Christ Has Set Us Free | Galatians 5:1-6

[Music] Well, Galatians has been our summer series, taking verse by verse, chapter by chapter, that we started a few months ago. And now we're towards the end of August, and we're heading towards the end of the book. There are only two more chapters left. We've gone through chapters 1 through 4. Very significant, very kind of testy, kind of punchy, uh, text because Paul is all, um, animated about the fact that the Galatians have been allowing false teaching amongst their churches, and that he's saying, "You can't do that. You can't let any false gospel preaching or teaching take place. You have to guard the gospel. You have to defend the gospel." And then he takes that time to say what the true gospel is.

In fact, um, this is a helpful quick review. I appreciate it. I was helped very much this week by, brother, one of the commentaries I read several, but Phil Reichen was one of the ones that will come up again and again on some of the quotes I'll be giving today. He gave a great overview here. Uh, so I'll read this: Galatians divided into three parts. It's a good kind of, as we enter, you know, more steadily into the last part. Galatians can be divided into three parts: biography, theology, and ethics, or how we behave.

In chapters 1 and 2, Paul recounted his spiritual autobiography to show that he was a genuine apostle of the true gospel. In chapters 3 and 4, he explained the theology that gospel of that of that gospel in terms of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. All you've got to do is look back at our, um, our mural, and those, those are three of the five, uh, solas from the Protestant Reformation: by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. That's part of what Protestantism at its core believes. That's why we are not of the Catholic, um, belief or faith or practice, because we, we think these are the, the doctrines derived from scripture.

And now, however, the only kind of theology interested that interested Paul was a practical theology, meaning it's not just theology for theology's sake. Theology needs to actually be worked out in practical, real life. So, uh, Paul, Paul was, uh, so his epistle ends with ethics, or how we are to behave. Beginning with chapter 5, the apostle takes the good news of the cross and the empty tomb and applies it to daily life. Since he was a true apostle with a true gospel, and since we know that the true gospel is justification by faith and not by works, then what does that practically look like in our lives? So that's what we're going to be seeing as we get into these next, uh, verses here.

In fact, as we get into the study of these verses, I think an appropriate question for us to answer has to do with what the scriptures are really kind of calling us to answer. It's talking about freedom. We've been set free in Christ. We're not to go back to the yoke of slavery. We are, we are to not fall into the old ways of Judaism, which is what was going on in Galatians. And so the question that we want to ask is related to that. It says, "How are believers to live in their freedom that is found in Christ? How are believers supposed to live in this freedom that we've been given by Christ?"

If we're not to go back to the Jewish law, which, which was what the false teachers were saying, "Hey, you've got to be a Jew in order to be saved. You've got to act like a Jew. You've got to get circumcised. You've got to follow the calendar. You've got to follow these Jewish laws. You've got to follow all these Old Testament laws." Paul is saying, "No, no, you're free from all that. That's not you anymore." So, how are believers supposed to live in that freedom that is found in Christ?

Well, here's our first point from the morning. It's this. It's believers are to stand firm in their freedom by not submitting to slavish legalism. Believers are to stand firm. An important phrase that Paul is going to give us. It's actually the command in our text for this morning. "You must stand firm." Therefore, Paul says, "in your freedom," you're supposed to, the freedom that you've been given in Christ, you are not supposed to leave that freedom. You're supposed to stand in it. And how are you supposed to stand in it? By combating against, fighting against, not giving into legalism as it presents itself, as the Jews were doing amongst the Galatians.

So, let me read this. Verse 1 is where we get our first point from. "For freedom Christ has set us free." Christ set you free so that you could stay free. Not so that you could lose it again. "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm." Command. "Stand firm, therefore." Since you were Christ gave us freedom, "Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

So, as we know and as we've been told, these Galatians were saying, "You have to be circumcised in order to, uh, be right with God." "Oh, you want to be, oh, you believe in Christ? Wonderful. That's great. Christ is the Messiah. Wonderful. Great. Well, God's people have always had to be circumcised since Abraham. Therefore, Christ wouldn't stop that. I mean, that's always been the case. So if you really truly love Christ, you should be circumcised. If you really truly love Christ, you should observe the seventh-day Sabbath instead of the first-day Sabbath like we do. And if you want to really truly love Christ, then you should follow all the festivals." But wait, isn't that just Jewishness? Isn't that just the old covenant? We took the last two chapters saying that's gone. That's done. That was supposed to be go bye-bye, right? Once Christ came, once the law came, once faith came, or I'm sorry, once faith came, the law goes by because the law was the whole point of the law was to point to Christ. Now you have them live with him. So we are supposed to have freedom because we have freedom, we are to stand firm.

We should talk about this idea of freedom. In fact, we as Americans were obsessed with the idea of freedom, right? Um, it's, it's a part of our founding story as, as Americans, as we for freedom's sake we're going to start a new country, for religious freedom, all kinds of freedom. Um, let me read here a quote here regarding the wrong kind of freedom. We want to, we want to say what freedom is and what it isn't. So let's start with what it isn't. "Americans prize nothing more highly than freedom. The trouble is that they generally want the wrong kind of freedom. Some speak of freedom in political terms: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to vote. Others work for freedom from oppressive social structures. However, what most Americans mainly want is personal freedom. Freedom turns out to mean being left alone by others, not having other people's values, ideas, or styles of life forced upon one, being free of arbitrary authority in work, family, and political life. In other words, what Americans really want is the freedom to be left alone. We want to do what we want to do whenever, wherever, however, and with whomever we please. If this is what freedom means to us, then believing in God becomes extremely inconvenient."

