Standing Firm in Your Liberty

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, June 22nd. God's view of His children isn't dependent on our behavior, but solely on our relationship to Him. Learn to stand firm in your liberty with today's lesson from Galatians chapter 5. When you and I were saved, we were saved by the grace of God. That is, God reached down, seeing desperate sinners as we were, giving us the truth. We responded by faith, which He gave to us, and we were saved. The Bible says you and I have been justified, declared righteous, and in chapters 4 and 5, He says, you are not declared righteous by keeping the law, you are declared righteous by the grace of God through faith. So that everything you and I have ever received came to us by what?

Through faith, it came to us by the gift of God's grace through faith. We responded in faith so that you and I as believers cannot boast of one single solitary thing. What can you boast of tonight as a believer? The only thing you and I can boast of is that we are in Christ Jesus, which is the gift of God of grace.

Everything we have, everything we are, everything we'll ever have is the gift of God. So that once you and I, living in that grace, begin to attempt by self-effort to keep ourselves there, get God's approval, get other people's approval, we're just wasting our time. And what we're doing is we're reverting to the same thing that He was warning these Galatian Christians about.

Now I want you to notice two or three things. First of all, if a person is saved by the grace of God and then they resort back to trying to get God's approval, there are several things that happen. And the first thing that happens is we lose our liberty. If I resort back to what God freed me from, then I lose my liberty. We are liberated to live freely in Him.

But he issues a warning here. First of all, he says, stand fast, that is stand very firm, therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has already made you free. Because if we do not stand firm in our liberty, what will happen? We will begin to drift. And what is it that God liberated us from?

What was it? The bondage of the law, keeping the law, self-effort, doing my best, getting approval. He says, I've liberated you from that. And he says, having liberated you from that, he says, I have placed you in the realm of liberty and freedom. So that if I drift back from living by faith, I drift back into slavery and self-effort and no longer faith.

He says, now listen. He says, having been liberated by the grace of God through faith, we're to walk by faith. He says, stand firm in the freedom, in the liberty wherewith Christ has freed you and liberated you from the self-effort. And he says that our life is a life of faith.

Now, what is it that we had before we had freedom? He says beforehand, if you'll notice what he says here, he says, lest you be entangled again with the yoke of bondage, now you know what a yoke is, that heavy wooden piece that they placed upon two oxen, plowing, for example, to keep their heads down, keep them in submission. Now yoke speaks of bondage and service. He says, now don't allow yourself to get back there where you were. I'm not talking about before you were saved, though that's true before you were saved.

I'm talking about even after you were saved, before you learned to live in Christ Jesus by faith, trusting him to be all, to meet all of your needs, every moment of every day. Before that, he says, you were entangled in the bondage into the yoke of the law. He says, don't allow that to happen to yourself again. Now listen, he says, there's another yoke. The other yoke is the yoke that Jesus talked about. He says, come unto me all ye that live in the heavy laden and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. He says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Now listen, the yoke of the law had burdened down the people of God. Jesus said, get out from under that yoke, take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy because you see, the yoke of the law living up to the expectation of the law was breaking the spirit of the people of God. He says, but my yoke is easy and where is the yoke of the burden of expectation living up to the law and living up to rules and regulations will burden you down. He says, the yoke of Jesus Christ is simply a submission to his will and to his way, which does not burden us down.

It simply is a yoke of submission and service voluntarily. And notice what he says. He says, if we resort back to our old lifestyle of self effort, he says, we're going to lose our liberty.

We're going to abandon our freedom. You know what he says? When we go back to chapter four, he was talking about acting like children. Here's what happens.

Now watch this. When a child of God begins to experience the liberty that is ours in Christ Jesus and we go back to self effort and living up to regulations and rules and getting in the straits of watching to see what other people think of us. You know what it's like? It's like an adult getting back into the crib. That's exactly what it's like, speaking baby language, dada, mama. And that's all right when you are one year of age or nine months of age.

But when you become bored and you start talking about mama and dada, you're in trouble. But that's exactly what he's talking about. Now look, he says, beginning in verse two, behold, I Paul say to you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Now here's, let me give you a little background.

Here's what was happening. These Judaizers had come up to the Galatian churches and said, no, wait a minute, if you're going to be a full fledged Christian, accept Jesus Christ as your savior, but you've got to keep the law. And one of the major facets of keeping the law is circumcision.

