Standing Fast In The Liberty Of The Gospel By Robert Wurtz IITEXT:\tStand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1) There are two equal and opposite dangers that those who have begun in the Spirit face. For the one it is the temptation to fall back into a legalistic version of Christianity that I shall term here as the “works” of the flesh and the other is to give way to the “sins” of flesh (GK. Sarx). Our passage warns us to “stand fast” in our liberty. We have been called unto liberty; yet we must not use liberty as an occasion to the flesh; but by love we must serve one another. (Galatians 5:13) The Gospel of Jesus Christ is that in which man is gloriously transformed into a new creature and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. God begins a process of transforming man into His image from glory to glory by the Spirit of God. This process is also described as having God’s laws placed into our heart by the Holy Spirit. The transformation is one in which men become the embodiment of the law of God themselves. They are walking and breathing demonstrations of the word of God. In this lesson I propose to show:I. The importance of ‘standing fast’ in the liberty Christ providedII. The danger of being entangled with the bondage of legalismsIII. The danger of being entangled in the bondage of sinI. The importance of ‘standing fast’ in the liberty Christ providedA. The Gospel of Jesus Christ provides ‘liberty’ from the written laws of the Old Testament, while simultaneously bringing the Spirit filled believer into conformance with the righteous requirements of the law- establishing that law. This is a process worked out by God who is writing His laws in our hearts and minds as we familiarize ourselves with the word and seek to walk in fullness of the Spirit. It is the molding of the very personality and heart of an individual that they by nature do those things that are pleasing to God. Any compromise to this basic principal will lead to a misunderstanding of the Gospel and a false representation of Christ. B. Law and liberty cannot walk hand in hand. When a person begins to ‘do’ things thinking they are gaining God’s approval they are not standing fast in liberty. Our approval with God is based solely on the finished work of Jesus Christ. An example of this type of ‘legalism’ is found in the Galatian church trying to ‘circumcise’ their people as a sort of first step in going back under the Old Covenant system. They were also observing times and other ceremonial aspects of the law. These things can never bring favor with God. Favor with God begins when we agree with God concerning our inadequacy in pleasing God. When we serve the Lord we do it from the position of knowing that our salvation stands in the grace of God ALONE and that what we do- we do as His servants. We cannot get into a mindset that we are working for our salvation. You must TRUST Christ and not your works in order to be saved. If you do works it is because God created you unto good works and ordained you to walk in them. They come about as the natural outworking of the New Creature that you are. Good works that God accepts are the fruits of the Spirit yielded as we walk in the Spirit. They are the fruits yielded from a position of liberty in Christ- serving out of love and not to pay our sin debt. II. The danger of being entangled with the bondage of legalismsA. Legalism is the natural course of people who stop walking in the Spirit. Revival and renewal has at its end bringing people to the place where they walk in the Spirit. This should be the objective of every revival. This takes everything out of the hands of man and places it solely in the hands of God. Men will make up a host of legalisms with which to bring men into bondage and they are always centered in the strengths of the one making the rules to the exclusion of their weak areas. When a person masters a certain area of life they get the idea they are an authority on it and soon make all kinds of doctrines of men. This is ‘entanglement’ and trap setting. When folk are told things are sin that are not sin their conscience is effected by that false information. God said He would place His laws into our hearts and minds. This is the job and working of the Holy Ghost who's ultimate objective is to bring man into conformance with God’s definition of holiness. B. When the focus of Christianity is ‘outward’ and not ‘inward’ the focus is in opposition with the Holy Ghost. God is working on man to bring them into conformance with the personality of Jesus Christ. This is a million miles from a list of do’s and don’ts. Folk who walk in the Spirit are not conscious of a list of things, they are simply living out the Christian life as normal as a sinner goes down to sin. Unrepentant sinners are not generally deliberate in making lists of do’s and don’t in order to identify themselves as sinners and therefor live the sinful life. If you ask sinners to describe themselves they will not say things like; “I don’t go to church, I drink, I steal, I lie, I cheat. Etc.” They just live that way. They are not consciously thinking about how to be more sinful. They are being what they are naturally. Christians who walk in the Spirit are not walking around identifying themselves by what they are not- they are simply seeking God and being transformed into the person of Jesus Christ- living righteously naturally. When we resort to legalistic methods we are in desperate need of being refilled with the Spirit and walking in that Spirit naturally doing what Christians do. III. The danger of being entangled in the bondage of sinA. The DANGER of Christians falling into sin is a very real one. The danger of Christians ceasing to walk in the Spirit and beginning to fulfill the lusts of the flesh are very real as well. The New Testament spends much time revealing various means with which the enemy comes against God’s people to lure them back into sin. He can use triumph or tragedy. He can use success or failure. He can come in times of great Spiritual growth or during the mundane activities of everyday life. Walking in the Spirit means