So, when Paul is talking about freedom, he's not talking about the American notion of freedom. In fact, we've mentioned it before how, you know, people are obsessed with the freedoms and they'll say, "Freedom of speech. Hey, I have the ability to say whatever I want to say. I have the freedom of speech." And we've said, "Not if you're a Christian." Christians don't have freedom of speech. Uh, there's a higher kingdom. Christ's kingdom is higher than the American kingdom. And Christ says, "You can't say anything that you want to say. You should only say what is pleasing to the Lord. You should only say what is good for upbuilding. You should say things that give grace to the hearer, seasoned with salt." Um, no, we don't have those kinds of freedoms if we're Christians. Yes, it's true. We don't think people should be, um, arbitrarily or or oppressively, you know, persecuting people just because they have beliefs and they say, "Oh, I believe in God," and then people persecute them. We think that that's unjust. But we're saying Christians, we don't follow, if you will, the lower laws of the land. We follow the higher laws of the Lord. And so, we have to make sure we're not thinking too American-ish and placing our Americanism onto the Bible. We need to think what, what the Bible teaches and have the Bible influence our view of America. I'm not, we're not anti-American. We're grateful to be in this country. We think this is a, a blessing, but it's not the highest law. It's not the highest law. God's law is the highest law. So that's the wrong kind of freedom. If you, if it's individual, if it's personal, if it's really about "Don't tell me what I can do or not do," that's just selfish, frankly.

There's a different kind of freedom that the Bible talks about. It's a true freedom. Let me read this now. "True freedom, therefore, is not self-fulfillment, do whatever you want with, with whomever. No, it is not merely political independence or social equity. It is not the kind of, uh, liberty that leads to license to doing whatever you want. The freedom to do whatever you want or believe whatever you choose. No, true freedom means liberation from three important things: from sin, from death, and the devil."

True freedom means you're free from sin, death, and the devil. And by the grace of God, that, that is exactly the kind of liberation Christ has come to provide. Let's talk about that. True freedom means you are free from sin. And this, what does that mean? What does that not mean? That means you're free from the power of sin in your life. If you're a true Christian who's had your heart regenerated by believing the good news of the gospel, the Spirit comes and and gives you a new heart, then that means you are no longer underneath the power of sin. Before you were a Christian, before I was a Christian, I had no other choice but to sin because my heart was corrupted by the sinfulness that we all inherited from our father Adam. Which means we had no choice but to sin. Because sin is missing the mark of what God intended. And God intended everyone to love him with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind, and with all their strength. And if you don't do that perfectly, you're missing the mark, you're sinning because you're doing something other than the way that God designed it, right? Many non-Christians, they have the ability to do good things on, on a certain level. Like they can love their children, they can follow the, the speed laws, they can do a good job in their work. But if they're not doing that to the glory of God, even that good civil thing that they're doing is actually evil in the sight of God because now they're doing it for some other god. They're doing it for themselves. They're doing it for their boss. They're doing it for their, whatever, their parents. And that's actually idolatry.

So, praise the Lord, in Christ, we, true freedom means we don't have to succumb to sin anymore. We don't, we are not underneath the power of sin anymore. That sin has, has lost its grip on us. And so, what we need to do then is, since we're free from the shackles of sin, that means we need to work out our salvation by intentionally seeking holiness and goodness and truth for the right reasons, for the glory of God, not for selfish reasons, for the, for the propagation of the gospel, not because my team will win. It has to do with the Lord. So, praise the Lord. We don't have to stay stuck in sin anymore. We actually can have, by the power of a new heart, we can be freed from the power of sin.

The next one is death. We're free from death. Meaning death of the body is no longer a threat to us eternally, right? Before you were in Christ, death became your judgment day in which you would be eternally condemned to hell. But once you become a Christian, you're no longer fearful of death because death represents your being with Christ in heaven forever. At that point, death becomes your truest liberation, your truest freedom because now you will no longer be enslaved, uh, in this world that still has sin in it. You will be freed from sin completely until you get your, your full body back in the future resurrection. But even then, death is no longer a threat to us. That's why Christians die for their, their, uh, their faith all the time. This is a, this is a part of what it means to be, uh, living in the Christian age is that Christians love God more than their life, and therefore they can lose their life, and that's fine because they know where they're going. They know who they'll be with.

So, you're free from the power of sin, and you're free from the threat of death. And now this last one, you're free from the devil. Four, the Bible describes about two families on earth and two citizenships. And the, the families are, you're either in the family of God, or you're a son of God, or you're a son of the devil. But the Bible says this very clearly. There are only two options. And so, before we were Christians, if we were Christians here today, we were children of the devil doing his, his bidding. He was our father, and we were his children, and we were liars like him. We were selfish like him. But if you're a Christian, you are no longer, your father is no longer the devil. You no longer have to do his bidding. You no longer have to be his, his minion or underneath his power or coercion. You can be free from all that. Praise the Lord. This is grace that God gives us. Free from sin, free from death, free from the devil.

