Galatians: The Grace Of Christ Part 3 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue
Galatians: The Grace Of Christ Part 3 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue
Galatians: The Grace of Christ Part 3 from Pastors Lawson & Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, you’re going to understand that you receive the blessing of the Lord because you are the children of God.
Galatians: The Grace Of Christ – CD Set
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” – Galatians 5:1
The Galatians: The Grace of Christ CD Set from Pastor Lawson Perdue. The Apostle Paul is adamant about one thing in Galatians – that after receiving the message of Grace you should not try to live up the standards of the Law. Freedom from the Law will not cause you to live in sin, but it will actually produce a positive relationship with God!
Galatians: The Grace Of Christ Part 3 Transcript
Friends, I’m so glad that you tuned into the broadcast today. I have my son Aaron, with me. We’re gonna be teaching from Galatians 4 and Galatians 5, we’re gonna be talking about the fact that we are no more servants but sons. And do you know what? When you understand that you receive all the blessings because you are the children of God and not by your performance, it will change your life and bring you into the freedom that Jesus paid for. Blessings. Friends, I am so glad that you’re with us today. And I have my son, Aaron. I’m so happy to have him. We’re sharing from Galatians talking about the grace of Jesus Christ. And you know, grace and gospel really are synonymous. But yesterday we were in Galatians 3, and we were talking about all the things that we received that Grace has provided. And when we concluded, we really got down to verse 26, where it says in Galatians 3:26, “You are the children of God by faith in Jesus.” And the reason we get all the stuff from God, all these promises, all these blessings, is because we’re God’s kids. Praise God. And you know what? When you boys grew up, there’s sometimes that you were great boys, but once in a while you’re a little ornery and did something. You know, that might not have been the best, but you know what? You still receive blessing. You still lived in our house. You still ate good meals. Why? Because you’re our children. Praise God. And we’re born into the family. Now we’re gonna get into Galatians 4, and in Galatians 4, Paul continues along this train of thought, really talking about who we are. And the first thing he says is, “We’re no longer servants but sons.” And it’s really interesting. If you study the Old Testament, the Old Testament and the law made you a servant. And a servant a slave can get a little bitty blessing once in a while, right? But at the end of the day, he goes back out and lives in the slave quarters. He goes back into a little shanty in the forest. He doesn’t live in the big palatial, right, owner’s mansion. He lives in a little shack in the back for it, he might sit down with the, with the plantation owner at the table, but because he’s a slave, he lives out there. But as son, whether he is good or bad, lives with the owner because that’s who he is. And it’s like on bonanza, when we were kids, we used to watch Bonanza and Hoss Cartwright And they lived in the Chaparral, you know, this big house and big nice ranch house. But those, those cowboys, you know, that worked for him, they lived in a bunk house. And I grew up on the eastern plains of Colorado. I saw what bunkhouse is. You know, they’re 16 to 20 feet long and about 15, 16 feet wide, around top, about six or eight people sleep in them. They got a little wood fire, wood burning stove in the middle of them. Boy, you talk about, you know, it’s just shelter, just basic conditions. And, God, you know, basics is salvation, but God wants you to have some things while you’re on your way to heaven.
That’s true. You know, just, yesterday my wife and I went to Aspen, Colorado, spent a night there at a, hotel and we were walking around town and by this river there and seeing some of the houses that were there. And wife asked me, you know, how much do you think that house is? And it’s a really nice big house. And I, I just guessed 40 million cuz I knew, you know, that zip code there, it’s one of the most expensive zip codes in the country. You know, just like Palm Beach where Donald Trump lives. It’s very, and I looked it up and that house was 43 million as I looked at different homes that were for sale. You know, some of the cheapest homes there, you know, are are like 10 million dollars. They’re about probably 10 times the value of homes here in Carter Springs. But a lot of them are so nice, you know, the owners can’t take care of everything. So they have a guest house where often their their hired workers live, right? Same person who take care of the garden and keep up with the house cleaning. You know, if you have a 20,000 square foot house, you can’t clean it on your own. So, so someone has to live there, and, take care of it. So a lot of these homes have a little home on the property where the, servant lives. And that’s kind of what, what you’re talking about here, really what God has given us is so great, so huge, you can’t even upkeep it on your own.
