GALATIANS 5 STAND FAST IN GRACE2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Galatians 5 Stand Fast In Grace

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019.

This evening, we are here in Galatians chapter 5, and we're going to be working our way through the first half of the chapter, verses 1 through 15. But we will start by reading verses 1 through 8 together. And so let's go ahead and begin by reading through that. It says in Galatians chapter 5, verse 1, Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ. You who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love. Verse 7, you ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from him who calls you. Here we are in Galatians chapter 5 and the Apostle Paul is challenging the Galatians now to really put into practice faith.

The truth of grace, as we've been studying it and uncovering it over the past several weeks now, looking at the first four chapters of Galatians, where Paul deals with the doctrine of grace and covers it to great extent and makes sure that we understand and have a solid foundation. And the issue at hand was these Judaizers. It was this group of people who were calling people to start to practice the law of Moses and

in order to be more righteous, in order to have better relationship to God, in order to have better access to God and receive more from God. And so there was this push to go back to the old covenant law as a means of drawing near to God and walking with God. And Paul has been writing to them very strongly, making the case that we cannot approach God with our efforts alone.

But the amazing truth about the gospel is that it is all based upon the grace of God.

that God is good towards us and he gives to us what we don't deserve, which is forgiveness and salvation and all the blessings that he has for us. It all comes to us as a result of faith in Jesus Christ. And because of that, we have everything from God on the basis of what he has done. And going back to trying to approach God on the basis of our efforts, well, it's not just us.

you know, not so wise, but Paul has been making it clear, it is actually hindering and hurting your walk with God if you do that. And so he's been building this case in the first four chapters. Now, as we head into chapters five and six, he turns towards the application.

And he begins to really ask us to take these things and then put them into practice, to do grace, to live out grace. And it begins here in verse 1, which says, And so I've titled the message this evening, Stand Fast in Grace.

stand fast in grace. The Galatians had started in grace, but they did not stand fast in grace. They had been swayed by these false teachers and they had gone back to, well, not even back to, but they had turned to the law. They weren't from the law. They weren't Jews, but they had turned to the law at the

And you and I face a similar situation and opportunity like the Galatians in that we, well, we have a tendency to go to legalism.

maybe the Old Testament law, but it doesn't have to be that kind of legalism. It also can be the kind of law that is something that we develop ourselves or that others impose upon us, but it's some system of rituals or works or efforts on our part, things that we do, things that we don't do in order to have right access to God or good access to God or to stand righteous before God.

And to turn to a system of works is our tendency. There's a pull towards that. And I kind of picture in my mind, you know, when you're standing on the beach, right where the waves are coming in, right? And then you feel the sand being pulled out from under you, you know, as the water's coming in and pulling out and the water is like kind of trying to pull you out and you have to stand fast in order to not be moved by the water. In a similar way, there is this tide that tries to pull us away from

From grace. And what Paul is calling us to do is to stand fast, to make a deliberate effort, to purpose, to stand fast in the grace of God. And so we're going to work our way through these verses and look at four different points that Paul has for us to encourage us to stand fast in grace. The first point is found in verses one through three, and that is stand in the priceless freedom of grace.

Stand in the priceless freedom of grace. And Paul is making some comparisons here. Freedom versus bondage and profit versus debt. And there's an exchange that is going on whenever we exchange the grace of God for a system of works, we are exchanging freedom for bondage.

That's again the point of Paul here in verse one. When he says, stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. He says, look, in Christ, by believing in Jesus Christ and receiving salvation and forgiveness and everything that God has for you by faith in Jesus Christ, when you do that, you have been made free.

You've been delivered from law. You've been delivered from the bondage to sin and shame and guilt. You've been delivered from all of that. There is this freedom that we have in Christ by the grace of God. So he says, stand in that. You're going to have a tendency. There's going to be people who kind of, you know, try to hook you in and bring you into a system of bondage, but don't go that way. Stand in

In the priceless freedom that God has provided to you by grace. He compares this idea of works to bondage. Because when you begin to try to approach God on the basis of your efforts, now you are caught up in this bondage of you have to perform things

And it's a kind of bondage because you have to perform. You have to be perfect. You have to do everything right. You have to, you know, follow all the things that have been established in whatever system of rules and regulations that you're trying to follow. And you're shackling yourself to this system, whether it be the Old Testament, the Old Covenant,

whether it be, you know, some doctrine or some diet or some, you know, whatever, that we all develop certain things and not even necessarily intentionally, but in our minds, we begin to think, this makes me righteous. And throughout this time, as we've been working our way through this, I've been trying to give kind of like little indicators that we can use to kind of catch ourselves when we've wandered and strayed from grace, right?

