I just wanted to let you know we will have a time of question and answer again, just for this message, not all the time, but this is really an important text, important messages we're working through. If you have questions as we're going through the message, please write them down or pay attention and think about what we're studying, and if there's clarification, we can do that at the end in that time of vulnerability for me.

Last week, we began our study of this great passage in Galatians 5, and we were challenged a bit by Paul's admonition. Remember, the context is life under the law versus life by the spirit. The legalistic Jewish teachers had come to the churches in Galatia preaching another gospel, which Paul says is not another, it's not good news at all, but rather bondage and futility. Unfortunately, this message was influencing their thinking about the Christian life as well. They were becoming confused about who they were in Christ and how it is that God intends for them to live a fruitful life.

Paul's intent throughout this entire epistle is to clarify the gospel, to make it abundantly clear what the gospel is and what it is not, but also to address the implications of a false gospel on our understanding of the Christian life. The devastation of coming back under the law as a way of living. 

At the end of chapter 4, we saw the illustration of Hagar and Sarah of Mount Sinai and Mount Zion of law and liberty and Paul made this great statement. He said, nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bond woman and her son, for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free. We are to cast out the bond woman that is the law because we are children of the free, of the promise.

I want to look at Hebrews 12, that passage that Mark went to as we begin. Hebrews 12 and verse 18, we'll start. Hebrews 12, 18. This is just another contrast drawn in the scriptures between Mount Sinai and Zion between law and grace. In verse 18, it says, for you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire into blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore for they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the site that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. 

We’re going to talk about where Paul says, you who want to be under the law, do you hear the law? I feel like at Mount Sinai, they heard the law. It was so terrifying that they begged that the word would not be spoken to them anymore. Moses said, I'm exceedingly afraid and trembling. 

The author of Hebrews says, but you, the believer in Jesus Christ, you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven to God, the judge of all to the spirits of just men made perfect to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. 

See that you do not refuse him who speaks for if they did not escape who refused him, who spoke on earth much more, shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he has promised saying yet once more, I shake not only the earth, but also heaven. Now this yet, once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire. 

Paul says in Galatians 4:21, tell me you who desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? Do you not hear the law? Do you know and understand the terror of the law, the condemnation, the death that it brings? Rather, he says, let us have grace. Hebrews 12:28, let us have grace. And here's the key to our understanding. And the rest of the verse says this, by which notice those two words, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Grace is the means, God's means, God's way for serving him, for living for him. This is the message of our text this morning.

Last week we explored this idea and kind of laid a foundation of understanding talking generally about the text this morning. I want to just work through these verses and seek to understand and apply what Paul is teaching us here. Let's look at our text. 

Galatians 5:1: 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 or uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love.

I've given you five points on your outline. First, stand fast and liberty. Second, law as a method. Third, life under law. Fourth, righteousness by faith. And fifth, faith working through love. 

Well, coming out of that illustration in chapter four of the law versus grace and promise. After making that great statement that we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free, Paul gives us this admonition, this application for our lives stand fast, therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 

In this verse, and I think this is key, we see a positive and a negative admonition stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. The positive admonition. We saw last week that this is instruction concerning our freedom from the law. Christ has made us free from the curse and condemnation of the law, from the bondage of living under it as a means of living. Romans 8:1 tells us there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who no longer walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. Romans 7:6, but now we 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. 

Christ has made us free from the law. We have liberty from the law. We no longer live under it or endure its curse. What the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. He condemned sin in the flesh. 

So Paul tells us that in our Christian life and sanctification, we are to continually be standing fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and the negative admonition. We are not to be entangled again with a yoke of bondage, the law. Peter said, why do you put on the necks of the disciples, the yoke of bondage, which neither we nor our fathers could bear referring to the law of Moses, the old covenant in Acts 15. 

I want to, before we leave this verse, cause we've studied it last week, but I want to draw again the parallel between justification and sanctification when it comes to the law and grace. I just think that we so clearly understand these truths in justification, but we have so much difficulty applying them to sanctification. Paul in Romans 3 up to verse 18 had been discussing the condemnation of all men in chapter one. He addressed the sinfulness of the pagans in chapter two, the religious men as well. And in chapter three, he covers everyone when he says there is no one righteous, no, not one, no, not even you. Right? 

And when he gets to verse 19, he makes this clear statement. You can look at Romans 3:19 with me. He's leading into his teaching on justification in 3:21 to 26 and in 19 he says this. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, here's the purpose that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

And then he begins his teaching in the contrast in verse 21 on justification. He says, but now the righteousness of God, apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe for there's no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation, a full satisfactory payment by his blood, his death through faith in order to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness in order that he might be just punishing all sin and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 

Notice what verse 21 says, but now the righteousness of God, apart from the law is revealed. Verse 22, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. These positive as well as negative truths are important because it's not just that we are justified by grace through faith, but it is apart from the works of the law. In Romans 4:4 Paul says now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt, but to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 

Justification, righteousness before God is not something that we earn by the works of the law, but rather something we receive from God by faith. It's his righteousness that we receive by faith. In Galatians 2:16 we studied that a while back. Paul made this tremendously clear statement. He said, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified, justified by faith, positive, not by the works of the law. Negative. 

