Galatians 5:1-5

[0:00] Galatians 5 verse 1 says, 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 saying to 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. That's all I want to read tonight, those five verses. But the very first verse that we read is a wonderful verse. Wonderful verse and it's good advice. It was good advice for the churches at Galatia considering their circumstances and folks it's good advice for the churches right now not only in our own region that we live in or in our own country for that matter, for the church, the world around. It is good advice when he says stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. What yoke of bondage is he talking about here folks? He's not talking about the bondage of committing sin. Like I said this was the these were legalistic churches that this at this letter was written to. He's talking about being under the bondage of the law. You have to do this and you have to do that in order to gain a pacement with Almighty

[1:38] God. You must kill this many animals or kill this type of animal for this particular sin and you must make this type of offering at this particular time whether it's a wave offering, whether it's a heave offering, whether it's a sin offering, a burned offering. There were so many offerings in the Old Testament.

[1:57] That's the bondage that he's talking about here not the bondage of sin. He's talking about being underneath the bondage of the law. Now listen I understand that the Israelites when they were down in Egypt they were underneath the bondage of Pharaoh. They were under the bondage of the Egyptians. They were underneath the bondage of slavery and that is a picture for us as the New Testament church as being in bondage to sin. I understand that but that is not what Paul is talking about here. Folks we will get so wrapped up as a church or as part of the church whatever member of the church body you might be. I'm talking about a toe, a kneecap, a leg, an arm, an elbow whatever member of the body you might be. We will get so wrapped up in what we feel like we must do to Almighty God in order to please Him and in order to make Him happy that we will not be able to enjoy the salvation that He has bestowed upon us. The salvation is free.

[2:59] It came at no price to you and no price to me. Almighty God paid the ultimate price and made the ultimate sacrifice when Jesus Christ was crucified on a hill called Calvary. That redemption that we received when we received salvation was completely, totally, and utterly free. I did nothing to deserve it. I can't do nothing to deserve it nor can you. No preacher can, no beacon can, no singer can. That is all of God's salvation is of the Lord and the Lord is salvation so we can stand fast in the liberty that has been given unto us through the sacrifice that Jesus Christ has made. I'm not saying that gives us permission to go out here and purposely break the law that God has set forth. Folks, God spoke the law into existence 3,500 years ago to a man named

[4:01] Moses and Mount Sinai and if God spoke it then it's as eternal as Jesus Christ is himself. He spoke that law, that law still remains but praise God that is not the way unto salvation. We are at liberty with Jesus Christ because He made us free when He saved our souls. Hallelujah. We have liberty in Him and that's something that the church has forgotten. The church is a hope not just here but the church all around the world has forgotten about the liberty that we have in Jesus Christ. Like I said I see so many Christians walking around like their own eggshells or walking around like their own glass shards afraid of offending God. I've said it a million times over you will offend God every day of your life. You will sin against God every day of your life but repent of those sins. Get rid of those sins. Allow God to get rid of those sins. Let God forgive you those sins and enjoy the freedom that you have in the salvation of Jesus Christ. Stand fast in them. This is the word of God folks and the word of

[5:18] God says we can stand fast in that liberty. That Paul is encouraging these people. Stand fast in the liberty that we have in Jesus Christ that He has given to us. Stand fast there for the liberty where with Christ has made us free. He made us free with His own liberty and folks if Jesus Christ give it to us just as I said about the law that liberty is just as eternal as the law is as God is as Jesus Christ is as heaven is or any of these other things that we read about in scripture if God said it if God ordained it I promise you it is forever the word of God is forever settled in heaven as per Psalms 119 Hallelujah this liberty is forever with me is forever in Jesus Christ I will never have liberty like a heaven in Him. Hallelujah. Praise God. I like these kind of sermons. Christ is made us free and be not entangled again with the Yoke of bondage.

[6:25] Don't in other words stop tiptoeing around the tulips. Stop walking around and folks and y'all have heard it y'all have seen it y'all probably done it as have I.

[6:39] We worry so much. We worry so much about our sin about and folks I ain't saying that you should want to sin and I don't want to sin. If you're a born-again Christian you don't want to sin but it's going to happen. It will happen but we have liberty in Jesus Christ. Even Paul understood this. Paul told I've done said the church at Rome. Paul had to address the church at Rome when he said I know that in me that is in this flesh no good thing. Folks that was a saved born-again Christian saying that was Paul the man that wrote half of the New Testament of the Bible said that in him that is in his flesh no good thing.

