Okay, well, as I said, we come back to Galatians chapter 5 for the third time, and there might even be a fourth time yet, who knows. But I want to think more on the second half of the chapter, where we're told in verse 16 to walk in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit.

Religion is basically about inheriting the kingdom of God. Religion of whatever sort is basically about inheriting the kingdom of God. In verse 21 and the end of it, it says, people which do such things, and he's just listed them, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. It's basically about inheriting the kingdom of God and how to inherit the kingdom of God.

The question comes in a variety of ways from mankind. Job of old asked the question, how should a man be just with God? If you want to inherit the kingdom of God, you must be just with God. You must be counted just with God. How should a man be just with God when we're sinners and we're rebels against God? They'll ask the question, how does God require me to behave? All religions ask that question. How does God require me to behave?

The Pharisees in their encounters with Jesus ask that question more than once. They ask, what was the work that we must do to do the work of God, the work that God requires? And Jesus said, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent.

The rich young ruler came to Jesus. The account is there in a couple of the Gospels. There he is, he thinks he's done everything right. What must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus told him, what does the law say? Try and keep the law, if you think that's the way.

Thirdly, the Philippian jailer put it this way. What must I do to be saved? This was a heathen, gentile man in Philippi, in Macedonia, Greece, that sort of area. And he has just been dangled over the open mouth of hell. Honestly, that's how it would be to him in that moment. He knew that he was immediately in desperate a desperate state, about to be killed by his employers for failing in his duty. What must I do to be saved? You see, I think it was more than just fear of his employers. He was there, he was dangling over the mouth of hell, and he knew that he was justly to be condemned, and so he cries out. to these men, Paul and Silas, who've been singing hymns and reciting the scriptures in the night. What must I do to be saved? You seem to know what I must do. Tell me, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and anybody else in your family.

You see, religion devised by sinful man, gives many answers. It gives many answers. Do you know when it started? Do you know when it started? It started with Cain, born of Adam and Eve, because he thought, how can I be right with God? And he thought, I'll do it my way. And that's what man does, that's what religion does.

But you see, God, in the gospel, the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, has shown us, he's revealed to his people, it's there for all to see, you don't need to, cross oceans to find it, it's there in front of us, we have it here. The only effectual way, you know what an effectual way is? It's one that gets the job done, one that works, one that produces the desired result, is the gospel of Christ. He defined it. When did he first define the gospel of Christ? He defined it as soon as man fell. As soon as Adam and Eve yielded to the temptation and the subtlety of Satan. He defined it there. He barred access to the tree of life because he said if they go and eat of the tree of life, they'll live forever. But they're sinners, they can't do that. Justice bars them from that. He barred access to the tree of life except and only by the blood of the Lamb. by the seed of the woman that he promised.

Even when the necessity of blood redemption is acknowledged, and many religions do not acknowledge the necessity of blood redemption, but even religion that calls itself Christian and acknowledges the necessity of blood redemption by Christ, it then goes and adds what it regards as essential extras, and that's the issue with the Galatians, and that's what Paul has been addressing in this epistle.

In Galatians, Paul has reiterated redemption by Christ alone, and he's condemned Condemned, I say, condemned all religious add-ons. He did it in chapter 1 and verses 8 and 9. If we, or an angel from heaven, I don't care what their status is, if they preach any other way to the tree of life, any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, what do you say about them, Paul? Let him be accursed. Did you not hear me the first time? As we said before, so say I now again. If any man preach any other gospel to you than that which you have received, let him be accursed.

You see, it's absolutely staggeringly clear, isn't it? And in chapter 5, verses 2 to 4, Paul, I, Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, if you add anything of the law, if you add anything, you're a debtor to do the whole law. You cannot be right with God by a bit of Christ and a bit of law. If you add any aspect of other things than Christ and Him alone, you're a debtor to earn your salvation in that way, and you cannot do it. It's absolutely impossible. He says, Christ is become of no effect. Christ shall profit you nothing. You're fallen from grace. You are fallen from salvation.

He wants those who peddle these religious add-ons. He wants those who peddle these religious add-ons to be cut off, it says in verse 12. I would they were even cut off, which trouble you. These particular ones coming from Judea, the Judaizers coming to Galatia had said, except you believe on them. believe the gospel, yes, but you must be circumcised according to the law of Moses. You must be circumcised. If you don't, you cannot be saved. He says, they're asking you to mutilate your flesh, this particular one, but it means adding all aspects of the law. He says, I wish they were even cut off. I wish they were even cut off from you, that they were separated from you completely.