Amen. You know, a great example of this in the Old Testament, it’s great example of grace is Mephibosheth. And David made a covenant with Jonathan and you know, Jonathan died and David said, is there anybody that I can be kind to for Jonathan’s sake? And he found out that Jonathan had a son named Mephibosheth who was lame on both of his feet. He was living in Lo Debar, the place of utter destruction. It means desert fire. And David called him in and, and you know, of course Mephibosheth was afraid. He’s like, who am I that you should look on such a dead dog as I, but David said, wait a minute, you’re gonna eat bread at my table, continually, I’m gonna give you all the land that was your grandfather, Saul’s, not only Johnathan’s,
And servants to take care.
And I’m gonna give you these, you know, Ziba and his 20 sons and 15 servants, whatever it was like 36 people, to take care of this property. That is ultimately the grace of God that we are called into fellowship. And you know, when you stay connected, the Bible says that we’re seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And you stay pulled up to that table of grace. You don’t even see the lameness of your own feet. But this wasn’t about Mephibosheth, he was restored in his position, right? He was eating bread at the king’s table continually. That’s what God did for us in Christ, that he made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus according to Ephesians 2:6, “Because of grace and then, not only restored in his position, restored in his possession.” He was not only given all the property that was his father’s, Jonathan, but his grandfather Saul, who was king. So lots of property and, so he was restored in his possession and he was restored in his power, his ability. And we said that grace is God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves in the person of Jesus that is a perfect picture of the grace of God. And Ziba and his 15 sons and his 20 servants all took care of this property from Mephibosheth while he ate bread at the kings table continually. That is the grace of God. And so we are no longer slaves, but we are sons. And it makes this statement that, and he, he says here in Galatians 4:4, “When the fullness of time was come, God sent his son, made of a woman made under the law to purchase those or redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because your sons God is sent forth the spirit of his son into your heart crying Daddy God, wherefore you are no more a servant but a son.” And if a son than an heir of God through Christ, so many people are praying like they’re beggars. And listen, we are not beggars, we are sons and daughters of God almighty Man, that’s marvelous gospel.
I love too, in verse six he just says, because your son’s God is sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying out abba Father, you know God, has a placed his spirit in us so that we always know that we’re children of God.
Amen.
That spirit-ness is always pointing to, to God the father just crying out to him. It’s just like a homing device. We always know where home is. Home is with the Father.
Amen. The second thing he goes on to say is that the law will never produce life. Again, the persistent problem of religion is trying to add something to Jesus. In the case of the Galatians, they were trying to go back and add circumcision or law into Jesus and to do that, it’s like saying Jesus isn’t enough, but Paul really nails it down and he calls it, he says, after that you’ve known God in verse nine, “Are you rather known of God? You turn again to the weak and beggarly elements.” He caused the law weak and beggarly, it’s not strength, going back to the law. And he said, “You desired again to be in bondage? You deserve days and months and times and years. I’m afraid of you, lest I’ve labored in vain rather not beseech you be as I am for I am as you are. You have not injured me at all. You know how through the infirmity of my flesh, I preach the gospel to you and my temptation, which is in my flesh,” this is in verse 14, “you despise not in are rejected, but received me an angel of God. Where is that blessedness then you spoke of I bear record of if, it had been possible you would’ve plucked out your own eyes and given to me.” He said, you’d given me your right arm in essence. you know, I know that you’re with me. And so what he’s really saying is, you know, if you think it’s about what you have, you know this blessing, this, you know, and you think that’s because you’re keeping the law. Where is that blessing us? It’s a false sense of security. And we don’t get blessed because we keep the law. We get blessed because we believe. And he makes that really clear. In Galatians 3:8-9, “All those who of the faith are blessed with, faithful with believing Abraham. And he says, am I becoming your enemy?” Because I tell you the truth, he’s talking about these judaizers, these people that said you had to add the law to Jesus in verse 17. “They zealously affect you but not well. They would exclude you that you might affect them.” But it’s good to be zealously affected always ain’t a good thing. “Not only I’m present with you. Brethren, my little children who might travail with birth until Christ be formed in you. I desire to be present with you and to change my voice for our standing down of you tell me you desire to be under the law. Don’t you hear the law? The law will not save you. The law will make you a better sinner.” But who wants to be the best sinner in hell? It’s not about being a good person, it’s about believing on Jesus. Now that changes who you are, right? When you believe on Jesus and the spirit of God comes on you, in you and lives in you, it’s no longer living by your strength, but it’s living through Christ’s life in you, Christ’s spirit in you. Amen. And when you understand that it changes how you live, live your life. Praise God. Now he begins to use this example of Abraham’s two sons and his two wives as an example of the law in grace in verse 22 to verse 31. And he says, it is written, “Abraham had two sons, one by a slave girl, the other by free woman.” This is Galatians 4:22. But he who was of the bond woman, right, was born after the flesh Ishmael, but he was of the free woman, was by promise, Isaac. So do you want, do you want slavery? Do you want freedom? He’s comparing the long grace. Well, I want-that’s easy, isn’t it?
