The Principle of Replacement

Praise the Lord. It's good to be back. This is our fifth Sunday here. I feel like getting into a little bit of a routine.

I think I can say this morning that I've been initiated.! I want to say I've become a Barshan, but not so much that. I've become a Highland Parkian, maybe. Let me ask you, we'll make this short and brief, just raise your hand about halfway. I had my initiation this morning.

How many of you have ever been in the restroom and the light went off? You know what I mean. Okay, so I'm a part of you.

Galatians chapter 5. We're in the fifth chapter. And Evelyn has been kind enough to put on the back of your outline, and there is an outline in your program.

If you don't have a program this morning, raise your hand because I want to make sure everyone has an outline. Ushers could get you a program. So anybody need a program, raise your hand and we'll get one to you.

On the back of the outline, it gives the principle for each chapter that we've been going through. And today we come to the principle of replacement. I don't want to say that this is the climax of the book because obviously there is another chapter, but this really is the other side of the coin of what we earlier saw as the principle of identification, that we are to be identified with Christ.

And this whole idea of identification, baptism, circumcision, the law and grace, they all tie together.

There's a lot of repetition. Hopefully you're not thinking that I'm being repetitious, but it's just all woven through the chapter. Obviously the challenge there is primarily the Jewish people that had become believers there in the Galatia area, the churches of Galatia.

Paul is writing them that they were doing pretty good with their new faith in Christ, but then they started sliding backwards into the rituals.

And it is so convenient. It's something that's familiar. It's something that's concrete. It's something that you did as a youngster and as a teenager and as a young adult.

You've done it for 10, 20, 30 years. Your parents did it. It is so comfortable to get into those kinds of ruts.

And so they began to slide back because the rituals, you know, they're coming around different seasons. You would have the different rituals. And God had intended all of those as teaching points.

And they were teaching pointing toward Jesus. And here the Jewish believers had embraced Christ, and yet they were being pulled back by the things that were supposed to move them forward to Christ.

And so Paul is writing them in the challenge of the grace, the love, the mercy of God through his son, Jesus Christ.

And the crucifixion and the resurrection, the atonement, the taking care of our sin. And so you had that in the grace, but they were moving back to the law.

They were moving back to the rituals, to the legalism, to regulations instead of the relationship of Christ. And primarily the example was circumcision.

Now it is the same circumcision that we know of today, but it's totally different as far as what Paul was talking about. Back then it was all about the covenant and the law and the legalism of the Old Testament.

And he was trying to keep them and move them forward in the New Testament. And so the circumcision was just the most identifiable thing that they were struggling with in that.

And so he challenged them. It's not a circumcision, a physical circumcision. It's a spiritual circumcision, a circumcision of the heart. And it was about identifying with Christ.

And it talked about, you know, being baptized in Christ, the baptism. And I point to the baptistry here. It's all about identification. There is no salvation there.

There's no salvation in that water. It's a picture to identify with Christ. We talked about, you know, who would wear an OU shirt or OSU shirt. And, you know, and there are many that could care less.

But, you know, those that are strongly for one team are not going to wear a shirt for the other team and vice versa. And we could find something for each of us.

You know, some of you are saying, you know, I'm going to drive a Ford. I wouldn't be caught dead in a Chevy and some vice versa. There's, we all have what we identify with.

And we're not going to be seen identifying with something else. That's how strong it is. That's why it should be like that. Identifying with Christ. And so we come to chapter 5 now to where we see, we get a couple of handles on how do you do that.

How do you identify with Christ? There's a replacement. The old with the new. And so we read in Galatians 5.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Just let that soak in for a little bit.

Why are we set free? So we can be free. It's a simple concept. And we struggle with that.

Because of the law. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

The image comes to my mind of what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11. Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy.

My burden is light. What's Jesus saying? Same thing Paul is saying here in this chapter.

We're carrying something. We have this yoke. You know what a yoke is. This collar. This controller.

In some ways it enables. There are positive things to a yoke. It enables you to carry, to pull more.

You know, if we were going to come up here and, you know, start pulling this prayer altar or something. You know, for most of us, we probably wouldn't want to bend over and start carrying that thing.

But if we had a piece of rope or something we could put around our shoulders. Yeah, I can lean. I'll just lean. I'll use this weight that I have accumulated over the years.

I'll put that to good use and let gravity kind of help pull that. Instead of me trying to bend over and lift and maybe hurt my back or something else. And so, yes, there are positive things to a yoke.

It can strengthen you. And it controls. But Jesus said our personal yoke. And, of course, you can say our sin.

Our fallen nature. That is what weighs us down. And so, how do we get rid of the yoke? Well, we normally think, I'll just hook my yoke up to another wagon.

You know, here's a wagon over here, a harness over here, and that looks pretty good. I'll just hook up to that. But we've got the same yoke and the same burden.

