Galatians 5:1-6

Heavenly Father, thank you for another opportunity to open your Word. Help us to love your Word and cherish it, Lord. For this opportunity to study Holy Scripture, Lord, we pray that our hearts would be open to it, that we would be conformed more into the image of Christ for having spent time.

In your Word.

In Jesus' name, amen.

We had a house full of grandchildren over the weekend, which is both exhilarating and exhausting. So, if you've ever had out-of-town nieces and nephews come spend several days, it never is a complete packed job on their way out.

There's always something left behind. Yeah, something left behind. Sandy has a box on the kitchen table that's got to go to the post office and stuff like.

That.

So, as I was getting ready to get my gear together to leave this morning, to come here, we gather at 1045, there was one more item left on the ground, and Sandy said, you don't have the courage.

I never said that to you.

Now, Stan just walked in, so he didn't hear the story.

He didn't.

I don't want to hear it. Is this a TikTok video?

Yeah.

So, there's another story that goes along with this. When we were newly married, Sandy was a young bride. She was only 20 and did lead kind of a sheltered life. She was not really experienced to much of the things of the world.

Hi. Hey.

Is this going to show up on Sunday?

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I don't want to hear it. Don't answer.

Just don't answer.

Sandy decided to buy me a necktie, and she saw this necktie that was quite a handsome necktie, so she bought it and wrapped it up and gave it to me, and when I opened it up, I kind of started to laugh.

She didn't understand why. It had a little emblem on the bottom of the tie, as many ties do, and she thought it was really cute. She did not recognize that it was a Playboy bunny. So yes, dear, I did wear the bunny hat.

Anyway.

You have to a great start here.

I know.

There's no way I can segue except just go for it. I worked on the title of this lesson that we have today in Galatians, and my first attempt at it was lawfulness versus godliness, because the question is, if you've already come to know Christ, why would you want to slide back into being an advocate and a follower of the.

Law?

Lawfulness versus godliness, but as I considered it, there is actually nobody that's lawful. It's lawless. So if you're choosing not to be on the godly side of these things, you're choosing a path which can only result in you being identified as being lawless.

And so that's why the title is lawlessness versus, because the law is good and righteous,.

And we would want to be lawful, but we fall short.

That's exactly the point. Jeff is going to be the featured speaker in about four weeks at a conference in Wisconsin. There's a church in Wisconsin, and it's called the TruthScript Conference. And Seth Brinkley, I think his name is, has put this conference together to get conservative pastors, elders, church people to hear the truth.

And so here's the problem. When churches start to go woke, they're basically making the implication that works must be added to the gospel, for the gospel to be complete. Maybe we need to do social justice.

We have to add to the gospel. Maybe it means to be placing women in positions of authority because that's culturally more appropriate. So they have to add to the gospel. So as churches go woke, if you really look at what they're doing, they're adding works to gospel.

And I want to put an observation. This is not inspired.

This is just me.

Isn't this just the most current form of circumcision, where in the days of the Galatians, the Judaizers wanted for the new believers to have to adhere to the law? And so they added circumcision on top of salvation by faith.

And so what's happening in the churches today is they're adding social justice. They're adding equity. They're adding these things on top of the gospel for it to be a true, full gospel. Tim, I'm going to ask you to open up Acts 15.

You're going to read two verses for me. Because what's happening there is that the Judaizers are fighting against this new approach, which is the blood of Christ to telestai, which is salvation by faith.

And they're fighting against it. Tim, give me verse 1.

They came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

There had to be something more because the gospel didn't get there. You must be—now give me verse 5, please.

But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them to order them to keep the law of Moses.

They had to keep the law of Moses. It was just a big package. So keeping part of—you must keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. So we're going to be looking today—paragraph 1 says Galatians 45 with all kinds of parenthesis marks.

That's Galatians 5. Give me the first six verses of Galatians 5, please.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

So working right from the top, we're talking in the beginning of this concept of freedom. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. So the reality is we are not born free men.

