It's good to be with you this
evening. The song was very encouraging. Never let me go. What a thought. Enjoyable thought. You take your Bibles and turn
them into Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. Our congregation have been studying
through the book of Galatians, and I believe it's been a very
great blessing. To me, it's been a blessing. But I also believe it's been
a blessing to everyone in our congregation to come to this
portion of Scripture, and I thought it'd be good. I'll pray the Lord
will bless it to you. as He has to us. Let's begin
our reading in verse 13. The Apostle says, For brethren, you
have been called unto liberty. Only use not your liberty for
an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if you bite and devour one
another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. This I say then. Walk in the
Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Now the
apostle at this point has concluded this error in the church of Galatia,
that the Galatian church had taken on circumcision as a necessity. as though it was to be superimposed
upon the righteousness of Christ, that they had to be circumcised
in order to be saved. And all up until this point,
Paul has already proven this truth, that Christ alone is our
salvation. He had preached that the justification
was by the grace of God, listen, through the faith of Jesus Christ. It's a very important statement
in this book. The faith of Jesus Christ. Our righteousness, our
sanctification, our redemption is all through the faith of Jesus
Christ. It is by the operation of His
work alone. This is the cause and means of
all our justification before God. And our obedience has nothing
to do with this. Christ in His work was victorious. This is the glory and the beauty
of the gospel is that the work is finished. There's no more
work to be done. Jesus said it is finished. This separates It separates the
gospel from all other supposed gospels. In every other supposed
gospel, there's something left for you to do. In this gospel,
all is accomplished. This is the wonderful glory of
it. If anything's left up to us, there would be no hope for
us. But the hope is this, it's done.
Christ is successful. He has accomplished our redemption. In Hebrews 10 it tells us, the
blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. Wherefore,
when He cometh into the world, He says, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared Me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. What is he saying? There's no
pleasure in the law. No pleasure in our obedience.
Then said I, Christ, this is what Christ said. Then said I,
lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. To
do what? To do thy will, O God. This is
his purpose. To do the will of God. And by
doing so, he said, I taketh away the first that he may establish
the second. He accomplished the law. He satisfied
the law to establish the covenant of grace. In verses 10 through 14 of that,
he says this. I don't want to misquote it because
it's so beautiful. I was thinking I could probably quote it, but
my mind is not necessary. My mind's kind of rattled with
the traffic still, so give me a chance here. Let's see. In
chapter 10 and verse 11, he says, I'm in chapter 10 and verse 10.
He says, By the witch will, I come to do thy will. By the witch
will, we are what? Sanctified. By the will of God,
we are made holy. How? Through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ. How often? Once. Jesus Christ
offered Himself once. How often are you sanctified?
Once. When was I sanctified? I was
sanctified in eternity by God's sovereign election. I was sanctified
by the death of Jesus Christ. I was made holy. Made holy. And he goes back to the law.
Every priest stands at daily ministering, often the same sacrifices
that can never take away sin, but this man. This is what we
preach. This man. Not this man. This man. This man. After he had offered one sacrifice
for sins, he sat down. This is beautiful. In the old
tabernacle, there was not a chair. You know that? There was no chair
to sit down. Because they were never done.
But he sat down. on the right hand of God henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by his
one offering, one offering, he hath perfected,
how long? Forever. Them that are what? Sanctified. Them that are sanctified. This is what Christ does. The
Great Day of Atonement is a beautiful picture of that, isn't it? The
high priest represented who? Israel. Did he represent anybody
else? No. He represented Israel. Picture
of Christ. Christ only represented His people
as their high priest. And Christ is not just pictured
as the high priest. You've got two goats. One's not
enough to picture what He was going to do. Two goats. He took
the scapegoat. He confessed the sins on the
head of that scapegoat. Where were our sins confessed
by God? Where were they placed by God?
