A Proper Use of Freedom

Turn your Bibles this morning to Galatians 5. Galatians 5 beginning in verse 1.

When you get to Galatians 5, if you would please stand as we reverence the reading of God's Holy Word.

Alex, you may have to turn me up just a little bit. Galatians 5 beginning in verse 1.

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 or uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love.

You are running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you.

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty whoever he is.

But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.

I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. For you were called to freedom, brothers.

Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Let us pray. Father, I thank you this morning for the opportunity to preach your word.

I pray, Father God, that you would help me to preach it rightly. Father, that you would strengthen my voice.

Lord, that you would direct my mind, my thoughts, my words. Lord, that you would help me to preach your word boldly, that I may be gripped by it as I preach your word.

Father, that Lord, it would not return void. Pray, Father God, that you would prepare hearts to receive it.

Lord, that we would take it, Lord, and by your grace apply it. Lord, we are in great need of your grace this morning.

I am in great need of your grace this morning. So I thank you, Lord, for your grace. Lord, I thank you,

Father, that it is not my righteousness that I stand upon for salvation.

Father, for I have nothing to stand upon, but it is only through the shed blood of Christ. I thank you for that, and it is in his name we pray this morning.

Amen. A quick background of this letter to the

Galatian Church. This church came to fruition by God working through the preaching of the teaching of Paul.

And the Holy Spirit brought about salvations and led to the forming of a church. And Paul, he moves on, and a short time later some false teachers came into the church and convinced these believers of a false gospel.

If you remember at the tent meeting, we briefly talked about how the same thing happened at the

Church of Corinth. And so I do want to start this morning by let this serve as an example for us, as a warning.

That just because the true gospel was preached at a church sometime in the past doesn't mean that the enemy won't rise up some with a false gospel that tried to stir up trouble.

So what do we do? How do we guard against this? We guard against this by continually going to Christ, by continually going to the

Word, by preaching the true gospel to ourselves over and over and over, reminding ourselves, even as believers, of the true gospel.

That we may know it. We may sing about it. That we may teach about it. That we may preach about it.

That we may talk about the gospel. That we may spread the true gospel. Here in the

Galatian Church, a false gospel was being proclaimed. A false gospel that sought to add to the gospel and require

Christians to be circumcised to be a true believer. And a group of the

Galatian believers had become convinced of this false doctrine. There was a division in the church and Paul sternly corrects the

Galatian Church. If you read the whole letter, he calls them foolish. He's more stern and critical here than almost that you can make an argument than any other letter that he writes.

He takes this error as an assault upon the gospel and therefore an assault on the finished work of Christ.

This was done against a holy God. Ephesians 2 .8, for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not of your own doing.

It is a gift of God. We are saved through the blood of Christ alone. Not our works.

And Paul reminds the Galatian believers of this and he rebukes them heavily. However, he does not believe that they cannot repent and return to the truth.

And so he provides a multitude of reasons that leads us to chapter 5.

And chapter 5 begins with, for freedom Christ has set us free.

The first question that we need to answer from our text is what does Paul mean here?

What is he talking about? What has Christ freed us from? We find the answer in the latter part of verse 1.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Christ has freed us from a yoke of slavery. You may ask two questions. Okay, what is a yoke?

And what's slavery? Well a yoke, if you had a team of oxen or bulls, a yoke was attached to the necks of both of these oxen and bulls and allowed them to carry the load.

And if they were, whatever it was that they were pulling, whatever it was carrying, it attached to their necks. The weight was upon them and they were able to carry the load.

That's a very brief description of it. If you're confused, Google it after service.

But it carried the weight. It allowed them to each support the weight that they were trying to move and pull forward.

It is used here in other places to signify a burden.

So we could read this. Do not submit to a burden of slavery.

Okay, that's a yoke. What slavery are we freed from? What burden of slavery has

Christ freed us from? We need to answer this before we focus on the rest of our text.

