One of the great delights of
proclaiming the Gospel is that God says, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." What a remarkable
promise, to receive double for all our sins. The voice of him
that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall
be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and
the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The
voice said, Cry, and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is
grass, and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, because the Spirit
of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower fadeth. But the word of our God I'd like us to spend a little
bit more time looking at Galatians 5.18. We touched on it briefly
towards the end of our service last week, but Galatians 5.18
leads into a passage of scripture which, for many commentators
and others who have spoken to us over the years, is a place
where people seem to forget the immediate context of it, seem
to forget the whole essence of the book of Galatians. And here's
a place where they can bring in some legalism. Verse 19 says,
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like, of
which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's, they
that are owned and bought of Him, 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 vainglory,
provoking one another, envying one another." And that's the passage that so
often is laboured rather than the context of the rest of the
Gospel, this letter, this epistle from God the Holy Spirit to us. And so before we embark on those
things and look at them more closely after Peter has gone,
I just wanted us to be settled, be settled as you look at those
things into what God the Holy Spirit is doing and the remarkable
promises, the remarkable eternal new covenant, eternal covenant
promises that wrap these commands up in. And for the children of
God, we find the commands of God. And we find them particularly
delightful because we take His commands to the promises of God. And there, sitting in the promises
of God and sitting in the midst of the eternal covenantal purposes
of God, they have their right and proper life and meaning and
work in the lives of God's children. It's a great verse, isn't it?
But if by the Spirit you are led. If by the Spirit you are
led. And that word led is a remarkable
word. As I studied it this week I became
more and more wrapped in what it was saying and finding it
delightful. Believers are not under the law
but under grace. But they are led by the Spirit. The children
of God are led. And the word to lead means to
lay hold of, to lay hold of, to take to a destination. Isn't that lovely? the Spirit. You're led by the Spirit. He's
laid hold of his people to take them to a destination. It's the
same word that's used of the good Samaritan laying the man
on his donkey and taking him to the inn, a glorious picture
of the Lord Jesus rescuing and redeeming and caring for his
own. It's the word that's used of
the cult that's brought to Jesus. And you will know as you think
about those things that these weren't asked permission about
whether they were going to be led. They are led gloriously
by Him. To be led is to be led by a company. So it's not just to be given
some instructions, but to be led by a company. So Andrew led Peter, he brought
Peter to Jesus, but he went along with him. It's to lead with oneself
in the same thought, isn't it? First Thessalonians 4 says, If
we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also
which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him? Will God lead
them to a destination? The Lord spoke of His sheep.
He says, Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also
I must bring, same word, I must lead, and they shall hear my
voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Hebrews 2 talks about the glories
of the Lord Jesus' redemption and it talks about bringing many
sons to glory. It's the same word, to be led. To be led is to be in close fellowship. to be in communion, to have the
comforter, the advocate. He is the helper in our infirmities. He is the intercessor, the searcher
of hearts and he makes intercession according to the will of God
in Romans 8. And then the very next word is,
because he does those things and we know. We know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are Thee called according to His purpose. One of the glories
of the Gospel, one of the glories of the comfort that the Gospel
brings is that we are not left, we are not left to wander through
this wilderness world without the aid of someone who was with
us. constantly. He never, ever, ever
leaves us nor forsakes us. He is there guiding and directing
all things. Such is the eternal covenant,
isn't it? Such was the prayer of David
as he died. He says, the Lord has made with
me an eternal covenant. An eternal covenant. And when
you think of David's life, He's made an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things. Everything that happened in David's
life was ordered according to those eternal promises. Ordered in all things and sure. Ordered in all things and firm
and solid. For this, for this is all my
salvation. All of our salvation is tied
up in the person and the purposes of God Almighty. This is all my salvation and
it's all my desire." That's where the Spirit leads people, isn't
it? All of our salvation and all of our desire is tied up
in who our God is and what He has promised to do in the lives
of His people and with the lives of His people in this world. So all my desire, although He
make it not to grow, One of my verses in John 12.26 has become
one of my favourite verses in the scripture. I just love the
order of the Lord's activities amongst his people. If any man
serve me, let him follow me. That's the heart's desire of
the children of God, isn't it? To serve him and to follow him.
If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, There shall also my servant be."