[7:22] He's the very one at the end of that same chapter that said oh Richard man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death but Paul understood that he had liberty in Jesus Christ regardless of how rich and he's seen regardless of how much he said he had liberty in Christ Jesus we have that same liberty. Paul said these things. I said he wrote half of the New Testament give or take. If he wrote Hebrews he wrote over half of us but we don't know what he did but the same man that God allowed to pin half of the New Testament said those things. Said that in him dwelt no good thing in his flesh and said oh Richard man that I am who should deliver me from this body of death the same man that wrote these words that were reading to the churches in Galatia said those things but he had an understanding. He had an understanding. He's the very one that said that which I would do I do not and that which I would that which I would do not that I do. In other words those things that I know I'm not supposed to do those things I know that are sinful I do those things why because in his flesh well no good thing hopes that's our sin nature and our sin your sin nature and my sin nature will be with us until the day we die it cannot and will not enter into heaven and praise God hallelujah and amen to that it cannot go to heaven and won't go to heaven but folks my soul is not part of my body right now my soul that my body is nothing more than a prison for my soul my soul yearns to be at home and be with my Lord Jesus Christ and this this body that I wear is nothing more than a prison for that but one of these days my soul that inner man it's gonna go home to be with the Lord forever and once I'm at home and with the Lord what's my soul is there there's a promise given unto me in the scripture that I'll have a body one day to match up with that soul and that body will know no sin it'll know no sickness it'll know no death no heartache it will know none of those things because my God promised it. Hallelujah folks if that doesn't give us a feeling of liberty of liberty in Jesus Christ that ain't much going to that ain't much going to make us feel a little bit relious. I am not at all encouraging any of us to see I'm saying when you sin repent of it get it off your heart get it off your chest get it out of your mind and enjoy your salvation enjoy what God has done for you enjoy that God sent someone he said his only begotten to be your replacement and to be my replacement on that hill he suffered bled and died for you he done it in my place I should have been the one on that cross you should have been the one on that cross but hey we were crucified with Christ according to what Paul wrote in chapter 2 of the same book he said I'm crucified with

[10:35] Christ nevertheless I live yet not I have the Christ dwelleth in me Christ live within me that inward man is Jesus Christ that inward man the holy ghost that's what's going home to be with God my soul and the holy ghost I'm persuaded it's gonna take me there along with who knows what else it's gonna be a grand old time when it happens but I have liberty in these things I have liberty don't walk on shards don't let sin don't let your sin that you will commit don't let that overtake your life don't let it overtake your mind and certainly don't let it overtake your heart because folks listen to me you can't trust what you tell yourself because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it that's the words of Jeremiah the prophet speaking the heart is desperately wicked who can know that's why we can't trust ourselves that's why we keep our nose in this world of God this is truth not what's up here this is true the word of God is true if I keep my nose in this book this truth will drive out whatever I try to tell myself otherwise hallelujah behold I Paul say unto you that if you be circumcised

[11:51] Christ shall profit you nothing now he's not saying that people and I've heard disbelief or not that men who are circumcised have no chance of getting into heaven that's not what he's saying there I have I've heard that I've heard it taught I've never heard it preached by heard it taught one time that that men who are circumcised have no chance of going to heaven I'm like well I'll tell you what I fully expect to see Abraham there I fully expect to see Isaac and Jacob and Moses and bless God I expect to be there and that anyways don't about it oh he's saying those of you that trust in that circumstances because it was the Jews that God got that started for the Jews it separated that was a sign of the covenant that God had made with Abraham that's what he's speaking of he's saying that that's what you're trusting in is the sign of the covenant instead of the covenant your itself you are in trouble folks I'm not trusting in the sign of anything I can wear a cross all day long and die and go to hell

[12:56] I can have an eye love Jesus bumper sticker on my vehicle and die and go to hell I'm trusting in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone for my salvation and for my liberty and for all these other things we've been talking about I'm not trusting in a sign I'm trusting in what I know is true this was a sign he's saying don't don't trust him that and like I said these Jews had infiltrated the churches not only in Galatians they'd infiltrated other places as well yeah and they were saying Jesus is great Jesus is fine Jesus as well but we still need these other things we've still got to keep the law folks we cannot keep the law that's the reason Jesus Christ came because it's impossible for us to do how many of y'all know about this roots movement it's been up and coming for I'll know probably about 10 years now it's done swept from the West Coast and it's the mayest way to the East Coast I can tell you three different roots movement churches and just in Johnson City right now and it's people that say we worship on the Sabbath we don't eat pork we don't eat shellfish all the things that were told to Jews and it's Gentiles that are saying this they're saying we have got to keep the law and then folks then there there's somehow or another they're intertwining Jesus Christ in all of this but you cannot do it the law and Jesus Christ do not mix hey even the Bible says John chapter 1 says that the law came by Moses the grace and truth came by Jesus