There has to be a transition that takes place. As man and woman are born, they adopt, they are basically filled with sin from their father Adam. We are born in sin. Ephesians 2, verses 1, 2, and 3 are those amazingly descriptive words about who we were dead in our trespasses and since following after the prince of the power of the air.

This is who we are. John, I'm going to ask if you would get 2 Timothy 2, and Janet, I'm going to ask if you would get Ephesians 1, 7. And I'll speak to the others in there. The picture of who we are because of the sin, the sin nature that we have, is we don't even have the ability to respond to God.

Unless he gives us the grace, we can't even say yes because we're dead in our trespasses and sins. And so all that we know is this yoke that's on our shoulders. And we're pulling a weight and this yoke is directing us in the direction we can go.

It's a picture, we're nothing more than beasts of burden under the direction of Satan following after the path of sin. Whatever Satan desires that we should do, we know no better. We can actually not even do any better.

John, give me 2 Timothy 2, 26, please.

They may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured.

Now there is, in that verse, there is this hint that there is an escape from it. But until that escape happens, we are completely helpless. We are doing the will of Satan. 2 Peter 2 is going to put it this way.

By whatever a man has overcome, that he is a slave to. Not everybody falls under the same sin. Personal observation. Before I became a believer, I was not drawn into sexual, extramarital sex. I wasn't drawn to it.

I don't know why. God obviously protected me from that. And I was never tempted to go into illicit drugs. I was never tempted to go in that direction and I don't know why. But some people are. And the sins that I was drawn to, I became a slave to that sin.

And one of my sins was the sin of pride. And I became a slave to that. Whatever it is that overcomes you, that you become a slave to. And Satan is relentless in finding your particular weakness. And once he finds that weakness, he just works at it and then expands his field of power.

And D-Day, the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy. Now, one of the interesting things about it is they used Patton as a decoy. Because Hitler was sure that Patton was Eisenhower's man. And so they showed Patton making a different beachhead.

So the Germans used that as their point of defense. Only they came in this way instead of that way. My point is that Satan does not know all things. He is not omniscient. But he is relentless and once he finds out your weakness, he won't forget.

You become a slave.

John, say the first sentence you said, that which...

That to which overcomes you. That temptation that overcomes you. That desire that makes you go down the path and you surrender and you sin. That to which you are overcome by. That's where you become a slave.

That which you overcome by, not that which you have overcome.

Correct. That which you overcome by, that is where you become a slave. And it says here, for freedom Christ has set us free. The reality is that as bad as Ephesians 2, verses 1, 2, and 3 are, it continues with the words, but God.

That God chooses out of His love to apply the blood of Christ. When His grace and we respond by faith. It says it this way in Ephesians 1. Janet?

Just verse 7?

7 and 8.

In Him we have redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

Now as we turn to Christ and as we accept the blood of Christ. As we turn and we surrender to His Lordship. Many, many things happen. One of them is as we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So those things that had us under control. That bond is now broken. And we don't have. We can no longer say I didn't have choice. We can no longer say Satan made me do it. Because he didn't. He only enticed you.

Because now with the Holy Spirit. And you're cleansed and the bond is broken. You can say no. As it says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13. Not only all temptation has overtaken you. Common to man. But God is faithful who not only tend to be on that with pure evil.

And with the temptation He provides the way of escape. So the way of escape is not through your own strength. That's even through God. But that bond of yoke of slavery is now broken. And so here's the question from verse 1.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Therefore do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. So here's the question. What's your choice? Are you going to stand firm or are you going to go back? Are you going to stand firm through the promises of Christ?

Through the power of Christ? Through the Holy Spirit working within you? Through His grace? Are you going to stand firm? Are you going to be totally surrendering again to the lies of Satan and fall back?

Christ has set us free. Stand firm. Don't submit again to that yoke of slavery. You don't have to. You are now free. And so now he's going to make a specific application and he's going to bring in the concept of circumcision.

