivered from its penalty and from its
power, but from its presence. That will be the day. I'll be
satisfied when I wake with his likeness, not the likeness of
Adam. The second thing in which Christ
has freed us, he has freed us from the ceremonial law. Now
listen carefully to me. He has freed us from the ceremonial
law and rituals. Circumcision, we talk about that
a lot in this chapter, but now you wait a minute. Circumcision
was essential to Abraham. Circumcision was essential to
Jacob, and Isaac, and Joseph, and David. They had to be circumcised. If they weren't circumcised,
they were cast off from Israel. So it wasn't just a hygienic
rural, it was essential. The Sabbath day. The Sabbath
day was not kept, somebody doesn't watch a ball game on the Sabbath,
that's playing games. This Sabbath was a day of rest.
A day when you couldn't plant, and you couldn't plow, and you
couldn't water, and you couldn't cook, and you couldn't do anything,
but walk so far for 24 hours. And it was essential to Israel. And also these feast days, they
had to go. And the priesthood. I see the
Pope and these other religious folks with their garb on waving
these censors. They're just playing games. We
don't wave a censor. We look to Christ. But Abraham
waved his censer, Abram waved his censer. Abraham put his son
on the altar to take his life because the blood shed for the
remission of sins was not a game they played, it was truth. That
old high priest went into that holy of holies every year, if
he didn't, Israel's damned. That's right. This is certain,
these washings, these altars of blood, these feast days and
Sabbath days, they were essential, but not anymore, not anymore. We don't wave a censer now, look
to Christ. We don't go into a holy of holies,
every place is holy where my God is, that's right. has delivered us from the bondage
of the law, being made a curse for us. Cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things written in the law, the Sabbath,
circumcision, feast days, holy days, but Christ hath redeemed
us from the ceremonies. That's the freedom. That's the
freedom. You walk in here and sit down,
open your Bible and look to him. And then, thirdly, he has freed
us from the fear of death. He's freed us from the fear of
death. We have a hope, a blessed hope in Christ our Lord. You've
not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear. You need not
fear. You've received the spirit of
adoption whereby we have a Father. Oh, my friend, stand fast. Hold fast. Highly esteem. Maintain. Don't let anybody mess
with you. Stand fast in Christ. And what's
this? He said in that next line, And
be not entangled again with this yoke of bondage. Don't do that.
Don't let anybody come to you with some rule or regulation. Don't be entangled with a system
of works and deeds and ceremonies or any action performed in a
religious way to obtain acceptance with God. We're accepted in Christ. We're accepted in the Beloved.
Let me read a scripture over here in Colossians. In Colossians
chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. This is
what we're talking about. Beware, don't be entangled again
with any of these things from which Christ has set us free.
Colossians chapter 2 verse 8. Beware now, Colossians 2 verse
8. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men,
after the rudiments, rudiments, the elements of the world. the
ceremony of sacrifices, and not after Christ. For in Christ dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete
in him. You are complete in him, which
is the head of all principalities and powers. All right, verse
2. Now here the Apostle Paul says,
Behold, attention, What I'm about to say is a matter
of the greatest importance, the Apostle said. Behold, behold. And then he says this, I Paul
say unto you, behold, give me your attention. I Paul, he says
here, what I'm about to say is of greatest importance and my
name carries with it the authority of scripture. God used Paul to
write the scriptures. I, Paul, say unto you. And my
name carries the authority of an apostle. And this is what
I'm going to say to you. That if any be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. And what's he saying there? Here's
what he's saying. You listen to him. If I or you
or anybody else submits to circumcision, or baptism, or feasting, or fasting,
or doing alms, or anything performed in a religious way in order to
be accepted of God, in order to be forgiven of God, in order
to obtain the favor of God, Christ profits you nothing. I said this. Christ Jesus is the one, the
only sufficient Redeemer. We're complete in him. Or, he's
no Savior at all. To join anything with Christ,
whether it be circumcision, feast days, Sabbath days, whatever
it may be, to join anything with Christ in order to be accepted
of God would be interpreted as contempt. is counting his sacrifice
of no effect. Useless. As I read that again,
Behold our power, I say this to you now, with the authority
of an apostle, with the authority of the sacred word, if you be
circumcised, baptized, anything, in order to find acceptance with