And so when you begin to feel condemned, you can recognize that you have strayed from grace because there is therefore now no condemnation. You're free. But when you begin to feel condemned, you've gone back into bondage and you feel like God is pushing you away and keeping you away and wants nothing to do with you because you're basing it on how you feel about your keeping of whatever system you've established in your mind and in your heart.

Another good indicator is when you're thinking that God should bless you because of what you've been doing.

oh God, I can ask you for this. I mean, you know, look at how I've been, look at how well I've done and how many times I've, you know, prayed and read my Bible and how many people I've shared the gospel with. And, and so therefore God, you know, do this work in my life. And, and, and we find ourselves when we're approaching God in that way, back in the system of bondage because

Because now we have to keep up, you know, hey, I read my Bible, you know, three times last week. Well, that means I have to at least read it three more times, you know, this next week. And I can't go backwards, right? And there's this system, there's these shackles, this bondage that comes with this manner of trying to approach God. And Paul says, don't let yourself go there. Stand in the freedom, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.

You are free to walk with God. You are free to approach God. You are free to receive forgiveness from God, regardless of how well you've been performing, regardless of, you know, whether you've succeeded or failed. You are free to walk with God.

to draw near to God because of the grace of God. Believe in Jesus Christ and stand in that liberty. Don't exchange it for bondage to now you have to try to keep and it's, you know, your determination and your efforts and your discipline that maintains your relationship to God. Oh, that's a system of bondage and not freedom.

Well, then he contrasts profit versus debt in verses two and three. He says, indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I will testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. Now notice here, Paul is, he's wanting to make it very firm and clear. He says, indeed, I, Paul, listen, I want you to know, here's what I'm saying to you.

And it's a clear message. And then in verse three, and I testify again. So he's calling our attention to these thoughts here in these verses. He says, if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. Now, circumcision is probably not something that you're particularly struggling with, you know, and going back to the old covenant, but that was the first step. So the Judaizers, when they came into Galatia, they were saying, you need to keep the law. Step number one,

Men, you got to be circumcised and now follow all of the rest of the law. So it's kind of symbolic of the whole keeping of the old covenant here, this idea of circumcision. But it was the first step. And so he says, look, if you begin down that path and you now try to approach God on the basis of your keeping of the Old Testament laws, pretty bold statement he makes here in verse two, he says, Christ will profit you nothing. Nothing.

If you go back and you try to, okay, I'm going to keep the Sabbath day and then I'm going to celebrate the feast and I'm going to follow the 10 commandments and I'm going to, you know, follow all the other commandments in Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. I'm going to Exodus. I'm going to follow all of those things and I'm going to walk with God in that way. Paul says, if you try to do that, Christ will profit you nothing because you have changed your faith and

You have changed what your hope is in. It's not in the work of Christ that is complete upon the cross any longer, but now you are hoping in your own performance. You're trusting in your works. And so Paul is making it very clear. Look, if you go down this path, you're tempted to be circumcised and to start down this path. You're tempted to go towards and to gravitate towards some system of works. And Paul says, if you go down that path,

Christ does not profit you. There's an exchange that's happening. In your mind, you're thinking it's Christ and this, or this and Christ. You know, it's like, you know, one is just the cake and the other is the frosting, right? That it's like, it's just extra, right? I'm just extra righteous or extra forgiven or extra, you know, a place of blessing before the Lord. But Paul is saying, no, no, it's not that way. It's not you add these two together and then it's better. It's not that way.

No, when you turn to the one, you forsake the other. And if you turn back to the other, you're forsaking the one. So it's a choice you have to make.

But a lot of times in our minds, we think we can do both. We're trying to do both. And we're trying to draw near to God and, you know, develop even. That's one of the dangers about legalism is that it starts with a motivation that could be considered honorable. You know, I want to be holy as he is holy. I want to walk with the Lord and draw near to the Lord.

