Good morning to everyone. Got some rain yesterday. That was good for our dryness. Hey, it must have been very dry down this way. We live in a swamp and rock, so it doesn't get as dry by us as it does down here.

We're continuing our study in the book of Galatians in the fourth chapter. And we're coming to a very interesting passage this morning, maybe a bit of a difficult passage to understand, as Mark read that. Maybe you were kind of wondering what that's all about. So Lord willing, we'll unpack that this morning. 

This book has at its heart the gospel of Jesus Christ, as we were just singing about, salvation by grace through faith, and the Christian life, sanctification by grace through faith. The concern in this epistle was that the believers under the influence of the false Judaizing teachers were going back to the law as a way or a rule of life, and had become abundantly clear, as it will again be in our text this morning, that the law that Paul is discussing, the law that the Judaizers wanted to bind on the believers, was the old covenant, the Mosaic system. 

What we see clearly in this book is a division between the old and the new covenants. We see an ending of the old in the coming of Christ and an institution of the new. And this truth is consistent throughout the New Testament teaching, and it's a vital truth for our understanding of our life in Christ now, and how he intends that we should live this life for his purpose and for his glory. 

Paul has been teaching from every angle this glorious truth, that in Christ, we are no longer under the bondage of the law, but we now live by grace, through faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in concert with who we are in Christ as a result of our new birth, our regeneration, and all that this means. 

And he's addressed this personally with his testimony in defense of his apostleship in the first couple of chapters, and with much scripture in the third and fourth chapters. And now in our text today, we come to an illustration. Some of your translations may use the word allegory, but I want to make a distinction between allegory and illustration, not so much a distinction concerning definition, because the words are similar, but a distinction in how they are used or applied, and particularly in the realm of religion and interpretation of scripture. 

There's a difference between an allegory itself and allegorizing scripture, especially when that scripture has a plain meaning. So we want to sort that out, specifically when teachers or churches or systems of theology allegorize passages that are simply clear illustrations. The Greek word here in verse 24 translated symbolic in the New King James, or allegory in the King James, is the word allegoreo. And the translation allegory is a transliteration of this Greek word. It literally means to speak another. That is, to explain a truth by speaking of another, an illustration.

Allegory is a story whose meaning is not found in the story itself, but rather requires someone to tell you the meaning. So you can sense the danger in that already. In an allegory, the ideas are abstract, unknown by the story itself. And false religion often operates in allegory. 

For example, the rabbis of Judaism were famous for allegorizing the scriptures. The Bible often uses metaphors and illustrations, such as Jesus teaching using parables. But in these stories, such as the parable of the sower, the characters and details are related to the message, the meaning, that comes forth through the use of the illustration. It's meant to reveal or make something clear. 

In allegory, it does not mean what it says, but has some deeper meaning which is subjective to the teacher. At least that's how it's often applied. In Jewish allegorical understanding of a book like the Song of Solomon, would teach that this story is about God and Israel, and that any literal understanding of that would be heretical. 

Or in Isaiah 53, where we read of the Messiah, he was wounded for our transgressions. By his stripes, we are healed. The Jewish rabbis taught that this is representative of Israel's struggle as a nation. You see, the meaning is not readily available in the text. Not like when Jesus said there was a sower who went out to sow, and everyone standing there understood exactly what he was talking about. 

The Roman Catholic Church is rich with allegorizing the scriptures as well and explaining away the clear literal meaning. For example, they teach that the two coins that the good Samaritan gave to the innkeeper are actually baptism and the Lord's table. Now, I definitely need some guru of religion to explain that to me, right? Well, this is something that we could never gain or understand from that text if some religious scholar hadn't enlightened us. This is the practical application of allegory often in religion. 

And the key to those who allegorize scripture is that they have the true meaning, and you must come to them. You must trust the magisterium of the church rather than reading the words in their context and believing what they say. So when Jesus taught in parables, these were not allegory in this sense, but rather clear, real characters and details that people could relate to and understand in order to clarify his message. 