And there's a couple of ways this is used. There's a couple of ways that if you ask somebody, okay, what burden has

Christ freed you from? Somebody say, well, he's freed us from sin. Christians, we are indeed free from being a slave to sin.

No doubt about it. In our text, we'll speak to this. If you go back to chapter 4, verse 7, you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir through God. Verse 9 says, you are a slave to the weak and worthless principles of the world.

Even in other places, we see where we are in our natural state, slaves to sin.

So once again, we are no longer in slavery to sin. We have freedom. Somebody say, well, this is saying a freedom from the punishment of sin.

We are. Praise God, absolutely. We are free from the punishment of sin. Christ took upon the wrath of God that we deserved.

He took our punishment. And while I completely agree that as Christians, we are freed from being a slave to sin and the punishment of sin,

I think we can be more specific and accurate to our text by looking at verses 2 through 6.

Look at those with me. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision,

Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to everyone 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, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

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

Some may read that and say, well, he's talking about freedom from the law. We're freed from the law.

Depends on what you mean. Are we free from the likes of the ceremonial law and the keeping of the judicial law?

Sure. Are we? Is it reliant upon us to keep the law and our righteousness?

No. Many may hear that and say they hear freedom from the law and they think, well, it's freedom to do whatever we want.

We're freedom from what we're free from the law. We can live how we want. No, but rather freedom from the curse of the law.

So from the covenant theology class on Wednesday nights, Pastor Quatro has been teaching and we read about it some this morning.

Most of you understand that the law promises blessing in life for those who keep it and a curse for those who break it.

And I think we all know the problem with that. The problem with that, and I'm referring here to the moral law, which is summed up in the

Ten Commandments, the problem with that is we can't keep it. Not only do we fail to keep it, we fail completely and miserably to keep it.

And by agreeing with the circumcision crowd, they were again submitting themselves to the law, to be at mercy to the law and to submit yourself to the law.

Verse three is obligating yourself to keep the entirety of it, to keep the whole law.

We cannot break it into different pieces. We must keep it all to be justified by and keep it perfectly.

To require circumcision for salvation and to be justified, they were enslaving themselves to keeping the whole law for justification.

Nowhere do you find in scripture where your obedience causes your salvation.

Rather, your failure of obedience proves your need for salvation.

Salvation is a gift that is only through the shed blood of Christ. By the regeneration of the

Holy Spirit, sinners are enabled to put their faith in Christ. Salvation is by faith alone.

To add manmade stipulations to faith is legalism.

Legalism. What is legalism? Legalism is an attempt to add anything to the finished work of Christ.

The Judaizers, that's what they were doing. They were legalists. They were guilty of this. This type of thinking has not died.

You could rightly look at Rome and say, well, this is this is not died within Roman Catholicism.

And you would be right. But closer to home is to look at modern evangelicalism.

Their view of circumcision wasn't in addition. Listen to this. Their view of circumcision wasn't in addition to faith in Christ.

There is nothing to add to Christ's work on the cross. Rather, it was actually an alternative to faith in Christ.

We may not see circumcision this way in our day and age. It isn't a big deal.

The meaning has changed. Pretty much everybody is circumcised. But circumcision itself, don't miss the point.

Circumcision itself wasn't the problem. Being justified by circumcision was the problem.

In our day, it could be our own morality. In our day, it could be our self -made rules and requirements.

I don't want to say telling Christians that they must go to church is not legalism. Telling Christians that they must partake in the

Lord's Supper or baptism to truly be saved, that's legalism.

Believing your morality grants you saving faith in Christ. Believing your works in the church provide some kind of salvific favor towards you.

Believing you're walking of an aisle or you're forming of a prayer is what saves you.

That's legalism. Many of these things are good things that Christians should do. Christians should go to church.

Christians should be moral. Christians should be baptized. Christians should partake of the

Lord's Supper. Christians should work in the church. Christians should pray. Christians should read their Bible.

