Mark writes in a rather concise style and he moves quickly through events without spending as much time detailing them as do the other gospel writers.  It’s almost disconcerting to notice how often he uses the word “immediately.”  But I guess it’s emblematic of his style to keep moving and give highlights, rather than a lot of biographical details.

I think the thread that ties this next passage together is found in another word used twice in this passage, but implied more often than that,  which is the word “authority.”  In  verse 22, “And they were astonished at His . . . authority”.  And then in verse 27 of chapter 1, you find the word “authority” given again.  And I suppose that it is an appropriate idea for Mark to propose considering that Jesus has been heralded by John the Baptist to be the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lord and King of the kingdom of God. The supreme King of the universe must have authority over His subjects and over everything in this world.

After Jesus was raised from the dead, just before He ascended into heaven, He said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”  And so it’s appropriate that He demonstrates His authority at the beginning of His ministry. So there are four events in this passage where He illustrates His authority.

The first one is His authority as a teacher.  Look at verse 21, “They *went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and began to teach.”  In Jesus’s day there may have been  probably 450 synagogues in that region.  According to the law, they were allowed to establish a synagogue for every ten men who were followers of God.  And so, those ten men and their families were formed as a synagogue with a priest who would oversee or be the ruler of the synagogue, as he was called, a minister of the synagogue.  There were no sacrifices, a synagogue was designed to be a teaching tool in that society.  The children were taught there or catechized.  The adults were taught as they worshipped on the sabbath day.  And the pulpit was basically open to any rabbi who would be available to teach. That’s why, when we study the life of Christ and the apostles, we find them constantly teaching in the synagogue.  It was a great opportunity to present the gospel of the kingdom.  

We find Him in Capernaum, the hometown of Peter,  teaching in one of the synagogues.  Notice verse 22, “They were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”  Luke, chapter 4, elaborates on this story, and he tells us that Jesus  was preaching from Isaiah, chapter 61.  So He stood and He read Isaiah, chapter 61, verse 1.  And this is what it said,  ““THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”

Then He closed the book and said ““Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

 “And they were amazed at His teaching ; for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes” Now, we need to answer the question, what made Him so authoritative?  Well whenever the scribes preached or a rabbi preached they always said, “It has been said,” and they would always quote other scribes or rabbis for their authority.  They would always go to some other tradition to give validity to their point.  Why was it that Jesus Christ spoke with authority?  Because when Jesus stood up and He preached, He didn’t quote a scribe, He quoted Himself.  John says that He was the Word made flesh.  He was the word of God and spoke the word of God, and that’s the source of His authority.  Jesus is the supreme authority.  He didn’t need to quote some other man for He is God/man.  And so they were astonished at His authority. 

You know, the word of God is authoritative.  That’s why people really don’t like the Bible, because they want to be the authority.  But that’s why I preach the word of God, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. My teaching is not due to some authority that I have as a theologian, or from a seminary professor.  But my authority is the word of God.  If you think about it, Jesus is the source of the word of God.  He was the author.  And yet He quotes the word again and again as He preaches.  He quoted the word in His temptation. He quotes from the word on the cross.  He quotes from the word constantly, and yet He is the author of the word.  When you speak the word of God you speak with the  authority of God.

The next exercise of this authority that Jesus exhibits is His authority against the demonic world.  Look at verse 23, “Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,  saying, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are–the Holy One of God!”  And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!”  Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him.  They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”

Demon possession, in that culture, was not an uncommon thing.  Perhaps it was due to living in close proximity to pagan peoples that in effect worshipped demons. And so, when Jesus Christ manifested His authority, one of the first arenas whereby He must exercise that is in the realm of the spirit world and authority over the demons.  Notice first of all that the demons recognize Jesus for who He is – the Son of God. How does a demon recognize Jesus and yet those people around Him do not?  I would suggest because being spirits themselves, they recognize HIs Spirit. If you have the Spirit of God in you, then the demons recognize the Spirit of God in you and they know that they cannot possess you, because you are already possessed by a much mightier Spirit who has authority over the spirit world.

Notice what Jesus Christ does, there was no incantation, there was no formula, there wasn’t any exorcism ritual.  He simply says, in verse 25,”Be quiet, and come out of him!” Notice what happened, “Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him.  They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” Not surprisingly, verse 28, “Immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee.”

Now before we move on, I want to point out something to you, that there was a man in the synagogue a man who was demon possessed. He’d remained undetected until Jesus Christ arrived on the scene.  He was worshipping.  He was reading.  He was hearing the scriptures.  Who knows, he might have even preached the message on a different occasion.  You know, it is possible to sit in church and belong to Satan.  It is possible to be a member of a church and not a member of the kingdom of God.  It’s possible to come here on Sunday morning and sing about heaven and yet, have a reservation waiting in Hell.  

I will go one step further with that. It goes to show you that everything that happens in church, just because it’s church, does not mean that it is of God nor of the Holy Spirit. This man was thrown into convulsions by the evil spirit.  Have you ever seen a person slain in the Spirit at some of these Pentecostal services? They are being thrown all over the floor like a rag doll, no control, not perhaps even aware of what they are doing.  And yet we are told to believe that this is evidence of a mighty work of the Spirit. I will say what James said on that account, “Test the spirits to see if they are from God, for there are many false prophets that have gone out into the world.”  And you test them by the word of God.  There is no example of a work of God looking like that in the Bible.  The only time you see convulsions and acting like a maniac was when there were demons involved.  So don’t be deceived by some spiritual counterfeit.

Notice the next incident whereby Jesus Christ exercised His authority.  Verse 29, “And immediately after they came out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.  Now Simon’s mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her. And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she waited on them.  

Luke, who was a doctor, indicates that this fever was severe. A high fever in an adult can be fatal.  But I think that this healing indicates Jesus’s authority over physical life.  He has demonstrated His authority over the spiritual world, and now He demonstrates His authority over the physical world. He is able to give life to that which is dead or about to die.And notice that her response after being healed was to serve the Lord.  When the Lord gives you new life, even eternal life, it should go without saying that you would serve the Lord with your life.

Another small point to make here is that this is Peter’s mother in law.  Peter is considered to be the first pope of the Catholic Church and they believe every pope since is appointed by divine succession from Peter.  I’m sure Peter has rolled over in his grave a few times over that one. But the point I want to make is that Peter was married.  And yet they forbid priests to marry.

Now the Catholics would try to say to that, well Peter may have been married at one time, but she had obviously  died before he became the pope.  Well then, if that’s true, they might try explaining what Paul says about Peter (Cephas) in 1Cor. 9:5 “Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?” Peter was obviously married and taking his wife on mission trips with him.

Now all of this happens on the same day, the Sabbath.  Jesus is working on the Sabbath, preaching and healing and delivering people from demonic spirits.  And it continues after dark.  The Jewish Sabbath started at nightfall on Friday and ended at nightfall on Saturday.  So once the Sabbath restrictions on travel had expired, everyone from the surrounding area wanted to see Jesus to be healed or delivered from demonic spirits.  

Vs32-34 “When evening came, after the sun had set, they [began] bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed.  And the whole city had gathered at the door.  And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.”

