Paul's now drawing to the end
of this letter, which it seems is written with his own hand. And he's writing as a man who,
because of love for these people's souls and love for the Lord Jesus
Christ, has been deeply troubled. He has been concerned about these
Galatians. They were running well. They had believed the Gospel,
believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and
now the wolves had come in. The wolves that were dressed
in sheep's clothing had come in, and what they were doing
As all false teachers of every sort do, they cause people to
take their eyes off the Lord Jesus and put them back on their
own activities, on their own flesh, to look again at their
own religious works as if somehow by these hands, or your hands,
somehow you can make the work of God Almighty more effective
in your life. than by simply resting on Him,
to do what He has promised to do. See the question is so often
before us, and it's before these false teachers, and it was seducing
and deceiving of the Galatians, is how do you get people to live
like Christians? How do you get them to look as
if they really are Christians and act like they really are
Christians in this world? That is so much of what religious
activity is about, isn't it? They have been brought to some
sort of conversion by the activities of men, the activities of the
flesh of men appealing to the flesh of other men, and then
they spend the rest of the days trying desperately to get them
to behave. Quite simply, the message of
the Gospel is that the Gospel that saves is the Gospel that
sanctifies. The very same Lord Jesus that
saves people is the very same Lord Jesus who sanctifies people. He sanctifies them by the truth. So how do you get people to give
to the cause of Christ? You look to Him. How do you get
husbands to be the husbands that the Scriptures speak of? You
look to Him. How do you get people to be thankful,
as verse 6 talks about us, in terms of being thankful for the
ascension gifts of the Lord Jesus to His Church? You cause people
to look to Him. They look to Him. How do you
get people to care for one another? You look to the Lord Jesus. How
did He do it? How do you get people to hold
on to sound doctrine? You look to Christ. How do you
get people to sow to the Spirit? You look to Him. How do you reap
eternal life? This verse speaks of the horrible
evil of mocking God. It says, God is not mocked. How do you avoid that horrible
evil? You turn people's eyes away from
themselves and their activities to look to Him. These verses
talk about the fact that the people of God in this Gospel
age in verse 9 become weary and at the end of verse 9 they are
fainting people. How do you rescue them from weariness
and fainting? You cause people to look to the
Lord Jesus Christ, to turn away from themselves and look to Him. But here in these verses we have
before us this biblical spiritual truth of reaping and sowing. And I want us, as we go from
here today, to see that there is a gospel of reaping and sowing. And it's not a gospel that brings
people back under the law. The goal of all of God's servants,
isn't it, is just to hold him up. to preach and exalt the Lord
Jesus Christ as God, as our Saviour, as our Redeemer, as our Rescuer,
to preach the crucified Saviour high and lifted up, that crucified
Saviour that Paul had been rescued by that crucified Saviour who
gave Himself, verse 4 of chapter 1, gave Himself for our sins. He gave Himself on behalf of
our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father. The preacher's
job, as Paul says in Acts 20, to be free of the blood of all
man is to preach the whole counsel of God. That you might find yourself
just simply believing, simply relying upon, simply trusting,
simply casting all of your hope for life here and for eternity
beyond here into Him. and by simple faith in Him, as
Romans 7 says, we establish the law. By faith in Christ the believer
is dead to the law and we are married to Christ that we might
bring forth fruit unto God. It's in that marriage that fruit
unto God is brought forth. Paul is writing, as I've said
on several occasions, with the clear and certain understanding. A hope that all would turn. But a deep understanding, I believe,
that as this letter was read out in the church, there would
have been at that time and in the hours and days that followed,
there would have been people there who would have, like Peter,
been rejoicing, that God had stepped in as though they were
about to fall into a pit of corruption. And there would have been people
there who were absolutely incensed. and the false teachers would
have gathered their little flock to themselves again and again
and they could have used this letter to continue to turn people
away from Paul and away from Paul's servants in these churches
and away from Paul's pastors and back under the law and back
to them. But Paul's confidence, Paul's
confidence again and again as he writes to people, his confidence
is in the fact that our God reigns and all flesh is grass. And there is, as he mentions
again and again, there is an eternal covenant established
by our Godhead before the foundation of the world. And in the council
of His will, He determines all that happens in time and eternity. And there is a lamb that was
slain from the foundation of the world. and a people saved
from the foundation of the world, a people saved and called who
will live to the praise of the glory of His grace, and they
will respond to the Gospel. They will hear the Shepherd's