Give me verses 2 and 3 again, please. And by the way, Barb, you're going to have Deuteronomy 10. There's a couple of verses there on my page in Deuteronomy 10. Acts 15, Carol, and Candy, Galatians 2. Go ahead, please.

Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

Give me a definition of circumcision. You don't have to be too anatomical with it, but give me a definition of circumcision.

I'm sorry?

Removal of the foreskin.

Removal of the foreskin in the male, yes. Is there another definition of circumcision, scripturally?

Circumcision of the heart.

Thank you.

What does that mean, circumcision of the heart? Okay, and that's a very good way, removing, allowing, cutting away those things that are sin within our heart so that our heart becomes exposed to God, our heart becomes totally shown to Him.

And useless.

The stuff that is cut away is discarded and is useless. That's also very well said. Genesis 17 is basically the initiation of circumcision. It talks about circumcision would be a physical sign, a physical covenant, a physical sign of the covenant between God and men.

So the Jewish males on the eighth day were to be circumcised. It was a physical sign that they lived under the covenant between them and Yahweh. But Deuteronomy 10, go ahead and read that for me, Barbara, if you would, verses 12 to 16.

And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth, and everything in it. Yet the Lord set His affection on your forefathers and loved them, and He chose you, their descendants, above all nations, as it is today.

Circumcise your hearts, as mentioned, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. You want me down to 20? Fear the Lord your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.

This is our desire.

Now, when we read in Galatians, there is no application to the circumcision of the heart as we read this passage in Galatians. The circumcision of the heart is a good thing, and it still is a thing that God would desire that we remove the sin that we serve Him and that we follow after Him.

What's in question here is the physical circumcision. Today, well, okay, in the 20th century when I was born, I don't know if it still is today, but it is a fairly common practice for the male child when they're born to be circumcised.

I'm sorry? The Jewish faith, if they're doing the circumcision, perhaps they're doing it out of obedience to the law, but Gentiles today who are being circumcised, this is really a health issue, and that's why it's being done.

So if a male today, Christian male today, was circumcised, this is not a problem. So that's not a question here. What's a question here is the bondage that physical circumcision would represent, and it's representing the fact that if you have a Gentile who comes to know the Lord and they believe that circumcision validates the covenant relationship between them and God, they're basically going back under the bondage of the law, and that's what he's saying.

That was the Judaizers, and that was their band. That was their marching band. Now, we're going to need to talk about something because eventually we've got to talk about Timothy, but hold that as a tease.

Acts 15. The Jews could not keep the whole law, and that not keeping the whole law, by definition kept them short of the relationship required between them and God with the covenant. They couldn't even keep it, and so what was the rationale for them saying, that which we do, which we can't keep, now you must do as well, and the hypocrisy is what he brings out here.

I testify to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. In verse 2, Christ will no longer be advantage to you. The danger of circumcision in this regard, and it is a very narrow application, it's the description of a believer, a genuine believer, saved by grace through faith, it's the gift of God, not of works, okay, Ephesians 2, now believing that I need to add this act of circumcision that was prescribed in the law to really show that I meant it.

That's the danger of it, is thinking that my works must be present to improve on my law. Galatians 2? So what made, in the days of the early church, what was the lure of circumcision? Let me ask it this way slightly today.

What is the lure of social gospel, of diversity and equity, and what is the lure to the churchgoer, to the genuine believer? Why would churches go down that path? So you just gave three great answers.

One, I get to do something, and doing nothing other than, by faith, accepting Christ to become saved, I want to be in control of my destiny, which introduces pride, because I'm a little bit better than you are.

I'm not going to go down this path real far, except to say that we do not believe in a second filling of the Holy Spirit. We believe when you're saved, you receive the Holy Spirit, and that there is not a second step that makes you a better Christian.

And the idea of pride comes in, and then the idea that I get to contribute, and the word I becomes the operative pronoun in that statement. I think that's the lure of circumcision. Look, I, Paul, say to you, if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you, because now you are the one that is being the advantage.

