4) Have You Fallen From Grace?

You're listening to Truth Time Radio with Trey Searcy.
Bible questions?
Email us from our website truthtimeradio.com.
Welcome back once again to Truth Time Radio.
The website is truthtimeradio.com.
Galatians chapter 5, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free, and be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
Behold I, Paul, say unto you, That if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the
whole law.
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen
from grace.
Welcome back as we continue to look into fallen from grace, and just what does that mean?
Here, Paul makes the distinction between things done in the Spirit by faith and things done
in the flesh that are by works.
The circumcision here represents anything done in the flesh.
Whether it's water baptism, turning and walking away from a sin, opening your mouth and saying
the so-called sinner's prayer, or whatever, just fill in the blank, like circumcision,
these are all things done in the flesh, and by the flesh shall no man be justified.
Anything you fill in the blank with becomes a law unto you.
Change it from circumcision to whatever, whatever you can do in your flesh, and it becomes a
law that you've placed on yourself.
Think about it.
The Galatians 5:4 fall from grace is the opposite of what?
It's the opposite of Galatians 5:1 to stand fast.
Stand or fall.
Verse 1, stand fast in liberty.
Verse 4, if you don't, you'll fall from grace.
Stand or fall.
If you're listening today and you're trying to justify yourself by the law, by any work
you can do in your flesh, you've fallen from grace.
Paul in Romans 5:1 said, Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.
So to fall from grace would be to fall from wherein you stand.
Not a loss of salvation as some teach, and a good number of those who teach that are
not even saved.
Just listen to their testimony.
They're fruit inspectors and they're judging by the wrong thing.
They're judging by someone's flesh.
That's not how you know if someone's saved.
You shall know them by their fruit means by their words.
That's what Jesus in Matthew 12:34 said.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
And in verse 37 He said, by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou
shalt be condemned.
You can't judge a person's salvation by their flesh, by where they go or what they do.
You can know if a person's saved or not by what they say.
By their words they'll either be justified or condemned.
If they're going to the wrong place, if they're doing the wrong things, they're not living
as a saved person should, but it doesn't mean they're not saved.
These fleshly fruit inspectors try to convince us that you can lose your salvation, and the
ones who say that teach a do-to-get message, a do-to-get message that requires actions
of the flesh.
They say if you're living in sin you've fallen from grace, you've lost your salvation.
They're not concerned about you being justified in God's sight.
They want you to be justified in their sight.
They want to judge you.
They set up the hoops and you jump through.
Hey, listen, you can't judge me.
Did you not know that?
If I died with Christ, was buried with Christ, have risen with Christ, my life is hid in Christ.
No longer I that live but Christ in me, you can't judge me.
It's Christ who represents me.
So if you're so gung-ho about judging someone, judge him.
Can he lose his salvation?
Then neither can I.
I'm in him and he's in me, Christ in me, the hope of glory, Colossians 1:27.
So you can't judge my salvation by what you see.
Now you can judge my Christian life, I mean, if that's what you want to do, have at it.
You may say, I don't think he's living like he should.
But if you want to judge my salvation, you need to take that up with Christ.
By faith, I've committed my salvation to him and I'm Philippians 1:6 confident of this
very thing, that he, which began a good work in me, will perform it until the day of redemption.
Now think with me real quick.
In Galatians 5:4 Paul said, Whosoever of you are justified by the law?
But in Romans 3:1 he says, No man is justified by the law in the sight of God.
Wait a minute, Paul.
Is it justified by the law or not justified by the law?
Which is it?
What Paul is saying is if anyone is justified by the law, it's out of God's sight.
No man is justified by the law in the sight of God.
Maybe in the sight of other church members, friends and family, but not in the sight of
God.
Not in the sight of God, but in the sight of man.
And that's why Paul asked the question, Galatians 1:10, Do I persuade men or God?
Do I seek to please men?
If I do, I should not be the servant of Christ.
See how plain he makes it?
Your family may think well of you by your rule keeping.
Others may think highly of you.
Your preacher may.
But God?
