Sunday English Service – 26 SEP 21

Transcript

Let’s go to the word of God. Please turn with me to Galatians chapter 5. I would like to read to you the first six verses. Galatians chapter 5, the first six verses. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Paul said 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 attempt to be justified by the law. You have fallen from grace, for we through the spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love.

For the last many weeks, we’ve been teaching on the subject of abounding grace. The term abounding grace comes from Romans chapter 5, verse 20, where Paul says, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” What he means is sin when it entered into people’s lives, it abounded. In other words, he just simply took over, it destroyed, it tore up everything, damaged everything, ruined people’s lives. But when God’s grace through Jesus Christ came into this world and started working in the lives of people. The grace of God is much more powerful than sin so that where sin abounded, grace does much more abound. It works much more powerfully, not only to restore all that has been damaged and destroyed and ruined, but also to make it all beautiful and wonderful even more than ever before. That’s the work of God’s grace. And this is what we’re teaching about. How God’s grace comes into people’s lives to undo everything that sin has done and how it makes a beautiful new life. That is what we have been talking about. Now, this connection, I’ve been saying a few things from the book of Galatians, because the book of Galatians is a book that deals with a particular problem. A problem of the misunderstanding of how works are applied in Christian life. Paul started churches in the region of Galatia which is the area that is now called Turkey. In many towns and cities there, Paul established churches in the first missionary journey that he undertook along with Barnabas. 

And in those places, back in those days in his first missionary journey, God did amazing things. Miracles and wonders, and many Gentiles came into faith in Christ so that they come back to the Antioch church and report saying that God has opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. There was a rush of the Gentiles coming in to Christ. Wonderful work was done, but as soon as Paul finished his work and came to Antioch, there were others from Jerusalem that went there. And those people said, well, Paul is a man that came later on into ministry. He doesn’t even know Jesus personally, but we come from Peter, John and James, and all those people who are with Jesus and learned from Jesus, so they know better. And we’ve got something to say to you. They said, well, you believed in Jesus, that’s fine, that’s good, but that’s not enough. You need to also be circumcised. You need to also keep the law. You need to also follow all the Jewish customs and literally become a Jew in order to be accepted into the family of God. How can you receive the blessing of Abraham without undergoing what Abraham underwent by way of circumcision? So you need to get circumcised. You need to get into keeping the law and so on, along with faith in Christ. Only then will you be blessed, only then will you have God’s grace and God’s favor and so on. Now, Paul hears about it. He’s already been going through a big struggle because when he went back to Antioch, there was a great controversy over this issue of circumcision. He had gone to Jerusalem to settle it. And Jerusalem apostles themselves agreed that yes, circumcision is not necessary for the Gentiles. Why unnecessarily trouble them with it? And they gave a letter and confirmed that what Paul was doing was right and so on. 

And with all that happening in the background, Paul writes this letter to the Galatians. He is concerned about these churches that he has established. People are now confused, confused about the work of God’s grace, confused about what Christianity is all about, what the Christian faith is all about, that is why I read you this passage. And I want explain a few things here about how the gospel comes into our life. How our faith in Christ changes us, brings a big change in us. Gospel transformation is different from moral reformation. Moral reformation is one thing, but gospel transformation is a totally different thing. The gospel transforms a person from inside out, but moral reformation is something that happens starting from the outside. So when the gospel comes to a person, when the message of the gospel concerning what Jesus has done comes and a person believes, that person is made a new man. Not a nice man. Nice man is good, but new man is far better. Jesus came in order to make people new, a new race, a new kind of people, a new kind of humanity, not just make bad people, good people, not just take people and make them nice people, but to make new people. That is why Jesus came. That is how the Bible teaches. That’s what the gospel is all about.

So gospel is about transformation of life. How God takes people’s lives and transforms it. Like I just said, sin comes and destroys people’s lives. Ruins people’s lives, damages people’s lives, but the grace of God comes in and makes it beautiful and wonderful. Let me give you an example. Take a rod of iron for example. If you take the rod of iron that’s bent, there are two ways to fix it. Somebody has bent that rod. Now you got to make it straight. How would you make it straight? You can simply apply some pressure. You can take it in your hand and bend it the other way, exert some pressure, force, and by doing so, you may be able to straighten it out and get it in shape. But since it was bent in the first place, and now you have again had to bend it in order to straighten it, that process of doing that, bending and then bending it back again to get it in shape. What it results in is it looks like it is straight, but it’s not all that straight, but more importantly, it weakens the iron at the place where it was bent. That process of bending and then shaping it again. That’s something to that iron. So that what makes that iron so solid and strong now comes loose and it becomes weakened. It is not as strong as it was at that point, and around that area. There’s another way to bring it back to shape. A bent rod of iron can be brought back to shape. And another way you can take it and put it in some fire, I’m sure you have seen it, take that rod of iron and put it in fire. And that fire will work on that iron, and if you keep it long enough there, that iron will start glowing with that fire, that iron rod itself, at that point where it needs to be straightened out, it will start to glow. That fire gets on that. the rod and the fire literally become one, so that the rod is now glowing with the fire, like a piece of coal. And then once that happens, then the rod can be brought back to shape. Not only can be brought back to shape and straightened more than ever the best way possible, but it also can be strengthened in the process. That whole process of putting it through the fire, strengthens the iron, that rod of iron again, so that the lost strength is regained. It’s made strong piece of iron.