But you see then, this begs the question. We've established, and Paul has established, Salvation is by grace alone in Christ alone, with no addition of works or religious practices or acts that we might do. It then begs the question, how should true gospel believers then live? How should they live? What should we do? If it depends not one bit on us, how should we then live? It's a very relevant question. It's a very relevant question.

And I've got two answers. And the first one is that it's not by legal constraint. We do not live as gospel believers, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we do not live by the constraint of the law, by legal constraint. In verse 13 of chapter five, Paul says, for brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. God has called you, by his spirit he's called you to liberty. He's called you to liberty from that which kept you in bondage, which was the law. But he says, don't use that liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Christ has paid the ransom price to free his people from bondage. Liberty, you've been called to liberty. Christ has paid the ransom price.

You know when people are taken captives where there was a spate a couple of years ago where people always seem to be taken captives and a ransom was put on them. And people tried to find the money to pay the ransom. And if the ransom was paid, the people went free. Christ has paid the ransom price. That's what redemption is. It's paying the ransom price to free his people from bondage to legal constraint.

In verse 13 of chapter three, he says that Christ has redeemed us. He's paid the ransom price from the curse of the law. How? Being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone. that hangeth on a tree. In what he did, he paid the price that the law demanded for the release of his people from the bondage of their sin, from the curse of sin, from the curse of the law.

Law of God, the law of God, divine justice condemned me to death for sin. But if I'm in Christ, it was satisfied when Christ, the God-man, with whom I was united before the beginning of time, when he died for me in my place, I died then in union with him. If I'm numbered amongst his elect when he died, I died. He says in chapter 2 verse 21, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

When he died, as far as the justice of God is concerned, and that's not just a let's pretend, it really is the case, when he died, I died. The law says I've got no more thing to demand of this person for whom Christ died. When he died and satisfied justice for his people's sins, the issue was closed for eternity. He didn't just give us a leg up and then it's over to you to complete the job. When he died and satisfied divine justice for his people's sins, because what does the law say? What does it demand? The soul that sins, it shall die. When he died, he satisfied justice for his people's sins. And the issue of his people's sins and the justice of God, then Then it was closed for eternity.

And so he says in Romans 8, 33 and 34, who shall bring any charge against the people for whom Christ died? He's elect. You can't do it. You can't do it. Who shall bring any condemnation? He has died. Christ has died. He's justified his people. He's died and he's risen. And he's seated. He's raised for the justification of his people. And he's seated in heaven.

picture that word seated the implication of it is that the job is done when you finish the job you sit down finished he's seated if you were in him when he died you are free from every legal constraint did you hear that? Religion out there. Did you hear that if you were in him when he died at Calvary? You are free from every legal constraint it says in Daniel chapter 9 verse 24 speaking of Messiah coming and when he would come and it says he made an end of sin and He made an end of all that which pictured what he was going to come and do. He made an end of it. The issue is finished for eternity.

So God's law can demand neither. What does it say in verse 6? They said, you must be circumcised to be saved, or you must avoid circumcision to be saved. But Paul says, it makes no difference. He says, the law can demand neither that you be circumcised for salvation, nor that you are uncircumcised for salvation, because it has no effect. By implication, by compelling implication, it can't tell you either. What to eat and what not to eat. What to drink and what not to drink. There are some things that you shouldn't eat or drink because they'll not do your health a great deal of good. But there's nothing from a religious point of view that you need to eat or drink or avoid eating or avoid drinking in order to be saved. Because it's just like circumcision or uncircumcision.

It cannot tell you how to dress. It cannot tell you, apart from decency, apart from decency, which gospel precepts line out very, very clearly, just social decency. No, we don't provoke to immorality. But other than that, it can't tell you how to dress.

It can't tell you what music you should like and what you shouldn't like, good and bad music. I'm sure there is bad music, but the law can't tell you to avoid it. Do you hear that? I'm sure, there's lots of music that I really do not like. To me, it's bad music. But it's not because the law of God tells me it's bad music. No, the law can't tell you to avoid it.

There's good and bad TV, but the law can't tell you how to avoid it. There's a way to live on Sunday and a way not to live on a Sunday, which people regard as the Sabbath day in its Christian form. But the law can't tell you what to do on a Sunday. It can't tell you.