Not a chance.
Your works won't justify you in his sight.
Don't do works to win his favor.
Do works because you have his favor.
And don't forget you're not going to be judged by your family, friends or preacher.
You'll be judged by Paul's gospel, Romans 2:16.
Fallen from grace is not loss of salvation.
It's a loss of God's grace.
A loss of his grace being actively present in your life.
It's not God taking back his grace from you, but you withdrawing from his grace.
You have a standing in that grace.
Matter of fact, it's been freely given to you, but it's not forced upon you.
You have to want it to stand in it.
The opposite of standing is fallen.
And that's what happened to some of the Galatians.
They had allowed someone to knock them down with corrupt teaching.
The unclean thing.
The unclean doctrine.
In the second chapter of Timothy, we're told to rightly divide the word of truth, and the verse that follows warns us to, quote, Shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
What's vain babblings?
What's the ungodliness here?
Corrupt teaching.
It's that unclean thing Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 6:17.
There he tells us to come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch
not the unclean thing.
Today, we should be living according to the Ephesians 3:2 dispensation of the grace of God, but many have not even heard of it.
This grace of God will help you remove the shackles and escape from bondage.
Listen, if we were under the law, sin would condemn us.
Why?
Because we break the law.
Law and sin would reign, but since grace took the law out of the way, it's no longer able
to have dominion over us.
See that?
Its power was removed.
And it's why Paul wrote, Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the
law, but under grace, Romans 6:14.
Oh, this is good.
We don't look to the law to teach us how to live right.
We look to grace.
If you leave grace to pursue law, you've fallen from grace.
God cannot work in you through law.
He can only work in you through his grace.
You see, it was for Israel, in time past, that law had a job.
Law was their teacher.
But in this present day, we're taught by grace.
We see evidence of this in Titus Chapter 2, verses 11 and 12.
There is where we learn that the grace of God is what teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, so we can live soberly, righteously, and godly, and notice the last four words, In this present world.
You see the change?
The law was fired and grace was hired.
Grace is the new teacher.
If you feel as if you're spinning your wheels but not really going anywhere, perhaps you've
fallen from grace and didn't even know it.
Everything you've been doing has been done in the energy of your own flesh, done on your
own instead of allowing God to motivate you through his word and by his grace.
Listen how Paul puts it.
Galatians 2, verses 19-21, For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
Now before we go to verse 20, what does this mean?
What is Paul saying here?
I through the law am dead to the law?
The law killed him.
Get it?
Life is not in the law, death is.
Verse 20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me.
Verse 21, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
That's a powerful passage of scripture.
Verse 19 dead to the law, verse 20 crucified with Christ, I'm dead but I live.
How's that possible?
Because it's Christ living in me.
And verse 21, How do we frustrate the grace of God?
By trying to earn it.
And if that be the case, we're spitting on the cross and saying his death was in vain.
His work's not sufficient and needs my work added to it.
Romans 6:11, Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Hey I'm reckoned dead unto sin and alive unto Christ.
It's now his life in me and not my own.
I died with him, I was buried with him, and the life I now have is the life of Christ.
The message here is if we don't renew our mind daily, if we don't constantly remind
ourselves of this good news, if we stop living in a state of gratitude and thanksgiving,
we might fall from grace by leaning back to our flesh.
Christ in me becomes of no effect and it's now me who has taken over.
Listen, a person falls from grace when they abandon the liberty wherewith Christ has made
them free from the law, free from works, free from fleshly performance.
No more self-evaluating to see if I'm good enough.
Don't leave liberty to pursue bondage.
Don't leave grace to pursue works.
Don't leave spiritual things to pursue fleshly things.
Someone who does this is someone who has fallen from grace, fallen from grace and judging
themselves by the things they do in their flesh, things others can see them do.
Galatians 3:3 Paul said, Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Think about that.
That's what some of the popular teachings of today are.
They're filled with fleshly evaluation, fleshly promotion.
But are ye so foolish?
Are ye so foolish having begun in the Spirit and now turning back to the things of the flesh?
