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Running Well (Galatians 5:1-12)
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Running Well (Galatians 5:1-12)
Galatians: The Truth of the Gospel :: A Study of Galatians
Sunday Message recorded 09 January 2022
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
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Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
00:00:43
Speaker
Good morning. It's great to see you this morning. What a wonderful way to again start out 2022 by talking about the worthiness of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is worthy of our best efforts, our best praise and worship to offer to him. And so I thank the Lord so much for that. It's good to see you this morning. We're going to be, like I said, in Galatians 5, 1 through 12.
Running the Race of Faith
00:01:09
Speaker
And I want to talk about running well.
00:01:12
Speaker
I thought about this morning maybe opening up those doors at the back of the sanctuary and Josh and I running and having a little competition right here. But, you know, I didn't want to beat him in front of all of you. No, I'm kidding. No, I'm kidding. No, no, no, no. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
00:01:30
Speaker
But I do want us to consider seriously about running with the Lord, walking with Him as we go through life. There was a runner from the past named Eric Little. Perhaps you saw the movie Chariots of Fire. We watched it last night. It's a really great movie.
00:01:49
Speaker
But Eric Little won a gold medal in running. He was in the men's 400 meter race in the Olympic Games back in 1924 in Paris. He ran it in 47.6 seconds, which one broke a record. And so he set the record. But someone said, how did you do that? Because you weren't trained to run in the 400 meter. You were trained to run in the 100 meter. And so they said, how did you do it?
00:02:19
Speaker
His answer was, well, the secret of my success over the 400 meter is that I ran the first 200 meters as hard as I could. And then for the second 200, with God's help, I ran it even harder.
00:02:34
Speaker
Is that the way that you're applying your commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ to following Him? Or are you backing off and saying, you know what? I've already done a lot. I've covered a lot of this race. So I believe I'll just ease up and coast the rest of the way.
00:02:50
Speaker
Let me go back to that thing we were singing earlier. Jesus is worthy. He's worthy of our best. And so we ought to say, Lord, until that last breath, I'm going to be faithful to you. That's what Eric Little did. When Eric Little died, he went to be a missionary in China, just like his parents.
00:03:12
Speaker
And that's where he died. He was actually placed in a Japanese concentration camp. And so he finished well even in that prison camp. You should hear some of the reports of how he lived for Christ, how he met with Christ, how people saw the Lord Jesus in his life, even in that setting.
00:03:32
Speaker
And whenever he died, he said, you know, I found out what it is. He told his nurse, he said, it's complete surrender, complete surrender.
Avoiding Legalism and Embracing Faith
00:03:42
Speaker
This letter to the Galatians warns the Christians of two dangers. And I think we face these as well. One danger is legalism.
00:03:51
Speaker
The other danger is license. If you look at these first 12 verses that we're going to study together this morning, you'll see definitely legalism is a danger because of what we trust in, what we put our faith in.
00:04:07
Speaker
But also, whenever we get to verses 13 down through verse 25, you're going to see license, and that's where the flesh is in charge. It's a perversion of the freedom that we have in Christ. Well, if I'm forgiven, I ought to just live any old way I want.
00:04:23
Speaker
We're gonna get to that, but not today. Today we're gonna learn how to run well by keeping our focus, keeping our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's stand together. You follow in your copy of God's word. I'll read from my copy. I'm reading from the ESV translation, but Galatians five, verse one down through verse 12. Here's what it says, for freedom.
00:04:49
Speaker
Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he's obligated to keep the whole law.
00:05:20
Speaker
You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by law. You've fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything
00:05:47
Speaker
but only faith, working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view. And the one who's troubling you
00:06:15
Speaker
will bear the penalty whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?
00:06:25
Speaker
In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. Let's go to the Father in prayer. Oh Lord, speak to us from your word. I know that your word was written so that we could follow Christ, so that we could know Christ. I know in this room there are some who still, they don't know who Christ is personally. They do not have a personal relationship with Christ.