For God hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin. that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. You remember what
happened to that scapegoat? That strong man. Who's that? That's Christ too! Aren't you getting the picture
and the volume of the book is written to me? He's a strong man who
carried our sins, who bore our sins in His own body. And you
can see the beautiful picture of this. The strong man's carrying
that goat with all the sins of Israel away. And as he goes,
he gets smaller and smaller and smaller until he's what? Gone. Where's your sin? Gone. He bore them away. And then what
do you do? You see that strong man coming
back without what? Without sin. Isn't that what
Christ did when He rose from the dead? But that wasn't enough
because that was bloodless, right? That was a bloodless picture.
The other goat must be sacrificed. This is a picture of His offering.
The sin offering. He offered Himself to God. He offered His blood. for our
sins. And you remember that higher
priest would take that blood and he would take it into the
Holy of Holies, into the very presence of God. That's exactly
what Christ did for us. He offered Himself and brought
His blood into the presence of God. And God was forever satisfied. My sins didn't escape. God didn't
sweep my sins under the rug. He actually paid for them. All of them. All of them. And
you remember, how do you know that the high priest offering
was successful? Well, He came out of there. If
He didn't bring the right blood, He was going to be killed. But
you know He was successful when He came out of the grave. Christ
atoned for the sins of His people, and this is our justification.
I like that in Jeremiah chapter 50, it says, In those days and
at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for. Now, who's seeking my iniquity?
Who's looking for it? Well, I don't care if you're
looking for it. God's looking for it. And what does God say? He says, it shall be sought for
and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah and they
shall not be found. Why? For I will pardon whom I
reserve. You know who He's going to pardon?
Whom He reserves. Every one Christ died for is pardoned. Every one. Not one missing. Not one missing. And Jesus made this statement
clear. Now then, that's what happened in eternity. That's
what happened when Christ died. And what happens in time is this,
that everyone Christ died for will come to Him. Without a doubt. Not one will be missing. You're
just talking about the church and its fullness. It's full all
the time. Don't mistake that. The church
is always full. The Lord is saving as many as
He ordains to save, and not one more and not one less. The church
is always full. It don't appear full. I don't
really care what it seems to our eyes. It is full. Jesus said this, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. So, who's not going to come? He said, All the Father giveth
me shall come to me. And I will raise him up at the
last day, and this is the Father's will which is sent me, that of
all he had given me, I should lose nothing." Nothing. This is what he had dealt with
in the very first part of this, that justification, sanctification,
redemption is all by the faith and work of Jesus Christ. And
the law has nothing to do with it. Our obedience to the law
has nothing to do with it. In fact, he says this in chapter
5, he says, if you add one thing to Christ, Christ shall profit
you nothing. That's a very plain statement,
isn't it? You don't have to be a great scholar to understand
that. In verse 4, Christ shall become of no effect to you, whosoever
you are, that are justified by the law. You want to be justified
by the law? You want to add the law and superimpose the law onto
the righteousness of Christ? Listen, Christ shall profit you
nothing. I don't care who you are, Paul said. I don't care
if you're a preacher, a deacon, I don't care what you... a theologian,
whatever you are. Christ shall profit you nothing.
And so now he gets down and he's done the error. The error is
now done away with. The light has shined out of darkness
and now it is clear. Now in this church, there were
many who followed after that error. But there were many that did
not follow after that error. And now in verse 13, the apostle
is moving his attention from those who were in error to those
who were faithful. Because he knew this was going
to happen. That when those who failed, repented, that those
who were faithful had in their nature to look down on those
who were in error. And look what he said in verse
13, Brethren. Now who's he talking to? He's talking to believers. Brethren, you that are faithful. You that have been called into
liberty, you that are in steadfast in liberty, don't use your liberty
as an occasion to the flesh. The occasion to the flesh was
to look down on them. It was to think themselves superior
to their brothers who had fallen, but rather in love serve one
another. He warns them not to bite and
devour one another. Why? Why would he say that? Because
it is in our old nature to bite and devour one another. And so then, seeing that salvation,
he says this, I say then, walk in the Spirit. What is it to
walk in the Spirit? It is to walk by faith and love, because
that's the law of every believer. Every believer is under a law.
