High Cost of Legalism

We open the word to Galatians chapter 5, reading verses 1 through 10, and our theme tonight is the high cost of legalism. Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor due to the whole law. Of course, Paul is talking here about the mark of the covenant.

Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. Ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Ye did run well. Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded. But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.

In chapters 5 and 6 of Galatians, Paul moves into the practical application. Chapters 1 and 2 have been personal. He has given us his own testimony, what grace has meant to him, how he was delivered from the bondage of Pharisaic legalism into the glorious liberty of a Christian.

In chapters 3 and 4, Paul has dealt with the doctrine of grace. His theme has been doctrinal. In chapters 3 and 4, Paul has given to us argument after argument after argument, proving that we are saved and sanctified by grace, not by law.

Now in chapters 5 and 6, he becomes very practical. He says, all right, if you believe this, if you can sing, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, if you can sing, saved by grace alone, this is all my plea, if you can sing, his grace has planned it all, tis mine but to believe. If you can sing that, then you better live it.

If, says Paul, you can go through chapters 3 and 4 and say, that's right, that's right, that's right, then it will show up in your life. I have discovered that most evangelical Christians enjoy arguing doctrine but do not enjoy applying doctrine. And many Christians are really frightened to live by grace.

I know many churches where they preach grace and practice law. And if a Christian dares to live by the grace of God, he's looked upon as some kind of a heretic. He doesn't fit into the mold.

He's not in the graveyard with the rest of them. You see, when revival comes, revival means people discover grace. And so in chapters 5 and 6, Paul says, let's be very practical about this now.

We're going to live what I've just taught. Now someone may be saying at this point, what difference does it make? Suppose I believe in the grace of God, but I don't live by the grace of God, what difference does it make? I'm going to heaven anyway. Sure, you're going to heaven.

If you're saved by grace, you're going to heaven. But why wait for the blessing? Why not start enjoying it now? The Lord Jesus saved you by grace, and he keeps you by grace, and he matures you by grace. Mr. Spurgeon used to say, little faith will take your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your soul.

And so in chapters 5 and 6, Paul says, now I want to show you how to live this thing. I want to make it very practical and very personal, and says, Paul, I trust that by the Spirit of God you'll accept it and apply it. Now in this section, Galatians 5, 1 through 10, Paul is warning us.

He's warning us. He is saying, if you aren't careful, you will move back into law. You'll live by rules and regulations.

You'll measure yourself by standards that men have made. You'll try to please God by obedience instead of receiving the grace of God and obeying. So if you aren't careful, you'll move back into legalism, and if you do, you're the loser.

These Judaizers who had been infecting the churches Paul founded were saying this, oh, if you come under law, you will mature. You will be enriched. You will grow.

You'll gain so much. Paul says just the opposite. Paul says, if you go back under law, you're going to lose.

Now, in verses 1 through 10, Paul presents four pictures that vividly illustrate to us the losses that we incur if we go back under law. In verse 1, he pictures a prisoner wearing a yoke. In verses 2 through 6, he pictures a debtor who's not getting any profit from his wealth.

In verse 7, he's picturing a runner, and in verses 8 through 10, he's picturing a baker who's got some yeast. Now, look at these four pictures. A prisoner, if you go back under law, you lose your liberty.

A debtor, if you go back under law, you lose your wealth. A runner, if you go back under law, you lose your progress. A baker, if you go back under law, like leaven, it'll poison you, and you'll lose your spiritual influence.

Now, here are four tremendous losses. Nobody here tonight wants to be a loser. The Christian life is hard enough fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil without having to start fighting the law.

Let's take these four pictures now and find out what these losses are and how we can deal with them. Verse 1, Paul pictures the prisoner, and he says, if you go back under law, you will lose your liberty. Stand fast, therefore.

Now, the therefore takes us back to 431. So then, brethren, we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free. You're born free.

Therefore, stand in the liberty with which Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. The emphasis in Galatians is the conflict between bondage and freedom. For example, back in chapter 4, verse 9, but now, after ye have known God, or rather are known by God, you've been saved, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements unto which ye desire again to be in bondage.