00:06:56
Speaker
Although they may be a fine person, a good man, a good woman, a good boy or girl, good student, yet that goodness, that personal goodness, it'll never be enough to earn salvation. It'll never be enough to make up for our sins. And so please help them to see what Christ did for them.
00:07:16
Speaker
But I pray for those of us that are already in that race. We've already settled it. We admitted that we were sinners. We acknowledge that Christ's Atonement was sufficient. And so we are walking with you through each day.
00:07:32
Speaker
Lord, may 2022 be an incredible year of discovery of who we are in Christ and of all that we have available to us in Christ. You have provided what we need to walk with you this year. And so help us, oh Lord, to find the power of the Holy Spirit
00:07:51
Speaker
in our lives so that we can live for Jesus and become more like Him each and every day. So you speak as we listen. We are your servants. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Paul was in the role of a spiritual trainer, a life coach. These are the people he had won to Christ, these Galatian disciples.
00:08:17
Speaker
the churches that were started there. And so this letter, you know what the letters of the Apostle Paul really are? It's like he's discipling. Are you making disciples of those that are around you? Are you trying to get others to know God and to know what he wants for them? Well, as a life coach, as a mentor,
00:08:39
Speaker
Let's listen closely to the five pointers that he gives that will equip us in 2022 to run well. Do you want to run well? Well, let's look at what he says to them. I think it applies to us. First, if you want
Living in Christ's Freedom
00:08:56
Speaker
to run well, then you need to run free. You need to run free.
00:09:02
Speaker
Right off the top, the apostle Paul is inspired by the Holy Spirit to say, for freedom, Christ has set us free. You know that second free there? Christ has set us free. That's what he did on the cross. That's what happens when you trust him and put your faith in trust only in the finished work of Christ on the cross. You are set free.
00:09:28
Speaker
But the first freedom is the freedom we should live in every single day of our lives, the freedom that's found in our discipleship, in our walk with Christ. The Galatian believers, they were set free whenever they trusted Christ. But at this moment in time, even though they were free in Christ,
00:09:50
Speaker
They were bound up. They were tied up. They were chained up. That's why the Apostle Paul says to them in verse 1, do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Do you know what a yoke is? When you get hooked into some yoke, you can't get out. You're in slavery. You're bound in there.
00:10:12
Speaker
But why are they wanting to go back into a yoke of slavery when Jesus said His yoke in Matthew 11, 28 through 30? It's easy. His yoke is easy. His burden is light.
00:10:28
Speaker
That's why some people are trying to gain acceptance before God. I saw this in Japan for 12 years. I saw people offering up offerings and making all kinds of sacrifices that were unnecessary and they were not effective.
00:10:45
Speaker
because they didn't know about Christ. But I saw those who did hear the gospel and who trusted Christ, I saw them find out and discover, you know what? It's true. Christ's yoke is easy because He paid the price. That's why Paul reminds us in Romans 6.14, we're not under law, we're under grace now.
00:11:09
Speaker
sin should have no dominion over you and over me. I am free from the penalty of sin, but I'm also set free from the power of sin. If I would just depend on Christ, if I would just take my life in his direction and depend on his provisions every single day.
00:11:28
Speaker
I want us to look at the first four verses and let me just kind of go over a few things that not only this passage, but all of scripture, especially the New Testament says that we have spiritual freedom in Christ, but freedom from what? Look with me first at verse one. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoko slavery. I think we're free from our sinful past.
00:11:58
Speaker
Do you have a sinful past? I do. Everybody does. The Bible says all of sin and fall short of the glory of God. We're all broken. We all need what Christ did for us on the cross. And if we don't go to Him, then guess what? We're gonna continue that lifestyle. It'll keep going on and on and on. But if you were to read a passage in 1 Corinthians 6, nine through 11,
00:12:25
Speaker
another group of disciples, another church, a place called Corinth, a group called Corinthians, not the Galatians and not the church in Galatia. But he was saying to them, to those in Corinth, he was saying, you know what?
00:12:41
Speaker
People that are into homosexuality, adultery, that are into fornication and idolatry and drunkenness. He said they're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. But then he says something really significant in verse 11. He says, and such were some of you.
