Legalism & License

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of

Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L.

Moody.

We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of

the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com.

We hope you enjoy the message.

In the New Testament, the apostles are very careful so that nobody got

the wrong idea about the gospel.

That salvation is by faith alone, yes, but as one wise man put it,

the faith that saves is not alone.

So this sermon is a sermon against what is called easy believism.

So it's against easy believism, but it is a sermon for gospel

truth.

So if you would turn to Galatians chapter five, Galatians five, and the title of

the message is faith working through love.

That's what the apostle Paul writes, faith working through love.

It is God who works the faith in and we are to then work

the faith out in love and in good works.

Jesus said in John 1335, by this, all will know that you are my

disciples if you have love for one another.

So God works the faith in, we work the faith out.

And our love and care and concern is not just for other believers, it is to be

for the whole world.

Just as God so loved the world, we should love non -believers as well.

As you heard in the scripture reading from James chapter two, Mark read, how faith without works is

what?

Dead, and the clear implication by James is that a dead faith saves no

one.

Look at Galatians chapter five, verses five and six.

Paul writes, for we through the spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by

faith.

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything,

but faith working through love.

Let's pray.

Father, this morning as we sit under the ministry of your word, I pray that your spirit

would soften hearts and comfort and encourage the people who are called by your name.

Lord, give us not only ears to hear, but opportunities throughout the week to put our

faith into action.

And I ask all this in Jesus name, amen.

Galatians chapter five, verse five.

Again, Paul writes for we through the spirit eagerly wait for the hope

of righteousness by faith.

So Paul writing to New Testament Christians who have the Holy Spirit, he reminds them that it is

by faith that we have this hope of righteousness.

Did you notice that?

It says the hope of righteousness.

Comment on that in just a moment.

But he goes on in verse six to say that it is not circumcision that avails or

for that matter, any other work or right or ritual that you might do.

Only Christ can make a person righteous.

What you do, whether it's something that happens in a church or your good works, that

cannot make you righteous.

Amen.

We have to understand that from the outset.

What you do cannot make you righteous.

Only Christ can make a person righteous.

So there is one sense in which believers and the Galatians, this is true for them.

There's one sense where the believers have already been declared righteous

through imputation.

They had faith in Christ.

Christ through the gospel has declared them righteous.

Who trust in Jesus by faith, you're righteous.

Salvation, if you've noticed in the New Testament, is spoken about in three different ways.

Have you ever noticed that?

Past tense, present tense, and future tense.

Let me try to explain that.

A believer, again, has already been declared righteous.

You have been saved.

That's what?

Past tense, right?

And then the Bible talks about, in a few cases, where people are being saved.

Well, that's present tense.

And then there is a sense where you will be saved, and that's

future tense.

And Paul talks about the hope of righteousness.

Well, wait, I already thought we'd been declared righteous, and now there's this hope of righteousness.

So if you have placed all your faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, if you

believe the true gospel, grace alone, faith alone, and Christ alone, you are

then saved.

But anyone who is honest with themselves, if they look in the mirror, God has

declared you righteous, but guess what?

You're not actually righteous.

Like, you do understand this, right?

If you think that you look in the mirror and, yeah, I am truly, you're

self -righteous.

That's the word for that.

You're deceived, okay?

We're not actually righteous, although God has declared us righteous.

So maybe this is confusing, but we'll try to explain it.

I think many of us who have been brought up in the church or been in the church for a long time, we just kind of take this kind of

language for granted.

We don't even really think about it.

But I can imagine for a new convert or someone on the outside looking in, this may

seem a little confusing because Christians are called saints.

That's the name for Christians in the Bible.

They're called saints.

And there's all this talk about righteousness and holiness and obedience to God.

Yet at the same time, the same exact people will say, well, I'm a sinner saved by grace.

We'll say that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.

And that's what Scripture says.

All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.

Even the Apostle Paul, who we would recognize as a righteous man, he spoke in the

Scripture about his own wretchedness.

I mean, this can seem to some as a contradiction.

Well, are you a sinner or are you a saint?

Are you obeying God or are you not?

Are you holy or are you a wretch?

And the simple answer is yes.

You see, the Galatians had been declared righteous through the gospel, but practically speaking, they had

a long way to go.

And you know what?

We have a ways to go as well.

They had been saved.

God had worked the faith in.

That's here.

When they got saved, when they believed on Christ, that's here.

