Address—C. Hendricks
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Galatians chapter 4 Now I say that the air as long as he is a child.
Difference nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time.
Appointed of the Father. Even so we, when we were children, were in ******* under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying.
ABBA Father.
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Howbeit then when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them, which by nature are no gods. But now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in *******?
You observe days and months and times and years. I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.
Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am, for I am as ye are. Ye have not injured me at all. You know how through infirmity of the flesh, I preach the gospel unto you at the 1St. And my temptation, which was in my flesh, he despised not nor rejected, but received me as an Angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? For I bear you record that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes.
And have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but not well. Yay, they would exclude you that you might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you, my little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you.
I desire to be present with you now.
And to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me ye that desire to be under the law.
Do ye not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond made the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory? For these are the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to ******* which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth.
Jerusalem, which now is and is in ******* with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not break forth and cry thou that travellest not. For the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
But as then he that was born after the flesh.
Persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, Even so it is now.
Nevertheless, what sayeth the Scripture cast out the bondwoman and her son? For the son of the bondwoman shall not be here with the son of the free woman.
So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of *******.
I would stop there and we would get past that point. But enough reading just now.
We are noticing last night that Paul was He wrote this epistle to combat the error that came in early in the church trying to put the Gentiles under the ******* of law, a ******* which the Jews could not bear themselves. They didn't keep it.
The Lord said to them in John 7, Did not Moses give you the law? And none of you keepeth the law, why go you about to kill me? And then Steven said in Acts 7, speaking by the Holy Spirit, he said of these Jews who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. So here we have the 2. The testimony of two divine persons, the Lord Himself and the Holy Spirit.
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Speaking through Stephen that they had the law, they boasted in it. The Gentiles didn't have it, the Jews had it, but the Jews had not kept it. And so the verse that would apply to them is the one we looked at yesterday. It's in chapter 3 and verse 10. As many as are of the works of the law.
Are under the curse, for it is written.
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. It is evident for the just shall live by faith. Wonderful principle that's taken from the Old Testament. The just shall live by faith found three times in the New Testament, once in this this epistle. Faith in contrast with.
Sad to say that so much of Christendom today is under the delusion that we have to work our way to heaven. We have to do our part in order to contribute to our salvation. Well, as we were singing at the beginning of the meeting, Christ has done it all. All the work necessary to bring your soul all the way to the glory of God's presence was done on the cross. You don't have to do anything.
Nothing either great or small, nothing Sinner, No.
Jesus did it, did it all long, long ago. Wonderful to know this, that it's by grace that we're saved.
Not of works, lest any man should boast. Well, he ends that 3rd chapter by saying, if you be Christs, then are ye Abraham seed and heirs according to the promise. So the Gentile who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and is Christ is an heir and also is considered Abraham's seed in a spiritual sense.
Then he goes on to say in chapter 4. Now I say that the air as long as he is a child.
Differs nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all he might be the Prince in the Kingdom, but he's just a young boy. And so he doesn't differ from the servants. He's not able to to enter into all that is his by by rights because he's the heir, he's the son of the king. And that was that's the state that Israel was in in their ******* state when they were under law. They were just like this, this boy that was unable to really.
Realize the the importance of his position.
Though he was Lord of all, he was just like a servant, but he's under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father, until he reaches maturity and can assume that full responsibility of a grown son.
Well, what you have in the Old Testament, those that were under the ******* of laws just like this, this young boy who is just like a servant, he hasn't matured into the full state of grown manhood.
And so he uses that little illustration to develop the truth. Verse 3 Now Even so, we, we Jews, when we were children, when we're in that children's state of things, were in ******* under the elements of the world. They were under the law, they were under the first principles of this world, and that was *******. But.
When the fullness of the time was come.
God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. That's the Jews that we might receive the adoption of sons now to be placed as a grown son before the Father. That's the place that we have now in Christ. Notice going back to the third chapter for a moment in verse 23 he says, but before.
Faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. He's talking about the Jews and the Old Testament. They looked forward to a coming Redeemer. But when it says before faith came, it means before the faith that rests upon this new object. Christ himself before he came and and we had an object to rest upon.
We were kept under the law.