that we are very sensitive to what the Holy Ghost is saying and that we HEARKEN to His warnings in obeying His direction in maintaining victory over sin and achieving real holiness in this life. B. Dwight L. Moody once wrote; “We all have some weak point in our character. When we would go forward, it drags us back, and when we would rise up into higher spheres of usefulness and the atmosphere of heaven, something drags us down. Now I have no sympathy with the idea that God puts us behind the blood and saves us, and then leaves us in Egypt to be under the old taskmaster. I believe God brings us out of Egypt into the Promised Land, and that it is the privilege of every child of God to be delivered from every foe, from every besetting sin.” Of a truth God is willing and able that all His people live lives free from sin. The enemy is subtle and will try everything that has ever worked on you in the past to bring you down. If you frequently fall to a besetting sin, he has mastered his art in manipulating you to do his will. God has given us the wisdom and the grace to overcome all the whiles of the Devil. Yet for those who walk in perpetual victory he is constantly at work mixing up elixirs as it were of his deadly poison with which to steal, kill, and destroy a believers effectiveness and unction. Of all the things the enemy wants he wants to steal the utterance to speak rightly the truth of the Gospel. He wants to steal the ability to understand deep spiritual truths by corrupting the mind with all manor of vain imaginations. C. Much could be said about how the enemy works to get Christians to somehow live in the flesh. If they will not go into full-blown sin he will appeal to their pride and get them on a course to legalisms that glorify no one but those that hold to them. The enemy wants every Christian in the flesh and he is a master at doing it. He knows one thing for sure is that when the Strongman rules the house he is shut out! What happens? He works to distract you, attack you, and weaken you until you are not as full of the Holy Ghost as you need to be. It is at these times that you become vulnerable. He then sets a course to get you filling yourself with ‘fillers’ that steal your time from God and weaken you further. Sin is always crouching at the door of our hearts in an attack position and the Holy Ghost is there to master it. We cannot master sin- only God can do that through us as we yield to Him. God told Cain He must master sin- and the only way that can happen is through the Spirit filled life. This is why you MUST be filled with the Spirit. D. D. L. Moody continues on this topic of sin in the believer’s lives with an admonition to understand how sin effects our effectiveness for God. He concludes: “If there is some sin that is getting the mastery over you, you certainly cannot be useful. You certainly cannot bring forth fruit to the honor and glory of God until you get self-control. "He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city." If we haven't got victory over jealousy and worldly amusements and worldly pleasure, if we are not delivered from all these things, we are not going to have power with God or with men, and we are not going to be as useful as we might be if we got deliverance from every evil. There isn't an evil within or without but what He will deliver us from if we will let Him. That is what He wants to do. As God said to Moses, "I have come down to deliver." If He could deliver three million slaves from the hands of the mightiest monarch on earth, don't you think He can deliver us from every besetting sin, and give us complete victory over ourselves, over our temper, over our dispositions, over our irritableness and peevishness and snappishness? If we want it and desire it above everything else, we can get victory.” REMARKSI have often wondered if many Christians really understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One says one thing and another says another- but there is almost nothing said about the importance of walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is in itself what it means to be a Christian. It should be a primary focus of all of our teachings. Yet, there are so few that truly understand what walking in the Spirit is- so their Christianity is a strange mix of the Gospel and legalism. They know they need forgiveness, yet there is something missing in their understanding that keeps them from seeing the reality of genuine holiness. I once set out to add the 'Gospel' laws to the 613 laws of the Old Testament. According to the Jews the very first law in the Bible is to "be fruitful and multiply." The second is circumcision and the third is “not eating the sinew of the animal” (Jacob's hip issue). There are many then added from the rest of the books of Moses. I thought to add all the laws of Jesus to those 613. After exhausting myself in a painstaking labor I abandoned that project and realized that what the Gospels were showing me was how I WILL live and behave once I am Born Again, filled with the Spirit (continually), and Walking in the Spirit. It was not a list of "do's" and "don'ts"- it was the manifestation of what we were NOT doing (as impenitent sinners) and a revelation of what we WILL be doing once we are truly Born Again. We are not to be alarmed at the sheer number of commandments that scripture lines up. The Gospel teaches us that if we walk in the Spirit we are not under the law. Which law? Both the law of Moses and the 'law of sin.' This is what God requires of us- no more and no less. We are to walk in the Spirit. If you are in Christ and will genuinely walk in the Spirit you are not under the law and there is now NO condemnation to you. You will demonstrate the reality of God’s law in everyday living. To do this we must seek the Lord to be filled with the Spirit daily by His grace. HE will write His laws in our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit as we study and seek Him. As for the 'fullness of the Spirit'- If we ask for bread He will not give a stone- so just ask; "Lord fill me with your Holy Spirit... I am waiting on you..." Comments?
