I invite your attention back
to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 1. Liberty is what is being spoken
of here. The title of my message is Don't
Move. Don't Move. I can't remember how many years
ago Brother Mahan told the story of going down to visit Milton
Howard in Chiapas, Mexico when Milton was a missionary there.
And for a week, Henry preached about three or four times a day
for Monday through Saturday. And they had a ranch there that
was owned by several of the men in different churches that they
sort of retreated to and relaxed, had a fishing pond there and
you could ride horses and things like that. And Henry had preached Monday
through Saturday and Milton said, we're taking off tomorrow to
the ranch. We're going to relax a little
bit. We're going fishing. And Henry said he's a man who
believes grace and believes in the liberty that is in Christ
Jesus all his life. But that Sunday morning when
he got up, went out to the boat with a fishing pole in his hand,
getting ready to wet his hook, he said, I realize how much of
a legaceless I still was. I'm going fishing on Sunday.
Now he had preached the gospel three times a day for six days.
Eighteen times in six days. But he was still at heart in
our old carnal religious nature. All of us are. Legalist in recovery. That's all we are. Wayne Robinson told me about
a hymn book one time that had this hymn in it. Why do you have
to lie on Sunday when you've got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday and Saturday? That's actually a hymn in a hymn
book. Paul declares that the children
of God stand in liberty. They stand in liberty. Now that
liberty does not mean license. Just because you can do a thing
don't mean you ought to do a thing or you should do a thing. Through
Paul's epistles he tells us that sometimes our brothers are weak.
He's not talking about weak as compared to us. He's talking
about being weak because of how they're raised, because of the
morals they were raised with. They might have convictions about
certain things. And if our brethren have convictions
that we don't, we're not to do those things if they have convictions
about them. Simple as that. He says it this
way in verse 13 of this same chapter, For brethren, ye have
been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty as an occasion
to the flesh. but by love serve one another. When he talked about all things
being lawful for him three times in the New Testament, he said,
all things are lawful to me, but not all things are expedient. And what he meant by that was
not that we use the word expedient meaning quick. He meant not all
things help me. There are things out there that
I am free to do, But if they don't help me in this sojourn
between here and yonder, I'll just leave them alone. And I'm
free to leave them alone. I'm free to do them. But I'm
also free to leave them alone. He says all things are lawful
to me, but not all things edify. And here he was talking about
the brethren. He said everything out there, there's nothing kept
back from me except what God himself prohibits. But when I use those things,
it ought to be for the desire to see my brother grow in the
Lord Jesus Christ, to edify and strengthen the brother. So if
there's a thing that might harm my brother or hurt my brother,
I just won't do that. And you have the freedom or the
liberty to do it or not to do it. Then he goes on to say, all
things are lawful for me, but I'm not going to come under the
power of any one thing. So liberty is freedom and absolute
freedom, but in the book of Galatians it generally is speaking of freedom
from the law. Freedom from the law. These first
few verses of chapter 5 are a kind of precursor to what Paul finally
says in chapter 6 and verse 14 when he said, God forbid that
I should glory, save in the cross of Christ, by whom the world
is crucified unto me, and I am crucified unto the world. Regardless of the writer of this
book, the Holy Spirit always brings him to declare this truth
in one form or another. Look to Christ. look to Christ
and Him alone. The word, therefore, in this
first verse of chapter 5 relates to all that Paul has said up
to this point in this epistle. Evidently, Paul in this book
has established a place for a believer to plant his feet and is now
saying, stand fast. Don't move. Don't move from this
foundation. The reader of this epistle is
exhorted to stand fast therefore. And the stand that the reader
of this epistle is to take is based on the proof that Paul
has set forth thus far in this epistle. He's made a foundation.
