Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Paul says you cannot compromise grace. Whenever you try to say, no, I believe in grace, but I also believe that I should have to do this. You kill grace. It's not grace. Grace is God's unmerited favor.
It is a gift. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. On January the 6th, 1942, virtually one month after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt addressed the assembly of the joint houses. And he told both the House of Representatives and the Senate that America would likely become involved in two wars on two fronts, the Pacific theater and the war in Europe. And he told them that after victory would be won, there would be a new world, a new world of freedom. He envisioned a world that had freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear.
FDR was right when he assured the Congress that there would be victory on both fronts. But sadly, he was wrong when he said that the world would experience these four great freedoms. The world has not. Men have always wanted to be free. Freedom has been a goal since we showed up on this planet. Freedom has also been very, very hard to find.
And if you found it, it is very, very hard to keep. Freedom is wonderful, but it's precarious. In the Gospel of John, in the eighth chapter, in the 36th verse, Jesus Christ said this. He said, so if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. He says, if I make you free, you will be free indeed.
Is that how you think of yourself? Do you sense the freedom? Do you know what it means to be free in Christ? You see, even that freedom has had its enemies for nearly 2,000 years. The attack on the believer's freedom has been steady and effective. The attack has occurred both from the outside and from the inside. It has been overt and covert.
It has to be resisted. Open your Bibles to Galatians, chapter 5. Merrill Tenney calls this little epistle the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. He said, there's no book in the New Testament written that is more important to understand when it comes to the believer's freedom. The Galatians were freed when the Apostle Paul came to Galatia and he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But after Paul left, Judaizers came, people who said from Jerusalem that you needed to believe in Jesus Christ, but you also had to do some religious activity. In their case, the religious activity was circumcision. And so they discredited the Apostle Paul and said he was not really an apostle. They discredited his message of grace. In fact, Luke wrote in Acts 15, he wrote this, Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren. And they taught them this, Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.
That was an attack. An attack on freedom, an attack on the grace of God, and an attack on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And that's why Paul wrote the epistle. And remember that he wrote the epistle with a tremendous amount of energy and anger. And he told them that to believe in Jesus Christ and then to add circumcision to it in order to get saved was not the Gospel, it was a different Gospel. And he told them that this different Gospel could never save them.
And he said that those who take that Gospel and try to force it on other people should be anathema, cursed forever. But Paul realized how difficult the circumstances were because it's interesting that Paul says, I get it. I understand that there's a tremendous lure to religion.
I understand that it's hard not to knuckle under to religion. And he said, and we did a whole sermon on this, that if you don't think religion has a strong lure in your life, ask Peter. Because what did Peter do? Peter compromised.
Once the Judaizers came, Peter would not eat with the Gentiles. He put himself right back under the law and Paul confronted him in front of the whole church of Antioch. Last week, Paul, right in the heart of this epistle, decided to make his best case for grace.
And if he had hair, he was pulling it out. He tried to think of every possible way that he could make a case for grace. And so he had six different approaches we went through last week.
A personal approach, and a scriptural approach, a logical approach, an historical approach, an emotional approach, and even an allegorical approach. Every one of them he is trying to make his case for grace. And we finished up right in verse 1 of chapter 5 last time. And Paul introduces the whole concept of freedom. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. Freedom is a wonderful but precarious thing.
Paul was saying Christ has made you free. But you have to stand firm against the outside attack of religion. And last week I said, I wanted you to picture yourself, and I hope you were able to do that this fall, last week, as a sumo wrestler, with the diaper and everything. I really want you to see yourself that way as about a 400-pound sumo wrestler. And because the thing about a sumo wrestler is they do stand firm.
You do not move them out of the circle. Their whole thing is about standing firm. And Paul said, that's what I want from you. I want you to stand firm.
And the reason for it is it's very clear. He said, because if you don't, you're in big trouble. Not only are you going to lose your freedom, but notice what else he said. Do not subject yourself to the yoke of slavery.
What interesting words. Paul says religion will enslave you. In other words, religion will give you some list of dos and don'ts.
That's what it's good at. A whole list of things you should do and things you shouldn't. Rituals you should go through.
Places you should be. Special prayers. Whatever it is. It's always religious.
It's always dos and don'ts. And the motivation is always the same. Fear and guilt. That if you don't do this, if God doesn't get you, we'll get you.
And then you try to make people feel guilty. Paul says, that's just slavery. He said in verse 2, he says, behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of absolutely no benefit to you at all. Paul says you cannot compromise grace. Whenever you try to say, no, I believe in grace, but I also believe that I should have to do this, you kill grace. It's not grace. Grace is God's unmerited favor. It is a gift. It can only be received by faith.
Or it's not grace. And so he said, if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no use to you whatsoever. And he goes on, and he says in verse 3, he says, and I testify again that every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole law. In other words, Paul says, it's all or nothing. You can't pick and choose. If you want to pick and choose, you can't do it. Once you put yourself under the law of Moses, you're under the whole law.