We think it around the wrong way all the time. We think we
sort of wander off on these paths and we do in so many ways. But in fact the Lord puts it
the other way around. You cannot, you cannot get out
of His presence. You cannot escape. brothers and
sisters in Christ. You cannot escape from His hand,
His sovereign hand on your life, His sovereign hand on all of
this universe, this spiritual universe, this physical universe,
this world that so baffles and confuses, all of that is perfectly
in His hands. And He goes and His children
go and they find Him there. What a delightful thing. They
find Him there. If any man serve me, Him will
my Father honour. As we saw last week, the letter
to Galatians has so much about the work of the Spirit in the
lives of His people. And it's remarkably refreshing
to see how God, the Holy Spirit, in directing Paul to write this
letter, gives us such a wonderful balance, this wonderful balance
and a lovely order of things that we might find comfort in
the Scriptures. As I said earlier, so many commentators,
they get to this part of Galatians and then somehow they seem to
forget all of those eternal covenantal promises and all of a sudden
it seems as if somehow God has gone as far as He can go and
then you are left. And somehow for so many people
salvation then hinges upon their obedience or their disobedience,
and they are caused again and again to look back to their flesh,
to look back to their activities. And no doubt, there is no doubt
that as you read that list there, some were troubled about the
things on it. But if you read that list to
the people in the churches of this world, and you read that
list to those that Paul was speaking against here, they would tick
the box on all of those things and say, I haven't done that. They would use that list as a
basis for them proclaiming something of their righteousness. I wouldn't
have done that, I haven't done it, and here is my righteousness." In so much preaching there is
the bringing in of works and law, and if we preached messages
on living the Christian life in terms of these activities
of morality, what happens is that the promise of Galatians
5.15, that you bite and devour one another, so if I preached
We've preached on marriage and other things. You know exactly
what happens. You can say, well, that's all
right with me, but I wish someone else would hear this. As soon
as we turn to the flesh, don't we, we want to say, it's all
very well for me, but look at those others over there. People
are abiding and devouring one another. And I think also it needs to
be said that the accusation against those who preach the Gospel and
trust that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation and
it's the power of God unto sanctification, because the very Gospel that
saves people is a Gospel that reveals the sanctifying power
of God in people. And so what sinners need to hear
and what saints need to hear is the Gospel. They need to hear
the Lord Jesus lifted up and proclaimed as is revealed in
the scriptures. And there is no question that
the scriptures are calling upon people to live lives of integrity. to not pretend that God doesn't
see and know everything about us all the time, and God's children
love it that way. We have no need to hide anything
from Him. But if you don't have an integrity
in private and public that reflects the purity and love and honour
to the Lord Jesus Christ, then I am fearful for you, and I pray
the Lord have mercy upon your soul. But also if you have an
integrity in private or public which allows you to boast of
anything that you have done, then I am fearful for you and
pray the Lord's mercy upon your soul. Not only do we Not only do we
want to proclaim who our great saviour is, we want to proclaim
him in his glory, in his absolute sovereignty. But we want to proclaim
him in such a way that like the Shulamite in the Song of Solomon,
as much as she describes him in the most remarkable ways,
he is altogether lovely. He is the chief among ten thousand. but the pseudomites comfort. And Shulamite's real comfort
was not just in describing Him, all of that was on the way to
being with Him. See her great joy, her great
joy in salvation, the great joy of the Church in salvation is
that close, intimate communion with Him. And that's what this
word means, isn't it? To be led is to be accompanied,
to be laid hold of, to be led by him to a destination, to be
in fellowship with him. So I'd like to spend a little
bit of time this morning looking at the Blessed Holy Spirit and
His work. If you are led of the Spirit,
if by the Spirit you are led, says in the original, the Spirit's
leading. What a glorious, glorious God
the Holy Spirit is. He's not just some sort of power
tool to be picked up and used by people. He's a person. He
is God, the Holy Spirit. He has so many designations in
scripture that just bring delight to the children of God. He is
the spirit of truth, John 16. He's the spirit of truth that
leads his church into all truth. He is the witness. He is the
witness that testifies of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
witness that not only testifies of him in Romans 8.16, he's the
witness that testifies to us. What a blessed, blessed promise
from God. Romans 8.16, the Spirit itself,
the Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. The Spirit beareth witness Christian
living is not a walk in the dark. It's not floundering around in
a fog. It's walking in the light, brothers
and sisters. Walking in His light. For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. We aren't without. a father who guides and directs. We aren't without a comforter.