We're under the law of faith and love. John says his commandments
are not grievous to us. They're not grievous. Is faith
grievous to you? Is love grievous? No. This is our law, to walk in the
Spirit. Now then, you that believe, and
Paul's going to address the nature of everyone who believes, the
condition now of every one of us who have been saved by that
wonderful, perfect work of Jesus Christ. When the Holy Spirit
comes and regenerates us, when He gives us life and faith, there
is something that takes place in us. There's something that
takes place in us. There is a divine effect. And that's what, if I ever title
this, it is the effects of grace. The effect of grace. Now I've
got several things that every believer experiences when he
believes in Christ. The first thing is this. The
moment we believe on Lord Jesus Christ, a warfare ensues. of warfare. Every believer understands
this and he is bringing this home to those who are faithful
and to those who are in error. This happens to us all. He's
uniting us in this. There's a spiritual warfare. Look at this in verse 17. He wants us to walk in the Spirit,
so we not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now, why would He
want us to do that? Because the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to
the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. Everyone born of the Spirit,
you know this. You now have a new nature. Everyone that is born of the
Spirit of God has a new nature. And this nature that you have
is holy. It's holy. Now don't go look
in the mirror and try to find it. You won't. Don't follow me
around and try to look for it. You won't see it. Nonetheless,
it's there. It's there. I'll show it to you.
Go to 1 John. Go to 1 John. Now, you're going to scratch your head at this,
but this is just so. 1 John chapter 3. Look at verse 6. John says, Whoso abideth in Him. Isn't that what the Lord said?
Abide in Me and I in you? How do we abide in Christ? This
is only through faith. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are abiding in Him. If you believe on Him tonight,
you are abiding in Him. Now listen to what He says about
you. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not. Conversely, whoso sinneth hath
not seen Him, neither known Him." Can you reconcile that with your
experience right now? You think you can? You try to
find that? Maybe John made some... Maybe
I can explain this away somehow. No, because John doubles down
and says it again. Chapter 5 and verse 18. Look at that. This is something we know. John
said, we know this. It's something every one of you
know. You that believe, it's something you know. We know that
whosoever is born of God, what? Sinneth not. When I read those, I know that
that contradicts everything I feel, everything I think, But you know what? It seems that
there's a contradiction in the book of John. Go to chapter 1. Look what John says in verse
8. He says, if we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Now which
is it? It seems like a contradiction,
doesn't it? If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves in the truth. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But there is no
contradiction. Why? Because that which is born
of God sinneth not. That which is born of flesh always
sins. You and I are creatures now of
two natures. The Apostle Paul, in that beautiful
chapter in Romans 7, being blatantly honest and open, he said, in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. You as a believer, can you identify?
Now, I think you can identify more with that than the other,
but you know it's true. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. And so in everyone that is born
of God, seeing now we have a nature that is absolutely without sin,
and a nature that can only sin, what begins then is this text
that Paul is describing in verse 17. The flesh, that nature that
you and I are born with, that sinful nature that can only sin,
always sin. Todd said this, I cannot not
sin. That's all it does, is see it. So that which is born of flesh,
he says, lusteth against the Spirit. This is not the Holy
Spirit, but is the work of the Holy Spirit, the new nature,
and the Spirit against the flesh, and they are contrary, listen,
one to the other. You got one, and another, you
got two. Isn't that right? If there's
one and another, then there's two. And what's the result? You can't
do what you want to. And every believer we desire to live after righteousness. Sin is a pain and a misery to
my soul. It has not brought me one good
effect, not one good thing. And yet, how to stop it, I can't
find. In the Song of Solomon chapter
6, when the Lord looks upon the Shulamite, the Shulamite is a
picture of the church, He says, when we look upon the Shulamite,
what shall we find? Here it is, as it were a company
of two armies. You that believe, is it not so
with you? J.C. Philpott said this concerning
self. Self is the worst enemy of the
believer because it is always continually with us. Satan is
not omnipresent. We could shut out the world,
but you can't shut out self. And so we know this, in our nature,
there doesn't dwell anything. But there is also another component
of those who are believers in Christ. He says this, it says,
but here is the hope of every believer. Though we struggle,
though we have this internal conflict, yet he says this, if
we are led of the Spirit, here's my hope, you're not under the
law. So then the consequence of this
struggle has nothing to do with my salvation. It's an effect of my salvation.