God, Christ profits you nothing. And then he says it again in
verse 3, listen, I testify to you, I testify to you, to every
man, this is a form of an oath, God is my witness, that's what
Paul said, I bear witness, I swear by the living God, I declare
unto you in the presence of every man, male or, every man, woman
and child, Jew or Gentile, what? This is what I'm declaring. I
testify again to every man that's circumcised that he's a debtor
to do the whole law. In other words, if any man is
circumcised or goes through any of these ceremonial rituals in
order to find salvation or forgiveness or eternal life, it's not only
Christ profits him nothing, but he's a debtor to do the whole
law. Start with the beginning and
do each one absolutely without fail. All right, verse 4. Christ is become of no effect
to those who seek justification by the law. They've fallen from
grace. What does it mean to fall from
grace? You've heard that term all your
life. He's fallen from grace. He's fallen from grace. Well,
when you say fallen from grace, nothing is said about a person
losing a salvation that he once had. That's not what he's talking
about. Nothing is said about a person that's overtaken in
a fault or a sin. Nothing said about that. God
forgives him. Nothing is said about a person
who's weak in duty and weak in faith and weak in other. Here's the charge. This is it. To seek to be justified. Whosoever
you are justified by the law, by doings and deeds, you've departed
from the grace of Christ, you've departed from the blood of Christ,
you've departed from the grace of God, and you've joined to
a mixture of works and grace. And that's to fall completely
out of grace. If salvation by grace, it's not
of works. If salvation by works, it's not
of grace. You follow? There's a poem that
I picked up years ago that I want to share with you this morning.
Listen carefully to this. Horatio Boni wrote this in 1850.
Not what these hands have done can save my guilty soul. Not
what this toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not
what I feel or do can give me peace with God. Not all my prayers
and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. Thy work, O Christ,
can ease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God,
can give me peace within. Thy grace alone, O Lord, can
to me pardon speak. Thy power alone, O Lamb of God,
can make this bondage break. I bless the Christ of God, I
rest on him divine, and with unfaltering voice and heart I
call this Savior That's it. That's it. I would ask you in verse 5 to
dwell for a moment on each word. This is a summary of what he
has just said. Verse 5. For we, through the
Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Let's dwell on each word now.
For we. Who's we? We who have heard the gospel,
we who have heard the gospel of Christ in power and grace,
that's we. We who have believed on him,
trusted in him, rested in him, received him as our Lord and
Savior, that's we. We, the apostles and the prophets,
and the teachers, and the brothers and sisters in Christ of all
generations, and of all nations, of all people. We! That's who
the we are here. Covenant children. Children of
the covenant. The elect of God. Those who are
born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the
will of man, but born of God. That's we. What's the next word? We through the Spirit. Not by
works, not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit. It's the Spirit that quickeneth.
The flesh profiteth nothing. We're born of the Spirit, called
by the Spirit, quickened by the Spirit, taught by the Spirit,
comforted by the Spirit, kept by the Spirit. It's by the Spirit
of God. We, through the Spirit of God. Now, through our own efforts
and works and through the Spirit of God, we wait. We wait. Wouldn't it be better to preach
like you're going to preach tonight? We work? No. No, not at all. We wait. Wouldn't it be better
to say, well, we're striving for that praise? No. No. It says we wait. We, through the Spirit, To complete the temple of God,
we have nothing to do but wait. Our Lord said, I go to prepare
a place for you. When I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again, receive you unto myself. You wait. We're
waiting for his Son from heaven. The temple is complete. To the
garment of righteousness, we don't add one single thread.
We're not in the sewing business. You're not in the tailoring business. We wait to receive his likeness. Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and
I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We wait. The righteousness is complete.
To our acceptance in Christ, our eternal inheritance, is an
inheritance laid up for you, laid up for you. It's reserved,
already reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power
of God. It faded not away. It's reserved
in heaven, kept by his power. Nothing can be added to it or
taken from it. Our inheritance is complete in
Christ. We wait. To the atonement which
we have received, we contribute absolutely nothing. It is finished. We, through the Spirit, wait.
