License Not to Sin [Part 1]

Pastor, author and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. You ready for some good news? You don't have to keep on sinning. Okay, that's today's message.

You don't have to sin. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Galatians as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina.

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Here is Alan Wright. Valjean wakes up and he remembers the silverware that he had seen in the evening and how valuable it would be and how he could sell it. And so he steals the silver and slips away in the middle of the night. The next day, authorities are rapping at the door and they have caught Valjean. The priest, the bishop comes. And as Valjean is expecting to be handed over to the law and punished duly, he is shocked by this bishop's reaction. The bishop interrupts the authorities and he says, oh, Jean Valjean, you've come back. Good. He said, because I wanted you to also take the silver candlesticks.

They are equally valuable. And Valjean is like stunned by this grace. And he gives him the candlesticks and the authorities saying, so are you saying, Bishop, that you did give him these items? He didn't steal them? He said, oh, most certainly. I knew that he could take them and sell them.

And so be sure and get the candlesticks as well. Valjean is speechless and finally says, so am I really free? The authorities say, yes, you are free. And the monsignor steps up to Jean Valjean and he says, I want you to remember what has happened this day. And has this great line, Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good.

It is your soul that I buy from you. I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God. Bought by grace, the novel unfolds with Jean Valjean doing good the rest of his life. That's what grace does. Grace delivers us from sin. It does not give us a license to sin. It gives us a license to not sin. Galatians Chapter five. I want today to put a stake in a ground as strong as I know how. To answer the question wherever I preach grace, grace, grace, somebody is going to say, well, if you just preach that grace like that, then you're just going to give people a license to sin. And of course, the best preacher answer to that is people are already sinning without a license. But I plan to give a deeper answer than that today from the words of the apostle Paul in Galatians Chapter five, verse seven.

You were 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. We've talked about that, by the way, that a little bit of law. It's what Paul's talking about, a seed of law and fear injected into a gospel affects the whole message. And he says, first, and I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine. That's I come with that same faith today.

I have confidence. Church, you'll take this view that I bring to you today. That's what Paul's saying. And the one who's troubling you, he's really talking about the spiritual battle, will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brother, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed.

I wish those who unsettled you would emasculate themselves. For you are you were, verse 13, you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. That's our text today. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbors yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. What I want to do today is instead of instead of going kind of line by line through this magnificent text, which I would like to be able to go through line by line, I want to instead focus on verse 13, and I want to speak about what real freedom is.

I want to speak about it from the context of everything that Paul's been saying to the Galatians, but also from the context of the whole of the scriptures. I want to appeal to your logic. I want to appeal to your funny bone. I want to truly invite you to laugh with me at sin.

It laughs at you. Maybe today would be a day for you to laugh at it, to laugh at the shame that has always attempted to mock you, but to do so with the force of a mighty spiritual battle that leads us to conclude with prayer for a great day of victory, of infilling of the Holy Spirit, and of clarity about this. It is so very, very, very important that we be able to answer this question, aren't you just giving people a license to sin when you preach grace? It's so important, not just because when we preach the gospel, we want to be able to be articulate about why it is that we're not giving people license to sin, but I think that it's very important for you and for me because what's at stake is our capacity to believe and receive the gospel. What I mean is this, if there is a little 2% or 1% or 10% of your thinking that when you hear the gospel announced to you, and you hear grace, and you hear the love of God, if there's a little party that goes, yeah, but if I really receive that, it might cause me to cast off restraint and just sin all the more. If there's a little part of you that thinks like that, you'll be hesitant to receive the gospel.

There's an attraction in the broken humanity to the law, and we think it must be that way. So part of what I'm trying to convey today is to answer this question, to silence that little voice that says, well, you better not go all out for grace because you've got to temper it with a little bit of law or else you're going to sin more. And so I want to silence that as we talk about what real Christian freedom is.

I want to answer it as directly and deeply as I know how to answer the question. If you just tell people that God loves them and forgives them and they can go to heaven even if they sin, and if you tell people that even when they sin, God not only loves them, but they're still blessed with every spiritual blessing and that they are merited with the righteousness of Christ just because of their faith in Christ, if you tell it to them like that and you don't put a little bit of fear of punishment in there, then people are going to keep on sinning even worse. You're going to give them license to sin. I want to answer that question today, what Christian freedom really is. And I do so by pointing to misconceptions about what freedom is, and the whole question, the license to sin question, that whole argument, is based on a huge hilarious misconception. And that is if you think about it, if you say, well, you're just going to give people a license to sin, you're implying that sin is just absolutely wonderful and everybody wants to sin. And the only reason nobody's, you know, anybody's not sinning is because of all these rules. And if you take away those rules, everybody's going to just naturally do what they really want to do, is everybody wants to sin. I mean, that's what people want to do.