I think it's important to point all these things out, which means we as Christians should live godly lives, hope-filled lives, uh, and helpful lives, not just helpful, uh, in the here short here and now, but hopeful and helpful in eternity, right? Because we're helping people, pointing them towards God and towards Christ. So, this is what we mean by freedom. I think it was important to say what it isn't and what it is and take a little bit of time to discuss that because, because I'm doing this now because we're going to hear the word freedom again and again and again and again in these next chapters and verses. He's going to talk about freedom. So let's make sure we know what we mean when we say, when we hear the word freedom.

So he says, "For freedom Christ has set us free." Stand firm, therefore, since we're free, we're to stand firm in that freedom. And it says, "and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Don't go back to living the way you did when you weren't a Christian, when you were under Satan, when you were a slave to the law. No, no, no. Stay consistent with your Christianity. And we're to, what the command, "Stand firm."

I appreciated this quote by Curtis Vaughn. He talks about this. He says, "Stand firm," which translates a verb having an intensive force. So, this is a, this is a significant word that is meant to give you a picture. This is suggests a tenacious stand. This isn't a weak, limp-wristed, "sure, if I want to." You know, this is a "stand firm, ready to fight." This is like a soldier who's been trained and who's armed and who's not going to let the enemy come back across the line onto our borders. This is a very significant, uh, term. "Stand firm" suggests a tenacious stand in and for freedom. The word "therefore" shows that this is a duty growing out of the fact that Christ has set us free. Since we are free, that comes with necessities. If you have freedom, you must keep it. You must guard it. You must not give it away or act like it's not true. We must live in that freedom. We must not go back, in this case in the Galatians, to, uh, a form of legalism that is more concerned about lawkeeping, uh, with these particular practices of, "Oh, you have to, you have to keep Passover meal, or you have to keep the Feast of Booths, or you have to keep the particular way that they were told to worship." No, no, no. Those were all pointing, those were word, those were pictures pointing us to Christ. So you're free from those things.

In this context, this, uh, the context suggests that the readers are in danger of being held in, that is restrained by a yoke. This was the Jewish law yoke. And the thought is clear: "Do not let yourself, do not let anyone make you slaves of you again." So Christianity is not a weak, uh, sort of temperamental thing. It's, it Christianity has a bit of ferocity to it. There, there should be a growl sometimes in our hearts when there are people who are, um, threatening the freedom of Christians. Like, think about this. Like I think sometimes we're a little bit too American about this. We believe the lies that like, "Oh, just live and let live." Like, "Hey, I wouldn't want anybody to tell me to do that," or, "I wouldn't want anybody messing with me, so I, I don't want to get into their business." Like, "Just let them do what, whatever they're going to do." What if what they're doing is harmful or hurtful or against the gospel or taking away their freedom in Christ? There should be a standing firm. There should be a growling. "No, you can't do that." That's what Paul's doing. "No, we can't. Christians can't live that way. Christians can't believe that." Um, it's not rude. It's, it's like a, the appropriateness of a mama bear or a papa bear. If somebody's going to mess with their kids, what happens? Mama bear comes out, right? Well, that's what Paul is doing to these spiritual children of his. Papa Bear is coming out saying, "What are you doing letting these guys, uh, dupe you into saying that you must follow the law like you were, like you were Old Testament Jews?" No way is that okay. You're free from that. Stay in your freedom. Guard that freedom. Stay at your post. Don't go backwards. Look forwards. Stay strong. This is a, a real, uh, intense, if you will, moment of calling Christians to stand free. Do not let legalism in, right?

So, let me then ask you, how determined, how determined are you to stand for your freedom? Do you care about this? You've been free. You're free from sin. You're free from death. You're free from Satan. Does that just excite you? And so I've got to make sure I'm not living in sin anymore. How determined are you to stand in your freedom and stand against legalistic living? Is this a, is this a thought that comes across your, your mind frequently or appropriately? Because again, sometimes, sometimes we're tired in our Christianity, right? There's kind of so many things to keep track of. Sometimes it feels like, "Oh, there's too much." Well, actually, that might be an idea that one, it's possible to get tired in our faith. That's a real thing. We're, we're humans. We have bodies, we get tired. Jesus got tired. It's not inherently wrong to get tired. But we mustn't, we mustn't believe false things like, "Well, since I'm tired, therefore, it's okay if I give in a little bit. It's okay if I don't guard my heart from legalism." It just, you know what? Frankly speaking, you know, it's easier to be a legalist than it is to be a Christian. Just think about it. It's easier. Why? Because legalism just has a checklist. Okay, as long as I go to church, I'm fine. Okay, as long as I read my Bible 5, 10, 15 minutes a day, I'm fine. Okay, as long as I don't cuss, I'm fine. It's actually way easier to be legalistic. But that's not the point. That's all external lawkeeping. That's not internal glorifying God for my soul, right? That's an external going through the motions. Or maybe it's not going through the motions. Maybe it's thinking, "I deserve salvation." That's wicked. That's evil. None of us deserve salvation. It's only by grace that God gives it to us through Christ. And, and, and if we aren't guarding against legalism, we must really hate Christ. Think about that. If you love legalism, you must hate Christ. Because if you're saying, "You know what, my works matter in the end the most," then I don't really need Christ's work because mine are going to get me saved anyway. So, you're really just belittling the significance of Christ. He's going to say that even more in an upcoming text.