Now in life also, you can see this people have been bent out of shape. All of us in a way have been twisted bent because we were born at a particular place in a particular society, lived in a particular surrounding, influenced by so many things. All of us have been abused in some way and troubled in some way, and lived in societies and surroundings where things were done to us, things happen to us. It formed and shaped us. It bent us a certain way so that when we grow up, we become twisted, bent up because of these things that have been done to us, these people that did it to us, not because of the circumstances that we had to come through in our lives because of the difficulties that we had to face. Our heart becomes hardened. We become merciless sometimes. We becomes rude, we become violent sometimes, and things happen in our lives, in such a way that we turn out to be very evil and bad people sometimes. Some of us really turn out very wicked and very evil. Now that’s what you call bent out of shape. It’s not the way they’re supposed to be, but they have been bent out of shape. Somebody bent them like that. Some situation bent them like that. Now, how do you straighten them out? You can take them to a reform center and you can work on reforming them. There are various methods of reform. They have a method where you have to be accountable to a person. They put that person, this troubled person with a more mature person and he’s accountable to that person. So every move that he makes, everything that he does comes under the supervision of that person so that he cannot do anything that is wrong. 

So he’s kept in lane and he’s made to behave. They’re trying to bend him back into shape. They’re trying to make the bend straight. He’s been bent crooked, but now they want to straighten him out. They’re trying it with this method called accountability. And there are other methods such as behavioral. You have other methods such as behavior modification in psychology. Behavioral modification was very famous at one time, you can take a person of any kind and literally change the way they behave by going through the process of behavior modification so that our ways that the person can be shaped and formed and changed in the world. By applying some, just like you apply some force to the rod and bend it, try to bring it back to shape. You can apply some discipline. You can apply some methods and straighten that person out. But the thing is that is another way of straightening them out. That way is like putting the rod of iron through the fire, in that — see, this is the change that happens through the gospel. You bring the person to Christ. You tell that person the gospel, the gospel gets into the person. The person begins to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ opens his heart to the gospel of Jesus Christ, submits himself to the authority of Christ, turns to Christ and receives forgiveness of sins, and receive the work of the holy spirit in his heart. And that work of the holy spirit in his heart that begins there is the work of the creator. This is better than somebody in this world trying to bend you and shape you and bring you back into shape. 

This is your creator. The one that first made you. So he’s not just trying to straighten out the bend. He is someone who can make your new. He can make all things right. He can completely fix it by making all things new. So he takes, and his work is like that fire that we described, in which you put the iron, you take this person and putting through the fire of the holy spirit, the spirit of God begins to work on him so that he begins to glow with the holy spirit and through the holy spirit. Begins to be changed it by his contact with the holy spirit, by the work of the holy spirit that happens in his heart. So that the result is that there is softness of heart. There is change of heart. He becomes kind. He becomes honest. He becomes bold. He becomes courageous. He becomes virtuous. He becomes strong like that iron, all the weaknesses are removed. And all this happens, and he is changed not by somebody applying some force and trying to bend him back into shape, but he’s organically changed. Today we have a lot of organic products, so we understand organic change. We call these food products organic because those products don’t use chemicals and other things to modify them in any way. They’re grown naturally and gradually and so on, the way that they should be grown. And the change that happens in a person in whom the holy spirit works to change him is like that organic change. 

The change comes about in the way that it should come about. It’s not a human thing. It is not by human force. It is not by human manipulation of any kind, but by the work of the holy spirit, the creator, the original creator that made him straightens things out organically, he has changed instead of being bent back to shape. Now gospel transformation is different from moral reformation. That’s the point that I’m trying to make. And grace brings about gospel transformation. And Jesus came to bring this kind of transformation that we’re talking about. He is not coming to this world. He was not born as a baby in Bethlehem and die on the cross and rise again in order to produce better men of the old kind, but to produce a new kind of man, that is why he has come. It’s not like teaching a horse to jump better and better, but like taking a horse and turning it into a winged creature that can fly now. That’s how different it is. It’s something that is totally different from the reformation that we see in the world today. That’s what gospel does. It completely changes a person. Marvelously changes a person. Now, if the gospel does that, when a person comes to Christ and believes in the gospel, the good news that we preach. If that is the result, then what is this gospel all about? What kind of gospel do we preach? We call this the gospel of grace. What kind of gospel is? What does it say? It says that a sinner can come just as he is to his God. The one who made him and this God, because he made him, he feels responsible to change him and work on him and help him. 

