Would you turn with me to the book of Galatians chapter 5? Galatians chapter 5 this morning. We're beginning the new chapter off of the study of Galatians with having Dr. Sadaka with us. I hope you were able to be here last weekend and partake in the Passover and the teaching of the Word as he taught it. It was a great time of fellowship. Now this week we're Galatians and we are picking up where we left off. than two weeks ago, having finished chapter 4 today, beginning into chapter 5. We're going to just look at one verse. This is an interesting verse. It really serves as a hinge that pivots us from Paul's prior arguments to now moving into some very practical exhortations. Kind of almost like an if-then concept. If these things are true, if these doctrines are true, and if these things I've taught you in chapter 1 to 4 are true, then what does that mean? And so chapter 5 and 6 become very practical in the exhortation. And we're going to look at just this one verse. Now, when we come together on a Sunday, you know, we probably have any number of different translations represented amongst us. And there is a variant reading that I want to draw your attention to, because when I read from the New King James, if you're reading perhaps from the New American Standard or the ESV, there is a variant reading in this verse. We're not going to take a lot of time to discuss the variant reading between the different manuscript families, but it is a variant reading. Essentially, when I read from the New King James, the text is saying this to us. Stand fast. Therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." In the other variant strain of readings, there is essentially a translation that says basically this concept. It is for freedom that you have been set free by Christ. Therefore, stand fast, do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. So, there's these two different trains of translation in the Bibles that are represented. I just want to draw your attention to it. I'm not going to go through variant readings this morning, but I do want you to notice that that is the case. Also, different translations of the Scripture, different Bibles, there is a difference of opinion over where chapter 5, verse 1 goes. Does it tie in with the previous paragraph or the next? It's almost a stand-alone verse. It really acts as a hinge between what He has said before and what He is going to say now in the future. That is why we're going to study it as one verse alone. and try to really analyze the teaching that is in the verse. Now, we've done a lot of studies before in variant readings and so forth, so I drew your attention to it. I hope that doesn't just blow your brain this morning. If you want to discuss that further, come and talk to me about it. But I did want to draw your attention because some of you have asked me before, why does your Bible say it this way and my Bible say it this way? And I want to draw your attention to it so that's up front in your thinking that you're aware that I'm aware that there is a little bit difference in translation here based on some manuscript evidence. Now let's look at the verse. Galatians chapter 5 verse 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. There's essentially two verbs here we're going to study, two commands. We're moving away from a series or a segment of the book where he has heavily made declarative statements. Remember that from English grammar? Declarative statements. These are facts. Now he is moving to a segment of the book where we're going to see a lot of imperatives. These are the commands. These are the things we are to do based on what we have learned. Now there are two commands that are in this verse that we are going to hone in on this morning. He says, number one, Stand fast. That is a positive command, isn't it? The second command is kind of a negative command. Do not be ensnared again. And so, there's a positive command and a negative command. Now, let's just think again of a brief overview of the book of Galatians because we are in this pivot point. Remember, the theme of the book of Galatians essentially is, he is dealing with two issues in the book of Galatians. The refutation, he is refuting something. He is refuting the Judaizing heresy, which was a legalistic teaching concerning justification by faith. And the outworking of justification, which we are beginning to really delve into, which is sanctification. So he refutes the Judaizing heresy. And then secondly in this book, there is then based on that a restoration in their mind, again pointing to the reality that justification is by grace through faith alone, not by any work that we can do. Now, as we have gone through the book of Galatians, essentially there are three couplets of two when it comes to the chapters. Remember, there are six chapters in the book of Galatians. Chapter 1 and 2 were basically personal and biographical. Chapter 3 and 4 were doctrinal. They were doctrinal arguments for justification by faith. These are the declarative statements. Chapter 5 and 6 are now the practical ramifications. This is the if-then part of the book where he says, since this is true, this is what this means to us. This is the part of the book where he becomes very practical and he says, what