But the way that we go about that is important to consider. Because if we try to go about that with a system of laws and rules and regulations, we're turning away from Christ. We're turning away from the Lord even as we try to draw near to the Lord. And it puts us in a place where we begin to shackle ourselves. We begin to bind ourselves. So we're laying aside the prophet.

of Christ. But then in verse 3, he goes on to say, it's not just that. You're not just missing out on the profit of all that Jesus did for you. But verse 3, he goes on to say, I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. So you're throwing out all your profits and you're going into debt when you turn from grace to works. Throwing out the profit, throwing out all that Christ has given to you, throwing out, you know, the blessings and the freedoms that he provides.

And now you're becoming in debt. You're going from riches to bankruptcy. You're going to a debt that you cannot pay. It would be one thing if you would, you know, switch to a system of works and then you could keep that system of works and be righteous and enter into eternity with God. That would be one thing to consider. And okay, you know, not the best route, but you know, if you want to do it that way, you could do it the easy way or the hard way, right? You know, but that's not the case, right?

That's the big issue here. So you become indebted now to keep the whole law when you try to follow the law. You try to approach God on the basis of the law and you can't do it. And so you're a debtor. You owe because what you cannot follow, if you go back to the Old Testament, try to follow the laws of God from there, you can't follow all those. If you make up your own system of laws and rules in your head, listen, even the ones that you make up yourself, you can't follow those. You're going to break those laws.

You violate your own conscience all the time. Any system that we try to follow in order to approach God and be right with God, we're in bondage to it. We're indebted by it. We can't keep it. It leaves us in a place of judgment. And so Paul says very clearly, look, I'm telling you this. Paul says, if you go down that path, you're exchanging profit for debt. You're exchanging your savings account, you know, for bankruptcy court.

You're exchanging the incredible value that Christ gives you, and you're putting yourself in a position of bondage and indebtedness. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says it this way. He says, Paul makes it clear that the law adds nothing because nothing can be added. Instead, the law comes in as a thief and robs the believer of the spiritual riches he has in Christ. It puts him back into bankruptcy and

responsible for a debt he is unable to pay. And that's why Paul says, stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. Set up some guards in your mind and in your heart. When you begin to recognize that tendency, the practice of the leaning towards a works-based relationship with God, you're trading in freedom and you're getting bondage in return.

You're trading in your profits and you're getting indebtedness in return. Don't let it happen. Catch that. When you start to feel condemned, catch that. Go back to God by faith in Jesus Christ and receive his grace. When you feel like you are owed by God, when you know, you're,

you feel like you deserve, you know, some goodness from God, some work of God, go back to the Lord by faith in Jesus Christ. Come back to the position of grace and stand in that priceless freedom. What Christ has done for you is beyond measure and value. Don't exchange that for indebtedness and bondage of your own system of works.

Well, moving on to verses four through eight, we get the second point for this evening, and that is stand close to Jesus by grace. We need to stay close to the Lord. And the Galatians had not. In verse four, he says, you have become estranged from Christ. You who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. He tells the Galatians, they are heading down that path of works,

And he says, you've exchanged that freedom for bondage. You've exchanged that value, that profit for debt. And what's worse is you've become estranged from Christ. You have distanced yourself from the Lord. You have become now a stranger to Christ because, well, you are not coming to God by faith in Jesus Christ, but you are coming to God by faith in your efforts, by faith in what you do.

And he says, you attempt to be justified by law. You're trying your best to be right before God by law or by your works, by your keeping of these things. And so you've fallen from grace. You've become estranged from Christ. Anybody want to find themselves in that position, estranged from Christ? You want to find yourself as a stranger to the Lord and he's a stranger to you? No, no, no. We need to stand close to Jesus, right?

And again, this is one of the things that we have to watch out for because legalism can creep into our hearts with great intentions in our minds, you know, and we're thinking incorrectly, but we're thinking, you know, if I do this, I will be more spiritual. I'll be better off spiritually. And

And if we allow that to be established in our lives as a law, and now it's the basis of whether or not we pray. It's the basis of whether or not we serve. It's the basis of whether or not we look to the Lord or call out to the Lord. And, you know, if we're good at it, then,

