Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: Today on Abounding Grace: standing strong in grace. A careful study in the Bible you'll see that over 250 times the word stand is used in the New Testament alone. And how important it is for us to stand. Learning how to stand strong in adversity, standing up for our faith, standing still—this is an important one—standing still while God works on our behalf, not taking things into our own hands. In our lives, there are definitely times to sit, times to walk, and times to run, but there are also times to stand, to take your stand.

Guest (Male): A warm welcome to each of you. This is Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Recently, we've been going through Galatians, which really emphasizes that we're to live by grace and not under the law. While we may nod our head in agreement, are we applying what we know into how we live? As we transition to chapter five, we get into a very practical portion of the epistle. We're talking about how to stand strong in grace. Here is Pastor Ed.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles and open them to Galatians chapter five as we start a new chapter. I've entitled our Bible study, "Stand Strong in Grace." That is the conclusion and that is the word from Paul to the believers in Galatia. After spending four chapters laying the theological foundation for the doctrine of grace by displaying to us the great character and nature of God, he now comes to the activities and the responses, or you could say the application of everything that he has taught.

You'll notice that in Paul's letters. When you read Paul's letters, they almost always divide in half or close to half. The first part of Paul's letters is always theological. He's teaching you the principle, reviewing it in light of God, in light of who God is, and in light of what God has done. Then the second part of his letters will be our response or our application. You'll see it in Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. He starts with the understanding of who God is and then he says, "Now that you know this, this is how I want you to respond."

This is a little different than perhaps how you were raised in the church that you attended. The church today almost moves us to action. Do this, do this, do this, do this, never really revealing to us why the activity, why the service, or why we would want to. The answer is we're always the responders. God is the initiator. It is because of His great work and His great love that we now have the privilege of serving Him and being used by Him.

So we're starting a new section of the scriptures and notice it starts in Galatians chapter five with that instruction: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." He gives that instruction: stand fast. Standing is very important in the scriptures. Throughout the Bible, standing is a great place to be.

If you're taking notes, you'll see Moses standing at the burning bush in Exodus chapter three, verse five. It says, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." The tribe of Levi, they were ministering to the Lord and were standing before the Lord. Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse eight says, "At that time, the Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and to bless in His name to this day."

The house of the righteous is mentioned in the Bible as standing. Proverbs chapter 12, verse seven says, "The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand." And then finally, Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus is standing at the door. Revelation chapter three, verse 20 says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."

A careful study in the Bible shows that over 250 times the word stand is used just in the New Testament alone. It is so important for us to stand. We must learn how to stand strong in adversity, standing up for our faith, and standing still. This is an important one: standing still while God works on our behalf, not taking things in our own hands. In our lives, there are definitely times to sit, and times to walk, and times to run, but there are also times to stand, to take your stand.

Paul, as he's writing to the believers in the Galatia region, as he battles the legalists, comes to this very practical part in his letter. He turns a corner to exhort the believers to action. In the middle of false gospels, false teaching, and heavy-handed rules and regulations, Paul's answer is to stand fast. It's a little counterintuitive. If they're surrounded by false teachers and all this stuff disrupting the church, you would think that your action would be a little bit more forward, like go after them, take them out, and remove them. All of those things may be necessary at some time or another, but the real response is to stand fast in the grace of God.

That is the position and the posture to take. Don't move an inch or a millimeter. Stay strong and stand fast in the freedom, the liberty, and the glorious grace of God. Notice what he says in verse one: "Stand fast." The idea is to take your stand. While the legalists were telling you to work hard, Paul says to stand fast. Just don't move at all. Verse one says Jesus Christ has made us free. You're not to move from that. Stay where you are. Don't let anybody move you away.

The Galatians were living life like all of us were living life. They were pagans with no real background in Jewish religion or Judaism. Out of the blue, some guy shows up to town, grabs their attention, and shares a message of a creator God who loves them so much that He sent His son Jesus Christ to die on their behalf. They believed that message and immediately were set free from all of their past and all of their bondage. Immediately they were set free and given an eternal hope.

As they were living life in that new freedom, Paul stays a little bit then he takes off. As they're living in their new freedom, other guys come to town and they say, "Oh no, that's not enough. You need more than just grace, more than just simple faith." They would come like many people do today. We're in Galatians five now, and for the 15 other Bible studies we have done in 15 weeks, I've been getting emails from people very upset with me teaching about the doctrine of grace. Pretty soon, I can't wait for these to go on the radio so I'll get more email.

I'm fine with it. To be upset with the grace of God means you just don't understand the heart of God. You might need to go back to Hebrews or go back to the beginning of Galatians. Think about what it means to be adopted into a family. When you're adopted into a family, you're just in the family. What else do you need to do? Do you need to work your whole life to be accepted by that family? No, it's a done deal. Sign on the dotted line. You are my child as if I gave birth to you.