And I want to just start with that question right there. Really? I mean, are we really saying sin is so wonderful? Everybody wants to sin.

Really? Let's take some of them, let's start with some of the big 10. Let's take lying. I mean, who really wakes up in the morning and goes, okay, can't wait to lie to some people today. Oh, man, I'm going to lie to some people today.

I'm going to just do some illegitimate business practices, lie to some people there. People that are close to me, lie to them about several different... You know, the thing about lying is that once you lie, you can't remember who you lied to. And it's really hard to cover it up after that. My Uncle Stanley once said that he counseled people.

People were like, they were like people trying to hold multiple beach balls under the water all at the same time. You know, just worried that this one's going to pop up and somebody's going to see it. It takes so much mental energy to lie and to deceive people. And not only that, but when you are lying to people and you're not ever telling anybody the truth, it means that nobody knows who you really are. And if nobody knows who you really are, then it means you're without friends. And if you're without friends, you're without intimacy and you don't give and share real love because real love is in the context of honesty. That's where intimacy takes place. And so we never know the sweetest thing in life and that is love in real relationships unless we are able to actually be honest.

And so people that lie, they are using up all their energy for the lies and they're lonely. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release.

Until now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales. But this month, Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. People don't wake up in the morning and say, I'd really like to be a liar today. People lie because they aren't happy with how people view them. Because they're in trouble or because they're insecure. What we really want is not the freedom to lie. We really want to have the freedom to not have to lie. Okay, that would be another stealing.

How about that one? Ladies, not every lady likes to shop, but most do. I don't have any studies to verify this. I have only anecdotal evidence, but I have been married for 27 years. I don't have a study to show you, but I'm pretty sure I can tell you, but men on the whole don't wake up in the morning and go, oh boy, I can't wait to shoplift today.

But they often wake up and say, I can't wait. It's going to be so fun to go shopping today. What ladies like to do is not shoplift.

They like to shop. Shoplifting isn't fun. Not that I've done it. I wouldn't know, but I don't imagine it would be fun to sneak around into the corner.

What are you going to do, sneak over into the corner of the store and look over this way and that way and look up and see what in the camera is anything looking, and then slip some item back to the dressing room and stuff it into that overstuffed size pocketbook or whatever? And then you get the fun. How fun is it? I mean, what an adrenaline rush to walk out and wonder whether the beeper is going to go off or not and whether you're going to get captured. That's not what people want to do. I tell you what people actually want to do.

This is what women want to do. They want to actually go shopping when they have money to actually buy something. That is way more fun than going to the store and not having any money where you're going to have to steal something. Stealing isn't fun. We wake up in the morning and go, I'd really like to steal something today. No, people steal because of some form of either emptiness in their life where they have suffered much or have a vision of their life in which they can't envision being able to work, to have money, to have vision, somebody caring for them. People don't want to just lie.

People don't want to just steal. What about covetousness? Oh, yeah, that's a juicy one. We wake up in the morning, man, this is going to be a good day. I get to covet all day long. How great fun is that to just roll over in bed and go, oh, you're not the one I want to be married to. I really want to be married to somebody else.

Boy, that's great fun right there, isn't it? Then walk out and look at somebody else's house and go, I wish I had that house. Covetousness is the greatest formula for misery. If you were going to just tell somebody a road map to misery, just explain how to covet, to just look at everything you have and don't like it and look at what other people have and think that's what you ought to have. That is the easiest way I know of to be miserable, isn't it?

I mean, you would just be absolutely miserable. Here's the wonderful thing about coveting. It doesn't matter how much you have, you're always able to covet what somebody else has. You can have almost everything in the world and still be miserable coveting what somebody else has. Who wakes up in the morning and go, I just want to be covetous. You know, today I'm going to mix in with my line and shoplifting. I'm going to just mix in a bunch of covetousness.

