Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed says you can experience freedom in Christ and his rest is available to all.

Pastor Ed Taylor: The good news that Jesus Christ has died for your sins and that he rose again from the dead, that's the good news. Today your sins can be forgiven. Stand your ground. Don't let anyone move you from the freedom and liberty that God has given you. He says it there in verse one, "Christ has made us free." No church has made you free, no pastor's made you free, no religious organization has made you free. Jesus himself died for your sins. And because he set us free, because Jesus has set us free, we should rest in his finished work on the cross. It's done, completed, and you can rest in Christ.

Larry: It's great to have you in our listening family as we present another Abounding Grace. Pastor Ed is in the middle of his study in Galatians and we pick up where we left off in chapter five. Today, Pastor Ed will point out that we've been called to freedom. So, why is it that so many Christians are failing to live in that freedom? Many are going back to legalism just as the Galatians did so long ago. Let's see how to get back to living in the simplicity of faith in Jesus.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Open your Bibles to Galatians chapter five, Galatians chapter five. We're going to pick up where we left off last time in our verse-by-verse study. We're in verse seven. We started out the chapter, this practical part of the book of Galatians. Paul has turned a corner and now he's going to give us the application of everything he's taught us in relationship to grace and legalism, and the importance that we live in the simplicity of faith that we have in Jesus Christ and not let anyone rip us off.

We started in chapter five with this strong word to stand fast. Notice with me, chapter five, verse one, "Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." So, stand fast in the freedom that Jesus has given you, the grace of God, the liberty. Take your stand, church, especially in a world that's very hostile to the gospel, very hostile to Jesus Christ, very hostile to our families and our children. It's a very difficult world to navigate in, filled with not only hostility, but false teaching and so many confusing things. It's a good word for us today. Stand fast. Don't move. Brace yourself. It's the word of God to them then and it's also God's word to us now.

You could put it a different way. You want to look on the other side of this? Here's another way of thinking of it. Your simple faith in Jesus is enough to get you through. You don't need anything added to it. You don't want anything added to it because as we have learned in previous studies, if you add anything to the gospel, it is no longer the gospel. The good news that Jesus Christ has died for your sins and that he rose again from the dead, that's the good news. Today your sins can be forgiven. Stand your ground. Don't let anyone move you from the freedom and liberty that God has given you. He says it there in verse one, "Christ has made us free."

No church has made you free, no pastor's made you free, no religious organization has made you free. Jesus himself died for your sins. And because he set us free, because Jesus has set us free, we should rest in his finished work on the cross. It's done, completed, and you can rest in Christ. We read chapter five, verse one in the New King James what I'm teaching from, but let me read it to you from the NLT. I love how the NLT handled this verse. It says, "So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free." I love that. Stand fast, but make sure that you stay free and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law.

Pick up now in verse seven. With all that in mind, Paul writes, "You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" They're all caught up in legalism. They're caught up with going back to the law and Paul pauses and uses this illustration from sports as he has often done. He uses a sports illustration from the ancient Olympic races and it's an easy one to understand. You've been running a race. You've been running in your lane. You're enjoying all that you have in Christ. You're enjoying your faith, your release from sin. I mean, they were really Acts 2:42 Christians. They were living out Acts chapter two, verse 42. They were continuing steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in prayer, in fellowship, in the breaking of bread.

They were celebrating the forgiveness of sin. They were celebrating the hope they have in Christ. They were thinking about the future. They were untangled from the past. God was rescuing their marriages, rescuing their families. They started caring about their community, sharing the gospel, evangelizing. "Who hindered you?" he says. "What happened to you?" This isn't the first time he asked that question. Earlier, he actually asked it in a stronger way. He said, "Who has bewitched you?" But here he uses a different picture. What happened to you guys? What happened? Who hindered you?

He's not asking the question looking for a name. These are rhetorical questions. He's asking these questions in order for them to process the answer so they could see their life like someone else sees it. What happened? We know what happened, but they need to remember that there was joy in their life. You know, when you leave the grace of God, you don't leave God's freedom. I mean, you still have God's freedom. You just don't enjoy it anymore. It's still yours by faith. It's all available to you. But when you walk away from the freedom that's yours in Christ, you don't get to enjoy it anymore. It's there. It's available to you the moment you turn back to him.

But walking away in a legalistic way or maybe even in a licentious way, thinking grace is permission to sin or thinking that you have to have these rules and regulations where you earn and prove yourself to God, you miss out on the joy that's yours. You have been hindered. If you like to write in your Bibles, circle that word "hindered." It literally means to be pushed back, pushed back. The picture from the Greek language is like a storm wind's pushing upon a ship, pushing it back, not allowing it to go forward.