He says shut up to the faith which should afterwards be revealed. That verse doesn't mean that there was number faith in the Old Testament. Why? Hebrews 11 tells us about the worthies of faith all the way through the Old Testament. But he's talking about the object of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ before He came, the one upon whom faith would rest as an object. You see, the law didn't give an object for faith to rest upon. The law was a set of rules and principles of conduct, but it didn't put.
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Present an object before us, and when the Lord Jesus Christ came, he was that object. Verse 24 of chapter 3 says, Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster. It was our tutor unto Christ not to bring us to Christ, as our version reads. Notice those words are in italics. They've been added by the translators. The thought is, He was our schoolmaster unto Christ until he came, that we might be justified.
By faith. But after that faith has come, faith in Christ. Now faith in the one who is the Redeemer from law. After he has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster, no longer under the law, for ye are all the children of God. By faith in Christ Jesus. And it says in verse.
28 It says there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female.
For ye are all one in Christ Jesus. So in Christ, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, God sees you just the same in Christ. Very precious. Now going back to the 4th chapter, he says when the fullness, verse 4, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption, the placing of sons, that we might receive sonship.
A known mature relationship into which we're brought now and then he goes on. And because you are sons, the Gentiles too are sons. Not only the Jews that have that were in *******. And just like a child under tutors in in the Old Testament, they've now been brought into a place of mature sonship. And so have the Gentiles who believe brought into the same place of blessing. Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his.
Into your hearts, crying ABBA Father.
ABBA means in the Aramaic language it means father, and they didn't translate that word. They just transliterated it over into English, ABBA. If they had transliterated the word the Greek word Potter, which means father, it would say ABBA pater. But they didn't do that. They translated Pater into father. Had they translated ABBA into Father, it would read Father.
Father.
I like to think of the word.
Being able to be cried by a baby, by a young child after it learns to speak. Not quite a baby couple years old. You don't need teeth to say ABBA like you don't need teeth to say daddy or Papa. And so ABBA might be the the cry of one very young in the faith and father more the cry of one who has grown and matured into adulthood.
But it embraces both a beautiful expression ABBA father. Two ways of saying father in two different languages.
Because ye are sons now that we are in that place of sonship, something the law couldn't bring us into.
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying ABBA Father, it says in Romans 8, He has given us the spirit of adoption, the placing of sons, and here it says literally the Spirit of His Son. If you read in Marks Gospel chapter 14, I think it is the Lord Jesus in the garden. He looked up to his Father and he cried, ABBA Father, all things are possible unto thee.
Take away this cup for me, nevertheless, not my will.
But thine be done. Just think of it. We are brought so near to God the Father that we can utter the same, the very same words which the Lord Jesus Christ, God's beloved Son, uttered when he was in that garden of Gethsemane. ABBA Father, He cried, and now we can cry, ABBA Father the other time, and we might just look at it. Keep your place here and we'll come right back here.
Romans 8. You might just read the verse where the other time it occurs is in Romans 8 and verse 15.
I'll read verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. What characterized the Son of God was that he was always led by the Spirit of God. What characterizes us as sons of God is that we're led by the Spirit of God. Then he goes on to say, For ye have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear.
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The spirit of ******* is what the Jews had under law.
And it brought fear to them because they didn't keep it, and so it cursed them. It was a ministry of death.
It was a ministry of condemnation, it was *******. You have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ABBA Father. So these are the three times in Scripture, one in mark, where the Lord Himself used that wonderful expression, ABBA Father. And then Romans 8.
We have the spirit of adoption, the placing of sons, and we cry ABBA Father.
And here in Galatians 4, he has God has sent forth his Son.
Made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them, that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons, he says.
And then he reverts to a reference to the Gentiles, because ye are sons. The we would be the Jews, the ye would be the Gentiles, because ye are sons. For when we believe the gospel, we too are brought into that same relationship, that same place of sonship that the Jews are brought into now in Christ. Because ye are sons. God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying ABBA Father.
What He's establishing in these passages is when they were under law, they could not cry ABBA, father, they did not know God as their father. They were like servants, though they were heirs of all. They were just like children. And now that we have believed the gospel, now that the sun has come, now that the one who is the object of faith has come, that's what He means when He says before faith came, before He upon whom our faith rests, before he came.