He's laid upon the foundation that God himself has laid. Now
no admonition or exhortation is spoken of in a vacuum. So
when he tells us believers to stand fast. He tells us that. He exhorts us to stand fast. There's a reason for that. It
certainly suggests that we might fail to stand fast, at least
for a time before we are eventually recovered by the gospel. It is
a warning as well as an exhortation. Paul speaks in this manner because
Peter, James, and Barnabas had fallen prey to the enticements
of legal righteousness. And it is enticing. It is enticing. The next time someone says something
about you and you immediately begin to defend yourself. How
enticing is that when you defend yourself? As self-righteousness? Nobody could really say anything
about you that would add up to what you really are. Isn't that
right? Nobody really knows half the
story. I love y'all. Some people I've been with over
33 years here in this congregation. But I don't know you. I know what you let me know.
And you don't want me to know what you don't want me to know. Peter and James and Barnabas
were preachers of the gospel. They were men called to God.
They were men that walked with the Lord Jesus Christ. They heard
Him speak. They sat at His feet. And yet
they were enticed by the legal things that were going on in
the Galatian churches. Enticements of legal righteousness
and the feeling that folks get when they believe that they are
better than someone else. That's really enticing. I like
that feeling. And so does everybody else who's
honest with themselves. You see, but the devil is not
in the business of making folks feel bad about themselves. He's
in the business of self-esteem building and self-justification,
no matter what your behavior might be. Peter, James, and Barnabas
did not sidle up with the legalists because it enhanced the knowledge
of their own depravity. I'm going to go sit over there
with them Jews, them Judaizers, because that will make me feel
really aware of how wretched I am." No, that ain't why they
did it. They went there because it filled some carnal need for
them. The Galatian believers had also evidently dabbled in
some of the peripheral aspects of the law because this whole
book is written to them. This whole book. In chapter 4,
verses 9 and 10, Paul says this, But now after you have known
God, or rather known of God, how turn you again to the weak
and beggarly elements? Where unto you desire again to
be in bondage? You observe days and months and
times and years. What's wrong with you? Because believers are sinners,
though they are saints and saved by grace and they are sons of
God. The possibility always exists that they will not stand firm
in the liberty that Christ has purchased for them and the Spirit
has applied to them, or Paul wouldn't have spent time under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit exhorting us in this manner. It is just a sad fact of life,
but the best way to exalt self and justify self is to make somebody
else all wrong. Isn't that the easiest way? just to make somebody else all
wrong. This does not mean that the believer loses their standing
before God when they fall and fail to stand as they are. Since
they had nothing to do with the attainment of that eternal standing,
they in no way forfeit it, though they can and often do lose sight
of it and therefore lose joy in it. Liberty is a sweet thing. And we experience it when we're
looking at Jesus Christ. And it's fine. It's as fine a
thing as you'll ever have on this earth is liberty. And yet,
we're so prone not to have the joy of it by looking away from
Christ. God's people can slip into a
state of bondage, and they will when they take their eyes from
Him who bought their freedom. There is also the possibility
that those who have professed Christ have done so only in a
nominal sense, and have never really disallowed the efforts
of the flesh for justification. Such are called reprobates and
apostates in Scripture, and are described in a most unflattering
way as hogs that return to their waller and dogs that return to
their vomit. Paul's admonition is primarily
this. Don't move. stand on the truth
that has been declared, the proof that he has preached, the foundation
that he has built upon. What is that? It is the gospel.
He said in verses 8 and 9 of chapter 1, if anybody comes,
angel, preacher, whatever, comes and preaches any other gospel
than that which I have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Then he repeats it in verse 9. Let me say it again, he said.
