Made Free to Serve God and Others

Transcript

GR1165
12/05/1999
Made Free to Serve God and Others
Galatians 5:13-15
Gil Rugh

We are going to the book of Galatians in your Bibles. The book of Galatians and the fifth chapter. In the book of Galatians Paul is dealing with the issue which is most foundational and basic to all of us. That is, how can a person be righteous before God? How does a person enter into a right relationship with God? How does a person who has entered into a right relationship with God conduct and live his life in a way that is pleasing with God? These are the issues that Paul is dealing with in the letter to the Galatians. A very harsh and stern letter as Paul deals very bluntly and confrontationally with the issue of salvation by grace through faith.

You know, the church and we as God's people individually get into most trouble in our lives and ministry by faithful to the basics. Galatians is an example of that. If we are not clear in our understanding of God's grace and the freedom that He has give us in Christ, we will have lives and ministries characterized by confusion and conflict. In fact, Paul is going to tell the Galatians in the section we are going to look at in a moment, that the churches in Galatia are in danger of being torn apart and ceasing to exist if they don't correct the problem. And the problem is basic. It has to do with God's grace working in salvation for the accomplishing of His purposes. This grace excludes any of our accomplishments and work for the acquiring of salvation.

Turn back to Romans chapter 11 if you would. Romans chapter 11. When we talk about salvation by grace, we must understand that no works are involved in the accomplishing of that salvation. Romans chapter 11 verse 6, "If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace." Now if the believers in Galatia had understood that truth, taken hold of it and refused to give an inch on it, we would not have needed the letter to the Galatians. So I hope you have Romans chapter 11 verse 6 marked in your Bible. Grace excludes works and as you add works to grace you no longer have grace. You cannot have 99 percent grace, 1 percent works because then you no longer have grace. It's not difficult to comprehend but we easily drift from it and that's what was happening in Galatia. The Judaizers were saying yes the grace of God is absolutely essential and foundational to everything. Faith in Christ brings salvation but you must also be circumcised and keep the Law. But you understand now we are no longer talking about grace at all. Otherwise grace and works would be the same and grace would not be grace.

That's why we use the expression we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. There's a certain redundancy here. The alone needs to go with each of those words: grace, faith, Christ. You are saved by grace alone of course you are because if it is not grace alone it's not grace. But because of the way certain words are used, we need to modify them. Years ago Francis Schaefer would talk about true truth. Well, there's only one kind of truth, true truth, but he was stressing the fact that the world uses truth in a way that is not talking about true truth. We talk about born-again Christians. But you understand biblically there is only one kind of Christian, one who is born again. But the word Christian gets a general usage beyond what the Scripture identifies as a true Christian so we modify it again. So it's not enough to say we believe in salvation by grace through faith in Christ because there are those who take those words and agree to them but add to them. So it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

And it is this salvation by grace that sets us free. Freedom is a precious concept. Much used today and much abused. I fear that most people talking about freedom don't really understand freedom. And of special concern--and this is what Paul is going to be dealing with in Romans chapter 5 in our section today--Christians are confused on what God's freedom in His grace really means. In Romans chapter 8 verse 36 Jesus said, "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." So God's grace and the salvation provided in Christ provides freedom for all who believe in Him.

Back in Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 Paul said, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free." That's foundational. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Now there are two errors that we must avoid. We must avoid going back into slavery when we have been set free for freedom. And secondly, we must avoid using our freedom for sinful purposes. And that's what Paul is dealing with in chapter 5. In verse 1 he said it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Then the command, "Keep standing firm. Do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." The whole purpose of Christ in setting you free was so that you should be free. Don't go back into slavery. The slavery that he is talking about is obeying the Law as the Judaizers were requiring. Some of these Gentiles had never been under the Law. But to adopt the Law as a means of righteousness before God was to go back into slavery. It's just another work system and you were set free from the Law, you were set free from the domination of sin.