They were kept under law and ******* under the schoolmaster, but now this tutor, But now we are in the full place of sonship, the full place of nearness to God, so that we can cry. ABBA Father, how precious, how wonderful that is, verse 7, Wherefore thou art no more a servant. That's what Israel was when they were in ******* under law.
But a son contrast between Judaism which was put them in the place of servitude.
Now they are in the place of sonship now that they the sun has come, but you are now a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ, an heir of God, all that he has won, he has, He's not going to take it just for himself, but he's going to share it all with us. And so in Romans 8, the wonderful expression is given. We are joint heirs with Christ and here we have, we are an heir of God through Christ.
Verse 8 Now howbeit then when ye knew not God, that S the Gentiles. That expression, whenever you read that expression in the New Testaments referring to Gentiles, it can cannot refer to the Jews because the Jews knew God in the Old Testament. They were his people and he when he refers to them, it's those who are in a known relationship with God. The Gentiles were not, they didn't know God.
When he knew not God, ye did service unto them, which by nature are no gods.
They were idolaters, they worshipped idols, they worshiped stocks and stones and images. But now, after that you have known God, now that you have believed the gospel, now that you have received the Son and have become sons of God by faith in Christ, now after the ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements?
Whereunto ye desire again to be in *******.
That might puzzle us because of the word again used twice there. They were never under the law of Moses, no, but they were under law because all false religions, regardless of what form and shape they it takes, is in ******* under law. There's only one true, and that's Christianity, which is grace. All the rest put man under law and there are groups under the umbrella of Christendom that are under law as well.
Roman Catholic group and so on. They are under law and they don't really understand grace as many that are like that.
So he says to them.
They were in danger. They were listening to this voice of the Judaizers, the legalists, trying to put them under law like the Jews were. And so he asked the question, how? After that you have known God, or rather unknown of God.
Turn ye again to the weakened beggarly elements. You are going back in principle to the same thing that you were saved from.
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When you were brought out of the darkness of paganism, heathenism unto Christ.
You're going back to the same thing in principle, principle of law. I'll turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements.
That's how he characterizes the bond, whereunto you desire again to be in *******.
Again, to be in ******* they were in ******* to that principle and they were saved and redeemed from it. And now by listening to the voice of these Judaizers, they were in danger of going back to it in principle and to become in *******. Verse 10, you observe days and months and times and years, and all you have to do is look at that verse quite carefully and look at Christendom, and we'll see that that's true of Christendom today.
They observed days and months and times and years. What are the days that Christendoms Christendom observed well?
We don't have, we have but one day that the Christian is to observe, and that's the first day of the week when the Lord rose from the dead. And it's on that day we come together to break bread. But I remember when I was a young boy, I was not a Christian. My mother was an Episcopalian. My father had been a Roman Catholic. He was not practicing. And mom used to take us on 2 days of the year, religious holidays, Christian religious holidays. The one, of course, was Christmas.
And the other was Easter, and the one was the birth of Christ, seemingly supposedly, and the other, of course, was the resurrection of Christ. Well, we're not told in Scripture that those are to be the days that we are to observe in Christianity. We're to remember the Lord every first day of the week in his death. And this is observing of days and months and times and years.
That's what they had under Judaism. They had their religious holidays.
And there are many groups that have more than just those two I've mentioned. There are some that have 7 or even more than that.
But it's the principle of observing religious holidays which make people feel they are contributing in some way to their standing before God and to their salvation. He observed days and months and times and years. And what does he say about that? Does he approve that? Not a bit of it, He says. I'm afraid of you.
I'm afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. Are you really Christians?
Are you going back to the religious observances that you did when you were pagans because they had many religious holidays in their Pagan religion, but religious beliefs too?
I'm afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. Brethren, he says, I beseech you, be as I am, for I am as ye are. Paul was saved out of a life. He was Saul of Tarsus. He was a staunch Jew, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He persecuted the church, he wasted it. He hailed men and women and carried them off into prison. And.
He was a great persecutor of the early Christians and he got saved.