The Judaizers message was false as is all religion today. We are not justified by faith in Jesus plus the works of the law. We are justified by faith apart from the works of the law. We understand this as believers in Jesus Christ. We get this so very clearly and it's a contrast. It's an absolute revelation to us when we realize our sin and our need for a savior and come to faith in Jesus Christ. We understand this very clearly. So we get that we are justified, saved by grace through faith in Jesus apart from the works of the law. 

But the scriptures, as we have been seeing in our study of the book of Galatians, justice clearly teach us that sanctification is by grace through faith and not by the works of the law. And this is much more difficult for us to keep straight in our minds and in our lives. And we tend to want to build again those things which we destroyed in coming to faith in Jesus and justification. We find the heart of this epistle Paul's message on sanctification at the end of chapter two and into chapter three. 

Let's look at chapter two verse 18 in Galatians. This is after Paul had just withstood Peter to his face because he was not straightforward about the gospel and how he was living. Verse 18 Paul says for if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor for I through the law died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me in the life, which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. 

I do not set aside the grace of God for righteousness comes through the law. Then Christ died in vain. Paul is applying the gospel of grace through faith apart from the law to the Christian life in these verses moving from justification to sanctification. Look at 3:1. He says, Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish having begun? in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 

Who has bewitched you, who has put a spell on you, brought you into captivity to a false message and confused your understanding of the Christian life so that now in your minds you understand clearly that you began in the Spirit, that you were justified by grace through faith in Jesus, but now you are attempting to be made perfect by the flesh, sanctified by a faith plus law works method? No, Paul says, stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage under the law. 

Listen to, I'm going to quote, there's a lot of interesting words in our text today, I'm going to quote Weiss several times, so bear with me on that. Listen to his quote on this verse, he says, Here were these Galatian Christians, free from the law, having been placed in the family of God as adult sons with all those benefits and dwelt by the Holy Spirit who would enable them to act out in their experience that maturity of Christian life in which they were placed, now choosing to put on the straight jacket of the law, cramping their experience, stultifying their actions, depriving themselves of the power of the Holy Spirit, they were like adults putting themselves under rules made for children. 

He continues, and I want you to listen to what he says here, he says, The liberty spoken of here does not refer to the kind of a life a person lives, neither does it have reference to his words or actions, listen, but it has to do with the method by which he lives that life. The Judaizers lived their lives by dependence upon self-effort in an attempt to obey the law. The Galatian Christians had been living theirs in dependence upon the indwelling Holy Spirit, their hearts had been occupied with the Lord Jesus. Now in swinging over to law, they were losing that freedom of action and that flexibility of self-determination which one exercises in the doing of what is right. When one does what is right, not because the law forbids the wrong and commands the right, but because it is right, because it pleases the Lord Jesus and because of love for him, Paul exhorts them to keep on standing fast in that freedom from law. 

So you see what's at issue here is the method of living, the means that God prescribes to produce holiness in my life. And this coupled with a misunderstanding of who I am in Christ, that I'm still a sinner rotten and vile to my core with a desperately wicked heart, that undermines and misses the entire truth concerning God's plan for my fruitful living in the new covenant. We live not by the letter, but by the Spirit. 

And we don't need the law to show us how completely sinful and wretched we are, for we are not sinners, but saints. We have been transformed, recreated, given a heart of flesh and made new in our spirits, released from the controlling power of indwelling sin, the bondage of the law, the fear of death. And now the love of Christ compels us. We do what is right because we're thankful, because we love Jesus, because we want to please him, because we want most of all to serve him and to encourage one another and lead men to Christ. We have a deep desire to live for the one who died for us. 

So the law has served its intended purpose in our lives, Galatians 3:19 to 26, showing us our sinfulness in Adam, leading us to faith in Jesus. But now that we have come to faith in him, we are no longer under the tutor. This is why at the end of that great passage in Romans 3, we looked at before, Paul says this, do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law. By coming to faith in Jesus, being saved by grace, we establish the law. We use it for its intended purpose because we know that no flesh shall be justified by the works of the law, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

Even fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage, the law is no means to holiness. 

Well, next we see what life is like under the law in the following verses. Verse 2, Galatians 5:2, Indeed, I, Paul, say to you, 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. We need about four sermons for these verses. 