[14:26] Christ hey I'll stick with the grace and truth any day as opposed to trying to fall a law that I know I cannot follow I'll stick with Jesus Christ he's the one that brought the grace he brought the truth he's made me free he's given me liberty I want to live free I want to live in the liberty that he has given me now in saying that I don't go out here and just kill people I'll go out here and just steal things I don't go out here and just lie I don't go out here and purposely break the 10 commandment and if you do you ain't saved to begin with and get saved and you want to do those things but we don't purposely do these things we don't purposely commit sin but when we do folks we have liberty not only that Jesus Christ has given us stand there you therefore fast the liberty word Jesus Christ had made us free what does he made us free to do we are free to go to the Father and ask forgiveness for those sins before we wasn't able to do that or before I should say the Jews wouldn't even able to do that the Jews they could pray they could ask God for a little bit of everything Daniel he went to priest he prayed Hannah she sure what the priest she prayed hey there's all kinds of Jews that we find over in the Old Testament that prayed but to make an atoning sacrifice to go back into the holy of holies and to sprinkle the blood and to make that sacrifice one time a year hey folks that was that was up to one man the high priest to go in there and do that and he was a man just like we are he was a human just like we are but

[16:02] Jesus Christ yes he was human yes he was God but hey there was something different about that man the man the high priest of the Old Testament every single one of them they had broken God's law at some point yet God and assigned them to go back and make the atoning sacrifice but Jesus Christ according to the book of Hebrews he went once and for all into the holy place offered up in a atoning sacrifice for you for me and for everyone hallelujah I done lost my place we can get better out back here missy go hurt me if I mess up a new bottle I got this one for Christmas praise God for I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law and the verse before this he said that the cross would profit the circumcised nothing once again he's not saying any man out there circumcised you are doomed to hell that's not what he said just for

[17:05] I testify to every man that a circumcised he is a debtor to do the whole law in other words if that's what you're depending on is that cup and that sign of a covenant you are also depending on yourself to work the entire law that shall not steal that shall not kill that shall not lie that shall not bear false false witness against their neighbor that shall not come with that neighbor staying that shall not put no gods before me hey hey the God said all these things over there next to this chapter 20 and folks we we break the law we whether you like it or not you break God's law every one of us in here since we've been saved we've had a God before the God that saved our soul at some point and our Christian will we have put something before God at some point and shame on everyone I was myself included for duty but we have broken the laws of God but we have the liberty in Christ Jesus to go to the Father and ask forgiveness and praise God the Father will not turn us away he will not kick us to the curb he will hear he will forgive because that's why Jesus Christ came he doesn't for the sake of his son Jesus says this is one of mine the Father says you'll forgive yeah hallelujah hallelujah boy ain't that simple that's what Paul is trying to get in these people's minds he's trying to get it and the heart like I said these were saved people who have written to the churches the churches in Galatia the people that were assembling to worship God it was brothers and sisters of Paul it was brothers and sisters of yours in mind it was fellow believers in Jesus

[18:40] Christ but they hurt something along the way and it confused them folks this that's the danger of false teachers getting into the church that's the danger what we have nowadays within the church world there's all kinds of apostates that are inside of the pulpits that are teaching Sunday schools not only the children but to adults as well that are teaching false doctrine through the book of Jude warned against that Jude warned heavily against that I ain't gonna preach from Jude tonight might do that another time but folks we're living in a very apostate time I'm not much for dispensations personally you might be and God bless you if you are I ain't gonna argue one way or the other with you I'm not much for dispensations but if there was an apostate and apostate dispensate dispensation I'd say we're dead in the center of it we're dead in the center of it because there are so much false doctrine out there right now you you go go on Google sometimes those of you that have internet access and look at some of the surveys they give the preachers I'm talking ministers I'm talking some of them pretty high up there how many of believing the virgin birth how many of them believe that that Jesus Christ walked a perfect sinful or sinless life while he was here folks the numbers drop every year of how many preachers how many ministers believe these things even though the Bible says it the numbers drop every year the last I saw it was like there was only 78% of the ministers that were polled believed that Jesus