How do you get saved? By grace, pure grace. So he says, be as I am, for I am as ye are. How did you get saved? You got saved by grace too. I'm just like you. I don't have any advantage over you. You got saved the same way I got saved. That's the only way you can be saved is by believing the gospel, not by doing anything, not by observing some religious holiday or anything of that nature, but by faith in Christ.
And then he goes on in verse 13, he says.
You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preach the gospel unto you. At the first he received a thorn for the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, and I don't know what his affliction was. There's an indication in this chapter that it might have had something to do with poor eyesight. We'll come to it in a moment. But whatever it was, he asked the Lord three times in 2nd Corinthians 12 to take it away.
And the Lord said three times no.
I've given you that you're going to have to go through life with this affliction. He probably felt, Oh Lord, if you'd only take that away, I could be far more effectual in thy work and thy service than I am with it. But the Lord gave it to him, and that's how he preached to them at the first, he says.
You know how through infirmity of the flesh, I preached the gospel unto you at the 1St, and my temptation my my trial, which was in my flesh, he despised not.
Nor rejected.
But received me as an Angel of God.
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Even as Christ himself, Christ Jesus, where is then the blessedness He spake of? For I bear your record that if it had been possible, here's the illusion to his eyes. If it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me. You remember after he was converted, He was, he was blind for three days, and then it says scales fell from his eyes and he could see again. We don't know how well he saw.
And here there seems to be something.
In connection with his eyes with respect to that, that affliction that he had.
We don't know what it is, and I think the Lord has not made it abundantly clear what it is so that we don't think it's that particular thing which is the thorn in the flesh that you might have. You might have something else, or I might have something else.
God knows what to give us, to keep us humble.
And then he goes on to say, am I therefore become your enemy? Because I tell you the truth, when I was in that, that pitiful condition, what I as I preached the gospel unto you, you didn't despise me, you didn't despise the message I brought to you. You received it. I brought you the gospel of the grace of God, and you received it as he mentioned in the 1St chapter. And he says, anyone that preaches any other gospel than what we preach, than what you received, let him be accursed. Let him be accursed.
So he's very strongly opposing and fighting the effort of the enemy to get these early Christians, these Gentile believers off the ground of grace back onto the ground of law.
So he asked them, Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
They, that is these Judaizers, these Legalists, these Jews that were trying to put the Gentiles under law, they zealously affect you, but not well. That is, they showed a zeal towards you and what they were up to as they were trying to get you out from under the influence of Paul's teachings, Paul's ministry, and listen to them. They were trying to win these Gentile converts over to their side of things.
And so they say, he says.
They zealously affect you, but not well, That is they they did not have a good motive about what they were doing. Yay. They would exclude you. They would try to exclude you from us, Paul says. From following us and from enjoying the truth as we presented it to you.
To them that you might affect them, that you might follow them, That's what they were up to. But he says it is a good, it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. With these Judaizers were not doing a good thing at all. They were doing a very evil thing. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. And not only when I am present with you, you can feel the, you can feel the, the deep.
Feeling in the apostles voice here, my little children, he says.
Of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you.
It's just as though he's going through a second travel. He had labored with them in the gospel and they had received it, and they got delivered from their idols and from their idolatry and from their ******* that they were in as Gentiles to their Pagan religion. And now he says, I've got to go through this all over again with you because you have gone back in spirit, in your understanding to the.
It was formed in their souls. They saw that Christ was everything.
Christ was all and in all, and now they have listened to another voice where they are going to make their own contribution by their own works, by their own religious activities to further their salvation. So he was travailing in birth again until Christ be formed in them, until they realized that it was Christ and nothing else, just Christ that was the Savior of their soul.
I desire to be present with you now, verse 20, and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you. Are you really Christians? Are you really Christians? What would he say today if the Apostle Paul came back in this 20th century to the United States of America and saw the the confusion that exists in Christian circles and some under law, some trying to get to heaven by works and all that.
He'd have to say as he looked around, he'd say, I have this. I stand in doubt of you. Are you really Christians?
What are you? If you say you are Christians, then you are followers of Christ. Then Christ is everything, and He did all the work necessary to bring your soul to heaven, all the work. You don't have to do anything. Just receive Him, believe in Him, and then you live for Him. You work for Him, not to get saved or to keep saved, but to please Him who has done everything for you. You don't get it with the thought that it's going to.