voice, and they will respond to Him, and they will see in
Him that all of the promises of God are yes and amen, and
they will be recipients of God the Holy Spirit. who will come
and create life and separate those people and show them the
Lord Jesus, these people who are the objects of everlasting
love, and they will move the hearts of those people to love
Him because He first loved them. Our great God, as Paul has gone
to show us towards the end of Galatians 5, those that are Christ,
there are a people that belong to Him. He indwells them, Christ
living in His people by faith and them receiving the promised
Holy Spirit. And all those gifts that we read
of fruitfulness, how much the people of God, I don't know about
you, I can't speak, but how much do you long to have love and
joy and peace in fellowship with Him, and long suffering and gentleness
and goodness towards your brothers and sisters in Christ, and faith
and meekness and temperance in this world. God's people have
a hunger and thirst for righteousness. And all of those fruits of the
Spirit are hard activities, but they're hard activities that
bind the people of God together in church. And it brings them
fruitfulness in their lives, and it brings them to hear the
Gospel, and it brings them to respond in faith, and it brings
them into fellowship. And they have In that fellowship,
they have the exercising of the gifts that God gives to his people. Blood-bought gifts. You, all
you who believe here, have gifts that are absolutely essential
for all of us. Which is why, when people are
away, we miss them. We're going to have three or
four weeks without seeing Graham and June. I'll miss them. I miss
them sitting back there and smiling. I miss them. We miss Jenny and
Noah because they're away. We do miss people because they
have fruits that I need. They have gifts of God. We are a body. We don't operate
as individuals. We operate as one. And it is these gifts that are
exercised, as Ephesians 4 says, for the edifying of the body
of believers. And that same spirit has caused
the Apostle Paul to write these words, and it will cause God's
children who hear these words to respond. in thankfulness and
gratitude, to find again the Gospel is good news, to have
that light shone that exposes these people that they had esteemed,
exposes them for what they are in a way that only God can do. God does expose false teachers. to his own and he leaves multitudes,
multitudes to sit under their ministry and to reap what they
sow. As I read out of Isaiah chapter
1, the church seems so fragile, seems so weak, seems so cast
down, it seems so easily scorned and so often wracked with trials,
and yet it is a spiritual house. It's the household of faith. What a great description. the
Apostle has been caused to name the Church, to designate the
Church, the household of faith. And in that household of faith,
God's children are weary and frail and fainting. And yet, and yet, it is a Church
triumphant. It must It must reign as its
saviour does. He will see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied, is the promise. And by his knowledge
my righteous servants shall justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. They'll be counted perfectly
justified in the eyes of God. their iniquities have been born
in His body and they've been born away. And when this great
work's done, in an individual and in a church, this great work's
done, it'll be built, as Zechariah 4 says, it'll be built not by
might nor by power, nor by works of the flesh, nor by law-keeping. It will be not built by might
nor power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts. And when
the headstone is brought forth, there will be shouts of triumph."
And what are the shouts of triumph? Grace. Grace unto it. He who began the good work will
finish it. The shepherd will bring his sheep
back to the fold. The shepherd will rescue his
sheep from the wolves. The shepherd will rescue his
sheep from the wolves in sheep's clothing. And they'll be brought
there because of an eternal covenant. An eternal covenant. The covenant
of works says you do and I will respond. The covenant of grace is God
making a promise, I will and you shall. I love the second,
I am fearful of the first. Paul is anxious. about what's happening
and he writes the most stern and serious warning letter in
the New Testament, bristling, bristling with deep, deep concern
for these people. But in the response that God
works in the hearts of His people are going to be some outworkings
as this letter is read and those churches continue on either in
the faith or left, left by God, which is why He says in verse
6, let him, it's very interesting how many times that word let
him is used in these verses here. 5.26, 6.4, 6.6 here and 6.9. It's actually interesting, isn't
it, that those who want to use these verses to put people back
under the law miss the very simple beginning of Paul's sentence. It's actually led him It's not
command him or demand of him. This is what will happen. Let
him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth
in all good things. And that word communicate is
the word from which we get communion. It basically means fellowship. It means that you who hear Paul's
letter and are led by the Spirit of God will have fellowship with
Paul. You who stay in those churches
will have fellowship with the pastors who fellowship with Paul. Paul went down to Jerusalem to
meet with the apostles and what did they give him down there?