All right, now I'm gonna go and pray because, you know, God, you know, you should bless me because look at what I've done. And when I don't do it, well, I don't pray because I don't deserve to pray. I need to be on time out because I haven't been doing very good on this thing, whatever it is that it might be. And we can do Bible reading. We can do, you know, uh,

spiritual disciplines. We can also do things, well, I lost my temper, you know, and now that's a law that it's like, well, you can't lose your temper and be spiritual. So, you know, you got to sit on timeout, wait two weeks before you come back and ask God for anything because you lost your temper. And that's not standing close to Jesus by grace. That's trying to relate to God on the basis of works. Pastor David Guzik says this, when we embrace the law as our rule of walking with God,

We must let go of Jesus. He is no longer our righteousness. We attempt to earn it ourselves. And this is the point that Paul is seeking to make. There is a trade. There's an exchange. You can't have it both ways. That you approach God on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ and I approach God on the basis of my efforts. You can't have it both ways. When you embrace the law, you have to let go of Jesus.

And when you embrace Jesus, you have to let go of the law. You have to choose one or the other. In verse 5, he goes on to say, We're not hoping in righteousness by our works. We're not hoping to have right standing before God because of what we do. And we're not hoping to have right standing before God because we haven't done those other things.

Our righteousness comes by faith in Jesus Christ. And we believe that because of what he has done for us and by receiving his work upon the cross on our behalf, we stand before God, holy and righteous, clothed in his righteousness, not our own. And so we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness that comes by faith. It's not our efforts. It's not ourselves. It's not what we have, but

but it's what he has done. Verse six, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. What really matters, Paul says, is not circumcision. Circumcised, uncircumcised, it doesn't matter when it comes to our position in Christ Jesus. The Jewish people, they don't have a better access to God than the Gentiles. American Christians don't have better access to God than Gentiles.

Peruvian Christians or Japanese Christians or Chinese Christians or any other distinction or difference you want to make in your mind. There's nobody who has better access. We all have the same access. What really matters is faith working through love, Paul says. Faith, believing God at his word. And just like a little side note here, it's faith working, right? Faith works. It's not that we approach God differently.

by our works and through our works and because of our works, we approach God by faith. But then what that faith does is it produce some working of love in our lives. We'll see that a little bit more as we hit the final verses we'll cover tonight. But faith works. Faith puts us into action. It's motivated by love. Verse seven, you ran well.

who hindered you from obeying the truth. Verse 8, this persuasion does not come from him who calls you. Paul says, look, I was there. You received the gospel. You were born again. You received the grace of God. You started the race and you were running well. And the picture here is, you know, a runner running down the racetrack, right? And there's the lines on the track so that, well, every runner has their lane that they run in. And the picture here that Paul is painting is that someone has cut into the lane and

messed you up and caused you to go out of your lane, caused you to go off track. You ran well, you were on track, you were walking in, running in, standing in the grace of God, but someone's cut in. Who's cut in and hindered you in this way? Paul says, this persuasion does not come from him who calls you. One thing is for sure, Paul says, you didn't get this from God.

This new approach to God that you have, this new doctrine that you're grasping hold of, this new, you know, system of works that you're following, God didn't reveal this to you. You didn't get this by spending time with God and his word. Where did you get this from? One thing's for sure, you didn't get it from Jesus. The Judaizers, just like many other false teachers, use the scriptures, but in a manner that is, well, not consistent with the whole counsel of the word of God. False teachers often use the word, but

You would never come to the same conclusions yourself by spending time on your own with the Lord in his word. That God would not reveal those things. It's not the natural, you know, teaching of the scriptures, but they will use the scriptures, twist the scriptures and teach something that is contrary to what God actually says. It's a work of the enemy. It's a work of deception. It's a work of rebellion in many cases, right?

This persuasion does not come from him who calls you. What comes from him who calls you? To approach God by faith in Jesus Christ. Stay close. The entrance to the holiest of all, the veil, remember, that covered in the temple, has been torn in two. And the Lord says, come in to the presence of God. Receive the Holy Spirit. Receive the blessings of God. Receive the promises of God. Everything that we have and receive from God is

comes back to not our efforts, not, you know, we don't have because of our failures. It all goes back to what Christ has done for us. And we have access to God because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Well, moving on to verses 9 through 12, we get point number three this evening, and that is stand apart from those who oppose grace.