John, just turn back to John's Gospel and have a look at some
verses in John 14 and 16. I trust that they are verses
that you find a blessing, a blessing to your heart. I speak often about it, don't
I? He says in verse 12 on that fateful night, I have yet many
things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit
when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into
all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear That shall He speak, and He will
show you things to come. He doesn't leave you in the dark
about this world and where it's going. He shall glorify me. He glorifies the Lord Jesus,
for He shall receive of mine and show it unto you. All things that the Father has
are mine. Therefore said I that he shall
take of mine and show it unto you." He'll proclaim it unto
you. He'll disclose it unto you. He'll
announce it unto you. He'll make it known unto you.
What a glorious promise. He'll take the things of the
Lord Jesus, the things of the Lord Jesus Christ from who He
was in eternity, the things of the Lord Jesus in His eternal
covenant, the things of the Lord Jesus in all of those remarkable
types and pictures and promises in the Old Testament, the things
of the Lord Jesus in all of His incarnation, in all of what it
meant for Him to be made of a woman to be made under the law, for
all of what it meant for him to suffer all those trials and
temptations, for all it meant for him to know what it is to
live in this flesh, to live in this world, for all of what was
his. to go to that cross to be made
sin for us. He'll take those things, the
Holy Spirit will take those things and He'll show them to us. What
a glorious promise. The more time you spend preparing
and preaching, the more you are made to be aware of the weakness
of your flesh. The more time you spend discussing
and debating with people and trying to bring people to see
the significance and the importance of the Gospel, the importance
and the weight of the things of eternity, the more you are
brought to realise that our fight is not against flesh and blood.
that we are weak, but God is strong. He has promised in His time,
in that glorious time of love, He has promised to reveal those
things to people. And to be led of the Spirit is
that He doesn't need their permission to save them. He doesn't need
their acquiescence. He will cause them to bow, to
bow the knee to King Jesus at a time of His choosing and in
a way which is perfectly suited to their purposes and perfectly
suited to the fruit that they will bear to Him in this world. He is the Comforter, John 16,
26. the Comforter. He is that Comforter
that shall come. Wherever His divine operations
at work, the ultimate design, isn't it, the ultimate purpose
is for Him to bring comfort to His people. I'm sorry that was
John 14, 26. He brings comfort, He brings
consolation. Let's read from John 14, just
over the page. John 14, 15. If you love me,
keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall
give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever. even the Spirit of Truth, whom
the world cannot receive." So don't be troubled when the world
doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of Truth. The world
cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him,
but you know Him. You know Him. For He dwelleth
with you and shall be in you. What a remarkable thing. that
God Almighty, God Almighty Himself takes up residence in people
like us. And God Almighty can righteously
and justly, a holy God can live in us because in God's eyes that's
exactly what we are. It is no trouble whatsoever for
Him to live in His people. He'll dwell with you and shall
be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more, but you see me. Because
I live, you shall live also. At that day you shall know that
I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." he that has
my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and
he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him, and will manifest myself to him." I trust that you are overwhelmed
by the breadth and the depth and the wonder of the promises
that our Lord Jesus makes and fulfills to his people. So this
is what it is to be led of the spirit, brothers and sisters,
is to have these operations that we read here as promises from
God, the reality of our lives. No wonder the Shulamite, no wonder
the Shulamite, any time she got a hold of him, and could lie
with him and feel his arms around her, kept saying, our daughter's
a Jerusalem, don't you dare disturb him. Don't ruffle this at all,
in any way. Judas said unto him, not Iscariot,
Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and
not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto
him, If any man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with
him. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but
the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto
you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach
you all things. and shall bring all things to
your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." We have before
us a sure and certain word of God. He speaks quite adequately
in English. It's lovely to know some Greek
and Hebrew, but don't trouble yourself. He's promised to be
the revealer and the teacher. And when He comes, what does
He do? Verse 27. Peace I leave with
you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give
I unto you. The world gives to take back. The world gives that it might
have something for itself. Not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. You have heard now, I said unto
you, I go away and I come again unto you. If you loved me, you
would rejoice. because I said, I go unto the
Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you
before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, you
might believe." The object of all of this is that he would
have faith in the lives of his children. Hereafter I will not
talk much with you, for the Prince of this world cometh and has
nothing in me, but that the world may know that I love the Father,
and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do." He delights to
do His Father's will. And when He did His Father's
will, we did His Father's will. glory of the Gospel. It's communion,
isn't it? Communion and fellowship. Union with Him and fellowship
with Him. No wonder Paul closes out 2 Corinthians
by saying, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of
God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. So it's a communion between
Christ and our soul. And it's begun and it's continued
and it's exercised by His grace. So He draws out love to him because
the love comes from Him. That's why Peter can speak of
this joy unspeakable and full of glory. And there's a communion,
because there's a communion between us and Him, there's a communion
between us and with each other because of His work of grace
in our lives. For through Him we both have
access by the One Spirit under the Father. But now in Christ
Jesus you who were sometimes far off, there was a time when
we were far off, scattered from each other by all sorts of things
in life, all sorts of things in this society. You're all far
off, but we're made not. So if you're next to him, and
I'm next to him, then being next to each other is not a troublesome
thing, brothers and sisters. It's a thing of great delight.