Now not only are you set free from all the requirements of the Law for salvation, you are set free from all the requirements of the Law for sanctification. And this causes some confusion. Submission to the Law is not God's plan for His children today. Let me read you what one evangelical commentator says, "Although we cannot gain acceptance by keeping the Law, yet once we have been accepted, we shall keep the Law out of love for Him who has accepted us and given us His Spirit to enable us to keep it." Now do you see what he's saying? You are not saved by keeping the Law but once you are saved, God gives you His Holy Spirit so that you can keep the Law. So He's saying believers are really under the Law but verse 1 of Galatians 5 says don't go back to the yoke of slavery talking about the Law out of the end of chapter 4.

This writer goes on, "In New Testament terminology although our justification does not depend on the Law but on Christ crucified, yet our sanctification consists in the fulfillment of the Law." That is not true. What he is saying you are not justified by the Law but you are sanctified by the Law. But Paul has said stand firm in your freedom. Don't go under the Law. Back in chapter 3 verse 3, "Are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh."

You cannot mix the Law and the ministry of the Spirit. The concern comes that if the believer is not under the Mosaic Law for sanctification then he's without obligation or responsibility. He is lawless, antinomian. And so people think you have to be under the Law or part of the Law. If you say a person is not under the Law, you believe he's free to do whatever he wants and that's the issue Paul's going to deal with beginning in verse 13 of chapter 5 of Galatians. He'll show that freedom is not license. God's grace is not licentiousness. There are restrains on freedom. You must understand the purpose of freedom in Christ.

You'll note verse 13 begins restating what he said in the first part of verse 1, "For you were called to freedom." Verse 1, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free." Verse 13, "You were called to freedom." In verse 1 it was the work of Christ that set us free. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. By His death, resurrection, He set us free from the bondage to sin, bondage to the Law and so on. Here in verse 13 it is the effectual call of God which was a call to freedom. Remember the effectual call? When we refer to the call of God in the epistles of the New Testament, the letters of the New Testament, we are referring to what is called an effectual call. It is the call of God that is always effective. It always results in the salvation of the person who is called. So you were called to freedom. God's purpose in His sovereign work of salvation in calling us to faith in Christ was so that we would be free. That's foundational because it's God's purposes that must be accomplished in our lives. And when he called you to salvation in Christ it was a call to freedom.

Note here the word here "you." It appears second in the words in our English text. "For you." The Greek text the first word is "you." It's emphatic. It gets the emphasis. “For you were called to freedom brethren." And that emphatic on “you” and then calling them brethren stresses again Paul's confidence that they have truly been born again. They truly did believe the message of the Gospel when he presented it to them.

So you brethren were called to freedom. "Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh." Paul now warns of the danger of using the concept of freedom and grace as an opportunity or an occasion or a pretext for sinful behavior. That word "opportunity “ -- "Don't turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh" -- was originally a military expression and it was used of a starting point or a base of operation. Like the military comes and sets up camp. This will be headquarters. This will be the base of operations. We will work out of here. So it came to mean then an opportunity, a pretext, for something. Don't allow your freedom to be an opportunity, a base of operations for the flesh. Now the flesh is going to be used by Paul a number of times in this section in Romans that we are moving into to refer to our sinful fallen character.

Turn back to Romans chapter 6. You may want to leave a marker in Romans 6. We are going to be coming back to this section in Romans later. In Romans chapter 6 verse 6, "Knowing this that our old self" or literally our old man. The word translated "self" is the word "anthropos." Anthropology, the study of man. Our old man was crucified with Christ. The old self, the old man, is the same thing as the flesh as Paul is using it in Galatians 5.