00:13:02
Speaker
but you were washed, you were cleansed in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see what I'm saying? It's like, this is the way I've always been. These things have run and ruled my life. But then when I trust Christ, suddenly now things begin to change. I was like that, but I'm not like that now. And so I thank the Lord so much. That's why Paul would say in Romans 8.1, hey, there's now.
00:13:29
Speaker
Therefore, no more condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Outside of Christ Jesus, the condemnation is still there. But in Christ Jesus, there's no condemnation. It's great. That's freedom. Freedom from a sinful past. Freedom from having to someday face the penalty for that sinful past.
00:13:52
Speaker
But I want us to look at a second thing that the coach mentions. He mentions the importance of form, of form in a runner. If you want to run well, you're going to have to run with the right form. You know, an article in Runner's World entitled, The Perfect Form.
00:14:12
Speaker
said this, that whenever a runner wants to run well, he's gotta tilt his head. Gotta tilt his head, chin down, gotta look forward. You can't look at your feet and win a race. You're gonna have to put your head tilted down slightly with your chin and you're gonna look forward and run. Your shoulders should be low and loose, not high and tight. Your arms and your hands, they swing with each stride and you gotta have them at a 90 degree angle at the elbows.
00:14:42
Speaker
The legs, if you're a sprinter, then you lift your knee high. If you're in a marathon, you lift your knee low. Your feet should hit the pavement between the heel and the midfoot and roll to the toes and spring off with every single step. I mean, they were describing the perfect form. But what about for a Christian? What about for those of us who know the Lord, trying to live for him,
00:15:08
Speaker
Remember, Jesus clashed with the Pharisees, right? He clashed with the Pharisees because they were always stressing the wrong form, the externals. Is it most important? What you wore today on the outside, is that the most important thing today? It's not. It's not. That's where Jesus and the Pharisees clashed.
00:15:33
Speaker
It's the inside. And so what he was talking about is it's not about being religious. It's about having a relationship. It's being real. That's why Paul is dealing with the Judaizers. That's the group that's stressing works. That's the group that's stressing circumcision here. And it's almost like we have a biblical camera.
00:15:55
Speaker
You've ever seen in a race how sometimes they have a camera that's right there at the finish line and you see them as they all come across the line. Sometimes they'll go above. I don't know if it's a drone or what it is, but it's up there and you can see them down. You see all the runners across each lane. Sometimes they'll zoom right in. You see a certain runner really up close. Well, the biblical camera has three angles. Let me give them to you real quickly. In 2022, what kind of form should you have?
00:16:25
Speaker
Well, verses two and three remind me
00:16:28
Speaker
that the externals, the rituals, that's no advantage. It's not about the outside. That's not gonna give you the advantage. It's the internals, verse six. You remember Jesus, he talked a lot about the heart, the condition of your heart, your character, your soul, who you are. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything.
00:16:56
Speaker
You see what he's saying? He's saying, you want to know what counts with God? It's not the rituals. It's not the externals. But what does count? But only faith, working through love.
00:17:10
Speaker
It's like there are two hard attitudes that God was looking at as you entered this building and when you were singing, when you'll leave this building, when you go through this week, God's gonna be looking in your heart for two things, faith and love, faith and love.
00:17:27
Speaker
Those are the things that God says, I value those things. I want those things to be a part of your daily experience. But the camera also sort of zooms out and gives us that big picture of the eternals in verse seven.
Obedience as a Christian Goal
00:17:43
Speaker
In verse seven, he says, you were running well. Who entered you from obeying the truth? When it's all said and done, what is it that God's looking for most?
00:17:53
Speaker
A life of obedience, a life of obedience to truth that he's revealed. That's a big issue with God. We can't just live in disobedience and expect, oh, I know that it's going to be great when I enter into God's presence. Let's move into the third point that the coach gives. Running well is also based upon fitness. Runners and athletes of any discipline,
00:18:21
Speaker
Any field, they're all careful about their diet. They're regular in exercise. They discipline themselves in terms of their schedule. They train and they practice over and over again in their field. That's why I wanted to say from the very beginning, the kingdom of God is worth our best.