does this mean in how I live my life? If I bring this down to the nuts and bolts, the nitty-gritty of everyday life, what does this look like? And so, here's the hinge. Now, let's go on and let's just analyze the hinge. Let's think about the basis of the plea that He is going to make. The plea that He's making is, stand fast, do not be entangled. The basis of that plea is the word, therefore. That word is what is linking us with what's gone before in the first four chapters. It is the basis of what He's going to say to us in the next two chapters. And when we think about this concept of the therefore, he then is going to build all of these arguments out of what we've already learned. Now, in the immediate context, and this is why it's difficult for some translators to say, where does this belong? Does this verse really belong with the previous section or the next one? In the immediate context, we just finished talking about the two covenants. and the analogy that Paul draws based on the story of Abraham and then Hagar and Ishmael and Sarah and Isaac. You remember that study? We went through the different analogies there from the covenant and the allegory that Paul draws from the Old Testament story in the book of Genesis. Now, I want to just go back in our thinking to that for a minute, because it is an important part of this plea. Remember, in Galatians chapter 3, Paul begins his discussion on justification by quoting from Genesis when God said of Abraham, Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him to be righteousness. He believed in God and it was imputed to be righteousness. The very next chapter, what does Abraham and Sarah do? They concoct a plan to inherit the promise of God by human effort. It is a miraculous plan. They're not going to have a child by their own abilities. And so they concoct a plan, and by human effort and human reasoning, they say, well, we're going to help God out. We're going to take care of this issue." And so they bring Hagar into the equation. They have a child by Hagar, but by human intellect and human effort and human reasoning, they really set aside the promise of God. And so this is a very important analogy of what we sometimes do. I draw your thought to two people or to two basic views that have been afloat in Christian history ever since the beginning of the church. We talked about Pelagianism. and having to do with the teaching of Pelagius going all the way back to the time of Augustine in the year 400. We talk about pragmatism. The end justifies the means. That's really what's going on in Abraham's mind, isn't it? The end justifies the means. We'll get a child our own way. But God does not work by means that He has not prescribed. And the means that God has prescribed in His Word are clear to us. And those are the means by which God works to produce salvation in the human heart. There's another man in church history, a guy named Jacob Arminius. A lot of you have heard of Arminianism. We're not going to take a lot of time to talk about Arminianism today. But basically, Arminius is a man who follows in the teaching of Pelagius. And he really downplays human depravity. And he makes it into the kind of concept that by human effort and by human ability, you can get yourself into a place where you can be saved by faith. But Jacob Arminius actually walks away from the central teaching concerning the truth. That God works and He brings about His promise. The promise of eternal life by grace alone. not by any merit within the human heart. And so, God does use means, but those means are the means that He has prescribed. Now, we're going to look this morning at these two commands. There's a positive command, stand fast. There is a negative command, do not be entangled again. Now, that word is an interesting word. The word to entangle there is not a word in the Greek language which means to get tripped up. like to get wrapped up in your robes. I remember, this isn't even in my notes, first wedding I ever did. I've told some of you this story. It's an outdoor wedding in a cow pasture on the back side of a ranch. And here I am standing at the front, and the bride's coming down with her father, and as they're getting to a windy day, and as she's coming down the aisle of grass, people standing around, The wind picks up her train and does one of these like wrapping around her feet. And coming down the aisle, here she goes falling headlong, her dad as well, falling down right in front of me because they were wrapped up in a train. You talk about, you know, how do you go from this? First wedding I've ever done. and get them up and we go on. But she got tripped up. That's not this word. Have you ever heard the concept of being entangled in someone else's affairs? Like quarrel? That's really the word. To be involved in a quarrel. In fact, in Luke's Gospel, that's the way the word is translated. To be involved in a quarrel. And so it's not just a word which means to be tripped up. He's saying don't get into this quarrel. Stay apart from it. Now, let's talk about the commands. Both of them are present active imperatives. They're commands whereby He's saying, this is something you must do, and it is a present tense saying you must continually do it. The word to stand fast is used in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, in verse 13, when we are told there in the Scripture, Stand fast in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. He's saying to us, take a stand. We've all heard this before. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything, right? We have to learn to take a stand. I think in the Scripture of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who are confronted with what everybody else is doing around them, and everybody else is bowing before the great statue that Nebuchadnezzar has erected there on the plain, and yet Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stand. And that is literally this word. It just simply means stand. Don't be driven away. Stand in the liberty. Take a stand. I was thinking in the book of Ezekiel, where God says of the nation of Israel, the days of the Babylonian captivity, I was searching in the land, I was looking amongst them to see if I could find a man who would stand in the gap and make up a hedge, lest I should destroy the people, lest I should destroy the Lord. And then He says, the land, and He says, I could find none. to just stand in the hole. I was thinking this in relationship to working cattle. You know, you can turn a whole herd of cattle by just standing in the gate. It's just you. But you can turn the whole herd by just standing in the gate. You know, whoever's standing in the gate is in a very important position when you're working cattle and you're sorting cattle. You just stand in the gate. You don't have to jump up and down. You just stand. Stand, he says. Stand fast in the liberty. What are we to stand in and what are we to stand for? We are to stand for and in the liberty by which Christ has set us free. It is Christ who set us free and He has set us apart for liberty. What is liberty? What does it mean to be free? I thought about this a lot this week. I read a lot of different thoughts on it. I even picked up the Encyclopedia Americana and read what they had to say about liberty, freedom. What is freedom? What does it mean to be free? You know this guy. You've seen him before. Maybe you can see the picture. That's Patrick Henry. He's a great forebear in American history, isn't he? This picture is taken from the scene in 1775, when on March the 23rd, the Virginia Convention is convened in St. John's Church. And he stands before the crowd, and they are trying to determine whether or not they are going to send, there's a resolution on whether or not they're going to send soldiers to be involved in the cause of freedom for the American colonies. And you know his speech. This is how important freedom was to him. Give me liberty or give me what? Death. And you read his speech, you know, I know not what choice you will have and I cannot make a choice for you. But he says, ask for me. Almost reminding me of Joshua when he says in the book of Joshua, ask for me in my house. He was certainly in there. He said, you know, ask for me. Give me liberty or give me death. But what is liberty? All different kinds of issues that we can think of and talk about when it comes to freedom. Is Paul talking about political freedom? No. He's not. We live in the United States of America. We are thankful for freedom. the rights that we have. That's not what Paul's talking about. You say, how do you know that? I'll tell you how I know that. This is a statement to every Christian who's ever lived, but not every Christian who has ever lived has lived in a country or a place where they would enjoy the freedom we enjoy. How about the people who live in Iran? How about the people in North Korea? They live in a system of repression and slavery, physical slavery. Can they not be free? Yes, they can. He is not talking about political freedom. Now, we understand as Christians that political liberty finds its foundation in the principles of the Word of God. But political freedom is not the contingency of enjoying these promises. If we lose every one of what we think of as the rights that are delineated in the Bill of Rights, and we lose them all, you are still free in Christ. And we are still free in Christ in this regard. Are we concerned for our country? Yes, we are. Do we want to see our children live in the freedom that we enjoy? Yes, we do. In fact, I was thinking of 1 Timothy 2, as Steve was talking about this before we began our prayer time this morning, that we are to pray for those in authority that we might live a peaceable and quiet life. We long to have this freedom. But that is not primarily what he is talking about here. Is he talking about freedom of choice? Is that what he's talking about? Freedom of choice? You see, freedom can be used in many different ways. You talk about freedom of the will. What is he talking about? Free choice. Now we understand clearly, even when we just think of freedom of choice. Now when I mention that phrase, we all think of what battle in America? Battle of abortion, don't we? But think of it even broader than that. Are we just free to choose anything that we want? No. There is only freedom within the constraints and restraints of God's law. You see, there is freedom within restraint. And that is why James, in James chapter 1, speaks of the law of liberty. The law that brings