Turn over to the book of Galatians and then go over a couple of passages to the book of Ephesians chapter 2. Just after the book of Galatians the book of Ephesians chapter 2. And look at verse 3. Talking about we have formerly been dead in our trespasses and sins in verse 1 and then in verse 3, "Among them we too all formerly lived," note, "in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." So when we are talking about the flesh we are talking about the old man, the old self. We are talking about our sin nature, our old nature. And that includes all we are as fallen beings, sinful beings, apart from the work of God in our lives. So we are talking about when the flesh. The person I am apart from God's work of grace in my life. Some call it the old nature, the flesh, the old man. The old man is the source of sin and sinful activity in our lives.

Come back to Galatians 5 verse 13. Do not turn your freedom into a base of operations or a pretext for sinful activity, for the lust and desires of the flesh to operate. You know this is a problem today. It's a problem in the church. Some people think that grace and freedom means that no one has any right to tell me what to do. No one has any right to put any restraints on me. That's legalism. And that is a failure to understand biblical freedom and biblical grace. So we are going to see in a moment, biblical freedom and biblical grace is what enables you to function as God intends you to function. Biblical freedom is not the liberty to do whatever you want. Biblical freedom is the liberty to do whatever God wants. But this failure to understand grace and freedom was bringing corruption and corrupt practices into the churches of Galatia. Other New Testament writers have to deal with it.

Turn back to the book of Jude. All the way back at the end of the New Testament. Just before the book of Revelation is the little one chapter book of Jude. And Jude wrote concerning individuals who had infiltrated in among believers in the churches. And he said in verse 4 of his letter. He's calling them to battle for the faith in verse 3 and then he says in verse 4, "For certain persons have crept in unnoticed." So people didn't say, oh, we have a heretic here. We have an ungodly person here. These people had come in like the Judaizers had under the guise of being one of us but they were people who long beforehand were marked out for this condemnation. Ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our holy master and Lord Jesus Christ. You see what these false teachers were doing. They were turning God's grace into licentiousness. “Aselgia,” an ugly word. It means debauchery. God's grace had become an excuse for all kind of sinful behavior. They would come into the church under the guise of being the pure grace people. We believe that salvation is by grace alone. In Christ you are set free and we would not put restraints on you, limitations on God's grace. You are free. The problem is the freedom and grace they were talking about was licentiousness and that is a denial of our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. That is a rejection of His sovereignty in a life. Our only master, Greek word "despot". Denial that Jesus Christ is the only sovereign and master. Corrupt grace that you have freedom to do as you please. Freedom to sin. That is a denial of the sovereignty of Christ which is absolutely essential for an understanding of true biblical grace and biblical freedom.

Go forward in your New Testament through the epistles of John into Peter's letters. Still toward the back of your New Testament. Go forward from Jude through the epistles of John and you'll come into Peter. First Peter and 2 Peter. We want to go to 1 Peter chapter 2. First Peter chapter 2 and look at verse 16, "Act as free men." So here we're talking about the freedom again that believers have in Christ. "Act as free men, and do not use our freedom as a covering for evil." In other words, under the guise of being free you see it. Don't use your freedom that way. Don't think you can cover your sin under the guise I'm in grace. You can't tell me what to do. When you tell me what to do you are being legalistic. The idea that biblical freedom and grace is a life without restraint.

This is a problem. It's always a problem. I shared with you . . . I go back years ago that way it's less offensive. You know anytime we come into a new area of understanding, we tend to want to swing to an extreme. The early years of my ministry here as we preached the doctrines of grace and so on, for many people this was new. And they glory in their liberty and grace. But you know there came a time we put some parking lot signs out to direct parking in the parking lot and we had some people leave the church over it because you are taking away grace and freedom. We are becoming a legalistic church. And somehow these things went together in their mind that are totally unrelated. I mean, grace and freedom doesn't mean I do what I want. I park where I want. As confused as I want. On the sidewalk if I want. That's not what we are talking about with biblical freedom, folks. We are talking about that which is required for righteousness before God, that which is required for the accomplishing of God's work and purposes in a life.