So he comes to God seeking God’s help, seeking God’s answers for his life. And God takes him and changes him and transforms him, and makes him a new person. In the process, he gets forgiveness of sins. He gets acceptance into the family of God. He becomes a child of God. All of these things takes place. He gets a new heart. He gets the help of the holy spirit. He becomes a very spiritual person, spiritually alive to God, knowing God. So something happens to this person as a result of the gospel, as a result of him opening his heart to the gospel, to the message of Jesus Christ, to what Jesus has done for him. Now he’s accepted completely. And absolutely. His acceptance is not based on his past performance. It is not based on his present performance and it is not based on his future performance. It is not how well he has done or he is doing or he is going to do. That brings all the blessings, that brings him in oneness with God and brings him in favor with God. It is not about his performance. It is about what Jesus has done for him. What Jesus has done is this is. He cannot come with the best performance and come to God. He cannot approach God in that way, because God is God. He says, be holy even as I am holy. God requires that when a person wants to come to him, he must have the kind of holiness that he himself has. But that’s impossible. 

This is what puzzled Martin Luther back 500 years ago, because Martin Luther started saying, well, I’ve been trying, I’ve been trying to be as good as possible. I’ve been praying as much as possible. I go on my knees. I climb the thing and go and pray. And my knees are torn up. And here I am troubling myself and injuring myself so much, fasting, praying, crying, and repenting, and doing all these things I want to get to God. I want to find God. I want to have peace with God. I want to know that my sins are forgiven. That I’m accepted by God. But after doing all of these things, God says, no, you don’t have enough. Because if you want to come to me, you’re fasting your prayer. You’re coming on your knees over through the steps. All of those things don’t work. Your sacrifices don’t work. Because if you want to come to me, you have to be as holy as me. Martin Luther said, where can I go for this kind of holiness? Who can give me this kind of — I cannot come up with this kind of holiness and righteousness that he requires. So at one point, he came to the conclusion that God is not a good God, because he is requiring of him something that he cannot produce, and he cannot bring to him. God, if he’s going to ask a man to bring something to him, in order to be accepted, he should ask for something that a man can bring. How can he ask for something that is impossible? How cruel can be, how much more cruel can be. God is an evil God, he thought at one point, but then it dawned on him as a result of a search. It dawned on him and God opened his eyes and he saw one day that it is because no man can produce this kind of righteousness, and thereby come to God. God has himself sent his son into this world to take our sins upon himself and give his righteousness to us because we cannot produce it. Righteousness comes as a gift. So Martin Luther clung to the truth, and that is what produced the Protestant movement, and a great revival. Began to preach salvation by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, not by any works. 

So this is the gospel we preach. The gospel says nothing that we do can qualify us to God and before God to come to God and to receive any kind of blessing from salvation to anything from God. Nothing that we do can qualify us for that. And nothing that we failed to do can disqualify us before God. So if you said, this is the gospel, then people ask, oh, wait a minute, if you’re going to say to people that, that thing that you do, nothing that you do can qualify you before God. And nothing that you fail to do will disqualify you before God, then that means there is no benefit in doing good, and there is no disadvantage in not doing any good or being evil even, because all these things don’t matter. It is not your performance. It is what Christ has done. It is all resting upon who he is. So they say, how can that gospel the gospel that you’re preaching the gospel of grace that you’re talking about? How can that produce any kind of energy for a change in a person? How can it produce a changed person? How can it create a new man? Even that energy one does not get, because he’ll become lethargic if he heard it that whatever he does, doesn’t matter, whatever he doesn’t do also doesn’t damage him. So what does the use of doing anything or what is the disadvantage in not doing anything?

So a person begins to think, well, I can live anyway that I want it. It’s not going to matter whether I live a holy life or a sinful life or what I do. It’s not going to matter. It’s not going to disqualify me before God or qualify me before God. So he loses the incentive. They say to push towards holiness, to be changed person and so on. Now it’s like this. Let me give you an example you’ll understand. In some countries these days, all these students go abroad to study, kids. And it’s become a big thing now. And that if you want to go to college next year, by August, you need to apply by this December. And the admission process is over by January, February and so on. November, December itself, you start applying for the next year. So the kids are in school, that is, they’re in 12th standard. They have school till May or April, but they have to apply by December itself or November or December. So their grades up to December, their performance up to December is taken into account. And then they write their interns exams and so on with all of the requirements they are applying. And in order to get admission, so they study very hard. They apply themselves very hard, they burn the midnight oil, and study day and night and struggled so hard to try to get into the college. And finally they get in January or February, they get a letter saying you are accepted. That’s it, you’re accepted. But they still have one more semester to go to complete their 12th standard. They say that that last semester everybody’s scores much lower. And their grades go down. As becomes Bs. BS become Cs and so on. That’s the way it goes down. And you ask why are you going down and your grades, why are you not studying as well as you used to. You ask them, they’ll say, well, I got accepted. It doesn’t matter anymore. I have complete acceptance by the best college that I can think of. So why should I break my head over these studies now? I can relax this semester. All I got to do is just pass, I can’t fail, I need to pass with the minimum thing. So it doesn’t matter. What I get now does not matter they say, because I got accepted anyway.