There it is. Verse 24, he talks about Hagar bearing children for bondage. Verse 25, Mount Sinai, which leads to bondage.

Back in chapter 3, he pictured the law in verse 24 as a schoolmaster, a guardian. That's bondage. Here's a little Greek child or a little Roman child not mature enough to go to school by himself and come home, so a slave is sent with him.

This slave is called the schoolmaster, the guardian, and his job is to protect him and tell him what to do and tell him what not to do and guard him and boss him. That's what the law was doing. That's bondage.

I suppose every one of us, when we were children, said many times, I can hardly wait until I grow up and I can do what I want to do. And you grow up and discover you can't do what you want to do. The guardian, chapter 4, verse 7, he says, wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son.

In chapter 4, verse 22, Abraham had two sons, one by the bondmaid, the other by the free woman. Under law, you belong to the bondmaid. Chapter 5, verse 1, he talks about a yoke.

All of the symbolism here speaks of bondage, bondage, bondage, a yoke. You remember when the church had that first council recorded back in Acts chapter 15, and they were arguing, really debating the question, must the Gentiles keep the law to become Christians? Does a Gentile have to become a Jew to become a Christian? That was their big debate. And the legalists were saying, oh, yes, they do.

You can't throw the law out. They must be this and they must do that. And Paul stood up and said, wait a minute, we've seen a great many Gentiles get saved without the law.

Barnabas stood up and said the same thing. Peter stood up. He said, why should we make the Gentiles wear a yoke which we ourselves were not able to bear? That's quite a description of the law, isn't it? A yoke that even the Jewish people couldn't bear.

Jesus said, come unto me, all ye that labor. What's he mean by that? Labor to try to please God. Labor to try to carry that yoke of the law.

And they're heavy laden. Heavy laden with what? The guilt of sin, the guilt of failure. And I'll give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you. Now, what is his yoke? Oh, it's a yoke of love, a yoke of grace. The Christian life is not a life of anti-law.

The Christian life is not a life of opposition to responsibility. No, there's a yoke to wear. Take my yoke upon you.

Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy. It's not galling.

And my burden is light. So the Lord Jesus died for us that we might be delivered from the yoke of the law. The tragedy is many people are under a yoke of sin.

Lots of people today are wearing an awful yoke of sin. And some of them try to get saved by putting on the yoke of law. They try to please God with ritual and ceremony and sacrifice and obeying the Ten Commandments.

It just makes that yoke that much more galling and that much more burdensome. Imagine wearing both of those yokes, the yoke of sin and the yoke of the law. That would be a terrible way to have to live.

This is what drives people to drink and dope and suicide. Carrying an awful yoke of sin and guilt and then trying to get rid of that yoke with another yoke. And Jesus said, get rid of both of those yokes and put my yoke on you and be free.

You see, freedom is the theme of Galatians. Against this dark background of bondage, bondage is the bright, beautiful picture of freedom. He has redeemed us.

Now, the word redeemed that's used in Galatians is an interesting verse. Chapter three, interesting word. Chapter three, verse 13.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. How was he made a curse for us? Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The Lord Jesus wasn't stoned to death.

He wasn't decapitated. He wasn't stabbed. He was crucified.

And in hanging on a tree was made a curse for us. Now, the word that's used in 313, redeemed, is not just the usual word for redeemed. The usual word means to purchase by paying a price.

This word means to purchase by paying a price to set free. You see, I could purchase a slave and keep him a slave. But Jesus didn't do that.

Jesus purchased us out of the slave market, paying the price that he might set us free. Now, the same word is used over in verse five of chapter four. Christ came to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Same word. It's not used in many other places. It means to set free by paying a price.

So, Jesus Christ didn't die for you to transfer you out of one kind of slavery into another. Now, the way some Christians live, you'd think that was true. Some of the saints of God think that being a Christian is such a burdensome thing.