And we discussed that, 600 laws and ordinances. I mean, an incredible back breaker of a deal. But that's what he is saying. Grace compromised is grace excluded. And if you think about it, all religions are the same. I mean, it's always the same.
It's always about their version of being good. You know, that you have to do certain things to prove that you're good. And if you do those things, you know, rescue kittens, whatever it is, you do those things, God will be so pleasantly surprised by that and so happy to see what you're doing, he'll let you into an eternal relationship with him. Or, a lot of times religion always says, no, the way to impress God is through suffering.
You know, you need to sleep on a bare floor with no blanket. You need to take vows of silence and never speak. And then God will be so impressed that he'll say, well, wow, that person's so impressive. That's religion. And that's what Paul said.
He said, it's all or nothing, but it does not work and its consequences are enormous. Notice what he says, in verse 4, you have been severed from Christ. You who are seeking to be justified by the law, you have fallen from grace. Notice those consequences, severed from Christ.
You see, if someone tells you, no, I believe in Jesus Christ plus something else, they don't have Christ, they only have something else. You are severed from Christ. He said, you have fallen from grace. In other words, what he is saying is, grace is, again, of no value to you whatsoever because you have put some type of religious activity involved. Religion destroys grace, always the same. So Paul then says, in verse 5, he says, for we, through the Spirit by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. He says, look, I know religion always talks about righteousness.
I get it. But we're waiting for the ultimate righteousness. We've said it over and over again. You are saved by faith and faith alone in Christ and Christ alone. That is called justification. And you are saved from the penalty of sin.
That's how it works. And now the life that you're living in Jesus Christ, you live again by faith, and you are being saved from the power of sin in your life. That's called sanctification. And one day, you'll be absent from the body and you'll be present with the Lord. You'll be fully conformed to Jesus Christ. And there will be no presence of sin in your life whatsoever.
That's called glorification. And Paul says, that's what we live for. Hey, we're into righteousness.
We look forward in hope to the completion of this. Then he says, in summary, in verse 6, he says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. Look, you said, I'm not all hot about circumcision.
It means nothing. He said, as long as you're not trying to justify yourself before God with it. And then he says this, but faith working through love. Boy, there's Christianity.
Just that little verse. What's the only activity of Christianity? Faith. What's the motivation of Christianity?
Love. You see, religion uses fear and guilt, but Christianity uses love and gratefulness. Which is a stronger motive in someone's life? Fear and guilt or love and thankfulness?
You see, what motivates people to be a certain way? That's what Paul is saying right there. He then says, as he's perplexed the whole epistle, you were running well.
Who hindered you from obeying the truth? How did this happen? He's getting tired by now. He didn't call names this time.
You know, he's called him a lot of names, but he didn't call many names. He just said, how did you let them do this to you? You know why it worked? Because you and I are inherently, in our flesh, religious. We're religious people. Ever since Cain, ever since the Tower of Babel, all of the ites and all of the isms of the Old Testament, religion. Pharisees, religion.
Ever since Christ showed up, what happened to Christianity? Religion. Why? Because we're inherently religious.
Why? Because of our pride. You see, it appeals to my pride. I need to belong to the right organization, and I need to do the right things, and I do the right activities, and I stand up and sit down at the right times. I genuflect just what I'm told to. I repeat things over and over again in prayers, and that somehow makes me feel so good that I've earned this for myself. And that's what Paul is addressing here.
That's why they were hindered. Even to a Galatian that sounded like, you know, religion sounds right, though, doesn't it? That just seems like a good thing to be religious. He says this persuasion did not come from him who calls you. Religion never comes from God.
Never. If it's religion, it did not come from God. He says then, look, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. You can't take religion in little bits. You can't say, no, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, and I'm all for grace, but I've got a little bit of religion I season it with.
He said that seasoning leavens the whole lump. You see, because why? Because it destroys grace.
You see, it's back to that same idea. I couldn't say it more and more. Faith and faith alone in Christ and Christ alone.
You can't add to this. He then says, I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view, but the one who is disturbing you, he said he'll bear judgment, whoever he is. Paul's right back. He says, I'm going to be judged for this. God will judge him for this. Remember Jesus Christ's response to the Pharisees? What was he so mad about? He said, you blind guides of the blind. He said, you know what you do? You steal the kingdom of heaven away from people.
How? With religion. You make this all about religion.
You're going to be judged for that. Paul says, but I, brethren, he said if I preach circumcision, apparently the Judaizers told them even Paul's bought into circumcision, and wherever he goes now, he preaches you have to be circumcised. Paul says, that's malarkey. He said, if I preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? I said this last week, but it's so true. Everywhere you find religion, it will always persecute grace.
Always. It doesn't matter what the religion is. If you believe in grace, you will be persecuted by religion. And it doesn't matter if it's outside of Christianity or inside of Christianity. Inside of Christianity, the persecution over the last 2,000 years, excommunication, or worse, martyrdom, will kill you for believing in grace. That's what religion does. It always persecutes. Then he says this, then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. Paul knows what religious people think of the cross.