Now, if this kind of logic takes away the incentive from the students these days, that if you got accepted, then the last semester won’t matter because that grade is not going to be taken into account. That’s not going to put you in any disadvantage or advantage. They become very slack. And you asked them, why have you become slack? Why can’t you score as high as you scored? They say, what’s the use. I don’t get anything by it. I already got what I wanted. I got accepted in college, but you say to them, well, why don’t you study for the love of it? Don’t you love your subjects, for the joy of it, for the intellectual integrity of studying and applying yourself truthfully to that endeavor. Should you or shouldn’t you study like that? They say, oh come on, man, forget about it. Let me relax. I got what I wanted. This is the way they approach it. And people say, if that is the case with the young people and with education and college admission, how much more with spiritual life and with God. If you say, and if you preach the message of this grace, if you preach the message that you’re preaching the gospel, the gospel of grace, then people are going to say, well, I have total acceptance from God. Not based on my performance, past, present, or future. Not based on anything that I’ve done or I have not done. It is all based on Christ so that I’m totally accepted. He’s never going to leave me, never forsake me. I am never going to be disqualified. He loves me totally, loves me unconditionally. And if you say that, then don’t you think that they will lose all incentive to live a holy life for God, and people will find it unnecessary to strive, to live the best possible life for God’s glory, because it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t bring them anything, they’re already fully accepted anyway. They have it anyway. 

So a lot of people say, that’s why we should not preach the gospel in this way, because you’re not just preaching grace and faith and all of these things all the time, tell them that you are accepted, you are loved and you are a child of God and God will bless you and all these things is not going to be good for the people, because it will not provide the incentive to live and strive to live for God. People will become slack. They will not live for God in the best way possible. What you need to do is you need to — yeah, of course say that God is love, and that God is kind, God is merciful. God’s grace is there and faith is there, and so on. Faith in God is important, so on, but you need to balance it out, they say with the message that says that if you don’t live properly, if you don’t pray enough, if you don’t fast enough, if you don’t do this, if you don’t do that, God is going to leave you behind. God, if Jesus comes, are you going to go? Or are you going to be left behind? Are you going to be found worthy? When he comes to join him? Are you going to be found worthy to enter into heaven, to spend eternity with him, or are you going to be left out? Will your prayers now, because you are not living to your best, will your prayers even be heard by God? Will it even reach the roof of this building? Because your life is not up to the mark, that kind of preaching is necessary, they say. The strict preaching that lays down the law and smacks them on their head, threatens them, warns them and tells them that they’re going to lose big time, if they don’t straighten out.

That kind of preaching is necessary, they say. You need to balance it out. So if you’re preaching 52 weeks, one fellow told me you need to spend half the time calculatedly preaching this kind of thing. And then maybe a half the time preaching, grace, faith and all that you want to preach, but you need to preach half the time like this. They need to know that God is going to smack them on their head and break their head, and punish them, do this and that, and they’re under God’s wrath and God is against them, and God is going to break their legs and break their hands or something bad is going to happen to them. Some of these people, when something bad happens to them, they immediately interpreted it as God doing these things. They say both must be mixed. Faith and works must be mixed. Grace and works must be mixed and balanced out then we’ll have it all right, they say. I say that it’s absolutely wrong. I’ll tell you why, because all I need to do is, and all we preachers and all believers need to do is look at how Paul deals with it. What did he preach? The question is very simple. What is his great apostle, the greatest preacher of the Christian faith? What did he preach? Even when he writes to the Galatians, what is he writing? Or when he writes to the Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and so on. What is he writing? What is the method of his preaching? Is he just preaching on grace and faith and completely discarding works, or is he even saying don’t bother about works. Works is not — preaching against works and for faith and for grace only. Is he a grace preacher in that way? Like some people imagine that if you’re a grace preacher, you just preach grace and completely preach against all works. Say that it’s not at all necessary. 

Did Paul come to Galatia preaching saying, well, you better be glad people that I have come. I brought a new religion. The good news about this religion is God loves you. God cares about you. God’s favor is upon you. You don’t have to bother about how you live. You live whatever way you want. Sin doesn’t matter. Wickedness doesn’t matter. All these things don’t matter. God still loves you as you are. Works don’t matter. So you just rejoice and join my religion. Is that what he preached? No. You look at what he preached and compare it with what the people that came there and preached from Jerusalem, in the Galician church, the people that were preaching against what Paul preached. Look at what those works preachers preached. The so-called works preachers, we call them are false preachers preached and look at what Paul preached. People say that Paul preached only grace and not works. And they preached only works, and not grace. Now, if you look at that, it’s not true. They also believed in Jesus, they’re Christians, they’re Christian people, they believe in the cross, they believe in Jesus, death and resurrection. They believe on the work of Jesus on the cross and so on. It’s not that they don’t believe. They preached it, but they say they also want to follow the law. They want to be circumcised and keep the law, and so on.