Jesus says in Matthew 11, take my yoke. What are we going to have to do to put on the yoke of Jesus?

Jesus. I'm just, you know, using the pictures here. It's simple. We have to take off our current yoke for Jesus to put on his yoke.

Now, you know, don't get too far afield with the illustration. We can't do anything. You know, okay, I'm going to take off my yoke. Well, no, we can't take away our sin.

But we respond. We yield. And so we bend. And Christ takes that yoke off of us. It's not like we go yokeless.

He puts his yoke. And oh, by the way, yes, his yoke strengthens us to where we can carry more. And oh, yes, his yoke is about control.

Pulling us to the left. Pulling us. It's still all about control. But his yoke is light and easy compared to our yoke or the yoke of this earth.

And so that right right right off the back is where I get into this idea of the replacement. How do we identify with Christ? There's a switching of places.

There's an embracing. He lifts. The cold, dead heart is taken out, as Jeremiah said. And a new living heart is put in.

We'll continue in verse 2. Mark my words. I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.

Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ.

You have fallen away from grace. And we'll get in a little more of that in a moment. Verse 5. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.

For in Christ, and again this idea of we sing it, we say it, we're in Christ. What's it mean to be in Christ?

There's identification. There's a replacement. That's what it means to be in Christ. Anytime we see that phrase. For in Christ, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Verse 7. You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?

That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.

Who is the yeast? And you might could make a couple of different interpretations here. But to me, the yeast are these Judaizers.

The others. He gives them several names throughout the book of Galatians and in this chapter as well. But they are the ones that just that little bit of yeast, that little bit of legalism, if we're not careful, will spread through the whole bunch.

Verse 10. I'm confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be.

Brothers, if I'm still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, there's another word he gives them.

I wish. Sometimes we don't understand. Obviously, the culture is a little bit different. But some might call it Hebrew humor or something like that.

Paul will use sarcasm. Here he uses sarcasm to the extreme. These people that want to do circumcision.

Verse 12. I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves. You, my brothers, were called to be free.

But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command.

Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you'll be destroyed by each other.

So I say, live by the Spirit. And you will not gratify the sins of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit.

And the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They're in conflict with each other. So that you do not do what you want. But if you were led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality. Impurity. Debauchery. Idolatry and witchcraft. Hatred.

Discord. Jealousy. Fits of rage. Selfish ambition. Dissensions. Actions. And envy. Drunkenness. Orgies. And the like.

I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love. Joy.

Peace. Patience. Kindness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. And self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified.

Another way of saying, have identified. What does baptism identify us with? Baptism identifies us with the crucifixion. And if you're crucified, you're buried.

And if you're buried, you're resurrected. To walk in newness of life. As we looked through in Romans chapter 6. Against such things there is no law.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Let us not become conceited, provoking, envying each other. Let me pray as I get into the outline.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that your word is living and powerful. Thank you that your word is written over hundreds of years with so many different authors.

And yet there's such a unity of message. Thank you that your word is living and powerful. Thank you that you preserved your word over these many years.

And as dynamic, as relevant, as in the moment as it was that day that a writer wrote these particular words.

These words here, the Apostle Paul. they are as fresh they are as purposeful they are as meant for us as any day Holy Spirit teach us help us to hear and then to do stir our minds to see the clarity and to be obedient and to follow so that we could truly be Christians because Christ is in us because our hearts have been replaced our yoke has been replaced by his yoke and it would make a difference in our lives this week for your honor and for your glory and for your kingdom to come in Christ's name we pray amen the principle of replacement let me mention a couple of things here that are on your outline and you can fill these in and follow along the first thing that I see in this idea of replacement we need to wake up to the waste of outward rituals wake up to the waste of outward rituals we see this in verses 2 through 6 where in verse 2 right at the end he says you know if we're going to embrace circumcision and you know that has nothing to do whether we choose today to have a baby an infant male circumcised has nothing to do with that today to them it was an act of embracing the law it was just the best example that Paul could use of saying you're embracing the law and so as they embrace the law

Paul said Christ has no value for you if you're embracing the law as the pathway the law is a stumbling block along the pathway the law is not the pathway and Paul says several times here in this chapter as he said earlier you can't have you've got to go one way or the other and so we need to wake up to the waste of these outward rituals he even says here not only will Christ be of no value to you and we normally don't pay much attention to that normally the thing that catches our attention is you've fallen from grace that kind of pops off the page and yet what's the difference between saying you've fallen from grace and saying Christ is of no value to you isn't that really the same thing

Christ is no value to you if Christ is no value to you what's where you at you're not in grace you're not a Christian you're not walking with God you're not going to go to heaven if Christ is of no value to you it's the same statement as saying you've fallen from grace but this fallen from grace is the one that gets our attention and I guess the reason it does get attention is because fallen puts a time stamp on it Christ is no value to you there's really not a time stamp on that that's just kind of truth you're not a Christian you're not a Christian this one seems to say you were a Christian and now you're not there's a time stamp on there there's kind of past tense present tense future tense when is this happening and so that catches our attention now wait a minute