The law cannot tell you, because this is what it does tell you, in the fourth commandment, in the law of Moses expanded, that if you go out on the Sabbath day and you pick up sticks to make a fire so that you can cook something, you should be stoned to death. That law stands as it is. That law stands, but it is fulfilled in Christ. It is abrogated in Christ. It is taken away. We are freed from the curse of the law.

In Christ, by the ransom payment he made, all of his people are free. You have been called unto liberty. Christ has ended the rule of law as the believer's rule of life. He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. The law's dominion for righteousness required by God for his kingdom doesn't apply. He's ended it. He's ended it. It no longer says, the law no longer says to Christ's people, do this and live. Fail to do it and die. It says this. It says look, it is done. It doesn't say do this and live, do that and fail to do it and die. It says look, it is done.

The Old Testament talks of the new covenant. We read it in Ezekiel, it's in Jeremiah. There's a new covenant. He says, I'll put my spirit in you, I'll put my law in your heart, I'll put my righteous requirements in your heart.

The New Testament says that law works, trying to be right with God by keeping the law, cannot justify you. It says it in this very epistle, in verse 16 of chapter 2. A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by what? The faith of Jesus Christ. What he did is what justifies his people. We have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. It's the faith of Christ that justifies us and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. So it's not by law works at all. We're not under law but under grace. It says that in Romans 6, I could list dozens of verses, you're not under the law, you're under grace, and yet you talk to so many that call themselves Christians and claim to preach an orthodox gospel, and they will tell you that you are under the law, but you're not. How on earth can it be when the scripture says it so clearly that you are not under the law, that people who claim to be Christians can still stand up and tell you that you're under the law? You're not, you're free from the law, freed from the law of sin and death. The gospel says, go free. Your debt is paid to the full. There is nothing for you to contribute to its payment.

In fact, Your legal constraint currency, if I can call it that, the things that you think that you might do according to the law to make you better, either sanctified or justified with God, your legal constraint currency of trying to keep the law for benefit with God, it's worthless currency. It's useless. You take some monopoly money down to the shop and it looks like money. You might think it's money, but you try and get them to accept it. It's worthless. It counts for nothing.

Don't let religion, by whatever name, drag you back under, what is it? Verse one, the yoke of bondage. Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Stand fast in liberty, it says there. Stand fast in the freedom that Christ has accomplished for you.

Okay. So that's the negative answer to the question. The question, how then should true gospel believers live? Well, not by legal constraint. So can we do whatever we want? Can we live however we want, whatever we think? Well, yes, but it depends what is doing the wanting, as Paul shows us in the next few verses. It depends what is doing the wanting.

He says in verse 13, by love serve one another. by love serve one another. Liberty from legal constraint, to be right with God, doesn't give license to indulge sinful fleshly desires. To be free from legal constraint doesn't mean to be free from all constraint, because as the scripture tells us in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 14, We are constrained as believers, but by the love of Christ, not by the law.

The love of Christ constrains us. The law constrains. How does the law constrain? By threats and by promises. You know, if you're a driver, there are laws that you must obey on the roads of this country and most other countries. And why do you keep those laws? Well, on the whole, it's because you don't want to be fined. You don't want to lose your license. You don't want to get points on your license. The law says don't exceed a speed limit. And if you exceed it, the camera goes off and that's it. You pay your fine. You've done that. It issues threats. And you might have one of those insurance policies where it measures how you drive. And if you're a gentle, nice gentle driver, Oh, we'll knock some money off your premium for your insurance. It issues threats. If you drive dangerously, your insurance premium will go up. If you drive nice and calmly, your insurance premium will go down. It issues threats and promises. That's how laws constrain.

But the love of Christ constrains that which thinks like Christ. It constrains the one who has the mind of Christ, it says in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 16. We, the people who believe the gospel of grace, have the mind of Christ. And the love of Christ constrains that one who has the mind of Christ. The love of Christ constrains service to one another.

Verse 13, we've been called to liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. How? How? The answer is by its influence on what Paul calls in Colossians chapter 3 verse 10, the new man. You have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. was created in the image of God, but there's a new man created in the Christian believer that is in the image of the one who created him. Who created him? Our God created him by his spirit in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on that new man, put that one on. Only those who are Christ's possess this new man.

