Preacher: Josh White
They’re all getting so big so fast this kind of scary.
Well today’s I’ve titled My sermon using or lose it I like that phrase if you are used the phrase The former has anyone ever used it on you you can use it in a number of different ways I know my mom I can I can hear a picture of my mom saying it in my ears right now use it or lose it but on this phrase can be used in a number of different ways it can be used in reference to several different things like for instance use it or lose it can be used in reference to a coupon is a coupon or coupon we’re going to like a big bite right now.
But if you haven’t coupon I say call them coupons Have you ever saved coupons and then you go to use it and then you realize it’s expired isn’t the most frustrating thing in the world so if you don’t use your coupon coupon you’re going to lose it lose the ability to use it it one of the other things that I like coupons because I cheap and so I like to use coupons and if you ever bought the entertainment book like you buy you literally are buying coupons so you have to make sure that you use it otherwise you’re going to lose all that everything you put into it another way that use it or lose it can be in reference to money if someone has money in their pockets some people you know who you are if you like if there’s money in your pocket you need to go out and spend it right away right. Some people you know who I’m talking to.
The I’m not necessarily like that I like to save money and make sure you have something for a rainy day but I honestly there are some things in life where if you have an opportunity to do something you should really take advantage of it and I think that’s true of a lot of things in life and sometimes even money on this phrase can also be used in reference to when it’s someone’s turn to do something have your played a game with someone and they’re not paying attention and it comes to their turning to skip them or you want to skip them reduced to their kids all the time teaching them to play and it’s their turn and come on pay the engine use it or lose it use your church or have you ever been at a stop sign and someone who should be taking their turn is not in you look up in one of the usually doing their texting on their phone right you don’t lose it use your churn or lose it last way it can be used in reference to release it all mention this morning is energy right we only have so much energy to make it through the day and I’m trying not to to put all my Cross Fit illustrations too close together but I got it out for you and I got to talk about it we’re in the open right now we got a half a million people worldwide are doing this competition and the neat thing is on Thursday night what they do is they share with us what the comp it what the workout is going to be the next day on Friday night and so everyone has about twenty four hours where they strategize how am I going to attack this workout and everyone has the same dilemma do I go out really fast and use up all my energy at the front or do I hang on to it and try to save some towards the end. And I’m kind of among the mindset of when you’ve got it using Use it or lose it a good workout a good cross that workout ends with you on a pile a keep on the floor in a big sway that’s a good workout that’s why I’m crazy and that’s why you know anyway you know this phrase use it or lose it I think you kind of know what this is in reference to but can we use this from a biblical standpoint is there any biblical way that we could use this phrase and what we’re going to look at today in Glacial chapter five you can open your Bibles there now.
Chapter five and what Paul is doing with the glaciers here is he’s sort of saying to the glaciers Christ has set you free
live free but if you don’t live free what you might what might happen is you might be tricked into giving your freedom up and going back and living under the law and so he’s telling them to use your freedom otherwise you might lose it so relations chapter five and up until this point I’m glad that we’re now in the last couple chapters in glaciers the very practical section and up until this point what Paul has been doing is he’s been proving to those English A that the law has been completed the righteous requirements of law have been fulfilled in Christ the law has been a ball has been set aside there are no longer required to follow the law and that gives us freedom everyone who is a believer in God and in Jesus Christ they now have freed of Christ and now that we are in again like the practical section it’s important for us to understand what Paul what his heart is trying to do for the people in Glacier and what he’s trying to get them to do is to put their faith into practice so that they grow up and they become mature and they become like Christ during the lay sions I just look at chapter four verse nineteen this kind of shows you the heart that Paul has for those in Glacier elations for nineteen.
He says to them my little children for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until the Christ is formed in you and so this is Paul’s heart this is his desire for those people in these churches that he’s writing to and so now Paul shares with them the potential things that they could lose and suffer if they start going back to the law and following the law and before we read through this passage I do need to say this I think it’s a very important to understand as a reading this understand Paul is writing to people who are believers right and so the things that he’s going to warn them that they are potentially going to lose out on it’s not dealing with their salvation in any way shape or form this is talking about daily living in a specifically in the section they’re potentially live going to miss out on some of the freedom that Christ died to give them and so let’s go ahead and read through this and what we see is there are three things that they could lose if they revert back and submit to the law in the first thing that they can lose this probably the most obvious thing it’s their freedom they’re in danger of losing their freedom if they submit to the law.
Five chapter one verse chapter five Verse one five one it says for freedom Christ has set us free stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery so it says for freedom crisis set us free and then we have Thousand question OK what are we free from one thing that we’re not free from when we talk about the law we are not no one is free from the moral aspects of the law that is timeless there is no time limit on God’s moral commands and so we’re not free from God’s moral law but we are free from the burden and the bondage of the ceremonial systems that God put in place no one could live up to that no one could could be found righteous by following that we’re going to stay obviously but I found his special as I’ve been going through Glacial is that Paul explains a lot of things he says English is a little better in Romans and so go to Romans chapter eight
Romans chapter eight.