We're going to experience it again in the next few weeks when
Peter and Jill come. We're made nigh, we're made nigh
by the blood of Christ. The Spirit of Truth. He leads
and guides. I love what that word guides
means and leads. It means to be on a road. He
has a road for his people. The Spirit glorifies the Lord
Jesus. He brings to remembrance, he
convinces of sin and righteousness and judgement. I love what Robert
Hawker said. In short, so many, so diversified,
so constant, so unremitting are the operations of the Holy Ghost
on the hearts and minds of the Lord's people that it must With
truth be said, that he and he only is the almighty minister
of the Church of Christ, and to him alone the whole efficiency
of the gospel in work and blessing is committed. It's committed
into his hands. They are safe and secure hands
of a sovereign God. We love to talk about the covenant
of grace. See they are all at one in their
purposes, aren't they? All three members of the Trinity,
they are one together in the design of this eternal covenant. This covenant that we see unfolding
before us every day of our lives. And they promise to each other
and they guarantee to each other all of those officers of this
operation of grace. The Father gave the Church, the
Son redeemed the Church, the Holy Spirit sanctifies the Church,
and in the Old Testament we have God the Father, He holds out
the promised Saviour with all of His blessings as coming for
the salvation of His people, His Bride. that gift of His Father
to Him, that Bride. And God the Son comes and He
finishes all that was promised, having finished transgression
and made an end of sin, and now by faith we see Him in glory. He's returned to the glory that
is rightfully His and He reigns and rules over all things. Father
has given him power over all flesh. There is not an ounce
of flesh on this planet that he doesn't have power over. He
is ruling, brothers and sisters. Thy God reigneth. And God the Holy Spirit, as promised,
comes to make effectual the whole purpose of redemption. And He
does it by His sovereign work in the hearts of His people. He leads and He guides and He
directs. So to be led of the Spirit is
to be led of God, it's to be taught of God, it's to be brought
to Him. They shall come with weeping
and supplications, will I lead them? It's to be shepherded. by the great Shepherd of our
souls, in Psalm 23, He maketh, He maketh and He leadeth, He
restoreth and He leadeth. Thou art with me, thy rod and
thy staff, they comfort me. He prepares a table. He anoints
my head with oil. Goodness and mercy will follow
me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever." That's what the leading and the guiding of
the Spirit is. Now unto David cried, Lord take
not thy Holy Spirit from me. And he cries out, lead me in
thy truth and teach me. Good and upright is the Lord,
therefore He will teach sinners in the way. The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. They'll be brought to know Him. They'll be brought to a new life
of faith in Him. They'll be brought to a new walk
of life. In the early days of our church,
when the Lord worked amongst us, we loved to read Ezekiel
36. It's good to read Ezekiel 36.
It's good to think of the context of Ezekiel 36, where God's holy
name is profaned in this world, is profaned by the religion of
this world. And He says He does all things
He does all things for the glory of His name. Therefore, verse 22, Therefore
say unto the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, I do
not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for mine holy
name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.
And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among
the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them. And the
heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God,
when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I
will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of
all countries, and I'll bring you into your own land. Then
I'll sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. You shall be clean from all your
filthiness and from all your idols. Will I cleanse you? A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I'll take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a harder flesh,
and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in
my statues, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and
I will be your God. I will also save you from all
your uncleannesses, and I will call for the corn and will increase
it, and lay no famine upon you, and I will multiply the fruit
of the tree and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive
no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then When God has
revealed Himself in glory, then shall you remember your own evil
ways and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves
in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not
for your sakes do I do this, saith the Lord God, be it known
unto you Be ashamed and confounded in your ways, O house of Israel."