Having begun in the Spirit, can you see the Spirit?
Of course not.
Then he says, Are ye now made perfect by the flesh, by what you can see?
Here we have people that started out good, they were saved by operating correctly in the Spirit, but then they decided to turn back to their flesh.
Some teacher came along teaching law, teaching works, performance, and bamboozled them back
toward that 2 Corinthians 6:17 unclean thing, unclean doctrine.
It's not the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, but rather the 2 Timothy 2:16 vain babblings.
Instead of standing fast in their liberty, instead of standing in grace, those who have fallen from grace have chosen to operate in the energy of their own flesh, ignoring the Word of God.
Remember, for by works shall no flesh be justified.
Galatians 2:16, We're justified freely by His grace.
Romans 3:24, Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.
Some are drawn toward the unclean thing, a false message claiming to be the gospel that won't save the unsaved and will only confuse the saved.
Just as some today turn away from this grace message, they were doing the same thing to Paul.
It's nothing new.
In my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
Romans 7:18.
You ever stop to think about that?
In your flesh, in your flesh, there is nothing good.
I know popular television tells you different, your favorite TV preacher and some even at the corner church behind the pulpit, but it's an unclean thing.
It's not the gospel of your salvation, and it's only the ones who refuse to believe this about themselves who fall from grace.
They're the ones who, Romans 10:3, go about trying to establish their own righteousness.
We've got to recognize the contrast between flesh and spirit.
Paul demonstrates this in verses 4 and 5 of Galatians chapter 5.
Look at it.
Galatians chapter 5 verse 4, Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace.
So law represents what?
Flesh.
Things done in the flesh, works.
Now watch the comparison.
Verse 5, For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Faith represents things done in the Spirit, opposite to law that represents flesh, works.
Through the Spirit for righteousness by faith, not the flesh.
In other words, Paul is saying, what you guys are trying to do by your fleshly works, we through the Spirit are waiting for.
He's not talking about imputed righteousness to our account.
We already have that.
He's talking about waiting for our righteous body.
That's our hope.
Our hope is to have a glorified body.
That's future.
Future righteousness, not present righteousness that we positionally already have.
We have righteousness, present tense, and we have the hope for righteousness, future.
They're not the same.
What the Galatians were trying to achieve by works in the flesh, Paul says, we wait for.
Can't have it yet.
We just keep standing in this grace and waiting on it by faith.
Why?
Because we can't get it any other way.
Paul knew this from experience and that's why in Romans 7, he says, the things I wish I would do, I don't, and the things I wish I didn't do, I do. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I can't find. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
What the Galatians were trying to achieve through their self-effort can only be Galatians 5:5 achieved by faith, and it's not now anyway.
We don't receive that righteous, perfect, sinless body of flesh until we're raised up on the day of redemption.
Anyone trying to get it now has fallen from grace.
Galatians 3:27, For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
How did you do that?
Did you put on Christ by water baptism?
No, water baptism, like circumcision, is something done in the flesh.
It's something you can see and it won't profit you nothing.
Things done in the flesh shall profit you nothing.
Just listen to the Bible.
Hear what it's trying to convey to you.
No sir.
Notice the change.
1 Corinthians 12:13, For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.
No water.
No fleshly circumcision.
It's now Spirit.
Amazing.
Hopefully you're getting this.
Lord, help me to be clear in this presentation for there are so many that have fallen from grace and they've lost their zeal.
Their joy has been replaced by weariness and they're not getting the spiritual rest you would have them to.
Galatians 5:2, If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
In this context, circumcision is of the what?
Flesh.
When you're relying on the energy of your flesh, Christ shall profit you nothing.
You need Christ in your life.
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, so if you're not hearing the Word of God, faith
can't come.
Check out TruthTimeRadio.com.
There you'll find this teaching and other archives.
Hey, you need to hear this Word of Truth rightly divided so the word can effectually go to
work in you, 1 Thessalonians 2:13
But if you insist on functioning by the religious
do-it-yourself program, Christ will become of no effect unto you and profit you nothing.