236 - FALLEN FROM GRACESeptember 17 1961
Henry F. Kulp
Galatians 5: 1 - 5 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the 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. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Paul has just finished using history to show the folly of trying to be under law. That you must be saved by grace.
1/ The thought of the first six verses is summed up in the end of the 4th verse—ye are fallen from grace. What does this mean? There are men who say it means you have fallen deep in sin, and therefore, you have lost your salvation. And then there are many who say you can’t fall from grace, but, of course, you can—the Scripture very clearly tells you that you can fall from grace, for remember, Paul was talking to believers.
Notice, Galatians 4: 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
And so then, brethren. He calls them brethren. They were saved all right, but they had fallen from grace. So it is a believer who falls from grace.
2/ First of all, It is necessary for us to understand our salvation. We cannot lose it. If one has eternal life, he has eternal life. If he had conditional life, he does not have eternal life.
3/ Secondly, it is necessary for us to see that salvation does not change a man. God gives him a new life alongside of the old life—the old man. God does not improve the old nature. He gives us a brand new nature.
4/ Then, thirdly, salvation is not accomplished by adding to what man already has until it meets God’s standard. For example, suppose a man is 10% good, as some people think—then they believe that God has to supply the other 90%. Or if a man is 50% good, God supplies the other 50%. Or if he is 70% good, God supplies the other 30%. To be saved, a man who has 10% good merit or righteousness has to abandon his 10% and receive 100% from God. If a man is 50% good, or 50% merit—he must turn his back on that 50% and receive 100% from God. If a man is 70% good, he must cast aside that 70% and receive 100% from God.
Salvation is not by the work of man, Ephesians 2: 8, 9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
5/ Another error to avoid is that when we are saved, when we believe in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven from the time we are born until the time we are saved, and after that moment we face our sins—so many people tell me that. For example, a young man, 20 years old receives the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and some say his sin is forgiven from birth to that moment at 20 years of age when he is saved, that is not true. Our sins, past, present and the future sins are all forgiven, for when Christ died, how many of our sins were forgiven? None. And when He died for our sins, He died for all of them.
6/ Notice, Ephesians 1: 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
We have been made accepted in the beloved. We are acceptable to God in Jesus Christ and in no other way or in any other place. Not the beloved one and ourselves, but we are made acceptable only in the beloved one, only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then notice, Colossians 2: 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
And ye are complete, where? In Him—in Christ and ourselves? No, only in Christ.
7/ What does it mean to fall from grace? The phrase fallen from grace, occurs only here and nowhere else in Scripture. Remember, we said it is believers who fall from grace, not the unsaved, because they have never been in grace to start with. The word, fallen, in the original means literally, HAVE BEEN DRIVEN OUT OF ONE’S COURSE. It is a word used of sailors who have been driven out of their normal course, their normal lane. Let’s notice where this word is used elsewhere in the Bible.
Acts 27: 17 Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven.
Luke, here, tells us the account of a ship wreck, and he says, lest they should fall into quick-sand and strike sail—that means lower the sails.
8/ Acts 27: 29 Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day.
From this we can very clearly see that the meaning of the expression “fallen from grace”—means that these Galatian believers had been driven off course, away from the grace of God, and Paul was greatly distressed by their conduct. It did not mean they had lost their salvation, but it meant they had lost the blessing now that they were saved as they had fallen from grace and were trying to keep themselves saved by their own
activity. Notice the context of this Scripture. Paul was not writing about people sinning, he was writing about people having wrong doctrine. People going away from the grace of God over to the law camp. So, falling from grace is not falling into sin—it is falling into doctrinal error. You do not fall from grace by getting drunk—you fall from grace by saying baptism is needed for salvation, you fall from grace by saying you have to keep the Sabbath, you have to do this, and you have to do that.
9/ Have you ever noticed someone who was saved by grace, and suddenly they have been misled by some of the law-keepers. They are already saved, but they are not too well grounded in the Word of God. An evil sect gets hold of them and says, now you better come over and keep the Sabbath, you better be sure you are baptized for salvation, you better be sure you live a certain life—stop doing this, and stop doing that, and stop doing the other thing. And that poor believer becomes so bewildered, that poor believer loses all the blessing that he had in Christ Jesus, because no longer is he in freedom as we had in Galatians 5: 1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
You notice, he doesn’t tell us to work in this freedom, for this freedom, but to stand fast in it.
10/ Verse 2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
You will notice, that circumcision has been put forth here and it stands for all human efforts, baptism, Sabbath-keeping, all human efforts you might have. It will cause you to fall from grace, not fall into sin.
11/ Let us look at some Old Testament characters and see if when they fell into sin they fell from grace. Take, for instance Lot. Was Lot a saved man? Oh yes, he was a saved man. Did you ever sin after you were saved? Yes, I sinned terribly after I was saved.
II Peter 2: 7, 8 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
Here Peter tells us that Lot vexed his righteous soul—notice, his righteous soul, by the way he lived. But did he lose his salvation? He most certainly did not. You could say to Lot—Lot, did you lose your salvation when you fell into sin? No, I fell into grace, because I was still a righteous man, with a righteous soul, but what an awful spanking I received from the Lord. My wife turned into a pillar of salt. My sons-in-law dead, and my daughters debauched.