But you note the end of verse 16, if you are still in 1 Peter 2, "Use your freedom as bondslaves of God." We are going to talk about this concept in a moment. We are free as slaves of God. That's absolutely essential. You know, there are restraints. We meet at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning for our worship service or 10:30 or 11 o'clock depending on the church. But here we meet at ten. People say well, that's legalistic. You don't have to worship God at ten. No. Maybe we shouldn't set a time. OK, we won't. Can we set a day? Well, maybe we better not set a day. What about a month? No. Well, then what? We couldn't meet together. Everybody would just show up. Some people are night people. They'd be here at 1 a.m. on Thursday morning and worship by themselves. But I'm saying if we meet at 10 o'clock is not legalism. So we want to be careful that our failure to understand grace and freedom doesn't move us to the ridiculous. The area of Paul's concern about is that people with a misconcept of freedom and grace think that its freedom to do whatever you want and really its a freedom to be a slave of God.

Go back to Romans 6 if you've kept a marker there. Paul had to deal with this in writing to the Romans. Verse 1 of Romans 6, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?" I mean where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. So the more we sin, the more God's grace is demonstrated. Well there's a truth in that, but then a person says therefore it's not bad to sin. May it never be. The very thought is repulsive, unthinkable.

Look down in verse 15 of Romans 6, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under Law but under grace? May it never be!" Me-genoito. Such a thought inconceivable. May God forbid of the King James Version. I mean we are talking about not being under the Mosaic Law. That doesn't mean you are lawless, you are without restraint, you are without obligation. That's not the point or picture at all.

Leave the marker in Romans 6. We'll be back there. Come back to Galatians 5 verse 13, "For you were called to freedom brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh." Let me just warn you of the drift that can occur. Sometimes we as believers get the idea that our sin is not so serious as somebody else's sin, nonbeliever's sin, because we are saved by grace through faith and all my sins past, present and future are forgiven by the grace of God when I believe in Christ. Therefore when I sin it's not so serious because it's forgiven on the basis of the work of Christ. We know if my sin is not so serious then it's not so serious if I indulgence in it. And that is moving the direction of using my grace and freedom as a base of operation for sinful activity. Sin is ugly and vile and an offense against the Holy God no matter who commits it. And I must never become tolerant of sin because of God's grace or that's the beginning of establishing a base of operation using my freedom and God's grace for the pursuit of sin.

Rather at the end of verse 13, "But through love serve one another." Freedom in Christ does not mean I am free from all obligations and responsibilities. It means just the opposite. I am free to enslave myself, if you will, to devote myself to being a slave for others. One commentator on the Greek text wrote this about the word "serve." The English word "serve" does not adequately translate the Greek verb which stands behind the word "serve." Its foundational word is the Greek word for slave. Through love Paul said you should make yourselves slaves to another. This is interesting. You were called to freedom brethren. Through love enslave yourself to others. Seeming paradox. I'm free, I'm enslaved. While I'm free from the slavery to sin, I'm free from slavery to the Law, I'm free from trying to become righteous before God by own works, but I now am enslaved to God as Peter said in 1 Peter 2:16, "Use your freedom as bondslaves of God." Free to serve others.

Turn back to Romans 6 again. In verse 15 Paul had asked the question, "What then shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, e either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?" Here are two kinds of slaveries -- slavery to sin and slavery to obedience. Look at verse 18, "And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."

Verse 19, "I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh for just as you presented you members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness so now present your members to slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification." Verse 22, "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God." Now you begin to get a concept of biblical freedom. It is freedom from the servitude and slavery to sin, to the Law, to a work system of righteousness. But that's not the complete picture. It's not freedom now to do as I please, to pursue my selfish desires and passions. No, I have been set free from one set of slavery to another set of slavery. I have been set free from the slavery of sin to be a slave of righteousness, from a slave to the Law to be a slave to God and so on. To understand biblical freedom is absolutely essential. It's not the liberty to do as I please.