So there's a need for us to stand close to the Lord and stay close and make a deliberate effort to maintain that relationship with God. But we also need to stand apart from

And to make a deliberate effort in a similar way to put some distance between us and those who oppose grace. And Paul is here referring to these false teachers that have come in and led them down this path of works-based relationship to God. And so verses 9 through 12, let's read through that. It says this, "'A little leaven leavens the whole lump. "'I have confidence in you, in the Lord, "'that you will have no other mind.'

but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. Verse 12, I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off. Here, Paul gives a little bit more strong language in talking about these false teachers who have come in. And he first starts out with a food question.

illustration. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. When you're making bread and you have the lump, there's another word for that, the batch of dough, whatever, right? So you have the batch of dough, you have the lump, you put a little leaven and you don't have to cover it or drench it or soak it in leaven, right? You put a little leaven and then that little leaven itself spreads through the batch of dough,

You don't have to spread it. You don't have to soak it, immerse it, you know, marinate it in the leaven. No, no, you just put a little and then it spreads itself. And Paul is saying, look, this doctrine and legalism in general, we need to be on guard for it. We need to work hard to stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has set us free because a little bit of this doctrine begins to spread. It begins to permeate.

For you personally, you know, it might start in one aspect of your life. It might start in one aspect of your mind or your relationship to God and you're, you know, working on and working towards this, these efforts that you have, these laws and rules, right?

You can also look at it from kind of a more congregational perspective. You know, one person coming in with legalistic doctrine can begin to infect. And now there's two and now there's three, you know, and, and there's this recruiting of, you know, people to this manner of approaching God on the basis of works. And so, uh,

As a group gathering, it's appropriate for us to understand a little leaven leavens a whole lump. And then personally, it's appropriate for us to understand if I allow this system of works in this aspect of my relationship to God, it's going to begin to impact me completely and it begins to spread. And so we need to be on guard and paying attention. But Paul is specifically talking about in the group setting. He's saying, look, these guys are in here. You can't just let that continue.

There needs to be a separation from these teachers who have led you astray. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, how easy it is for the yeast to grow. Before long, we become proud of our spirituality and then critical of everyone else's lack of spirituality. This feeds the flesh and grieves the spirit, but we go on our way thinking we are glorifying just a little bit of yeast and it begins to grow.

And again, the deception here is we think, think about the Pharisees, right? They thought they had better access to God than everybody else, but they were deceived. And Jesus corrected them severely and harshly and repeatedly, right? Because they were so lost that they missed the main message that God was giving through his word. But they thought they were glorifying God. They were critical of everybody. You know, they were feeding their flesh in their legalism and

And that leaven had just spread completely. They were completely deceived and taken over by this system of works. And it wasn't just them, you know, they're imposing it upon others. Verse 10, Paul says, I have confidence in you and the Lord that you will have no other mind, but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. So Paul says, look, I'm confident. Me writing this to you and helping you understand, I'm confident in the Lord, not that you have your own strength, but that God's gonna bring you back.

to right approach to right access to god by faith in jesus and i also have confidence paul says the guy who's troubling you whoever that is he's going to bear his judgment anyone who comes in and tries to direct people's attentions away from the lord and on themselves man god is going to deal with that false teacher so paul says i have confidence in that i trust that god is going to do that

In verse 11, he says, and I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? It seems here that the false teachers were saying, you know, even Paul says this now. Paul even agrees with us. And that's not just from this verse that we get that, but if you'll kind of rewind the tape in your mind back to Galatians chapter one, and if you weren't here, you don't remember that far back, it's not too hard. You can actually turn to Galatians chapter one and look at verse eight.

Paul says, but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Let him be cut off from God forever if he preaches a different gospel, if he preaches something else besides the gospel of grace. But notice Paul says, but even if we, so they're accusing, they're declaring, they're saying, look, Paul's preaching this now.

And the Galatians have believed it. They've bought into that. But here's what Paul's saying. Even if we preach a different message, so what? Why would you follow that just because it's us preaching it? It's not the truth. It's not how you began. It's not, you know, how God began to work in your life. And that was the point that Paul was making strongly in chapter four, right? You began in the spirit. How are you going to now try to be made perfect and complete in the flesh? Right?