According to Galatians 2.9 they gave him the right hand of fellowship.
They are saying we are at one with you. So fellowship in a
sense is saying encourage him. Peter Meaney was telling me this
morning that when he was doing his business course, they talked
about two methods of communication. One is transmission and the other
one is communication. Transmitting is just putting
something out. But when people communicate, there is a communion,
there is a feedback, there is a response. All of God's preachers
are taught by God personally. All of God's people are taught
by the Lord, and they communicate that teaching, God's people communicate
that teaching to hearers appointed by the Lord. They hear His voice,
and as I said earlier, they follow the voice of the shepherd, communicating
all good things. What a great description. What
a great description of the fruit of the Gospel in God's people's
lives. The fruit of the Gospel. All
good things. So the question is, and the commentators
generally turn these verses into meaning that people are to support
financially, and I am thankful for the support I get and I'm
nervous about talking about it any further, but at the end of
the day God's servants have to eat and be fed and be cared for
and in most congregations it is an obligation of the people. But there is a sense in which
these verses are meaning much, much more than what happens with
your paycheck. It is an encouragement to the
people of God. What encourages God's servants? We spent some time looking at
First Thessalonians last year or the year before and it was
just amazing how Paul, having been with this little congregation
just for a short, short time, maybe just a couple of weeks,
and he was hounded out of there and the false teachers not only
harassed him in Thessalonica but they followed him down the
road and then they went back to Thessalonica and there they
were harassing these believers. And there's Paul and he can't
get back to them and he finally sends Timothy to get word of
what's happening. What encourages, what encourages
God's pastors and shepherds? Ultimately, it's that feedback,
it's that response, isn't it? That people will love the Christ
of the Gospel they preach. And there will be, in the hearts
of God's people, a joyful reception of the Gospel. And they will
esteem God's servants, as 1 Thessalonians 5.13, they will esteem them very
highly for their work's sake, not because of who they are as
people, but for the gospel that they preach. If you listen to
some of these verses in 1 Thessalonians, he says in verse 2, we give thanks
to God always for you making mention of you in our prayers.
remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labour of love
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of
God. Knowing, brethren, your election
of God, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also
in power and the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you
know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. You
became followers of us and of the Lord." They became followers
of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction. There's much affliction for the
children of God and with joy in the Holy Ghost. Affliction
and joy. He says in chapter 2 verse 13,
for this cause also we thank God without ceasing because when
you received the word of God you heard of us, you received
it not as the word of men but as it is in truth, the word of
God. And listen to what the word of
God does. which affectually worketh also in you that believe." God's
Word affectually works in those that believe. And now in verse
6 he talks about Timothy coming back. And he brought good tidings
of your faith and charity and that you have good remembrance
of us always, greatly desiring to see us as we are also to see
you. Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all
our affliction. Paul went from an afflicted church
to an afflicted place to another afflicted place. And what comforts
a pastor in his affliction. by your faith." People trusting
the Lord Jesus Christ in all of that. For now we live. See,
what's life for a pastor? If you stand fast in the Lord. It's exactly what he was saying
to the Galatians, isn't it? Stand fast and don't get entangled
again in a yoke of bondage. You stick with the Lord Jesus
and stick with his Gospel. And don't get bound up in all
this other nonsense. For what thanks can we render
unto God? It's almost as if he's reaching
the limits of joy and thankfulness. What thanks can we render to
God again for you? For all the joy wherewith we
joy for your sakes before our God. Night and day praying exceedingly
that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking
in your faith. Now God himself and our Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you. And the Lord
make you increase and abound in love one toward another and
toward all men even as we do toward you. To the end, to the
goal that he may establish your hearts. Settle your hearts, establish
them, put them on a solid foundation, unblameable, in holiness, before
God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calls you. as faithful as He that calls
you, and He will do it. He will do it. He will work in
the hearts of His people, and the gospel will be that sound
of the Jubilee trumpet, that sound of freedom. They'll be
taught of God, says 1 Thessalonians 1.4. You'll be taught of God
to love one another. Let him that is taught in the
word communicate unto him that teaches in all good things. It's fellowshipping together,
brothers and sisters. It's standing. It's being in
fellowship. being here where the gospel is
preached. As Paul's ministry is like the
ministry of all other men sent of God. It's not taught by Bible
colleges, and it's not taught by religious schools, and it's
not taught by denominations. He was taught. He received it
not of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Do you see how dangerous it is
to turn from Paul? To turn from Paul and go with
these false teachers is to turn from God Himself. No wonder they that go down that
path shall of their flesh reap corruption." He was pleased. It was pleasing God to reveal
His Son in him that I might preach him among the heathen. God called him. God ordained
him. God sent him to these people. So prone we are, so prone all
of humanity is, to be deceived. It's a good thing, isn't it,
that he says in verse 7, do not be deceived. Stop being led astray. Stop being moved. He says in verse 6 of chapter
1, he's marvelled, he's absolutely astounded that these people are
so soon removed. It's a very, very quick step
from the Gospel to something that looks like the Gospel and
is no Gospel at all. You're so soon removed from Him
that calls you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel.