I want you to think about the implications of what Paul is saying here. In light of what we are taught so much in the church today, such as that the law is for the believer, that the law is a rule of life, that we need the law to keep us in line from running amok, that those who teach sanctification by grace through faith alone are antinomian, they're against the law. Paul says if you choose the law to be a method to holy living, your rule of life, then Christ will profit you nothing. Just let that soak in for a minute. 

If you choose to make the law an integral part of your method to holiness, to daily living in the new covenant in Christ, then Christ will profit you nothing. What do we do with that? I'll appeal to Wiest again. He says the words, if ye be circumcised, present a hypothetical case. The Galatians had not yet submitted to that right, but were on the verge of doing so. The words, Christ shall profit you nothing, must be interpreted in their context. Paul's not speaking here of their standing in grace as justified believers. He's speaking of the method of living a Christian life and growth in that life. Thus, if the Galatians submit to circumcision, they are putting themselves under law and are depriving themselves of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, which Christ made possible through his death and resurrection, and which ministry, listen to this, was not provided for under the law. 

You see the implications here? The ministry of the Holy Spirit was not provided for under the law. There's indeed a clear distinction between the old covenant and the new, contrary to the teachings of covenant theology, which dominates so much of the church today. In the Old Testament dispensation, the Spirit came upon or in believers in order that they might perform a certain service for God, and then left. He did not indwell them for the purpose of sanctification. This ministry of the Holy Spirit was not provided for under the law. 

So if you choose to add law to grace, if you choose the law as a method to holiness and sanctification, what Paul's saying here is then you will forfeit all of the provision of grace and power in the person of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ in you by faith, the very power that raised Jesus from the dead at work in you to produce his fruit as you walk by faith. 

In your sanctification, if you choose law, Christ will profit you nothing. This is the meaning of verse 4 as well in our text, a verse that gives many heartburn when they don't understand it in its context. Galatians 5:4, you have become estranged from Christ. You who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. 

Now remember the context and the flow. Paul's talking about the Christian life. He's discussing the method, the means they would choose to experience sanctification. The words have become estranged from Christ must be understood in this context to refer not to their justification proper, but to their spiritual lives as Christians. Paul's not addressing their standing, but their experience in the Christian life. You could translate, you have become unaffected by Christ, or you have become without effective relationship to Christ if you choose law. 

In depriving themselves of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the living of a Christian life, they have fallen from grace. And the words fallen from are important. I don't know how you say, ectipto, does that sound close, ectipto, Mark? Which means to fail of, or to lose one's hold on. And I say amen to that, right? That helps me understand it, to lose one's hold on. Because I can study and prepare for these messages and I can get all wound up and get it really clear in my mind and get excited about telling it to you, and the next day I can come and be like, what was that again, right? You failed to hold on to, is the meaning of the words. 

The Galatian Christians had lost their hold on grace for daily living, which they had before by the Holy Spirit. The word justified here speaks to the attempt of the Judaizers, and now possibly the believers, to show or manifest their righteousness, to vindicate themselves as righteous through the law. You understand that? It's not talking about justification as in coming to faith and salvation. It's like James uses the word justification before men. They're attempting to show themselves as righteous by the works of the law. In so doing, they had lost their grip on grace, their effective relationship with Christ, an abiding relationship, walking in the spirit by faith. 

I'll at least explain that a little better one more time. But because they had lost their hold upon sanctifying grace, this is important now, this does not mean that God's grace had lost its hold upon them in the sphere of justification. Because they had refused to accept God's grace and sanctification is no reason why God should withdraw his grace for justification. They had received the latter when they accepted the Lord Jesus. That transaction, justification, was closed and permanent at the moment they believed. Justification is a judicial act of God done once for all. 

Sanctification is a process which goes on all through the Christian's life. Just because the process of sanctification is temporarily retarded in a believer's life does not mean that his justification is taken away. Listen now, if that were the case, then the retention of salvation would depend upon the believer's works. And then salvation would not depend on grace anymore and we find ourselves in the camp of the Judaizers, ancient and modern. 

Let's pick up verse 3 in the context and then we'll move on to the contrast, the good news of verse 5 and God's means for holiness in the new covenant Christian life. Galatians 5:3, and I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he's a debtor to keep the whole law. Life under the law is one of constant bondage, a requirement of perfection with no power to meet it even at just one point. And so we must hear the law, we must understand its demand as well as its lack of provision before we make the great mistake of placing ourselves under it. 

If you choose law and enter that life by circumcision as it were, or baptism today in many of the mainline denominations, then you are a debtor. You are behind from the get-go. You are required to keep the law perfectly in order to show yourself to justify yourself to be righteous. This is an exercise in futility, a road that leads to failure and disappointment in the Christian life. 

In contrast, Paul says this about the new covenant life by grace through faith, and this is so good in verse 5. He says, for we, we believers in Jesus Christ, we who are living by grace, we who are walking by the Spirit, 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. 