Genesis 19: 30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
We find that in the end Lot lived in a cave. How differently he lived from the way he lived as the mayor of Sodom. But yet, Lot, when he fell into sin, did not fall from grace.
12/ Let’s take Abraham, and say, Abraham were you saved? And he says, Yes. I was saved by believing the promise God gave me. He told me that. Did you sin after you were saved? Oh, yes, he hangs his head and says, Yes, I did. I taught my wife, Sarah, to lie, to say that she was my sister. I was willing to have her ruined to save my skin, but when this happened, Abraham did you lose your salvation? Did you fall from grace? No, praise God, I did not, I was chastened of the Lord, but I didn’t fall from grace.
13/ Then take Moses. Moses, you are saved? Oh yes, did you sin after you were saved? Yes, I did, I killed an Egyptian, I struck the rock a second time, and God told me not to do it. Did you fall from grace? No, I fell into grace. The Lord spanked me, the Lord had me die prematurely while I was still strong physically. My eyes were not dim, and I wasn’t decrypted in any way, but God did not allow me to lead the children of Israel into the Canaan land, but I did not fall from grace when I fell into sin.
14/ Then we come to David. David was saved, oh yes. Did you ever sin after you were saved? Oh yes, I committed adultery, I had a husband killed. Well, when that happened did you fall from grace? No, I didn’t, not at all. I took an awful beating from the Lord. I paid an awful price in my family, in my loved ones, but actually, I fell into grace.
Psalm 23: 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Notice, at the end of David’s life, he could walk into the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil, for the Lord was still with him. David, falling into sin, had not fallen from grace.
15/ Then take Peter. Peter are you saved? Absolutely. I know Jesus Christ as my redeemer. Well, did you ever sin after you were saved? Yes, I denied my Lord. I cursed and I swore. Did you fall from grace when you sinned? No, the Lord still gave me the keys to the Kingdom, and told to feed my sheep, feed my lambs. Oh yes, this happens, believers do sin. But when they fall into sin, they praise God, they do not fall from grace. It is true they are chastened of the Lord. They receive chastisement from the Lord, but yet they are still in grace.
16/ But I do not want to give you comfort in your sins, Christian friend, because you have been saved by grace, I want you to notice what God says should happen to you, Galatians 5: 6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
And notice what Paul says, but faith worketh by love. Faith should be working faith, and then notice, it is to work by love. Not by law, but by love.
17/ Then we go back and notice the 5th verse—For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Notice, the hope of righteousness by faith. Notice, everything is through the Spirit. Everything for the believer is through the Spirit. Everything for the believer is through the Spirit—the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us, and God works His work in us by the Holy Spirit. So instead of human efforts, instead of trying to do something to earn Divine favor, we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit of God that He might work in our lives, and do His work in us. Notice, when He says, we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. What is the hope of righteousness? It is the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ, our gathering together unto Him. We are now made the righteousness of God in Christ, yet everyday we mourn over our failures, we do not rise to the heights we desire. Every night we have to kneel before God and confess our sins, and we are looking forward to that glad time, that wonderful time when Jesus Christ will appear in the Heavens, catch us up to be with Him, and we shall be like Him and then this righteousness that is our gift, will become a reality in our every experience.
18/ Faith working by love is not legality. Let’s remember that very clearly. A physician came into the room where a preacher was visiting with a family and a dear child who was ill. This child was the apple of its mother’s eye. The doctor said, Now Mrs. So-and- so there is one thing I would like to suggest. Because, of the condition your little baby, I would not let anyone else take care of her. She is in a very nervous state, and she is very much afraid of others at this point. I am sure the best thing you can do is you wait on her hand and foot, and not have a nurse. You take care of her until the sickness is over. Do you think that mother found that a hard law to obey? I am sure not. Her mother-heart led her to respond at once—Yes, Doctor, I’ll see that no else looks after my baby—I will do all I can for her. Was that legality? No, this is faith working by love.
19/ These Galatians had lost that working by love. They had become harsh and critical like the Judazing teachers that had come into their midst.
I Peter 4: 8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
Peter tells us that love shall cover a multitude of sins. The key here, is the word, cover. It means to hide. So Peter says, have intense love among you, opposite of critical, uncharitable, judging attitude. Remember Shem and Japheth? How they came upon their father, Noah, in a drunken, shameful condition? He was exposed. They could have awakened him, and criticized him and told him how terrible he was, and what an awful thing he had done, and how he had been a disgrace. No, they didn’t do that—instead, they spread a garment over their shoulders and going backward tossed it over his uncovered, unconscious body. Not even allowing themselves to look upon their father. They didn’t look upon his sin, and so when faith that is in our lives causes us to work by love, we are charitable. We try to help others, rather then be critical. We preach the grace gospel—not the uncharitable, harsh, critical judging attitude of the day. Those who live by the grace gospel should be gracious. They should live by grace, realizing everything they have from God is for nothing, and they should deal with others in this same wonderful glorious attitude.
AMEN
Ref: 09/17/1961 / 235 - FALLEN FROM GRACE / 04/06/2021
No comments:
Post a Comment