He does it all for the glory of His name. He brings people
not just to know Him, but to know themselves. One of the glorious
pictures of someone coming to know themselves is with our friend
Peter. You might recall the sequence
in Luke chapter 4, the Lord Jesus comes to Nazareth and he preaches
that remarkable sermon. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor,
he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captive. and recovering of sight to the blind, and set at liberty
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
The end result of that message in that town where those people
knew him so well in verse 28. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose
up and thrust him out of the city, and led him under the brow
of the hill whereon the city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong." But he just passed through in the midst of
all of that, and then He comes to see Peter and he comes and
he asks them to put their boat out, launch out into the deep
and let down your nets for a draft. And Simon said, we've toiled
and toiled and toiled and somehow in his revealing of himself to
Peter, Both boats were filled, and when Peter saw it, verse
8, and Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying,
Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. To meet with the
Lord and to have communion with Him is to know what we are, and
to be honest about it before him, to know ourselves but also
Therefore because we know ourselves, we know and are caused and brought
to love His salvation. He brings, the Spirit brings
people low. He wounds to heal, He kills to
make alive. He brings us low by sins and
weaknesses and inabilities. He brings us low by reminding
us that we have two dominating elements ruling over us. We are
imprisoned by sin, according to Romans. Anyone who sins is
a slave to sin, says the Lord Jesus. We are under the law which
curses and condemns and magnifies and reveals sin. And only in
the Gospel, only in the Gospel is there deliverance, only in
the Gospel is liberty, liberty cherished by those who are captives. When the Gospel trumpet sounds,
and what does it sound? It sounds grace, grace, it sounds
glory, glory to God. And it shall come to pass in
that day that a great trumpet shall be blown, the gospel trumpet,
the jubilee trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which
were ready to perish in the land of Assyria and the outcast in
the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy
mount of Jerusalem. They'll find this gospel trumpet
a blessed sound of liberty and deliverance. Blessed is the people
that know the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of Thy countenance. They know this sound. They've
heard this gospel in Him revealing Himself. He reveals us to ourselves
in ways that we could never know. And we take sides with God about
what we are and we no longer argue with Him. And we dare not
think that we have some righteousness that somehow causes Him to be
captive to reward us in some way. We know, don't we? We know, children of God, what
it is. We know the agony of the struggle,
that the flesh lusts 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. We saw last week that
there is both blessing and trial in those words. But there is
just a reality for the children of God. There is a leading of
God's Spirit. You are led of the Spirit, you
are not under law. We're not under Moses' law. We don't send people back to
Sinai. We don't ask them to look at
the law of Sinai with one eye and look at Christ with another
eye. There is just one hope and one
solution for God's children. There's one place of comfort.
We look to Him and we look to Him. And we look to His promises,
we look to His person and His promises, and we find delight. We find delight in who He is. As the Shulamite did, she found
delight in the Lord even when she couldn't experience His presence. It just drew her to search more
anxiously and eagerly, not just to know Him as He is, but to
have communion with Him, to know what He's done, To know what
he's doing. To know. That's simply believing. And by Him all that believe are
justified from all things. What a glorious word. Justified
from all things from which you could not be justified by the
law of Moses. The law of Moses justified no
one. Where then is boasting? It's
excluded by the law of works? No. by the law of faith. See, the law of faith excludes
boasting about your flesh and your activities. The law of works
just brings people to boast about what they've done and what rewards
they're going to get. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free, free from the law of
sin and death. Galatians 6 will go on to remind
us that there is a law of Christ. Galatians 6, 2, you bear ye one
another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ. James talks
about it being the law of liberty. In Romans 9 and 10 it's the law
of righteousness. See, 1 Corinthians says we're
not unruly, we're not without a guide, we're not without Him
to guide and direct us. You're not being, 1 Corinthians
9, being not without law to God, but under law to Christ. to be under is to be within the
law of Christ, to be bound to the law of Christ. It's not the
mosaic law, it's the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has made us free. The Galatians were troubled,
weren't they? in their desire to live a more
righteous and holy life. The false teachers had come and
they had taken their very natural desires in response to Christ's
salvation and said, now it's all very well to have Christ,
but now you must perform, now you must do, now you must put
to death these things. and we put them to death, brothers
and sisters, by believing. Led by the Spirit, you're not
under law. If you're led by the Spirit,
you're not under law. He led them forth by a right
way, so they might go and might go to the city of habitation. The law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death."