Jesus wasn’t ready to announce to the world who He was at this point.  And when He is, He doesn’t want it to be by a demon.  But what is evident in this account is the compassion of Jesus.  He said in John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” He has the authority to save all that come to Him.  There is no mention of the people’s faith, just the sovereign authority of the King of Kings to heal and deliver.

Then, the source of Jesus authority is seen in vs35-39  “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left [the house,] and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.  Simon and his companions searched for Him;  they found Him, and said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”  He said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.”  And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons.”

Jesus’s authority came out of His being One with the Father.  His prayer life was the source of His authority and the means of His communion with the Father.  If anyone had an excuse not to get up early to pray, it should have been Jesus. He must have been up until very late the night before, healing the whole town.  They hadn’t  been able to travel to him until after sundown. And He had  already had a very busy day.  But HIs prayer time was a priority. We see that again and again in the gospels, that Jesus went out by Himself to pray, many times all night.  

We wonder why we have little power over temptation, or little results in our ministry, and yet I wonder how many of us make prayer a priority.  I think Jesus knew that being alone early in the morning He would have undisturbed time to commune with His Father.  You may say well I’m not a morning person.  But I suggest that you become one.  Because if you wait around until mid morning to pray, you’re likely to get sidetracked by everything that starts to happen as the day goes on.

Abe Lincoln is reported to have said, that if you only have eight hours to cut wood, spend 7 of it sharpening your axe.  Or something like that.  Prayer is our preparation. It must be our priority.  It is the source of our power. Not praying some formula or prescribed prayer.  But earnest communion with God our Father.

Prayer is the means by which our will is aligned with the Father’s will.  A lot of people get that backwards.  They want to align God’s will to their will.  It would seem more logical that Jesus should have had a week long healing campaign.  But He doesn’t.  He goes out to a lonely place by Himself to avoid the crowds.  And the result of that communion with the Father directs His ministry.  Jesus says the priority of His ministry was not to heal, but to preach the gospel of the kingdom throughout all of Galilee.

“Simon and his companions searched for Him;  they found Him, and said to Him, ‘Everyone is looking for You.’ He said to them, ‘Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.’”  What He came for, what was the primary purpose of His ministry, was to preach the gospel. The world wants physical healing.  The world wants physical blessings. God’s priority is spiritual.

You know, a close examination of the scripture reveals that Jesus did not heal everyone.  But He healed in the context of manifesting His deity as the King of Creation. And those people who tell you that it is God’s will that everyone will be healed of every disease and sickness are simply not basing that on scripture, but on their desire to force God into their own will.

Now having said that, we return to our text to see another example of Jesus healing, on another day, in another town.  And this is the fourth illustration of His authority.  Vs 40 And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”  Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”  Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.”

Leprosy was a terrible disease that was prominent in Jesus’ day.  Moses had prescribed a system for determining if someone had leprosy, which was done by the priest, and he had also prescribed what to do if you had it and you were somehow healed of it.  But no one was ever healed.  It was a progressive disease, starting with small white scales, but eventually covering the entire body. Not only was it progressive, it was a death sentence.  These poor people were really the walking dead. And as the eventual end came, more and more of their skin and body parts, nose, ears and so forth, were eaten away by the disease.

Moses had established a quarantine and protocol for lepers, but the Jews had taken it even further.  The leper had to constantly announce himself in public by shouting “unclean, unclean.”  Jews were forbidden to touch them, or even get near one.  And what was even worse, perhaps, was that they considered these poor lepers as deserving of this vile disease because they were somehow worst sinners than everyone else.

So this leper, who was in the advanced stage of the disease according to Luke, breaks protocol and prostrates himself before Jesus, saying, “if you are willing, you can make me clean.”   Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”  Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.”

Jesus was moved with compassion. That’s such an interesting phrase.  Compassion comes from a word in Latin, I am told, which means to suffer with. We think of it as sympathy.  But it’s more than sympathy. It’s a willingness to take their suffering on yourself.

What I think this is picturing is Jesus’ authority to cleanse from sin. And He did that by taking our sins upon Himself and bearing our punishment. I think that’s why Jesus did the unthinkable and reached out and touched this decaying, rotting flesh.  He was showing His willingness to suffer for us, so that we might be given life.

You see, sin is a lot like leprosy.  It starts small, but it’s progressive. It spreads.  Once Adam and Eve had committed just one little sin, they had caught the disease of sin, and it would not stop until it destroyed them and killed them. Sin corrupts, it infects, it’s communicable, it’s deadly.

But thankfully, Jesus came to save sinners.  He came to forgive and be the substitute for our penalty of death, that we that had the sentence of death upon us, would be given new life. You know, when Jesus healed this leper, I imagine that his features were restored, his skin became new like a baby, his nose and ears reappeared.  He was a new creation.  This wasn’t some symptomatic illness that no one could see the results of, it was evident to everyone who had previously been acquainted with him that he was a new man.

But Jesus doesn’t really want that kind of publicity.  Too much of that kind of fame would interfere with what He had come to do, which was to preach the gospel of the kingdom.  So in vs 43 we read, “And (Jesus) sternly warned him and immediately sent him away,  and He said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”  But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.”

Moses had said, if a leper were supposedly cleansed, somehow, he brought two birds to the priest.  They would kill one bird and they would shed his blood in a little basin.  They would take another bird, they would dip him in the blood of the deceased bird and they would let that living bird go free. I think the symbolism that in relation to Jesus’ atonement should be obvious.  And while Jesus didn’t want him to broadcast being healed, He did want him to obey the law of Moses, and also be a testimony to these priests who had to admit something supernatural had happened. 

We can assume that the leper did what Jesus asked in regards to the priests, but he could not help himself from broadcasting the good news of how Jesus had saved him. To be fair, he couldn’t really hide it. You know, this should be a challenge to us.  Here’s a man told to keep quiet and he blazes it abroad.  And you and I have been commanded to broadcast it abroad and yet we keep quiet.  He had been commanded to be quiet, not to spread the news yet we’ve been told to share the news and we’re quiet, we say nothing.  I wonder, if we had been a leper or sick with a serious fever or one of these individuals whom Jesus Christ touched, could you keep us quiet?  We too easily forget that we have been touched by the grace of God.  Can we keep quiet?  Can we do anything less than shed abroad the news that Jesus Christ has forgiven our sins and given us new life?  

We are continuing in our study of Mark and we left off last time in vs 13 with the temptation of Christ in the wilderness.  That temptation happened directly after he was baptized by John the Baptist.  Today we pick up in Mark’s account with vs 14, which begins with the phrase “Now after John had been taken into custody…”  What that indicates is that there is an interval of about one year in between vs 13 and vs 14.

So Jesus’s ministry began with His baptism, and He has been preaching and teaching for about a year in both Judea and Galilee.  But after John the Baptist was taken prisoner, Jesus went into Galilee to preach the gospel, and will only travel to Jerusalem at certain times.  So Mark says in vs 14,  “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,  and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

So Mark says Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God. He was publicly proclaiming the good news of salvation as God’s gift to mankind. Salvation is of the Lord.  Man by his own efforts was unable to attain to the kingdom of God, so God came down to man, and made it possible for man to be reconciled to God.  And He that proclaimed this good news of salvation, was also the same who made it possible, by presenting Himself as the atoning sacrifice for sin.  

