It's nice that there are some worthwhile hymns being written in these days as well. Gregory Wilber is just working on a new album. It's supposed to be out this spring. And with a purpose, his whole aim in making this album is to have songs that are singable, that are easy to learn, and can be sung in the congregation. We've already purchased the rights to that, and we'll see how they work out. But perhaps this summer we'll sing some more of his hymns as well. Open your Bibles now, if you will, to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. We will read verses 1 through 6. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. Ye are fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by love. Let us pray. Lord, wilt thou grant unto us as thy covenant people a gospel blessing as we open the scriptures together. We pray, O Lord, that we may hear the voice of Christ calling to us. We pray that we may respond by faith, that we may be yielded unto Thee, that our hearts may be opened unto all Thy truth. Lord, we ask that we may indeed be blessed in the way which Thou hast ordained and determined, even as we gather for the preaching of thy word this night, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Beloved congregation, trading a gospel of grace for a religion of works has dire consequences for your understanding of who Christ is and what he has done for you. So we're still really continuing with the theme, and I hope that you're able to see some variation in these messages. We are always talking about law versus grace. The two don't join together well. They don't have a a joint part in your salvation. And they have to be understood or right. And there are various aspects of this. So God has given us this whole book of Galatians to help you to understand what that difference is and what difference it makes to you in your life. So we want to consider three points this evening. a fast in grace, fallen from grace, and faithful in grace. So we looked at the first point already last week. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. So maintain that liberty. And you might say, well, it's God, it's Christ who maintains that in me, which is absolutely true. In one sense, you can't maintain it, but you are to be conscious of it, and you're to be conscious of maintaining that liberty. And the way you're going to do that is to ask God to help you, aren't you? To keep you from being diverted or misunderstanding not only the grace, but the freedom, the liberty that grace brings to you. So what is the nature of that liberty which we considered last week? So it is a liberty that's yours by grace through faith. So always guard against trusting in your works to save you. And that is not a simple thing. Our works are so much a part of us that we tend At various points, at least, even in your Christian life, you tend to want to get credit for them. You want to do, or you're doing something already, you want people to notice that I am serving the Lord, that I am sacrificing, in some cases, my time, or my belongings, or my family, whatever, I'm making sacrifices for the sake of the gospel. And the flesh will say, what's the point of making those sacrifices if no one notices? And because your flesh says, you need some credit for this as well. The spirit says, no, Christ will receive that credit. You will receive a reward when you enter heaven. Just be pleased to serve the Lord in this time, in this gospel age. That's what you're called upon to do, to serve the Lord, to give of yourself, to die to yourself daily, and to serve you, to serve the Lord, and to serve one another. Jesus Christ was our example, right? I am among you as one that serves. He said to his disciples as he washed their feet, So you have a glorious liberty, you have a liberty to praise God. Have you ever done that, considered that or appreciated that? If you've been converted for a long time, if you've been with the Lord, walking with the Lord for a long time, you may almost take it for granted, praising the Lord. But it is a liberty that you're free to do. You think about the music of the world that praises self. It praises sex, drugs, and rock and roll often. It praises pleasure. It praises indulgence. And your heart isn't there, is it? Your heart is with praises that redound to the Savior, that are lifted up into the presence of the Savior. and this is part of your liberty, part of what Christ has gifted to you in your salvation. So to worship and serve the Lord of all glory, to realize that God, the God of all creation has taken a personal interest in you. He's taken a personal interest in you and that ought to astound and amaze you far more than it does. I remember when I was a little boy, I forget what age I was, but the Queen drove by our street, drove down Trans-Canada Highway. We lived just four blocks from Trans-Canada Highway, and we heard that she was coming. We went out to the highway, and you know, I just had this feeling she looked right at me when she waved at me. I have no idea, but you feel special, right? You feel very, very special because of that feeling. And it's like that. If you know somebody important, and they point you out or mention your name, say, well, see, I want people to identify me with that famous person. It makes me feel like I'm somebody. And that is really how you ought to look at God's taking a personal interest in you. And he's done that by sending his son to