I don't know about you, but sometimes
when I read passages like the one that we read in Galatians
5 last week about the fruit of the Spirit, I ended up wanting
to preach to myself as much as anything else today. So you can
listen in. The extraordinary challenge in
the book of Galatians before us is the challenge that lies
before so many of the Lord's people is that it's possible
to be extraordinarily moral, extraordinarily knowledgeable
in the scriptures, extraordinarily zealous. so zealous that you
would travel thousands of miles to bear witness to what you think
is Christianity and you'd be lost. I don't know about you,
but I read that verse again that Paul spoke of himself in 1 Corinthians
9.27, he says, but I keep my body And I bring it into subjection,
lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself
should be a castaway. It's possible, isn't it, for
someone to preach the Gospel and for powerful things to happen
and for them to be a castaway. Judas did that. Demas no doubt
did that and many others. When we come to the Lord we will
come finding that He is holy and we will come by His Spirit. That's what we looked at last
week, didn't we? We looked at the fruit of the Spirit. What a remarkable
contrast it is to find the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.22. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. And I don't know about you, but
I go away from my time speaking my trust on the Lord's behalf
and asking whether those things are evident in my life. And today
I want us to think about Think about where and why and how they
are evident in genuine believers, in the genuine children of God,
and how they are exercised by Him. What a remarkable What a remarkable
promise from God that the fruit, His fruit, in the lives of His
people is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law,
verse 24, and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with
the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, empty glory, provoking one another and envying one another."
I wanted us to look today at an
apostrophe. Remarkable apostrophe. If you
look there in verse 24, they that are Christ. Christ, apostrophe, S. As anyone who's studied much
English knows, it's a mark of possession, is it not? They that
are Christ. And so there is, there is, according
to the Word of God, There is a people that belong to Him,
they that are Christ, the perverting gospel. is a removal from Him
who called you into the grace of Christ. It's a removal from
Him. They that are Christ, not just
they that talk about belonging to Him, not just those that talk
about loving Him, not those that do some religious duty to be
seen by men. I heard in a sermon that someone
can be as straight as a gun barrel on doctrine and just as empty. Straight as a gun barrel on doctrine
and just as empty. that I put to myself as much
as anything, what would be changed in your life if you weren't a
Christian? What would be changed? What would
be changed in my life if I was no longer a believer? It's interesting,
isn't it, after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, after
He who is the Sabbath of His people came and finished His
work of salvation and redemption, believers then met on the first
day of the week, signifying in many ways a remembrance of the
resurrection, but also signifying that the weak were a Christian. begins with worship and continues
with worship. It's not something that's tacked
on at the end of the week as it was for the Jews. They finished
their work and then they had a rest. God's children have met
on what they call the Lord's Day. But there is, there is,
despite all of the issues, that we see throughout the scriptures
and we see in the world around us about false profession of
all sorts. There is, according to this apostrophe,
there is a possession. There are people that belong
to Christ. That's what it means, isn't it?
They that belong to Christ. They're His possession. He has
a people in this world They are His by the eternal gift and surety
arrangements of His Fathers. They're His in betrothal. They're His by creation. They're
His in His incarnation. They are His by redemption. We're bought with a price. We
don't belong to ourselves. His possessions are bought by
Him. Bought. by his death on the cross,
bought by his satisfaction of divine justice, bought and brought
to him by him overcoming Satan who held them captive. He defeated
the strong man and now he loots the They're His possession. They
don't belong to the strong man. And so they're a real possession
of His by His sovereign hand. They're real possession of His
by being born again to Him from above with a word from Heaven
spoken to their hearts through the preaching of the Gospel.
They are His. in His love and you could add
to that list in many ways. But they are His and they are
now His, they that are Christ, they are now His by His presence
in them and His presence with them. What does He say? I will
come, we will come and we will make our abode with you. We will take you by the sovereign
hand of grace. and we will lead you through
this world of sin and death and we, we will lead you to the promised
land. We will take you out of those
lands and we'll take you across the Jordan and we will take you
into that eternal promised land. That's why they have, because
they're His possession, that's why they have all these family
titles, don't they? They are the Father's children.