The scriptures tell us that if we believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall become sons of God. To believe requires that we know who He was, and what He accomplished.  And so we study the account of the gospel of Mark so that we might learn the truth about Him, and having learned it, we believe in Him unto salvation.  The truth then about Jesus Christ is the gospel of God which Jesus was preaching.

This manifestation of the gospel of God was appointed for a specific time and place in history.  And that was fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ.  As Jesus said, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand…”. It was the time prophesied in Isaiah 9:1-2  which says, “But there will be no [more] gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make [it] glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.”

Jesus preaches that the kingdom of God is at hand. The King of the kingdom of God is revealed. Matthew speaks of the same events by saying the kingdom of heaven.  Both phrases  mean basically the same thing. What Jesus is proclaiming is that God’s reign in the hearts and souls of men would be manifest more clearly than ever before.  The supreme blessing of life in the kingdom of God will be given to all who  would confess Jesus as Lord and forsake their sins and live in service to God.

It’s important to understand correctly the concept of the kingdom of God. It could just as correctly be translated kingship of God.  It speaks of the rule of God in one’s heart, the sovereignty of God over the lives of His people and ultimately God’s sovereignty over the world.

There are really four concepts implied in the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. First, God’s kingship, rule and sovereignty over the individual.  I think that is what Paul was referring to in Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  That Christ is your Lord, your sovereign. This is the immediacy of the kingdom of God being in you, or near you.

Secondly, it speaks of complete salvation.  When the scripture speaks of blessing, or blessedness it often is synymous with salvation.  When God is king in our hearts, all the blessings of life in His kingdom are imbued to His people. 

The third application of this concept is realized in the church.   The church is the kingdom of God, the community of people who recognize God as king in their hearts. The church is the called out ones, the people of God’s kingdom. The church is not an edifice, not an institution, but the people of the kingdom, called out by God to live under His reign.

And fourthly, the kingdom of God speaks of the future redeemed universe.  Peter said we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, or reigns. Jesus spoke in Matthew’s account of us inheriting the kingdom which God has prepared for us.  At the second coming of Christ, He will usher in the eternal kingdom of God in a new heaven and new earth.

But these four meanings are all related to the central idea of the reign of God, and His sovereignty in salvation.  It is an eternal kingdom; past, present and future.  Jesus preaches that the kingdom of heaven is at hand in order to teach the supernatural character of our salvation.  Salvation is of the Lord. Our salvation begins with the purpose of God, it is proclaimed in the preaching of the gospel, it is delivered by the call of God, believed on in the hearts of men, and lived out in the discipleship of those that believe in Him.

Let’s consider though what else Mark includes in his summary of Jesus’s message.  The first two points of Jesus’s message, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” speaks of the sovereignty of salvation.  The third and the fourth points, “repent and believe in the gospel” speak of man’s responsibility to respond to the preaching of the gospel.

Some commentators say that the word rendered repent would be better translated as be converted.  Repent only stresses the negative aspect, looking backwards, whereas be converted is positive, looking forward, and indicates a radical change of heart, a complete turnaround of your life. Repentance then is a confession that you are a sinner, in need of forgiveness, in need of being changed, converted, made clean, made new.  So though it is the responsibility of the sinner to repent, it is God who converts, who forgives, who cleanses, who changes the heart.

And that positive side of conversion is given more emphasis by the phrase, “and believe the gospel.” To believe is to put your trust in someone.  Believing includes three elements; knowledge, assent, and trust. Not just having the knowledge of the truth, nor just giving an intellectual assent to the truth, but a commitment to and a confidence in the one trusted.  A person truly believes when he acts upon the message.

And that commitment is what is pictured in the next section, in which Mark tells of the calling of  four of the disciples.  Vs 16, “As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen.  And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”  Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.  Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets.  Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him.”

It was not uncommon for rabbi’s or teachers in those days to have disciples. John the Baptist had disciples.  It was even true in the pagan world – philosophers like Socrates had disciples for instance.  The Lord had even a more particular point to calling His disciples.  They were to eventually become His apostles, and after His death they would be the foundation of the church, and the primary source of the writings of the New Testament, by which we can know the truth about Christ.

However, it’s important to understand that Mark does not include all the events that have occurred prior to this calling of the disciples to follow Him. A year earlier, Andrew and another disciple had been invited to come and see where Jesus was staying.  They had at that time become His followers. And then Andrew brought his brother Simon, who becomes known as Peter, to see Jesus. It’s possible that John might have done something similar for his brother James.

So now about a year later, Jesus calls them to a closer walk with Him, and they are made conscious that He has a plan for them to take on a greater ministry.  That ministry is what Jesus refers to as “fishers of men.”   These men are to be trained by Jesus to be like Him, to speak what He speaks, to do the works that He did, to be the ones who will continue HIs ministry when He is taken away into heaven.

It’s interesting to note that Jesus calls common fishermen to become the ministers of His kingdom, the foundation of His church.  It is not in accordance with pedigree, nor education, nor wisdom, nor attractiveness, nor charisma that God chooses His ministers.  But as Paul said in 1Cor. 1:26-29 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,  and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,  so that no man may boast before God.”  And yet these uneducated, common fishermen would turn the world upside down.

The four fishermen that Mark mentions are Peter, Andrew, James and John. Peter we all are very familiar with.  He was the impetuous one.  Without a doubt, he was the leader of the twelve.  In every account of the disciples, he is always listed first.  Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter, which means Rock.  Peter was the one who cut the ear off of the servant of the high priest with a sword at the Mount of Olives.  I can relate to Peter more so than any other. I’m constantly having to quell the urge to swing a sword at people.  Peter had a lot of faults, but he had a great love for the Lord.

Andrew, Peter’s brother is known for always bringing people to Christ. That’s such a valuable characteristic, to be able to point people to Christ.  Most Christians have no trouble talking about themselves, and bringing attention to themselves.  But having the ability to bring people to Christ, to point to Christ is a great attribute. That’s what made John the Baptist great.

James the son of Zebedee was the brother of John. To John and James Jesus would late give the nickname Boanerges, which means “Sons of Thunder.” That’s a pretty cool nickname. I can almost imagine it emblazoned on the back of a motorcycle jacket, “Sons of Thunder.”  So far you got the Rock and the Sons of Thunder. 

But James has another distinction, that of being the first martyr of the disciples.  Acts 12:2 says that Herod had James put to death with a sword. I imagine that meant he was beheaded.  That seems to be a popular method in those days of killing the prophets of the Lord. John the Baptist would soon be beheaded. Peter, we know, was eventually  hung on a cross upside down because he did not think himself worthy of being crucified like Christ.  These guys knew the cost of following Jesus.

And then John, the brother of James, one of the Sons of Thunder, who became known as the one whom Christ loved.  Of course, Jesus loved all his disciples.  But there must have been a special relationship between Jesus and John.  Some Bible scholars have said that it’s likely that they were cousins.  

So Jesus, walking along the beach at Galilee, sees two brothers fishing, throwing a net in the sea.  It might have been one of those nets you see where they throw it out and it makes a large circle and then they pull a string or rope and it gathers it up.  Sometimes you see guys doing that at Indian River. They use it to catch bait fish.