But our question is, hey, if Paul is calling, even commanding these Galatians, "Stand firm in your freedom. You have it. Guard it. Don't you go back to your previous life of not being a Christian and relying on other things besides Christ." How much of that is a determination in your own heart? Do you get serious about that? Because sometimes we just go along and we're not guarding against the dangers for our souls. In fact, part of being parents, we are raising our kids to to stay awake, to look around, watch out for cars when they're in the street, right? Uh, do things in a way that won't hurt, bring other or hurt to other people or hurt yourself. We're constantly trying to train them, "Wake up, look around, pay attention, don't don't miss things because there's, there's danger out there." Now, we're not trying to parent in a way that they're scared of everything. No, we can give them confidence, but if they aren't aware of, of, of the dangers, isn't that the difference between maturity and immaturity, right? Maturity goes, um, "Yeah, I, I'm going to put locks on my doors." You know, "Why?" "Be somebody could come in." You know, that's, that's not, "Oh, you're not trusting people." No, it's just actually smart to be careful. You know, it doesn't mean that not trusting the Lord. It, no, I'm, I'm aware of the reality and I'm living like the reality.

So, how determined are you? I appreciate this from Romans 6. It, it actually talks about now that we're free, we need to see things correctly. Romans 6:22 says this: "Now that you have been set free," Christians, "from sin." Remember, we're free from sin, "and become slaves of God." We're no longer slaves of sin. We're slaves to God. "The fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life." This is an important thing. Now that we're free in Christ, the fruit that we get, meaning the, the works that we do, are more about making us more holy and helping us on the road towards our eternal salvation than they are about having us earn our salvation. When we are trying to make our own life through legalism, we're not free. We're actually slaves to the law, but we've been set free from those things. And now the good works that we do, because it's not wrong to do good works, it's actually good to do good works, but those good works don't save us. They show that we're saved and they sanctify us. So this is very helpful. Now that you're free, the, the fruit of your works, they lead towards your holiness. They lead towards making you more like God. And that's a wonderful thing.

So, for freedom, you've been set free. Stand firm and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Let's, uh, move on to our, our second point for this passage. What are we to understand, or how are believers supposed to live in their freedom that they have, have in Christ? Well, they're, they're supposed to stand firm in their freedom. But let's look at this second point for this passage. It's this. It's that those who profess Christ but accept legalism are not true believers but only seem to have saving grace. This is an important point that Paul is going to make in this situation. He's, he's really warning them against not having a false profession. He says, "Those who profess Christ," hey, you say you're a Christian, but actually they're living a legalistic life where they're trusting more in their own works than they are in Christ. That's not a true believer. And they only seem to have saving faith, but they don't actually have saving faith.

Let's see what he says starting in verse 2. "Look, I Paul say to you Galatians, those who are among you Galatians, if you accept circumcision, if you say, 'Oh, I have to in order for me to be right with Christ, I need to have be circumcised, Christ will be of no advantage to you.'" Let me, I testify again. Let me repeat myself. Did you guys hear the first time? Let me repeat myself again. "To every man." So, it's not just the Galatians now. It's anyone. "To every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ. And you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace." This is an important passage. We want to rightly understand this. So verses 2 through 4 is saying, those who profess Christ but accept legalism, they're not actually true believers, and they only seem to have a saving faith.

Let's, let's break this down a little bit. Let's go back to verse 2 and 3. Paul says, "I say to you, if you accept legalism, if you accept legalism as the basis of your salvation, I'm sorry, circumcision, circumcision as the basis of your salvation, if you need to be circumcised in order to be saved, if that's what you think, then Christ doesn't mean anything to you. It's of no advantage to you." Oh, you, you claim Christ, but he's not actually having any blessing towards you. Why? Because you're not choosing Christ. You're choosing circumcision. You're choosing your own works. Therefore, Christ is has no advantage to you because it's either Christ's work or your work. Those are the two options. How are you, how are you going to be right before God? Is it Christ's work or is it your work? And so, that's the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. A Christian says, "I can't be saved because of me. It's only what Christ did. It's only what Christ did."

So I testify again, "Every man who accepts circumcision, he that he is obligated to keep the whole law." Here's the thing. If you want to, if he's saying to them, if you want to live by legalism, by following specific, the specific laws, say of Judaism and circumcision, you can't just pick and choose. "I want to follow this law but not that law. I want to try this but not that." No, it's all or nothing. If you follow circumcision, then you're saying, "I'm going to save myself." And you have no part of Christ, and Christ has no part of you. It's all you. It's all you. So, let's see how you do in following the law. Um, he's obligated to keep the whole law. Uh, he says this earlier in, in the book of Galatians, Galatians 3:10, it says, "For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse." It's not a good thing to rely on the law. "For it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.'" You can't just say, "I want to do this but not the other things." You, you, if you want to be justified by the law, you must be perfect, because the law cannot be broken. Well, it is broken in any part. It's broken in all parts. So that's what Paul's saying. You can't be a legalist, or you can't have your, you can't be resting on your works and resting on Christ's works.