Just in case you didn't get it, let me say it again. If anybody
comes and preaches any other gospel than that which I have
preached unto you, let him be anathema, maranatha, accursed
when the Lord comes. He proved and established The
place upon which the children of God are to stand. The gospel. The person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the proof that he is established
is by inspiration of God. And it is that the believer is
free from all and any aspects of the law. He's free now. for justification, for sanctification,
for righteousness, and for rule of life. He is free from the
law. We sing, free from the law. Oh,
blessed condition. Jesus has died, and there is
remission. What is the liberty wherein we
stand? It is a safe and solid and indisputable
foundation. It is the liberty of the delivered. Being delivered. In chapter 1
and verse 3, It says, Grace be unto you, and peace from the
Lord Jesus Christ, and from the Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself
for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father. It is the liberty
of a purposed salvation. You know, there ain't much liberty
in a salvation that has something to do with how I handle it. or
how I come up with it, or if I have to keep it going, there's
not a whole lot of liberty there. But if I can get a liberty to
stand upon that was settled in all eternity, that's a good liberty. Because nothing in time can ever
change that. In verse 15 of chapter 1 he says,
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace, wouldn't it please God? And He
did that to reveal His Son in me. He said immediately I forgot
everybody else. Immediately I conferred not with
flesh and blood. He said I didn't go tell nobody.
I certainly didn't go ask nobody. I didn't go up to Jerusalem where
all the big dogs was and sit down and say, fellows, you reckon
I'm really saved? He said, I didn't ask them nothing. I set out to
preach the gospel and that's all I did. That's a purposed
salvation. This is a freedom of relying
alone on no one else but Jesus Christ the Lord. He conferred
not with flesh and blood. It is the liberty of being by
the law, dead to the law. By the law, dead to the law.
He says in chapter 2 in verse 19, For I, through the law... What does that mean? Just what
he says, through the law, am dead to the law that I might
live unto God. How are we dead? to the law through
the law. Jesus Christ fulfilled the law
and answered every one of the law's demands even unto death
which propitiated God for us. Christ honored the law in saving
our souls and the law is so honored by his sacrifice on our behalf
that the law itself looks at us and can find no fault and
said this person must be at liberty. This person must be free. It is the liberty of imputed
righteousness. Look at chapter 3 and verse 6. Even as Abraham believed God
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he believed
concerning the seed. Genesis 15. It is the liberty
of the redeemed. Chapter 3 and verses 13 and 14
says Christ has redeemed us. From the curse of the law being
made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that
hangeth on the tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come
on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. It is the freedom of being
an heir. Verse 18 and 29 of chapter 3
says, For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by
promise. And in verse 29 it says, If ye
be Christ's, then ye are Abraham's seed and heirs according to promise. God, before the world began,
wrote a will and testament. And He puts your name in it if
you are His. If He chose you, if Christ was
made to be your surety, Your name's in that will. And whatever
you're supposed to get is in that will. And 2,000 years ago
on Calvary Street, the testator of that will died and put that
will in force. You're an heir of God. And joint
heir with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's liberty. That's liberty. You say, well, I don't know.
I've got to work really hard to get what I'm going to get.
That ain't liberty. It's not. Liberty is knowing
you already got it. Because you're an heir. You're
an heir. It is the liberty of being a
son and not a servant. That's what he says in chapter
4, verses 4-7. But when the fulness of time
was come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under law, that we might receive
the adoption of sons. Because you are sons. God sent
forth His Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Now, which comes first, the Sonship or the Spirit? It is the Spirit's
entrance. We're sons. And God sends us His Spirit.
We've always been God's children if you were the elect. We just
didn't have any idea about it. We didn't know it. It took the
Gospel to inform us of it. But we've always been God's children.
That's what it says in Hebrews chapter 2. Because the children
were partakers of flesh and blood, Christ also partook of the same. Christ also partook of the same. It is the liberty of one who
has no part in the covenant of works. Chapter 4, verse 24 through
26, which things are an allegory, speaking of the story, the true
story of Ishmael and Isaac, which things were an allegory, For
these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which
gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. And this Hagar is Mount
Sinai, and Arabian answers to Jerusalem, which is now, and
is in bondage to her children. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free, which is the mother of us all. That Jerusalem which
is above, according to Revelation, is the church of the living God.