Mark says, “they were fishermen.”  I really like the fact that Jesus chose real men to be the leaders in His kingdom, not some limp wristed academics, or pious prunes, but just regular working class guys. I’ve known a few commercial fishermen in my time.  Just looking at their hands you realize that these guys are gnarly. Maybe that’s where the word gnarly comes from, the gnarled, arthritic hands of these guys that constantly use them to pull heavy nets and ropes out of cold water. 

These men had known Jesus for about a year.  They had believed in Him, they had a relationship with Him, but not of the type to which He was calling them.  Jesus was calling them to a deeper relationship, a relationship of trust, of trusting Him with their life, even to the point of leaving their livelihood.  So Jesus says, “Come, follow me.”  And they dropped what they were doing and followed Him.  They left their nets.  They left their source of income, their livelihood.  Instead of catching fish to feed their families, they would catch souls for the kingdom of God.

James and John were a little further down the beach mending their nets with their father when Jesus called them.  And at once they left their father in the boat with the hired men and followed Him.  They weren’t fishing like Peter and Andrew, but it’s a certainty that they knew one another.  Maybe they were sort of rivals, two brothers trying to out fish the other two brothers.   It sounds like James and John might have come from a little more wealth than Peter and Andrew.  Their father was also a part of their crew as well as hired men.  

And yet without seemingly much concern for what they were leaving, these men dropped everything and followed Jesus.  They too begin their training for a leadership position in the church,  of becoming apostles.

At the end of Jesus’s ministry, He would task the apostles with making more disciples. In Matt. 28:19-20 Jesus said,  “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

I would suggest that the call of Jesus to be HIs disciple is made to all who have believed in Him.  To not just have the knowledge of the truth, nor just give intellectual assent to the truth, but to trust in Him enough to follow Him, to walk with Him, to learn from Him so that we might carry on HIs ministry on earth.  That we might participate in fulfilling  the prayer He taught us to pray – “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

To be a disciple is to walk with the Lord, to be conformed to His image, to walk in the paths of righteousness, to commit your way unto the Lord, to walk in the Spirit, to walk according to His word.  It’s an active lifestyle, a manner of life that emulates the life of Christ.  And if we are walking as He walked, and walking with Him, following Him, then we will also be fishers of men.  We will be catching souls for the kingdom of God.  

I can assure you that there is no higher calling than to be a fisher of men. There is no career with any greater reward than to be a fisher of men.  It is worth it all to leave everything behind for the greatest blessing of being counted a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.  I pray that you hear His call to follow Him, and that you will count all that this world offers as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ your Lord.

Galatians is Paul’s dissertation, from a judicial standpoint, on the doctrine of salvation. And he has spent the brunt of his argument delineating the merits of grace versus law. He has shown in detail the difference between salvation by grace alone, as opposed to salvation by faith plus works. In particular, he was answering the Judaiser’s teaching that you needed to be circumcised and follow the dietary and ceremonial laws of the Jews in order to really be saved.

Paul called such legalism “slavery.” And he described salvation by grace through faith as “freedom.” But some of the difficulty comes partly in defining our terms, and also in extrapolating certain outcomes from those doctrines. A faulty understanding of the nature of these terms can lead you to a wrong outcome.

And so I want to review some of these key terms for a moment, because I think they are sometimes used interchangeably, when in fact they mean different things. The first term is mercy. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Mercy is forgiveness. You were found guilty of a crime, and the penalty was death, but the judge gives you mercy. You are forgiven by the courts and not held accountable for your crime.

So mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace, on the other hand, is getting something you don’t deserve. Do you see the difference? Grace means a gift. It’s getting something you don’t deserve. You don’t work for. In salvation, not only do you receive mercy, but you receive grace. God gifts you His righteousness, eternal life, and His Spirit to dwell in you.

Now when Paul talks about freedom in the verses before us today, some people might be confused and think he is speaking of grace. But actually, freedom is being set free from the penalty of sin, and the captivity of sin. Paul says in vs 1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” So Christ set us free from the condemnation of the law, and the captivity to sin, so that going back under the law would be akin to a free man going back to slavery. You would be now required to keep all the law, which would only condemn you, and you would eliminate salvation by grace.

That being understood though, the question arises, then do we have no obligation to keep the law in any respect? Are we able to sin with impunity? Are we, as Paul himself asks in Rom 6:1 “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” Is grace then a license to continue in sin? Does freedom mean that I am free to live any way I want, to do whatever I want?

Well, Paul answers that question of Romans 6:1 by saying in vs 2, “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” Actually I prefer the KJV on that, which says, “God forbid!” It’s a much more strident answer. Why would Paul be so strident, so concerned that the church not continue in sin? Because it is contrary to the will of God. It’s contrary to the plan of God. And its’ contrary to the purpose of our life that we have been given by God. So what I think we will find in this next section is that the law of God is more closely related to the will of God than we might realize.

So to that question of law versus grace, of grace being a license to sin, Paul says in Galatians 5 vs 13, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only [do] not [turn] your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

Now notice that suddenly Paul seems to be saying that there is still a law that is in effect. There is still a law that we are to be subject to. And this law, the law of love, Paul says, is the consummation of all the law of God. Now let’s try to break that down and make sure we understand correctly what he is teaching here.

So first notice this concept of freedom. Back in vs 1 he said “It was for freedom that Christ set us free,” then in vs 13 he says, “For you were called to freedom.” He is speaking of our salvation, through Christ we are set free from the captivity of sin, set free from the condemnation of the law. That’s why Christ saved us. That’s why Christ died on the cross – to pay the penalty for our sin so that we might be set free. We are justified, set free, not by what we have done, not by keeping the law, but by what He has done for us.

Notice also the element of predestination in his statement. God called us to Himself. The call of God in salvation is from the Lord. And those whom He predestined to salvation will hear His call and come to Him. Rom 8:30 says, “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” Notice all those elements of salvation are accomplished by the Lord. We do not participate in our predestination, we do not participate in our calling, we do not participate in our justification, we do not participate in our glorification. Salvation is of the Lord. That’s the mercy and grace of God towards us.

So then salvation is a spiritual transaction that happens for us, and in us, which also produces a physical change. That’s an important point. Salvation is spiritual. We are born again spiritually. But if that is so, then the spirit will change the way the physical lives. That is what Paul was teaching in the Romans 6 passage I read earlier. In salvation we die to sin. And so we live by the spirit and not according to the flesh. That new spirit produces a different way of living, a different purpose for living.

That’s what Paul is saying here. “You were called to freedom, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh.” Now that we are set free from the captivity to sin, now that we are set free from the condemnation of the law, how are we to live in light of that freedom? Paul says don’t use your freedom to go sin again. I am reminded of the woman that was caught in adultery and brought before Christ. The law required that she be put to death. But Jesus said “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” She had been set free by the mercy of Christ from the condemnation of sin. So then to continue in sin would have been a travesty.

Back in Romans 6 Paul says in vs17 “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

Now in our text Paul characterizes sin as an opportunity for the flesh. The flesh is contrary to the will of God. Going back to that passage in Romans 6 which we referenced earlier, Paul continued in that argument to say in 6:12″ Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body [flesh] so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body [flesh] to sin [as] instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

All sins of the flesh are at the root a desire to please self. It’s serving myself and my desires and my interests and my pride. The sin is serving myself and my desires above anyone else. Righteousness on the other hand can be characterized as serving God first, and serving others. All the law does is put limits on me, in order to protect others.