Now they're saying we are preaching this other gospel, even if we were, which we're not, but even if we were, he says, let him be accursed. Don't listen to that. Don't buy into that just because the guy that you really like to listen to, you know, he started teaching that. No, no, no. You stay true to the grace of God and approach God by faith in Jesus Christ. But here Paul is countering the thought, the accusation saying, look, if that were true, if I did preach circumcision,

then I wouldn't be suffering persecution because these Judaizers would go everywhere Paul would went and would persecute him. It was not too far from here in the region of Galatia that Paul was actually stoned to death by the Jews, by those who thought you have to keep the law. And if Paul was still preaching, you have to keep the law, then he wouldn't have been put to death or they wouldn't have tried to kill him rather. He says in the end of verse 11, then the offense of the cross has ceased. If I stopped preaching,

preaching the grace of God, if I started preaching circumcision or legalism, nobody would be offended. People wouldn't be offended if I preached a system of works. And if I said, you know, well, it's the same God and everybody follows what they think and you do your best and make sure your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, nobody's offended by that except for God who sacrificed his only son, shed his blood.

to die upon the cross for your sin because you could not, through any effort of your own, have right standing before God any other way. Paul says, look, I'm still facing persecution because I'm not preaching that message. I'm still preaching the gospel of grace. And then he goes on in verse 12 to say, I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off. So, you know, they're calling for a little snip circumcision, but Paul says, I wish they would take it a step further. Now, he's being probably a little bit dramatic, but he's

Not just for drama's sake, but making the point. This is how serious of an issue it is. This is not just a little tiny thing, a little like, you know, it'd probably be best if you didn't head down that path, you know. But no, no, this is a serious issue. And this is worth dividing over. And I think here what Paul is saying here is that cutting themselves off is that picture of there needs to be a separation between

You can't allow this to continue. You can't keep this in your midst. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. You need to remove that. They need to remove themselves. There needs to be a separation. You need to stand apart from those who oppose grace. And sometimes we think grace is the allowance of whatever, right? Well, we can't have any, you know, separation. We can't have any division or standards or, you know, because grace, no, no, no.

The grace of God that gives you incredible blessings from God and forgiveness from God is the same grace of God that brings you discipline from God. Because it's God working towards what's best for you. His grace towards you is working in your life towards what's best for you. Sometimes that's discipline. And sometimes that's just, I'm going to open up the windows of heaven and pour out blessings. And you don't deserve God to work in your life that way either in either case. That's better than you deserve.

But grace doesn't mean there's no standards. Doesn't mean that there's, you know, nothing to abide by. And so there is time. There is opportunity to stand apart from those who oppose grace. To not entertain that. To not allow that to continue because it will spread and get worse and worse. Now that doesn't mean...

Oh, oh, oh, oh, I see you being legalistic. You're following the donut rule, you know, and you're yelling at kids because, you know, they're taking two donuts instead of just one. And, oh, you know, you're legalistic. So out with you. We got to stand apart from those who, nope, kids should just be allowed to have as many donuts as they want. No, no, no.

That doesn't mean that we become legalistic about protecting ourselves from legalism, right? Stand apart from those who oppose grace. But I think Paul has some good words to Titus that will kind of help us think through this a little bit. In Titus chapter 3, verse 10 and 11, Paul tells Titus, reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning and self-condemned.

So Paul saying, look, there's a process. There is an appropriate time for there to be a separation, for there to be a rejection, for us to stand apart. There is an appropriate time for that whenever there's false doctrine, false teaching. Someone who is divisive is another example here that he gives to Titus. But the point is, there's a first admonition. Hey, we do not believe that you have to approach God as,

on the basis of your works. We don't believe that you must be baptized to be saved. You know, we don't believe that this is not what we teach here. This is not what we follow. This is not what we believe the scripture says. And so consider this the first admonition. You can't teach that. You can't, you know, continue to try to bring others to your side, to that persuasion. No, you need to stop that. That's the first admonition.

And then later on, you know, it happens again. Okay, sit down again. Hey, listen, remember three months ago, we sat you down. We had this talk. This is admonition number two. You can't do, this is not what the Bible says. And then three months down the road after that second admonition, now it's happening again. Okay, now sit you down. It's a different conversation. This isn't the first admonition. It's not the second admonition. This is now time for us to separate because we can't continue to allow this. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump.

And it's not a conclusion that we would hope for, but sometimes it is necessary to stand apart from those who oppose grace.