And Christ isn't going to share that throne with anybody.

Or anything.

I'm sorry?

Or anything.

Or anything.

If you are on that throne of making it better, Christ says, you got the throne, buddy. Or if that activity is what makes you better. Now, let me be very clear. Romans 8, 38, and 39. For the believer, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

That's a given. So the question is, what's happening to this person? They're not losing their salvation. That's against scripture. But if they fall back into a Judaizer's plan of circumcision, or they fall back into accepting diversity and social justice, what happens to that believer?

First of all, I'm making the presumption we're talking a genuine believer.

That's the question.

But what happens to that genuine believer who buys into this lie?

Yeah?

They're apostated.

And what happens to them?

Well, for example,.

The reason I, that's why I say, in some ways, we all apostate. And so, to go down a route of believing something like, we look at what's going on you talk about apparently, and why churches do that. That's apostasy.

Even, it could be a Christian, but they're giving into this world system to not be thrown out of the synagogues. It's the same thing. To be involved culturally, to be able to have the right to eat, to travel freely, to do these things, you have to make decisions.

I mean, I think that's one of the reasons why when we reach a point where there's this, whatever, mark of the beast, or some sort of thing, you will declare one way or the other. You will have no choice but to declare, because either you will eat and have the right to engage, kind of like what happened in one of the churches in Revelation where the guilds, the union guilds, the labor guilds that they had, Christians weren't even allowed to enter into them unless they gave to,.

Was it?

So let's try this out for size.

He used a, I'm sorry, I don't mean to be mean. No, no, no, this is good.

He used a 37-cent word. I grade the size of the theological word by dollars and cents. He gave a 37-cent word, apostasy, and that's not a word that is easily grasped and understood. So here's my question, and I'm starting out with the foundational premise, and I think that this is genuine to this book of Galatians.

It's not the Hebrews' woes, but here we're, you know, if you fall away, you can never return again. We're talking to the pretender, not the believer, but here I think we're talking to believers who have been lured into sliding back, into keeping the law and everything else.

The question is, what happens to them? Let's read verse four. Please give me four.

You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.

I don't believe Scripture ever contradicts itself. It's our understanding needs to be amplified and clarified by the Holy Spirit, but Scripture never contradicts itself. And so what Romans 8...

But why don't you just read...

Verse four, Galatians 5. That's okay, read Galatians.

You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.

The believer who has fallen into the trap of verses two and three, of accepting circumcision and everything that that means, the next logical conclusion that Paul says is you've been severed from Christ.

Then you've fallen away from grace. On the surface, taking this verse and the danger of taking a verse out of Scripture and building a theology out of that is that you don't know how that is applied in the context of the passage of the book and of the entirety of Scripture.

Ephesians 1... Did I give that to anybody? Ephesians 1, 11 to 14?

Please.

By the way, as she reads this, follow the beautiful trail that this passage paints. And it's an unbreakable trail. Go ahead. Here's the words that just follow down. We have an inheritance, it was predestined.

And at the point where we listen and we believe, we become sealed. By the way, the difference between this seal and the seal that the Romans placed on the boulder in front of the cave, this seal cannot be broken.

There is no power greater than God. This seal cannot be broken. The Romans put a seal on that boulder in front of the cave, but God's power was greater than the Romans. That seal was broken. And it says we are sealed, we are redeemed, and we are God's possession.

And I don't think anybody can take anything out of God's hand. It's His possession. And those who have gone through this trail, we have an inheritance that's been predestined. We've listened, we've believed, we're sealed, we're redeemed, and we're His possession.

This is eternal. This is eternal. Matthew 19...

On that subject of seal, it's not like a wax seal.

Correct.

A pledge is like a down payment on a piece of property.

Correct.

To keep it from being... That is a promise.

It's a promise. It's also... I like to use an analogy of a passport.

Yes.

So I have a passport, I'm just getting it renewed, and it's got this picture of me on it.

And...

Do you have rabid ears or not?