So, this was more than just thinking of running a race and running maybe around a track. This is more than just stumbling. This is more than just being tripped up. It's the picture of somebody jumping on the track and pushing you down and you're not in the race anymore. You were running so well, enjoying life, but who has pushed you back? You were going the right way and now you're not. And you can't run when you believe something that's false. You're no longer running. Your growth is stunted, your progress is stunted, especially when it comes to the false teaching of legalism.

Verse eight now, he says, "You ran well. Who hindered you? This persuasion does not come from him who calls you." Do you hear the theme so far? The calling. Jesus has given you and made you free. And now there's this sense of this calling and you've been called to freedom. You've been called to freedom. "This persuasion, this teaching," Paul says, "did not come from God. This is not from God." This is so important. I want you to grasp this. We're going to pause a moment here so that we can grasp this truth. It's very important for you to understand this, that there are teachings that do not come from God.

Now, how can Paul say that with absolute certainty? I mean, that's a pretty strong statement. Hey, this which you guys are following right now, that did not come from God. Well, let's fast forward to the 21st century. When I stand before you and I tell you that a teaching is not true, how can I stand there with absolute confidence and tell you, "Hey, you know, how can you say that Ed? How can you be so confident that that teaching is not true?" And let me tell you, if you're taking notes, let me tell you exactly how I can do that. I can say that a teaching is untrue because it's not in the Bible. It's not in the Bible.

You can do the same thing. If you know your Bible, you will be able to tell what teaching is true and what teaching is false. It's not in the Bible. You and I, we need to know the Bible. This is the source of sound doctrine. It comes before you ever hear a pastor teach. Before anyone ever opens the Bible to you, you and I need to be men and women of the word. Can I get an amen on that? This is so important. You will be able to stand on truth because you know the word.

Now, for me, I'm a book lover. I love reading. I always have my entire life, but especially after I became a Christian, I just wanted to learn, learn, learn, learn. And so I read like you wouldn't believe. I overread probably in some ways. And I was as a new believer, I was reading so many books. I read books about the Bible. I read books on the Bible. I read books explaining the Bible. I read books commenting on the Bible. But there was a problem. All my reading didn't leave me much time to read the Bible.

And as you can imagine, it got me in a lot of trouble because I knew what people said about the Bible more than I knew the Bible itself. And it got me in trouble because how would I ever know that some commentary or some word on the Bible is actually true unless I knew the word? And I found myself getting involved in all sorts of things about the Bible, but never really focused in the Bible. So you happen to be, as you well know, in a church that I hope I say it every week, if not every week, almost every week, that the best thing you can do as a believer is read your Bible and pray every day.

If you will just take me up on that direction in your life, if you will just take me up on it, and here's what you'll be doing. If you read your Bible and pray every day, within a month, you're going to notice a difference. Maybe even within a week. Maybe even within a day because you just don't read your Bible and God just speaks you, open it up and you're just like, "This is amazing. I can't believe this." So encouraging or so convicting or so helpful or, man, this scripture, it speaks to my heart. This is an area I've been dealing with. On and on the list goes. Not only will you be learning sound doctrine, but there's actually something even more important you're going to learn from the Bible and you're going to learn who God is. You're going to learn who he is and his love for you.

You read the Bible, you're going to fall in love with the author as you hear God speaking to you and ministering to you. And even as you hear the planes right now, we thank God for the military in our city. We thank God that there are those that are taking care of our city today. Amen? Thank you guys for serving. Some of you are up at Buckley for a while and they only choose service times to do that. And so we thank you very much. But we greatly appreciate them. It's a reminder of the significance of guarding and protecting. And it's important that you guard and protect your time in God's word. It's not enough just to hear Bible study after Bible study after Bible study if you don't read the Bible.

It's no good to hear Christian music, Christian music, Christian music if you're not reading the Bible. It's not enough just to be a church attender if the Bible isn't being lived out in your life. How can you take a stand for something? You can very simply say, "This persuasion," just like Paul says, "does not come from him." When you read the Bible, listen, you learn the voice of God. There'll be many times when I'm approached by someone about something and as I'm listening to them, I may not understand everything that's going on, but I can listen. And as I'm listening, I come inside, the Holy Spirit going, "This doesn't sound like me. This doesn't sound like God."