00:18:44
Speaker
Let me challenge you. If in 2021, you're coming to the realization, you know what? I believe I gave God the scraps. I believe I gave God the leftovers. Why wouldn't today be the perfect time for you to say, you know what? I'm tired of giving God the leftovers of my life. I'm gonna give him the very best. I'm gonna put him first in my life. You know, the Bible says if we put God first,
00:19:11
Speaker
in our lives. He'll add all the other things. That's what he promises in Matthew 6, 33. So what is it like whenever we're running with him and we're fit and so forth? I want to encourage you to do three spiritual exercises as we go through this year.
00:19:30
Speaker
You know what a pushup is? I would just fall right down here right now and give you 10 real quick, maybe give you 20, but I'm afraid it might be embarrassing. So I'm not going there. I'm just gonna talk about it, okay? But pushup from what is spiritually unprofitable. There's a lot of things you can choose to invest your life in, to spend your time on, to spend your money on.
00:19:54
Speaker
But you know what? A lot of those things, they don't even, they don't accomplish anything in your walk with Christ. So here's the thing I'm going to say is why don't you just push up from that kind of thing? He talks about in verse two and verse nine, there's some things that we ought to just say, you know what? It's not going to help me anyway. It's not going to help me follow Christ. I'm done with that.
00:20:17
Speaker
We also need to consider seriously what that verse nine says. It says, a little leaven, leavens the whole lump.
00:20:25
Speaker
You see, I need to think about my influence in my family. I need to think about my influence in my Sunday school class. My influence of my neighbors and those that know me, those at school that are around me, because whatever's in my life, it could be like leaven that spreads. And so I need to say, you know what? I'm gonna push away. I'm gonna push up.
00:20:47
Speaker
from all of those things that are spiritually unprofitable. But I tell you what I'm also going to do, I'm going to pull up. I'm going to pull up in my relationship with Christ. You know in verse 4 when he does say that about being severed from Christ, I can't think of anything that would be more sobering than for a believer, a disciple.
00:21:10
Speaker
to be distant in the relationship from Christ. You ought to say, Lord, I don't wanna be cut off from you. I wanna know you. I wanna walk with you. I wanna be used by you. I wanna be filled by you as I go through this year. But then what about this one in verse six? Sit up in your service to others. Sit up in your service to others. You know, earlier I was talking about what doesn't count, but what does count
00:21:38
Speaker
is faith working, faith working through love, caring about people, getting involved in ministry and service and helping. Would you say this year, Lord help me not to coast and forget about others that are around me, not to coast when there's so many needs available in my church family for me to serve.
00:22:03
Speaker
Well, in verse seven, we see that these Galatian believers were running well, but like I said earlier, they shifted their focus. That's the fourth thing that this coach is talking about, is focus. They shifted their focus from Jesus to those Judaizers. Is there a group in your life?
00:22:26
Speaker
that's beginning to get inside your head, whether it's professors, whether it's somebody that's online, whether it's somebody at school, whether it's in a relationship, wherever it might be, someone at work, is somebody beginning to slow you down in your race, switching the metaphor? Are they cooling you down from being on fire for Christ? Who is that?
00:22:51
Speaker
You know that last night when we were enjoying our supper, I agreed during supper that we would watch ice skating. I don't know about you men, but ice skating is not one of those things that really gets me charged up. So I said, okay, we can deal with this. But one of the things that the lady said was, she said, you know that all the training that the ice skater does, everything can be undone because of this one thing. You know what she said? 98%
00:23:21
Speaker
of the ice skater's performance is mental. It's in the head. So that's why even if they've done those spins and done all of that flawlessly in practice, if they get nervous about that crowd and it begins to shake them up on the inside, they're going to fall. They're going to bobble and make some mistakes. 98%
00:23:43
Speaker
You know, I think that the Christian life, your discipleship can be greatly affected by people that are around you if you let them. They can be a distraction to you. We may not be talking now about the Galatians and who hindered them from obeying the truth. We're talking about you right here. In Colorado County, who's hindering you from obeying the truth?