What are we waiting for? We're waiting for the hope of
righteousness, the hope of perfect holiness, the hope of eternal
glory. We wait not in our works or in
our deeds, but in Christ, who is the hope of glory. Let
me show you that. Turn to Colossians 1 again. The
Apostle Paul uses the word hope. He's not talking about a possibility. He's talking about a certainty. In Colossians 1, he's talking
about a hope in Christ. a hope in Christ, a certainty
based on his sacrifice and his blood. In Colossians 1 verse
25, whereof Paul said, I made a minister according to the dispensation
of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill, fully preach
the word of God. Listen, even the mystery which
has been hid from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints. To whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery, this inheritance
among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you. That's the hope
of glory. Christ in you. That's the hope
of glory. which we preach, warning every
man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present
every man perfect, mature in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also
labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in
me mightily." It's a hope. Paul uses that word so often.
He says, it's such a hope. Ephesians 1, the one hope. Colossians 1, the hope laid up
in heaven. 2 Thessalonians 2, the good hope,
through grace. Titus 1, the blessed hope. Hebrews
7, the better hope. 1 Peter 1, the living hope. That's it, Christ in you, that's
the hope. We, through the Spirit, wait
for that blessed hope, Christ in you, the hope of righteousness,
eternal life, forever in Christ Jesus. Now listen, let me give
you an illustration. I was walking down in the park
the other day, always fascinated by these awesome, beautiful,
tall, stately, majestic trees. But you know something? You see
that mighty oak tree down there in Central Park? been there so
very, very, very, very, very long. It's withstood the wind
and the rain and the drought. But that stately oak was one
time just a little acorn. That's all. One little acorn. And from that one small acorn,
by God's grace, It grew into a mighty, mighty oak. Everything that that oak contains,
its strength, its bark, its fruit, its leaves,
its limbs, its shade, its power, came from that one little acorn.
The oak was in the acorn. And that's what I'm saying to
you and me. Christ in you. That's the hope of you ever becoming
one of God's oaks. Christ in you. That's all. No deeds and duties and running
around and prayer and fasting and all that. God Almighty put
Christ in that acre. And because Christ is in that
acre, it became a mighty oak. God uses the means and methods
of a... He's the one that made it a mighty
oak, and He's the one that makes you mighty in grace, and mighty
in truth, and mighty in faith, and mighty in love, and mighty
in whatever you have. It's Christ in you, Christ in
you, Christ in you, nothing else. Now we're having trouble with
that, do you? Christ liveth in me. Christ in you, that's the
hope of glory, that's the hope of anything God has for anybody,
is Christ in us. And then in this sixth verse,
for in Jesus Christ, listen to me now, I'm going to quit. In
Jesus Christ, circumcision, neither circumcision availeth anything
nor uncircumcision. What does that mean, preacher? To observe these things commanded
in the Levitical law, or not to observe them, to observe them
or not to observe them, will avail you nothing as far as redemption
is concerned. In other words, here's a man
that keeps the Sabbath day. He keeps the Sabbath day. He's
not going to be accepted on the basis of keeping that day. Here's
another man that doesn't keep it. He's not going to be accepted
either, neither one of them. Here's a person who gives his
tithes and his goods and feeds the poor. He's not going to be
accepted on the basis of feeding the poor, giving alms. But the
man who never gives anybody anything, he's not going to be accepted
either. Neither one of them. The person who takes the moral
law and the Ten Commandments and sticks by them and stands
by them as best as his ability, he's not going to be accepted. It violates every one of them.
He's not going to be accepted either. Neither circumcision
there, nothing. No uncircumcision. Listen, it's
a faith that works by love. That's what I'm going to put
you on tonight. We're justified before God by a faith that works,
but it works by love. It's true heart of faith, it's
evidence and expressed by love to Christ and love to one another.
Peter, do you love me? You know I do. God gave him that
love. God gave life to that acorn. God did it. But he became an
oak. Boy, boy he became an oak. He sure did. I hope that's a blessing. We'll
talk about the believers' works tonight.