Get that. It's the effect of it. It's not the cause of it. And
so then the flesh winning or the spirit winning doesn't have
anything to do with my righteousness. That's something that's already
been done. But it is something we face. It's something we do
struggle with. And then he begins to manifest
these things here. If you look on down the apostle
here, he's going to talk about what the flesh is. He says, now the works of the
flesh are manifest. The works of the flesh are manifest. These are clear. These are clear. Now, and I want you to get this
because this is, I said this many times to our congregation,
I want you to understand what the Apostle is doing here so
that you, The legalists will take these things and they'll
say, the works of the flesh are manifest, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulation, strife, wrath, sedition. And then they
go looking in you. They start looking for all this
stuff in you. They say, ah, look, there's sedition. That's not
what he's doing. The Apostle is stating these
facts concerning the flesh because he wants you to see these things
are in you. These things are in my flesh.
The flesh that lusts against the Spirit, and he wants you
to internalize this, not external. Not looking at everybody else's
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, sedition, looking
at your own. These things are in our own flesh. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness. This is sexual immoralities. And you remember our Lord told
us that that could be done by a look. Whosoever looketh upon
a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already in
his heart. Idolatry. We think of idolatry
as somebody bowing down to a little statue or something, which it
is. I read this the other day, some Catholic priest holding
this thing up, a bowl of gold and diamonds, and he was weeping,
and they asked him why he's crying, and he says, I'm holding the
Creator! Idolatry. But again, we're not to look
outside, we're to look inside. How about putting our families
above Christ? Idolatry is putting anything
above Christ. That's what it is. Your family, your friends,
your job, who has not committed idolatry. Witchcraft. Well, I've not done
that one, Pastor. Oh yeah? Anybody want to know
the future? You may look for signs. You may
be superstitious. Witchcraft. Hatred. Well, we all did that. I did
that on the freeway. Coming over here. Variance. That's an argumentative
spirit. Anybody got that? Emulations. That's the ruin of others. Seeking
the ruin of others. Just think about your politicians
and see if you don't do that. Strife, fault-finding, blaming,
quarreling, seditions, divisions, civil and religious, heresies. You know the root word of that
is? Opinion. Anybody got an opinion? Well,
God said this, but I think, okay, heresy, that's what that is.
Simple. It's adding your opinion to what
God said. That's heresy. And then the externalizing of
these things is envy, murder, drunkenness, reveling, and such
like. You know, we've got a whole book
full of men examples of this, don't we? God's men. God's men. He paints them warts
and all. Numerous examples of believers
guilty of these vile things. Think of Lot. Got drunk and committed incest
with his own daughters. Moses murdering a man thinking
he did God a service. Aaron committing idolatry and
allowing a fornication among the congregation. An orgy in
front of his idols. That was God's high priest. Samson, committing adultery,
and then suicide, killing himself. David, murder, adultery. Job, self-righteousness. See,
we have all these examples. Why? Because the same thing that's
in these men are in here. This is my flesh we're talking
about. This is the mark of every true
believer is this, that we know we are the sinner. You know what
the publican said, Lord be merciful to me, the sinner. The sinner. So this is when God comes in
power and opens our hearts and minds, this is the first thing
we reveal is our sin, our need of Christ. Have you ever overcome these
things? This is what religion teaches.