And they wear this yoke. Oh, I have to go to church and I have to say my prayers. Poor people.

Your heart goes out to them. They've just transferred from one kind of slavery to another. When you really know what it means to be a Christian, my friend, you move into that liberty.

And Paul says, don't be a prisoner. Don't go back under law. Don't let any man or any group put you under law.

Now, once again, I have to be careful as I say this. Paul is not saying we shouldn't have standards. Paul is not saying we shouldn't have rules.

If we didn't have rules at the Moody Church, we'd have chaos. There have to be certain standards and certain rules. What he's saying is, if the only reason you're good is because rule 13 says so, there's something wrong with you.

He says, if you measure your spirituality by keeping certain rules and standards, you're not spiritual. Pharisees had lots of rules and standards and they kept them. And they crucified Jesus.

It's easy for us as evangelicals to put ourselves under law and say, I don't go here and don't go there and don't look at them. They do this. They do that.

We don't do those things. We can be just as legalistic as an Old Testament Jew. Paul says, don't be a prisoner.

You'll lose your liberty. That's why he adds down in chapter 5, verse 13, and we'll get to this next time. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty.

Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Why love? Love is the fulfillment of the law. All the law is wrapped up in one word.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And so when the Holy Spirit puts love within us, we don't need laws. Our relationship to God is one of love.

His commandments are not grievous. Why? Because we love him. Our relationship to one another is one of love.

Why? The Holy Spirit causes God's love to flow through our hearts. And so he tells us in chapter 5, verse 1, that you'll lose your liberty if you go back under law. That's the first loss.

He sees a prisoner here carrying an awful yoke. Let's apply this quickly and move on to the second picture. Don't let anyone rob you of your liberty in Christ.

Let no one rob you of your freedom from the law. Let no one rob you of your beautiful freedom to become all that God wants you to become. Please don't be a cookie cutter Christian.

There are some churches that put everybody through the same machine. They come out the same way. And God says, don't do that.

You're all different. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. It's God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

And one of the beautiful things about being a Christian is I don't have to measure myself by somebody else and say, well, I can't sing like he can sing and I can't. God made you the way you are and he wants you to do what he wants you to do, not somebody else. And don't you let anyone rob you of the beautiful liberty you have to become all that God wants you to become.

I meet some Christians, and there are too many of them, who don't think they're spiritual unless they feel guilty. They don't go away from church having been kicked and whipped and bombed and blistered. They don't feel like they've been in church.

And if during the day they feel at all happy unless there's something wrong. They have the idea God wants us to feel guilty and under conviction, not on your life. God wants us to be delivered from bondage and condemnation.

Did you know that God is not dealing with you on the basis of law? God's dealing with you on the basis of grace. There is therefore now no condemnation of them that are in Christ Jesus. God's not dealing with you on the basis of law.

It's grace. We might illustrate it like this. Here's a man who loses his wife.

And he's left a widower, and he has to have someone take care of his family and his home. And so he hires a girl, a lady, to come in and clean the house and do the dishes and prepare some simple meals, watch the kids till he gets home from work. And then she goes her way.

And this happens. And over the course of the months and the years, he falls in love with her. And one day he says to her, look, let's get married.

And she says, well, all right. And so they get married. And you know what? She continues to wash the dishes and make the meals and clean the house.

But she's not living under law. She's not doing it because the boss says do this, do that, or you won't get paid. She's doing it because she's part of the family in love.

That's what happens when you're saved. An unsaved person's under law. God says, you can't do that.

Don't do that. Don't do this. And you're under condemnation.

Then you get married to Jesus Christ by grace. And law turns into love. And you start to do the things you're supposed to do.

Not because of law, but because of love. The second picture is the picture of the detour in verses 2 through 6. And Paul says, you not only lose your liberty, but you lose your wealth. Would you notice the words that are used here? Look at verse 2, profit you nothing.

Verse 3, detour. How about that? He's talking about financial terms here. He says, if you move under law, you are going to lose your wealth.