But you are not made righteous by these things. Romans 10, 3 -4, for being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes. We ignorantly seek to establish our own righteousness based upon what we do.

There are some churches, we're having baptism today, there are some churches that wrongly view baptism as a type of salvific action.

That you are not saved unless you're baptized. Again, all Christians should be baptized.

But that's not what saves you. A view that you are justified by the blood of Christ plus something is legalism.

If faith is based on any work of us, we are enslaved by our works.

Then the entirety relies on us being good enough. For our actions must then be perfect according to the law of the

God. And Paul, he's warning the Galatians of this. That they had been freed from the bondage of the curse of the law.

And if they were trying to be made right with God by their actions, then

Christ was of no advantage to them. You can't have it both ways. You can't be justified by your works and faith in Christ.

You're either justified or rather condemned by your works or justified by the work of Christ.

One commentator sums up verses 1 through 12 as freedom versus legalism.

Now, let me quickly explain. I'm going to add to, I already said, telling a Christian they should go to church.

That's not legalism. Those who love God's law and seek to carefully walk in accordance with it, are not legalists.

Those who strive to obey the word of God and strive to avoid battle and kill sin, are not legalists.

Those who practice the regulative principle of worship are not legalists.

These are things that the Bible teaches the Christians to do. I don't care what nominal

Christianity said, legalism is what the

Galatian church had fell into. And it was an attack on the gospel. If you turn back to Galatians 2, 16, yet we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not works of the law.

Because by works of the law, no one will be justified. Verse 21, I do not nullify the grace of God.

For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. We often, we don't view legalism in this way.

We view licentiousness as an attack of the gospel and the new heart given, but too often we see legalism as relatively harmless.

And there's also another form of legalism. I want to briefly mention that is also dangerous that should be guarded against.

And that is to call things sin that the Bible doesn't call sin. To force your conscience on others on issues that the

Bible doesn't state as sin. The Pharisees, they were guilty of this and the teaching of human traditions as if they were the word of God.

Using our own preferences and our own thoughts on issues to bind the consciences of brothers and sisters is more dangerous than we realize.

We are trying to put ourself in the place of God when we do this. And one example that we use often because I think it adequately portrays the point.

To say that a believer in obedience, to be in obedience to God, you must completely sustain, abstain from alcohol is legalism.

For me as a teetotaler, I don't drink. My family doesn't drink. For me to force that upon you as a requirement of your faith, that's legalism.

I can say, however, for you to get drunk is a sin. That's the difference.

That's not legalism. That's the Bible. To call sin, sin is not legalism.

To call homosexuality, sin is not legalism. To call transgenderism, sin is not legalism.

To call drunkenness, sin is not legalism. To call abortion, murder, and therefore sin is not legalism.

To call these things sin is not legalism because it's just speaking the truth of what the

Bible calls sin. And if we see a brother or sister in sin, it's not legalism to go help them.

If they're headed down a path that leads to sin and destruction, it's not legalism to lovingly warn them.

But to add requirements to the faith and to call sin things the Bible doesn't call sin, that's legalism.

And legalism in all forms is serious. They, hey, that crowd may be legalistic, but at least they're moral.

They don't drink. They don't cuss. They don't party. Legalism is serious. And the legalism mentioned here is especially serious.

That adding to the faith, adding a requirement to faith in Christ other than the shed blood of Christ, it's pure heresy.

Look at the seriousness of this error. Look at verse 10 of chapter five. I have confidence in the

Lord that you will take no other view and that the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.

Look at verse 12. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.

I'll not chase that one too much, but you get the point. It was serious.

This dangerous error produces dangerous fruit. In verse eight, look, this error is not from God.

It is not from him who calls you. If it's not from God, then who is it from? There's no neutrality on this issue.

Either faith is through grace alone by the shed blood of Christ or it's not.

There's no neutrality. And legalism produces three things. Self -righteousness.