In our country we admire the independent self-made, self-focused, self-centered person. And we have an individualized Christianity. And that is destructive to a biblical church. Don't dispute the fact. We have to be saved individually. There's not corporate salvation, but there's individual salvation. God saves you individually. He calls you individually. You personally must believe in Christ as your Savior. Someone else cannot do that for you. You are a believer priest. You individually and personally have access into the presence of God through your high priest Jesus Christ. But the abuse of those doctrines is people think I'm an independent. I am not obligated and bound by obligations and responsibilities to others. But the God who called you to freedom did it with the intention that you through love would serve others. What did God do when He saved you? Baptized you with the Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 12:13. He placed you into the Body of Christ. Now you are locked in to relationships with other believers, responsibilities to other believers. Responsibilities and obligations to the head of the body, Christ. So we don't camp our doctrines in biblical balance. We become heretics. We belong biblical teaching out of proportion and distort it and so corrupt it. There's nothing wrong with preaching grace and pure grace. That's the only kind of biblical grace there is. But that put in the context of what God says is the purpose of His grace and the freedom provided in grace, it becomes a distortion. It becomes licentiousness. It becomes denial of Jesus Christ. And so it is with our understanding of a personal salvation and the privilege of a personal relationship with the living God and access to Him. Those are beautiful truths but if they are not put in the context of being part of the Body of Christ, the family of God, they become distortions which are a denial of biblical truth. I am called through love to serve, to slave, for others.

That word for "love" back in Galatians chapter 5 is agape love. That self-sacrificing love which is produced in the heart of the child of God by the Holy Spirit as we'll see when we get down to verse 22 of Galatians 5. But the fruit of the Spirit is love. We saw in Galatians chapter 5 verse 6 faith working through love. So you put it together. Faith working through love serving others is the biblical pattern. So those who have been set free by God's grace through faith in Christ now have the Spirit producing God's self-sacrificing love in their heart that moves them to serve as slaves for the good of others. That's not unrestrained freedom. That is the freedom to function as God created you to function. That's freedom in the biblical context, the ability to function as you were created. Quite often we use the example of the fish. You don't make a fish free by putting him up here on the carpet. He's free when he can function as he was created to function in the water. But put me out in the ocean. Tie me down 30 ft. under the water. I can't survive. I'm not free. Why aren't you free? Look at these fish. They love it. I wasn't created for that environment. I wasn't created to function that way. Freedom is the ability to function in the relationship for which you were created. That's why when you were set free from slavery to sin, free from slavery to Satan, to the Law . . . The Son set you free you are truly free indeed because you were created to serve God, to function in a relationship with Him.

So, through love serve one another. And that's the motivating principle here. That is what is moving us, the work of the Spirit in our heart and life. Why do people sacrifice? Well, you understand love. You give of yourself. A little child is born into your family and what? All of a sudden now your life is build around that little one and you will do whatever has to be done for that child. The baby's up all night and crying and sick, keeps you up, what do you say? We are getting rid of him tomorrow. We'll put an ad in the paper. I'm not getting up every night with him. No. Why? It's not too much trouble. You love that child, that baby. You do it. You sacrifice. Sure you prefer a good night sleep but you love them. You serve. You do what's necessary for them.

It's the grace of God that has brought us together with all our diversity, all our differences. Different personalities. Everything, you know. And here we are molded together into one with a unique self-sacrificing love toward people that we hardly know humanly speaking. We didn't grow up together most of us but there's a bond that has been established by the Spirit of God that we sacrifice for one another and put self out of the picture, if you will.

Look over just after Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Philippians chapter 2 verse 3, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit." You see that. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. This is what I want. This is what I prefer. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. It doesn't mean we don't have differences. The motivating principle as my life as a believer, of your life as a believer, has to be our self-sacrificing love for one another. "But with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests but also for the interest of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus," who gave up all He had in the glories of heaven to come to this earth to suffer and die for our salvation is how Paul goes on to develop it.