die for your sins, right? He's taken a personal interest in you. And that is one of the great joys of being what we call a Calvinist, right? That God has taken interest in you, not the point isn't that you've taken an interest in God, the point is that he has taken interest in you when Maybe you feel like David in Psalm 142, my foes are mighty, I am weak. It's not like Paul says, I am weak, but Christ is strong, which is true. But David says, I am weak, but my foes are strong, my enemies are strong. But nevertheless, God, Almighty God has taken notice of me. He knows who I am. He says in another psalm, he knows when I sit down, he knows when I stand up, he understands my thoughts afar off. This is the God that holds the universe in His hand, that keeps the planets in His courses, that keeps all of the plant life going. He takes a personal interest in me. And it's not just that He loves me, it's that He showed that love by covering my sins with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, forgiving my sins. So there's a liberty that you have that other people actually despise. They actually hate the gospel of grace. They hate that you have that liberty. They hate that you know for sure that you're going to heaven. People hate that, that you can say that confidently. They hate the the dogmatics of Christianity. They hate the Christian that's firm in his belief and sure of what he believes. That is something that the world, because it doesn't really understand spiritual things to begin with, doesn't appreciate. But you have that pleasure, that benefit, that great liberty. So be fast in grace, maintain that liberty and be aware that the devil wants to take that away from you, the world despises it, but Paul says stand fast in your liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, he's freed you to be free is what it says. So be careful those who are fallen from grace. Remember, he's writing to the church, to the Christians, which are in the churches in Galatia. And he gives them three warnings here about mixing, what happens if you mix law and grace together for your salvation. So remember, we're not just saying the law has no use in the Christian life, we're saying it has no use in your salvation. that it's just a measuring stick for the Christian, but it's not a club that God beats you up with ever. It is for the unbeliever, it is sometimes even for the Arminian, and it just beats people with the law into apparent submission to the gospel. So Paul says here three things about what problems that bring. The first one is in verse two. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Now he's not talking about a medical procedure here of circumcision, he's talking about a religious rite. And this idea of circumcision then stands for anything that you do in religion, in your worship, that is going to, in your mind, contribute to your salvation. And so men devise all kinds of great ways to compromise that. Circumcision, all those works profit you nothing. Nothing wrong in and of itself with circumcision. We're not for it or against it. It is a matter of Christian liberty. So the problem is when you introduce things that add to the way of salvation. So we're not saved because we do this or we don't do this. We're always saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So in this season, we hear a lot of people, depending on who you talk to or who you associate with, a lot of emphasis on Lent. This is the Lenten season. People are giving things up for Lent. And they think that there's some kind of holiness as we get ready for the Holy Week. Easter is coming up in April. And we're going to really try to identify with Christ and give something up. You have people giving up Facebook, people giving up Twitter. For some of you, I know that's no challenge, because you don't use those things anyway. Some people, I would say that I'm giving up Lent, except I never had it in the first place, so I can't really give it up. But a lot of people are saying, for Lent, give up Lent. Don't bother with it. But it's a religious ceremony that's supposed to somehow bring you closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there are a lot of things that you can do personally, and you ought to be aware of those things that profit your soul. and you ought to be diligent to do them. There's nothing wrong with a disciplined life. The Lord wants you to have a disciplined life, but the church doesn't discipline you in that way. You do your own self according to your schedule, but discipline yourself to read the scriptures. to pray each day, to commune with the Lord, to attend church services, to meet for our Bible study and prayer meeting. Those are all good things that are going to benefit your soul. But they are never to be confused with your salvation. So circumcision represents any ceremony which is added to the work of Christ. So, and you have sometimes icons and images. You know that it's, I understand that it's not official Roman Catholic dogma or doctrine that we pray to the saints. Apparently you speak to the scholars, the Jesuits, and the ones who are in the know, the priests, that we never tell our people to pray to the saints. That's not a doctrine that we have, and yet, You find Roman Catholics praying to the saints, right? That's a regular part, a routine part of their worship. So the problem there is maybe technically they don't encourage it or teach it, but