God has children in this world. They are joint heirs with Christ. They are brothers and sisters
with Him. As was said, they're indwelt
by Him, they're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. They are those that
have the Spirit of Christ. They are they that are in the
Spirit and not in the flesh. As we saw in verse 18 of chapter
5, they are led by the Spirit. Verse 25, we live in the Spirit. We walk in the Spirit. So he
owns them, they're part of his family, and he uses possessive
pronouns to describe them. Always, doesn't he? He says,
they are my sheep. They are my people. They are
the flock of God, the fold of Christ. They are the friends
of God. They are the glory of God. A church, a real church,
is the habitation of God by the Spirit, a place where He dwells. His children are the heritage
of God. That's why they're called the Israel of God. They are the
lot of God's inheritance. They are members of Christ. They are a peculiar people. That doesn't mean they wear silly
clothes and do strange things. They are particular and peculiar
to Him. They are different. It is His
people are the Lord's caution that they are the temple of God. Malachi, the last of the prophets. Imagine these words ringing in
the ears of God's people for 400 years and not a word, not
a word until John the Baptist came. He says in verse 16 of
Malachi 3, He says, Then they that feared the Lord spake often
one to another. God's children, God's family
talk often one to another. They talk about Him. And the
Lord hearkened, the Lord listened and heard it. And a book of remembrance
was written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that
thought upon His name. feared the Lord and they thought
upon His name. And if you just think about the
name Jesus Christ or Lord Jesus Christ, they thought about all
of what His name implies, His character, the very being of
our God and our Saviour and our Redeemer as described in the
Scriptures. And what does He say in verse
17? He says, They shall be mine. They shall be mine, saith the
Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. What a great description. My
jewels. They'll be mine. And I will spare
them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. and then
His description of drawing them to Himself, then they shall return
and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between Him that
serveth God and Him that serveth Him not. They that are Christ,
says our text, they that belong to Him, they that are a real
possession of His, they are the treasure of God. They are His
people. There is one flock, one fold
and one shepherd. At the heart of the book of Galatians
and at the heart of Paul's confidence that these words that the Holy
Spirit inspired him to write to a church that was fast heading
down the road to apostasy, His confidence, his confidence that
this message would be heeded and responded to and loved by
the people of God was because they were Christ. They really did belong to Him. They'll hear the shepherd's voice,
they'll hear His voice and they'll heed it, and they won't follow
the voice of another, and they'll heed it. Because, as he says
in Galatians 6.15, for in Christ Jesus, for in Him, neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. They are a new creation. They are the creation of God. No one in the world ever understands
them. Don't expect them to. They are
a new creation. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new." That's the fruit of the Spirit, isn't
it? All things are new. Before the Spirit came, people
could talk a whole lot about love and even talk about loving
God, but they won't really love Him until they are a new creature. And He, who first loved us, We
love Him. There is a real love for God,
a real passionate love. We love Him because He first
loved us. We will have joy in Him. We will rejoice in Christ Jesus
and have no confidence in the flesh. The threats of the law,
the threats of punishment or its promises of reward are no
motivation whatsoever for believers who are in Christ. I love what
the Lord Jesus caused Joshua, that great type of the Lord Jesus
which led his people into the promised land. He said, as for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Speaking as a great
Joshua, wasn't he? The great carrier and bringer
of his people into that land promise. We will serve the Lord. as he named Judah, the tribe
from which our Lord Jesus came. It says, unto him shall the gathering
of thee people be. They'll be gathered unto him. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. All that come to me I will in
no wise cast out. So Paul's great confidence, the
great confidence of anyone who preaches the Gospel, confidence
in the sense that the Lord Jesus exhibited, when if the multitudes
wanted to go away, He let them go and He never chased after
them. Why? Because His people, His
people will hear His voice. His people will come to Him. They will not go anywhere else. They will ultimately and they
must be brought to Him. They've been His forever. He'll always have them. When
the body of Christ is put together under its glorious head in heaven,
it will be a perfect body. Not one tiny little piece missing. A perfect body. The question is written in so
many ways, isn't it? Paul thought to himself, possible
that he might be a castaway at the end of his life. I'm sure
he didn't say that as scenes. But so many might cry, as the
hymn writer says, Pass me not, O gentle Saviour, Hear my humble
cry, While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Saviour, Saviour, Hear my humble
cry, While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Let me at Thy throne of mercy
find a sweet relief, Kneeling there in deep contrition, help
my unbelief. Trusting only in Thy merit would
I seek Thy face, Heal my wounded, broken spirit, save me by Thy
grace. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me, Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Saviour, Saviour, hear my humble
cry, While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Are you His purchased position?