00:24:12
Speaker
You know, I looked at these things and I thought, you know, there's a lot of distractions that I think he mentions, the works of the flesh being distracted from faith in Christ, being distracted through the false teaching. So what is it that's pulling you down?
00:24:30
Speaker
What you need to move from is being distracted to being disciplined. That's where focus comes in. The discipline for focus, I think is mentioned in verses 10 and 11 and 12. When you say, you know what? I need to get control of things here. I need to ask God, help me with who I'm staring at and what I'm depending on. Tim LaHaye wrote a book a long time ago called The Battle for the Mind.
00:24:58
Speaker
You see, this world is filled with competing voices to the Spirit's voice. The Holy Spirit is speaking. He is very real. But there are other voices that we hear that are other values.
00:25:12
Speaker
other moral standards, other measures of success. And if we're only gonna listen to them, then we're gonna be distracted. But it'll take discipline to say, Lord, I want to hear what you're saying to my life this year.
Endurance and Salvation
00:25:27
Speaker
Well, let me close with one fifth and final pointer concerning running well. I believe he urges us to run until the finish line in verse five.
00:25:37
Speaker
In verse five, he says, for through the spirit by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. The hope of righteousness. Do you have the hope that someday when you enter heaven,
00:25:52
Speaker
that God's not going to bring up all your sin. What he's going to say is this one was covered by the righteousness of my son. You see, Jesus died on the cross as our substitute. He took our sin, but you know what he also did? He took his righteousness and he clothed us spiritually in the righteousness of Christ. It's a mystery how that works.
00:26:15
Speaker
but it's called imputed, imputed righteousness. So now it's like when God looks at me, He sees not my sin and my failures, He sees the imputed righteousness, the perfect atonement of Jesus Christ.
00:26:31
Speaker
You know, Paul said in 2 Timothy 4, 7, I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. Acts 20, 24, he says, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. Is that your desire? I believe that's the desire of every believer because Jesus said in Matthew 24, 13, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.
00:26:57
Speaker
In other words, what's happening is he's saying, those that are genuinely committed to me, they're not gonna fall away. They're not gonna drop out. They're not gonna quit. They're gonna say, I will follow you, Lord, until the very end. And so he gives the closing thoughts of, well,
00:27:14
Speaker
It means living life through the power of the Holy Spirit. Boy, you won't believe all that the Lord has planned for us as we finish out chapter 5. We're going to talk about life in the Spirit and the power of God's Spirit. That's why he says, for through the Spirit, I'm moving toward the finish line. But also, he's living life by faith in the promises. The Word of God is also important. He says, for through the Spirit, by faith.
00:27:41
Speaker
We ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. Are you trusting what God has said? Are you in God's Word every day, but then living life with hope of a complete pardon? Won't that be great to know that all of your sins will be acquitted and that you will be accepted in God's sight because of Christ's righteousness? It's incredible.
00:28:06
Speaker
So I want you to stand with me. I want to give this opportunity for any that need to trust Christ today to say, okay, let's start this new year by saying, I need to be saved. Is there anyone here that you would say, I don't have a personal relationship with Christ. I'm still trying to gain his favor. I'm still trying to earn acceptance. I'm still trying to earn his love.
00:28:30
Speaker
It's so available in Christ. What we have to do is say, I'm tired of sin. I want to turn from that and I want to put my faith and trust in the finished work of Christ. That's it. And then you begin to follow Him for the rest of your life in obedience. No matter what others are saying, you say, you know what? I'm not going to be hindered from obeying Him. I want to run well.
00:28:53
Speaker
Whatever God's lay on your heart, you come during this time of invitation. I'll be waiting down front if you need someone to pray with. Lord, thank you so much for this time to look into your word. I pray that you made it come alive in our hearts, alive with application. Lord, help us to live for you, not on a Sunday morning, not while we're at church and worship or later in our Sunday school. But Lord, whenever we're out there this week,
00:29:20
Speaker
Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday. Help us live for you. Help us run the Christian life, the course that is set before us and run in the power of your Holy Spirit for the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray, amen.