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.

	Over the course of the past months, there has been a difficulty in my life that has caused a tremendous amount of anguish in my spiritual development. It is a matter that has affected not only myself and my relationship with the Lord, but my dealings with others including my wife, children and many people that I love. It was with serious consideration of the developing void in my spiritual being that I acquiesced to go before the Lord for the sake of the fellowship this evening, and for my fellowship with Him.
	You see, part of the difficulty that I was experiencing, was my stubbornness to go to the Lord. I was not being steadfast in my relationship with Him. He has taken our marriage through the buffets and rocks of emotional and physical upheaval in order to show that a steadfast clinging to the Lord is necessary for the very survival of our and of any marriage relationship. He has taken my relationship as a father through extremely difficult, even treacherous pathways of frustration and sheer life support in order to further deepen a continued reliance upon Him to provide everything necessary for that relationship to continue and to develop.
	These are but a couple of examples of the earthly dependencies that He has so faithfully been working to develop. This is not to say that they are complete, because they constantly require a steady ongoing in Him, with each other, to come into the fruition of Christ. This is one of the truths of this evening's passage and consideration. Our lives are to be characterized by a steady, on-going, relationship with the Lord that will bring forth the evidence of the abiding in Christ that we have been so blessedly considering in the past few weeks. The difficult aspect is that this was not true in my life.
	I had not, and I do pray with all my heart, that this is a past tense confession, but I had not been faithful to the Lord in steadfastly seeking after Him to develop my relationship in Christ. I was in bondage to the things of this world, a bondage which I had permitted to pre-empt my spiritual increase and desire after Christ. 
	It was not what some denominations decry as being backsliden, as if that were possible. This void in my life was far worse. It was a deadening denial of the full focus of my attention to the Lord. It was a refusal on my part to acknowledge the rightful place of God in my life. It was a sickening morass of priorities which I had put askew in order that I could have my way and seek after my desires, rather than His way and His desires.
	It was a denial of the liberty of Christ living His life in me. It was a prison of self-righteousness, self-desires, self-goals and self-will placed before God's will in my heart. And, glory be to God, I was brought face-to-face with the bondage of this horrible prison of self, in having to seek after Him for what He would desire to bring forth this evening.
	He had to work to break asunder that prison cell of self, in order to cause the desire to share the liberty of Christ triumphant this evening. He could not permit the slavery of self-will to dominate the true and earnest desires expressed in one of His to abide in Him. 
	Such is the prologue for this evening, the confession of one who is learning but some of the many aspects of the primary truths of this Galatian text. With this, let us together search our hearts before the Lord as to the opening statement in the Authorized Version of this passage.
	Stand fast... This is a command delivered by the Apostle Paul to all those who are in Christ Jesus. It implies an active participation on the part of believers to make a conscious effort to remain steadfastly focused on the liberty of Christ Jesus and not to allow ourselves to become entangled in the things other than Christ.
	This is a direct response to the question that is so often asked by Christians when they are facing dilemmas and trials in this realm. It was what the Christians at Galatia were facing under the pressures of the Judiazers, those individuals who were urging them to take the yoke of the law upon themselves, rather than to rely on Christ for their salvation. These young Christians were facing a difficult time as to what was right for them to do. They were being counseled to do something that would take them away from an utter reliance upon Christ, and Paul sent forth this admonition, not in soft terms that would plead, but in forcefulness to demand that they not turn from the liberty of the Lord Jesus Christ, and thus find themselves entangled in the affairs of a world system that would but imprison their spiritual development. He commanded them, and us, to stand fast, to be steadfast in the Lord. 
	So often in these days, we are involved in trials and tribulations, and we tell ourselves that we have to do something. We can't just stand around and do nothing about this problem or that situation. There is a saying that is so wrongfully attributed to the Bible, when it fact it was coined by Benjamin Franklin, and just sounds scriptural. It is the axiom that "God helps those who help themselves." If one has studied Benjamin Franklin's life, one would recognize a life that was in antithesis to the things of God. 
	Even as Christians, we continually bemoan the idea that there must be something that we can do when we are in dire straits, or are watching a loved one being dealt with in a severe manner. There is something we can do! We are to stand fast in Christ. We are to hold onto Him with all our heart and soul and being in order not to let the affairs and the circumstances and the solutions and the counsel of this defiled realm remove us from the Liberty that is ours in Christ. Some have labeled this standing fast in the Lord a spiritual warfare, and it is no less than that truth. To remain steadfast, to stand fast in the Lord while all the psychological refuse of this realm is flung at us from every angle and avenue; to remain utterly reliant upon the Lord while all around us the world is trying to undercut our foundational belief on Christ Jesus and His Sovereign reign over creation; to determine in our hearts not to give one inch of our ground in Christ, even while our very loved ones are attacking the basis of our Christian relationship, that is doing something, a tremendous thing, a powerful thing.