And he always explained them as well. When he taught about a sower, people clearly understood what he was saying. A farmer, a sower, went out to sow seed. Then he explains his illustration in the text at the time of the use of the illustration. In the way allegory is applied, that is, allegorizing the scriptures, the seed would be representative of something like the settling of the Mormon people in Utah, explained by Joseph Smith in 1835. You see the difference? I want to be clear about this, because this way of applying allegory is very dangerous to rightly interpreting and applying the word of God.

You can pick up a commentary, for example, on the book of the Revelation by a reformed author, and it will say on the first page this. It does not mean what it says. But here's the problem. If it does not mean what it says, then who determines what it means? This is not just some crazy rabbis of the intertestamental period or the false church of Rome. We see preachers and teachers allegorizing or spiritualizing the scriptures constantly, particularly for purposes of application in the evangelical church today. 

Every pastor feels tremendous pressure to make all kinds of application because everyone loves application. You may remember a sermon that I talked about when we studied Joel, the verse that says God will restore the years the locusts have eaten. These words have a specific meaning in the context and historical setting in which they are written with a certain audience in mind, and yet pastors will take this verse out of that context and allegorize it in order to make all kinds of application to you in 21st century America today. 

In the sermon I listened to, the locusts had eaten a man's business. The locusts had eaten a junior in college sports career because he had a knee injury. Or maybe the locusts have come in and eaten the joy and prosperity of your marriage, and God will restore these things to you was the gist of the message. What an application. Everybody likes that. They can relate to it. But if I allegorize the scriptures like that, then can I make them say anything I want? And don't I miss the true meaning in the context? Don't those words have a meaning? Didn't the author have an express intent when he wrote those words to a specific people? 

So we need to diligently study the word to properly exegete the text and give the meaning and implication of it. An application primarily belongs to the Holy Spirit in the details and circumstances of your life. And certainly in the Old Testament, those scriptures point forward, not inward for us. We don't have to find an application in texts that don't directly apply to us. They are profitable. They're an example. They point us forward to Jesus. They were written for us, but they were not written to us. 

Paul, in this text, which can be a difficult text, is using an illustration. And the characters are real people in real history and represent logical correlations. Symbolic, yes, but not fanciful or mystical. He does not bring up the sons of Abraham out of nowhere, and they do not represent some hidden meaning that the illustration does not represent. There's a logical tie between Hagar and Ishmael and the law and the flesh and bondage, as well as the promise of God and Sarah and Isaac and grace and freedom and liberty. He just spent all of chapter 3 highlighting these truths, teaching these things. 

And now he gives us an illustration. It may be an allegory by strict definition, but not the way we generally understand the word and apply it into an interpretation. So I just want to be clear about that, and I want you to think about those things and beware of that when people do that. The illustration here is meant to drive home the point that Paul has been and is still making. It does not conceal or require some guru to give us a hidden meaning. 

And I say all this to caution against the allegorizing or spiritualizing of the scriptures and just to be clear on the difference between allegory and illustration or symbolism, which is readily explained in the very text that is used, not by some guy with a big hat in a big church somewhere. You can study the word of God with the direction and illumination of the Holy Spirit, who is your resident truth teacher. And you can rightly understand its one true meaning, the intent of the words in their context, and where it is right to do so, you can make application. You are, in fact, called to search the scriptures daily to see what is true and what is false. 

God gave us his word to reveal himself to us, not to confuse or mystify. And we don't need some religious person to give us some hidden meaning. So what we see in our text is Paul, like good teachers do, using an illustration to drive home the very point he's been teaching throughout this epistle, that the law has no place in the life of the believer. The message of the Judaizers that adherence to the Mosaic system, its laws and statutes, rights and rituals is necessary for salvation or for the Christian life is false. 