So Paul says if we willfully submit our flesh to sin again, are we not in effect putting ourselves back under the law and the condemnation of the law? So do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, and your body as instruments of righteousness.

So we are called to freedom, to live in the Spirit and not to live in captivity to the flesh. I want to read from Romans 8 again, in which Paul speaks to this change from living according to the flesh to living according to the Spirit. There is so much there, I can’t really exegete the whole passage. But perhaps if I read it, the Lord will give you understanding. Romans 8:5-8 “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able [to do so,] and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

So this is speaking of the same thing as Galatians is speaking of. An opportunity for the flesh, is the same as setting your minds on the things of the flesh. And notice that Paul says that such a mind set on the flesh cannot subject itself to the law of God, and those in the flesh cannot please God. So he is saying that the law of God is still something that we are to be subject to. But when you are focused on fulfilling your fleshly desires, which is sin, then you cannot please God. So as Christians under grace, not the law, we are no longer serving the desires of our flesh, but our desire should be to please the Lord, which is to subject our bodies to the law of God.

Now admittedly it feels like we are splitting hairs in trying to delineate the difference between law and grace. I suppose you might say that under the law we are condemned, but under grace we do the works of righteousness. The difference between the old covenant of law and the new covenant of grace is that in the old covenant we are given the law but we are not capable of keeping it, and so it only condemns us. But under the new covenant, we are given the power over sin, which results in righteousness, and that power is the presence of the Spirit within us.

Let me ask you something. Define righteousness without referencing the law of God. I don’t think it is possible. The law of God not only defines sin, it defines righteousness. Righteousness is by definition a state of being moral and ethical. When you try to keep the law in the flesh you cannot do it, resulting in sin. But when you follow the Spirit you do the works of righteousness by the power of the Spirit within you. The difference between the old and new covenant is we that are saved have the Spirit of God in us who enables us to do the works of righteousness.

I might try to illustrate it this way. Imagine the word LAW written as a giant sign. On one side of the sign is the word sin and flesh. On the other side of the sign is the word righteousness and Spirit. The same law produces either result. The difference is that sin is the result of the flesh and righteousness is the result of the Spirit.

Now let’s go back to our text. Gal 5:13-14 “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only [do] not [turn] your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the [statement,] “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

But through love serve one another and love is the fulfillment of the law. Now we have heard that all of our Christian lives, but how is that true? How does that work? Love, first of all, is not a sentiment. It’s not an attraction you have towards your neighbor. Or a feeling you have towards the Lord. Love is not based on attraction. Love is not based a feeling. Sometimes love may be accompanied by a feeling, but you must not rely on a feeling in order to act in love. Love is a commitment to put another’s needs above your own. To serve another before yourself. That is love. And my apologies to those who can only see love through a romantic lens, but there may be more times in your marriage when you will choose to love your mate when you feel like wringing their neck, than there will be times when you will love your mate because you feel so warm and fuzzy about them. In good times and bad, in sickness and in health, in ups and downs, in financial woes and financial bliss, whatever happens, whatever their response may be, you choose to love them.

But that being said, you cannot really legislate love, can you? You can’t make laws and write them on the doorposts of your house and on the walls that say “you must love me and obey me.” You can legislate obedience, but not love. But if you have a mate that loves you, you won’t have to say “obey me.”

Jesus said, “if you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” See, the issue is not that the commandments have been done away with and you are free to live like you want. The issue is that captivity to sin has been done away with, and you choose to love the Lord, which is to keep His commandments. And what is the commandment? “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” Your neighbor is anyone within the sphere of your world. That includes your husband or wife, or kids or friends, or coworkers, or in-laws or outlaws, or anyone that you come into contact with. In salvation there is a change from loving yourself first, to loving the Lord first and loving your neighbor as yourself.

If you love your neighbor, you will not bear false witness against him. If you love your neighbor, you will not murder him. If you love your neighbor, you will not steal from him. If you love your neighbor who are your parents then you will honor your mother and your father. If you love your neighbor, you will not commit adultery with his wife. If you love your neighbor, you will not covet his stuff.

Romans 13:10 says, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of [the] law.

So the difference between law and grace is that we have a change of heart. When we are saved by grace, forgiven of our sins, given a new spirit and everlasting life, we are given a new heart. I mean by that, we are given a new nature, new desires. And that happens by the indwelling of the Spirit of God. If you are unsaved, you do not have the Spirit of Christ in you. You cannot please God. You cannot do the things of God. You cannot work the works of righteousness. You certainly cannot do it in the power of your flesh. You can only do it by the power of the Spirit in you.

So key to our new life in this covenant of grace is that we have the Spirit of God indwelling us. Empowering us, changing our heart, so that our desire is to please the Lord. And we please the Lord by being obedient to His commands.

Paul qualifies what not acting in love is like in vs 15, “But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.” That needs very little exposition, doesn’t it? We call it back biting today. Slander. Bearing false witness against one another. Hateful speech. Speaking ill of one another. The result of that is to devour one another. To murder one another. That’s the opposite of love. That’s the result of the flesh. We that are saved still have our flesh. But we are to die to the desires of the flesh, and operate under the control of the Spirit.

Let me close by reading the promise in the Old Testament, that God would give a new covenant to those whom He called to be His people. It says in Jer 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Instead of being subject to the law written on tablets of stone, we are now subject to the law written upon our hearts.

And God tells us how that will be accomplished in Ezekiel 36:25-27 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

Let me ask you this morning, have you been born again? Have you had your sins forgiven, and a new spirit put within you, and do you have the Spirit of God dwelling in you? You cannot become a Christian through observance of the law, or by attending church, or by being baptized, or by taking communion, or by any work of the flesh. But you need to be changed, you need a new heart, and a new spirit, and the Spirit of Christ in you. You can have that salvation as a gift of God, if you will simply call upon the name of the Lord, confessing Jesus as Lord of your life, trusting in Him as your Savior who paid for the forgiveness of your sins, and receive the Spirit of God to reign in you. Call on the Lord to save you and change you, and live in you.

Paul has reached the last stage of his legal argument for the doctrine of justification by faith.  During his missionary journey’s to the region of Galatia he had preached the gospel, and the Galatians were converted and he had established churches there for them.  But then not too long afterwards certain men from Jerusalem had come to those churches and began to teach these new converts that they were not fully saved until they had become circumcised and adhered to certain ceremonial and legal requirements of Judaism.

So Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians refuting that false teaching and trying to set straight the ensuing confusion about the basis of salvation.  And the gist of his argument is to correlate the false teaching of adding to salvation certain laws with slavery or bondage.  And the truth of the gospel he correlates to being set free from that slavery.  Now Paul takes 4 chapters to teach that, and we have discussed those chapters in detail, and I cannot possibly review all that has been said in our introduction today.  But suffice it to say that Paul says that salvation is equivalent to being set free from slavery.

And to that point, he continues in chapter five vs one by saying, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”  Salvation has always been by faith.  Abraham was saved by faith.  The scriptures say, “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.” So from the beginning, the only way to God was by faith.

But God gave the law to His chosen people to be a tutor to teach them about God, to teach them about sin,  to teach them about righteousness, and to teach them about the need for sacrificial atonement.  The law was never given as a means by which to be made right with God.  But the Jews had taken the law and tried to develop a system of law keeping by which they thought that they could be right with God, whereby they deserved special favor with God.