	Please remember that our Lord forewarned us of the fact that the world would attack our steadfast standing in Him. In John 16:33 He told His disciples, and us, that we will be the recipients of the tribulations of this world. He left no doubt as to the fact that we will receive this world's avarice, but He also told us to be of good cheer. We are to take courage, as worded in other translations, because Christ has overcome the world.
	This is the truth that makes it possible for us to stand fast in the Lord, despite our human weakness and frailty and wavering of emotions and spirit, because He has overcome the world. Despite all the name-calling, and abusive attitudes and demands of this realm, we are to remain focused on the One in Whom we already have the complete victory. To do anything less, is to deny the Lord's triumphant ascendancy over all the powers of this realm at Calvary. Timothy was encouraged to this truth by the Apostle Paul in II Tim. 1:8 and I Tim. 6:12 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;...Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 
	Yes, it is a battle to stand fast in the Lord, but it is a triumphal stand in the fact that He reigns, and we must never let anyone, or any circumstance, or any dilemma cause us to deny His dominion in our lives, and in the entirety of all creation.
	This call of the Apostle Paul to the Galatian Christians to stand fast in the Lord was not a new message. From the days of Israel, the Children of God have been exhorted to remain firmly rooted in their knowledge and relationship with God. Joshua, in dealing with the people of Israel gave the command recorded in Joshua 23:7+8, That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them: But cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done unto this day.  
	Throughout the history of God's people, there have been the urgent warnings not to depart from Him. He knew the heart of man, and the self-seeking that would destroy man's relationship with God. The Scriptures are filled with the accounts of how man has denied the very God of salvation in order to seek after self-interests, evidenced in the longing after what the world contained. Rather than being satisfied with the displayed goodness of God, man has sought after the tawdry delights of this realm's fleeting enticements.
	Samuel also had to deal with the same self-seeking heart of the people in I Samuel, Chapter 12 ...yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart; And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain (12:20-21).
	To serve the Lord with all our heart is indicative of standing fast in Him and not by seeking after worldly ways and worldly counsel to settle the issues of our lives, neither in allowing ourselves to be distracted from Him by the allurements of this realm. This then, brings back the prologue of this evenings consideration. There are those elements of this earth that can cause us not to stand firmly in the Lord, that are made especially attractive to Christians. Things such as monetary desires and fears; social status; priorities of work and play; even family matters that are placed above our relationship with God. When we allow other things, even such good concerns as family, to take first priority in our lives, over God, then we are unable to come before Him and claim that we are standing fast in Him. We have put something else in His place in our lives, and are robbing God of His priority in our hearts. We can't expect God to condone our stand of self-servitude, that ultimately denies the vital Victory of Christ, even within our family situations. Mask it any way one chooses, it is a blasphemous matter of questioning God's Omnipotent Being to deal with our situations, with our lives. When we place ourselves, anything, before God in our lives, we are stating point blank, that we are able to handle the situation and God isn't. We are telling Him that we don't want Him to rule, because we know better than He does how the situation should be resolved. We are choosing to put our trust and our faith in our abilities, in our finances, in our fame, in our methods rather than in Him. And, the scripture is also filled with intense examples of what that self-made godhood of man has accomplished on this earth; destruction, decay, and utter devastation, PERIOD. 
	Most times, this disintegration is far worse than merely the loss of physical possessions, it is the deadening of our spiritual relationship with God. I am in no wise stating it as a loss of our salvation. Once we are have accepted Christ as our personal Savior, no one and nothing can change the fact that we are covered by His atoning work. What I am referring to is the loss of our conscious awareness of our oneness in Him; the daily basis of our lives being lived unto Him, and the joy, and the peace and the right-standing before God that is evidenced in that relationship. This is what needs to be safeguarded continuously in our hearts. We must never allow ourselves to be distracted from a desire after the fullness of Christ living His life in us. We must not be distracted even by the worthiest of this world's enticements to inadvertently entitle someone or something else to the place that Christ warrants in our beings.
	The next aspect of this consideration is to reflect on what is essential to our guarded stand of Christ's position of highest honor in our lives.
