{"id":4054,"date":"2016-09-25T06:14:20","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T06:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=4054"},"modified":"2016-09-25T06:14:20","modified_gmt":"2016-09-25T06:14:20","slug":"stand-fast-in-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=4054","title":{"rendered":"STAND FAST IN LIBERTY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>STAND FAST IN LIBERTY<br \/>\nThe greatest preacher and defender of sound doctrine apart from Christ<br \/>\nHimself was most likely the apostle Paul. None could charge him with<br \/>\ncompromise, none could call his message unclear, and none could accuse<br \/>\nhim of giving anyone a false hope. But as one who earnestly contended<br \/>\nfor the faith of God\u2019s elect, he stood firmly in defense of the liberty<br \/>\nof those in Christ and their total deliverance from all bondage. His<br \/>\nadmonition to all true believers rings loud and clear today. \u201cStand fast<br \/>\ntherefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not<br \/>\nentangled again with the yoke of bondage.\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/kjv1900\/Gal.%205.1\">Gal. 5:1<\/a>) He knew that all<br \/>\nwhom the Son had made free were free indeed, He knew that where the<br \/>\nSpirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. There had come to the Galatians<br \/>\nthose who, though zealous, had by their preaching brought these people<br \/>\nunder the spirit of bondage and fear. They no doubt preached Christ and<br \/>\nall the particulars concerning salvation by grace but there was a subtle<br \/>\nspirit of legalism and works woven into their message. It produced in<br \/>\nthe hearers a feeling of fear and great heaviness of heart due to the<br \/>\nunbearable yoke that was always being laid upon them. Paul, knowing full<br \/>\nwell that false professors and religionists always wrest the scriptures<br \/>\nto their own destruction, was not hindered in encouraging those in<br \/>\nChrist to untangle themselves from this yoke of legalistic bondage and<br \/>\nto rejoice in their liberty in Christ. The message he preached to them<br \/>\nwas the same message of God\u2019s grace and full salvation accomplished<br \/>\nsolely by the merits and blood of Christ and that was good news. Those<br \/>\nwho were trusting in Him went away rejoicing! The gospel is our<br \/>\n\u201cemancipation proclamation\u201d and the joy in our Lord Jesus Christ<br \/>\nstrengthens, liberates and lifts us. \u201cFor God hath not given us the<br \/>\nspirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.\u201d When<br \/>\nthose who truly believe on and confess Christ hear His gospel they<br \/>\nbreathe the fresh breath of freedom; but when they hear something else<br \/>\nthey feel stifled under the tightness of the yoke. \u201cYe did run well; who<br \/>\ndid hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?\u201d The truth is that<br \/>\nthose in Christ are \u201cFree from the law, O happy condition! Jesus hath<br \/>\nbled, and there is remission.\u201d Stand fast!<br \/>\nPastor Gary Shepard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STAND FAST IN LIBERTY The greatest preacher and defender of sound doctrine apart from Christ Himself was most likely the apostle Paul. None could charge him with compromise, none could call his message unclear, and none could accuse him of giving anyone a false hope. But as one who earnestly contended for the faith of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-gary-shepard","category-the-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4055,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054\/revisions\/4055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}