Yeah. and he’s also comparing the law keeping to being born according to the flesh.
Right?
Which is people sometimes don’t realize that the flesh, often when Paul talks about the flesh, it’s often talking not about just, want and carnal,
Right?
Craziness. Oftentimes when he is talking about the flesh, it’s talking about law keeping, trying to reach God through your own.
Legalism is carnal. And a lot of people don’t realize that, but it’s very carnal to trust it because-
Folks, it’s not of spirit. If it’s not of the spirit, it’s of the flesh,
Right.
And so,
And to be spiritually minded as life in peace, but to be carnally minded as death, to try to reach God through your own performance is death.
And your quote in Romans chapter eight, and Paul makes a statement, we’ll stay right here in Galatians 4, but in Romans 8, Paul makes this statement, and this fits so well in what you’re talking about in verse eight. He says, verse seven, he says this, you just quoted verse six, “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Because the carnal mind in verse seven is an enemy of God. It’s not subject to the law of God. “Neither indeed can be so they who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
This is talking about law keeping. So a lot of people interpret it as carnal, like sinning, just, just.
Right. Worldly flesh.
Worldly flesh. But really.
It’s talking about religious flesh.
Yeah, it’s enemy with God.
Make you an enemy of God to think that you can be justified by your performance. Apart from Jesus.
Apart from Jesus.
It’s not how much you pray, it’s not how much you give, it’s not how much you read your Bible. It’s not how much you go to church, it’s who you believe. And those things aren’t bad, you know, when you come to but if you think, well, I’m not gonna receive from God cuz I haven’t read my Bible today, that’s being carnal minded.
Amen.
When you come to God, it’s all about if you’re, believing God for something, maybe praying for healing, praying, you know, for, you know, a child to, to come back to God. If you base it upon yourself, well, I gave today or I read my Bible today, or I did this, you know, I served at church this week, then that’s why you owe me, God. That’s enemy.
Yeah, it makes you enemy of God. Yes.
It’s being carnal minded.
And that will hinder you receiving from God. And that’s what Paul moves into here and really talks about in Galatians 5. But, he’s using all these examples and he says, “Being under the law’s like being a slave, being under grace is like being free.” He’s like being under the laws like the flesh, being under the grace is like the spirit, he compares the flesh and the spirit. He says “These things are an allegory, a type of two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, the law, which leads to bondage,” which is Hagar, this slave girl. You know, Hagar was never God’s idea. It was Abraham and Sarah trying to help God out. And there are a lot of people that once they get saved, they try to perform and help God out. And you know what, Jesus doesn’t need any help. You just need to believe and give up believe. And so he says “That leads to bondage for Hagar as Mount Sinai and Arabia and answers to Jerusalem, which now is in bondage with their children. But Jerusalem, which is above, is free and is the mother of us all. For it and it’s written rejoice you barren that bears not break forth and cry. You that prevail not for the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband. Now we brethren as Isaac was our children of the promise.” Man, thank God the promises come by grace and we’re children of promise. This is marvelous. So he says, “Being under the laws like being a slave, being under grace is like being free, being into laws like genders to the flesh.” He says “Being under grace is like by the spirit, being under the law like legalism, law, or promise.” You want the promises, you gotta get ’em by grace. He says “Slavery or freedom, persecution or dominion.” And this is a great example as we go on down here. He says “Jerusalem,” in verse 26, “is above which is free. That’s where Jesus died and was raised again.” And he says, “Which is the mother of us all, for its written, rejoice in”- so dominion, right? Or- bondage. We’ve got dominion, we’ve got dominion we’ve got authority because of grace. And he says “It’s written rejoice you that bear not break forth and cry.” He’s talking about Sarah, “That travail not for the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband. Brethren we are as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” Man, thank God we get it by grace. Whatever we get, we get the promises by grace. “But then he who was born after the flesh,” and this is so typical of legalism, “persecuted him who was born after the spirit. Even so it is now persecution or acceptance.” Man. When you understand grace, you’ll begin to accept people. You’ll begin to be more gracious when you understand grace. But legalistic people persecute other people because it’s always focused on performance. Nevertheless, what does the Bible say? What does the scripture say? “Throw out the slave girl,” and, you know, “because she will not be heir with the free woman.” and get out of that performance mentality. Quit trusting yourself. “So brethren, we’re not children of the slave girl, but of the free.” We’re gonna take a short break, we’ll be back right after this and we’ll talk about what it means to be fallen from grace. What a statement. A lot of people have the wrong image. We’ll be right back after this. You don’t wanna miss it.