liberty. Not by our justification, but the liberty that is within the constraints of law. Now let's think for a minute this morning about the biblical foundation of liberty. What is the biblical foundation of liberty? that he's talking about here. If you were just to think in your mind, where does all this begin? Where does this teaching about liberty begin? And you took out the concordance, and you were going to do your own Bible study, and you were going to try to trace this out. You know one of the places you'd go? Leviticus 25. So let's go there. I want you to turn over there for a minute. Now I think that we would find this passage really quick. And we would find that it serves as a foundation to the biblical concept of liberty, especially when we think of its relationship, liberty's relationship with the law. The law is fulfilled in Christ. What we read in Leviticus 25 is all a shadow and a picture of what will be fulfilled in the ministry of the Messiah, the ministry of Christ. And so let's look in Leviticus chapter 25. And let's consider a couple things in this chapter. Are you there in Leviticus chapter 25? I want you all to get there. Sometimes we put a verse up on the screen, and we will a little bit later in the study this morning, but let's think about what he's saying here concerning liberty. This liberty that we are to stand fast in, that we are to stand for. Now he tells us in Leviticus 25, by the way, you remember last Sunday morning, David Sadaka was talking about Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Now let's notice what happens on a specific day of atonement. So think about the Judaistic calendar and the calendar that we studied last week of all the feasts and festivals that were part of the Jewish ceremonial system in the law. Notice what happens in Leviticus 25 and verse 8. And you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourselves. Seven times seven years. And then he says, "...in the time of the seventh Sabbath of years shall be to you 49 years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement, you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land." And then this is on our Liberty Bell, isn't it? "...And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own possession, and each of you shall return to his own family. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall neither sow nor reap, what grows of its own accord, nor gathers the grapes of your intended vine. For it is the jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the field. In this year of jubilee, each of you shall return to its possession." I wonder if I can take the time to read the rest of the passage where he prescribes what things were to be given back and restored in the year of Jubilee and what things did not have to be. So if you had a house in a walled city and you had sold it to somebody else, you never got it back. But if it was a house you had sold that was in an unwalled village, or you had sold fields and lands on the year of Jubilee, you got them back. Came back to you. It was almost like a lend-lease. almost kind of like a sharecrop type agreement that were going on in the land of Israel. But the land was the Lord's, it says, and it reverted to those to whom He had entrusted it. And it all happened on the year of Jubilee. So think of what He says in verse 10. You shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and you will proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family." Liberty in this concept, in the biblical foundation, is clearly speaking of a release, of a redemption, of a forgiveness. And it is all tied to what day in the Old Testament law? The day of atonement. And he says to us in Galatians 5, verse 1, stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has set us free. He is the One who has atoned us. Stand fast in that liberty, that forgiveness of our debt, the release from it. So there is the forgiveness that is based on the atonement. And this is all foreshadowed and a picture of what Christ would do. Christ is the fulfillment. Now, let's think from this. Go back to Galatians 5. You know, we sin in the installment plans in our life, don't we? And we live in sin. And it is accruing up a greater and a heavier debt against our name. And there's interest that accrues on that, isn't there? And then Christ comes in and He pays the debt and the debt is forgiven and we are released. We are released from the bondage of the law that condemns us. That is why Paul says in Romans chapter 8 verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. That debt has been forgiven. And what does he say? Don't get entangled in it again. Don't! get entangled in that debt again. Now, this is a clear, notice with me in Galatians chapter 5 verse 1, he talks about a yoke of bondage, doesn't he? A yoke of bondage. Now, this is a clear allusion to Acts chapter 15. You don't have to turn there, but Acts chapter 15 is the Jerusalem council where the Judaizers have come to argue their case before the apostles that, yes, in order to be saved, you must be circumcised. And that's where we're going to go in the rest of this chapter. We're going to talk about circumcision and why circumcision. But in the Jewish Council and in this convention in Acts 