But when Christ came, the way to God was made clear.  It was by faith in Christ as the lamb of God who by His sacrifice takes away the sin of the world as our righteous substitute, through His atonement on our behalf, by which we are made right with God.  And through Christ’s death and resurrection, that which was taught by the law was fulfilled in Christ, so that we are no longer under the condemnation of the law.  Those laws which could only condemn us, were fulfilled for us by Christ, so that we might be made righteous by faith.

So that is how Paul is able to say that Christ has set us free.  He has set us free from the condemnation of sin, the condemnation of the law, and thus, the legal requirement of the law. Salvation then is really a tremendous gift of freedom.  Human slavery represents but a poor illustration of this truth.  But when slavery was abolished in the United States, it was done so by a war, and an emancipation proclamation made by the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.  He had the power and authority to make that proclamation because of His position as president.  But it took winning the war to make that proclamation a reality.

In a far greater sense, Jesus Christ, as the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, has the power and authority to set men free from slavery to the law and sin.  But it took a spiritual war which He waged in which He shed His blood in death and rose from the grave in victory before He could make that proclamation a reality.  But just as it was in the case of slavery here in America, it was possible for the slaves to be set free, but yet not realize their freedom and remain enslaved. It was possible for slaves to prefer the security of slavery to freedom and remain enslaved. It was possible for slave owners to deceive some slaves and say that freedom could not be given to them and thus keep their slaves enslaved.  And all of that is possible with spiritual slavery as well.  And that is the point of Paul’s letter, to let these Galatians know that they had been set free, and they should not remain or return to slavery.

Now please understand that Christ did not die on the cross so that we might be set free to do anything we want with impunity. Grace is not a license to sin. Rom 6:1-2 says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” We are not set free to continue in sin, or to practice sin, but we have been set free from the penalty of sin, and the power of sin over us.  We have been set free from sin so that we might love God and follow Him.  Not by following the letter of the law, but following the Lord from a changed heart that wants to do His will.

It’s also interesting to notice that Paul’s language in this verse is reminiscent of Peter’s statement in Acts 15:10, in which he was addressing the same situation, that of certain Jews requiring Gentiles to become circumcised in order to be saved.  He says in Acts 15:10-11  “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”  

So this is not just a Pauline doctrine which was at odds with the apostolic doctrine in Jerusalem. But I think Paul deliberately uses those words to remind his readers that the matter had already been settled in Jerusalem when the same false teaching had been encountered in Antioch, and they had brought the discussion to Jerusalem to be settled by the apostles.  Peter calls the law, particularly the laws pertaining to Jewish customs and ceremonies, as a yoke which we were not able to bear. He uses a metaphor to describe the way an ox pulled a heavy load, or carried a heavy load by means of a yoke.  And when the ox is free from the yoke the burden is lifted and he is free from it.  So it was with the law.  It was something they were yoked to that was a burden that they were unable to bear.  Now that they are free from that yoke, why would they want to go back under it?

Not only is it not practical or reasonable to go back under that yoke, but Paul says it has an even greater danger.  Vs 2, “Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.” This is a shocking statement that reveals the danger of legalism.

This is the danger: it’s either salvation through Christ or works.   It’s either all Christ or no Christ. It’s either by faith alone or no salvation.  Paul isn’t saying that there are two ways to God; one through Christ and one through works, and if you choose works then you have to go all the way with keeping the law.  Not at all.  Because there is no salvation through works, no salvation through the law.  There never was.  All that the law does is condemn you.  Only faith in Christ, and Christ alone, can save.

When Paul says,  “If you receive circumcision” that indicates that those who attempted to be justified before God on the basis of the law were in effect cancelling out the grace that was given through Christ.  And grace is only  one way to be saved according to Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  

There is another consequence of putting yourself back under the yoke of the law, and that is if you do that, then Paul says you are obligated to keep all of the law. Vs 3 “And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.” In other words, you don’t get to pick some to keep and some to discard. If you’re going to  chose the law, then you are under obligation to all the law.  Someone has added up all the laws given to Moses and came up with the total number as 613. And then the Jews even added some more to those. 

There are a lot of various churches out there that prescribe certain things as necessary, certain laws that we are required to keep. For instance the Seventh Day Adventists teach it’s necessary to keep the Sabbath. But these churches invariably choose to keep some laws and not others.  Paul says that if you choose the law then you must keep all the law.  And we know that no one is able to keep all the law perfectly.  There was only one person who kept the law perfectly, and that is Christ.  James says in James 2:10 “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one [point,] he has become guilty of all.”

Then Paul makes this graphic, shocking statement in verse 4: “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” That is just a shocking way of saying it, especially in the context of speaking about circumcision. You who are seeking to be justified by keeping the law, you have been severed from Christ. You are cut off from Him.  You’re going to be judged by your works, not justified by Christ’s work.

What Paul is NOT saying is that you will lose your salvation.  But that if you choose works you have fallen from grace.  How are we made right with God? On the basis of grace through faith. Grace means gift.  Salvation is a gift of God.  Jesus was God’s gift to mankind.  And those who by faith believe in Jesus as the Son of God, as their substitute, as their Savior and Lord, are given the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  His righteousness is given to us.  That’s grace. 

What Paul is saying then is if you are standing at the judgment throne of God, and your eternal fate is at stake, you either claim the righteousness of Christ which was given to you, or you claim your works as the basis for your standing. If you choose works, you have fallen from grace, you’re dependent upon your works. And the Bible clearly teaches that no man will be justified by their works. 

Romans tells us in chapter 3: 20 that “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law [comes] the knowledge of sin.  But now apart from the Law [the] righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,  even [the] righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”

If you go back to the law to try to be justified, then Christ profits you nothing, you’re a debtor to the whole law, you’re severed from Christ, you’re fallen from grace and  finally in verse 5, you’re excluded from righteousness. The very righteousness you seek you will be excluded from because righteousness comes from the Spirit and not by keeping the law. Vs 5 “For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.”

Those walking in the Spirit wait for righteousness which comes as a result of their faith. They are converted, they are changed, they are given the Spirit of Christ to lead them in the paths of righteousness.  They are not trying to earn their righteousness by keeping the law. No one becomes a legalist through the leading of the Spirit.

The word “waiting” speaks of an attitude of intense yearning and an eager reliance upon  something. Here it refers to the believer’s intense desire for and eager expectation of a practical righteousness which will be constantly produced in his life by the Holy Spirit as he yields himself to Him.

There is a faith that works.  There is a faith that is justified by their works.  In other words, their faith is proven by their works.  And those works are the works of righteousness which are the result of a Spirit filled life.  Paul says in vs 6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”

If you are in Christ, that means if you belong to Christ, you are truly saved by faith in Christ and His righteousness, then neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything.  Paul himself had been circumcised, but he knew that he had been unconverted while circumcised, and he was saved only by faith in Christ. So in justification the works of the law accomplishes nothing.

But being saved, being in Christ does produce works of righteousness.  It produces works born of the Spirit.  The Spirit in us produces both a judicial righteousness and a practical righteousness.  Judicially we are made righteous by being credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  But practically we do works of righteousness.