And here we see righteousness by faith, and this is the most important verse in our study this morning, full and instructive. For we, Paul says, first you, you, you who attempt to live by law, you have fallen from grace. You're estranged from Christ. Christ will profit you nothing. You're a debtor to keep the whole law. But we, we have a different understanding of the Christian life. We, look at this, through the Spirit, see that? Eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. We see the means, the Holy Spirit, His life and power in us. We see the expectation of the believer walking in the Spirit, righteousness. We see the way of life, how we walk, faith. 

Just for clarification again, Paul's not talking about the initial point of salvation, and we see this for several reasons. He's talking about the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Father justifies a believing sinner on the basis of the propensity of faith. The work of Christ and his one-time death. But it's the power and the life of the believer through the Holy Spirit that produces sanctification. Also, the context is dealing with the Christian's experience, not his standing before God. The method of living the Christian life is the subject here. 

And verse 6 brings clarification to this as well as it speaks of the fruit of the Spirit, of working out through the life of the believer by faith. The words by faith are associated with the word wait. We wait for what? This hoped-for righteousness by faith. The same words used in Philippians 3:20 where Paul says, look, I look for. Louise says the word speaks of an attitude of intense yearning and an eager waiting for something. Here it refers to the believer's intense desire for and eager expectation of a practical righteousness which will be constantly produced in his life by the Holy Spirit as he yields himself to Him.

Notice those words, attitude and expectation. In the believer who understands who he is and what he has in Christ and the means and method by which God has provided for and intends for us to live by as new creations in Christ under this new covenant, there is an intense yearning for, an eager expectation of, can you believe this, practical righteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith. 

Paul says you can choose law as your way of life, you can look to the Ten Commandments, you can seek to justify yourself, show that you are righteous by self-effort and law-keeping, depending on yourself, comparing yourselves with yourselves and among yourselves, focused on you, turn your eyes upon you and your works and your relative human goodness, or you can join us. You can become like me and all believers walking by faith depending on the grace of God in Christ and have a continual intense yearning and eager expectation of experiential practical righteousness in your life. 

This is your choice. There's no mixing of the two. Let me ask you this. What is it that undermines or confuses the church concerning these things? These words seem clear to me, and not just these words but a massive amount of words we've been studying in God's Word lately related to this. It's not unclear. What is it that confuses this or undermines it? Many things, no doubt, in our world, but let me give you what I see as the main two. One is a twisting of the Scriptures, a teaching that we are not all that God says we are in Christ because of regeneration and the grace of God and salvation. The other is a looking away from the power and provision of God and the life of Christ in us to ourselves and our power and effort or the ways and wisdom of men in the world. 

And these things are rampant in the church. I'm going to let you in on a little secret here. People have problems. And even more stunning is this. Christians have problems, relational problems, suffering problems, sickness problems, struggles and difficulties. And they do not always inconsistently walk according to who they are. We looked last week at Paul's instruction to us in Romans 6 with the key words, know, reckon, and yield. 

We must first know the doctrine, the truths of who we are and how God intends we should live. We must continually reckon, that is, count up the facts, the truth of God's Word, and yield to the power of the Spirit in us. So what you know and believe really matters. Again, I don't find what God says in His Word unclear. He says, for example, that we are dead to sin and that we can no longer live in it. He says that we are new creations with a new Spirit and the Holy Spirit living in us, imparting strength to our inner man as Jesus lives His life in and through us to produce the fruit of righteousness. 

That this life is apart from the law and the works of the law as a means or a method to holiness. These things are clear. The question is, who will I believe? So much doctrine taught in the church today points us not to Christ, not to trust in the grace of God through the life of faith, but back to ourselves, back to law, to life experiences, to trauma, so often attaching to our very identity a stigma that we can't overcome. 

This is the wisdom of men. This is psychology, and it's infected the church and the minds of the believers. Or the doctrine that fills the church, telling us that we are still sinners, still in our nature, not really any different than who we were in Adam, or that we simply had a new nature added to us, that all this in Christ stuff is merely positional, rather than a clear teaching that we are new in our spirits, that we still have sin indwelling us, but it does not define who we are, that our relationship to that sin has changed because we died.

We are new men in Christ, and listen now, God saved and completely transformed you and empowered you with the Holy Spirit so that, for the very purpose that, He would make you like Christ, that He would sanctify and bring you into consistently outward in your living and walking with who you are inwardly. But if we believe that we are inwardly really still just vile, wretched sinners, if we are taught that we need the law as believers to show us the depth of that sin in us, how wretched we really and truly are, then confusion, disillusionment, and defeat. 

What is your greatest desire? What deep down inside do you really want most as a believer in Jesus Christ? Now I know you can kind of cloud that and distract yourself from it and suppress, but what is your deepest, what really matters? I know how easily we're distracted and enamored with the things of this world, our own cares and interests, but what is really, truly your intense yearning for your life? 