That's what we are talking about. We get to the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. We will be talking about the character of Christ produced in us. We now think and act and function like Christ because the life we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us as Galatians 2:20 said. So that self-sacrificing love that exults others and puts their interests ahead of our own.

Back in Galatians 5. Verse 14, "For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" This has caused some perplexity among commentators because Paul has argued so strenuously that we are not under the Law. Now he turns around and says we fulfill the Law and we are to enslave ourselves in the service of others and that's a fulfillment of the Law. I thought we didn't have to fulfill the Law? I thought we were freed from the Law? Now you want to talk about fulfilling the Law. The one evangelical commentary wrote on this, trying to resolve the problem, and he doesn't resolve it. He compounds it. So listen carefully. "The ceremonial and civil aspects of the Mosaic legislation are no longer binding on Christians today but the moral law expressed in the Ten Commandments is indeed relevant for the New Testament believer who by divine grace has been incorporated into the people of God. Having been justified by faith alone they were no longer in bondage to the Law but the moral law had not been annulled. The Ten Commandments summarized in the admonition to love one's neighbor are still in force." This is a different evangelical commentator than the one I read you earlier. But you see what he is saying. Let's break the Law down into its three parts: ceremonial, civil, moral. The believer's not under the ceremonial and civil. But the moral law has not been annulled. But this writer wouldn't hold that. No evangelical holds that. They wouldn't say part of the moral law hasn't been annulled because all the penalties associated with the moral laws have been annulled. And they still have a problem when they say the Ten Commandments haven't been annulled because you can read pages and pages of how they explain how we no longer observe the Sabbath day. Because the Sabbath is Saturday. Sabbath means seventh. And we are here on the first. But the first has become the seventh and the seventh has become the first and we're keeping the moral law. And who are we fooling?

And besides go back to Galatians chapter 3 verse 10. We've belabored this. We will do it one more time. Galatians 3:10, "But as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, 'Cursed is every one who does abide by" most of the things, some of the things, the moral things. "By all things written in the book of the Law to perform them." You remember you cannot be under part of the Mosaic Law. You are under all of it or you are under none of it. I just am dumbfounded at how many are going over this moral law idea and we are under part of the moral. We are not under the civil, we are not under ceremonial. We are under the moral but we are not under any of the penalties of the moral. We are not necessarily under every one of the moral laws and you can't parcel out the Mosaic Law that way, folks.

Well, then, what is Paul saying in Galatians 5? Verse 14, "For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" He just told us through love serve one another and we are fulfilling the Law. Isn't that telling us to obey the Law? No, it's not. He doesn't tell us obey the commands of the Mosaic Law. He tells us that the goal in these commands in the Law was the demonstration of love. If they were functioning as God's people in love, these things would be evident and they would serve one another.

Turn back to Romans chapter 13. Paul elaborates this a little more fully. Romans chapter 13 and verse 8, "Owe nothing to any one except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." Same basic statement we have in Galatians. If you love your neighbor, you have fulfilled the Law. "For this, 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,' if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." Now that's clear then. When you are loving someone you are doing what is best for them. You are sacrificing yourself for their good.

Your child, one of your children, they grow up, they get married, they go out and buy a brand-new car, a nicer car than you ever had. They drive up in your driveway and you have covetousness. You say I wish that car was mine. That's not the way it is. You love your kids. You are so excited that they got a better car than you ever did. In fact, maybe you helped them get it by signing for it. I don't know. Why? Cause we delight when those that we love do better than we do, have more than we do. That's a joy to our heart. That's the way love operates. So love does no wrong to a neighbor. So what the Law was requiring for the Israelites was a demonstration of love exemplified in the obeying of these commandments.