	To stand fast requires, initially, an unflagging vigilance over our hearts, to be kept pure before Him in our motives, in our desires and in our attitudes. Individually, these are areas that demand the utmost alertness on our part, to remain staid in Him. Consider briefly, the appearances of our motives. To look honestly at the reasons that we are involved in certain activities is to see our self-lives fighting for an area of recognition. We take upon ourselves the worthiest of causes in an outward effort to make a difference, and when placed under the light of Christ, we see that the difference we are seeking is completely self-serving. While helping others, we are trying to bolster our standing in the eyes of the world and in our own self-esteem. While working to right a wrong, we are promoting our energies above the efforts of other people, giving forth the appearance of our abilities and of our insights, rather than relying on the Lord. We can do so much harm in our efforts to do so much good, because we refuse to face the real motives behind our actions. I am not saying that Christians are not to do what is right in the world. That is not the issue at this point, and please realize that there are many things that we are called to do in order to serve the Lord in easing the suffering and anguish of the people of this orb. The issue, however, is what the motive behind our efforts entail. If we are doing a work because God has called us to that work, then serve Him with all our hearts and beings and efforts. But, if we are trying to do a good work in spite of the leading of the Lord, then we are creating an arena of self-deception which will but bog us down in the lies of self-esteem. 	
	Recently, I heard individuals state that something had to be done about a terrible injustice, whether or not God approved. This ties in the exposure of our attitudes into the things of our involvement. To purposely ignore God's Word, the Scripture because we think we know better is an attitude of highest insult to God. To deny the leading of the Holy Spirit when He tells us not to do something is of vilest contempt to the God of our Salvation. 
	Yet even more sinister than these blatant attitudes of deliberate disobedience, is the invoking of the name of God to give validity to our desires in situations and dilemmas. To say that the Lord told us to do something that is purposely in opposition to the very Word of God, thereby making Him out to be a liar, can but serve to destroy our Lord's witness in our lives. A word of caution must be entered at this point, a caution that is best heeded by all of us before we ever again say that God told us to do something. It is as we are instructed in Exodus 20:7	Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 
	To claim that our actions and motives are ordained by God, when they are in obvious contradiction to His very immutable Word, is to cast the foul name of perjurer upon our most Holy God, Who is the very essence of Truth. When we make God the scapegoat for our actions and our perverse desires, we are truly desecrating the glorious work of Christ in giving Himself for us. When we label our emotional urges as the leading of the Holy Spirit, we mock God in a manner far worse than this world's defiled practice of using His name as a means of swearing.
	Many of us fail to view our careless manner of speech in the sense of what we are actually telling the world about our deeds and our thoughts. We are making a mockery of the great gift of the Holy Spirit to guide and to keep us whenever we invoke His name to give credence to the actions of our desires. This can never be honored by God. Rather, it is a matter of using God to lend some kind of legitimacy to our frustrated lack of faith in Him alone to deal with our problems. It is a deliberate cover-up of our faithlessness and our disobedience. 
	Another area that robs us of the ability to stand fast in the Lord is the matter of our attitude about our relationship with God and with each other. More to the point, if we honestly viewed our attitude toward God and toward each other, we would find that we do not value our relationship with God above all other relationships, and that we tend to discount the relationship with fellow brethren in Christ and that we take both for granted. 
	We have been purchased by the very blood of Christ shed for us on the cross. We belong to Him. He is to have preeminence in every aspect of our being, and especially in our heart as the focus of everything we say, do, think, or feel. Everything - without a single exception - not tiredness, not emotional upheaval, not biological tendencies, not even physical make-up! No excuse will stand before the Lord when we are face-to-face with Him. On that day, we will have our hearts bared before Him in all His loving mercy and have to deal with the shame that we did not love Him as He so loved us. It will be a time of the utter rending of our hearts because we will have to acknowledge the truth of deliberately turning away from the relationship that He desired with us. His manifest love will be so evident, and our meager response will be so puny and so self-centered, that we will shamefully admit that we have defiled the sanctuary of His Love.
	This will be true of our refusal to know Him in all His fullness in these days, and as well true of our refusal to give ourselves unto the brethren, the fellowship of believers on this earth. After all, we are made one with each other in Christ, and we are to love each other above ourselves. Yet, we are so often given to ignore each other in times of trial and difficulty. We are so often given over to talking about the things we see as bad in each other's human characteristics, rather than concentrating on the value of Christ that is now inherent in fellow believers. 
	This attitude of self-righteousness and unforgiveness demands a putting down of others, and that is something each of us is well versed at accomplishing. Conversely, the attitude of Christ, which is now to characterize us, is to lay down our lives for one another. That requires a steadfast reliance on the Lord, and is an evidence of our standing fast in Him. 
	As we close this evening, open our hearts before the Lord to choose, and it is choice that we are called unto, to choose to stand fast in the Lord! Choose to seek after a deeper relationship with Christ which will set aside all that human frailty of wavering and vacillating with the winds of emotional and psychological advice. Choose to look to the Lord, to seek after the Holy Spirit to set our feet solidly on the rock of Christ, and Christ alone. Choose to search out our hearts before Him, that He can deal and can cleanse and can teach us of His way. Choose to set our hearts on Him and on Him alone, above anything and anyone else.
	Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.