Friends, I wanna tell you about our grace package. I received A Revelation of Grace in Andrew Womack’s ministry in 1994 after I’d been pastoring for six years. It revolutionized my life and it’s helped me in so many different ways. I actually have been called to preach and filled with the Holy Spirit in Andrew’s ministry 16 years prior to that. But when I received A Revelation of Grace, it changed me. We’ve also included a great teaching from my son Aaron Perdue on The Abundance of Grace, a single CD on entangled, a great message on grace from Aaron and my series on Galatians, the Grace of Christ. You don’t want to miss this teaching. Just like it’s revolutionized my life, it will revolutionize yours. You can share this with your friends. If you don’t want to call in and get this, you can actually listen to these free on our website at carischristiancenter.com. We want to get the word to you. Blessings. In Galatians 5, the first four verses, he says, “Stand fast therefore, in the freedom, where with Christ is made us free and don’t be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” One translation said it is freedom to set us free. Another one says, Christ set us free to live the free life. You know, the free life is the grace life. I’ve got a new teaching, we’re not gonna teach it in this series. We’ve been going four weeks talking about grace, but I’ll be teaching it sometime here in the future, not too far away on the grace life. And you know what? The grace life is a free life. Amen. I’m free to live, love and serve Jesus. Praise God. I’m free to give, I’m free to for forgive because of Jesus.
I love that word entangled. You know, I, I preached a message once that’s great called entangled. And you know, the religious law keepers tried to entangle Jesus a few times. You know, they once tried to entangle him by presenting, you know, asking him a question, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? And they were trying to entangle him because if he said, “Yes, you have to pay taxes to Caesar,” then all the Jews would’ve been mad because they didn’t want to be under Caesar’s rule.
That is a great message on entangled. And if you wanna get that today, you know, we’ll send it to you absolutely free of charge. If you’re here in the continental United States on CD, we’ll send this just single message on a CD to you free of charge. If you’ll just give us a donation to help us with the cost of the shipping. Praise God
But so they try to entangle him there. They also try to entangle him with that woman caught in adultery. And they brought that woman caught in adultery. This is John eight before him tried to entangle him.
Amen.
And said, you know, the law says to stoner, what do you say? But really Jesus like Paul, Paul knew the law better than most people living in Jerusalem. Jesus knew the law better than than those, you know, religious people bring this woman caught in adultery to him. And he actually, the law actually points to Jesus the law. There is, there is provision, there is prophecies of grace in the law. And right in the middle of the law, it actually points to this instant in John 8 where
Amen.
Where she’s ultimately set free.