Does He own you? Does he exercise his rights to
rule as his possession? They that are Christ's. The Lord Jesus said some shocking
words to some of the ones that are most gripping, aren't they?
He spoke to the the Pharisees and others, and
he says, this people honour me with their lips, but their heart
is far from me. Lord work, work by your grace
in my heart that the fruit of the Spirit would cause me to look again
to Him. They that are Christ, as we read
on in verse 25, they that are Christ have crucified the flesh
with affections and lusts, affections and desires. They that are Christ's
have crucified the flesh. As he says in Galatians 2, I
have been crucified. I am, I have been once and forever
crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, And this is
what happened in his crucifixion. He loved me and he gave himself
for me. He gave himself on my behalf. Those that are Christ, those
that are his possession, have crucified the flesh. One very evident thing is that
it is physically impossible for you to crucify yourself. Crucifixion
is not something you do to yourself. Crucifixion is done to you by
another. And crucifixion has one result,
doesn't it? When they nailed that person
up there on the cross, one thing was for sure, that there will
necessarily be a death. That person is nailed there just
to look in one direction. That person was nailed to the
cross by a force outside of himself, and held there between heaven
and earth. To the world its foolishness,
to the religious its judgment. Those that are crucified are
exposed and shamed. What a glorious thing it is to
ponder our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. That when He was
crucified, all of His people were really and literally, in
the eyes of God's justice, in the eyes of the only reality
that matters, they were there and then crucified. We are God's children, are a
crucified people. They that are His possession
have crucified the flesh. Martin Luther said, to resist
the flesh in this manner is to nail it to the cross. Although
the flesh is still alive, it cannot very well act upon its
desires because it is bound and nailed to the cross. We are,
says Paul to the Philippians, we are the circumcision, who
worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Crucified flesh finds no confidence,
no hope, no satisfaction in it and its activities. They that are Christ's have crucified
the flesh. They that are Christ's have had
the very lifeblood of the flesh circumcised on them. He'll circumcise
the hearts of his people. Circumcision means to cut all
the way around. It's to cut in every direction
because in every Look in this world is a look of the flesh
to the flesh. In every activity of the hearts
of man is only wickedness all of the time. That's why that
list that we see in verses 19 to 21 is only just the tip of
the iceberg, as it were, and such like, he says. and such
like. There are so many more, so many
more. See a heart of stone, a heart
of stone which we are born with. It's a heart of stone that needs
removing. It's a heart of stone towards
God, towards His Gospel, towards His Word, His people, His worship,
His will, His glory, His honour. A stony heart. how I grieve over
the stony heart that is still left to harass me in this life. But it's a circumcised heart
that God brings into His people. It's a circumcised heart so it
can be removed. It's a circumcised heart so it
can be wounded from every direction. Our flesh chases after all of
these things and God is able to wound it. He's able to hedge
us in, as he says of Gomorrah, hedge us in with thorns. A new
heart can be put in, a heart that loves the Lord, a heart
that lives by faith. A heart that just looks to Him,
looks to Him all the time, again and again and again. It looks
away, looks away from my faith and my works and my worth, and
it looks to Him. The enemies are all around. It's interesting how Israel was
set, as Ezekiel 5 says, it was set in the centre of the nations.