This is going to be a banner day today. The reason that people actually covet is because they are inwardly empty. You know what we really want?

We don't really want to covet, we want to be content. Not having everything we want but wanting everything we have is the greatest feeling in the world. If you've ever had one moment of contentment in your life, you know, it is delicious. Just one moment where you're just able to go, wow, I'm blessed. I don't have everything but I don't have to have everything because I like what I have. That's a great feeling.

That's a great feeling. Isn't that what we want? Well, I could go through all the Ten Commandments. I think we could sit here and if we reasoned together, we could go through almost every sin in the book. This one, I'm going to say one, this is a small one sitting in the big ten.

I'm just thinking about maybe in honor of all the college freshmen that will be starting up over next week, maybe there will be some college freshmen that will come under the sound of my voice because some of them would just be like, can't wait to get to college so they can get drunk. Now that's wonderful there, isn't it? That's one I just don't understand. I just do not understand that. What I'm talking about getting drunk is that in the first place you lose your inhibition and start doing stupid things and people laugh at you. Now normally in life, what's unusual about this if you want to get drunk, is that normally in life you don't want people laughing at you because you're doing stupid things. I normally try to not do stupid things so that people won't laugh at me. So the idea that I want to get myself into a position where I will do stupid things so that people will laugh at me, that's odd to me.

What a pleasure that is. And if you get really, really drunk, then not only do stupid things, but you could get arrested for it. Wouldn't that be fun? You could get that. You could just get arrested. Or if you don't, wouldn't this be...

I mean, I've seen lots of college students when I was in my dormitory, Stacey's dormitory in Carolina. I saw this happen right often. What fun this is to come back out of your mind stumbling around and you get to come back and throw up. And just throw up. And throw up, I don't like throwing up. You know, when I get the stomach bug, I mean, I'm not one of those like, oh, I feel sick, I better go to the bathroom, I'm going to get this over with.

No, I'll fight it all night long. I hate the feeling of throwing up. I don't want to throw up. And so, but you can come in and throw up and oftentimes, because you're out of your mind, you throw up on yourself. And nobody cleans you up.

Your mama isn't there in the college dormitory and you get to sometimes just pass out in your own vomit and wake up with a splitting headache. Now, that is some fun sin right there. I mean, sinning is just so fun. If we just preach the gospel, we better watch out because everybody wants us to covet and steal and shoplift and lie and throw up on themselves. And so we better not preach the gospel of too much grace or we'll just let people loose to go out there and have all that fun.

Are you kidding me? People don't sin because sin's so fun. People sin because they're slaves to sin. And we got a gospel that'll set people free. I'll tell you what freedom is. Freedom isn't a freedom to get drunk and throw up on yourself. Freedom is to be able to say, no, thank you. Freedom isn't I'm free to covet and lust after everything. Freedom is to be able to walk right by. What Paul is talking about is not freedom to sin, he's talking about the freedom from sin and how it happens. And the freedom from sin comes in our lives by grace.

By grace. I mean, just think about these examples I used. For example, people lie. Why? They're afraid of rejection, ashamed of who they really are or what they've done.

Right? The child breaks the cookie jar and lies. Why? I'm afraid that I'll be rejected in some way. I'm afraid of the punishment that will come. Lies are rooted in fear of punishment. Alan Wright and today's teaching on license not to sin. It's from our series on Galatians. And Alan Wright is back here in the studio in a moment with us for additional insight on how this applies to our lives and today's final words.

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It's free and just a click away at Pastor Alan dot org. Ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything? Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them. But how?

What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive faith filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release.

Until now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales. But this month, Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, Pastor Alan dot org. So for a preacher to say you don't have to sin and leave it at that must be blissful if only it were that simple, right?

Why do you say there's a way out of that bondage? Well, I think that one of the tricks of the enemy, Daniel, and to get into the Christian's mindset, is that we are sinners and therefore we are stuck in our sin. And there is no real hope out of that sin. And the beginning point, and this is important for some of our listeners to hear, is just to have somebody say, by the authority of the scripture, sin does not have to be your master any longer.

You can change. And this is the constant promise of New Testament Christianity. It doesn't mean that we're going to ever in this world be perfect and not sin at all. But that instead of people saying grace, oh, that's just going to give people license to sin. That's why we get this message. No, grace gives you a license not to sin. And that's what this is about. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.