The troublers of Galatia were perverting the Gospel. Paul says
that those who are teaching and leading in those churches and
putting people back under the law, under circumcision, they
are accursed of God. They are accursed of God. And Paul is not seeking to please
men. God's servants don't have to
please men. The fruit of their activities,
the fruit of their ministry, is ordained by God from before
the foundation of the world. As Paul says, if I yet please
men, I should not be the servant of Christ. They came in and they
had spun a web of deception over these people. And Paul goes on
to say, you don't be deceived. It's very easy for man to be
deceived. But he says, God is not mocked. These people can mock Paul, but
God is not mocked. The word mock means simply to
turn one's nose up at something. Have you had people turn their
nose up at you? Turn their nose up at the Gospel?
God is not mocked. It's interesting, isn't it? He
doesn't say that God will not be mocked or God has not been
mocked. He says God is not mocked. He is never mocked. God the Father
is not mocked, God the Son is not mocked, God the Holy Spirit
is not mocked, God's Word is not mocked, God's servant is
not mocked, and God's Church is not mocked. It seems that
way in the world. But do not be deceived. Don't think
that that is happening. Don't ever think that they are
winning. Ever. Don't be deceived. Don't mock God. Don't mock God,
Paul is saying to these Galatians. To fail to communicate, to fail
to be in fellowship is to attempt to mock God. See, God takes it
personally. He takes it personally always
when it comes to his people, to his servants. He takes it
personally how people respond to his servants, to his ambassadors. They stand in his behalf as Paul
does here to these Galatian believers. He stands there as God's messenger
to their souls. And this is why God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap." That word, that, means that it means
exactly the same thing that a man sows, he will reap. If that attitude that these people
had to Paul remains, then what they sow is what they reap. You turn your nose up at Paul
and you will reap that. It is such a common spiritual
law in the scriptures, isn't it? It's just throughout the
scriptures and the glory of the New Covenant is that God works
in the hearts of His people and He shows us that there's
a Gospel in this. No doubt when you read those
words and hear them said, if we reap what we sow, what have
I sown? All of God's children will be
horrified to think that we will reap what we sow. In the context of Galatians,
it's a serious warning to those who stand opposed to Paul and
it's a serious, wonderful comfort to those who respond to him. Throughout the scriptures, isn't
it, we read of this sowing and reaping With the merciful you are so,
you are self-merciful. The Lord says in Matthew 7, doesn't
He? Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you will find
and knock and it shall be opened to you. Again and again throughout
the scriptures He says in terms of forgiveness. You are to forgive
others. You are to be merciful as your
Father is merciful. Judge not and you shall not be
judged. Condemn not and you shall not
be condemned. Forgive and you shall be forgiven. It seems all
through the scriptures, isn't it, that there is this necessary
reward of sowing and reaping. In the hearts of God's people,
the forgiving and the being merciful are a result of the Spirit's
work in the lives of His people. what Paul is saying in the context
of this letter to the Galatians, that if you sow to your flesh,
as verse 8 says, if you sow to your flesh, if you sow to your
flesh by going back under the law, you will reap of the flesh
corruption. If you sow to the flesh you'll
reap corruption, and if you sow to the Spirit, you shall of the
Spirit reap everlasting life. God will meet you. I love what Todd said about this,
God will meet you on the ground on which you come to Him and
you will reap what you sow. God will always meet you on the
basis that you come to Him and you will reap what you sow. Let
me explain. If you come to God on the ground
of your works, you will reap what you sow. God will deal with
you on the basis of your works. If you come into God's presence
on the ground of pure and free sovereign grace, not grace plus
anything, if you come to God as a nothing, you will reap what
you sow. God will meet you on the ground
that you come." How do they come? How do they come? I love that
story of the publican in Luke's Gospel, isn't it? He comes and
he stands afar off and he says, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. God, be propitious to me, the
sinner. God, you look on your son's sin-bearing
sacrifice in my place. be merciful to me, the sinner."