Legalists think that they have achieved something by their power. Quick to point to their perceived morality as their justification.

I don't drink. I don't party. I go to church.

I don't do this or I do this. I don't do that. They're justified by their actions, maybe even their forming of a prayer.

I formed a prayer. That's what saved me. They're not driven by the glory of God.

This might be you. True faith is not based on your righteousness and ability to keep the law, but based on the finished work of Christ.

He kept the law perfectly on our behalf. Where we failed, he succeeded.

And self -righteousness is sinking sand. Self -righteousness is sinking sand.

There is no righteousness there to stand upon. You have none. You have no righteousness in and of yourself.

That's not me being mean. That's Romans 3. That's the Bible. You have no righteousness in and of yourself.

There is none righteous. None seek God. None do good. You're included in that none. I'm included in that none.

Christians stand upon not our own righteousness or ability to keep the law, but we stand upon the righteousness of Christ.

And the self -righteousness of a legalist produces false assurance.

Faithlessness is a lack of trust in the sanctifying hand of God. Maybe doing some things right, but with the wrong motivations.

The legalist separates the words of the law from the spirit of the law.

The Pharisees, they were guilty of this. They loved the law, but not the

God who created it, whose character the law reveals. And in their heart, they did not desire to please

God. The legalist desires to please themself or to please man or to please their preacher, to please grandma, or to please somebody other than God.

We see this on multiple occasions throughout scripture with the Pharisees and others. Legalists believe

God's approval is in their right actions. If you are trusting in something other than Christ for your salvation, then you have no assurance of salvation.

You have more assurance that you will spend eternity in hell than you do in truly being saved.

Those who trust in Christ, they have true assurance. They are resting in his work.

They have been made alive in Christ. Their religion is rich compared to the religion of the legalist.

Legalism produces self -righteousness, false assurance, and cold man -made religion.

It lacks many of the fruit of the spirit we're going to talk about later tonight. It lacks true love, joy, peace, and so on.

They have replaced these things with their own morality, with the rules of man.

The word of God is no longer sufficient. Man -made laws and rules are added to God's law and treated as equal to it.

Their religion and perception of Christianity is simply, don't do this and do that, and I'm okay.

The fruit of the spirit are traded for this. R .C. Sproul once wrote, the legalist isolates the law of God from the

God who gave the law. He is not so much seeking to obey God or honor Christ as he is to obey rules that are devoid of any personal relationship.

There's no loving fellowship with God in this kind of life that is based upon your morality.

True Christianity, though, is fellowship with the living God, made possible by the work, the finished work of Christ.

And within this cold man -made religion, the offense of the cross is taken away.

The offense of the cross is removed. Look at verse 11. But if I, brother, still preach circumcision, why am

I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed.

Listen, legalism removes the offense of the cross. This world is okay with a works -based salvation.

That's virtually every religion out there that they don't have a problem with is works -based.

They hate a sovereign God in a gospel that tells them that their works are not good enough.

Your righteousness is not good enough. The world hates this. It's offensive to tell the world that no work of them can make them righteous.

They find that very offensive. Go tell somebody. You'll see my point.

Legalism doesn't offend because it's powerless. It's powerless.

In church, we can be free from legalism. But being free from legalism does not give us an opportunity to flaunt our

Christian liberty. He says, in verse 13, For you were called to freedom, brothers.

Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. But through love, serve one another.

Being free from legalism is not to ignore the conscience of a brother or sister.

You're not bound by the conscience, nor are they yours. And we must show each other grace in these areas.

But after speaking about legalism, Paul takes a brief moment to address another error to avoid.

So verses 1 through 12, freedom versus legalism. Verses 13 through 15, freedom versus license.

Both legalism, which is adding of law or works to faith for salvation and licentiousness, the other ditch to avoid, are not only unbiblical, but they're anti -gospel.

We see the warning in verse 13 against licentiousness, which means sin of willful disobedience, disregard for moral rules and lack of moral restraint.