I thought if you became a Christian you were always a Christian well that's a common phrase of that but probably a more accurate phrase of that would be the perseverance of the saints that a believer perseveres to the end a believer and of course another way of saying it would be well not another way of identifying it we would say well they must not have been saved in the first place and of course that could be a true statement but we don't necessarily like to make pronouncements upon other people you know they're going to stand before God themselves but the more classical phrase is the Christian will persevere to the end but here Paul is again challenging these people and so one thing he's doing he's just getting it out there and saying listen we're dealing with serious things here you're either on one pathway or the other

Christ is of no value to you if Christ is no value to you obviously you know you're not walking in grace and so you know we could spend you know weeks dealing with that let me just read one little paragraph that I found in Weiss's word studies that I thought was helpful he writes here but because they had lost their hold upon sanctifying grace does not mean that God's grace had lost its hold upon them in the sphere of justification and so using those terms the way the author here is saying is that the justification would be the the birth of salvation and then the sanctification would be the development of salvation and so he would then be saying okay these people in this church they may be believers but they are withdrawing they're drawing back they're not being obedient and of course you know each of us on any day you know their their points were disobedient now whether it's for an hour whether it's for half a day whether it's for all day whether it's for a week you know we don't want to necessarily get to putting our fingers on well this is this kind of sin and this is that kind of sin but so he's talking about in sanctification here this author is that they're not maturing in their faith they're really we well a term has been used backsliding they're drawing back from their faith they're a disobedient child the child is still the child of the parent but they've been sent to their room they're being disciplined he goes on to say justification is a judicial act of God done once for all sanctification is a process which goes on all through the Christian's life just because the process of sanctification is temporarily stunted in a believer's life does not say that his justification is taken away if that were the case then the retention of salvation would depend upon the believer's works and then salvation would not depend upon grace anymore so you're not spending any more time than that to say he's challenging them this is serious this is a serious thing you're doing which path are you truly on there's a battle we're in spiritual warfare

I see basically three options for somebody professing faith in Christ somebody that professes faith in Christ is saved and maturing in Christ they are saved and going through a struggle they were never saved in the first place and ultimately they will bear no fruit and or there will be turning away from God those are kind of the three areas that I could see is somebody that would say yes I'm a Christian they're they are a Christian and they're growing they are a Christian but they're they're not growing for whatever reason no they really aren't a Christian they just said that the effects of the outward rituals and this is part of your outline as well we're still on the first point but just a couple of sub points the effect of outward rituals they eliminate the need for

Christ crucifixion that's the danger that's the wasteful part of these rituals In the beginning the rituals will simply reduce the significance of Christ crucifixion then they will ignore it then ultimately the rituals will eliminate the need for Christ crucifixion we see this in verses 2 and 3 and 4 and 11 another effect of outward rituals they spread deceit in verse 9 he says a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough here as I mentioned he's talking about the people in in Philippians 3 2 he says this about the people watch out for those dogs those men who do evil mutilators of the flesh in Galatians 5 12 here we see as for those agitators in 2

Peter Peter gets in on this 2 Peter 3 17 therefore my dear friends since you already know this be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the heirs of lawless men and fall from your secure position another effect of outward rituals they take away your freedom in verse 13 he says you're called to be free but don't use your freedom to indulge in a sinful nature rather serve one another in love just like that yoke we're going to wear someone's yoke we're going to serve some master let that master be Jesus a d the the third thing about the effects of outward rituals they destroy true love and relationships and we see this in verses 14 and 15 the rituals they are comfortable they it's like hearing an old song

I don't know if I could save radio or iHeart or you know whatever mp3 it's like hearing an old song on xm satellite radio the 60s channel or whatever you know something happens suddenly feelings and emotions and memories maybe even a taste maybe even the weather maybe you know the other day Mary and I were walking in and it just started raining she said smell that rain well I think I don't know that we necessarily were smelling the rain I think we were smelling the asphalt after the rain hits the hot asphalt and all the grime of that but you know what you can smell that rain I've had it happen to me that suddenly all these memories come back maybe when I was a child or teenager or whatever and they're usually good we kind of forget the bad and we remember the good that's what these rituals you know it's just such a comfortable place that we can go to but they will destroy and take us away