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Enhance your acceptance with God.
That's the law principle. I stand in doubt of you, he says. I desire to be present with you and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me, verse 21 ye that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law?
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond made that speaks Hagar, the bond maid speaks of the law.
The other by a free woman, that Sarah that speaks of grace. She speaks of grace. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh. But he of the free woman was by promise. God promised Sarah that she would have a son. And she laughed. You remember?
And the Angel said, why did she laugh? And she said, I didn't laugh. And he said, Oh yes, you did.
She didn't believe, she laughed in unbelief, but it's beautiful to read of Sarah in Hebrews 11. It says by faith Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, though she didn't believe it the first. She repented of that and then did believe, and she did have Isaac, who was the son of the free woman, and he speaks of grace. Now verse 24 says which things are an allegory, That is Hagar the Bond woman, Sarah the free woman.
They picture something, they picture law, ******* and grace, liberty, which things are an allegory for these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai. That's the covenant of law, which gendereth to ******* which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is and is in ******* with her children. The Jerusalem which existed then when Paul was preaching was.
A Jerusalem that was in ******* didn't know the liberating.
Uh, son of God didn't know the son of God is the one that would set them free. They could not call him ABBA Father call God their father, but he says the the Jerusalem which is above, that's the one we're associated with is free, which is our mother Jerusalem above. For it is written rejoice thou barren that bearest not break forth and cry thou that travail is not for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath.
Spent Jerusalem today is desolate. She's been set aside and during this time there's the Jerusalem above which is free, that has many, many, many children. Just think of all the souls that have been saved in these last 2000 years who have believed the grace of God. Then he goes on verse 28. Now we brethren as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Isaac was a child of promise. He was a child of grace. That's what promise is. It's measured grace.
But as then he that was born after the flesh Ishmael persecuted him that was born after the spirit Isaac, Even so it is now nevertheless what sayeth the Scripture?
Now it's interesting this says, let's say at the scripture, the one who uttered these words was Sarah.
And she said to Abraham, Cast out the bond woman and her son, For the son of the bondwoman shall not inherit, inherit with my son, the son of the free. So here it is, cast out the bondwoman and her son. The law is to be cast out. Ishmael speaks of the law principle, and Isaac speaks of grace.
Cast out the bondwoman, cast out the law and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir.
With Isaac, my son, the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. So he's using the Old Testament Scriptures to show how that even the allegory that he presents to them teaches that same principle. The law is gone for us. We're not under it, but we're under grace. We're under grace.
Chapter 5.
Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of *******. Don't put yourself under law again. You are set free by His grace, and that's liberty and freedom.
Behold, I Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised. And that's all that these Judaizers were trying to get the Gentiles to yield to.
They were trying to get them circumcised, trying to get them on the same ground as the Jew. The Jew was under law and they wanted to put the Gentiles under law.
He says if he be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing, because then you are saying.
That it's up to you to get to heaven on your own works and you don't need Christ and his work isn't going to profit you.
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You can't have Christ in the law. You can't have grace in the law. As we saw last night, the 2 are.
They do not mix. If it is of grace, it is not of works. If it is of works, it is not of grace.
The two principles are mutually exclusive. You cannot be under both. So he says if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. You have abandoned Christianity for the ******* of Judaism. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. They were just saying, well, that's just a small thing, just get yourself circumcised. It's not going to take very long and you'll be healed and all that.
But what it did it it shifted them from the ground of grace to the ground of law and they were a debtor to do the whole law. They were in the same if they got circumcised and yielded to this, they'd be in the same ground that the Jews were at Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai, which could only condemn them. Verse 4 it's he's he concludes this serious step. This was so serious and he speaks so firmly because it was.
The the whole truth of Christianity here was at stake.
And he says in verse 4, if you're circumcised, Christ has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Now that expression fallen from grace does not mean that they've committed some great heinous act of sin, of immorality, or of murder, or of stealing something or of lying. They've just abandoned.
The the position that Christ has brought us into.