And it's not us making a determination or condemnation. Paul says, knowing that they're self-condemned, they're continuing down the path. They're insisting on walking down the path of legalism or division or, you know, whatever it is that is going on. And it's contrary to the word of God that there's reason then. There's a process. It's not one strike, you're out, right? But you need to walk through this process and

Handle these things seriously because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Stand apart from those who oppose grace. Well, finishing it up in verses 13 through 15, we get point number four, and that is stand in loving service by grace. We need to stand in loving service to keep ourselves in a place where we continue to serve the Lord and one another out of love.

And that is enabled by the grace of God. Verse 13 says, Paul says, you've been called to liberty. But again,

That does not mean that there are no boundaries. It doesn't mean that there are no restrictions or those kinds of thoughts. He says, don't use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh.

And there is oftentimes a reaction that we can have toward the teaching and the doctrine of grace in that, well, look, if you teach grace, if you believe grace, well, that means that you're just going to dive into sin because, you know, there's grace and there's forgiveness and God loves you. And so, you know, you can't, you got to be careful not to teach too much grace, you know, because, well, Paul says, look, you have been called to liberty, but

But to use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, it's not an error issue with the doctrine of grace. It's an error issue of your own heart. And the issue is, well, that your heart needs to be changed. But the doctrine doesn't change. The grace of God is still the grace of God. Do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. I shared this illustration a while back, but if I gave you a credit card for the church, I told you, here you go.

unlimited funds on this credit card. There's no limit. You won't be turned away at any store because, you know, it's not accepted. Use it to provide donuts and coffee on Sunday mornings. I give it to you and here you go. And you can do whatever needs to be done. You're authorized in that way. You have freedom, the funds, the resources.

Here's what it's for. Now, if you show up in a Ferrari that you paid for with your credit card that I gave you for the use of, you know, for donut fund, you understand that's a misuse of funds, right? Now, there was no limit, so the charge went through, right? Like, it was accepted. You were able to pay for that vehicle. It was, you weren't turned away, but it was a misuse. In a similar way, when we say, okay, there's grace, and we use that as an opportunity for the flesh, right?

Well, there is grace. And there's even grace for when we misuse grace. But it's a misuse of the goodness of God. And to go that direction, there is grace. And God doesn't just strike us down the one time or the first time we mess up with this issue of grace and use it as an opportunity for the flesh. But at the same time, we're heading down a path of grace.

of bondage. It's not the freedom that we have in Christ. It's not what grace is for. It's not what grace is, you know, meant to do. And it's not going to accomplish what God desires to accomplish in our lives if we're heading down and bringing destruction upon ourselves in sin. The thing about grace is that it's not the removal of consequences. It's the removal of restrictions in coming to God. So using grace as an opportunity to the flesh doesn't

doesn't remove the consequences for the fleshly behavior, for indulging the flesh and that pattern of sin, you're still going to reap what you sow, but you still have access to God.

And you can still come to God at any time in that point, even if you've run a long time, you know, in the flesh. You can come back to God by faith in Jesus Christ and be set right and have right relationship with God and call out to him and be forgiven of sin. That is the incredible thing about the grace of God. And so it's a misuse of funds. You have as much as you need to draw near to God, to walk with God. You have unlimited opportunities. And to try to use those opportunities wisely

To indulge the flesh, you're hurting yourself. It doesn't remove the grace of God, but you're setting yourself up to reap what you have sown. So people sometimes will use the idea of grace as an excuse to live in the flesh, but it's just an excuse. That's what they wanted to do from the beginning. And now they're just thankful that they have, you know, some spiritual term to apply to it so that they can sound better than it really is. I just wanted to live in sin. Don't use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. That's not what it's for.

Sometimes people, again, are fearful that, well, if I teach grace, if I believe grace, well, then that just gives me license to sin. But in actuality, it's the other way around. Like so many things in spiritual life, it's opposite of what we think. Pastor Warren Wiersbe again says this, the legalist is the one who eventually rebels because he is living in bondage, depending on the flesh, living for self and seeking the praise of men and not the glory of God.

We would easily think it's the legalistic person who's going to be straight and true and he's not going to deviate, right? Because they're so, you know, bound and determined to keep the laws. No, but they can't keep the laws. So in reality, it's the legalistic person who departs from God and begins to rebel against God.