He set this jewel, this picture of his church, his people in
this world, and the enemies were all around. You had Greece and
Tyre and Philistia and Egypt and Moab and Ammon and Assyria
and Babylon, everywhere you went. Everywhere you went from nation
Israel. When things were difficult for
Moshe and Israel, there it was, just a walk away. His people will be surrounded
by those things and yet kept, kept. They will stumble and fall
into those things and they will be brought back by Him. Ultimately
the Lord's people find rest for their souls in nowhere else and
nothing else except Him. They can't cope without Him. They must have Him. As we saw in the Song of Solomon,
the Shulamites spoke as highly and of the glorious Lord with
words that no other lips in the scriptures express, such beauty
and such devotion. But all of that, all of that
was but an anticipation, all of her talks about Him, all of
her glorious descriptions of Him, all it did was grow in her
a desire to have him. So she didn't rest until she
had him close. She didn't find rest in talking
about him, but in his arms. She comes up out of the wilderness
of this world leaning on her beloved. The Lord takes his people
through deep, deep trials. You think of the trials that
he took Jared through. You think of what he caused his
child, deeply loved of God, Daniel, to go through. He took him to
a place where serving God was a matter of life and death. Serving God, worshipping God,
being with Him is a matter of life and death. And being with Him, being with
Him is worth all the pain that He brings in the testing of our
faith. The trial of our faith is of
greater worth than gold, that we might receive the goal of
our faith, the salvation of our souls. What did Peter go on to
say? Whom having not seen, you love. in whom though we now see him
not yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory." The children of God are the faith children of Abraham. And what did God say to Abraham? He said, I am your reward. Genesis 15. That's not right. He said, I'm your great reward.
That's still not enough for our God. What did he say? He said,
I am your exceeding great reward. He, he personally is the reward
of his people. His presence, his presence with
us is our great desire that I might be found in him, that I might
know him. There is, to go back to our text,
there is a real possession, a real possession and a real presence
and a real activity. There is a real crucifixion.
There is a resulting, a real resulting transformation. There
is a crucifixion. Those that are cross have crucified
the flesh with its affections and lusts, with its affections
and desires. Our heart longs for self-gratification
always. We're like those little starlings
in the nest. Anytime you go by and disturb
them, all of them squawk at once, all of them saying, me, me, me,
me, me. Their mouths open wide. See, in a new heart, God not
only imputes the righteousness of Christ to us, but he imparts
his righteousness to us. A new creature, a new creature
longs for love, joy, peace, long-suffering. A new creature finds those things
which we see all around us and we see in us, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, all of those things, heresies, a choosing of your
own way, there is in the hearts of God's people. There is a real
transformation and it's a turning away from the affections and
desires of religion itself. Satan laughs at people to be
religious, to be religious without Christ. to be religious, thinking
that somehow by the activities of our flesh, our affections
and desires, we can somehow add to His perfection, somehow polish
it, somehow make it more acceptable to God. That's why Paul, led
by the Holy Spirit, goes on in verse 25 to talk about a new
life. A new life, real life, true life,
everlasting life. It's to live in the Spirit. It's to be led by the Spirit. What a great place to live, to
live in Him who is the Holy Spirit. In Galatians he says that the
man that doeth them, you go back to law works, the man that doeth
them shall live in it. You go back to law, you live
in it. You go back to looking at your
flesh and you will live in it. You live in it. That's where
your life will be. That's why he says, those that
are led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. You don't
live in that domain. You don't live in the domain
of flesh, fleshly affections and lusts. They've been crucified.
And how are they dealt with? The Spirit of the Lord just has
to blow upon the grass, and it withers away. All flesh is grass. It'll grow and look strong. All
it takes is the breath of God. You'll live real life. What did the Lord Jesus say?
He says, because I live, you also shall live. To live in the Spirit is to live
in Christ's communion, a living union, that vital union, that
union of one flesh. It's a spiritual union between
Christ and His flesh. It's a union that God's children
long for when it's missing. I love how David confessed his
sins, didn't he? He says, against you and you
only have I sinned in Psalm 51. But then he says, purge me, which
means is to wash me completely white, not a single spot left
on me. Wash, purge me with hyssop and
I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. And listen to what he says. that
the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice." He breaks those
bones. He'll break them with tender
loving care. There'll be real pain, but the
result will be amazing. hide Thy face from my sins, blot
out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from
Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore
unto me the joy of Thy salvation and uphold me with Thy free spirit."