And so I want to open up this, which you know, but it needs underlining. In the believer, in the true believer, there is one man, but two natures. And you know, in these days of pernickety nonsense, you know when I say man, I mean man and woman, I mean mankind, I mean people, I mean people. You know, it really, really annoys me when they go say, oh, the chairwoman was such, no, it's chairman. If it's a man or a woman, it's the role, it's not the gender or the sex, it's chairman.

Right, one man, two natures, verses 16 and 17. This I say then, walk in the Spirit. There's the title of this message. This I say then, walk in the Spirit. Live your life in the Spirit of God. And if you so do, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would.

The flesh and the Spirit. The flesh, what is that? That's the nature of each one of us by virtue of our descent from Adam. We're sinful. We're people made in the image of God, but fallen, sinful. We reject God by nature. We promote self by nature. But the Spirit, the Spirit, that's the flesh, but the Spirit is the new man born of God's Spirit.

You know the scriptures well, but we'll look at them again because No, it's not right to say familiarity breeds contempt, but knowing it so well often means that you don't ever go back and look at it. But look at John chapter 3. John chapter 3, verse 3. as Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, one of the rulers of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews, who came to Jesus by night, because he's concerned. His fellow Pharisees are saying that this man Jesus has got to be stopped, but Nicodemus is thinking, there's something special about this man. He can't possibly do what he's doing unless he's of God, unless he's doing the things that God has sent him to do. He came and said that to Jesus. No man can do these things except God be with him. I think I know a bit about the kingdom of God, is what Nicodemus is saying.

And Jesus replies in verse three. He said to him, verily, verily, truly, truly, I say to you, except unless a man be born again, you're claiming to know a bit about the kingdom of God, Nicodemus. If you're not born again, you can't know anything about it. You can't even see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born? He said, born again. How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb? Don't be silly, Nicodemus.

Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto you. Unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Yes, you've been born as a baby of the flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit of God is spirit. Don't be surprised that I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it listeth. You hear the sound of it, but you can't tell where it's come from or where it's going to. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God comes and does his work.

All the multitude chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world redeemed from sin's curse by Christ in time when the fullness of the time was come God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them who are under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. So let me start that sentence again.

All the multitude The innumerable multitude, from every tribe and tongue and kindred, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, redeemed from sins cursed by Christ in time, are quickened, born again, made alive with a new nature from God's Spirit at the time of His choosing. This is the new birth that Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus about. This is the new man that Paul was encouraging the Colossians to put on. This is the new nature which is created in the image of Christ.

There is a new sense of sin with this new man. There is a sense of the righteousness of God with this new man. There is a gift given of repentance for only that which sees things the way God sees it, with the mind of Christ. repents of sin and sees it for what it is. He gives faith, which is that sense of the Spirit, to see the things of the gospel of grace. He gives new desires, where there were no desires for the things of God. He gives desires to seek after the things of God. He gives, where there was no hope whatsoever, He gives hope of eternity. He gives a confident hope of eternity.

And while the old man of the flesh continues with its lusts and its conflicts, which are contrary one to the other, the flesh wanting to go one way, the spirit going the other way. That's the way we are by nature. It's what Solomon saw in the Song of Solomon, chapter six and verse 13. What do I see in the Shulamite, which was the bride of Solomon as a picture of Christ? What do I see in the believer I see a company, as it were, of two armies, a company of two opposing... In each one of God's believing people, there is a company of opposing armies, the flesh and the spirit, the one against the other, each with generals that oppose one another, these two armies.

For Christ's people living in flesh in the world, one must be encouraged. How do we live then? If we're free from the constraint of the law, how do we live? We must encourage one of these two armies, and we must discourage the other of these two armies, knowing this, that nothing affects our eternal standing with God. Why? Because that is sealed by Christ's redemption.

But as with a garden, I like gardening. I don't like too much work these days, but I do like the results, I do like the effects. With a garden, constant effort is required. If you just leave it, it will just go over to brambles and thorns and weeds. It needs work. It needs work, number one, to promote those plants which bear fruit. Number two, to subdue the weeds and the brambles which hinder the fruit bearers. It's a constant struggle.

Read Romans chapter 7, we haven't time to look at it now, but read that. I want to do this, but I can't. I want to bear fruit, but I can't, because weeds keep coming up and strangling it, the weeds of the flesh. He says in verse 17 of Galatians 5, the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. If it was just the Spirit, you would do things the way the Spirit of God leads, but you're in the flesh, and that still has its effect. The works of the flesh, then, against the fruit of the Spirit. Flesh works and earns its wages. Look in verse 19. Flesh works and earns its wages. The works of the flesh, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Those things are what the flesh works, and it earns its wages.