Because they can't follow and they're focused on themselves and they're seeking after selfish things. And as Warren Rispy says, the praise of men and not the glory of God. They're moving away from God in their practice of legalism. They're not drawing near to God. And so if you want to be close to the Lord, you want to stand for long term and walk with God, you need to stand in the grace of God.

Not as an excuse to sin, but instead at the end of verse 13, he says, but through love, serve one another. Verse 14, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus taught this as well, right? Matthew 22. The law is summed up in two things. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. All of the law can be summed up into that. But in all endeavors to keep the law that have ever existed, they've never been able to accomplish loving God and loving neighbor by keeping the law.

but here paul is saying if you will stand in grace it's going to flow out of your life in love serving one another and you will fulfill the law because you'll be loving god and loving your neighbor and so the way to fulfill the law is to not focus on the law and try to keep all the commandments the way to fulfill the law is to draw near to god by faith in jesus christ receive his goodness receive his forgiveness receive his grace

And he will work out in you the fulfillment of the law. You will be loving one another and serving one another. But if you don't do that, verse 15, if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. So if you don't stand in grace, you know what's going to happen? You're not going to love one another. Even if it's the law, you must love one another. You can't keep the law. You know what's going to happen instead? You're going to bite and devour one another.

And you're not only going to destroy yourself with that, but you will destroy one another. Beware lest you be consumed by one another. I think here Paul gives us another good indicator of legalism so we can kind of catch that happening in our lives. If you're asking God for blessing because of your performance, watch out. You've wandered into legalism. You haven't stood in the liberty by which Christ has set us free. If you're staying away from God because of failure, watch out.

It's a good indicator in your heart. Hey, you've wandered from grace. You've started to approach God on the basis of your efforts and your merits. And I think here we have another one. If you are having a hard time with people and you're fighting, biting and devouring each other, there's this beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep back and forth. If you're having a hard time forgiving people, it's a good indicator. Your heart has moved from grace. It's not just that person that you're having problems with. It's God you're having problems with.

That's always the case. Again, that's why the commands are wrapped up in these two things, Jesus says. Love God and love your neighbor. Think about what we call the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, right? Jesus says,

Now just think about verse 12 for just a moment. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. The Lord Jesus in teaching us to pray permanently ties together us forgiving others and us receiving forgiveness from God. Like these things go together as we ask God for forgiveness, as we look to God for grace. Well, it puts us in a place where we then are able to forgive others and show grace to others.

And when we are approaching God in a legalistic way on the basis of our efforts, when we're staying away from God because of our failures, when we are having that kind of relationship, it also impacts the way that we relate to others around us. And we're not able to forgive because we're not receiving forgiveness because we're not approaching God by grace or approaching by our efforts. It's a tendency we all have. So Paul says, we need to watch out for that. And you need to stand fast in grace.

You're going to have the tide pulling you, trying to get you to relate to God on the basis of your efforts. You're going to be tempted to stay away from God because you failed, but come back. And again, it's so simple in so many ways, right? Really, it boils back down to walking in relationship with God. That's what God wants the most. It's what we need the most, but we can't do that if we're trying to do it with our efforts. And we're never going to earn it or deserve it

The only way we can do that is to really believe God at his word. Jesus Christ died upon the cross to forgive us and cleanse us from all sin so that now, right now, today, no matter what I've been going, what's been going on in my life, no matter what I've been going through, no matter what I've been thinking, no matter, I can approach God and talk to God and walk with God and invite God to work in my life and ask God to change me. Stand fast in that. Keep coming back to that place. Let it be your anchor you come back to.

the freedom of grace. Don't go back to bondage. Stay close to Jesus. Stay away from those things that leaven you, that kind of send you down the path of legalism. And keep yourself in that place of loving God and loving people, serving one another by the grace of God. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word and the truth that is there, the challenge that exists, Lord, and the deliverance that you bring.

as the truth reaches our hearts and sets us free from those deceptions and those tricks and those things of the enemy, Lord. And I pray, God, that you would release the shackles of legalism and bondage and works in our minds and hearts. And Lord, as we begin to see those shackles come in place again, help us to recognize it, Lord. Help us to catch those things and to run back to you, trusting not in our efforts, not staying away because of our failures, Lord,

but running to you, trusting in the finished work that you have done for us. And so, Lord, help us to receive your grace fully by walking with you every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.