He names himself and he went home, says the Lord Jesus. He
went home justified. Lord, if you are willing, you
can make me whole. Again and again, God's children
are brought low in Ruth's a beautiful picture of Ruth being brought
to Boaz, being brought to the kinsman redeemer, being brought
into his household, being brought to his family, being brought
to a place where she is productive with him. And she becomes the
great-great-grandmother of King David. She is a cursed sinner
from a cursed land, of a cursed people, And she comes as an empty-handed
beggar. That's what it is to be a glena.
She comes as an empty-handed beggar. And as a beggar, she
meets with him, and she speaks to him, and he speaks to her. And she becomes remarkably the
object of amazing grace. She's drawn to Him. She has nothing. She has no claim
on Him whatsoever. And yet there she is, a recipient
of the most remarkable grace and love. And he takes her into
his house. He takes her into that little
hut beside the field which represents his church. And there in that
place she drinks water that someone else draws for her. She eats
food that someone else prepares for her. And she's actually fed
by Boaz himself. Grace has drawn her into his
arms, and grace keeps her there. And remarkably, even though Boaz
was a mighty man of wealth and a king and employed all sorts
of people, Ruth, until the marriage day, remained a gleaner. God's servants, God's children,
are just mercy beggars. If you come to God as an empty-handed
beggar, God will meet us there. We'll reap what we sow. If you
come to God pleading your works, anything that you've done, pleading
your experiences, pleading the best that you can do, pleading
your law works as these Galatians were encouraged to do, God will
meet you on the basis of those things. May God be merciful to
us. May He move our hearts and strip
us, as painful as it might be, of anything that we want to think
will cause us to earn any merit before Him. So faith is just
coming to the Lord Jesus as He is. It's coming because He commands
to come. It's coming because you hear
His voice. He says, come unto me all that
are weary and heavy laden and you will find rest, rest for
your souls. You will find rest. I will give
you rest. You won't earn this rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest."
He'll give you rest and you'll find it. For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light. We come to God on the basis of
His sons doing and dying. and He'll meet us there. We'll reap what we sow. We come because He said you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. We come as Ruth did, looking
for a place where she might find grace, and she finds grace, because
she has nothing in herself. He that soweth to the flesh shall
of the flesh reap corruption. The flesh, of course, just refers
to us in our Adam state, but also In these New Testament letters
it refers to the flesh of man in a religious activity under
the law. You come into God's presence
on the basis of your doing and you will reap corruption. God makes a promise. See, sowing to the flesh, in
Galatians, is to go back to the law as your rule of life and
as your basis of acceptance with God. See, Paul's great desire,
isn't it? He hasn't changed at the end
of his letter than he did earlier on. He, I desire to be present
with you now and to change my voice for I stand in doubt of
you. Do you not hear the law? You who desire to be under the
law. He goes, as we've so often seen,
he goes again and again to show people that Christ is everything
and Christ plus some of your activities is absolutely nothing
and damning to the souls of men. 216, you are not justified. 219, you don't live unto God
if you live under the law. 220, Christ does not live in
you if you're not living by faith. 221, you empty the grace of God
and you make Christ's death an empty thing. And 3.10 says, if
you are as many as are of the works of the law, as many who
find any origin in their doing and their being from the works
of the law, are under a curse. And 3.12 couldn't be plainer,
could it? The law is not of faith. I love what God says, Moses my
servant is dead. to the children of God, who live
by faith in the Lord Jesus, Moses, my servant, is dead. The law is not his faith, and
if you do them, you live in them. That's all, the only place you
live. Now under Paul calls them, weak
and beggarly elements, weary until you desire again, to be
in bondage. And if you're led of the Spirit,
where the Spirit leads, it leads you from being under the law. If you're led of the Spirit,
you are not under the law. The works of the flesh, these
works that are activated by people going back under the law. How
does Paul describe himself? In Romans 7.5 he describes exactly