So here's what he said. Paul said, I said to you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Now he says, if you drift back into the old way, you're going to lose your liberty back in bondage.

Second, he says, you're going to lose your wealth. And notice what he says, he says, behold, I said to you that if you be circumcised, that is, they were contemplating that they hadn't gotten that far yet. They were contemplating going back to the ordinance of circumcision. He says, if you do that, he says, Christ shall profit you nothing. He says, Christ isn't going to give you any rewards, it's not going to profit you one thing for Gentile believers to resort to circumcision. Here at verse three, I testify again to you, to every man that is circumcised, that he is a dentist to do the whole law.

He says, look, if you consider circumcision, not only must you keep that part of the law, you've got to keep the whole thing. Now here's what people do. Suppose you drove home tonight and you're in a hurry to get home, so you just drive right on through that red light and you say, I'm just going home tonight, I'm in a big hurry.

So three blocks down the street, you see that big blue light. So the policeman pulls you over and he's real nice and you say, now look, officer, first of all, I've never been in jail, I pay my income tax, I pay my rent. And you list about 10 things you do while he's writing up the ticket.

And you tell him all the things that you have done right. And that has absolutely no effect upon him at all, because you have violated the law, which says, when the light is red, you must remain on this side. So you see what Paul is saying is, he says, look, if you resort to circumcision to please God, you've got to keep the whole law. And he says, you know, you can't because your fathers couldn't do.

There's no way to keep the law. He says, you'll be dead in verse four, Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever you are, who are justified by the law. He says, look, if you go back up here to say that you have been declared righteous and acquitted of all sin, but keeping the law, he says, first of all, you know, it won't work because he spent all of chapter three and four declaring that a man can't be justified, can't be declared righteous, but keeping the law because he can't keep it. He says, if you do that, he says, you have fallen from grace. Now what in the world does he mean here by falling from grace? Now listen, now does he mean the fact that you've fallen from grace, that you have lost your salvation? That is not what he believes. Don't ever let anybody tell you that's what that means, because there's no way for it to mean that. God has never given the slightest hint in four solid chapters, two of which are absolutely totally doctrinal.

Not one hint has he given of the idea there's any possibility of falling from their security in Christ. So what does he mean? Here's what he means. He says, now heretofore, you have been saved by the grace of God and you've been liberated and free. So you're living by faith day by day and walking in the grace of God. And he says, the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, which he emphasizes a little more in the latter part of this chapter in chapter six. And what he begins to do here in chapter five is to remind them that their life is a life in the spirit. They're walking by faith.

They're walking by the grace of God. Let me ask you a question. Now think about this. You were saved by grace through faith plus what? Nothing.

So let me ask you now, watch this. What did you do to be saved except receive what God had to offer? Not one solitary single thing. It's all grace. It's all of what he's done for you and nothing of what you've done about yourself except respond to God's gift. Now walking on the platform and on the plane of grace, what are we doing? We're living by faith, receiving what God gives day by day, moment by moment.

Now, he says, if you resort to keeping the law and trying to live up to all these expectations, what you cannot do, he says, what you've done is you have catapulted down from grace to a lower level. He says, you've fallen from grace, verse five. For we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

What is he talking about? He says, our life is a life of faith. The right, listen, he's not talking about the righteousness of Christ and salvation. He's talking about the righteousness that is ours in daily living. He says that is the work of the spirit in our life.

And if we live under the, listen, and this is so true. How many of God's people feel guilty all the time because they didn't do this and they didn't do that? And they wonder if God heard what they said and if he's marked down what they thought? That's not the way for God's people to live. He loves you just the way you are. You say, is he satisfied the way I am?

I didn't say that. I said, he loves you just the way you are and he's in the process of conforming you into his likeness. All right, listen to what Paul said. Verse six, for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but listen, but faith, faith, faith, faith, faith, faith, faith, faith, faith, which worketh by love. He says a man can be circumcised doesn't make one difference before God doesn't make him holy, doesn't make him spiritual. Keeping the law does not make a man spiritual because he can't do it.