And here in this section Paul explains early shares with us how Christ fulfilled the requirements of the law and then gives us the freedom to focus on Christ and not ourselves Romans chapter eight beginning in verse one.
Because there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law the spirit of life has set us free so you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death for God has done what the law we can do by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit and so here he’s saying the requirements they’re done they’ve been fulfilled the debt has been paid there’s no need to keep paying the debt of the law I don’t know if any of you here have actually paid off your mortgage maybe there’s some of you I have not but I look forward to the day of writing that last check to the mortgage company wouldn’t it be foolish after you write that last check to the mortgage company to the next month just write them another one just because you got used to doing it but any kind of foolish I’m sure they wouldn’t mind but yeah I’m sure they’d probably have to give a back I don’t know them Paul talks about where a person’s mind needs to be depending on what they’re focused on if you’re free if the requirements of lot of fulfilled than this is how you should live or spite of Romans eight. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit for to set the mind on the flesh is death but to set the mind on The Spirit is life and peace for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for does not submit to God’s law indeed it cannot those who are in the flesh cannot please God You however are not in the flesh but in the spirit if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you so Paul taught both the Galatians and the Romans in this passage that the law has been fulfilled so we are free so don’t go back to living according to the law you know a couple ways to think about this from a practical standpoint when a child leaves the house after they graduated from high school and they go off to college and they graduate from college they’ve got a couple options now they’re an adult right and they have freedom that they didn’t have when they were living in the house and so when someone’s an adult can live on their own pay their own rent and they can go to bed whenever they want if someone wants to stay up until two o’clock in the morning they can go ahead and do that and they can eat whatever kind of food they want right but if someone let’s say they graduate from college and they are not ready to get out there on their own they can go back to their parents place right parents are like and nope no you cannot. But if you go back to living in your parents’ place they might say All right well if you’re going to live in my household then you’re going to go by by my rules and you’re not going to stay up until two o’clock and you’re going to eat meals with us and so the kind of giving up some of their freedom even though they’re an adult’s member in talking with this glacial passage they’re talking using a lot of them things that the people in Greek and Roman society would understand now when someone is young they would live under the Guardian or the tutor of a slave even though they were eventually going to be the owner of the inheritance of the estate that day so it would be somewhat ridiculous. For an adult Roman citizen to willingly submit themselves to live under the guardianship of a slave as a free Roman citizen and so that’s what Paul is saying to those in Galatians you’re free you’re free from all these don’t willingly submit yourself back to the thing that Christ died to free you from and so by following the law practically speaking Paul is warning those people in Glacier you’re about to lose your freedom and what God has given them is the freedom to pursue serving God instead of obeying rules so that’s the first thing that they’re in danger of losing if they go back and continue to follow the law another thing Paul warns them about possibly losing is their power losing their power let’s read a few verses here beginning universe two glaciers chapter five Verse two
place in Chapter five Verse two
look I polled say to you that if you accept circumcision Christ will be of no advantage to you I testify again to every man to accept circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law you are severed from Christ you who would be justified by the law you have fallen away from grace for through the Spirit by faith we are selves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only face working through love you know last week we looked at what Paul’s thorn in the flesh could possibly be I speculated that it might have been an eye problem that he was going through and it’s not I’m not the first person that came up with that idea lot of people hold to that but when he was going through that and he referred to that as a thorn in the flesh Paul in a very valuable lesson he learned where the source of his power comes from when he learned that when he realized in of himself he doesn’t have the power to fulfill the things that God wants him to do he asked to depend on God And so in second Corinthians twelve nine Paul says but he said to me this is God he said to me My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. And so Paul had to learn that when he realized how weak he was then he could depend on God and receive the power from God to fulfill anything that God called him to do you know when Jesus was still on earth and he was training up his disciples that last week before he was betrayed he said something very interesting in John you can turn there if you like John Chapter fifteen just going to read a couple of verses
John fifteen beginning in verse four will just reverses four and five says Jesus speaking to His disciples and he says this basically telling them where the source of their power is going to be coming from John fifteen for three or five Jesus says to his disciples