That's the starting point.

The end of the line is here.

When they will be saved in glory, the resurrection of the dead, that's here.

So the starting point's here.

The end is here.

Well, guess what's in between?

We're in a process of becoming more like Jesus.

The true believer is becoming or being conformed to the image of Christ.

This is our process of sanctification.

Look at verse 6.

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything

but faith working through love.

So we don't say, well, I'm saved and I can sit back and just enjoy that knowledge.

No, we are to keep moving forward.

Our faith needs to be a faith that works.

Our faith needs to be working through love.

Now, again, no external rite or ritual can bring this about.

Just because somebody has water dripped on their head or they're dunked underwater, that in and

of itself doesn't prove anything.

It has to be the work of the Holy Spirit that changes a person's heart and makes them

righteous.

So it's not that what we do doesn't matter.

It does matter.

The Lord has commanded baptism.

That matters.

But it's not what you do that actually makes you righteous.

It's only faith.

But works are in the conversation.

So we have to have an understanding.

And this has been something churches and Christians have struggled with throughout the ages, the

relationship of faith and works.

Let me illustrate it this way.

Imagine you're walking down the road and there is a ditch on either side of the

road.

The road represents the Christian life.

I just want you to envision this in your mind.

The road represents the Christian life.

God wants us walking down the middle of the road.

If we start to stray to one side, this represents a

move towards legalism.

Okay?

This is the idea that I'm right with God and God loves me and I'm saved

based on what I do.

This is legalism.

If you go too far in that direction, you stray too far, you're going to fall right into the ditch of

legalism.

This is what Paul is concerned about in the churches of Galatia.

Because it's the false teachers, the Judaizers, who had fallen into that ditch.

They were unsaved and they're trying to bring people along with them.

So Paul is concerned about the Galatians.

They had strayed too far in that direction of

legalistic behavior.

They're trusting in works.

They're trusting in circumcision.

Now, Christians can stray on the opposite side of the road too, can't they?

And that ditch is called license.

I would argue that license is far more common in evangelical

Christianity today.

What is license?

This is the idea that I can, you know, say a prayer, walk the aisle.

I can raise my hand at a crusade and I've made a profession of faith, but that's done.

Now I can just go back to my old life and live however I want.

And the people who fall into, a lot of people stray in that direction, but the people who fall right

into that ditch, they still say they believe in Jesus, but they deny him in every good work.

So we want to avoid the ditches, amen?

We want to avoid straying too far in that direction.

There's the ditch of legalism and the ditch of license.

So again, because there is a ditch on either side, we want to be walking down the middle

of that road.

It was faith that got us on that road to begin with.

The destination off in the distance is heaven.

And it's the Holy Spirit who empowers us to keep walking, to

continually be moving forward.

You know, sometimes it's true we trip and fall and we need to get back up.

Sometimes the wind is at our back and we make great strides in our Christian walk.

Other times we're walking against the wind, and that can be a little discouraging.

But those are the moments where it helps to have someone alongside walking with you, right?

And we realize, hopefully, that we need other people.

This is why we need the local church and we need fellowship.

We need someone there alongside us to encourage us when we're walking

against the wind.

So let's focus in on this statement in verse 6 for a moment.

Paul writes,.

One commentator says this about verse 6.

Love tells him what that will is.

And it is clear that the faith thus described by St. Paul does not stop

short in a mere head notion.

Let me read that last statement.

The faith thus described by St. Paul does not stop short in a mere head

notion.

You know what a head notion is?

It's like, well, yeah, I believe it's up here, but it ain't in here.

And it certainly isn't coming out with what you do.

So here's the problem.

People read the epistles of Paul and these statements about faith and not

works.

And you know we've been talking about this a lot.

It's by faith, not by works.

And we really stress that because Paul really stresses that.

But the problem is people read that faith and not works.

And they hear the preaching about God's grace.

And they get the idea that all they need to do is believe a concept in their mind.

And that is somehow biblical salvation.

I'm here to tell you it's not.

It's not biblical salvation.

Now it's tricky because obviously you do need to believe.

That's true.

But look at verse 6 again.

Your faith is to be working through love.

And again, James 2, a dead faith does what?

It doesn't save anybody.

Faith without works is dead.

So Paul is combating legalism.

But unfortunately, this causes other people to drift too far in that other direction.

And some have even fallen into the ditch of license.

Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website,

morriscornickchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.