This is frankly, this is why, if I can say this, this is why we're not Roman Catholic. Because in the Roman Catholic conception of salvation, it is by, saved by faith and works. And what they're doing is they're saying, "Yeah, God gives us the gift of faith. So we agree on that part. And so I believe in Jesus Christ. He's the savior of the world. But, um, therefore I must show that I'm saved because, or I must also then have saving works that go along with that faith. So I'm going to believe in Christ and I have to have works." And they put those together, and now we could say, "Oh, okay. I'm saved and I'm justified based on faith and works." And we say, "No, no, no. You're saved by faith alone. Nobody can be justified by your works." That's why we're not, we're not Roman Cathol, or that's why we're not any other religion. This is actually every other religion. Every other religion in some other way says, "You, whatever you do is what gets you, is what saves you." But Romans 11:6 makes it clear, "There's one or the other. You can't have both. But if it is by grace, meaning it's a gift, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise grace would not no longer be grace." Something can't be a gift and also something that you have to buy. It can't be both. It's either a gift or you, you have to buy it, right? That's how this works.

So he's saying, "Christ is no advantage to you if you, if you choose circumcision." But verse 4, now this is actually a controversial statement here and often misunderstood. So we want to make sure we don't misunderstand it. He says, "You are severed from Christ," been cut off. "You who would just be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace." And if you just read those verses, it sounds like Paul is saying, "You who were once a Christian can stop being a Christian and no longer be saved. You who were once saved in the past can now be saved or cannot be saved later." It sounds like Paul's kind of saying that you are, you once were a part of Christ, now you're severed from Christ. You, um, you once had grace, now you don't. Now you've fallen away from grace. And in fact, many false teachings have been done of verses just like this. Is he saying that you can lose your salvation? No, absolutely not. He's not saying that at all. He just finished saying that, uh, Christ is of no advantage to you and you have to follow the whole law if you're going to do this. He's saying if you profess to be a Christian, but it turns out that you are not living like a Christian, you're not having faith like a Christian, well, it doesn't matter that you are quote connected to Christ through your profession, or you're connected to Christ by being at a Christian church. No, you are cut off. In fact, this is a play on words. Severed means to cut off, right? It's a play on words. What's he talking about? If you accept circumcision, not trying to be gross or graphic, but what happens there? There's a cutting off, right, in circumcision that takes place. It's like, "Oh, you want to be cut off? You are cut off." Or you want circumcision, snip, snip. You are you are snipped out. Out with you. It's actually a play on words. He's saying you are fine. You want it, you get it. You don't get both. Uh, because you actually aren't in Christ if you are following your own works. And then it says, "You have fallen away from grace." What does that mean? It, it, it means the grace that you professed, you actually aren't laying hold of. You, you don't actually have it. It's not yours. It's, it's gone. It's fallen away. It's, it's not there. You go, "But did they once have it before?" They had it by profession. They didn't have it by possession, right? And so, he's not saying you can lose your salvation. And people go, "Well, it sure does sound like it." Well, no. We, we know that there are other places in scripture that make this really clear. All we need to do is go to the parable of the soils from Jesus. He, he teaches that there are different responses to the gospel in which it looks like people are saved, but they're not actually saved. Right? There's three, in fact, when he gives the parable, there's four soils, and three of them aren't saved. Only one of them is saved.

So let me just read the example of the three soils. Matthew 13: "Hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart." This is being under the, the power of the devil, right? Satan just comes in and snatches away the truth. That, that's one soil. This was what was sown on along the path. The second soil, verse 20, "For as for what was sown on the rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy." Wait a minute. That looks like they're having a positive response to the gospel. Yeah, there's an outward expression of, of faith, but actually what does it say? "Genuinely, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet, he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away." They look like they're the real thing, but they're not actually the real thing. Because to be the real thing, you actually have to persevere to the end. And so that's not actually, wait, it looks like this guy's falling away from grace as if he had it, but now he no longer has it. He actually never had it, right? And then the third one, "As for the one sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word." See, they all hear the word, but "the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful." So of the, and then he goes on, and then there's the good soil. "Here's the word and it bears good fruit." So actually, there's only one way in that parable to, to have salvation. It's having the good soil of an actual changed heart to where you have faith from the root. Therefore, you'd bear good fruit instead of, there is such a thing as bad fruit. It looks like the fruit. Have you ever, has anybody ever bit into a fruit that looks good on the outside, but actually was mushy or gross on the inside? Yuck, right? I've done that. I've done apple picking before. Thought it was a good one. Didn't see that there was a hole somewhere, and there actually is a, a worm or bugs are there. We had an apricot tree, or where there's delicious apricots. But I, I learned real, real at a young age to pop those apricots open in half and to look under that seed because there might be something gross going on in that fruit, right? And I'm not going to eat that fruit, even if there's a little bit of bugs going on in there. So that's how this is. It has to be good. It has to be true.