As Paul says in Romans 6 verse 23, the wages of sin is death, eternal death, spiritual death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Look what it says. I have told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Remember I said at the start that all religion is about inheriting the kingdom of God. If you do those things, you will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ah, you say. But one of the great heroes of scripture is David, the shepherd boy, the king of Israel. Didn't David commit adultery? Yes. Didn't David commit murder to try and hide it? Yes. But he didn't live in a settled state of perpetual, serial, contented pleasures of sin. When it says, they which do such things, it means do in a contented continuation in doing them. Those that live in it as the habit of life shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Yes, we all fall, we all make mistakes, we all get things wrong, but we don't live in a happy, contented state of perpetual continuing to do those things. Because those that do, do not have the Spirit of God. Those that do, do not have the mind of Christ. Those that do, are not chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And those that do, demonstrate by that that they're not the people of God and they shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

No, God's Spirit brought David to confession, to remorse, more than that, to repentance, heartbroken, Psalm 51, to cleansing, your sins have been cleansed in the blood of the Lamb. The love of Christ experienced in gospel redemption constrains away from these flesh works. It says in verse 16, walk in the spirit. It says in Hebrews chapter 12, run the race that is set before us. We've got this great cloud of witnesses who've gone before, believing the gospel. Well, run the race to eternity, to the kingdom of God. Run the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

In Colossians chapter 2, Paul says this, In verse six, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Continue in the spirit as you began. You began in the Christian life, in the truth and the blessings of gospel grace, through the Spirit. Well, continue in that way. Live in that way. Daily strive to take off the clothing, the raiment of the flesh man, and put on the clothing of the new, in Colossians chapter 3, verses 9 and 10.

Lie not one to another, seeing Why? Why should you not lie? Because it says you shall not bear false witness. No! You've put off the old man with his deeds and you've put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

Remember what you are in Christ. You know like soldiers in a regiment or members of a sports team. Remember what you are. Imagine one of those teams like the England rugby team when it's ever won a Grand Slam and the pride that there is of being part of that. You behave in a certain way because you're part of that.

Remember what you are in Christ. In Ephesians chapter two and verse 10, it says this. We, those who believe, are God's workmanship. We're the workmanship of God. This is the work of God that you believe on him who is sent. We're God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. God's workmanship, redeemed from the curse of sin and of the law, fitted for the kingdom of God, made ready to inherit that kingdom.

accepted. How are we accepted? In our own goodness, our own righteousnesses, which are filthy rags in his sight? No, we're accepted in the beloved. We're made alive to believe. This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent.

Subdue the weeds of sin. One thing that I have in a corner of my garden is a bad patch of bindweed. What's it called? Columbine, isn't it? Convolvulus. Convolvulus. That's it. Convolvulus. And it actually produces some very nice white flowers, but it's terrible. It strangles everything else that it comes into contact with. And its roots run and run. It's funny, when we move from house to house, I always seem to inherit a garden that's got a patch of bindweed in it. And do you know something? You can never get rid of it. You can never root it out completely. Every time I see it stick its head above the ground, I pull a bit off. And if I'm doing any digging, I'll dig down and I see these white roots running around and I pull out as many as I can, but you just need to leave the tiniest little bit. And months later, it's away again. You can't get rid of it, that's like the sins of the flesh, as long as we're alive. You'll never get rid of them, but you can hinder the growth. You can hinder the growth of bindweed.

Live in the spirit, walk in the spirit, and you will bear the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, grafted into the rootstock, which is Christ, and with this I'll close, John 15. He is the true vine, he is the root stock, and his father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, in the rootstock, to receive the sap from the rootstock, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing.

This is it, grafted into the rootstock which is Christ, his people bear the fruit of the Spirit. And the lead fruit in that list of fruits of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love. And we know that that's the greatest gift, because he tells us in 1 Corinthians 13, that's the one which will remain into eternity, when there's no need for any others. The lead fruit is love, the love of God revealed in the heart in the gospel of grace. By love serve one another. And thus, look, look, by love serve one another. Verse 14, for all the law is fulfilled. Everything that the law sought to attain is fulfilled in one word, even in this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The righteous objectives of God's law, which can never be accomplished by sinful flesh, are fulfilled in gospel grace by love, the love of Christ. Amen.