they don't discourage it when people do it. They don't tell people you don't pray to saints. You don't pray to Mary, you don't get to Christ through Mary. Now they do believe that, that Mary is the one that we need to come to in order to have access to Christ. So these are all things that are added to the gospel. And are you offended by that? Are you offended by Mariolatry? that Christ, who is so accessible. Most of you have been attending church here for a while. You know that Christ is accessible. He's right there. His presence is immediate. He is your high priest. You have a high priest that brings you into the presence of God. These are wonderful things. And for somebody to say that you have to go through a human being, before you get to the Lord Jesus, who himself has made himself accessible. He's made himself present to you. Why would you put up with any of this other foolishness? So you are voiding the work of Christ. If you trust in those works, Paul says, you are receiving no benefit from the Lord Jesus Christ, shall profit you. Nothing. You're not going to get any, you can mix Christ's name in there and you can add him in to Mary or icons or saints or Lent or whatever other things you want. You can add and use his name a lot. You can repeat his name a lot. But that does not mean that Christ will profit you. The very opposite. He says Christ will profit you nothing. If you add something else to his work, if you make circumcision a requirement, you contradict the gospel. Because what does God require of you? Faith in Jesus Christ. That's all, faith in Jesus Christ. It's very simple. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. The gospel is supremely simple. It's very plain. It's not complicated at all. It's only complicated by our sin. So salvation by works voids the work of Christ. You bring in anything else you are saying, you're not only saying that the work of Christ doesn't save me ultimately, but you are saying that Christ is going to profit you nothing. Paul says Christ is going to profit you nothing. Secondly, so salvation by work voids the work of Christ. Secondly, in verse three, salvation by works requires complete obedience to the law. Verse three, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. So do you have, if you're gonna be saved by one work, if you're gonna choose one part of the law, in this case circumcision, and you're gonna say that is what I'm going to require for you to be a member of this church, why would I choose one thing and ignore all the rest? No, if you're gonna center on that, if you're gonna choose that, you're obliged then to obey the whole of the law. You can't pick and choose. If you're gonna start with the law, you're going to end with the law. So it's all or nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. It's all or nothing. And beloved, if this is what you choose, you'd better be very, very good at it, right? You have to complete, you have to obey the complete law, the entire law. So you become a debtor then. It's either debt or grace, those two. don't go together either, do they? You're a debtor to do the whole law, or you're going to live by grace, just the gracious receiving of the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. So salvation by works requires complete obedience to the law. And then thirdly, verse four, salvation by works excommunicates you from Christ. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. This is probably the most controversial of the verses that we've read this evening. But what he is saying here is that when he says Christ has become of no effect, he says by mixing law and gospel, You are severing yourself from Christ. You are estranged from Christ. You are really excommunicated. You are separated by Christ if you're going to bring works into the mix. It voids the idea of grace. So there's no idea of law at all when we're talking of justification, of coming to of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is so adamant about this that he says something that should get your attention if it didn't. Ye are fallen from grace. So does that jar a little bit with you? Wait a minute, wait a minute. I thought, I thought in this church, I thought in the Bible, we find this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. that when Christ saves someone, they are completely saved. You can't lose your grace. And Paul is saying here, and we don't want to, you know, Luther makes a point of just saying, Paul means what he says. We're not going to try to, or was it Calvin, he says, we're not going to try to mix our theological viewpoints in with this. You just listen to what Paul says. You are fallen from grace. He means to scare you. He means to scare those who are bringing in the law together with grace. He wants to shake you up if you have any idea of mixing the law together with grace. You're fallen from grace. So let me reiterate that the Bible clearly teaches that those who receive the gift of eternal life through the blood of Christ have eternal life. There's no such thing. God doesn't give temporary life. He only gives eternal life. And the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. He doesn't give and then take back again. If he's given you the gift of eternal life, if he has saved you, then you are truly, eternally, entirely saved. Now, there is fruit that comes from that. A person who is truly saved is not going to live as if he