1 John 2:19 says, "They were out. They went out from us. They left us. But they were never, they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they, they all are not of us." It is possible to be, uh, profess with your words to be a Christian, but actually your heart is not transformed because you're not resting on Christ, you're resting on your works. And so those are positive examples. Let me give one last example, um, really clearly saying that those who are true, uh, truly belong to Christ, they will never be lost. Look what it says. John 10:27-29: "My sheep hear my voice." These are true believers. "And I know them, and they follow me." And then they fall away later? No, that's not what it says, right? It says, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." We're doubly held. Christ, the Father. Wait, what about the Spirit? We're triply held. Yes, it's true. Um, so no, Paul is not saying that you can lose your salvation. He's saying if you, if you say you're a Christian, but you actually live through legalism, you're not a true Christian.

And so the question for this part, because it really is a warning, it's a warning. This passage, this section is, "Are you guarding against having a false profession of faith in yourself and in others?" Are you guarding against having a false profession of faith in yourself and in others? Meaning, are you making sure that you're actually a Christian and not getting duped by false teaching and false thinking and false living? Are you discerning? "Am I truly a Christian? Do I truly love the Lord? Do I truly know the gospel? Do I truly read my Bible?" And I'm not doing that because I'm trying to get saved. I'm doing that because I genuinely love the Lord. And you're like, "Wait a minute, but I still struggle with sin. I don't want to read my Bible all the time." Wait a minute. "I don't always want to go to church." No, that doesn't mean that you're not a Christian. There's lots of reasons why Christians will have, you know, will still continue in sin. But, uh, what we need to discern is, do I know the gospel? Do I believe the gospel? Am I resting on Christ's work or on something else? And even when we sin, good news. When we sin, we have an advocate, Christ in heaven who intercedes on our behalf. He prays for us, and he's our advocate before the Father. So, good news. Even after we become Christians and we sin, we have a helper. We have somebody to plead for us, our case, and say, "This one is forgiven. This one is mine."

So, are you regularly thinking about, "Okay, make sure I'm not getting duped? Am I guarding against having a false profession?" Is my life consistent with the gospel? Is my life, you know, we should be concerned about that we're consistent Christians, not perfect Christians. There's, there's no such thing as a perfect Christian. There's only one. That's Christ in heaven. But are we trying to grow? Are we trying to to get better? Are we trying to grow in holiness? Are we trying to grow consistency? Trying to grow in knowledge? Or because that's what Christians do. They grow. They learn. They continue. And when they do get tired and get knocked down, what do they do? They pray. They confess their sins. And they get back up by the power of the Spirit, right?

So, and this is not only true for yourself. Do you care about this for others? Are you discerning? You know what? Is there, is somebody else getting duped? Is my family getting duped? Are there people in our church who are getting duped by living by false things instead of true things? Not only do we need to watch over our own souls to make sure that we're in Christ, we need to watch over other souls, particularly those who God has given to us in in covenant. That's why we think church membership is so important because we can't watch over every single person's soul out there, right? That's impossible. But we can watch over the people that God has given to us, the church that God has called us to be a part of. Um, and we can be a blessing to those people around us. They can bless us by them encouraging us and teaching us and and praying for us. And we can encourage them. "How are you doing? How's it going? Do you need encouragement, help? Are you guarding against false profession?" That's what Paul says. Hey, you're, don't be duped by this. Are you doing that in yourself? And are you doing that in others?

I appreciate, uh, another quote here. It gives a vivid description of what this could look like. "Some people base their standing before God on the work they do in in the church or on the quality or frequency of their personal devotions. Others depend on the decision they made for Christ when they walked down an aisle or raised their hand at an evangelistic rally, as if they were saved by that gesture. Still others seek." It's called decisionism. "Oh, I made a decision for Christ, therefore I'm fine." Nope. Your decision doesn't save you. Christ saved you. Are you, are you trusting in Christ? "Still others seek to justify themselves by the fact that they are baptized and confirmed members of a Christian church. If we try to be justified before God by anything we do, no matter how small it is, we are not free. This is why justification must come by faith alone. What Jesus did on the cross and through the empty tomb justifies sinners by all by itself. Therefore, if I'm a Christian, standing before God depends entirely on what Christ has done, not on anything that I have done. Otherwise, I'm enslaved to my by my own works."

Are you guarding against? Okay. It's not about my works justifying me. It's about Christ's work that justifies me. So, let all the works that I do engage in, may they be to please the Lord, not to make God love me more or something. Uh, in fact, 2 Corinthians 13 says this: "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith." The Bible explicitly tells us, don't just assume you are, make sure you are. "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves." Or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Are you a Christian? Like, hey, make sure you're a Christian. Are you, are, are the people around you who say they're Christians Christians? Make sure that they're actually Christians. It's true. We're, we, we can't necessarily discern everybody's heart every time, but we are called to be a discerning people, an examining people, "unless indeed you fail to meet the test." We don't want to fail to meet the test. We don't want to be legalistic people. We want to be freed people who believe in Christ.