Many define it simply as viewing grace as a license to sin. We took a look at the products of legalism.

Let's quickly do the same with licentiousness. Licentiousness produces a belief in a license to sin.

Some look upon God's grace and kindness as an excuse for sin, saying, in effect, his kindness does away with the law.

We're free to do as we please. Jude 1 through 4, for certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation.

Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Romans 6 .1, what should we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid. In the same chapter, he goes down and says, verse 11.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion over you since you are under the law, not under the law, but under grace.

Licentiousness, it produces a belief in a license to sin. It produces easy believism of no mind to holiness.

This is rampant in churches. And it was then and still is today. They take the doctrine of eternal security and they run with it to wicked and evil and unbiblical ends.

And if this is you, he's warning against this. In Romans, he warns against the same things.

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, and they were full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Though they know God's righteousness decree that those who practice such things deserve to die.

They not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. In chapter two, therefore, you have no excuse.

Oh, man, every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

Do not suppose, oh, man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself that you will escape the judgment of God.

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

But because of your hard and impotent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when

God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Those who view grace as a license to sin, these are sobering words.

These are sobering words, and this is a rejection of God's word and his law that leads to and produces compromise.

That's why we see this in churches. They've compromised. This is where love is love comes from.

Hey, love is love. It's not my business. Churches bending over backwards and accepting all kinds of debauchery and sin and wickedness.

Where churches are pro -life until somebody challenges them. Well, you know, except for rape, then it's

OK to murder. That's what this produces. We don't take the holiness of being of God serious.

We don't take scripture such, be you holy for I am holy. We ought to be holy.

We ought to strive for holiness, explaining away sin. Churches and even men and women who once took a hard stance against sin have compromised.

Let this be a warning here. We cannot compromise on sin.

We battle legalism and we battle licentiousness. Licentiousness also removes the offense of the gospel.

Look at verse 11. Again, what does he say? He says, I preach the circumcision.

If I still preach circumcision, why am I being persecuted in that the case of the offense of the cross had been removed?

If he was a legalist and preaching the law, nobody would be offended.

The same is true if we preach a gospel that is viewed as great, that views grace as a license to sin.

It removes the offense of the gospel. The world is OK with salvation by your works.

The world is also OK with a salvation that doesn't change you. Pray a prayer.

Go live your life. No problem. The world hates the gospel. The world hates the gospel that calls for repentance and for holiness.

They want total freedom to live and do how they please. Christian, if you have fallen into this, you have been sinfully deceived and you have sinfully abused the freedom that we have in Christ.

So we have two ditches. We have one that views freedom, they've went back into bondage through their legalism, and one that views freedom as a license to sin.

But I want to close with a proper use of freedom. The fears of licentiousness are real.

From the beginning, people have taken the grace of the gospel and used it to sin and justify sin, and they do this to their own destruction.

The answer to solve this, though, is not to demand teetotalism from everyone, but rather to understand freedom in Christ rightly.

We are never to indulge our flesh in the sake or in the name of freedom.

But we don't put commands in the Bible that aren't there. We are not the binder of our brother and sister's conscience.

Rather, we point them to Christ. We point them to his word.

We run to Christ and his word, and through Christ, true freedom is found.

It is found in slavery to God and Christ. You say, what freedom?

How can freedom be found in slavery? Those who indulge in sin are not free.

They are in slavery to a cruel taskmaster, one that desires to steal, kill, and destroy.

Those who build up their own laws and regulations, they are not free, for they are bound to their imperfect rules.

But those who are slaves to Christ, they are free. They are free to not have to rely on their failure to keep the law for justification.

By the working of the Holy Spirit, they are free to resist temptation and sin. Verse 14, they are free to love their neighbor as themselves.

They are free to serve one another. They are free to bear one another's burdens. They are free to battle sin together.