was not saved. He is going to live now like a Christian, but grace, the gift of salvation is graciously given to undeserving sinners, and those sinners are made into Christians by the Holy Spirit. So what do we do with this verse then? And we consider it's possible that these people may not have been saved in the first place, so we might say that you have been fallen from what you call grace, or what you thought was grace. You haven't really understood the idea of grace. and you need to rethink that again, revisit it, think about what grace actually is because you're not walking or living or talking in the way that one who is saved by grace would talk or think or walk. You may be a Christian living in denial of the gospel. And that can happen. Remember, he's addressed these as saints, the churches that are in Galatia, those who are, outwardly at least, who are saved. But he's not being presumptuous and saying, well, you're on the membership roll at the Galatian Presbyterian Church, so. Don't worry about it, you're going to be fine. He says, no, you need to understand the gospel and you need to grow in your understanding of that gospel and continually be focused on grace in such a way that you're distinguishing it from the law in any way at all. And so he's saying examine your salvation. Are you saved by works or by faith? How are you brought into the presence of Christ? How is the blood of Christ applied to you? Is it by something you did or is it by something that God has done for you and in you? There's a huge, huge difference. And Christians aren't depending upon their works. to save them. So this is very, very serious. And Paul is intensely involved with this mistake that the Galatians have made. Instead, here he offers the hope of the faithful in grace. So he says, this is what the Christian life looks like. It is a life of hope, first of all. It is a life of faith. And that, if you don't have, if you're bringing in law and your works and your deeds, whatever they are, you really don't have any hope. You don't understand what hope, because your hope is in what you're doing. but the Christian's hope is always in Christ. The hope of His return, the hope of fulfilling His promises, the hope of the Spirit working in my life, the hope of the forgiveness of sins, all of these things are part of our righteousness, part of your salvation. So he says that in verse five, for we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. So isn't it interesting that he uses here the word spirit, for we through the spirit, because some of you Galatians are doing this through the flesh. You're operating through the flesh, but we through the spirit, the importance of the Holy Spirit, the importance of God working in you. He says, we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. So we're not justified by the flesh, but by the spirit, and we're not justified by works, but rather by faith. Luther says hope has two meanings in this context. He says, through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of our righteousness, our hope for righteousness, which is surely to be revealed in due time. So he's saying you are being sanctified, you are being made more perfect, and is that your hope? Beloved, are you dissatisfied with your Christian life, or are you saying, my Christian life is fine? God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life, and everything's going to be all right. Or do you say, I'm saved by grace, but I wish my life would show forth more of the grace of Christ. In my works, in my speech, in my deeds, I wish it was more obvious that I had the Holy Spirit dwelling within me. So we're frustrated by what? Indwelling sin. The things that I would not that I do, the things that I would that I do not. And there's this continual tension. And it brings a level of dissatisfaction, can we even say anxiety, that ought to be turned into the hope that Christ is working within me. If I do have the Holy Spirit, I am being made more holy, I am being perfected, and I'm waiting for that hope for righteousness. So there's the one meaning of hope. Luther says the other one is that through the spirit, by faith, we wait for righteousness with hope and longing. That is, we are justified and still we are not yet justified because our righteousness is still hanging in hope. So there is what some people call the already and the not yet. There are things that we're waiting for. We're waiting for the perfection of the church. We're waiting for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're still hoping for this success over sin. And for that final success at our glorification when the Lord Jesus returns. So if you're going to bring in works, you're robbing yourself of a true gospel hope. Firstly, secondly, you're robbing yourself of this idea of faith. Verse six, for in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Circumcision, all of these rites, these little works and deeds are immaterial, is neither here nor there. So don't make a big deal about it. Don't make it more than what it ought to be. It's not really that important. And what it can do is sidetrack the discussion. Don't let anything take your mind and your attention away from the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus. That always is what everything should come back to. Is there a controversy? Is there a discussion? Is there an argument, a disagreement? How does God's grace work into