Paul didn’t just preach grace and faith. He also preached how we must live and so on. Well, you read the last four chapters of Romans, last three chapters of Ephesians. And similarly later, half of all his epistles have to do with life, living the life for God, and it always goes to 10 commandments and he gives the interpretation, the correct interpretation of the 10 commandments based on Jesus’s interpretation. Oh, how can he say that he was against good works. So it is not a matter of what they emphasize. The people say — people totally misunderstand this problem. They say, Paul emphasized grace. The others emphasized — Those were against him and preached in Galatians. They emphasized works. Paul emphasized faith. They emphasized works. This is the way they think. But no, both of them preached about both things, faith and works, grace and works. Both of them preached about both things. So what is the difference between the two people Paul and his opposers? What is the difference in what they preached? Both of them preached works and grace. You know what the difference is? The difference, now better get this, the difference is in the reason they gave for the works that they demanded, the reason they gave for the works that they demanded. They said, in order to be accepted by God, you need to be circumcised, in order to receive the blessing of Abraham, you need to go through what Abraham went through. The covenant sign, the circumcision, it started with Abraham. How can you receive the blessing of Abraham without going through the circumcision? 

Paul comes out against it, powerfully. They’d come and preached about Abraham and the history of Abraham and how he was circumcised. Circumcision was introduced by God, through him. And they glorified circumcision and said, you got to be circumcised because Abraham and all his children, all his descendants are circumcised, only then you enter into the blessing of Abraham. The blessing of Abraham is spoken about in third chapter and Paul comes and says, all right, I’ll take Abraham and preach to you. Listen to this. He says, and it starts from verse six onwards in third chapter. And I went through it last week. He says, the blessing of Abraham is not for those that have been physical descendants of Abraham, all that our faith are descendants of Abraham. Those that are of faith, they are, he says. No, there are only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. So then those were a faith are blessed with believing Abraham. So who’s blessed with the Abraham’s blessings. Those that are the faith who are the sons of Abraham, not the physical descendants. The sons of Abraham are those who are of faith who believe like Abraham. Why? Because it is not right to say that Abraham was blessed because he was circumcised because Abraham was blessed. He was counted as righteousness before God, or righteous before God, long before he was circumcised in chapter 15 of Genesis, it says Abraham believed, and it was counted as righteousness. Circumcision came much later, several years later. And even before 15 chapter, in 12 chapter, when God first calls Abraham, he says, “In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Paul commenting on it says in third chapter that the scriptures foresaw, the scriptures foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.

God would justify the Gentiles, not by circumcision, by faith. Scriptures foresaw it? Where? When did this scripture foresaw it? In Genesis chapter 12, verse 3, when it said, in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So it says the scriptures foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand saying in you all the nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. Chapter 3, verse 8 and 9 completely knocks it off. Paul completely knocks off their argument. They’re saying Abraham was circumcised. You must be circumcised. Abraham’s blessing can come only through going through what Abraham went through. Paul says Abraham never went through circumcision in order to be blessed. Abraham was blessed long before circumcision ever came. It was after he was blessed, circumcision was given as a sign of his covenant with God. So the reason they gave for works, that is where the two differ, not in what they preached. Both of them preached grace and works. But the reason that each of them gave four works was different. What is the reason that they gave. The works people, the people that insisted on circumcision and all the keeping, the law and all of that, the reason that they gave was that they need to do this work. They need to be circumcised in order to be saved. They need to be circumcised in order to be blessed, to receive the blessing of Abraham, they need to be circumcised in order to receive anything from God, you cannot come into the family of God without meeting these requirements, they said. What did Paul preach? What is the reason that he gave? He also preached works. Don’t tell me he didn’t preach works. What did he preach about works? And look at what the reason he gives. 

He says in Titus chapter 2, verse 11 to 14, he says, for the grace of God has appeared, that offers salvation to all people. So he’s talking about the grace of God, appearing to give salvation to all people. Listen to this. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled. Look at that. What does the grace do? It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. And then what does it teach us? It teaches us to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in this present age. That’s what grace does. So the grace message is not saying you can live as you like. It’s all right, God will accept you. No, no, no, no. Grace message says that the grace of God teaches you to say no to ungodliness and passions, worldly passions, and deliver self-controlled, upright, godly life in this present age. Then it says, while we wait for the blessed hope, while we wait for the coming of the Lord, live like this, it says, that’s what grace teaches. Listen to — this are words of Paul, while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing that’s the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify him for himself at people that are his very own. So why did Jesus die? What is grace? What is grace teaching? Listen to this. Racist teaching that you say no to ungodliness and worldly passions live self-controlled upright, godly lives in this present age, waiting for the blessed hope, which is the appearing of the great God and savior Jesus Christ. And what did he do? He gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness, and to purify for himself, a people that are his very own. 

This is what grace teaches my friend. It’s a blast for me when people say that grace preachers are preaching, whatever you want to do, you can do. God loves you. That’s what grace teaches. Grace does not teach that. Grace teaches to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. Grace teaches to live a self-controlled upright and godly life. Grace teaches us that Jesus gave himself on the cross of Calvary to die for us so that he can redeem us from all wickedness and so that he can purify for himself, a people that are his very own. And then notice the final line, eager to do what is good, purify for himself a people who are his very own, eager to do what is good. I love that. Eager to do what is good. Now who said, grace says we don’t believe in works. People always talk like that. Those who talk like that terribly, misrepresenting the whole message.