Make all those things happen. Create in me a clean heart. Wash
me. Take away all my sins. It's not
until then that all those things have happened. that David can
then say in verse 13, Then I will teach transgressors thy ways,
and sins shall be converted unto thee. It's very difficult to
speak of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures and His work of grace
and His mighty work in the lives of His people without looking
at Romans 8. If you just turn there, we'll
just look at some verses in Romans 8. If you're led by the Spirit,
you're not under law. For they that are Christ have
crucified the flesh with the affections and love. If we live
in the Spirit, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk
in the Spirit. I'll have to start at verse 1,
for once again it's a description of that possession of the Lord
Jesus. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit and
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do,
and it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the
flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us. Go back to what I've said so
often, God's children don't keep the law. God's children have
kept it perfectly. in our substitute. The righteousness
of the Lord might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh but after the spirit. For they that are after, and
that word after means according to, in conformity with, correspondence
to, they that are in conformity to the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh. But they that are after the spirit
are the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against
God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his, he is not his possession owned
by him. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life, because
of righteousness, His righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. He'll give life to your
mortal bodies, which is what Paul is saying in summary terms,
isn't it, in Galatians 5.25. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors
not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after
the flesh, you shall die. But if you, through the Spirit,
do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Adopted children
are crying children. They cry out to Him, and if children
then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if so be that
we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. His possession, indwelt by His
Spirit, led by His Spirit, the law completely fulfilled. If the law is completely fulfilled,
there is no need, brothers and sisters, to be looking to the
activities of the flesh. Why would you want to look back
to the activities of the flesh, your own or others, when He has
set your gaze upon Him? That's what walking in the Spirit
is, isn't it? walking with our eyes. We've just last week looked at
the fruit of the spirit. As any gardener knows, I like
my avocado trees because I like avocados and they grow like weeds
at home and the bugs don't hurt them and they don't fall over
and drop branches and they're really, really nice trees. And
I've got some little ones growing around there and they are doing
something really exciting at the moment. There are flowers
all over the place and then out of the flowers come these little
buds. But if I'm going to look after my avocado trees, what
do I do? Do I go down there and play around with the flowers
and fiddle with the leaves at the end and gaze at the fruit? No. What do I do to my avocado
trees? I look after their roots, don't
I? I make sure that in the ground
they are secure. I try and make sure that in the
ground they don't have any weeds to steal all the nutrients from
them and I want to make sure they're well watered. So much,
so much of sad, works-oriented Christian life is causing people
to look at the fruit all the time. Look at the fruit when
they go around fruit-checking. And the only way you can really
do fruit-checking is get the law out, isn't it? I need a book
of rules. So when I go around to Colton
and Meryn's house and I'm doing the tithe of the spices, I want
to make sure that all of them are measured out properly and
the cumin and the herbs and things are done properly. And Meryn
gets the books out properly so that 10% of the income can be
put aside properly. I can't do any of that and look
at Christ. So you can't look two ways at
the same time and see anything clearly. You can't do it. You look to the root, don't you?
I love what Romans 11.6 talks about we Gentiles being grafted
in, grafted into nation Israel. Coles excluded from this, saying
he claims Jewish ancestry, and good on him. But we, we Gentiles,
we sinners of the Gentiles, We're grafted in. Romans 11, 16 says,
and if the first fruit be holy, talking about our Lord Jesus,
and the lump is also holy, and if the roots be holy, so are
the branches. It's the root that matters and
the branch that matters. And that is what holds the believer
up and that is what produces fruit. He says, and if some of
the branches have been broken off and thou, being a wild olive
tree, were drafted in among them, and with them partakest of the
root and the fatness of the olive tree. So that fatness comes from
something that's hidden, isn't it? The roots that provide the
fatness are hidden from view. Boast not against the branches
if thou boast But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but
the root bears thee." God's children are held up and held in Christ
by a sovereign hand of omnipotent grace. He will, He will, having suffered,
He will see His servant. He will see them. The root holds
them up. They were broken off by unbelief.