Ephesians describes this apparent dichotomy this way in Eph 2:8-10. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

So our good works do not save us, keeping the law does not save us.  But our faith which does save us produces works of righteousness in us by a new spirit, a new love for the Lord, and a new desire to serve the Lord and please the Lord.

Jesus said “if you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” So as Paul says, faith working through love is the evidence of being in Christ Jesus.  Not keeping ceremonial laws that restrict the flesh, but doing the work of the Spirit who is in us is the evidence of our regeneration.  If you love the Lord, you will want to obey Him.  And the Spirit will lead you into good works, which God has prepared for us beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Finally, let’s briefly consider the last paragraph of this section as a summary of his argument. Vs 7, “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?  This persuasion [did] not [come] from Him who calls you.  A little leaven leavens the whole lump [of dough.]  I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.  I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”

This last section really addresses the teachers of this false doctrine.  Paul says they are not spokesmen for Christ. They had put a stumbling block before the Galatian Christians which had hindered them  from obeying the truth. See, the putting away of the law does not negate the necessity to obey. We are to obey the truth.  But a little leaven leavens the whole lump.  What that means is that it doesn’t take much of a false doctrine to distort and corrupt the entire gospel.  It’s so important that we preach the truth of the gospel and nothing but the truth.  That every tenet of the gospel is correct.  Because what seems to be but a small variance on your spiritual compass can actually end up taking you to the entirely wrong destination.

Paul says if he were preaching circumcision, then he would not be enduring persecution.  The stumbling block of the Jews  was the cross.  And there was no need for the cross if justification could come on the basis of keeping the law.  The whole point of Jesus dying on the cross was to say, “You can’t save yourself. I must die in your place or you have absolutely no hope at all.” When we trust in keeping the law, then we believe that we can, at least in part, save ourselves. The legalist’s view takes away the offense of the cross, the need for the cross, and the accomplishment of the cross.

Paul hated false doctrine so much that he spoke in what may be the harshest of terms in his last statement.  He said rather than just be circumcised I wish these false teachers would actually castrate themselves. Paul knew that the worst thing for the church was to have this false doctrine give birth to what amounted to complete apostasy. 

With such a dramatic statement, Paul has made one thing clear: legalism is no little thing in the eyes of God. It takes away our liberty and puts us into bondage. It makes Jesus and His work of no profit to us. It puts us under obligation to the whole law. It violates the work of the Spirit of God. It makes us focus on things that are irrelevant. It keeps us from running the race Jesus set before us. It isn’t from Jesus. A little bit will infect an entire church. Those who promote it will face certain judgment, no matter who they are. Legalism takes away the glory of the cross. In light of how serious all this is, it is no wonder that Paul says he wishes they would even cut themselves off!

But on the other hand, faith produces belonging to the Lord on the basis of the gift of His righteousness.  We have a wonderful inheritance as the children of God, which is given to us a gift of God.  We belong to Him, and He lives in us, so that we might work the works of faith through love. I hope that if you’re here today you are not trusting in any work of your own, no work of the law for your salvation.  But trusting only in the finished work of Jesus Christ on your behalf.  Salvation is a gift of God. Believe in Him and receive His righteousness and His Spirit and everlasting life.

Paul has reached in this passage the final part of his argument for the Galatians to turn away from the legalistic teaching of the Judaisers. Paul has appealed to them on so many levels, using various scriptures and illustrations to show that our salvation is by grace through faith, not faith plus the law. Paul had even appealed on the basis of his relationship with the Galatians as the founding father of their churches in order to encourage them to abandon the Judaizers teaching.

But the final argument has the authority of scripture as Paul goes to the very law that they wanted to go to. He uses the account of Abraham’s sons as an illustration of the gospel of grace versus the law. The apostle concludes his argument by calling the Galatians, who had begun to think that justification must include adherence to the Mosaic law, to look to the Law itself in order to evaluate the wisdom of flirting with legalism.

He says in vs 21, “Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?” Do you understand what the law teaches? He uses the term nomos, the Greek word translated “law,” to refer not only to the actual commandments of Moses but which also referred to the first five books of the OT traditionally called the Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy). When the Jews referred to the law, they considered the entire Torah as the law. So Paul is calling those desiring to be justified by the commandments of God to listen to the whole testimony of the five books in which these regulations are found. 

Paul says if you are living under the law then you are living in bondage. They were acting like the people of Israel, who had cried to God to be set free from bondage to the Egyptians, and God heard them and by a miraculous deliverance set them free. And yet they had not been many days in the wilderness before they were longing to go back to Egypt for the leeks and the garlic and the cucumbers.

So Paul gives them an illustration from the law about Abraham and his son Ishmael, and his son Isaac. He says in vs 22, “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.”

Paul expects his readers to know the law, the whole story of the law of God, which includes the story of Abraham. And I would hope that you are very familiar with the story of how Abraham was given the promise of a son. God came to Abraham in his old age, and God told him that he would have a son. That Abraham would be the father of a great nation, and his descendants would be more than the stars of the sky and that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. When Abraham told that vision to his wife Sarah, she laughed. The Hebrew word for laugh is Isaac.

But Abraham believed that God would keep His promise. The scripture says that Abraham believed God and He credited to him as righteousness. God justified Abraham because of his faith in the promise of God. We are saved by the same faith as Abraham. The scripture tells us that the just shall live by faith. The Old Testament saints were saved by faith, just as we are saved by faith. I would remind you, as I have said repeatedly, that faith is believing in the promises of God. We believe in the word of God and that faith is counted to us as righteousness.

But I would also caution you that faith does not give you license to apply every thing that is written in scripture to you, and then call that faith, and expect that God will fulfill that promise to you. By that I mean that you should not claim the promise that God gave Abraham, that he would have a son in his old age, and claim that promise for yourself. God did not give you that particular promise that you will be able to father or bear children in your old age. I think most of you recognize that would be silly, or at least I hope you would.

But I say that because those of the word of faith movement, the name it and claim it crowd, are constantly taking promises that God made to someone specifically in the Old Testament, and applying it to themselves, and then going about claiming this “promise” that they say God has given them in His word. 

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day after a surf session and we were bemoaning the fact that we were getting older. And in surfing that means slower, and having less endurance, and a lot of other things that keep us from surfing as well as we would like. And my friend said he didn’t expect to live much past 70, as most of his family had died young. I tried to encourage him by quoting Moses who said the years of a man’s life are 70, but if due to strength, 80. I said he needed to keep working out and maybe he would get to 80.

But then I said for my part, I’m claiming the promises to Abraham. Abraham got a new lease on life at 99 years old. He went from his body being as good as dead to not only fathering a child at 100 years old, but when Sarah died, he married another woman and had even more children. And Abraham lived until 175 years old. That illustrates that when God gives you a gift, as Romans 11:29 tells us, that the gifts of God are irrevocable.

It would be nice if I could claim that promise God gave Abraham for myself. But I cannot. It was made specifically to Abraham. But I am making such a big point of this because I hear Christians making similar claims all the time. And then they expect that God has to give it to them because they believe it. But the problem will be when God doesn’t give it to you and you die at 65 years old then the testimony of your life calls into question God’s faithfulness. So don’t claim promises that are not intended for you.