As believers in Jesus Christ, we have been made free from the law of sin and death. We died with Christ. We died to sin and law and death. And we now live not by the letter, but by the Spirit. God has made us new. And he's made a better way to produce holiness through our lives. And it is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, Paul says, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. 

Remember, the context there is righteous holy living, is sanctification. So we're going to unpack Paul's illustration, Lord willing, and use it for its intent when he wrote it to give us a fuller understanding of the folly of placing oneself under law. And by the grace of God, we're going to receive Paul's exhortation to stand fast, to stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and cast out the bondwoman once and for all. 

Let's look at our text in Galatians 4.21. Paul writes, tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through promise. Which things are symbolic, for these are two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with her children. 

Think about that statement right there. The Jerusalem that now is. Well, what was the Jerusalem that now is when Paul wrote these words? What was going on there? The temple was standing. The priests were operating in the Mosaic system. They were offering sacrifices. There was bondage under the law still. Verse 26, but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear. Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor. For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband. 

Now we, brethren, believers, now we, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. Free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. And do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 

I've given you five points on our outline this morning. First, under the law. Second, two sons. Third, bondage of law, sin, and death. Fourth, children of promise. And fifth, cast out the bondwoman. 

Well, Paul starts, you who want to be under the law, do you hear the law? Seems very popular in our day that people are going back to the law. They're going back even to ceremony and the Jewish traditions to somehow enrich their Christian life. We see a lot of that. Paul strikes a familiar chord here. He's been explaining this for a while in this letter back in 3 at verse 10. He says for many as are under the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 

But that no one is justified by the law on the side of God is evident. What? For the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 

We see Paul explain the curse of the law, the purpose of the law, and he does this consistently throughout all of his writings. I think one of the clearest texts on this is in 2 Corinthians 3, and we've looked at this several times. But in 2 Corinthians 3:5, he explains the new covenant life. He says not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. 

That's the grace life, my friends. Our sufficiency is from God who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter (the Old Covenant) but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now listen to how he describes the Ten Commandments. The commandments written and engraved on stones, he says he calls them in verse 7 the ministry of death. He calls them in verse 9 the ministry of condemnation. If you break the law at one point, James says, you're guilty of all. 

Paul calls the law engraved on tablets of stone the law of death, of condemnation. The purpose of the law was to kill us, to show us that we are dead. And Paul explains in Romans 7, as well as Philippians 3, that in his former life in Judaism he thought that the law was to bring life, that he was to earn righteousness through the law. 

But when he came to understand the Ten Commandments specifically "thou shalt not covet," is the one he highlights in Romans 7, he realized that he was dead. The law actually brought death to him, which was its intended purpose, why God gave it—to show us our sin, to leave us guilty, to shut our mouths. 

And Paul ties the law to indwelling sin and its power so often. In 1 Corinthians 15:56, Paul says the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. In Romans 7:5, for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. In Adam, the sinful passions in us, indwelling sin, was aroused by the law so that Paul asserts that the law requires perfection. You must keep it completely. Jesus and James taught this as well. You must be perfect, righteous to enter the kingdom.

So Paul says, "You who want to be under the law, do you hear the law?" Do you understand what the law is saying to you? I'm afraid so many today do not hear the law, do not understand its requirement, its demand, and what it means for every person who seeks righteousness through it. And Paul wants to illustrate this with a story of two sons. 

He says, "For it's written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh; he of the free woman through promise." And he ties Hagar to Mount Sinai and the law covenant, and he extends Sarah and Isaac with the promise, the grace of God, and the new covenant. 

We see very clearly threads of thought here, links of a chain in this illustration. On the one side we have bondage, and this is associated with Hagar, Ishmael, the flesh, the law covenant, Mount Sinai, the earthly Jerusalem. On the other side we have freedom. We have Sarah, God's grace, the work of the Holy Spirit producing Isaac, promise, the Jerusalem which is above. 