God has poured His love out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us, and now our deepest desire and intense yearning for our life is fruit, is righteousness, is witness, is glory to God. Let me ask you this important question. What is your earnest expectation for your life today and every day? Is your expectation holiness? As you walk by faith, as you depend on Jesus and His life alone, His Spirit and power, what is it that you are eagerly anticipating, watching, and waiting for each moment of your life? 

Is it constant righteousness and holiness, fruit of the Spirit, opportunities to witness, confessing Jesus, speaking about Him, blessing Him with our words? My brothers and sisters, this is the salient point. This is the essence of the Christian life, Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

Now we have a choice. We can say, well, we're going to sin. I hate it when Christians say that to me. Well, you know, we're going to sin. You know, Paul, he couldn't do it. How could I do it? Well, my experience has been sin. I don't feel dead to sin, and we can look to and trust our feelings and experience, and I can go to man and his wisdom or my self-effort and law to sort of settle into a life of mediocrity, just bearing the life of failure and defeat, disappointment, waiting for glorification. Not the abundant life that Jesus talked about. 

Or my friends, I can dare to believe Jesus. I can trust God and His Word. I can dare to have an eager expectation, a constant watching and waiting to see what God will do next in and through me for His glory. As I abide, as I walk in dependence on the Holy Spirit and have the courage, the faith to actually believe what God says one day, one moment at a time. And just because I have failed, I have had different experience. I have been taught and believe the wrong things and seen the fruit of the flesh in my life rather than the consistent fruit of the Spirit, which I so deeply desire. This does not have any bearing on where I go from here this very moment. 

Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind and pressing forward to those things which are ahead. Paul said, I forget those things. I can begin this very moment seeking not to be good enough, not to keep the law to show how holy I am, not to stare deep into my navel as I contemplate and dig out the roots of all my dysfunction, but to actually begin to look at Jesus, to stare into His wonderful face, to know and continually renew my mind to the truth of God's Word and actually dare to believe what He says. And by His grace and power, to live a life worthy of my calling, outwardly in consistency with who I am inwardly, with a motive of love, love for the one who died for me and for those for whom He died, because you see, in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything. 

It's all a bunch of soap bubbles, as Pastor Krenz used to say, right? The big hats and the incense and the rites and the rituals. In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love. 

And the word translated avails here speaks of exerting or wielding power. You see, there's no power in religious rite or ritual, circumcision, baptism, sacraments. None of these things have any power to produce holiness in our lives. Rather, power is exerted in our lives when we live by faith in Jesus, yielding to the life of the Spirit in us. 

Here is power, power against the flesh, power over indwelling sin, power over unbelief and distraction and doubt and fear, faith. Paul summarizes the lack of power in the law and rite and ritual and observance of days, et cetera, in Colossians as well. Turn over to Colossians as we close at verse 18, chapter 2, verse 18, Colossians 2:18. 

Paul says, let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he's not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind and, look at this, not holding fast to the head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. 

Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why as though living in the world do you subject yourselves to regulations, do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. 

Law, religion, psychology, the wisdom of men, our own efforts and power, none of these things have any power against the indulgence of the flesh, but rather it is faith working through love. Here's the power, a life of faith, depending on the power of the Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus in us, knowing, reckoning, yielding. This is where the battle is, it's where we must fight, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and our motive is love. 

We love Him because He first loved us, and our fruit, His fruit through us, is love. 2 Corinthians 5:14, for the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died, and He died for all, that those who live, that's you, those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 

When we walk by faith, we see the fruit of the Spirit, love produced out through our lives toward God, toward men, and my friends, this is the command of the new covenant, believe Jesus and love one another. By this they will know that you are my disciples. Because you have love for one another, faith, working through love, the fruit of the Spirit as we abide in Him. And he says when we walk by the Spirit, we are not under the law.

Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for these words, these truths that you tell us again and again. Thank you that you keep telling us, you keep teaching us. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth, who empowers us to live for you, imparting strength to our inner man. Thank you for Jesus who lives His life in and through us as we abide in Him by faith. Thank you that it's your intention, your purpose, and your promise to make us like Jesus, produce holiness in our life for your purposes, for your will, your benefit, your glory. In Jesus name. 

Okay. That was like about 1,100 more words than you usually get. Did you have any questions come up in your mind or any thoughts, anything to share, commentary on these scriptures? 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah, and something that's amazing to see over time, like when I was a kid, man, we never touched the Bible. You know, it was a big book on the coffee table with pictures, and we weren't allowed to touch the Bible, and there was no Bible study. There was no none of that in the Catholic Church, right, and anything outside of the Catholic Church was completely voodoo. You know, even after I had heard the gospel here and been listening to tapes from Pastor Krenz and Guy and invited me to that Bible study, it was everything I had to walk into that Bible study because this is some kind of craziness, but now, you know, they're talking about grace. They're talking about salvation through faith. They're having Bible studies. 