In grace for legalism, for law, which is ******* you've fallen from grace. You've departed from the only ground that you can be secure on, and that is the grace of God. But is grace, It's God's unmerited, unearned favor. God blessing us just out of His own heart of goodness, without any works on our part whatsoever. The works follow our salvation. The works do not contribute to it, or do not.
Retain it, but they follow it as the expression of our hearts in in love and gratitude to him who has saved us by grace alone. Then we want to serve him. We want to do good works. Not that it's going to contribute to our salvation in any way. And this is the the common thought in Christendom. There's a common thought that if I go to church every week that will make me a better candidate for heaven. Wrong.
Absolutely wrong. You could go to church every day in the week and you're no more a candidate for heaven than the day you accepted Christ as your Savior. And the one who has just believed in him as a young believer is just as sure of heaven as the one that's been on the road for 50 years. Now. Verse 5 For we through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Now we're not waiting for righteousness. It isn't righteousness which is our hope. We have the righteousness.
Christ is our righteousness. We're waiting for the glory. The hope of righteousness is Christ in glory. That's what we're waiting for. And soon we're going to be there and be like him. I I say that because the NIV translation, for instance, gives this verse. We wait for, we wait for the, the, it's for the righteousness for which we hope. We're not hoping for righteousness. We already have that.
We're waiting and hoping for the glory with Christ on high. That's the hope of righteousness.
We already have the righteousness verse 6 for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. It makes no difference whether you're circumcised Jew or whether you're an uncircumcised Gentile. It makes no difference. What does count? It's faith which worketh by love. That's what sets us in relationship with Him is faith in Him and his finished work. Then he says to them, He did run well. Oh, you started the race well, I've often said.
It's not how you start the race, it's how you finish it. Do you get sidetracked along the way and never make it to the end of the race? So he says. You did run well, you had a good beginning.
He says in the 1St chapter, I marvel that ye are so soon removed, turned out of the way from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto a different gospel.
He was amazed. So here he says he did run. Well, who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth? They had listened to this voice of the enemy, and were turned aside now to a principle which, if they had imbibed it and accepted it, would have meant the ruin of Christianity. This persuasion, that is what the voice you're listening to now cometh not of him that calleth you. You were called by the gospel, the voice of God called you. The voice of the Spirit of God called you.
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To receive Christ as the only Savior. And now you're being persuaded by another voice. And he says this persuasion comes not from him that calleth, it comes from the enemy. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. It's interesting that that verse is in two passages. It's in First Corinthians 5, and here it's in Galatians 5, And in First Corinthians 5 it applies to moral evil, and in Galatians 5 it applies to doctrinal evil.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
You imbibe the the the principle of circumcision and law, and the whole lump is leavened. You're on you've you've abandoned grace. You've fallen from grace.
Well, he's presented all this truth to them, and now in verse 10 he says, I have confidence in you through the Lord, that you will be none otherwise minded, that is, that they would continue on in the mind that they received when they receive the gospel from Paul. But he that troubles you, this legalist are these Judaizers shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.
Then he used a very strong expression. He says, And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased? Man doesn't like the principle of grace because it gives him nothing to do, and God does it all.
Man wants to do his part. He wants to feel good about his getting to heaven and say, well, I did this and I did that.
And if you don't, if you don't accept that legal principle, then you're going to suffer persecution by those that are espousing it. They persecute you. They don't like grace. They don't like it a bit because it gives nothing to man.
And then he says I would. They were even cut off.
Which trouble you? These that are promoting circumstances, That's an illusion. That's an illusion to what circumcision is. Circumcision is a cutting off of the flesh. And so he says these, these, these cutting offers, I would they were cut off. I would they were cut off. These that are promoting circumcision, I would they were cut off. Which trouble you? For brethren, verse 13, Ye have been called unto liberty.
Liberty only use, not liberty, for an occasion to the flesh.
But by serve one another, he brings that in. Because you know those legalists, they always charge us to promote grace. They say, well, if you're saved by grace, they think you can do anything you want, then you're free to sin all you want. It'll just magnify the grace of God all the more.
And that's why he says this. You've been called to liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. We don't understand grace at all if we think that because we're saved by grace, we can sin all we want. No, grace is the power that enables us to live above sin. The law isn't. The law is the strength of sin, it says in first Corinthians 15. But grace is the power of holiness for all. The law is fulfilled in one word.