In this illustration, Paul states that Hagar is the law covenant of Moses given at Sinai and that being under this law covenant is bondage—bondage to law and sin and death. But in contrast, to be under the new covenant, the grace of God in Christ, is to be free, is to be a child of promise. Remember, Paul has taught on this already in Galatians 3. He taught us that the children of the promise were not just the physical descendants of Abraham, but those who believe unto salvation like Abraham did. Those who believe, he says, are the sons of Abraham. 

My brothers and sisters, this illustration would hit the Jews like a ton of bricks. Paul must have taught the Gentiles this Old Testament history when he was with them in Galatia because he uses this illustration with no explanation, no background for his primary Gentile audience. 

So the idea that placing yourself under the law would mean that you are in the lineage of Hagar, the bondwoman, a slave—for all her progeny are slaves—would have been a shock to say the least. But this is clearly what Paul does here. He says if you choose to live under the law, if you choose to go back and be circumcised and keep all the days and feasts and Sabbaths and live by the law, then you're in bondage. You're under a curse. You're a slave. You're not free. 

You must believe Jesus. You must trust in his grace through faith alone for salvation, for justification and sanctification, if you're going to experience true liberty. You must live by the Spirit, for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. This is God's way and the only way to holiness, Christ-likeness, and a life of fruitfulness and glory to God. 

Paul really develops this idea fully in Romans 5 to 8, and I know we've been there a lot lately, but I want to look at that passage again, some different parts of it, so that we can fully understand the contrast between those who live under law, sin, and death, as opposed to those who live under grace, righteousness, and eternal life. Bobby and I were talking on the way down here about a book she got; we were looking at it a little bit. But we're talking about Romans 5:20, and how in Romans 5:20 we often think of "where sin abounded, grace super-abounded," right? And we think of that as just grace covering our sin. 

But the next verse, 21, says so that—what's the purpose of grace? So super-abounding—so that just as sin reigned in death in Adam, so grace might reign in righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace is a force, is a power meant to, by God's grace, by His Spirit, by Christ's life in us, produce righteousness through us. 

So grace super-abounds in that way. In Romans 5:12 to 19, Paul's contrasting Adam with Christ, the one offense in the garden versus the one righteous act of Jesus on the cross and the resulting implications. And when we get to verse 20, he makes this statement: "Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more." So that, as sin reigned in death, even so, in the same way, grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

And what we see established here, and that runs through chapter 8 in this great section on sanctification, is a contrast between law, sin, and death in Adam, and grace, righteousness, and life in Christ. Romans 6 tells us we died to sin. We were released from the fear of death. Romans 7 tells us we died to the law. We no longer live by it, but by the Holy Spirit in us. The man in Adam was under law, sin, and death—he was completely dominated and controlled by indwelling sin so that he continually always manifests sin outwardly through his members. He yelled at his wife with his tongue. He stole with his hand. He lusted with his mind, right? Sin was constantly being manifested out through his members because he was under law, dominated by indwelling sin, and in fear of death. 

This is not so for the man in Christ. He has died and has been raised to newness of life. He has been made free from the law of sin and death, and he now presents his members to righteousness, to God. In Romans 6:11, look at that verse with me. He's laid out seven glorious truths in 6:1 to 10 about our union with Jesus and his death, burial, and resurrection—our death, our crucifixion of the old man. 

And in verse 11, he says, "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Do not present your members as weapons or instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 

Look at verse 14: "For sin shall not have dominion over you." Why? "For you are not under law but under grace." 

Why will sin not have dominion over me, so that I continually serve sin out through my members? Because I died, and I am no longer under the law, but I'm under grace. Therefore, I no longer serve indwelling sin out through my members, but rather righteousness is manifest through me because of God's grace and power and life in me. 

The contrast persists throughout this great section. We just read Romans 7:5, "For when we were in the flesh..." In Adam, remember? Hagar represents the flesh; the law represents the flesh. When we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the law, were working our members to bear fruit to death. 