True grace message says that we say no to ungodliness, worldly passions, live self-controlled upright, godly life while we’re waiting for Jesus to come because he has given himself to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself, a people who are eager to do what is good, eager to do what is good. Grace tells us to say no to ungodliness, but also grace gives us the incentive, the inward incentive to do what is good. Who said, if you preach grace, you won’t have incentive to do what is good that you would feel like doing whatever you want and living like whatever way you want. No, grace gives us the incentive to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. Grace gives us the incentive to do what is good. 

So what does Paul say about the reason to obey? The reason they give is that only if you do this, you’ll be accepted, you’ll be blessed, you will get anything from God. You’re going to have a relationship with God. You can come into the family of God, wrong, wrong, wrong. The reason is wrong. It’s the reason that is wrong. It’s not that they didn’t preach faith or grace that they preached only works. That reason they gave for their works was wrong. The wonderful example is circumcision because Paul had this great battle about circumcision, went through the whole controversy, went all the way to Jerusalem. Had the council, addressed them, spoke about it, got a confirmation from the apostles there and came back successfully. He even had to confront Peter on this matter at one time, that’s how he had to fight a battle. This resulted in Barnabas and him going their own ways because he was very hurt that Barnabas took the side of the circumcision group after having traveled with them, and after having preached the gospel to the Gentiles so much.

So Paul went through a lot, suffered a lot because of this cause of circumcision. But then after he comes back from Jerusalem and then starts on the second missionary journey. There going Jerusalem happened between the first and second missionary journey. And then he starts on the second missionary journey after all this controversy settled and he won the victory. Jerusalem apostles agreed that circumcision is not necessary. He goes to [inaudible – 00:48:39] when he starts out on his journey, second journey and picks up Timothy, a young convert there whose mother is a Jew and father is a Greek. And then he thinks about this. Well, I’m taking a Greek guy, the father is a Greek. Everywhere I go, I’m going to have problem. The Jewish people will not sit down and eat with him. They will not allow him in all the same privileges that they allow a Jew. And Paul always go to the synagogues and start there. This will become an issue. He knows. So he takes him and circumcises him. A lot of people have a problem with that. They say he fought so much for this, had to fight Peter, went to Jerusalem, had to go through so much hurt because of this. Then finally he does the very thing that he stood against, that is the circumcision. Why did he do that? Well, the reason is important. The reason he did it was he didn’t want Timothy to feel hurt wherever he goes, that he will be rejected from the table as people sat and ate, they will not have a Gentile who’s uncircumcised sit and eat with them in the same table. They didn’t want them to be — Paul didn’t want him to be mistreated because he’ll be mainly going to the Jews and synagogues and start there.

Paul didn’t want this to be a hindrance to the preaching of the gospel because the Jewish synagogues were giving him the opening. So that was very important. He didn’t want to ruin the chances, so he circumcised him. The reason he circumcised was this, the reason he circumcised was not that because of circumcision, he’s going to go to heaven when he dies or because of circumcision is going to be saved or because of circumcision he is going to receive the blessing of Abraham or anything like that. No, Paul believes that Timothy got it long time ago before he was ever circumcised. He circumcised, circumcised him because it was a matter of convenience. And why did a lot of trouble? That is the reason he did it. The reason is important. The difference between the two people, Paul and his opposers was the reason that they gave for following the law was different. That that is the thing that saves that without that you cannot be saved, without that you cannot receive God’s blessing, without that you cannot receive God’s favor, without that you cannot receive. That reason is wrong. What is Paul’s reason? Paul gives his reason. What is his reason? Paul’s reason is that he does it because God has loved him, gave himself for him. God has given him the grace to say no to ungodliness and the incentive to do good becomes from this grace that has now come to him. He does good works because of this. He is not doing good works to gain any favor from God. He is not doing good works in order to get saved. He’s not doing good work so that he can get some merit through this and go to God and say, I’ve done this much. Give me this. No, he knows that good words don’t qualify or disqualify him. But he does it because he loves God and he lives for God. And God has done so much for him. He has suffered and died for him to redeem him and to make him his own.

He has loved him so much. And because of God’s love, he does the good works that moves him to do the good works that motivates him to live for God. Say no to ungodliness. That’s the reason.

Now good works for a good reason. That is good works for a wrong reason. The first wrong reason, he says, for good works, listen to this chapter 5 verse 1, stand fast, therefore in the liberty, by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. He says, don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Why is he saying again? These were Gentiles. They were never under the law of Jewish people. So why is he saying don’t be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Even though they were not Jews and they didn’t have the Jewish laws, they still were in a sort of system which governed them. There was a law that they knew that they had to submit themselves to. In the book of Romans, you read in the first couple of chapters that Jews had 10 commandments, but the non-Jews will one day stand before God when he judges them and say, well, you can judge the Jews because you’ve given them 10 commandments. They know it’s wrong. They know it’s wrong to covet. They know it’s wrong to murder. No, it’s wrong to bear false witness. They know that you have honor your father and mother, you can’t have other gods. And the Lord, God is one and so on. They know all that and they fail to fulfill those things, punish them. But you never gave us the 10 commandments. We didn’t know the 10 commandments. Therefore, we didn’t know what is good and what is wrong? What is right and what is wrong? So how can you judge us when you didn’t even give us the 10 commandments? That’s what they will ask it seems.