Now, he's not talking about losing your salvation. Every once in a while, I get a letter from a radio listener saying, what does verse 4 mean in Galatians 5? You're fallen from grace. Does that mean you've lost your salvation? No.

All the way through this letter, he talks to them as though they're Christians. He doesn't say, well, you've lost your salvation. What's he saying here? He's saying, when you move under law, you lose your spiritual wealth.

God cannot make you rich. God cannot enrich you under law. You know why? Look at verse 9 of chapter 4. When you go back under law, you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements.

The law makes a beggar out of you. The law makes you poor. The law makes you bankrupt.

But grace comes along and makes you rich. That's what grace means. Grace means God's riches at Christ's expense.

Grace means that God gives to me what I don't deserve. Oh, if we'd only learned that. How were you saved? By grace.

How do you live? By grace. How do you walk? By grace. How do you pray? By grace.

How do you give? By grace. When you read your New Testament, you discover the whole thing is grace. Now, he said, if you go back under law, if you won't live by grace, number one, you're going to fall from grace.

Verse 4. That means you step out of the sphere of grace into the sphere of law. Now, God doesn't want to deal with you on the basis of law. Jesus died to move you out of the sphere of law, I owe God something, into the sphere of grace.

He gives to me what I need. I have illustrated this before with the prodigal son. I'm going to do it again.

Some of you may not have heard it. When the prodigal son was on his way home, he had a speech all prepared. I will say to my father, father, I have sinned against heaven.

And in your sight, I'm no longer worthy to be your son. Make me one of your servants, one of your hired servants, one of the lowest kind of servants. So he comes home and the father embraces him and says, put a ring on his finger, put shoes in his feet, give him a clean robe.

And let's kill the fatted calf and eat and drink and be merry and have joy because he's come home. The boy says, dad, look, I don't deserve this. I really don't.

I want you to make me one of your servants. His father says, what are you talking about? You're my son. You're forgiven.

You're cleansed. You're clothed. I've given you a ring signifying you're my son.

I put shoes on your feet. Slaves didn't wear shoes. Sons did.

Here's a boy who said, look, I'll earn my way in. I'll work my way in. The father says, oh, no, no, no.

It's all by grade. Now, some of you are living like this. You're saying, oh, Lord, I don't want to ask too much.

Can you imagine that? I don't want to ask too much. I don't want to bankrupt you, Lord. I mean, if all the people who are saved come and ask you for things, it won't be much less.

I'll just ask for a little bit. I like that hymn that says, thou art coming to a king, large petitions with thee bring. You can never ask too much.

He said, if you move out of the sphere of grace, then God can't deal with you through grace anymore. If you move into law, then he has to deal with you on the basis of law. And you're the loser.

You become a beggar instead of a rich man, a rich woman. He also makes the statement in verse 2, grace shall profit you nothing. What he's saying is that Jesus Christ cannot pour grace out upon you.

He can't profit you if you're not in the sphere of grace. Jesus Christ is obligated to enrich you when you're living by faith and depending on grace. When you move into law, you've pulled the plug out of the wall.

When you move into law, you've turned off the faucet. When you move into law, you've lost the bank book. Jesus would love to profit you.

Now, the flesh profits nothing. We know that. The law profits nothing.

The law doesn't give you profit. The law takes away from you. But Jesus Christ wants to profit you.

He wants to be of some effect unto you. I think you could translate verse 4, Christ is become of no benefit to you. He can't give you the benefits he wants to give to you.

Now, what are these? Well, look at verse 5. We, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. In Jesus Christ, circumcision profits nothing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Just take that list of words there, the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit doesn't work under law. He works under grace. He's the Spirit of grace.

He's not the Spirit of law. The Spirit. We wait for the hope.

There's no hope under law. Law makes you hopeless. But there's hope under grace, the hope of righteousness.

The law can't make anybody righteous. The law can't give righteousness, but grace can by faith. Faith and law don't go together.

Faith and grace go together, for by grace are you saved through faith. Oh, do you see that Jesus can't impart to me the fullness of his Spirit. He can't give me hope.