But yet, there's always that mixing of the law and works and a corrupting of the message, so it's becoming more deceptive, I guess, as I see it. 

Mm-hmm. 

Yeah, and that's kind of what we were talking about in the realm of witnessing is here, okay, you're thinking about these people, and you're gonna have—God's gonna arrange opportunities with them, right? You're gonna have time with them, so in your mind, you're eagerly expecting, anticipating the opportunity to talk about Jesus, and you're praying about that, and you're working things over in your mind that you might say, you see, this is what I'm talking about. In the realm of witnessing, that would be the way, but it's—I guess just one thing I would say about that is there's a multitude of errors, right? 

And we want to be able to answer their questions and recognize the error in the course of conversations, but the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, so the key is to keep bringing it back to the gospel and explaining that rather than sorting out all the error of Mormonism and sorting out all their Jehovah's Witness and trying to refute their position. 

Right, right, and it wouldn't be profitable more than likely anyway, but to focus on Jesus and to keep making clear the gospel and keep coming back to that with every opportunity and answering their questions and maybe drawing a contrast. I've found that was necessary in witnessing to my Catholic family and Bobby's Catholic family because they would always say, well, we believe Jesus died for our sins, so then sometimes it's necessary to draw a contrast and highlight that, but mostly tell them about Jesus in the gospel. 

Yeah, well, and just a couple points of clarification. One, I'm not saying at all, nor is Paul saying, God saying in his word that sin doesn't matter or some sort of licentious teaching, right? That's not the point. We are earnest, eager desires to live a holy life, right? So that's not what we're saying. The other thing we're not saying is that you're going to be sinlessly perfect in this life. That's not what we're saying. 

What I would say, just to drive home the point though, is that the Bible teaches that at any given point you have the ability through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the grace of God, to not sin, right? In any given situation, temptation, right? So what does the Bible teach us about how to deal with that, or what happens when I do sin? Where did I go wrong? That's the essence of your question. So I think James 1 is extremely instructive in that. 

I think 2 Corinthians 10, you know, where he talks about the weapons of war are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments. So taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. But in James 1, he kind of talks about this, how you have, because you still have, you're not regenerate in your body and in your psyche, your mind, your soul, or your, you know, your soulish part of you, but your spirit and distinction is regenerate. 

So you still have sometimes these feelings, these emotions rise up, or you have something come externally. So James talks about, my point here would be the battles in the mind, okay? So when I sin, it's a failure to believe God and His Word and yield to the Holy Spirit. So, and I think that becomes, because that sounds a little bit ethereal at first, right? But it becomes very practical, because when I have something, as James says, in my mind, and a temptation, a thought, an emotion, then in my mind I have to deal with that one of two ways. 

And what James says is, is if you rationalize that, then you will conceive that sin in your mind. And he compares that to a woman who conceives a child. And what he basically says is, once that conception takes place, that child's gonna be born, right? Much the same as when you conceive that in your mind. Like, like say, Don says, John, I just think your meat is horrible. You know, I had some of your pork the other day, and it was the worst pork I ever ate. Well, in my mind, I'm, whoa, right? You know, I have emotion, I want to defend, I want to, so I can, in my mind, say, well, that dirty, rotten Don, that's who's eating, you know what I mean? 

I'm going to give him what for. That conceives the sin in my mind, and then what's going to happen is it's going to come out of my mouth, and we're going to have an unprofitable, not words necessary for gratification, right? But on the other hand, if in my mind I say, I'm dead to sin, you know, I reckon, I'm gonna recall to my mind God's Word and His truth and all these things we've been studying, and I'm gonna say, I'm dead to sin. This is not a significant issue. I love Don. I want to, what's, I'm sorry. What can we do? What was wrong? You know, work this out and have a hug. 

That's the practical difference in my mind, I think, as opposed to, I'm not going to yell at Don because God says it's bad to yell at Don. See, that takes out all of this reason why, and regeneration, and the new covenant power that I've been given through Jesus and the Holy Spirit living in me, and removes that. 

That's why you see in the New Testament that all the imperatives, the commands, we're not disregarding the law commands or those things in the New Testament either. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, it's good not to lie, and if we're walking in the Spirit, we're not gonna lie, but Colossians 3:9 says, 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, and you're being renewed in the Spirit of your mind, according to the image of Him who created him. That's the difference. 

If I don't understand that, if I'm just trying not to lie, if I'm going to the law, then I'm sunk. The imperatives always have to be tied to the indicatives, the truths. The truths are what matters. I have to know them, reckon them, and then the Holy Spirit, and I guarantee you, if you say in your mind, you know, I'm dead to sin, this is not who I am, I'm gonna see God produce righteousness out through me right now, then you're not gonna turn around and sin. 

That's one. Does that answer your question? 