This is representative in Paul's illustration of the law covenant of bondage, of the flesh, Jerusalem under the law, sacrificing in the temple. When we were in the flesh, sinful passions were aroused by the law, and we're working our members to bear fruit to death. And Paul pictures this and explains what he means practically in verses 14 to 25. If you look at Romans 7:19, we get a picture of this man. 

"For the good that I will to do I do not do, but the evil I will not to do that I continually, always, perpetually practice." That's what it says in the Greek. I never, ever do anything good, and I always, perpetually, continually do bad; that's what Paul says here. And some would tell us that that's the height of Christian maturity—when I realize how wicked I am, it makes me appreciate the grace of God. 

He just spent all of chapter 6 and 7:1 to 6 telling us that we were new men, that that old man was crucified, that we died to sin, we died to the law. We're no longer in bondage to fear of death, and that we now don't present our members. We're alive to God. We're dead to sin. And he's going to turn around and say, "I never, ever, ever, ever do anything right." 

Verse 20: "Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells in me." That's what Paul’s doing here. He's highlighting indwelling sin as the problem in the man in Adam. "I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.” 

"For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man." But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. He said in verse 14, "I'm a slave to sin." He says in verse 23, "I'm in captivity to the law of sin in my members.” Verse 23 is key. There’s a law in my members warring against my desire to do good to keep the law. 

You know who wanted to keep the law more than anybody? It’s Saul of Tarsus. He thought he was earning his righteousness by keeping the law. He wanted to keep the law. He believed the law was good. He believed it was the way to heaven. This law, this principle, this sin that dwelled in his members was bringing him into captivity. He was a slave in bondage, captivity to the law of sin in my members, he says. 

Now, the contrast is found in the man in Christ. Romans 7:6 then explained in Romans 8:1-4. He says, "But now we, the believers, have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." Romans 8:1: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." 

Look at verse 2: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. 

Notice the contrast between the man in 7:23 who’s in captivity to the law of sin and death and the man in 8:2 who has been made free from the law of sin and death. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 

So we see that we can either be under law or we can be under grace. And for the man who has found salvation in Jesus Christ, has experienced the grace of God through faith in Jesus, who has been set free from the law of sin and death, to then go back to the law and place yourself under the law as a way of living, a rule of life, is, Paul says, perplexing. "I am perplexed about you, Galatians." And he drives home this point through this tremendous illustration. 

You see, Hagar, who is Mount Sinai, to law and covenant, represents the flesh and bondage. Think about this. The son she bore, Ishmael, was a product of the works and scheming of man. Sarah and Abraham decided that they needed to help God, that they needed to accomplish and bring to pass His promise. Works, law, human wisdom—this was all done in the flesh. Ishmael was conceived in the flesh by the flesh. 

But the son of promise, Isaac, Sarah’s offspring, came not by the will of man, not by the wisdom or power or resources of man, but this came by promise and by the grace of God. She was conceived, he was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. And for those who believe as Abraham did, they become the children of promise. It was God's work, God’s doing. They didn't even believe; Sarah laughed. They certainly weren't trusting it was going to happen because it wasn't coming. The promise wasn't coming; we’ve got to do something. 

And then it was 14 years later, after they did something with Hagar, that God, by the Holy Spirit, made it possible for Sarah to conceive by Abraham, right? Galatians 4:28 says, "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise." You want to be a child of the law? You want to live under the law? You want to keep the law for your righteousness? You want to try to keep the law in order to be sanctified, to be conformed to Christ, to be holy? Or do you want to be a child of promise? 

You want to live under grace? Do you want the power of God to produce righteousness and holiness through you in the person and work of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ living in you as you walk by faith and abide in Him one day at a time? Which path would you choose? 

God gave the promise of a blessing to all nations through the seed of Abraham, who is Christ, by promise. Not by the law, not by human effort, but by His grace through promise. And the law, as Paul says in Galatians 3, which came 430 years later, cannot annul the promise. Galatians 3:18, "For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise." 