Back up to Romans chapter 8 verse 3 and 4. Just so you catch the difference here. Romans 8:3, "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." You see, the Law is fulfilled in us as the Spirit is producing the love of God. Now we're not saying that there is not overlap and that a person who is being controlled by the Spirit will not be involved in adultery, will not be stealing, will not commit murder. Well those are the same things required by the Law. So there is overlap. But the reason they are being produced in our lives is not because we as God's people today are trying to keep the commandments of the Law. It's because certain things God has intended would be characteristic of His people not only in Israel in the Old Testament but also would characterizes people in the New Testament. So it's not because we are under Law or striving to obey the Law that we are doing this but it's because we are obedient to God, submissive to His Spirit and He is producing from within what the Law could not do from without. And that distinction is crucial. So you don't have to go back under the Mosaic Law. And we are going to see this in our coming studies. You submit to the Spirit and He produces from within what could not be done, what the Law could not do weak as it was through the flesh, enable me to be righteous before God, enable me to deal with sin. It couldn't do it then. It can't do it today till the requirement of the Law has been fulfilled. Sin has been dealt with. Righteousness has been provided. It's done. So that's what he is talking about here.

Come back to Galatians 5. So verse 14 is not saying we ought to be living under the moral law, saying those things which are enduring in the Mosaic Law and before the Mosaic Law that God wants carried out will be carried out in the lives of His people as they are walking -- as we'll get down in a future study, verse 16 -- by the Spirit. They don't do the desires of the flesh.

Then you come in verse 15 to a contrast, "But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another." Paul's focus here is on our relationships with one another. When Jesus summarized the Law in Matthew 22 he said the first and greatest commandment is love God and then the second commandment is love your neighbor and that summarizes the whole Law. Paul is concerned about service for one another here. He's presupposing our relationship to God. He's dealt with that in the earlier part of the letter. And you see the problem here. The "but" of verse 15. We are to serve one another through love but if you don't, "if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed." We get some insight here into the intensity of the conflict that was going on in the churches at Galatia. It was in danger of destroying those churches. So we read about and we say well, you know, doctrinal conflict probably. These were churches that were in the process of tearing each other apart. The conditional statement here, "if you bite and devour one another" is in a form in Greek that indicates that this is a condition actually taking place, that this was actually going on. Present tense . . . "If you are biting," present tense. "If you are devouring," present tense. And the indication is you are. Be careful of the result--you consume one another.

The picture is of wild animals. That's the language that's used here who are in a death battle. They are biting, devouring one another. And the result is what? They consume one another. They are destroyed in the battle. And the picture here is of the churches being destroyed by the conflicts.

One writer put it this way, "Whenever any teaching which questions the basis on which men are saved is injected in the church, turmoil is inevitable. Doubts, recrimination, vilification, slanders, misrepresentations and disillusionment soon attach themselves to the legitimate concern for doctrinal soundness and it is not long until the real issues become obscured." It interests me that the writer of that comment was at one time a dean and then president of a seminary that went through that very thing and it was torn apart and ceased to exist as it had as a result of the internal turmoil.

And what happens and what is happening at Galatia is these Judaizers have brought in false doctrine. But you know what happens? Very quickly the doctrinal issues get blurred and smoke gets pumped out. And it becomes personalities. It becomes friendships. It becomes rumor about this rumor about that. And we're going at one another, tearing each other apart and we've lost sight of the doctrinal issue. We're in love to serve one another. Now note this love is not a mushy sentimentality. This is the man who said just a moment ago in verse 12, "I wish those who were troubling you would even mutilate themselves. Now in love serve one another." Oh, that didn't sound like love to me. There is no flack cut for the false teachers. There is no slack for those who are holding on to false doctrine that is corrupting the church. But you know what happens believers get caught up on all sides of the issue and many of them aren't even aware of what the issues are. They are drawn into it over personalities. They are drawn into it over friendships. Always grieves my heart to no end when people come say we are leaving the church. Now there's no doctrinal differences. Well, what is it? Personalities? Going to build a church for Paul? You don't like Cephas's church? I mean what is it? We bite and devour one another.