this? And if I can't figure that out, It doesn't matter to me. I can leave that discussion. I can leave that argument. It's immaterial to me. Does it help me to understand grace better? Does it draw me closer to the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm in. I want that. I want to participate in that. But if it's just ministering questions, bringing up questions for the sake of bringing up questions. Yeah, count me out. It's not gonna profit my soul. I want to be profited by the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the way he's looking at circumcision. And by application, then, we're bringing in anything of the law, anything added to the work of Christ that would draw away from faith. So your boasting, beloved, should always be in Christ and never in what you have done or what you do. So that's not your boasting because if it's worthwhile, if it's spiritual, then Christ has done that in you. The Holy Spirit has been producing that in you and that is your boasting, what Christ has done in you, not what you yourself have done. And it's faith working by love. Faith working by love. So it's evident in love. Now, in recent years, this text has been subverted. by people who haven't understood justification by faith alone. It's curious when you read Calvin or Luther from 500 years ago, you find out that's nothing new. It's nothing new. In his day, they were trying to make these words say that you're justified by love. You're justified by your active involvement with others. You're justified, again, by something you do. And they're mortified, Luther especially is mortified that you would somehow think that your love contributes to your salvation. That something that you do, even as wonderful as love, somehow justifies you. As good as that may sound, he says, you have no salvation if it includes your works. So this is a very, very dangerous ground, but it is faith working by love. He adds a little comment here about interpreting the scriptures. And he says, we should remember from this controversy, we should remember that when you come to the Bible, that you always empty yourself of all your own ideas and just hear what God says. You don't bring your own ideas in there, but that's what was happening. People wanted to believe in a salvation by works, so they were saying, well, you're justified by works of love. And he said, well, that's preposterous, because it nullifies grace then. So beloved, let us be aware. Let us be on guard against these things that seek to bring works to add to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a great insult to the Savior for us to say that Christ's work was not enough, and that we somehow have to add or contribute to what He has already done entirely. I want to close with an illustration that John MacArthur speaks of, tells the story of a sculptor who for years had this dream. You know, artists always have this, I think, this big project that they'd love to do if they had the resources. And so he wanted to make this multidimensional sculpture with many different characters in it. And he talked about it for a while until one man came along and said, I'm willing to finance that. And I've already made arrangements to have it displayed in a grand museum. And so he went to work. This was all being financed. It was all good. And so he worked in his workshop. And he brought in all his various things that he wanted to include in this great monumental sculpture. And the day came when it was complete. And he was all proud of the work that he had done. And he realized that it was so big that it couldn't be moved out of the room. It was stuck in that room forever. And it wasn't worth destroying the house in order to get it out of there and into the museum. So there it was. If anybody wanted to appreciate it, they had to come into his workshop and look at his handiwork. Isn't that a picture of what a lot of people intend to do when they get to heaven? They intend to bring their good works with them, but all of their good works have to be left on the earth. You can't go along with them. All your good works are left on earth, and they will not get you to heaven. And so you were hoping maybe even to put them on display for God, but No, they've got to be left behind. So what an illustration that is of the effects, really, of our works that are wrought by ourselves and not by the Spirit of the Lord. So let us be diligent to have the hope the hope that God is going to do good things in me to produce his righteousness, and then the faith that produces works of love, love for the Lord Jesus and love for his saints. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we give thanks for Thy glorious salvation, the liberty that Thou has granted unto us through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that we may stand fast in that liberty and that we may ever be on guard against bringing other works that are introduced often so subtly into our lives or into our worship. We pray that we may delight ourselves fully in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may be satisfying unto our souls even as his death and resurrection brought satisfaction unto thee for our sins. And we pray that we too may be content with everything that Christ has done for us. How we thank thee for the extent of thy love and the far reaches, the depths of thy love towards thy church. And we praise and thank thee in Jesus' name. Amen.