This is the contrast in this illustration between old and new covenant, between law and grace. And the lineage of Hagar is representative of the law, covenant, and bondage, and death. But the lineage of Sarah through Isaac and in the seed of Abraham, Christ, through faith in Him alone by grace alone, is freedom and liberty from law, sin, death, and bondage. We are now God's children. We are children of promise by faith. 

And Paul says something most interesting, extending his illustration in verse 29. "But as he who was born according to the flesh, Ishmael, then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, Isaac, even so it is now." Even so it is now. What's Paul saying there? He's saying those legalistic Jews are persecuting me right to this day. It's true from the beginning. We don't have to go back; we don't have time to go back and look at all those scriptures, but you know those stories. Ishmael sought to persecute Isaac, despised him, and this continues today through his lineage. And even as Paul notes in his day, it was the Jews—those of the law, those in bondage, slaves to sin—who were persecuting the free. 

Paul bore the wrath of the legalists. In 2 Corinthians 11:24, he says, "From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I've been in the deep." The legalists were always after Paul, who preached Christ, who preached grace, who preached liberty by the Spirit of God through faith, and they hated that. And the church will be persecuted in the future, I believe, by false religion as well. 

So Paul slams the legalistic Jews again, associating them with Ishmael, the persecutor of the promised son. And then he gives us an exhortation at the end of chapter 4. Based on all the truths we've been studying about law and grace, old and new covenants, the letter of the Spirit, based on this great illustration, Paul gives this exhortation in verse 30. He says, "Nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman." 

So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. These are powerful words. If you want to be an heir of God, if you want to be a co-heir with Christ, then there's only one way—do what Paul did, as he testifies in Philippians 3. 

"What things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed also I count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him." 

Listen to these words—“not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” Cast out the bondwoman. Leave and forsake the law as the way to life or a way of life. Seek righteousness by grace through faith—positional and then practical righteousness. 

Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. Do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Continue standing fast, Paul says; do not go back to the law. Do not seek righteousness through the law, but seek Jesus and His righteousness by grace through faith, through an abiding relationship with Him. This is the great freedom we have in Jesus. 

When Paul talks about freedom, what's he talking about? He's talking about freedom from sin and law and death, bondage to indwelling sin, fear. We are free in Christ, free to do what? Free, by His grace and life and power in us, to now live for Him. To serve Him, to be a witness for Him, to present these members as instruments of righteousness to God, to do what's right. 

And Paul always ties the commands, the imperatives, to the indicative. It's not that there aren't commands—it's not that they aren't important. Do not lie to one another, he says in Colossians 3:9. Is it important not to lie for a believer? Yes. But what does he say? "Do not lie to one another because you have put off the old man with his deeds, and you have put on the new man who is being renewed in the image of Him who created him." You see, you have to understand that. And you have to understand God's means. 

And God's means for producing righteousness and holiness is not the law. His means is Christ in you. His means is the Holy Spirit imparting strength to your inner man. His means is grace. And what a glory it is to live for Him. What a glory it is to trust Him, to believe Him, to abide in Him one day at a time. Our life is a life of thank you because our relationship with God is based on His grace. And we serve Him because we love Him. 

The love of Christ constrains us. And we love Him because He first loved us. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank You. Thank You for Your Word, Your consistent Word. Thank You for this book we're studying as we can go through it verse by verse. And we trust You, we trust the Holy Spirit to make these things clear to us, to teach us, to guide us, to help us apply them in our lives. Thank You that You do that, that that's Your desire, that's Your purpose in saving us— is to make us like Jesus and to use us to bring You glory, to bring men to Christ, Lord. Help us not forget why we're here. Help us not to forget the gospel, not just for eternal salvation and relief from Your wrath for our sins, but for life today. Thank You that You are sufficient. In Jesus' name, amen.