And God says, how can you say you didn’t know what is right and wrong just because you didn’t get the 10 commandments or the law, you knew what is right and what is wrong all the time. How, because you knew it in your heart. You knew it in your heart. Otherwise you wouldn’t be talking about the man that lived next door to you as an evil man. You wouldn’t be talking about your neighbor as a wicked person. If you’re talking about others, as wicked and evil and complaining about them, then that means, you know what is right and what is wrong. Everybody knew what is right and what is wrong. That’s what Paul is arguing there. Even those that didn’t have the 10 commandments knew what is right and what is wrong. They’re bound by it in every society that our laws and restrictions because otherwise people will go, otherwise wickedness will become rampant. It will be impossible for people to live societies to exist.

So not only the Jews were under the law, imprisoned by the law so to speak. The law restricting them, serving as a wall, showing them you cannot exceed this. You cannot cross this boundary. This is at a normal so far, so good, but not after this. The law defines what is right and what is wrong. Gentiles also lived with such a law, a law that is written in their hearts. They knew all along and the societies knew all along. That’s what Jesus said — That’s what Paul is saying. 

So all of us, before we come to Christ, we are like in a prison and we are entangled with a yoke of bondage. The law kept us bound so that we don’t sin. It kept us bound. Why do we put people in prison. We put people in prison because they have no control or what they do. They’re stealing, they’re killing. They’re violent. They’ve done so many things wrong. So they needed to be locked up because if you don’t lock them up, they’ll be out there doing that. So in order to — because they don’t have the control within themselves, they had to have external control, just like the iron bar being bent externally, you had to bend them. You had to bring them to shape and you have to work on them. You have to rehabilitate them. You had to teach them a lesson. You had to — That’s why they’re kept in prison, hoping that somehow that will change them and when they come out, they’ll be better people. That’s the reason they put them in prison. Now, Paul says, don’t go back into that. You been like in a prison. See why the old Testament people had law, the Jewish people had law. Why the law was necessary. The law was necessary for the same purpose, because if the law was not there, everybody will be doing whatever they wanted, whatever they very well please and it lead to rampant wickedness, where it will be unbearable for people to exist. People cannot live. Societies cannot exist and continue. That’s why love was necessary. The law was like a prison, holding people in the yoke of bondage, tying them up to it, holding them from doing things that they are not to be doing. But when you believed in Jesus Christ, when the gospel of grace came, when the message about the gospel of Jesus Christ came, when you believed in it. When I believed in it, what happened? We were set free from that yoke of bondage. Now we are free. 

Now, what does it mean? The person is in a jail is kept there because he doesn’t have inward control. He cannot control himself. He cannot keep his hands to himself, he doing all kinds of wickedness. So he’s kept in prison. When he’s released from prison. Does it mean now that he can do whatever he wants and whatever he very well pleases. No, when they release him, they hope that he’s learnt a lesson that become better. There are programs that teach them and train them to live a better life. When we believe in Christ, and when we come into Jesus, when we receive the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are released from that bondage. We don’t live by that law anymore. Why? Because before we didn’t have any control, we would be doing anything and everything that pleased us, that led to sin. That is why we had to be kept locked up under the law. We were in a yoke of bondage, enslaved to the law, but now through Jesus, we are set free because what Jesus has done in the work of salvation by God’s grace is that he has now come and given us the grace. Grace for what? race to live a new life. He’s given us a new heart. The heart, wicked heart has become a new heart, a soft, good heart, a heart of mercy, kindness, love grace, a heart of goodness. There’s different. It’s a different heart. Therefore, we are let loose now because now we don’t need the Lord to control us. We don’t need external control. We don’t need anybody bending us from the outside because we’ve been put through the fire of the holy spirit inwardly. God has done a work in us. We’ve been changed powerfully by the power of the holy spirit through regeneration. The work of the holy spirit has happened in our hearts. So we are different.

We can now say no to sins and we can eagerly do what is good. You have a different heart. Therefore, we can live a different life. That is way we are set free. So he says, stand first, therefore in the liberty, for which Christ, by which Christ has made us free. Don’t give up this Liberty. You been imprisoned enslaved by a yoke of by the law, live by the law because it was necessary to keep you tied up because you didn’t have external control. You didn’t have any restraining power. You didn’t have anything to restrain you from being bad and doing things only the law did it, but now the spirit does it. The new nature does it. The holy spirit in you does it. Therefore, don’t go back to that. It was very sad. He was very sad that the Galatians after hearing him preach, have gone back to that. Some people don’t like the liberty, they like to be locked up. They like somebody to bend them whichever way they want them to be. They want to live under that kind of a thing system and be bound up by that. Always somebody watching over, always somebody making sure that they’re doing right, but Christian life is a life of true freedom where you are not in a yoke of bondage to anything and anybody, that you are set free, you’re led by the holy spirit, you have a new nature. You can now do God’s will. You can now do the good works. You are eager to do the good works. You’re able to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions.