Today it's exactly the same. It's a stumbling block. What's he mean by that? If you share Jesus Christ and the gospel of grace with them, that Christ died, lived a perfect life, died for their sins on the cross, and satisfied a holy God because he was resurrected on Easter Sunday, and that if you put your trust and faith in the person of Christ that has finished work on the cross, you can be guaranteed to be born again into the family of God and heaven is secure for you. And you say that to a religious person, you know what they'll say every time? That's too easy. That's just too easy. And for Christ, it's not too easy. It's the gift of God.
But it's a stumbling block to the religious person. They just don't get it. I want to do something. I'm going to do it.
I'm going to earn it. Then Paul says, I'm glad it's in English and not in Greek. It's Scripture, so I'm going to just plow in. Paul says, I wish those who were troubling you would even mutilate themselves. Let me tell you what the Greek says in essence. Paul says, you know what? If circumcision makes a person spiritual, why not castration?
Why not just cut it all off? If that's what they think, if they think that's going to make you spiritual. That's what Paul was saying. That's his exasperation.
Christ has made you free. He said, you've got to stand firm against the outside tack of religion. That's what he is telling them.
But now he starts speaking more to us. I don't worry about most of you when it comes to standing firm against religion. Most of you come out of religious backgrounds. You know it. You've been there. This isn't hard for you.
You're happy about the grace of God. But there is another threat to the freedom you have in Christ. There is another threat. The threat comes from the inside. It comes from the flesh. It comes from you. And it will enslave you just like religion will.
It's the threat from the inside. Notice what Paul says, verse 13. He says, for you were called to freedom, brethren.
I don't know if we ever think about that. Do you ever think that Christ is saying, I'm calling you to be free? I want you to be free. You might want to ask the question, free to what? Free from what? What do you mean free? I can tell you what he means.
He means this. Free to live the life that God intended you for to live. Remember when Jesus came, he said, I have come to give you life and to give it to you abundantly. In other words, even in a fallen world, I want to give you a life. I want to give you a life that every day makes every day worth living.
I want to give you a life that no matter what the circumstances are in a fallen world, surrounded by fallen people, your life can be marked in a specific way. That's freedom. He says, for you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom, and here it is, into an opportunity for the flesh. There's the danger.
There's the attack. I can lose my freedom. All I have to do is give my flesh the opportunity. You see, I had to stand firm against religion, but against me, against my own flesh, I can't give it an opportunity.
That's why, by the way, over and over again, when it comes to sin in a believer's life, there's one word that always occurs in the temptation process. Flee. Run for it. Get out of there. Why?
Because if you stay, you're in trouble. You see, all my flesh needs is an opportunity. That's all it needs. Give me an opportunity to sin.
I'll do it. Think of this. There was a man after God's own heart.
What a great way to be described. And when kings went to war, that man, David, decided not to go. And he stayed. And based probably on information others had given him or he'd seen for himself, he decided to spend the evening up on the roof of his palace. And he just happened to know that there was a woman taking a bath on another rooftop.
What is God trying to say to him right there as soon as he got that first glance? Run. Flee. What did David do?
No, no, I'm king. I'm going to take a good look. Nothing wrong with looking. He looked. And he fell. And he ended up ordering the murder of Uriah the Hittite, the husband of that woman. How tragic. You see, how tragic. A man after God's own heart.
That's what Paul was saying. Do not let your flesh have opportunity. You put yourself in the wrong circumstances. You know what you'll do? You'll fornicate. You know what you'll do? You'll commit gossip. You know what you'll do? You'll envy and be jealous of other people. You know what you'll do? You'll curse and swear. You'll drink until you're drunk. Just put yourself in those circumstances.
You'll do it. All your flesh needs is an opportunity. And that's what Paul was saying. He says, in contrast to that, he says, but through love, serve one another.
See, it's love. He goes on and says, look, the whole law is fulfilled in one word. In the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus was asked the question, how would you summarize the whole testament, all the laws? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. What has God set me free to do?
To love Him and to love you. And you know what's so great if I love Him and love you? I love life. I love life. You see, if I love Him and serve Him and I love you and serve you, the biggest beneficiary of it all? Me. I'm happy.
I'm content. You see, that's what it is. He said the only thing that can hurt you is to give your flesh opportunity. He says in verse 15, if you bite and devour one another, He says take care that you're not consumed by one another. Apparently there's fights going on in Galatia. What a description of the typical church.
One of the best ever. Churches where people bite each other. And boy, they still are.
They still are. The church gives Christians a tremendous context, a tremendous context to assassinate other people's characters and to gossip. And they always do it, as I've said before, like under, I'm just taking prayer requests. I just want to pray for people. But I want to talk about people. I want to bite them. See, what an image. This is the one place on earth where you should be safe.
People should not be talking about you here. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. And you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.
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