So, let's look at our third point, our last point for this morning. What do, how are believers supposed to live in the freedom that they've been given by Christ? Well, they must stand firm in it. They must guard against, uh, against falling into slavery. And we must know that there are such things as professing Christians who are not actually believers. They say they're Christians, but they don't live like it. So then, how are we supposed to live rightly? This third point: True believers in Christ display genuine faith, hope, and love through the Spirit. True believers display genuine faith, hope, and love through the Spirit.

Look what he says in verse 5. "For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness." Verse 6 is going to talk about love. But let's start with this first part. "Through the Spirit," meaning not through the works of the law, but through the Spirit. In fact, we're in chapter 5, and Paul is going to continually go back between, and we'll see it in the next few verses. Are you living by, by the flesh, which is, you know, by works, or are you living by the Spirit, which is by freedom? Works, Spirit, works, Spirit. He's constantly going back and forth. So, "through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness." Think about it. If you're a legalist, if you're a legalist and you're saying, "I'm going to be justified by my own works," isn't it true that many people actually then who live that way are, are not quite sure how they're going to do in the end because they're wondering, like, that's why people who have this work salvation go, "Well, I think my good works will outweigh my bad works. I hope I get into heaven." But true Christians don't, don't wish as if they're not sure whether or not they're going to be with Christ. No, true Christians have assurance. They have hope. First of all, they have faith. It says, "through the Spirit, by faith," not through, through the Spirit by works. "Through the, by faith, by faith." I believe in Christ, and I believe in His work that His work saves me, not my own. Since we have true faith in Christ alone, not our works, then we ourselves, true believers, eagerly wait. We're excited about our future. We're excited. Think about this. We're excited about the judgment of God. Isn't that weird? Judgment is kind of scary, isn't it? Not for the Christian. There's going to be a judgment at the end of time where the Christian's going to, their life is going to be exposed. Yep. There's going to be sin in it. Yep. There's going to be good things in it. And those things will be sifted. All the sin is going to go wash away and is not going to be rewarded. And all the good stuff that that was done in Christ's name will be rewarded. And then the Christian is going to be, uh, declared righteous, holy, with Christ in heaven forever. Now be rewarded. We're looking forward to.

That. Hope, in biblical terms, is not a wishing it might happen. Hope is a confident knowing knowledge that my future is going to be good. When I have hope, it's because I know Christ has bought me. And so true believers have faith. True believers live with hope. They're confident. Not a false confidence, a true confidence. Why? Because Christ saves them, not themselves. And Christ is not a liar. Christ has all power. So if He's not a liar, has all power, then I'm secure. I'm secure in Christ. I have true hope.

Uh, look what this quote says. Now notice that justification is not something we work for. It is something we wait for. God gives us righteousness, gives His righteousness to those who wait for it in faith. We're believing Christ. So I believe what you say, and we wait for it, our final salvation. When Paul speaks of waiting for righteousness, he's looking forward to the day of judgment, when God finally will render His verdict on every person who has ever lived. The Christian waits for that day with eager expectation, almost the way a little girl looks forward to her birthday party. The Christian hopes for a favorable verdict, trusting to be declared not guilty on the day of God's justice. We are, we who are Christians, actually live by faith with hope. We're not bogged down by, "Oh, I hope it'll be okay," or, "Is God happy with me right now?" No, we live by faith. Christ did all the work for me. He will help me in my sin-stained life until I die. And when I die, it'll be better than here. We'll walk together in where I won't be hindered.

So then, let's look at this last one. We have faith in Christ, not in our works. And we have hope in the future with confidence and assurance. Let's see love. Now, a very shocking statement that Paul says here. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. It's nothing, but only faith working through love." I actually think that if you're looking for Bible verses to memorize, this would be a good one. This should be a good one. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love." Why would I suggest this as a memorization verse? It's because it first of all starts with Christ. If you are in Christ, if you believe in Christ as the one true God and King and Savior of this world, then you should understand that you trying to follow laws like circumcision, especially laws of the Old Testament, which were never meant to save. But circumcision and uncircumcision count for, they don't count for anything. Meaning they're not the point. That's not what saves you in Christ. What saves you? Faith saves you. And how do you know you're saved? That faith is actually you loving God. If you're trying to save yourself by your own works, you're loving yourself because you're trying to work for yourself. But when you become a Christian, you don't work for yourself anymore. You work for Christ. You work for, you become a slave to God. You become a slave to righteousness. So you're now, your whole life is preoccupied with pleasing your master. So I love my master and I'm happy to work for Him with my whole heart. I love Him. I believe in Him and I love Him.