Yes, right. 

Yes, right. 

Yes, right. 

Let me ask you this question, and this gets to a little sticky point here, but if you do sin, has Jesus paid for that sin? So maybe what should my response be? Honey, I'm gonna do good here, aren't I? Bobby and I've been talking about this. What should my response to that sin be? 

Okay, maybe I got to deal with that too, right? But really, what should the essence of my response be if I sin in light of the fact that my salvation and the propitiation for all of my sins is wrapped up in what Jesus already accomplished on the cross? 

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for preaching the gospel to myself, remember the cross. The reason I say that, Mitch, is because I understand 1 John 1:9, and repent, and repent, you know, those who are faithful, it doesn't say repent, I'm sorry, forget that, those who are faithful, homo legeo, right, speak the same, agree to their sin, he's faithful. 

How's it go, Lisa? Those who confess their sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and restore us from all unrighteous. But that kind of, there's a thinking surrounding that, that it's like the focus gets back on me correcting my sin. You know what I mean? It can go a little bit of a wrong way of thinking there too, whereas when I say, thank you, Jesus, and I recognize my sin, and I understand it's bad, wrong, hurtful, maybe I need to work that out with a brother or talk to God about that, I'm not disregarding that, I'm just saying it's not like when I sin, I'm in, my relationship with God is broken, and I need to restore that type of thing or something like that, if you understand what I mean. 

So it should be a constant recognizing that sin, and then thanking God for his grace, and asking him to keep me from that going forward, you know? 

I would say practical righteousness is the outcome of that ongoing renewing and reckoning. Meaning the practical righteousness is the fruit, the love, joy, peace, you know, that the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces through me when I'm renewing my mind and walking the spirit and reckoning. 

So my goal then should be, my passion, my fight, my struggle, my agonizomai, agonizing, should be in knowing His Word, knowing Him, and then choosing to believe Him and depending on Him to work it out. 

Debbie? 

Debbie? 

Yeah, we're studying in, oh, you're testing me now, Debbie. We're studying in Acts 6, right, Acts 6? And just look at that real quick and we'll wrap this up, but look at Acts 6 because this, what she's talking about is really germane to our conversation. 

I believe it's verse 5. It said this is where they're going to appoint the men to serve the tables, make sure the Hellenist widows are getting their provision of food. 6:5, it says, and the saying pleased the whole multitude, and it says, they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, okay? So just generally, the idea of being filled is to be controlled. 

So if I'm filled with wrath, what's going to happen? I mean, I'm just filled with wrath. There's no peace, there's no compassion, there's no room for anything in there because I'm full of wrath. What's going to happen? Something's going to happen, right? So that's the idea of being filled or being full, or do not be filled with wine, right? You see the guy up in Hurley walking down Silver Street at midnight and he's filled with wine, right? 

What happens? His outward actions become dictated by the wine. I wasn't out there at midnight, Mitch, don't worry about it. All right, so it says, Stephen was full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Now look at verse 8, this is what we looked at in our study Thursday night, and it says, and Stephen, I'm sorry, my translation was not the best word, full of, what's yours say? Grace and power, that's the word I'm looking for. 

So it says in verse 5 he was filled with faith and the Holy Spirit. In verse 8 he was full of grace and power. There's a connection there, right? If you are filled with faith, meaning what? You trust God entirely, you believe his word. Like most of us are like, got some faith, got some doubt, right? I'm a 60%, 40% or whatever. What it says here, Stephen was full of faith and the Holy Spirit. What that translate into, that translated into him having grace, and the reason the word grace is a better translation there is, is it's speaking of his attitude toward others. 

And we see that when we get into chapter 7, when they're stoning him, and what does he say? Don't hold this against them, God, right? Like Jesus. So because he was filled with faith, grace came out toward others in his life. That was his attitude. That was his demeanor. That was his tone. That's a really important point, by the way. But the other thing was, because he was filled with the Holy Spirit, there was power. 

And we see that power manifest when you witness to the priest, right? I mean, even if he got angry and kicked you in the shins, there's still power there in preaching that gospel. Or if he is interested, if he comes to Christ, you see that power exhibited of the Holy Spirit. 

So when we talk about filled, we want to be filled with faith. We want to learn, you know, what did the disciples say? We believe, help our unbelief, right? We want to believe more. We want to trust more. We want to be filled with faith. And we also want to be filled, the Holy Spirit controlling us. Now, just for clarification, every believer is indwelled with the Holy Spirit, right? Romans 8, 9. If you have not the Spirit, you are not His. 

But every believer isn't always filled with the Spirit. Because filled with the Spirit simply means controlled. And sometimes I like to take that control back, right? I can use this illustration or not, and I promised my wife I'd come up with a new illustration. But let's say I was out on a farm and someone came to pick up their meat, and I got to talking to them, and I'm sharing the gospel with them, and they're really excited, and God's worked in their heart. And I mean, it's just tremendous. 