And as we talk more, as we'll talk more tonight, they are free to produce the fruit of the

Spirit. They are free to walk by the Spirit. Leviticus 19, you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord. Without Christ, that's impossible. Because we're enslaved to sin through Christ.

You won't be perfect in this life. But by the freeing work of Christ, you can obey

God. You can be sanctified. You will be sanctified. One author writes, grace frees us from bondage to sin so that we will enjoy the fruit of sanctification and finally glorification.

I saw this quote last week from Pastor Randall Easter. Whatever ways

Christian liberty may be defined in these days, it can never negate the clarity of God's word for Christians to be set apart from the world.

Christians are to be holy, set apart, unique, different, and making no provision for this flesh. The Christian's speech, dress, and desires are to distinguish him from the word.

The question is not what can I get away with, but rather, how can I bring the most glory to God? Be of greatest service to his church.

And how can I best demonstrate the gospel to the world? It is as if all the

Christian has to do is to find out what the world approves of, promotes, and enjoys and do the opposite.

The abiding Christian position is eternal satisfaction in Christ. Both legalism and licentiousness are threats to the liberty we have in Christ.

For one is a slave to the curse of the law and the other is a slave to sin. But in Christ, we can have freedom from both.

I'm not saying that Christians, we still don't sin and experience the effects of the curse towards mankind due to sin.

But rather, we are not a slave to keeping the law for justification. And in Christ, we are free from the punishment of sin.

And in Christ, we are able to resist sin. We won't always, but at times by the working of the spirit, we are able to resist.

Before we were in Christ, we were not able to resist sin because it was our nature, no longer.

And when we find ourselves, if you find yourself in either ditch, the opposite ditch is not the answer.

The legalist does not need to sin more and the licentious person does not need to be more legalistic.

These things are not the answer. The truth is that we're all prone to both ditches.

We seek some sense of security in our own morality. That our following of rules somehow makes us righteous before God.

Or we seek to justify our fulfillment of the desires of the flesh by claiming grace.

That our rebellious attitude in life are covered by grace. We wrongly put this under the guise of Christian liberty.

There may be both present in your life. There may be one, the other or both. How can we avoid both ditches?

How can we stay out of these ditches? By going to the word, by knowing the word, by knowing the gospel, by knowing why we obey.

And we are to obey God. That destroys licentiousness. We are to obey

God and we strive for holiness. Hearts truly changed by the spirit will be sanctified.

But the why matters. And the why is what destroys legalism. We obey because he is worthy of our obedience.

We obey because our hearts have been changed to love God. That is why we obey.

These are so dangerous and Paul, he's warning against both. But with this warning, he provides the remedy.

What's the path? We see the two ditches. What's the path? Paul writes, we are free from the curse of the law, not free to live and do as we please.

Not free to sin. But what does he say in verse 16? We're free to walk by the spirit.

He says, but I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. That but is linking those first 15 verses.

Believers are free to walk by the spirit. This is meaning to walk by the will of the

Holy Spirit of God. Under the guidance and leadership of the Holy Spirit made able to yield control of our lives to the

Holy Spirit. This is the answer. This is the evidence that you are in Christ, that you walk by the spirit.

This. This is the fruit that the fruit of the spirit are evident in your life.

This is the answer. This morning we have a baptism where two people that we believe to have been born again are following Christ and being baptized.

This baptism is publicly displaying that a work of Christ has been done in the heart and soul of Virginia and Caleb.

That they are walking by faith and walking by the spirit. That they are not trusting in their own righteousness, but rather the finished work of Christ, his perfect life, death and resurrection.

They are not viewing grace as a license to sin, but as a gift of God to be free from its punishment.

As a gift given, a new heart to be free to choose to not sin and to follow

Christ. To not be perfect, but to follow Christ. Unbeliever.

If you're here and you're an unbeliever, you've never repented of your sins and trusted in Christ. You don't have a new heart and you are not free from the punishment of your sin.

Your works of righteousness have failed and you will be judged by God for that failure.