So when people say, "How do you know somebody's saved or not?" Do they love the Lord? Do they love the Lord? Okay. What if, well, they say they do. Well, do they believe the true gospel that Jesus is the only way to salvation? The only way to have their sins forgiven? The only way in which they could be made right with God is not by their works, but by Christ alone. Do they believe that? Well, they say they do. Okay. Well, then let's look at their lives. Do they have joy of the Holy Spirit? Do they have the, do they have the fruit of the Holy Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness. Does their life seem to show that it's changed, that it's not about them, it's about God? It's about serving God. And they do it with a heart of love. True Christians love the Lord. They love living for Him. And yes, true Christians still have hard lives, right? We still go through difficulties and persecutions. It says you will encounter various trials. But even when you encounter various trials, the true Christian goes, "I still love the Lord. I still love the Lord. I'm tired. Help, Lord. But I love You. I don't want to ditch this thing. I want to keep going because I love the Lord."

So, it's not about you following circumcision. It doesn't matter if you're circumcised or uncircumcised in order for your salvation. What matters is if you have true faith and if you have love in your heart for God. That's, that's what it is. A non-Christian does not love the Lord. They might have a temporary love for the Lord until, what did that parable say? Until things get too hard. Like, "Oh man, I'm getting persecuted. Oh man, there's all kinds of temp, all kinds of trials and tribulations because I'm a Christian. This is too hard for me. Not anymore. I'm done." Well, that means you never loved God. That means your heart was never given to Him, right? Or it was the temptations of the world, right? Or the cares, the riches. You get drawn away by riches and temptations of the world. That means you love those riches more than God. That means you never actually really loved God. So you never really did.

So, love is the outworking of true genuine faith. Let me read this. "The faith that alone justifies is never alone." It's true. If you're a Christian, you have faith that saves you alone. But it's going to then have works that show that. However, true faith is always a working faith, a faith that works. It is an expressive faith, a faith that expresses itself in love to God and to others. As Luther said, Martin Luther, "He who wants to be a true Christian or to belong to the kingdom of Christ must be a true believer. But he who does not truly believe if, uh, but he does not truly believe if works of love do not follow his faith." Love is the outworking of genuine faith. How do you know that you're a true believer? Do you have faith in Jesus Christ alone for the salvation of your soul through forgiveness of your sins? And do you actually love God from the heart? Because if you do, you'll do anything He says, no matter how long it takes, no matter how hard it is. I mean, just in your own lives, the person who you've loved the most dearly, who's most dear to you, aren't you willing to travel the world for them, to do hard things for them, to go through much pain and adversity for them? It's because you love them. Well, that's how it is for God. He saved my soul. I'll do whatever.

As opposed to, "Uh, I don't like that." In fact, I've said it before. I just bother me when people say, "Well, I can't follow a God who would ever blank blank blank blank." What do they just do? "I don't like the way God talks about things in the Bible that way." Therefore, I'm actually, I'm more God than God is. I know better than God. It's like, you don't love God. You love yourself. You love your own thinking more than you love God's thinking. If God's word is truth, then we must follow it because He is the Creator. But if we think we're smarter than God, "I could never follow a God who would send people to hell." I guess you're a better God than God is. I guess you're, I guess I should be following you then because you're the higher one. Isn't that absurd?

So no, the Bible says in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, you must be like children, humble, dependent, teachable, helpless. That's what it's like. We have faith. Jesus said He'd save me, and I believe Him. So then, and if I believe Him, then my life will live like it. I'll have faith that comes of works that come from love. In fact, this is a verse here that says this clearly. James 2 says, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and if one says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed, and be filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" Meaning, you're just talk, but you're not actually living out your life of love. So also, "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." There's a saving faith and there's a non-saving faith. And saving faith will always show love.

So let me ask you our question, our final question for this morning. How closely do you cling to Christ in true faith? Faith in Him alone for your salvation in expectant hope. Meaning no matter what happens, I'm going to be okay because Christ says, "I have a great future ahead of me," and evident love. My life actually looks like a Christian life. It's not a perfect one. We're not saying every single thing is always consistent, but we're saying by and large, my life loves Christ. And because it loves Christ, it loves others. And even when I mess up, I go to Christ to ask for forgiveness. And I go to others to ask them for forgiveness because in the end, I just want to love well. I want to love well. How closely do you cling to Christ in true faith, expectant hope, and evident love? This is the call of true Christianity.

And so let me end our time as we think about clinging to Christ, living with Christ, having Him be our everything all the time. Just want to remind us of the verses from John 15 where we are called to abide in Christ. Jesus says, "Live with me, stay with me, walk with me, talk with me." What do we do? We pray to Jesus. We worship Jesus. We learn from Jesus. We imitate Jesus. Right? That's what it means to abide. We live with Him and we live like Him. So John 15 says this, "Abide in me," Christ says, "and I in you. As the branches cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." Verse nine says, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full." You know, when we live a life, a true Christian life, it's actually a life that brings us our joy because the most fulfilling thing that we could possibly do is love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Amen. Amen.

Let's pray. Father, thank You for this passage. Thank You for giving it to us through the words of Paul. Thank You for the Spirit leading and guiding him to write just the right things in the right way so that we can pay careful and close attention to these words of His and ultimately, Lord, Your words for us. You call us not to a life of legalism, but to a life of love. Lord, a life of faith, hope, and love in Christ alone. So, Lord, we pray, help us to discern what is true faith. Lord, help us to not be duped by any legalistic thinking or living. Help us to love Christ above all things and to love our neighbor because of Christ. It's in His name we pray. Amen.