And I'm filled with the Spirit, and the words are coming, and it's great. Then I walk in the house, and Bobby says, why didn't you get this done? She doesn't talk like that, by the way. I can instantly not be filled with the Spirit. I was filled with the Spirit out there in the store. And I got in past the threshold of the house, and all of a sudden, I was filled with the flesh. All right? So that's the difference between being filled and being indwelt, if that makes sense. 

Well, and Jesus didn't sin because He always depended on the Father. And we have that same opportunity to always depend on Jesus, and Jesus lived by the power of the Holy Spirit. We live by the power of the Holy Spirit, so we can choose to abide. We can always choose to depend on Him. This is the whole message here. It's when I go back to me, and I go back to setting a list of rules, and justifying myself, showing Don how righteous I am by how much good I do, that's when I'm not abiding. I'm not walking in the Spirit. I'm not depending on Christ and His life and power. 

Well, I just noticed she was nodding a lot. There was a lot of nodding when you were talking. 

Okay, yes, ma'am. 

Mm-hmm. 

Yes. 

Mm-hmm. 

Right. 

And we talked about last week how much more the Spirit pierces, you know, and the Word of God pierces than does the law as an external thing. The internal Spirit convicts us much more effectively and shows us our sin, so. 

Okay. 

Anybody got any other burning thing? We'll wrap it up. 

Mark? 

Mike? 

Mm-hmm. 

Mm-hmm. 

Mm-hmm. 

Wrap it up quick. 

So, we've talked about this a lot, so I'm going to hit the high points here. The reason is Paul's not talking about his life as a believer in Romans 7 to 25. And the reason is because what he's really talking about, the teaching of that chapter is in 7:1 to 6, okay? And what he's talking about is freedom from the law. That's the whole point, 7:6. 

Now, he contrasts that with the man and Adam in verse 5. And in verse 5 he says, when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit unto death. That was our condition. When you've made that statement, especially in the Jewish mind, but in general, you're like, whoa, what are you saying, Paul? The law is tied to sin or the law is tied to death? 

And I give as my evidence, verse 7 and verse 13, which is the questions that arise out of verse 5 when he says, is the law sin and is the law what brought death to me? So, in verses 14 to 25, his intention really doesn't have anything to do with being a believer or an unbeliever necessarily. His intent there is to answer that question, is the law what brought death to me? 

In verses 14 to 25, he uses a present tense, not to show timing, but to show the nature of the action. The present tense in the Greek shows the continuous action, okay? So, what he's literally saying there is the things I want to do, I never, ever, ever do. And the things that I desire not to do, I always continually, perpetually do them. 

And what he does is he says, it's no longer I, but sin that dwells in me, verse 17, verse 20. What he's trying to do there is exonerate the law. He's showing the law is not what brought death to me. The law is not the problem for the man and Adam. Indwelling sin is the problem. And that's why he summarizes that in verse 23 and says, for I want in my mind Saul of Tarsus, the Jew, I agree that the law is good, I want to keep the law, but I don't find any power in me to do what's right. Rather, I find another law in my members bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and death. 

So, in verse 23, he says he's in captivity to the law of sin and death. Verse 14, he says I'm a slave to sin, which is wholly contrary to everything he just said in Romans 6. And what he's trying to do there is he's trying to say, look, the law is not the problem. The law is good. Indwelling sin is the problem. He picks back up on his teaching, the main teaching in verse 6 and 8:1. He goes back to that because in 7:6, he's talking about the believer, but we, right, made free from law and so forth, and we live by the spirit and not by the letter. 

Then he goes into that in Romans 8, and that's why he says in verse 3 of Romans 8, for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, sin, God did. So, you see, it's very integral structure, and I love that passage. I can, like for instance, David Needham in his book Birthright, and he would agree with Martin Lloyd-Jones, they would say that it's a believer who's trying to live by the law. I don't think that's at all what the text is saying, but I can stomach that interpretation. 

Okay? It's okay. But the mainline interpretation today, especially in Reformed communities, that this is the highest level of the Christian life, that this is the totally and completely mature Paul when he realizes how incredibly wicked he is, and it drives him to the grace of God, is a completely untenable position. And if you jerk the crutch of Romans 7 out from under the arm of Christians, then where shall they justify their sin? Really? 

I mean, maybe Corinthians 3 where he says, are you not carnal? But what he's saying there is you're living like mere men. He doesn't say you are mere men. He says you're living like, it's like your high school football coach right at halftime when you're losing bad, and he says, you're playing like a bunch of little girls. He doesn't mean that you are a little girl. He means you're acting like a little girl. Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 3 maybe that you are living like mere men. Knock it off. It's not who you are. 

Everybody follow that? 

All right. 

Okay. Thank you for coming. Have a good week.