Religion teaches you that you can overcome these things. That
you can get past this. I knew a man that was, he ruined
his life. Committed adultery, divorce,
the whole thing ruined. His reputation ruined. Couldn't find any relief, couldn't
find any comfort. And religion came in and said,
oh, you just need to join this group over here and we'll all
talk about it. And then it'll get better and
pretty soon you won't even have those desires anymore. Our Lord said this, that which
is born of flesh is what? It's flesh. But what is our hope? Our hope
is this, that the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all our sins. I like that word. All the words
that use ETH are present perfect tense. John says, His blood cleanseth
us from all our sins. It means it has cleansed me from
all my sins. It is right now cleansing me
from all my sins. And it shall forever cleanse
me from all my sins. Isn't that what you need? Don't you need cleansing now? What if we had to take our worship
tonight as our acceptance with God? Don't you need cleansing from
your worship? Isn't sin mixed with all you do? And so what is our hope? It is
the blood of Christ. What is our restraint? Religion
tells you the law is your restraint. What is your restraint? Listen,
to the believer, the love of Christ is our restraint. Isn't
that what Paul said? It is the love of Christ. Not
my love for Christ. That doesn't restrain anything. It is the love of Christ that
constraineth us from fulfilling the lust of our flesh. So this is the result, is a constant
perpetual warfare in every believer. And now let us look and see the
other part of this. Not only do we have the old man
of sin, but there is a new man. I know that was a downer. But there is hope here, look,
because there is a new man. There is a new man in every believer. And look what Paul says comes
out of the new man. He says this in verse 22. He says, but the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace. Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And so this is true of every
believer. Yes, we have an old nature that's full of sin. We
have an old nature that can't do anything but sin. But I'm
telling you this, we also have a new nature that cannot sin
at all. And this is the fruit of the
Spirit. I thought of an analogy today
to try to give you something to look at. You plant a seed. It's an apple tree seed. You plant it in the ground. And
it grows. It grows. And it has branches
and it has leaves. But you don't know it's an apple
tree until you see what? I'm not a tree connoisseur, so
I could see a tree and it would just look like a tree. Until
what? I saw an apple on it. And I could say, yep, that's
an apple tree. That's an apple tree. Now did
the apple make the tree an apple tree? No. It just showed me that
it was. The fruits of the Spirit don't
make me holy. They're just evidence that I
am. They're just the fruit of it. The nature is created of God. That's what Paul says. Listen
to what Paul says about your new nature. He says, put off
the old man and his deeds. Isn't it wise to put off those
old deeds that we just mentioned? Of course it is. Put on the new
man, he said. How do we do that? We do that
by faith. You do that by faith because
this is what God says is created. He said, put on the new man,
which is created. Now you don't have to be a scholar
to understand that word. It means something wasn't there
before and poof, God created it. God made it. Created after
God, after the image of God. And listen to what He says, in
true holiness. I don't know if there's any other
kind, but if it's holiness, it's got to be true holiness. But
that's how it's created, after God, in true holiness. And listen
to what happens, what's the fruit then of this? Every believer
will love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. First of all, love for Christ.
Love for Christ. So, simple question, do you love
Christ? Do you love His person? You can't
love somebody you don't know, isn't that right? You can't love
somebody you don't know. Paul said, how shall they call
on Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Who shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved? That's great! But how are you going to call on somebody
you don't know? How are you going to call on Him unless somebody
tells you about it? Has somebody told you of this
person who is God manifest in the flesh? Do you love that?
I do. He is God. Very God. Manifest in the flesh. Come to
redeem His people from their sins. You know what the angel
said when He came into the world? He called His name Jehovah Saves. Why? He's Jehovah and He's going
to save. He's going to save, listen, His
people from their sins. When He came into this world,
He lived a righteous life before God and men. And He died on the
cross for the sins of His people. You love that? I'll tell you
this, only one group of people like that. Sinners. Sinners like
that. I need that blood. Without it
I'll die. And in love he gave it. And the question is this, do
you love his success? Do you like hearing about how
successful he is? My whole soul depends upon his
success. I love to hear us successfully.