And so Paul goes on to say here in verse two, “I Paul say to you, if you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing,” man. If you are trusting your performance for salvation, for the blessing of God, for the promise of God to receive from God, you know what? It’s gonna bring you under the curse. He says, Christ will profit you nothing. It’s not gonna profit you. Christ has become, He says, “For I testify to every man who circumcised, if you’re trusting the law to be justified before God, to receive a blessing from God, he is a debtor to the whole law.” And he says in verse four, “Christ is become of no effect to you. Whoever you are justified by the law, you are falling from grace.” What does that term falling from Grace mean? Well, it means this. It means you’re gonna miss out on the blessings of God. I don’t think it’s talking about losing your salvation, but you’re gonna miss out on the benefits of salvation. You know, David said in Psalm 103, “bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me, bless the Lord.” And he says, “And forget not all of his benefits.” There are benefits to salvation. Who forgives all of your sin. Who heals all of your disease, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercy, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles.” Praise God. There’s so many benefits to end the gospel. There’s so many benefits to salvation. You know, I grew up in a religious church. I grew up in a legalistic church, very legalistic. I mean, you couldn’t do anything there and not sin. And it’s kinda like I was in the Pentecostal church for a while, and the only thing you can do in the Pentecostal Church is, you know, and not sin is eat. And so that’s why there’s so many of us that are a little on the heavy side, but we need to understand that praise God, we got a good God, gospel, praise God. And there are benefits that come from just believing Jesus. Praise God, salvation, healing. Amen. The baptism, the Holy Spirit, you know, all the promises of God, you know, promises for prosperity, promises for peace, promises for blessing. They this inheritance that we’ve received in Jesus, it’s all because of the grace of God. It’s marvelous gospel. It’s marvelous what Jesus has already done for us. And you know what? We don’t have to do anything to deserve it. We just believe it. Praise God. So when you believe Jesus, that changes everything. Amen. Hallelujah. And so that’s what Paul’s talking about. And he says in Galatians 5:5, “We through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness, which is by faith.” Verse six, he says, “For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision, avails anything nor uncircumcision.” It’s not law keeping, it’s not what we’ve done, it’s what he’s done. But he says, faith, which works by love. You know what faith works when you understand the grace of God. You know, I’ve had people who came outta word of faith churches, and I love the word of faith. I consider myself to be a preacher of the word of faith because Paul said it’s the word of faith that we preach in Romans 10. And so if Paul preached the word of faith, I believe it’s okay for us to preach the word of faith, but we also preach the grace of God. But I had a man, he’d been in word of faith church for years. And I mean, he received from God. He’s a good man. But he said, there’s something about you, you pastor, he came to church for about six weeks now he’s been here for lots of years. But he said, it’s completely different than anything I ever understood before you preach faith like nobody I’ve ever heard. He said, what is it? And I said, it’s because I mix it with grace. Because grace is the power of God. Grace is what Jesus has done. And so many people, they don’t realize what Jesus has done. They make it about your-
Works. Well, what I’ve, what I’ve realized too about really great faith preachers, and we have some really great faith preachers that come here on a regular basis. Mark Hankins being one, Jesse Duplantis. They are great faith preachers. They’re generals of faith preaching. But, and they really emphasize faith when they preach. But I know, I know just getting to know them on a personal level through my dad, they really are not legalistic people. They really understand God’s grace, God’s love for them. That’s why their faith really works so well. It’s because they have a strong love relationship with God. And they know that’s what it’s about. It’s not about their performance.
You know, I was in Dr. Summer and we had, this person came, I won’t tell you he was, but he preached a terrible message when I was at camp meeting one night and Jesse Delanes came, or one morning, and Jesse came the that night and preached on first John chapter 4:18, “The perfect love cast out all fear.” And there was like 3,000 people there. I stood up in the back and I said, amen. And Jesse pointed at me. I was way back, but 3000 people said, that guy knows what I’m talking about. And you know, I, I knew that night Jesse hears from the Holy Spirit and he has a revelation of grace. Mark Hains is a strong faith preacher, but he has a revelation of righteousness.
Big time.
And you know what? Righteousness comes by faith, righteousness comes by grace. And thank God, you know, both of them, they, they’ve received tremendous blessing. I believe Andrew Womack is a great faith preacher.
Yeah, big time. But you know what? He’s a great grace preacher. And when it says here “In Jesus Christ, neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything but faith that works by love,” I like to say that faith comes alive in the presence of God. When you understand the grace of God, you’re not gonna have a faith problem. It causes your faith to work because you know it’s not about you, it’s about Jesus. Aaron pray for the people real quick.
Yeah. Thank you God so much for everyone who’s watching this broadcast right now. Lord, I just think that you are with them. Your word is quick, it’s powerful. It’s sharper than any two edged sword, Lord. So I just thank you that this word that has gone forth, it is taking root in people’s hearts and it is producing a harvest.
Amen. If you need prayer, if you need to become a partner, give us a call. We would love to hear from you. God bless you.
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