How could you do that? Well, I can just, I could tell you from the word of God, what they're saying right now doesn't sound like God. Like for example, somebody comes up, "Oh, I'm just so bitter, I'm so bitter, I can be bitter." No, that doesn't sound like God. God's not bitter. "Yeah, but God gave me permission to be bitter." No, no, he didn't. Very simply we can see, on a very simple level, you can hear the voice of God and train yourself. You can say with confidence, and sometimes we have to say with confidence, "Hey, what you, that doctrine, that didn't come from God." "Well, it did." "No, it didn't. Not at all did it. Absolutely, if you read the Bible, you would not come to that conclusion. You had to get it somewhere else."

And that is the methodology of false teachers and cults. The Bible's not enough for them. In order to understand them, you have to read their pamphlets. In order to understand them, you have to listen to their teacher, their guru, their organization. You have to come to their little group and then you might be able to understand the deeper things or the secret things or what they believe is the truth. I can't think of one false teacher or one cult that could ever just look you in the eye and tell you, "You just, just read the Bible. It's always something else." By the matter of fact, let me tell you right now, let me tell you as our church family, you can just read the Bible. Just look at the person next to you and tell them, "You can just read the Bible." Go ahead, all throughout the room. Just look at them. You can just read the Bible. You can just read the Bible.

That's how you want to grow. Read the Bible. You want to be joyful, read the Bible. You want to learn about God, read the Bible. You can just read the Bible. But cults aren't like that and false teachers aren't like that. They don't say you can just read the Bible because if you just read the Bible, you wouldn't listen to them. You wouldn't receive from them. It's like, "This stuff is not in the Bible." "Oh, well, you know, but it's here, this, you know, we stand on the corner and we have our pamphlets." And because we have this nicety about us, you don't reject that stuff. And you take the little pamphlet. You'll throw it away, but you end up not throwing away. And then you open it up and what happens? You start reading it and it confuses you.

You've opened yourself up to confusion when you should have just said, "No, I don't need that. I can just read my Bible." Just put that in your head. I can just read my Bible. I don't need that pamphlet. I don't need your little gathering. I don't need to sit down with you. I can just read my Bible. I don't have to listen to your guru. I don't need to go to... I can just read my Bible because God has given me his word for everything I need in life. And when you come across a false teacher, it's always the gospel and Jesus and and that's simply not the truth. I want you to take this into heart. Paul was able to say, "This persuasion did not come from him who calls you." You can just, church, did I say it already? You can just read your Bible and God will give you his truth. Is there place for teaching? Of course there is. Is there place for questions? Yes, of course. You can read your Bible and ask solid questions. But somebody comes along and says, "Oh no, here, I got this. I got this new little thing I want to give you. I got another testimony. I got this." No, you don't need any of that. Reject it so that the Lord will give you clarity.

Notice what he says in verse nine. "A little leaven leavens the whole lump," which is an interesting statement, isn't it? Some of you that read ahead, you came to this verse and go, "What does this mean? What is he talking about?" First he's talking about racing and now he's changing the analogy. He's changing the picture. He's taking us from the Olympic games to the kitchen and he's giving us a lesson from the kitchen. And some of you know this very well. I looked it up and I studied it. I'm not a real, I'm not a baker or a candlestick maker, but I did look this up. And a leaven is that agent which is put into a batch of dough that causes it to rise by putrefying the whole lump. That's how bread rises, so they say. Not like I would know personally, but that's what they say. Leaven gets in and fills the whole lump and fills the whole dough and then that's how it rises when it bakes, which is a great picture, isn't it? Throughout the Bible, leaven is used as a picture of evil and sin.

When you think of that leaven, a little leaven, a little evil, a little false teaching is going to ruin it all. You can't just have a little because a little is going to ruin it all. This evil, if you allow some type of false teaching, you invite it in, it's going to leaven, it's going to ruin it all. Jesus used this word. It's used throughout the scriptures, but Jesus used this word when he said to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," and then he described it for them, "which is hypocrisy." And we studied that in depth looking at the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Beware of their evil. They're hypocrites. Beware of them. If you follow them, you're going to go into a ditch. They're blind. They fall into a ditch, you're going to be following them. And here it is with the spread of false doctrine, false teaching, false beliefs. Just a little bit is going to lead and ruin it all.