You'll be cast into hell for all of eternity. Unless you repent and put your faith in Christ.

Flee from the wrath to come, run to Christ. May we this morning in this baptism and every day celebrate this gospel that Paul preached so fervently.

And may we remember the life, death and resurrection of Christ this morning as we watch this beautiful ordinance of baptism.

And may we be thankful for the gift of regeneration.

A dead man, a dead woman, a dead young man made alive in Christ.

A heart of stone made into a heart of flesh. Praise be to God. Let us pray.

Father, we're thankful this morning for your word. We're thankful for Christ.

We're thankful that our righteousness is not what you view,

Father, as being worthy, for we are not righteous. Father, all of our good deeds, you could put them all together,

Father, and they would only condemn us all the more. We're thankful for Christ.

We're thankful for the free gift of faith that you have given, Lord, to your people.

And that we are not resting in our ability to keep the law, but we are trusting and resting in Christ as he perfectly kept the law.

Father, may we not view this grace as a freedom to sin. May we view this grace,

Lord, as a reason to live for you, as a reason to strive for holiness, as a reason,

Lord, to take the things of your word seriously. Lord, give us grace.

Give me grace in these areas. Lord, we are so thankful this morning for Virginia and Caleb, Lord, for you saving their souls.

Lord, may we celebrate not just the salvation of souls this morning. We do celebrate that.

But may we celebrate, Lord, your perfect life, your sacrificial death on the cross,

Lord, and your justifying resurrection. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's stand together and let's turn to page 14 in our hymnals.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation.

O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation.

All ye who hear, now to his temple draw near.

Praise him in glad adoration. Praise to the

Lord, who o 'er all things so wondrously reigneth.

Shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth.

Hast thou not seen how thy desires have been granted in what he ordaineth?

Praise to the

Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee.

Surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.

Ponder anew what the Almighty can do, if with his love he be friendly.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore him.

All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before him.

Let the amen sound from his people again.

Gladly foray, we adore him.

Amen. You may be seated. We got sound?

I think you can hear me. Amen. Thank you, Brother Jacob, for that message. We baptize in response to the preaching of the word.

I think it's a good symbol of how you ought to respond to preaching like that.

You ought to respond in repentance and faith. And you ought to respond by following the

Lord and believing in baptism. Let me just remind us, we're a Baptist church. And we believe that what's happening here in these baptisms is a two -fold declaration, if you will.

One, God is declaring a picture of the promises of the gospel here. He's reminding us of what we need to be saved.

And that is the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And he's promising that those who believe upon him, those who turn from their sins and look to Christ, will be saved.

Baptism is a glorious reminder today that God is still saving today. All the realities and all the wickedness going on in the world today,

God is still saving. But it's also a declaration by Miss Virginia. She's declaring,

I am resolved to follow Christ. I'll say this quickly and then let her read her.

I've known Miss Virginia a long time. I've stayed over at her house when her son and myself were growing up in high school together.

And friends. And I remember y 'all used to have a ferret. I remember that. I remember that she did.

And she'll talk about her testimony. Had some strange practices. But it was last year, a year ago,

Monty White and myself, we knocked on her door. And doing evangelism. We shared the gospel.

And I think it was like last September, she started visiting our church. And boy, there's a lot there, right?

Like she showed up and she's just telling us all these things. And Jacob and I were like, whoa, whoa, whoa. And her and Miss Darla are talking.

And come to find out, she wasn't a Christian. But God saved her by his grace.

I'll let her read her testimony and then we will baptize her. I once was a lost sinner.

No love for Christ was in me. Only love for myself. I was full of hate, self -loathing, full of selfish desires, lusting and promiscuity.

I lusted for things I couldn't have and envied ones that had it. And these things, my action, my beliefs, were leading me straight to hell, to the bottomless pit.

I was immoral and into forbidden religions that God warned us about. I was so stupid, so blind, so ignorant.