abide in me and die in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me I am the vine you are the branches whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit for apart for me you can do nothing and this is so true for all of us if we turn our ways our if we turn our eyes away from Christ what we have to do to get our source of power is we have to turn them in the word and try to get that power from ourselves or no law if we do that then we’re no longer abiding in Christ like it says here in John fifteen we’re no longer allowing Christ to produce fruit in our lives and while timidly we’re looking inward towards ourself trying to produce obedience so that we can please God and that’s why Paul says what he does Ingle ations five to look at verse two again this is a really interesting phrase that he says and it can be kind of confusing unless you take a look a close look at this in glaciers five Verse two Paul says look I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision Christ will be of no edge of vantage to you what does he mean by this Now remember these people are Satan so I firmly believe Paul is not referring to salvation but rather the power for a living. The word for advantage is the Greek word a fairly arrow which means to assist or to be useful or advantageous for the prophet something so he’s saying the Christ would be of no advantage sure no assist or prophet to you this word is only used just a few other times in the New Testament but I’m there’s one place in First Corinthians fourteen I want to share with you a kind of helps us understand what Paul is trying to say here and in First Corinthians fourteen Paul is talking about the sign gifts for those of you who are familiar with first currency and first Corinthians thirteen fourteen and this is during a time in the church where the sign gifts were still being used because we did not have the Bible and so Paul goes in and tells those in Corinth he says to them first Corinthians fourteen six Speaking of tongues
now brothers if I come to you speaking in tongues How will I benefit you that’s the word how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching and so well Paul is saying to them this is when tongues and prophesy knowledge are still being used if I come to you and I’m speaking in a tongue a tongue that you do not know the language to how is that any way going to benefit you unless someone interprets it and so he’s saying if you want this to be of an advantage you have to know what it’s saying and so Paul is saying back you’re English and if you want the power of Jesus Christ you can’t revert to the law you have to keep your eyes focused on Jesus Christ it’s kind of sort of like saying what advantage is it to you of having a winning lottery ticket if you don’t turn it in right kind of obvious or what do the images it to you have a car parked in your garage full of gas if you’re choosing to just walk everywhere but it’s of no advantage to and it’s sitting there it’s right there for you or what advantage would it be to have a G.P.S. in your car if all you’re going to do is stop roll down the window now somebody for directions you have that power right there or maybe the best illustration is that I think come up with is what benefit is that if I use a cross that illustration and you’ve never done Cross Fit right you know I was coming you know I say that jokingly because Kim worst Kimock faddish in here
she’s in the nursery Well candid chat and she tried Cross Fit Yesterday way to go Kim and she even wrote on her Facebook page I am glad I did cross this so I can understand pastor Joshua sermon illustrations now. That I love that girl and really go camping and so I want you to be like him and so everyone finds some room in the aisles where do some bird reason thrusters really quick no.
I like my job that would go pretty well and very well so.
But how to pull this thing he’s saying in Christ we have power but if you turn away from the power of Christ to become slaves to the law as the source of your power then Christ is of no advantage to you and so why in the world would someone be tempted to add back the law into their lives if they placed their face in Jesus Christ and the answer that question in some ways you say I have no idea why someone would do that but you look at scripture here and you also look at the way that people do that in the world today and maybe one of the answers to that question is this people will add back the law and add that to their face in Christ just in case
just in case we might need it oh everyone here has insurance don’t you it’s some kind of insurance health live dental your insurance is just in case as you don’t know what’s going to happen in fact the definition of insurance is the practice or in a regime between you and a company to provide a guaranteed compensation for a specified loss and so if something happens to you and you’re paying them a commission or fee then they’re going to guarantee I like to think of insurance like a parachute you need to put it on before you need it so that you have it when you do right and so a lot of you I know you probably have insurance your home and auto I never use home insurance but I’ve used auto insurance replacing windshields as kind of a nice life insurance I have life insurance Hopefully I won’t need to use it only my wife will need to use it I have health insurance the only times that I’ve recently used health insurance was after playing church softball I tend to hurt myself playing softball but there’s all different kinds of insurance but many people in Glacier maybe were thinking of circumcision and not just circumcision but the entire law sort of like this it’s a good idea to fall these laws just in case just in case Christ isn’t enough or just in case it will give be a better standing with God And so what Paul does is he shows them the flaw in this thinking. Grace and law are two things that cannot be can bind because they work in two entirely different ways the law is all about your effort what you can do for yourself and the law was ultimately given to prove that our effort isn’t enough grace is all about God’s effort and what God has done and so you cannot accept God’s work and then try to add to it your own work to improve your standing in God’s eyes if he says two eight nine they one of the most important passages in all scripture it says For by grace are you saved through faith and this is not your doing it is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast. If you’re in delay sions look at Chapter three again we’ve looked at this before but this is telling us that you cannot combine grace and law they don’t work they’re not compatible.