[20:17] Christ was born of a virgin folks the Bible said if he wasn't born of a virgin he was conceived in sin and folks he couldn't have been conceived in sin because he couldn't have worked your salvation or my salvation it be wise now Mary you read after eight days in Luke's Gospel they took Jesus because that was the law they took him to be circumcised but Mary had to do something to Mary had to make an offering what kind of offering was it it was a purification offering it was a sin offering so she wasn't perfect I don't care what Catholics tell you I don't care what those people tell you Mary was not perfect people are praying to Mary they were praying a vain prayer Mary can't hear you Jesus Christ can hear you and he can relay that message to the Father that's how that works as per my scripture that's what I will stick with what the sayeth the Word of God the folks it is amazing to me the apostasy that is in the church world today and what's being preached what's being taught and what's being believed that a congregation is because the congregations haven't got their noses in the scripture verifying what the preachers and the teachers are saying they're just going along with it and they think that they're gonna stand before God one day and say well the preacher told me this or the teacher said that folks that will not hold water in the court of God's law God will say you had access to my word you had access to every word that I had been and yet you have failed I think that's exactly what'll be said I don't think anybody will be arguing with God I think we'll stand there completely silent before God that's what I think but you might think differently Christ has become no effect on to you whosoever of you are justified by the law you're falling from grace now this is where it gets sticky with a lot of folks you're falling from grace is he telling these Galatians they have quote unquote lost their salvation no that's not what he's telling that's not what that term means falling from grace here once you've been talking about in the previous verses he's talking about worrying about the law trying to keep the law worrying about that circumcision hey women was in all kinds of all kinds of trouble if it took a circumcision to get to God to begin with that's not what he was talking about when he said you're falling from grace he says you're not understanding grace you're not understanding this liberty that I began this chapter with this was this was before it was divided into chapter to understand that but the

[22:53] Liberty the cross Jesus gave us that we can stand fast in he says you're not understanding that all that came by the grace of God he said if you're dependent on the law then you're falling from grace you're not dependent on grace you're dependent on yourself is what he said and you have fallen from that point of grace he's not saying God's kicked you to the curb now you got to get saved all over again he's saying you are misunderstanding what the grace of God and the Liberty of Jesus cross has done for you and folks that's how I began this whole sermon tonight was we worry so much about that that we cannot enjoy our own salvation we cannot enjoy the Liberty that that cross has made us free with and that's why so many Christians walk around with long faces because they're not enjoying their salvation they're walking around with long faces because they they just you know they feel bad they feel bad about something they've said something done something that they want to do all these things when all you got to do go to God ask forgiveness for that God will wipe it away God will get rid of it for you all you got to do is go to God and say

[24:02] I've done this thing or I want to do this thing and I know it's against you I know it's against your commandments I know it's against the law and I know it offends you and I'm sorry God please take it away from me and God will take it away hallelujah that he will he didn't save me and say okay you're on your own he said he saved me and he said I'll be there with you every step of the way praise God for we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith we wait for the hope of righteousness by faith this is a this is a interesting line as far as the book of Galatians goes you read Paul's other epistles that he wrote and in every one of his epistles he says something about prophecy is something about either cross return to the earth to set up his kingdom something about the church being raptured out the church being taken away every one of his epistles he mentions prophecy and and and most of his epistles he brings it up multiple times this is the only bit of prophecy that we have in the letter to the Galatians why was that I'm not real positive to be honest with you but I think it's because the subject matter was a little bit different than what it was with the other church's basis for we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith and so in other words we're waiting on something that's going to happen in the future it's only been a prophecy that you really see in the book of Galatians he says that we by faith by faith once again he started out with liberty he started out with being free and then he went went back to say how do you can't be free how do you can't feel free you can't feel that liberty if you're still under bondage to the law under the bondage of offending God he says Christ has become no effective you who so ever if you are justified by the law you're falling from grace but he says but for we through the spirit well the hope of righteousness the hope of righteousness by faith we through the spirit and folks that's the only way that we can wait upon the hope of righteousness this whip through the spirit and by faith if we're waiting on it of our own accord if we're waiting on it of ourselves it'll do us no good but by faith in Jesus Christ and by faith in the liberty that he has made us free and by faith that God is no longer God us underneath the law but he has made us free gosh I praise God that I am not condemned under the law I praise God that Jesus Christ has made me free and now I can wait upon that hope of righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ and that is the only way

[26:50] I can wait on but it is a hope and it is righteousness folks we can wait upon the hope of Jesus Christ so one day split that eastern sky and take us home he called it in the book of Titus Paul did he called it the blessed hope yeah blessed hope the folks that hope don't get any more blessed than that we for we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith through the spirit we can wait on this and folks again that spirit that you were in or man that's that inner being that's the Holy Ghost through the spirit we have we have we can wait on the hope of righteousness we can wait on it in faith in faith of what folks everything that this book tells us everything in here is true including every these five verses that we read including the fifth verse that we that we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith most that's all the hope that we've got is the hope of righteousness people and y'all have heard it and I have two people say why hope them for a better tomorrow how many of y'all have heard and we're coming up on 2021 now how many of y'all have heard well I hope this year and soon I hope 2020 is over with and I hope that 2021 is a better year I've heard that from I don't know how many people I hope I hope

[28:15] I hope folks the only hope that we have is in Jesus Christ yeah that is all the hope we have that's the hope of righteousness by faith that we can wait on by the spirit of God within us we wait on that hope of righteousness