I was searching for something and Jesus found me. I didn't even know I was lost, but Jesus did.

I had walked in darkness and he was that light that led me out of that black night. He showed me his love, his unending divine grace, and his sacrifice for me.

He wrote his name in my heart. He covered me with the wings of love and saved me by his holy grace.

I did not deserve his love, his grace, or the things he did for me. His love, his blessings.

But he was and is my savior. He was crucified. He suffered. He was buried for three days and walked right out of that tomb in victory.

He is Christ the King. I publicly proclaim I willingly walk away from my old life, away from hate, false beliefs, false religion, false gods.

I'm a born again, delivered, freed through Christ Christian. I'm a new person in Christ. Now death has no sting and life has no end for I've been transformed by the blood of Jesus the

Lamb. Thank you, Jesus. Christ is King. Amen. Baptize Miss Virginia as a sister in Christ.

Here you go. I'll get you. Here. I'll get that. You go here. We don't do a class on this, so go here.

I baptize her as my sister in Christ, but also into membership of the body of Providence Baptist Church.

So upon your profession of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and in obedience to our

King, I now baptize Miss Virginia as my sister in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We're going backwards. Come on in, boys.

The water's fine. You go on. Miss Virginia, you can go out this way. Go out this way, yes.

Caleb. This is

Caleb. I've known Caleb a long time too.

Caleb is a precious gift to his mother and I. I remember when he was little, we thought...

Oh, sorry. Sorry. That's typical middle child. He's just over there.

No one knows he's there. Okay. Caleb, at a very young age, we saw his heart for others, but then we realized...

It didn't take very long for us to realize that his heart for others was really a heart that was self -righteous and he was really heart -focused on himself.

And we prayed for him. We shared the gospel. How many times do you think you heard the gospel? A lot.

And we just prayed and trusted him to the hands of our gracious God.

It's not because of anything that Steph and I did. It's just because of the sheer grace of God in the gospel that he has brought our son from death to life.

It's a joy as his father to baptize now my third child in the faith.

And it's such an encouragement. And we love you, Caleb. And we're very proud of you. And we give all absolute glory to our gracious God.

Let you read your testimony now. Apart from Christ, my life was worthless.

I was a wretched sinner just playing church. I would go to church on Sunday and just sit there through the preaching.

I became treating the gospel as ordinary. Like when you ask people how they sleep by a train.

They just get used to it. Then we were going to take a trip to Texas, but I wasn't going to get to go. Then in God's providence,

God put it on the good man's heart to let us use their vehicle. The reason we went to Texas was for an

I Am Resolved for a revival. It was great preaching all week. The last service we sang

I Am Resolved. And Pastor Jonathan Murdock said some of you were lying singing that.

And I realized that was me. Then on Easter Sunday, my dad preached the gospel, which is that God sent his only son.

And he lived a perfect, sinless life, was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified on the cross, but rose on the third day.

Our response as mankind is to repent and go to him. And I did. I repented and God saved me.

After the sermon, I talked with Pastor Jacob. And I was presented before the church to be baptized.

Becoming a Christian is the best decision I've made in my life. I still need to grow, but I love the

Lord and I want to please him. I want to know him and then know him more. All right,

Caleb, we baptize you. Also, we need to do a class on this. Baptize you as my brother in Christ, but also in the membership of Providence Baptist Church.

So Caleb, upon your profession of faith and in obedience to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I now baptize you, my brother, in the name of the

Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Bend your knees. Amen.

You can hang out here. All right. Would you stand?

Let's sing Doxology. And then we'll need some people to help set up the tables as well.

Anything else before we dismiss this morning, Jacob? Lord's Supper tonight at six.

Yeah. Please stay and eat lunch. Let's enjoy our time together. We're going to sing

Doxology and I'm going to ask Steve Turnage to close us in a word of prayer. Steve, would you ask the Lord to bless the food as well?

sing Doxology. Amen.