Because of that, you become an heir. You get everything. You're not only a part of my family, but you own everything that we own because we are family. You don't need to work for it. You don't need to work hard to keep it, to stay a son, or to stay a daughter. You just are. And yet they come along and say, "No, you can't be that free. You can't enjoy that because it has to be harder than that." Paul says because of your freedom and what God has done for you, don't give it up so easily. I would even say don't give it up at all.

Don't let some weird person come in with some weird teaching and say, "Oh, I didn't know that. I might as well give up my freedom and become in bondage to you." God delivered you from that kind of stuff. The freedom that you have was given to you by Jesus Himself. Notice what he says: "Don't be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." You have been set free from rules, regulations, and religious activity. Remember, because they were pagan, they lived a very fearful, superstitious life. They were always worried and concerned that their life didn't measure up and that the gods, with a little "g," would wipe them out.

It's interesting to me how many believers live superstitiously today and are not just trusting in the Lord. They say, "I don't know, I might have done that wrong and God's just judging me." Well, wait a minute, didn't Jesus take that judgment upon the cross for you? It's not a superstitious way that God wants you to live. He wants you to live in freedom. You don't have to worry about what God is going to do or isn't going to do.

There are definitely natural consequences to our sin. There's nothing we can really do about that except not sin. But God loves you. He proved that to us. He's not watching your life looking for a place for you to fail. He doesn't want you to fail. He wants you to succeed. He's done everything that He possibly can to see you make it, and He wants you to make it all the way through. That's why He promised that what He began in you, He will complete until the day of Jesus Christ.

He's for you and not against you in Christ. Don't become entangled. Circle that word entangled. It means trapped, ensnared, or you could even say stuck. Don't be trapped by anyone that would want to take you and have dominion over your faith, which is exactly what these folks do. We were having to do a late-night Walmart run again this week. It was late at night, and the parking lot was pretty empty, except there were Mormon missionaries hanging out in the Walmart parking lot walking up to doors.

It was happening in the car in front of me. We were getting out and they were coming in. They walked right up to the guy, scaring him. I looked at Maria and said, "I don't feel like it right now. Let's just go in and get what we have to get. It's late, I'm tired, I don't feel like it." What they're coming to you with is a message that will bring you under their care. Maybe not those two kids themselves, but the religious system that takes you away from Jesus Christ and takes you to a man. You don't want to follow a man because that man did not give you freedom.

That man did not die for you. That man actually took the doctrines and the truths surrounding Jesus Christ and twisted them into a way that will take you away from sufficiency. Jesus is enough. Have you heard that? Jesus is enough. So don't let anybody rip you off, even if you just want to go in and get a banana in Walmart. You're going in for some produce, and they come up and ask, "Can I tell you about another gospel?" No! Because it's not another gospel. It's not good news; it's bad news. It's bad news that would steal you away from your simple faith.

Today you might even answer, "But Ed, I don't know much about the Bible." Yeah, but you're learning, aren't you? "I don't know much about what it means to follow Christ." Yeah, but you're learning, aren't you? Nobody knows all that we need to know, but we're growing, and we're learning, and we're following, and we're obeying, and we're repenting. Our lives are being lived to honor God. Paul is saying to just stand fast. Don't let anybody move you.

That's a word for the 21st century, too. I'm warning you right now. I've seen it before, but I don't want to see it anymore: anybody that was worshipping here, hands lifted, loving God, not walking with the Lord anymore because you got ripped off along the way. The reason you got ripped off along the way is because you didn't choose to stand fast. Stay put. Or, as Jesus would put it, abide in Me and I in you.

No matter what comes your way. To stand fast, you actually have to brace yourself for what anything comes your way. Brace yourself, be ready, and be strong against anything that might come while you're worshipping the Lord. That's what he's telling the Galatians. Everything I've told you, everything I've shared with you, and all the truth: stand fast. Verse two: "Indeed, I Paul say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And again, I testify to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by the law, you have fallen from grace."

It is a very controversial passage, but it doesn't need to be controversial because Paul's making it pretty simple. I find that in the church world, the simple things people like to argue about the most. This isn't a very complicated passage. He says if you think that being circumcised and going back to the law is the way of salvation, you don't know Jesus. You have become estranged. It's not that they've lost their salvation; they never had it. You don't get it.

Remember when Jesus talked about the seed that was sown? He says a sower went out to sow seed and he sowed four different types of seed. Only one seed took root. The other three were ripped off. There is a group of people in the Galatian region that were ripped off because the next time a new message came, they wanted to be circumcised. Can you imagine that? Lining up and saying, "Yeah, circumcise me. That's what I need. I can't be in a right relationship with God until I go through that." What do you mean? Who told you that? Your heart has been circumcised. You have been changed from the inside out because of the new covenant.

But he says, "I'm telling you guys, if that's what you want to do, you've changed your relationship." You see that in verse three? You may not have noticed that, but that's what he's saying. If you want to go back to circumcision, you've changed your relationship. We're no longer talking family terms here. Now you've become a debtor. Now you're in debt.