This is the ability of the believer. And then in verse 5, let me point this out and then finish. In verse 5. In chapter 5 of Galatians verse 5, it says, now let me read to you from verse 2 onwards. Indeed, I Paul say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. In other words, he’s says, you want to be circumcised. It will profit you, nothing. You are not going to receive any profit by circumcision, he says, because it is not going to qualify you or disqualify. Circumcision will not qualify you, uncircumcision will not disqualify you, he says. I testify again to every man, verse 3, who becomes circumcised, that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You want to keep the law. You want to go and be circumcised. Then you become obligated to the rest of the law. You come under the whole system of the law. And when you come under the whole system of the law, nobody succeeds, nobody wins because the law was written in such a way that everybody fails because it was given not so people can become righteous by it. It was given so people can be proven to be sinners. It was given to point them to Christ. It was given to show them their need for a savior. So you want to be circumcised. Remember, you’ll go under the complete law system. You cannot take one law and then leave the rest out. You go and get circumcised. You come under the law. You want that? He says, because in that, you’ll never come before God, because you had to come by your qualification, your worthiness, and you’ll never make it, he says. You became estranged from Christ. Verse 4, you who attempt to be justified by the law, you become estranged from Christ. You’re fallen from grace, that’s it. You’ve gone from Christ. You’ve fallen from grace, if you want to be circumcised.

Then verse 5, listen to this, for we through the spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. So he’s talking about them first. So you want to go through the circumcision. This is what it means. You’ll be obligated to the whole law. Circumcision is not going to profit you anything. And you become estranged from Christ and you have fallen from grace. And then he says, what about us? That’s your condition to them? He says, and then he says, talking about himself and those who stand with him, he says for we through the spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. What is he saying? The word hope here is very important. He says, there is hope. What is that hope? The hope of righteousness. That means that one day we’ll stand before God. And we will be brilliantly shiny before God, God has given us his righteousness. His righteousness has become ours now. What has legally become ours will in reality become ours. And we’ll be shining with that righteousness. We are waiting for that day to come, he says. Eagerly of it. He says, for the hope of righteousness. Now the word hope in the new Testament has taken on. The word hope in English language has taken on a new meaning because when we say I hope it rains, the word hope is used to indicate uncertainty of something. I hope it rains means it may rain or not rain. There’s an uncertainty about it. But when the new Testament uses the word hope, it’s totally opposite. It’s not uncertainty. The hope, the word hope is used for absolute certainty. 

So what Paul is saying is I’m absolutely certain that we are righteous. We are not trying to get righteous. We are not trying to qualify. We are not trying to become better. We are not trying to gain access. We are not trying to get some kind of worthiness before God. We are not trying for that. We wait for the hope of righteousness. And he says, that is the Liberty of hope that you must not give up. Don’t give up the Liberty of that hope. You’ve been set free to live for God. Live for God. Be a free person. Be led by the spirit. Believe in the fact that you have a new nature. You have the holy spirit inside of you. There is a tremendous work of the holy spirit that has happened. You are not a person that is bent like a bent rod, bent by people, the way that they want you to be. You haven’t by the creator himself. The one who made you and he has recreated you, made you a new person with a new nature, with new possibilities and a new future. Live that life. Do not go back to that lower life where people bend you the way they want you to. That’s religion, he says. Don’t go back into that life because you’ve got a much more wonderful life than that. This is the right way, he says.

The wrong way is going back into bondage. Wrong way is going back under the law. Wrong way is going back to where you were into the prison of the law that law governs you. The right way is to live in the Liberty of this hope, knowing that you’re sure that you have the hope of righteousness, live in that. And we blessed and be a blessing to others. This produces two different kinds of people. Let me say this and close. It produces two different kinds of people. The people that lean towards the works religion, so to speak. They’ll always be tense because they’re always tense about whether they’re acceptable to God. They’re always tensed about whether they’ve satisfied God’s requirement, but then everything is all right. Whether God will give them favor, whether God will bless them. Whether God hears their prayer. These are the people that are always writing to some evangelist asking them for prayer, because they certainly believe that their prayer will not be answered. They surely believe their prayer will not be answered because they believe well, I’m not so perfect. I’m lacking. I need to work on myself a little more. I need to be more holy and I need to get myself worthy. So they are never sure, they never happy therefore, they’re never sure therefore they’re never at peace in their heart. There’s always something that troublesome. There’s no joy. There’s no happiness. There’s no lifting up of hands. There is no joy bubbling out from them.

But those who cling to the grace of God, they’re always happy. They’re filled with joy because they know no matter what, God is their heavenly father, that God loves them. That Jesus has given us life to redeem them. That they can. They believe that even when they fail morally, sometimes, even when they fail in living a holy life, they know that God is there to help them, give them a hand, caused them to succeed because Jesus died to redeem them and deliver them from all wickedness. The grace of God has given to them so that they can say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and live a pure life for God. They know, even when they fail that God is working on them, that God is there to help them. That God is not kicking them out because they have failed, that God is helping them even more because they are failing and they will come up and they will win. They’re happy, they can rejoice. They can go to church and clap their hands and sing and shout for joy. There is peace in their hearts and there is rest. What about you my friend?