what's happening here, isn't it? For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sin which were by the law did work. The motions of sin which were
by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. He's just spoken about them,
hasn't he? The works of the flesh. adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
and he goes on and on, envying, drunkenness, murders and such
like. The thing that we have to bear
in mind is that the ancestors of these false teachers, and
those similar to them, as religious as you could get in all of Jerusalem,
when they met the Lord Jesus Christ, these zealous, moral,
legalistic, religious people murdered the Lord Jesus Christ. as if they picked up all of their
laws and chucked them away, and all they had they were exposed. They were exposed before Him. And what corruption was in the
hearts of these morally upright people. The works of the flesh,
it might be hidden from view, it will be exposed in the presence
of God. a little leaven, leaven is the
whole lump, a little bit of works, and that's all you have, a whole
lump of corruptions. What a shocking thing he says
to those that trouble him, he says, they will bear their judgment. What a shocking thing to think
that you will meet God on that day, Galatians 5.10, and you
will bear your judgment. Dear oh dear, you wonder how
anyone in their right mind would not say, I'm going to have fellowship
with Paul and I am going to run from this. And yet, history shows
us that that was not the case and neither is it in our day. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap everlasting life. What is it to sow to the
Spirit? What is it to plant in that field,
to plant that seed? You receive the Spirit. How do
you receive the Spirit? How do you begin? In Galatians
3.1, you receive the Spirit by the hearing of faith. You receive the Spirit by the
hearing of the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful
to His people, faithful to God, faithful to God's character,
faithful unto death. You receive the Spirit by hearing
the Gospel. And the Spirit is ministered
to you by the hearing of faith, Galatians 3.5. This is how you
sow to the Spirit. God's children are faith children. The just shall live by faith. God's faith children live by
faith. The law is not of faith. God's children live in a different
realm altogether. They are the sons of God. This is saying to the Spirit,
because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into your heart. The Spirit of His Son in your
heart cries. A cry, Abba, Father. Those born after the Spirit will
be persecuted. They'll be persecuted by those
born after the flesh. Galatians 5.5 is a glorious verse,
isn't it? If we, for we, through the Spirit,
out of faith, The hope of righteousness, wait. That's everlasting life,
isn't it? The hope of righteousness. You
cannot be in heaven and not be holy. You must be perfectly holy,
not good enough, not working hard enough, not trying hard
enough. God will only accept absolute
perfection, absolute holiness. I loved what Greg Elmquist said
about the Lord Jesus Christ the other day. He said in his incarnation
he became a man who could be in the presence of God and not
be consumed. and as a man, he can touch human
beings and not be defiled. What a great description of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He can touch his own and not
be defiled because their sins are taken away. He can touch
his own and embrace his own because they're as holy as he is holy. And in that state, right now,
Every child of God is as perfectly fitted for Heaven as he ever
will be, and God's children are as wholly That's the reality of God's truth.
Why on earth would you want to do something to it? It's like
Merrim doing a beautiful painting there and then sending me around
with a great big pot and a four inch brush saying, go for your
life. All I could do, all I could ever
do is ruin it. Why on earth would you want to
add to or touch what He has done? If you walk in the flesh, Galatians
5.16, you will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, you will
reap. If you are led of the Spirit, you are not under law. We live in the Spirit, let us
also walk in the Spirit. To have the gift of the Spirit
is to be a person, as I said earlier, who cries. It's to be a person, as we saw
last week in Galatians 6.3, who is a nothing. A nothing. A nothing in themselves
and everything in the Lord Jesus Christ. To be sowing in the Spirit is
to be a fellowshipper, a communicator, one with another. May God protect us from being
deceived. Those who know anything of the
weakness of their flesh know how easy it is. May He cause
us to simply look again to the Lord Jesus Christ and find in
a look, as they did in that desert, they find in a look life, life,
eternal life. Let's pray.