If we use the family language of our homes, you don't sit down and write down how expensive your kids are. They are very expensive, but love keeps no record of wrong. Don't sit your kids down one day and say, "You know what? Before you move out, you owe me $250,000. And that's just for your birth years. That was just the hospital bill for your birth." That's not the type of relationship you have in your family. If you do that, you've forgotten what family is.

Your kids are not debtors to you. They don't owe you anything. You brought them into the world in obedience to God. You raised them as unto the Lord because God's desire is for you to be a parent. They don't owe you anything. When you start using that kind of language, you have forgotten your role as a parent. Your role as a parent is to get two jobs if you need to take care of your kids. Your role as a parent is to give them a safe place to cover them, protect them, teach them, disciple them, and get them to Jesus.

It's not to sit them down every week and say, "Okay, this was a pretty good week. You worked off five dollars." Then the next week you sit them down and say, "Yeah, this was not a good week. You owe me $300,000." That language is just not family language. I understand that some of you had a very challenging upbringing and that might have been the language of your home, but God is showing you there's a greater way. It's much greater than the mistakes our parents or grandparents made. There's healing.

We don't have debtor relationships. My kids don't owe me anything. We're not debtors. When you think of freedom, how Jesus has made you free and how you experience this newness of life, it's important to recognize that I didn't give you this freedom. A pastor didn't give it to you, a church didn't give it to you, a religious system didn't give it to you, and a bookstore didn't give it to you. Christ has made you free. Therefore, you don't owe me anything.

I didn't give you this freedom. I didn't die for your sins. You don't owe me anything. Your relationship is with Jesus, not with some man, some religion, some church, or some movement. Your eyes need to be on the Lord. He's the one that is worthy of your devotion and your commitment. But you know what that also means? I don't owe you anything. You didn't give me this freedom. You didn't save my soul. You didn't rescue me when I was in the depth of sin.

So what it does is it puts our connection on the relational scale. We don't live by what you owe me and what I owe you. The Bible says if I'm going to owe anything to anyone, you know what it is? Love. I get to serve you and you get to serve me. Not because we have to; that's the debtor. We check our mail once a week so that we don't see it every day, but when we check it, we already know there's going to be letters in there that say, "Pay up." I'm not friends with them. They're not my buddy. Every month it is: pay up, pay up, pay up.

The reality of relationship is not that you come here and owe me something or I owe you. I don't come here because I feel indebted to you. I come here because I love God and I love you. It makes it very easy. We speak in relational terms. I get to exercise the spiritual gifts that God has given to me. I get to be who God's made me. We get to grow together. You have gifts and I have gifts.

But this idea of going back to the law, even if you impose it on yourself, or going to a legalistic type of mindset to try to please Ed, try to please your mom and dad, or try to please everybody that has some list of rules for you, makes you a debtor. That's why relationships get broken through this nonsense. Because everything is about what you owe me. You don't owe me anything. Just love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And then I'll get to enjoy your love, or not. That's up to you. It's my heart to serve the Lord. I don't owe you anything except to love you and serve you because of all that God has done for us.

Guest (Male): This is Abounding Grace, and Pastor Ed Taylor is leading a study of Galatians right now. You can hear these radio programs on our website anytime at aboundinggraceradio.com. Another way to go and grow in the word is by downloading the Calvary Church app. This is a great way for you to take in the word of God wherever you may be.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Hey, this is Pastor Ed here at Calvary and Abounding Grace Media. I'd like to let you know about our brand new book. It's only a few months old, and it is titled "Letting Go of Your Past." It was written during a time where I felt in our church that a lot of the issues we were dealing with had to do with unforgiveness, feeling stuck, and dealing with church hurt or family hurt. I began to teach a series of Bible studies for our church that we edited into book form that will help you greatly.

The neat thing about this book is not only will it help you move forward and get unstuck, but all the net proceeds go to our missionaries. So it's kind of a double win. If you're looking for a resource like this for yourself, a friend, or a family member, the title is "Letting Go of Your Past" by Ed Taylor. You can get it on our store at calvarystore.com. That's calvarystore.com. Or you can pick it up anywhere it's available wherever you get books. There's even an audio version. If you like audiobooks, I'm really happy with the way that came out. Thank you for supporting the ministry. I just know the Lord's going to use this book. He already is. So be sure to get a copy or two.

Guest (Male): I think you'll find this book encouraging and helpful. Request a copy of "Letting Go of Your Past" today when you give a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Call 877-30-GRACE or order online at calvaryco.store. And please remember we are listener-supported. We'd very much appreciate your standing with us. If the Lord is leading you to take an active role in this ministry through either a one-time gift or ongoing support, please visit us online at aboundinggraceradio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. Well, that'll do it for today. Come back next time when Pastor Ed will pick up where we left off in Galatians here on Abounding Grace.