Verses ten through twelve
elations three verses ten through twelve
it says for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse for it is written personally everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by face but the law is not a faith rather the one who does them shall live by faith. So they’re not compatible but you know another thing in our passage for today verse five is very interesting Paul talks about this hope of righteousness and I think this is important at this point because what are what is our hope in and every time we have in the Bible where Paul talks about the hope of something it’s usually referring to something to the future obviously hope is always in the future and there’s two possibilities of verse five what he’s talking about here look at verse five again it says for through the Spirit by face we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness so what exactly is that what are you and I eagerly waiting for what is this hope of righteousness there’s two possibilities and both are true in another themselves but I think Paul is referring to one of them here when we talk about hope our hope is obviously that when we die we will be in Heaven with Christ forever right that’s the hope I don’t think that that’s what he’s referring to here that I think it’s just. A different type of hope the hope that he might be referring to here is that when we stand before God as the righteous Judge we hope that the righteousness that he’s going to see in our life is not the one that we tried to make for ourselves but the hope of Christ’s righteousness credited to us that’s our hope that when we stand before God He will see Christ’s righteousness in our lives so we can hope for Christ’s work that it will God has done in his place Christ’s righteousness into our lives and when we stand before Him He will say that we are deemed innocent So how how do we make the switch then as we look at this passage from depending on ourselves like they were doing under the law to living depended upon God and we make that switch obviously it’s something mental We have to put our focus on and that leads us to the third thing a person might lose if they start following the law and that is that they might lose their direction they might lose their direction now remember what Jesus said to the young man when he called when he when he called them to be disciples remember when he said follow me and I will make you what fishers of men notice Jesus did not say follow me and I will make you better rule followers he didn’t say that he said follow me and I will make you fishers of men because he was trying to get them to not look inward but outward and if you look at the two greatest commandments in all the law there are commandments that make us look outward to love the Lord God with all of our heart and soul mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves and so when a person starts to follow the law they’re going to lose their direction else reverses seven to twelve year English and five.
Five or seven through twelve that says you were running well who hindered you from obeying the truth this persuasion is not from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty whoever he is but if I brother still preach circumcision why am i still being persecuted in that case the offense of the cross has been removed I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves so here in verse seven Paul starts off with an athletic illustration and it’s important to note that every time and Paul does this quite a bit through Scripture whenever he uses an athletic illustration it’s not in reference to how someone is to be saved it’s in reference to someone who is saved how to live out their salvation but in the Greek world in order for someone to run in a race they had to be a citizen they had to be an actual citizen and similarly with us in order for us to run in this race that is marked out for us we have to be a child of God and so he says to them as Christians you were running well you were focused on Christ and then someone ran in front of you they cut you off and they convince you to stop following Christ and you go back and start following the law again and so he says that and then he switches to another illustration he switches to a cooking illustration you know sports and food Paul knows how to get one’s attention on his good he says that leaven will spread and it will affect everyone you know as any time we look at scripture when it leaven is used leaven is described as sin and if leaven is left alone it will grow and take over in the same is true with sin and so the idea that Paul is sharing with us is this don’t let the wrong method of running the race creep in meaning a law instead of grace otherwise you’ll find yourself running in a different race and you look at the world today and the world is full of false religions and other gospels we look at that of the Be very beginning of Galatians and they are these other gospels these other religions the sects in these cults they are all based on law all these rules and they falsely give people the idea that if they fold the rules well enough they can earn for themselves whatever it is the their hope is in the future whether it’s their own world or salvation or whatever that is and that’s the per the persuasion that the world is trying trying to lead us to those are just some examples that I can think of and I think if you just sit down you think about all the different religions it’s it’s scary to see how they’re trying to cut us off and get us to run a different race and basically it makes us to look inward make ourselves look good and sort of making us look outward and saying how how we can be the salt and light that God wants us to be in the world around us
you know as we continue wanting to lay sions we’re in this the practical section and and it starts off by Paula telling us that we’re free and as Americans we love freedom don’t we. Love the word freedom we love to fight for our freedom and most of what Paul has been talking about focuses on what we are free of we are free of or we are free from the burden of the law but when someone grows and matures in the face what we need to start doing is looking at the other side of freedom and the other side of freedom is this when we have freedom in Christ it’s more about what we are free to do not what we are free from we are free from the law but God a saved us so that we are now free to serve him. And now so Paul is going to spend most of the rest of Galatians talking about so we can look forward to looking at that right now let’s go ahead and close in prayer and thank God for the freedom that we have but especially That’s ask him to give us the wisdom and the insight that we need to use our freedom in a way that will give God glory let’s pray
there Lord as we’re continuing on English and I’m so thankful for this book which helps us to understand the purpose of the law you gave the law to show us our need for our Savior and in our inability to earn our favor in your eyes by through our own works and Lord and now we’re getting to the part where we realize our freedom should allow us to serve you and and ultimately bear fruit so Father My prayer is as we continue to study that that all of us will seriously consider where our source of power is are we we truly leaning in leaning on you and depending on you to produce enough of the fruit that you desire to produce a house or are we trying to do that ourselves so Father thank You for our church that you’ve given to us I thank you for this body of believers that is here this morning May we be an encouragement to each other to run the race that is marked out for us so that we can bear the fruit for you or alternately that is in your honor and glory we praise in Christ me a myth.