Just a little bit. Isn't that true for anything that's bad? Just a little bit. I can think of how many people that have been through this church over the years. Some of them I can think right now in my mind, their faces even as we pray for them, they are not walking with the Lord anymore. And they were here serving. They were here serving the flock, loving God, hands worship, singing, leading. And they're not even walking with the Lord anymore. And I'm certain that if you helped them and talked to them and said, "How did this all start?" when it started, they didn't believe this is where they'd end up because it was so small. Just a little decision, just a little thing. It was just so small. "I'll get over it. It's no big deal. I got over it before." And because God didn't bring about an immediate judgment, I thought I got away with it. You didn't because a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Just a little bit. I don't want you to minimize these little choices. We often prepare ourselves for the big choices, the big steps of faith, the big temptations, as we should. But this is how you train for the big temptations. You take care of the little ones. Just the little ones. The ones that nobody knows about, the daily things. The things where you could but you won't because of your love for God. You could and maybe nobody would know, but God would know. Why? Because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. I want you to think about back to the, let's take both of these illustrations now. I want you to think back to the racing. If you're in your lane, get your picture, you're in your lane, you're moving forward, and you decide that the lane is not for you. You don't want to go straight anymore. You just want to move just a little bit to the right or for you guys just a little bit to the left.

Now, if you do just a little bit, if you move just a little bit, I mean just a little, not even all that... I was here and I'm just a couple inches. That's it, just a couple inches. You understand what's going to happen, right? If I move just a couple inches, every other step I take will be farther and farther away from the lane. Are you guys with me so far? Stay with me because this is so important. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Just a little bit. If you move just a little bit, then everything... You're farther, the longer you go, the farther away you get. And it's especially important clinging to the truth. Don't even move. Don't even move an inch. What does Paul say? Stand fast. Stand firm. Don't let anyone move you. It's that important.

Paul tells us it starts out so small. Let's come back to legalism for a moment. It starts so small. Legalism starts so small because you come to a place where you go, "I want to be a better believer. I want to honor God in my life. I want to get rid of this addiction. I want to..." and you name it. And so you sit down and you think, "Okay, I think if in order to really get over this, I need to set up some rules. And if I just follow the rules, then I'll stay sober, I'll stay strong," whatever the issue might be. But the problem with that is is that you haven't gone to God as your sole source of strength. You may have prayer life, but then you have a list. And then before you know it, you start keeping the list, but you don't really keep the list. So now the list has not made you honest. It's made you dishonest because you don't want to tell anybody that you didn't keep the whole list. And then before you know it, you gotta deal with that inward tension. So now the list isn't even for you anymore. It's for someone you met. "Hey, brother, why aren't you doing this? And hey, brother, why aren't you doing that?" And then the brother's like, "Why are you doing this? I thought we were buddies. Why are you imposing all your rules on..." and it just starts out so small with this desire. But see, God, God has already given you the freedom.

Larry: That is Pastor Ed Taylor on Abounding Grace. We've been listening into his message, "You've Been Called to Freedom." You can hear it again at aboundinggraceradio.com or wherever you get your podcast. Pastor Ed, you made an excellent point here as we close. So many Christians today are searching for freedom over a certain addiction or struggle with sin and yet we've already been given the freedom by God and we're to go to God as our sole source of strength. So why do you think we're so prone to living by an external set of rules and regulations or overcomplicating this?

Pastor Ed Taylor: Yeah, Larry, I think the simplest answer to this question is because it's easier. It's easier to live by a list of rules and regulations because that's all we need to pay attention to. Think about it. If I gave you a list of five things to do, you would spend all of your time and attention on those five things. You didn't need to think of a sixth or a tenth or a hundredth because all you need is five. But like Jesus said, the Holy Spirit's like the wind. You don't know where it's coming, where it's going. You just see the effects of the Spirit. And walking in the Spirit requires faith. It requires trust. It requires obedience and humility and far more than a list. You get to follow the Lord.

And today, he may be working on this and tomorrow, he might want you to do this. And next week, he wants you to do that. And it's a very exciting time as we follow the Lord and not these regulations. The problem too with regulations is that people can then control you. Instead of pointing you to the Lord, they point you to the list. And quite frankly, the list usually is made up of something that is controlling so that you can be good with a religious institution. And you don't want to be good with a religious institution. You want to be good with the Lord and follow him. And so when it comes to addictions and struggles, it's surrender. It's repentance. It's following the Lord and not despising the days of small things. You've been sober one day. That's victory. You've been away from that addiction two, three days. That's victory. And celebrating our wins instead of focusing on our losses will help us so much in walking in victory.

Larry: Well said. Thanks again, Pastor Ed. Today, we'd like to recommend Pastor Ed's book, "Letting Go of Your Past." It ties in so nicely to the study of Galatians. Can you think of something that occurred a while back that is continually plaguing you? Maybe someone did something to you that really hurt or you did something that you're ashamed of. God wants to set you free. No matter what you've been through or what you've done, 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. 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.