And it's free. It's free. It's the liberty of
faith and not works. The just shall live by faith,
he says in chapter 2 and chapter 3. It's the liberty of spiritual
life. And only a child of God can know
that. He can mount up on eagle's wings and soar to places that
no man can soar. I was watching Starship Enterprise
yesterday for a few minutes, going to places where no man
had gone before. But in your mind, you can soar to heaven
right now and be in the very presence of God. You can think
things that are too wonderful for poor, wretched sinners to
think. You can think on them. You can dwell on them. You can
meditate upon them. And Paul sums up this place to
stand, this foundation of solid footing, whereupon the believer
is to make his defense. with words of sovereign accomplishment.
Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free. The liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free. This liberty is not a figment
of the imagination. It is not a thing to be attained
by will or whim. It is neither possibility nor
probability. It is a finished and done thing.
It is the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. made us free. The wording of this phrase is
important. It's very interesting. The wording
suggests that we are to stand in the liberty by which Christ
has made us free. So Christ has made us free by
liberty. We're to stand in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free. That's the liberty in which we
are to stand. This certainly suggests or implies
that that liberty in which we are to stand existed before we
were privileged to stand in it, and more declares that it was
the means by which Christ has made us free. He made us free
by His liberty. The liberty wherewith He has
made us free. The liberty we're with Christ has made us free
is really the same thing that Paul says throughout this book
when he talks about the faith of Jesus Christ. In the book
of Galatians, that phrase, the faith of Jesus Christ, represents
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he
accomplishes. It's not about our faith in him.
He's talking about his faithfulness in accomplishing the work that
God had gave him to do. It is the work of Christ culminating
in His resurrection and ascension. He fulfilled the law. We know
that in every jot and tittle. He suffered the wrath of God
against sin and in a final glorious act, by His own power, He who
is life, died under the penalty of the law and thus propitiated
God for us, satisfied God for us. Three days later he came
forth from the grave, free from death, at full liberty for himself
and for all for whom he died. He was delivered for our transgressions
and raised for our justification, saith the Scripture. The Old
Song says, Death could not keep its prey. He tore the bars away. Why? You can't keep an innocent
man in jail. You can't keep a free man in
jail. By His life, and especially His death, He obtained for Himself
perfect and full liberty, triumphing over it in His death. That's
the language of Scripture. Romans 8, verses 1-4. Colossians 2. He broke out. What does that mean? He's free.
That stone pictures the law. That stone that was rolled over
His grave. That represents the law. Well,
why did the stone roll away? It doesn't say somebody rolled
it away. Why did the stone roll away? The stone rolled away because
the law has no power over the free man. The law has no power
over the living. It operates in the realm of death.
The sting of sin is death and the strength of sin is the law,
saith the Scripture. He broke the bars down, but he
rolled that rock away. Why? Because you can't keep a
man in liberty there. The liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free is the liberty of one who does not fear death.
That's a good liberty. Not to fear death, it is the
liberty of one whom death has no sting for, because the law
has been satisfied. It is the liberty of one whom
death has no victory over. It is the liberty of one who
is free from the fear of death. The reason people fear death
is not death. I don't really think people fear
dying. I really don't. I think they fear what comes
after. What's on the other side of death?
That other thing that lasts forever. What in the world is that? And
I say that because I've sat at the bedside of many a dying people
and held their hands. Never heard them talk about being
afraid to die. You know what I've heard them
talk about? I wish I'd have been a better this or a better that. I wish I hadn't been so thought
about houses and things like that. I wish I'd have thought
more about my... What are they doing? There's an accounting
somewhere. That's what the fear is. Not
dying. Dying is sleeping. I've watched
people die. I've held their hand when they
drew their last breath. Watched them go to sleep. It's a marvelous
and a wondrous thing death. We don't understand it, don't
begin to understand it. That's why it draws such crowds at funerals.
But it's just going to sleep for the believer. You fear going
to sleep? I don't. I like going to sleep.
I'm going to do it this afternoon. I did it last night. I did it
yesterday afternoon. I'm getting where I like it more
than I ever have before. I'm going to be afraid to go
down and kick back my feet in that lounge chair this afternoon.