I need to be reminded of it because the flesh is dragging me the
other way. How often do you say tis a point
I long to know often causes anxious thoughts. Do I love the Lord
or no? Am I his or am I not? Do you love him? Why do you love
him? Why do you love him? There's
a whole bunch of people in this world don't love him at all. Simply this, I love him because
he first loved me. No other reason. I don't love
him because I'm smarter than you. I don't love him because
I'm better than you. I don't love him because I'm good or
this or that. Love him because he loved me He chose me I didn't choose him
he chose me For the life of me, I can't figure
out what He put me in Christ He in love with died in my stead,
and He in love called me to Himself. There is no wonder I love Him,
because He loved me. I like this hymn, we sing it
often, "'Tis not that I did choose thee, for Lord, that could not
be. This heart would still refuse
thee, had thou not chosen me. Thou from sin that stained me
has cleansed and set me free. Of all thou hast ordained me
that I should live to thee. To a sovereign mercy called me
and taught my opening mind. The world had else enthralled
me to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none before thee. For thy rich grace I thirst.
This knowing if I love thee, thou must have loved me first. Do you love him? How often have we? Again, love is just a fruit of
what he's done because it's not, you don't depend on your love,
do you? You don't dare put any weight in it, do you? Why? Because your love fluctuates.
Doesn't it? We're like Peter. Peter one minute
said, Lord, I don't care if they all betray you, I'll die with
you. Now we chuckle at that because
we know what happens in just a minute. But at that moment,
I guarantee you he was sincere. How often have you been sincere
in this? Though everybody forsake you, I won't. And it wasn't a couple of hours
later and he denied him three times. I know Peter loved him. But Peter
struggled with the same thing we do, the flesh against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh and our love often
fails. But here's my hope, his love
never fails. He came to Peter. Peter, do you love me? Yeah,
yes Lord, yes, I love you. Feed my sheep. Second time, Peter,
do you love me? Oh, how this must begin to stain.
You know I love you. Feed my sheep. And the third
time, Peter, do you love me? Peter being grieved. Lord, you
know all things, you know I love you. What kept Peter loving him? Was
it Peter's love? What keeps you loving him? It's his love for you. It's his
love for you. I got plenty more. Man, I got
plenty more. I'll go over this. I'll go quickly. These last two will close it
up. Joy. Joy. Every believer has joy. And I'm not talking about the
joy that passes, this fleeting fancy thing that just happens. We have a young mother in our
congregation and man, I haven't seen a baby in our congregation
in a long time and I'm watching her look at that little thing
and the joy that comes out of her by just, you know, and I'm
watching it and I said, man, I'm so happy for you and it's
going to go like that. Why? Because the Joys of earth
are fleeting. This is not the joy we're talking
about here. The joy that the believer has
is one that is spiritual. It has nothing to do with the
circumstances in our life. It has nothing to do with the
providences that happen to us. Our joy does not stem from those
things, but rather is a spiritual and an eternal joy. Why? Because our joy is Christ. Peter said this, whom having
not seen you, what? You love. And though you don't
see Him, yet believing, what do you do? You rejoice. You rejoice
in what? In whom? You rejoice in Him.
With joy unspeakable, full of glory, Christ is our joy. The psalmist writes this, the
joy of the Lord, is our strength. The Bible is very good at being
specific. You notice that? Have you noticed
it's not general? It's specific. Not your joy in the Lord is your
strength. Why? Because the same thing that
happens to your love happens to your joy. Doesn't it? So there's no strength in your
joy. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Now what's His joy? What is the
happiness of God? What is the joy of God? Listen
to this. It's to save you. You know that is the joy of God
to save you? It is His pleasure. I can't,
it's like unfathomable to my mind that He actually rejoices
to save me. Not till I'm there can I fully
understand that. In Zephaniah chapter 3, listen
to this. The scripture says He sings. When I was dating my wife, Cheryl,
when I was dating her, every love song, every love song that
came on the radio pictured my relationship. Immediately, I
just sang. God rejoices over you. Man, if that won't put you in
the dust, nothing will. He rejoices over you with singing. In that day when you stand before
Him, our Lord Jesus said this, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. We all love our children, and
we pray to leave an inheritance to them, but how often do we
want to take it away? They do something bad, their
lives are a mess, and what do we want to do? Well, they ain't
getting that! My God says, I give it to you
with all my heart. I give it to you. This brings
joy. And the last thing is this, peace.