And it's true for all of us. I have to remind myself when issues come up. What is the biblical issue at stake here? What is the doctrinal issue at stake here? Otherwise I begin to think so and so has been a friend that's been supportive. They've encouraged me. I appreciate all that, but what is the doctrinal issue here? Well, I don't think they treated them very nice. I don't think they handled this very well. I don't think they said . . . And pretty soon . . . Well, wait a minute. What is the doctrinal issue here? And it's scary. Paul says the churches in Galatia were in danger of consuming one another and they'd be destroyed in the battle. And how many churches down through the centuries of time since Paul wrote this and experienced that very thing. They've just been torn apart.

Now what happens? False doctrine gets infiltrated in but the doctrine doesn't take place on the doctrinal level. It becomes personality. It becomes family, friends and rumors. And some people don't have any idea what's going on. All they know is they don't like the conflicts. I have to back up and say what is the doctrinal issue?

Turn over to Jude 19 as we wrap this up. Jude 19. All the way back almost to the book of Revelation again. Jude 19. These who had infiltrated the church, these men who had crept in, he says in verse 19, "These are the ones who cause divisions worldly minded devoid of the spirit." You note they cause divisions. Why? They infiltrate the doctrine. That becomes the occasion for dividing people but believers can be like the world if we're not careful and submit to the Spirit and anchor our thinking and our view in the Word. Pretty soon its personalities and who's on what side. Who am I with? It doesn't matter. When Peter was on the wrong side of the doctrinal issue Paul confronted him to his face we saw earlier in Galatians, rebuked them before all. Friendships don't matter. The truth of God matters. It doesn't mean we are not to be loving. We are but by love we serve one another and one of the ways we serve is we preserve the purity of the Body.

If you're in Jude, back up to verse 16. "These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining advantage." They are talking about differences we have. Talking about whether we agree that this ought to be done this way and this ought to be done that way and I think it is healthy we should agree, disagree. It's healthier when you agree with me but it's . . . So there's points of disagreement. So we're not saying we all have to just . . . OK, if that's the way you . . . Yes, OK. We're going to disagree. But there's no place for grumbling. There's no place for finding fault. If I were doing it, I would do it this way. I realize Scripture doesn't say this has to be done this way or that. I think it would be better for our church better for our testimony if we did it this way. But I may not get my way on that. Always know somebody's on their way to the door when they become a grumbler. It seems that all they can find out is what is wrong. At one time they were thrilled with the Word. They couldn't get enough and now it seems nothing is right and everything irritates them. There's something wrong everywhere. That's not a sign of the work of the Spirit in our life, in my life. That's a check for me, is it not? I'm not functioning in love anymore. All I can what's wrong, what I don't like, what grates on me. There's enough to look at to be sure. So we want to be careful of that whole process.

If the churches at Galatia were not destroyed by making the Law a requirement for righteousness, they could be destroyed by the fleshly conflicts among themselves. And you know, the Devil doesn't care which way it gets done. Does he care if the churches at Galatia get destroyed by the implementation of works righteousness system? That will work fine. They can't get destroyed that way how about if we destroy them over fleshly conflicts among themselves. That will be fine because he has one goal--destroy the Body of Christ. We want to be careful that we don't become tools in his hands. That we fail to understand what true grace, what true freedom in Christ is and that molds us and shapes us as we who stand unshakably for the grace of God and the freedom that grace has provided, we understand it is a freedom to serve as slaves to our God, His righteousness and His people. Let's pray together.

Thank you, Lord, for Your abundant overflowing grace. Thank you for grace that has provided true freedom, freedom from the bondage of sin, the bondage of the Law, the bondage to Satan, a freedom to serve you, a freedom to serve righteousness, a freedom to serve the people of God. Lord, guard us against the corruption of grace with law but guard us also from the corruption of grace and freedom by license and lawlessness. We pray in Christ's name, amen.