I'm going to be afraid of that. That's foolish. People aren't
afraid of death. But if I knew that on the other
side of when I woke up, the house was going to be on fire and I
was going to be burned to death, I might be afraid to go lay down
in that chair. Why aren't the children of God
afraid of death? Because they're not afraid of the judgment. They're
not afraid of the judgment. We don't fear the judgment. Perfect
love casts out fear. We don't fear the judgment because
as Christ is, so are we in the world. It says in 1 John 4, verse
17. This liberty is the liberty that
exists where the Spirit of Christ is. Where the Spirit is, Scripture
says in 1 Corinthians 3 or 2 Corinthians 3, there is liberty. There is
liberty. This is the liberty, His liberty,
wherewith He has made us free. And it is the place where we
are to firmly plant our feet. We are the Lord's free men. We were once in bondage. However,
Here's the sad part of that, we had no idea. Because bondage
was the only life we knew. We once resided on a dunghill. But we resided there since birth
and it didn't smell like a dunghill to us, it smelled like home. It did. Ben lives in an area where they
got pig containments, they call them. Pig containments, nice
word for great big long houses that house thousands of pigs. And if the breeze is blown right,
it'll almost knock you down. But those guys that work in those
pig containments, they work in them all day long and I guarantee
you they don't smell it until they get out of it. And we had no idea what fresh
air smelled like until Christ set us free. And then we said,
I've been living in that mess all my life and loving it, calling
it home. It's the liberty of one who will never die. It is the
liberty of one who is free from the dominion of sin because he's
not under the law. Sin shall no longer have dominion
over you. You're not under the law, you're under grace. That's
liberty. This is liberty, His liberty,
with which He made us free. The liberty that He's made us
free with is the liberty of Christ Himself. Therefore, it is not
referring to the loss of salvation here, but rather the enjoyment
of what we already possess. That's our problem, after all.
We used to sing songs like, Count Your Blessings. My grandmother
was big on that. My grandma Edinger, she used
to say, you need to count your blessings, son. When I'd get
to complaining about something, she'd say, you need to count
your blessings. You need to stop. Count how great you've got it.
There's no reason for anybody in this nation to complain about
anything in a natural sense. Not one, or not a place. The average paperboy in America
makes more than 90% of the population of the world. The poorest of our people have
a car, an air conditioner, a couple of cell phones, an iPad, one
of those PS2 game things, a roof over their head, and yet
people complain all the blame time. You're free. You're free. God give us grace to enjoy it.
To enjoy it. Now I know freedom is the bane
of the law because the law cannot and does not exist except to
assign blame and effect punishment by death and bondage. That's
all it exists to do. So when you talk about freedom,
don't expect religion to understand what you're saying. And don't
expect them to think you are a child of God. They're going
to think you're crazy when you say, I'm free. The law
don't have anything to do with the law. The law don't have anything
to do with me. I'm free in Jesus Christ. Christ has made us free. And we're to stand fast right
there. The law as an attendance application is for the lawbreakers,
not for free men. Not for righteous men. For free
men. Paul's admonition ends with the
words, Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. There's
that little word. Again. You mean we've done that
before? Yeah. Again. This warning suggests
that the believer might be caught up with the enchantments of the
world and the enticements of the law many times. It might
even suggest that the words of Paul are words of recovery because
he at least intimates that those to whom he is speaking may have
already fallen prey to the legalists. Be not entangled again. Again. He portrays the law as an entanglement
and a yoke and a bondage. And it is. Such application may
be made in reference to liberty. The gospel contains no such language
and does not espouse anything but liberty. That's what the
gospel declares. Not just in the writings of Paul. Let's go back to the gospel according
to Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 58. And you have it set forth plainly
what men think. Religion is and what God says
it is two different things in Isaiah chapter 58 verse 6 First
let's reverse Well, let's read the whole shooting match Starting
with verse 1 cry aloud and spare not Lift up the voice like a
trumpet and show my people their transgression and the house of
Jacob their sins What a message for a revivalist Heard that many
times. I'll tell you what I'm going
to do this week while I'm here with you. I'm going to cry aloud and shout
and I'm going to tell you your sins and I'm going to show you
your transgressions. You're out drinking and carousing
and hitting the bordellos and going to the movie show. Things
like that. Kissing on the first date. Stuff
like that. Mixed bathing. Smoking. Chewing. You're awful people. What does
God say are the sins of His people? Well, they seek me daily. They delight to know my ways. A nation that did righteousness.