15, they are arguing and they are determining what does God want for us concerning justification. Peter stands up in the midst and he says to all the Christians who are convened there, he says, why do you test God? Why do you test God by putting a yoke? on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. But we believe..." Now notice the link here. We believe that it is through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that we shall be saved in the same manner as they are. We will be saved in the same manner as they are. This yoke of bondage, this yoke upon our neck is the yoke of the condemnation, the yoke of seeking to be justified by our own efforts and by our own abilities to keep the law. And he says, why do you put that back on people's necks? And he's really telling us here, don't get entangled in that again. Don't go back into debt. Now, let's think of a scenario. You've been in debt. You've mortgaged the farm to put in more crops. There was never enough money to make things do. So you were going to the creditors all the time until finally your sons were taken from you and sold as indentured servants and they are now slaves. You lose your land. You lose it all. You're almost at a place of being destitute and you're almost a beggar. And maybe you even forgot about the law of God and what was prescribed there when all of a sudden you hear a trumpet blast and you are reminded it's Jubilee. And all of a sudden your sons who had been indentured and sold and gone are coming home. And this land that you had lost, maybe even by your own foolishness, and maybe not, was now all of a sudden yours again. and the house that you had to move out of, you all of a sudden were picking up your goods and all your possessions, and you were going home, and there was a release, and you were free, and you're moving back in. And you're back on the farm. Things are going okay, and about three months down the road, you come home one night and you walk into the... I don't know if they had a living room back then. And you sit down and you're kind of fidgeting around, guys, trying to figure out how to break the news to your wife. You say, honey, we really need a new yoke of oxen. But you know, dear, we don't have the money. Do you mind if we go in debt? What do you think your wife's going to say? Don't be entangled again. Don't be entangled again. We lost it all once. Haven't you learned? You see, and that's exactly the analogy that Paul is saying here. He says, you were a debtor to sin, and you were cast away, and you were enslaved to sin, as Paul says in Romans chapter 6. And now Christ has set you free, and you're living in Christ. Why in the world would you go back into debt? Why get tripped up again? How many of us live that way? How many of us live that way? He says, do not put a yoke of bondage on your neck again. Now what is interesting is in Isaiah 61, verse 1 and 2, we find there that the Messiah's ministry would be characterized by a proclamation of release to the captives. This is what the Messiah would do. And we are told in Matthew 11, come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Take My yoke upon you. Take the yoke of Christ. Now the message then is to all. For some, there are people who have put their neck in the yoke of bondage to sin. And you've walked in sin, and you've walked with sin as your taskmaster, and he's a cruel taskmaster. And you're burdened and you're weary, and Christ would blow the trumpet and sound the jubilee for you. There is a release. There's a forgiveness. But you know what else is true for us as Christians? It is so easy for us to take this freedom that we have been granted and to trade it in and to walk back into debt. And Paul says, stand fast. Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has set you free. There is a freedom in the heart of the believer that the world cannot understand. And it is the freedom of the forgiveness of sin. That the past holds no chains in your life because it has been released. And you can walk in the freedom of being yoked to Christ. Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Let's close in a word of prayer. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the teaching that we find in Your Word. Father, it is so true that no man can serve two masters. Either he will love the one and hate the other, or he will cling to the one and abandon the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. It is true, as Paul said, that although we are the freest of all, yet all men in one way are slaves. And that is why Paul said, I am the bondservant of Christ. Father, free us from sin. Free us from the bondage of the condemnation of the law that hangs over our heads. And help us to take the yoke of Christ. Father, to walk in Him and with Him. Follow Him all our days. Father, I pray that there's someone here that has never trusted in Christ and Christ alone, that Your Spirit would draw them in this time to an understanding that they must repent of sin and turn to Christ, an abandoned self. Father, may they do that this morning in the singing of this song. Father, for us who know You, forgive us for the many times that we allow ourselves to be ensnared in a yoke of bondage. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.