Paul said he had more confidence than anyone in Philippians Hebrew of Hebrews more passionate and bold and yet he had left everything for Christ rituals rituals are a waste they're a waste of time a waste of effort and at the end a waste of hope number two the next step in this principle of replacement take an inventory of your heart we see this in verses 17 through 23 starts talking about here are the fruit fruit of the flesh and it goes down the list I won't go down it again and then the fruit of the spirit now we need to understand what's happening this is an inventory the list is for identification purposes this is not a prescriptive list this is a descriptive list and I want you to write those two words down prescriptive descriptive and descriptive because again you know we're just we've got this pile over here and we've got this pile over here of different words phrases illustrations on each side and this side is the pile of the law and everything he said about the law through the book of

Galatians over here is the pile of all the grace things well you put prescription the prescriptive one and you put it over here and you take the descriptive list and you put it over here now why do I say that when you get a prescription from the doctor what's that mean it means you've got something to do so the prescriptive list list is a doing list the descriptive list if we were going to write up a list and say let's write up a list of all the different characteristics of Highland Park Bartosville and we had a descriptive list what would we be saying this is this is who we are this is what we have done not this is what we're going to do this is what we have done and so do you see how that ties right into grace and law the law is about you better be doing these things or you're going to be in trouble descriptive list is this is what's coming out of you this is what's happening this is who you are in

Christ Christ changes your heart now you may be doing some of the same things but it's not a prescriptive list that you have to do it is a list of love and joy and peace and patience and self control that is just oozing out of you because the Holy Spirit is alive in you and you have yielded yourself to Christ that is the replacement and so you need to take an inventory you may be doing these activities and you could say okay one's kind of the good list and one's the bad list but they're both descriptive lists it's not one list is prescriptive and one is descriptive no they both are descriptive the bad list are the things that the person that is allowing badness in their heart however you want to describe that and it can happen to a believer you're allowing the bad things to come out and you're doing the bad things the good list is again descriptive of the believer that is allowing the Holy

Spirit to live and flow through his life and so if you're going to replace you need to take an inventory take this list right here and see which which of these activities are happening and then are they happening because I'm really really man I am really really really working hard to be patient I'm really working hard to be nice I'm really working hard to not be judgmental you know why I sometimes I have to work at that I mean I'll catch myself matter of fact just this morning thinking man you know there's that thought okay I'm going to have to really work and not let that thought come out in some kind of phrase but then I said Lord and I Lord I know you don't want me to say that phrase because that phrase is going to tear down instead of build up and I'm going to really hopefully I won't say that phrase and you'll be pleased with that but

God I don't even want to have the thought I don't want to even have to wrestle with the thought and so there's something I want to you know I'm praying about the mouth and I want to take that deeper and pray about the heart where's that thought coming from that I'm even having to wrestle and so take an inventory of your heart and then number three replace your effort with God's power verses 16 18 24 and 25 he says so I say live by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature it's almost like you just do it well there's more to it than that but he tells us it's about living in the spirit it's about choices it's about what you're identifying with

I'm not going to be identifying with the law I'm going to be identifying with Christ and grace and so there's a replacement here some have described it as your position versus your experience follow me closely here because it's it's really the heart of the principle of replacement who you really are what God has specifically designed you as is not what you always are or what you always fulfill your position is based in the mind of God reality what is reality reality is in the mind of God who he says that you are and who he intends you to be that's reality your experience my experience it's based in our own mind it's an illusion it's what you settle for it's what

I settle for! If I'm not careful and so we need to understand the principle of replacement that we have got to take those thoughts that we have those voices that we hear some of them may be the voice of our mother our father some of them may be the you know the bully down the street some of them may have been the the popular girl at school some of them you know where they came from some of them are our own voice they have our own accent sounds like ourselves talking to ourselves that are telling us no and bad and ugly and all those other things and we're wrestling with that i'll tell you what the voice the voice is the voice of satan it's the deception it's the lie and it can be the ugly lie of obviously you know what we normally think of sinful thoughts and behavior or it can be this dressed up lie of do good things and god will love you do good things and god will love you that sounds pretty good doesn't it you go downtown and you start telling some friends you know what i think we need to pass a new resolution we need to do good things so god will love us you might get that on a unanimous vote that sounds so great and it says untrue and it's as dangerous as all of those evil nasty dirty ugly thoughts that we could have in our mind because it's going to take us down that pathway of legalism and the law and that we can earn our own salvation we can earn the favor of god and so this idea of replacing you can use the word exchange you can use the word appropriate you can use the word reckon we talked about a couple weeks ago allocating let me just very i'll just list three examples you see in the bible jesus jesus jesus did this in matthew chapter 26 when he said not my will but your will be done john the baptist did it in john john 3 30 when it was recorded that he said he must become greater i must become less and then paul did it when he said in philippians 121 for me to live is christ and to die is gain each of those were replacing the challenge is for you individually and even corporately to break out of any kind of cycle of guilt any kind of cycle of sin any kind of rut of apathy and choose right now whether you want to say as verse 16 says to live by or verse 18 to be led by or verse 25 to be in step with the spirit of the living

loving powerful god of this universe move forward with god and