But God did give the promise to Abraham that he would have a son in his old age. But the years went by and Sarah and Abraham were getting older and older and that which had seemed impossible now seemed completely unrealistic. And so Sarah and Abraham hatched a plan to help God out. Sarah gave her handmaid Hagar to Abraham to see if Abraham could have a son through her as a surrogate mother for Sarah. And Hagar conceived, and bore a son they called Ishmael.

But Ishmael was not the son of promise. He was the son of slavery. Vs23, “But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.” God had not forgotten the promise that He made to Abraham all those years ago. And so it came to pass when Abraham was 99 years old that Sarah became pregnant, and she had a son, whom they called Isaac.

So Paul speaks of this story from Jewish history and he infers a special meaning to it which he refers to as an allegory. Many commentators and Bible teachers in dealing with this passage spend an inordinate amount of time discussing the fact that this is not really an allegory, and that we should not look for allegories in the Bible because that is a dangerous way of interpreting the scripture. The point they make is that an allegory is a fictional story designed to teach something. But the difference in the story of Abraham is that it is a true story. And so they say that it would be better to look at this story as typology, and not an allegory.

I don’t think that it really makes a big difference what you call it. I suppose that it’s possible for an allegory to be a true story as well as a fictional one. But I would urge you not to lose sight of the point Paul by an undue focus on the semantics of his statement. Paul says in vs 24, “This is allegorically speaking, for these [women] are two covenants: one [proceeding] from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.”

Mt. Sinai of course was in the wilderness of Egypt where Moses received the law from God. Hagar is associated with slavery, and thus Mt. Sinai, which in turn Paul says corresponded with the present day Jerusalem, because the Jews were still living under the law. And those under the law Paul says are under their mother Hagar, who is in slavery with her children. The Jews were in bondage to the law. .

But Paul says the Jerusalem from above is free, and she is our mother. Paul speaks of the heavenly Jerusalem. Those born of the promise are miraculously born of the Spirit, not of the flesh and so they are free.

The scriptures have much to say about slavery and freedom, or bondage and freedom. Some have taken such scriptures out of context and espoused what is called liberation theology. I’m not going to take the time to go into that, other than to say that it is an erroneous interpretation of scripture that doesn’t seek individual redemption from the gospel, but a gospel of divine racial liberation.

Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Freedom as the gospel speaks of it is freedom from the captivity to sin. We were born naturally in bondage to sin. The seed of the original sin is in each of us from birth so that we do that which is contrary to God.

We used to sing a song in grade school in chorus class, called “Born Free.” Lions may be born free, but humans are not born free. We are born in captivity to sin as the product of original sin which was passed on from father to father all the way back to Adam. That gives rise to another false assumption concerning free will. That man is able, with equal inclination, to decide whether to do good or evil. He can choose to be sinful or choose to be obedient to God.

But there is a difference between natural ability, what I am equipped by nature to do, and spiritual ability, what I am inclined by God to do. I don’t have the natural ability to fly, or the natural ability to live under water. But we do have the natural ability to make choices. We have a will whereby we choose to do somethings and choose not to do somethings. What we don’t have is the spiritual ability to do the things of God. That’s why it is imperative that we are born again of the Spirit. Only the power of God in us can set us free from the bondage to sin. You can choose God if you want to. The problem is before conversion our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, and is at enmity with God. God has to change our heart in conversion so that we can choose the things of God. We choose to do what we want to do, and only God can change our desires.

So here were these Galatians who had known the joy of their salvation, of being set free from the captivity to sin, of having the freedom of the Spirit working in them. But then these Judaisers had came with their message that said in order to be right with God you had to live like a Jew, you had to go back under the ceremonial laws like circumcision and dietary restrictions and observing certain days and months and years. And they had resignedly said, “ok, we’ll obey the law.” But Paul is asking them, “are you crazy? Why would you want to become a child of slavery again when you have been made a child of promise?”

And then he quotes from scripture again, saying in vs 27 For it is written, “REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE NUMEROUS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND.” What he basically is saying through this quote is that we can rejoice in the freedom of being children of the promise because of the supernatural divine intervention in our regeneration. Those born of the Spirit are the children of promise, who are free from slavery to the law. But the ones born of the woman of bondage are more numerous. Most people in our culture choose to live under bondage to sin, than to be set free from it. Just like the Israelites that said that they were happier when they lived in Egypt, and wanted to return there. They preferred bondage to freedom.

You know, this is true not only spiritually but politically. I hesitate to get political from the pulpit, but you have to recognize that our society in America seems to prefer bondage to freedom. The laws that are being passed by the lawmakers that we have elected are designed to take away our freedoms and enslave us to a government that tells us what we can and cannot do, and is attempting to control even the way we think. It’s pretty amazing. And yet millions of people are going along with it, and even advocating for slavery over freedom.

Paul says in vs28 “And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him [who was born] according to the Spirit, so it is now also.”

Paul calls Galatian Gentiles and all believers “brothers,” saying they are “like Isaac,” and, as such, are “children of promise.” We that believe by faith are all spiritual children of Abraham and Sarah. We have become “children of promise,” descendants of Abraham “like Isaac,” not through natural birth, but spiritual rebirth; not by keeping the law, but by promise; not by works, but by faith. “If you are Christ’s,” Paul wrote back in chapter 3, “then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).

That’s a great promise, but there is a catch. As wonderful as it is to be “like Isaac,” a “child of promise,” there is a downside. If we are “like Isaac,” then we can expect to be treated like Isaac by the unbelieving. Vs29 “But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him [who was born] according to the Spirit, so it is now also.“

The apostle Paul doesn’t take the believers’ identification with Isaac where we might have expected him to go. We might have expected him to speak of the blessings of the covenant, or elaborate upon the gifts and privileges of salvation. Instead, he says being “like Isaac” means persecution. The one born “according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit.” The apostle is referring to the “mocking” of Isaac by Ishmael recorded in Genesis 21:9. Ishmael was “born of the flesh,” that is, through human devising, whereas Isaac was “born according to the Spirit.” This mocking by Ishmael of Isaac corresponds to the persecution of believers by those who profess to know God but are ensnared in legalism. Remember, Ishmael was circumcised, a member (by analogy) of the visible church. “So also it is now,” Paul says. This explains why in the early years of the church Judaism persecuted Christianity and why so often the persecution of the church arises from within the church. Christians are often persecuted by their half-brothers — the unbelieving but religious people in the nominal church.

Consequently, being “like Isaac” means separation. The truth of the gospel must not have fellowship with the false gospel of the legalists. What should we do about this conflict between law and grace? The apostle Paul cites the precedent of Genesis 21:10 in which Hagar and Ishmael are “cast out” and not given an inheritance with Isaac. His meaning is clear: both legalism and the legalists are to be excluded from the fellowship of the church. 

Vs30 But what does the Scripture say? “CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN.” So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman.

The law keeps you in bondage. We are not of bondage, but children of the free woman. And our inheritance as children of the promise is in the heavenly Jerusalem. Our citizenship is there. Our eternal home is there. Paul draws a contrast between Christianity and legalism, between inheriting all and inheriting nothing. While the “Isaacs” of this world may be persecuted, they are promised a glorious inheritance that the “Ishmaels” of this world will never attain by their works. We are made heirs of God through the principle of grace, not by works, because we are the children of God by faith and not by keeping the law.