He can't give me righteousness. He can't work in my life through love. Verse 6, faith which worketh by love.

You can't do any of these things if I've moved over into law. I've broken my fellowship, not my sonship, my fellowship, and Christ profits me nothing. He goes to one step further in verse 3 and says, all right, if you want to go back under law, you are a debtor.

Now, before I was saved, I was a debtor. Man, was I bankrupt. I was like the fellow in that parable where Jesus said he owed his master 10 million dollars and couldn't pay.

I was bankrupt and so were you. We came to Jesus Christ and he said, you know what? On the cross, I paid all that. I became your surety.

I paid for you. Now trust me and I'll save you. We trusted him and we ceased to be debtors.

This may shock you, but I want you to know something. When it comes to your righteousness before God, you don't owe God anything. You don't owe him one thing.

You are as righteous before God as Jesus Christ. Now, when it comes to our everyday living, that's a different thing. All of us have areas of growth, weakness, problem that God wants to help us with.

Now, the law did not pay your debt. The law told you you were a debtor. So when you move out of grace into law, you are a debtor to do the whole law.

I notice that some of my contacts with some of the legalists of our day, they don't do the whole law. They've selected certain dietary laws and certain sabbatical laws. They don't do the whole law.

They come to me and say, oh, you can't be spiritual unless you are under the law. And I say, which law? Well, law of Moses. Oh, when your fire goes out, do you light it again on the Sabbath day? How long of a journey do you go on on the Sabbath day? Well, those things don't apply.

Oh, but the law is not a cafeteria. Where you take your little spiritual tray and say, I like this. I don't like that.

I like this. I don't like that. He says, if you're going to go under law, you go under the whole law.

You're a debtor to the whole law. Let's suppose you're driving down one of our streets in Chicago, avoiding the potholes, and you go through a stop sign. You ever done that? You'll go through a stop sign.

Don't confess it. And pretty soon, you see that beautiful blue light behind you and that, ooh, you know, pulls you over. You're all prepared for him.

And he gets back there and, well, I guess I did officer, but I didn't go through a red light. I didn't kill anybody. I didn't cause any accident.

He said, we're thankful for that. We're grateful for that. But you went through the stop sign.

You see, we like to take the law and put it in levels. This is important. This isn't important.

I didn't kill anybody. Well, we're glad you didn't, but you still broke the law. There's one law giver, one law, one obligation.

The law is not a cafeteria. So if you move out of grace into law, my friend, you become a debtor. You lose your spiritual wealth.

This is why legalists are so unhappy. This is why people who live under law are so miserable. They aren't drawing upon the spiritual wealth that we have in Christ.

And my friend, when you draw upon that spiritual wealth, you don't need the things of the world. You don't need religion. You've got all that you need in Jesus Christ.

Which leads us now to verses 7 and 8. Here's the third picture, the runner. The prisoner, you lose your liberty. The debtor, you lose your wealth.

The runner, you lose your progress. You did run well. Let me give you a little more accurate translation or more amplified translation.

You did run well. Who did cut in on you? I think the new international version puts it that way. Who did cut in on you? I used to be in races.

You may all chuckle together if you want to. But I had a junior high school coach who somehow thought I was going to be a great trackman. He learned quickly that I was not.

But I learned this. When you're running in the races, we used to have citywide Olympic races, you are put into a lane and you better stay there. You just better stay in that lane.

If you get out of that lane, you're penalized. Now, Paul was writing to people who had watched the races. These people were accustomed to this.

He said, you were making such real progress. You were really growing. You were moving forward.

Then somebody cut in on you and got you off on a detour. Who was this? The Judaizers. They came running along and said, hey, have you read this magazine? Have you heard this tape? Oh, do you believe this or that? Oh, if you don't have this, you can't be spiritual.

And they got him off on a detour. Do you ever notice as you go through Galatians how this thing works? Just trace it with me quickly. Chapter 1, verse 6. I marvel that you are so soon removing from him that called you into the grace of Christ.