They were people with a moral compass. They pursued not the
ordinances of God. They kept those rules and those
rights. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They say, Lord, deal
justice to the enemies. They take delight in approaching
God. So that don't seem very sinful. It is if this is what the motivation
is. Verse 3. Wherefore, have we fasted,
they say, and thou seest not. Lord, we fasted
and you haven't done anything for us. We've done something
for you and you haven't done anything for us. Where have we
afflicted our soul? And you don't take any knowledge.
Behold in the day, he says, behold in the day you fast, you find
pleasure. How does that work? To keep yourself from eating
and like it? I don't like that. And I never keep myself from
it. If I just get a little overdue, I don't like it. You do these
things to exact your labors upon men. So you do pray. You do know the ways of God.
You do righteousness as far as moral rectitude goes. You do
not forsake His ordinances. You ask for the ordinances of
justice. You take delight in approaching Me. You love to pray. Folks can know you pray. But
you do it so I'll do something for you, God said. And you're
mad at me because I don't take notice of it. That I don't say,
well, hey, there's one of my own. Ain't like you bunch of
snakes over here. You don't do that. He says, you
do it to exact all your labors. You do it, you fast so you can
look at somebody else and say, well, you know, I fasted last
week. That's why you do it. The exact labor is upon me. Well,
you know, I prayed last week for two hours. You're a liar
to start with, but anyway, you know, I read all those books
by them guys that wrote all the biographies and biographies about
those great saints of old and how they prayed all night long,
you know, and they found dents in the floor where their knees
were. Oh, I used to be so beat up by that. They'd get up at
three in the morning and pray. I didn't tell you they went to
bed at six o'clock at night when the sun went down. But they do those things to make
you feel like you have to do those things. That's why Paul
said to the Colossian church, don't let any man judge you in
these things. Now if he wants to do it, that's
his business. He can live that way. But don't let him tell you,
you've got to do it. You're a free man. They exact
all the Lord. Behold, you fast for strife.
You fast so you can start a debate, so you can start a problem. And
you smite with the fist of wickedness. You shall not fast as you do
this day to make your voice to be heard on high. You shall not
do things and then tell somebody you've done it. He says, is this such a fast
that I've chosen? A day for a man to afflict his
soul? Is it to bow his head like a
bulrush? You know what a bulrush is. It's
on a long flimsy stem, got a great big head and there's nothing
inside it. That's what a bulrush is. Is
it to spread sackcloth and ashes under him to walk around with
a scowl on his face and say, oh, this man must be in repentance?
Without causes of fast? Well, you call this an acceptable
day of the Lord, and that phrase is very important. Because the
Lord Jesus Christ came to preach the acceptable day of the Lord,
and the acceptable day of the Lord is the salvation of God's
elect. So is this the salvation of God's elect? Here's the fast I've ordained,
God said. That's what my people do. Is this not the fast that I have
chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness. Not to strike with the fist of
wickedness, but to loose the bands of wickedness. To undo
the heavy burdens. To let the oppressed go free.
And that you break every yoke. Is it not to deal thy bread to
the hungry, that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy
house? When thou seest the naked, that
thou cover him, that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
This is what I've seen. Some of these things the Lord
said, this is as much as you've done it unto the least of these
my brethren, you've done it unto me. This is the Lord's fast,
what? Break off them yokes. Get out
from under that. Leave those chains behind. You
hungry? Have the bread of life. You thirsty?
Drink the water of life. And go free. Be at liberty. Stand fast, he said. Don't move
from the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. You are the Lord's
Free men. Free men. Father, help us to
appreciate what we have in Jesus Christ. In His name we pray.
Amen.