But how do you stand? According to Romans 11.20, you
stand by faith. You stand looking to Him. If we live in the Spirit, let's
also walk in the Spirit. The foolish Galatians in chapter
3 He asked those questions of them in chapter 3. He said, this
is what I want to learn from you. You tell me what happened
in your experience. Did you receive the Spirit by
your law or obedience? Did Paul come along with a whole
set of rules and regulations for Christian living? Or by the
hearing of faith? What a great description of the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's faith, isn't it? His faithfulness. His faithfulness unto death. Are you so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? You've
begun in the Spirit and you are a branch that's grafted into
a root that's holy. Then you're holy as well. Holy
because He declares you to be holy. Holy because the justice
of God declares you to be holy. Holy because of your union with
Him, as holy as He is. That's why so much of walking
in the Spirit is being made as those people who met the Lord
Jesus in the Gospels. They came to Him as beggars. They came to Him as helpless. They came to Him with no strength,
no power, no hope in anything in their flesh. As the leper
said to Him, if you will, if you're willing, You can make
me clean. Leprosy is a great description
of the sin that we are in our father Adam and the sin in our
flesh. If you are willing, you can make
me clean. I am willing. God's children
are made to be beggars, made to be beggars for grace. beggars for mercy, with weeping
and supplications. Will I lead them, says the Lord
Jesus in Jeremiah 31.9. He'll lead them. He'll lead them
to himself. The lepers find grace. Those
that consider themselves by his words to be dogs under the table
receive crumbs. The mourners receive their dead
back to life. The drowning Peter gets a hand
to lift him above the waves that were to consume him. Those brought
down are visited by him. We go to his field like Ruth,
seeking grace, seeking to find someone who will be gracious
to him. We go to his word and we go to
his gospel. We go to the gathering of his
people where he promises to be. We go to him. We go to those
that stink on his name and speak much of him. We go to him again
and again and we beg. and we cry out to Him. We live in the Spirit, let's
also walk in the Spirit. The Spirit of God does as He
has promised in sovereign, omnipotent power. He takes the things of
the Lord Jesus and He reveals them to His people. They will
all be taught of God. They'll be taught of God. He'll take the things of His
Word and He will cause it to be known to them. See, God's
children don't learn by education. They learn by revelation. They learn by a revealing of
Him to His people. I received it not of men." Paul's
gospel didn't come from man. It didn't come from intelligent
religious people. It didn't come from the Bible
colleges of Jerusalem. It didn't come from the law-keeping,
the assiduous, zealous law-keeping that allowed him to say that
he was perfect. None of that. profited him anything
at all in the things of the Lord whatsoever. How did he receive
it? He was taught it, Galatians 1.12,
he was taught it by the revelation of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit
takes his word and by his Gospel He makes it spirit and life to
us. And we love it, God's way. And
we love His character as He's revealed in His Word. And we
love the way He saves. We love the way He is gracious. We love the way He loves His
own. And as He did, as He said in
John 13, having loved His own who were in the world. He loved
them to the very end. He loved them completely. He loved them perfectly. And just to close, in verse 26,
Paul said, Let us not be desirous of vain glory,
Provoking one another and envying one another. Isn't it remarkable? To provoke literally means to
call attention to myself. To call attention, to combat
or to contest with another. Dear oh dear, I've done that
in religion. Have you done that in religion,
my friends? Look what I've done. Look at
my Bible reading, look at my prayer life, look at my missionary
activities, look at my witnessing, to provoke. That's to provoke
others, isn't it? Versus love, joy, peace, meekness,
temperance, long-suffering, gentleness and goodness, faith. They zealously affect you, Paul
said of these people. They are enthusiastic about drawing
you to themselves, but not well. Yea, they would isolate you,
they would exclude you, that you might be enthusiastic about
them. It's nothing like religious enthusiasm
to draw people in and to get them working hard. And then they
are flogged again and again and again, flogged on a weekly basis
with the law of God to make them act as if they are believers. Our God is not a beggar, brothers
and sisters. He is not a beggar. He doesn't
need mercenaries in His army. Let's not be desirous of vain
glory. As Paul said to the Galatians,
if you bite and devour one another, if you provoke one another, if