Into another gospel, a different gospel. Removing. Here they were in the process of being removed.

Now, how did this happen? Look at chapter 3 and verse 1. Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Oh, this is how it comes. They had bewitched them. Chapter 4, verse 9. Let's notice the sequence here.

You are turned back. How turn ye again? So first, he started to remove them. The Judaizer did.

He bewitched them. He brought them back under law. Look at chapter 5, verse 1. They're getting tangled.

In the yoke of bondage. And now, verse 7 of chapter 5, they get detoured. Somebody cuts in on you.

It's a process. It's a process. Here's a brand new Christian.

He loves the Lord. He's been saved by grace. And some legalist shows up.

These people never go out and win people to Christ. They look for converts and try to win them to their cause. And he comes with his magazines and his tape recorder.

And he said, oh, and I said, that's fine that you're saved. But you need Moses. You need the law.

You need the Sabbath. You don't eat pork. He guiles him.

He fools him. Then you see, when you get under law, you start going backwards. Oh, for a while, it seems like you're making real progress.

But then something happens. And back you go. In fact, Paul makes it clear in Galatians 4. You go back into... He said, the law was needed when you were a child.

But now you've matured. You're an adult son in Jesus Christ. You don't need those things.

You go back under legalism means to go back into immaturity. Now, what's the solution? Verse 7, obey the truth. Obey the truth.

Not just believe the truth. Not just defend the truth. Obey the truth.

What is the truth? Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. What is not under law, we're under grace. What is the truth? We have been married to Jesus Christ.

What is the truth? We are living in the truth. We are no longer immature babies who need guardians. We are adopted, mature sons who can live by the grace of God.

That's the truth. Now obey it. But we're afraid to obey the truth.

It sounds too good. When you teach a new Christian the fact that he's not under law, he's under grace. That God's not dealing with him on the basis of law, but on the basis of the cross of Christ.

When you teach him he has all this spiritual wealth available. When you teach him he can just keep moving, running the race toward that prize. He says, I can't believe it.

It's too good to be true. And that's right. It is too good to be true, but it is true.

Therefore, Paul says, obey the truth. Don't obey some man. Don't obey some book, religious group.

Don't let anybody become a lord over your faith. You are related to Jesus Christ by grace and faith. Let him mature you.

Let him help you grow. And don't let somebody cut in on you, go off on some detour, and you miss the end of the race. Which leads to the final illustration.

The prisoner, we lose our liberty. The debtor, we lose our wealth. The runner, we lose our progress.

Verses 8 through 10. The baker, we lose our spirit. This little statement, a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump, is found a number of times in the Bible.

You know what leaven is. Leaven is yeast. And throughout the Bible, without exception, leaven pictures evil.

I don't know of a single exception. The Jews were not permitted to have leaven with their sacrifices except the leavened bread they had at Pentecost. But when the sacrifices were offered, no leaven.

Leaven's a picture of evil. During Passover season, that leaven was swept out of the house. If they found any leaven in the house, the house was unclean.

In the New Testament, leaven's a picture of evil. Jesus said, beware of the leaven of the Sadducees. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.

Hypocrisy. Beware of the leaven of Herod. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5, purge out the old leaven.

Get rid of those old sins that you used to live in when you were under condemnation, when you were lost. The old leaven. Here he says, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Leaven's a picture of sin. Now here it's a picture of sinful doctrine. False doctrine.

How does false doctrine corrupt a congregation? No school ever went liberal. No Christian ever went wrong by voting on it. Somebody comes along with a little piece of yeast, false doctrine, and gets it into a Sunday school class.

Gets it into the pulpit. Gets it into the music. A singer has no more right to sing a lie than I have to preach a lie.

That's why occasionally Pastor Dinwood, he skips a verse in the hymnal and visitors come and say, what's wrong with that verse? So I tell them. Just a little bit of yeast gets in. Now that yeast begins to grow.

This is why Paul compares false doctrine to yeast. What does yeast do? Well, it comes in secretly. Doesn't make any noise.

