Galatians 5:1-4
The Ridge of Righteousness
Perhaps you will be glad to know that we have moved out of the
deepest waters of this book. Paul had been asking and answering the
question, "How far into Judaism must one go to be saved?" His answer
was plainly given in:
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by
the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus
Christ….
In even plainer terms, the answer is not any; but because Paul’s
apostleship has been brought into question, Paul did not just make
that statement and close the letter. Instead, he spend the remainder
of chapter 2 and all of chapters 3 and 4 backing up that answer with
Scripture, his gift of revelation, and plain old logic or common
sense—which he was still using.
Now, although Paul will still make a few comments concerning the
foolishness of attempting to earn salvation, Paul will move into two
chapters helping the churches of Galatian move on from here. In this
chapter, Paul gave them three commandments. One on where to stay and
two on how to stay there.
1. \\#Gal 5:1\\ Stand in Liberty
2. \\#Gal 5:16\\ Walk in the Spirit
3. \\#Gal 5:5-6\\ Live by Faith
I. A Picture
A. If I may presume on your time, let me create an image, an
allegory, in your mind that might help us to understand the
life we are to live in the Spirit versus the life of the Old
Testament Saint.
1. The Old Testament lived a tough life of trying to please
and worship God through the Law.
a. It was a life of keeping a seemingly endless list of
rules and commandments.
b. What made it so difficult is that the Law required
perfection and no human can be perfect.
c. Compare it to rock climbing.
(1) Rock climbing is not walking up a trail to the
top of a tall mountain.
(2) Rock climbing is scaling a rock face, sometimes
at angle’s steeper than 90 degrees.
(3) This is done either by finding your own foot and
hand holds or by making them as you progress up
the rock face.
(4) It is a physically and mentally grueling
exercise—and it is very dangerous.
(5) Anyone who climbs a mountain this way as every
right to stand on the top and thumb his chest as
he declares, "Look what I have done!"
d. Now if you think you understand how difficult that
would be let’s add three more things to the picture.
(1) All rock climbing must be done in the dark.
(a) I don’t have the time tonight to explain
this but much of the journey both Old and
New Testament saints take with God is in
the dark.
1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a
glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know
in part; but then shall I know even as also I am
known.
(b) That is why God gives us the Flashlight of
Faith and insists that we use it; however,
it would certainly make rock climbing a lot
more difficult to do it in the dark.
(2) There are no stops, rests, breaks, and certainly
no going back down.
(a) This is a quest to know and to please God.
(b) You do not take any breaks on that journey.
(3) No one, absolutely no one, has ever made it to
the top.
(a) No one can ever earn salvation or even
please God in their own strength and
abilities.
(b) Many have tried and all have failed.
e. That is the eternal life and death task the Old
Testament saints lived under.
(1) Once on the mountain face, there was not going
back or even taking a break.
(2) If they did just one thing wrong, they were
guilty of doing EVERYTHING wrong.
(3) And the wages of breaking the least law in the
cannon was the same as breaking all of the laws,
death.
f. But Paul was telling the churches at Galatia that we
not under the Law anymore and that is not how we
serve or please God.
(1) We are now under grace through Jesus Christ.
(2) Jesus’ death built an elevator to the top of the
mountain.
(a) We no longer need to attempt to please God
by keeping the Law.
(b) Indeed, no one ever pleased God by keeping
the Law because they kept messing up and
falling to their deaths!
(c) Now, God is pleased with us because Jesus
scaled the mountain for us.
(3) We can still learn from the Law, but we are no
longer forced to scale that mountain or to face
that death penalty.
(4) So where are we now?
2. New Testament saints have been placed on Grace Mountain,
along Righteous Ridge, standing on the Plateau of
Liberty.
a. Jesus has carried us to the top of Grace Mountain and
dropped us on the Ridge of Righteousness where we are
pleasing to God.
b. On this particular plateau, which is called Liberty,
the terrain is flat and easy to walk.
c. Even better, God has told us that every place He will
ever want us to go is somewhere on the top of Grace
Mountain, along the Ridge of Righteousness, and
accessible from the plateau of Liberty where Jesus
has placed us.
(1) Some distance off, on down the ridge is heaven.
It is dark so we cannot see heaven from here but
we hear the sound of those who have found it.
We do not know how far away heaven is for us or
exactly what trail will lead us to it, but we
know if we keep moving along Ridge of
Righteousness staying on Plateau of Liberty, we
will get there.
(2) On the way, we will pass through a place called
Christian Growth. Again, we are not exactly
sure how far away it is or exactly how God is
going to get us there, but He has promised it
was on this ridge so we will keep moving on
until we are there.
(3) There are other locations we have been told were
on the Ridge of Righteousness and that can be
reached from Plateau of Liberty.
(a) There is a place called Service. As a
matter of fact, there seem to be a lot of
trails that lead to Service. So many, in
fact, that one has to work pretty hard not
to enter that place.
(b) Another is called Sacrifice. Rumor has it
that Sacrifice is a difficult place to
stay. It costs a lot to pass through
Sacrifice, but others have told us that it
it is well worth the cost. We do not know
when we come upon Sacrifice, but we do
know it is along the Ridge of Righteousness
right off the Plateau of Liberty and we
must seek it out.
(c) On the other side of Sacrifice, there are
two places every Christian wants to enter.
They are called God’s Glory and God’s
Reward. Like all the others places along
the Plateau of Liberty, we are not sure how
far away they are, how long it will take us
to get there, or exactly what trail we are
to follow to arrive there.
(4) All we know is all of those places and all of the
other places that God wants us to visit are on
top of Grace Mountain, along the Ridge of
Righteousness, somewhere accessible by the
Plateau of Liberty.