Even in this.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, and the one that is under grace fulfills that. He loves his neighbor as himself. But if he bite and devour one another, which will be the case when you get under law, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
The law principle always has that effect on one notice 16.
This I say, then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and these are contrary, the one to the other.
So that ye cannot or should not do the things that ye would. These two opposing forces, the flesh in which nothing good dwells, and the spirit who is the power of holiness, they're in conflict with each other. So he says, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Verse 18, he says, but if you be LED of the Spirit, you're not under the law. So if you see, if you see a Christian that is under the law, he is not a spirit LED Christian.
I read it again, verse 18. That's what verse 18 says. If you be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
You could say it this way. If you're under the law, you are not LED of the Spirit. That's what it says.
A soul that is LED of the Spirit is under grace, under grace and not law.
Now the works of the flesh are and he lists them so that we can know what what they are. This is not a complete list, but it's it's a it's a pretty long list. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions.
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Envying murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like, although which I tell you before is I have told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. So those that say that if you're under grace, you can do all these things and it will only magnify the grace of God. If you do all these things, you don't understand grace at all and you will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
But now notice this is in contrast with the works of the flesh. It doesn't say the works of the Spirit, but it says the fruit of the Spirit. And it doesn't say the fruits of the Spirit as is so often quoted, but it says the fruit of the Spirit. I like to think of this fruit. It's one fruit, but it has 9 flavors. I've never tasted a fruit with 9 flavors, but it has 9 flavors to it. Beautiful. The fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy.
Peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Or self-control against such. There's no law. You don't need a law against the fruit of the Spirit, one that is LED of the Holy Spirit and producing that beautiful fruit, all of which speaks of Christ. You don't have to have a law to keep him in line. He's led by the Spirit of God and he produces these beautiful moral traits that were all true of Christ himself when he was here below. They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust.
That's the answer to the one that says, well, if you're under grace, you can do as you please. No, you can't. You've crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts because you're Christ's. If we live in the Spirit, if we have life in the Spirit, he says, let us also walk in the Spirit. And when you walk in the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is produced by the Spirit. It's not you that's producing it, it's the Spirit of God that is producing it in you. Let us not be desirous of Vainglory.
Provoking one another, envying one another. Brethren, we have just a minute. Can I get a chapter in in one minute? I don't think I'll make it, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault.
Which are spiritual. Restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Now why does he put it that way? He says he's speaking to these who fancy to be the spiritual ones they are under law. You'll always find that a legalist thinks that he is better than someone else. He thinks highly of himself and lowly of his brother.
And so these these legalists, these Judaizers that were trying to get these Gentiles under law.
He says to them, Ye which are spiritual, you who fancy yourselves to be in that class, show it by restoring a fallen brother. Now legalism can never restore one that has fallen, but grace can, grace can. And so he says, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, now you can take it. Those who are truly spiritual, they will restore such in one, in the spirit of meekness, those who fancy themselves to be spiritual.
Because they're under law will not be able to do that restoration work, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. A legalist would not have to do that. He would say, I would never do that. Remember the Pharisee that said, I thank thee, Lord, that I am not like other men are like this public in here. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess, and this and that and the other thing, and the publican would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, but said God be merciful to me, a Sinner, which man went down to his house.
Justified. It was the publican, not the Pharisee. If you want to see how how strong the Lord dealt with these Pharisees, these self-righteous hypocrites, read Matthew 23YE. Hypocrites, ye generation of Vipers, how ye shall ye escape the damnation of hell? That's what the Lord said to these self-righteous proud Pharisees. Who would not?
Acknowledge that they were lost and needed a savior.
A man who's under law thinks that he can make it on his own. He's on that principle before God. Man is out swimming. He's he's having some trouble swimming. You come by in a, in a, in a lifeboat and you say, here's a life preserver. I don't need that. I don't need that. I'll make it. I'll make it to shore on my own. And then he starts to have trouble and more trouble. And then he starts to sink and he realizes he can't make it on his own.
And they'll say, throw me the life preserver. Well, we have to get to that point.
Where we realize that on the law principle we can't get to heaven. It's only by the grace of God.