Just comes in secretly. That's what happened back in chapter 2. Remember that? When Paul was talking about that conference that they had? Verse 4 of chapter 2. And that because of false brethren, unawares brought in, who came in secretly to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. And so a little bit of false doctrine, like yeast, is put in.

Now what does the yeast do? It grows. I had a biology teacher in high school who was an interesting specimen. She was a good teacher, but a little bit eccentric.

And someone had told her that brewer's yeast was very good for her health. But they forgot to tell her how much to take. And she took too much.

And it grew and grew and grew. And she had to be out of school for a couple of days. They almost put a rope on her to keep her from floating off like a dirigible.

Yeast grows. Now, false doctrine gets into the church. It starts to grow.

And when it grows, it poisons. As yeast ferments, it actually produces poison. When you bake the bread or the cake or the cookies, the heat drives that out.

So it comes in secretly. It spreads quietly. It poisons.

And it puffs up. You watch the bread rise. You watch the cake rise.

It puffs up. And people who live under law are puffed up. They're always bragging about how many prayers they prayed and how much work they did.

People who live under grace are constantly humbled because they say, not I, but the grace of God did it. You know what Paul is telling us here in verse 9? He's saying, you Christians who go under law get infected. And you infect other people.

Instead of touching their lives by grace and being a blessing, lifting them up, encouraging them, you touch them with law. And you infect them. You know there are some Christians when you're with them, you feel like you've grown.

Isn't that right? There are some of the saints of God, you can be with them for 10 minutes, and when you go away, you feel like you've grown. You feel like a breath of fresh air has come into you. You've had a good spiritual shower.

You just feel... There are other Christians when you're with them, you feel like you're being pounded into a casket. And there's death and con... and burden. And you say, oh... Ever had that experience? Sure you have.

The legalist is always jealous of the liberty of the person who lives under grace. He's always draping crates and always closing doors and always pouring concrete and trying to get your feet stuck in it. The Christian who lives by grace, when he touches your life, you aren't infected, you're edified.

You're just built up. There's a cleansing and a growing that comes. An atmosphere of love and grace.

Paul tells us here, okay, you move under law, you're the loser. You lose your spiritual influence. And you won't be able to help other people.

Now, let's end on a positive note. I don't want to be negative. If we live under grace, you know what it means? It means liberty.

We're not prisoners. Praise God. We have a liberty in Jesus Christ that helps us to grow.

Not license. Liberty. If we live under grace, we have wealth.

Oh, you ought to read Ephesians, God's bank book. About the riches of His grace and His glory. Unsearchable riches.

Unspeakable riches. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. If we live under grace, we make progress.

We grow. Instead of being confined, instead of being detoured, and oh how many saints are detoured, there's a growth. We're reaching forward to that which God has for us.

One of the greatest joys in the ministry is to watch young Christians run the race and discover what God's going to do with them. Oh, that's fun. Just to see how they find the will of God and do the will of God.

And when you live under grace, grace comes out of your lips. Grace shows on your face. Marvelous experience of grace.

Now, some of you have made the mistake of thinking that one Christian is different from another Christian because of personality. It would be an awfully bland world if we were all alike. But one Christian differs from another.

There's some Christians who have just by faith, all said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And by the grace of God, not my education, not my personality... grace. That's why we sing, oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be.

Don't go under law. You're the loser if you are. Live under grace, and you're given all that God has for you. All that Jesus died to give you.

Heavenly Father, we give thanks tonight that we are freed in Christ and rich in Christ, that we can make progress in Christ, that we can have a beautiful influence through Christ. For all of this we give thanks. Now help us to take it by faith. Help us to stand in this grace that you've given to us. Help us, O Lord, not to go back under law. Help us to live by grace, live by faith to the glory of Jesus Christ. I pray for anyone here that's never been saved, under the bondage of law, in sin. O Lord, may that one come tonight to trust the Savior who died for them. I ask in Jesus' name. Amen.