Peace. Every believer loves, every believer
has the joy, and every believer has peace. I'm going to skip
over here, go to Philippians chapter 4, and I'll close with
this one. Philippians. Philippians chapter
4. The Apostle says this in verse
4, Rejoice in the Lord always. There it is. There's joy. You
can rejoice in that always. When are you supposed to rejoice?
Huh? Are you supposed to wait for
a special occasion? A special circumstance? Everything going well? Then rejoice? No. Rejoice always. Why? Because you have joy. Always. It's given to you. Again I say,
rejoice. Let your moderation be known
to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing. Isn't
that good? What are you to be anxious about? If it's God's good pleasure to
save you, what are you to be anxious about? If God gave you His Son, which
is the greatest gift He can give you, how shall you not with Him
freely give us all things? If nothing can separate you from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, what do you have to be
anxious about? You are. You are. We are. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving... You know what? You can't be thankful
and murmur at the same time. Can you? You can't. You can't
do it. Let your requests be made known
unto God. And, listen, the peace of God
which passes understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through
Jesus Christ. Now, how can you understand the
peace of past understanding? I was always confused by that.
I didn't really understood. I mean, that was really hard
to grasp because obviously you can't understand this kind of
peace, so then what's the point of dwelling on it or thinking
about it? It's not what it means. I got this the other day and
it was just Just open this text to me very, very clear. When
you're a little child, and you have two loving parents, you do not understand the intricacies
of how they make the money to buy the food. You don't understand
the sacrifices they make to give you the food. You don't understand
how they have to go out and get it, and pay for it, and bring
it home, and you don't know how they cook it, you don't know
the intricacies of all these things that they have to do in
order to get that food on the table. You don't understand any
of it. All you know is this, and you're
at peace with this, that you're going to eat. You're at peace. You know when it's dinner time
as a little kid, you run to the table and you sit there expecting
food. You're at peace. You don't know
how it is they buy the clothes. You don't know how it is they
go shopping. You don't care. You don't understand it. All
you know is they love you and they're going to put clothes
on your back. That is a peace past understanding. You don't
need to understand how it is. You just have peace. It's going
to be alright. That's exactly how it is. We have peace. We
know this. I don't know what God's doing. I just know He's
going to do it. I don't know how it's all going
to work out, but I really don't care. I know this. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose, and I have peace with that. Now is your flesh gonna fight
against that? Yep. I struggled all the way here. And yet at the end, God gave
me such peace to know that I am working all things together for
your good. And you don't have to understand how it happens.
You don't need to know how the sausage is made. You just don't
need to know. And we're anxious because we
want to know. It's past your understanding.
Why would you want to know? But this peace came at a price,
didn't it? Colossians 1.21, Christ hath
made peace by the blood of his cross. I don't understand the fullness
of that. I know it, and I believe it, and it is my peace. I don't
understand the fullness of it yet. That's all right, I don't have
to. You don't have to know everything. Just God know Him. You know Him, you know everything
you need to know. And these are the things that
are in believers. Okay, I got more, but I ain't got... I just
gonna quit. No, no, no. I gotta quit. I know, but these things, gentleness,
meekness, these are things that our faith, our love, joy, and
peace always yield meekness, long-suffering, and gentleness.
If you have those three, those other three pour out that. And
then faith, faith ties it all together. You have to have faith
to have love, joy, and peace. You have to have faith to have
meekness, gentleness, temperance. You have to have that. It just
ties it all together. But listen to me, all these things
are in you. You who believe, these are in
you. They're not the measure that
you want, but they are in you. They're the fruit of the Spirit
that God gives you. And you know, the only person that doesn't
see Him is you. You, the believers, I don't see. I see the flesh. I don't see
these others. Not really meant to. If you saw them, you'd be proud. But God does show them to each
other, doesn't He? I see yours. I see yours. I see your love and your faith
and your meekness and your gentleness. I just don't see mine. It's all
right. I see Christ. That's all I need to see. I pray
God blesses.