He can keep certain parts of it, but that's all. He says, so that doesn't avail anything that then he says here, not only if you resort back to living under the law and trying to keep the law and rules and regulations and doing all of these things, he says, not only are you going to lose your freedom, not only are you going to lose your wealth in Christ Jesus, you're going to, he says, you're not going to lose your, the salvation that comes by grace, but you're going to lose, you're going to lose the race that you run. And look, if you will, in verse seven, you did run well, who, who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth. This persuasion cometh not of him that calls you. Now here's what happened when he says here, hinder the word hinder here means to cut into.

So here's what he's saying. He says, when the race began, you trusted Jesus Christ as your savior. You were in your lane and you were running the race well. He says, but who is it that cut out of history and cut into your lane, bumping you out and deterring you and causing you to lose in the race.

He says, who is it that's cut into your path and caused you to get off base? Now I could ask the same question about some Christians I know who start out right and somebody just cloaks them in legalism. Does your church do this? Does your church allow this? Does your church to allow this? Does your church do this? When they get through with you think, well, you know, maybe I'm not doing enough.

Let me ask you this. How much can you do to get saved? Can't do anything else. How much, listen, how much can you do to get righteous? You can't do anything else because you're clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which he says in Romans chapter five is a gift from God. And what I want you to see is this.

God wants us living a liberated, free life, motivated to righteous living and righteous service, not because of what he will approve or disapprove of, but because of what he is in us. And any other motivation I'm going to tell you, dear brother, will not last. It won't last. And proof of that is some folks that say, yeah, we'll do that and I will serve and after a while they say, well, I think I want to cut out on that.

You know why? The motivation is not proper. When you think about what almighty God has provided for you, every single one of us ought to be chomping in the bits. What can I do in service to God, not to get God's approval, but because I love him so dearly I'm going to do something in the name of Jesus Christ. You see, spirituality has nothing to do with doing this and doing that and refusing to do this. You see, a lot of folks who don't smoke, drink, run around, gamble, they can name 40 things just like this they don't do.

And they will tell you they don't do those things. And the truth is the worst thing of all is puffed up pride. God says a whole lot more against pride than he does against drinking or against gambling or some other things. You see, we can't judge each other's spirituality. God doesn't want us trying to measure our spirituality about what we do, what we don't do. It's who we are in him and Christ in us.

And listen to what he says. He says, now you did run well, that is you started out right, but who cut in on your path and has caused you to depart from the truth. This persuasion cometh not of him that caused you, that is those who are tempting you to resort back to your old way. He said that didn't come from God.

Listen, a little leavened at the whole lot. Now you remember that all through the scriptures leaven or yeast is always spoken of in an evil manner. A little sin will spread unless it is stopped.

You just get one of the wrong attitude going and somebody talking and gossiping unless it stopped, it spreads. And what he's saying to these Galatians Christians is this, he says, a little error, if when you start mixing up, listen, a little bit of law with a whole lot of grace before long, you've got a whole lot of law and not much grace. That's why we really have to be careful in our influence upon other people that the influence is good. Now listen, you and I are to live by simple faith. I've said that over and over and over again, hoping that every time I say it, somebody will catch on to what I mean. Now watch this and I'm going to close.

I've got two choices. If I live over here under the expectation either others or myself have placed upon myself, if I live under that, then what is the focus of my attention? The focus of my attention are the regulations and the rules. The focus of my attention are the people that have those expectations. On the other hand, if I'm living a free and liberated life, I have the privilege of focusing my attention upon Jesus Christ. And you and I will become like what we focus our attention upon. That's why God doesn't want us in bondage to rules and regulations and expectations.

Then you've got to keep an account. He just wants our focus upon Him. And if I'm looking to Him, He's going to guide me to make the right decision. If I'm looking to Him, He's going to show me where there's a need that He wants to meet through me.

If I'm looking to Him, I can know that in every circumstance of life, I'm going to know what to do in the right way at the right time. But if I'm worried and full of consternation over who to please, how to please, living up to this, why am I up there with you? Why can't I do this?

Why can't I do the other? You know what that is? It is a self-centered life over against a Christ-centered life. And the ultimate reason God doesn't want us living under the law is because we become self-centered, defeated individuals. He wants us Christ-centered, then we are victorious, godly citizens of the kingdom. Thank you for listening to Standing Firm in Your Liberty. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.