B. Now, we need to understand that although the Plateau of
Liberty is flat and easy to walk, there are still dangers.
1. On both sides of Liberty, the ridge drops off—sharply—
and if we fall off the edge, we might fall off the Ridge
of Righteousness into either the Valley of Sin or the
Valley of Death.
2. Paul has been standing on the top of Grace Mountain
shouting down to the Galatian travelers trying to warn
and to convince them of the dangers.
3. Now notice the command he gives to them.
II. Three Commands: One command about where to stay and two about how
to stay there.
Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty….
A. Paul shouts for them to stay on the Plateau of Liberty.
1. On the one side of Liberty, Paul warned of the steep
edge of Legalism.
a. Whether they knew it or not, the Judiazers has been
attempting to push the churches of Galatia of the
Legalism Edge.
b. Paul was telling them do not walk off it, don’t get
pushed off it, and don’t trip and fall off it.
(1) \\#1\\ Stand fast on the Plateau of Liberty he
shouted.
(2) Don’t get entangled in the ropes of "bondage."
Those ropes will trip you up and you will fall
off the Plateau of Liberty.
(3) \\#2\\ Paul warned that if you attempt to go back
to the harness of the law and climb the mountain
yourself, "Christ will profit you nothing" and
in \\#4\\ he added "Christ is become of no
effect unto you."
(4) \\#3\\ He further warned that if they were going
to try to please God by climbing the rock face
of self-righteousness, they would have to go the
very bottom of the mountain and climb back up,
keeping every law to get back to the top.
c. \\#4\\ And then the saddest of all news.
Gal 5:4 …ye are fallen from grace.
(1) If that is what they wanted to do, they had
fallen completely off Grace Mountain and were
lost to Christ all together.
(2) I am not sure what all that means but I am
sure it is very bad.
d. \\#10\\ Paul told the Galatians that he did not think
that had happened to them.
Gal 5:10 I have confidence in you through the
Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded….
(1) Rather, he thought they had been confused by an
outsider.
Gal 5:10 …but he that troubleth you shall bear
his judgment, whosoever he be.
Gal 5:7 Ye did run well; WHO did hinder you that
ye should not obey the truth?
(2) He made it clear that this false teaching did not
come from Christ.
Gal 5:8 This persuasion cometh not of him that
calleth you.
(3) He also made it clear that like a virus, false
doctrine can spread through the whole family.
Gal 5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
2. On the other side of the Plateau of Liberty was another
dangerous edge called License.
Gal 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto
liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to
the flesh, but by love serve one another.
a. License means that people think their liberty gives
them a license to do anything that want.
(1) It does not.
(2) Liberty gives us the freedom to do anything God
wants us to do.
b. Paul did not spend much time talking about this other
dangerous edge of liberty because that was not the
side of the Liberty’s Plateau the churches of
Galatia were playing on; but it is addressed in the
Scripture and it is a real threat to our day and
time.
c. Too many do exactly what the Bible warns us against
doing with liberty—jumping off the Ridge of
Righteousness all together while deluding ourselves
into thinking it is all right.
1Peter 2:16 As free, and not using your liberty
for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants
of God.
1Cor 8:9 But take heed lest by any means this
liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them
that are weak.
3. Please notice that it does not matter what side of the
ridge you jump off from, you still fall to the rocks
below!
B. Paul’s Two Commands on HOW to Stay in Liberty. Perhaps you
are realizing it is dangerous being up here on the Ridge of
Righteousness. We could fall off. Did God give us anything
to help us? The answer is YES.
1. God gave us a Guide in the Holy Ghost.
Gal 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit,
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
a. All though this book and the New Testament, God spoke
of the need to listen to, learn from, and to follow
the Holy Ghost of God.
Galatians 3:2 Let me ask you only this: Did you
receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by
hearing with faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun with the
Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?
Galatians 3:5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to
you and works miracles among you do so by works
of the law, or by hearing with faith?
Gal 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come
on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith.
Galatians 4:6 And because you are sons, God has
sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
crying, "Abba! Father!"
Galatians 5:5 For through the Spirit, by faith,
we wait for the hope of righteousness.
b. Christian, we cannot walk on Grace Mount, the Ridge of
Righteousness, or the Plateau of Liberty without the
guidance of the Holy Ghost.
(1) We cannot.
(2) We will either fall off on the side of Legalism
or the side of License.
(3) Every Christian must place his hand into the
hand of the Holy Ghost, our Guide.
2. God also provided the Flashlight of Faith.
a. Just like those scaling the rock face must do it in
the dark, so those walking the Ridge of
Righteousness must do it in the dark.
(1) Sorry, but that is the way it is.
(2) Paul wrote that at best in this life, we look
through a glass "darkly."
b. Paul only mentioned faith in \\#Gal 5:5-6\\, but we
cannot follow the Holy Spirit of God without faith.
(1) I am not saying that we need more than the Holy
Ghost, but I will say that you cannot have the
Holy Ghost without faith.
(2) The Holy Ghost first comes by faith but then He
gives faith.
(3) The Holy Spirit pulls us along but without the
flashlight of faith, we would only get pulled
over.
(4) There are just too many potholes life to walk
very far without the flashlight of faith to help
guide us along.
c. By the way, our flashlight of faith will only be as
bright as our grip on the Holy Ghost.
d. If you turn loose of the Holy Ghost, your light of
faith goes out.
Grace Mountain, Ridge of Righteousness, and the Plateau of Liberty:
these may only be make-believer places in my mind, but they the
walk they represent are very real—and so are the dangers. Stand in
liberty. Walk in the Holy Ghost. Live by faith, and you will go
everywhere God wants you to go and you will do everything God wants
you to do.
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