you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed
one another. Gruesome picture, isn't it? That
people will eat each other up until there's nothing left. Vainglory. All of the glory of this world
is vainglory. All the glory that comes from
any law or obedience is vain glory. Anything that can be achieved
by the activities of the flesh. that allows there to be any glorying
is vain glory. It just means empty. It's empty. Completely empty of any meaning. Completely empty of any honour
to God. Completely empty of any good
to your souls. I don't like being involved in
empty things. Life is short. I remember counting
up a little while ago how many days, according to the three
score and ten, I had left. It's a shrinking number, and
another year has nearly gone by. I can't afford to spend these
few short moments left doing empty things. God preserve us
from doing empty things. Anything that's achieved without
Christ, without whom we can do nothing, Anything that's achieved
from fleshly activities and not Christ is just vanity. See the law, the law is not of
faith. And without faith it's impossible
to please God. And anything that's not of faith
is sin. And sin is a transgression of
the law. So the law keepers, they start
as law keepers and all they end up doing is being law breakers. All the glory that this world
offers is vain glory. All the glory that our flesh
craves for is empty glory. All the glory of religion which
is based on human fleshly commands is vain glory. Did you receive
the Spirit, Paul says to the glory, did you receive the Spirit?
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you
so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect
through the flesh?" Vain glory seeks my rights, my righteousness
above others. Vain religion causes people to
have a Christ who makes much of me. versus the real Christ
who causes Himself to make much of Himself to me. As John the Baptist said, He
must increase and I must decrease. Walking in the Spirit and the
solution to this vain glory is looking to Him. See, every time
we look to the flesh of others through our fleshly eyes, that's
all we can look at. I can't see your hearts and I
don't pretend to. But when we look down, when we
look at others, we look down on them and provoke them and
we look up to them and we envy them and we want what they have. It is, as Galatians 4.9 says,
turning again to weak and beggarly elements which hold people in
bondage. But God's children have known
God and they are known by Him. The solution. The solution is
in a glorious gospel which crucifies the flesh of man again and again. It declares it crucified 2,000
years ago. It declares that through the
law we are dead to the law, the law exacted, the perfect and
complete punishment on my flesh. And it died. And it was buried. That's what baptism signifies,
isn't it? That my flesh has been crucified. I'm dead and I'm buried. Nevertheless, I'm raised to newness
of life. Nevertheless, I live. I live by looking to Him, not
looking to others. no matter who they are. I love
that conversation on the shores of Galilee with the Lord Jesus
and his apostles. What remarkable questions he
asks. What remarkable questions he
asks again. Do you love me? Do you love me
more than these? And Peter hears some words about
John and he turns around and says, what about him? And the
Lord Jesus says to Peter, he is none of your business. He's
mine. I can and I will do with him
as I see fit. You follow me. You don't take
your eyes off me, even to look at the Apostle John. And we look to Him and we find
ourselves remarkably and wonderfully transformed by His grace. 2 Corinthians
3.18, we looked at it just a few weeks ago. But we all, with open
faith, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed. Are changed. into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." There
is, in looking to Jesus, there is in hearing about the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, there is, according to the promise
of God, a remarkable transformation in the lives of people." Is that not your story, brothers
and sisters? In my times of darkness and discouragement
and despairing and anguish, I have found yet again that what he
says is just simply true. Look unto Me and be ye saved,
all you ends of the earth." He gets the glory for doing it all,
and I, in His times of sweet grace, find His promise of His
presence so sweetly true that the whole world and all of its
appeals is so, so dim that I'd be very happy to be just kept
and left. As the Shulamite said, don't
disturb him, he's in my arms. Don't let anyone disturb him. Don't wake him. That, brothers and sisters, I
believe, say is the answer to the anguish and the trials of
our flesh. We don't need to look to evidences,
we look to Him. We look beyond whatever we see
around us and we look through it and we look at it and we look
at it through the lens of who He is. And we, we, by the Spirit, The hope of righteousness wait. We wait on the Lord and be renewed. Let's pray.