No rabid ears, no rabid ears. But it has my birth date, it has the issuing date, it has an expiration date, and it says I'm a citizen of the United States. But I have a second passport which has been sealed by God.

And that one has a picture of who I really am, and then it has my rebirth date with no expiration date, and it says I'm a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

That's a seal.

That's a seal, yeah.

I appreciate that you explain that in your teachings, because those are the scriptures that will be often taken out of context. Like Hebrews 6 .6 is often taken out of context, that if a person falls away, there's no way to renew them.

Well, I can say that in any of our lives, there's periods of time where we look back. You can't get back that time. So if you're doing that as times you fall away, you can't get rewards. There's no rewards if you're living for yourself, you know what I'm saying?

So if you fall away, you're losing the fellowship with Christ.

That's it.

Your life is, there's no meaning.

That's it. And when we read in this passage in Galatians that you are severed from Christ this seal has never been broken and this promise and this inheritance, fact of His possession has not changed, but we have lost fellowship with Him.

That's what's the danger of sliding back into circumcision, which, by the way, if you read Matthew 19, this is the rich young ruler that says, what do I do to inherit the kingdom of God? He says, keep all the laws.

He says, I've kept them all since my youth. And he says, well, while you've done, now go sell everything you have and give it to the poor. And he left sad because he had covet.

What did the disciples say afterwards? Who can be saved then? If He walked away, what hope is there for us?

And he says, without God, this is not possible.

Amen.

But here's the thing. Here's the thing I want to emphasize. One thing that you think you can keep to become better for God, well, did you keep them all? No, you didn't. Nobody here keeps the whole law, and that's the point, to drive us back to the cross where Christ said to tell us to.

Romans 8, 38, 39, nothing can separate us. Galatians 3, did I give that to somebody?

Okay.

Sue, if you would give me Galatians 3, 23, please. Hang on, before you do it, what's the name of that correspondent that's in prison in Russia right now?

Snowden?

No, not Snowden. We don't even know his name. This poor guy, he's innocent. He's been in prison for how long?

Five years.

Yeah, he's been in prison. While he's in prison, he is basically persona non grata. He's separating our hurts. Give me Galatians 3, 23.

We're kept under guard.

Other versions say we were imprisoned. We're out of experiencing God, and what he wants you not to do here is don't be severed from Christ. You can't be justified. You who would be justified from the law, you're falling away from grace.

That which God wants to lavish upon you, you're choosing to be better than God by keeping and adding to the gospel of grace so you're not experiencing it. You're getting in the way. Give me verse 5, if you would.

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

Through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait. Here are some of the things that I think God has given to us. What are some of the gifts that God gives to a believer? I've got many of them listed here, but what gifts does God give to the believer?

He gives us hope.

He gives us a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29, 11. I know the plans that I have for you. Philippians 3, 20. Our citizenship is in heaven. If I go, I go to prepare a place for you that when I go, there you may be with me also.

That's another, is we get conformed into his image. I don't have it down here, but that would go on the fact of perhaps the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit's ministry to us is to conform us, to convict us, to teach us, to instruct us.

And all of this stuff, the intent of all of this stuff is this process that we call sanctification. You first come to him and you're justified. You're immediately written in the book of life, but we still got a lot of cleansing to do, and that's the act of sanctification, and that's making us look more and more like him every day.

But I'm thinking the first thing he gives us is faith. That's the first thing he gives us, that he gives us. We have to stand Romans 12 .3, please.

Please.

Did we ever really, true have the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts from that day to day one? Or are we working by works, thinking that we do all these works by the law that we're going to get to heaven?

Or is it because we never really believed, but we think by our own works, we're going to work our way to heaven?

So this gets down to the diagnostic question that we love to use. Somebody desires membership. The big diagnostic question is what?

Would God let you in?

Why?

Why should I be let in?

That's the big question. Why should I let you into my heaven? And if any part of that answer talks about what you have done for him, then you're not really a safe person.