So why does he call this law of Christ a law? It's a law because of the Spirit's
work. He is a sovereign God in the
hearts of His people. It has all of His binding power. God's children, are compelled
and constrained by love. We are held like the Shulamite
with cords of everlasting love, with a bond of peace. We are
guided and directed into the truth and it holds our souls
in a stormy world. The love of Christ constrains
me. The love of Christ compels me. The love of Christ produces in
God's people the obedience of faith. See, faith is the fulfilling
of the law. God circumcises the hearts of
His people that we may love Him. He gives, as we read in Ezekiel
36, He gives a heart of flesh and He moves in that heart of
flesh to love Him. to love his people, to love his
word. We are taught of God. 1 Thessalonians
4, 9 is a remarkable verse, isn't it? It says you are taught of
God. You are taught of God to love
one another. God will teach his people. You
are taught of God to fear leaving him. He works in his people a deep
and reverential awe of him. The scriptures call it fear. Where the Spirit of the Lord
is working in the lives of these people, there is a fear of God. and I am deeply troubled with
so many we meet and talk about, that there is no sense of reverential
awe of God. Read Jeremiah 32.40. It is a
covenantal promise of God that He will work in the hearts of
His people to fear Him, to fear Him, not to fear in any other way than a fear
that's brought out of love for Him. I will make an everlasting
covenant with them and I will not turn away from them to do
them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they
shall not depart from me." And then what he goes on to say in
verse 41, he says, Yes, yea, I will rejoice over them, to
do them good, and I will plant them in this land assurably,
with my whole heart and my whole soul. And I will give them, if
you go back, they shall be My people, verse 38, and I will
be their God, and I will give them one heart and one way, that
they may fear Me forever for the good of them and of their
children after them." It's all part of His eternal covenant
or promises. He brings the obedience of faith
into the hearts of His people. He works, Isaiah 26.12, He works
all of our works in us. He is a moving power to will
and to do according to His good pleasure. The law of Christ is
likened to a fountain. The law of the wise is a fountain
of life to depart from the snares of death. It's not the law of
Moses. It's the law of Christ. The law
of Moses is the letter that kills. It's the law of death. It's the
law that works wrath. It's administration of death
and condemnation. But God's children are led by
the Spirit under another law. And that's the law that guides
and directs His people through passages like Galatians, Chapter
5 and verse 19 down to 26. It's His work in His people. See Christ's work is easy. His burden is light. To go back
to the law of Moses, to go back to the works of the flesh, And
by the efforts of the flesh to turn from these things is to
go back to the law. Acts 15 says it's to tempt God. It's to tempt Him. It's to test
Him. His work is perfect. His work is complete. Acts 15.9
says He purifies the hearts. He purifies the hearts of the
Gentiles through faith. His Spirit leads and guides into
all truth. So we don't yoke our brothers
and sisters in Christ, nor do we come to them and boast of
our performance. We preach the Gospel to each
other. and we find delight in the character
of God as He's revealed in the scripture, and we find our comfort
and peace in the promises of God. You don't have the ability
within yourself. What did the Lord Jesus say?
Without Me you can do nothing. As I said at the beginning, rather
than yoking and binding and burdening the people of God. We comfort
the people of God. We take the commandments of God
to the promises of God. We take the commandments of God
to our Lord Jesus. We look at the Old Testament
law and we find it delightful. because we find it completely
fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. We love, brothers and sisters,
the Word of God. We love the Ten Commandments.
It's great to meditate on the fulfilment of those perfectly
in accord with God's desires and God's requirements, and we
see it in Him. He loves his people. He says,
I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn you. He draws his people to himself. It's the grace of God. It's the
grace of God that teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly
lusts. What remarkable promises we have
in this world which is full, which is so full. We are surrounded,
aren't we, by this world of adultery and fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, wrath, emulation, strife. And the Lord Jesus says to his
disciples, and he says to us, fear not, little flock. He has
overcome the world. Fear not, little flock. It's
the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It's the
Father's good pleasure to give you himself. It's the Father's
good pleasure He delights to live in His people. He delights
in the way He leads and directs them. Let's pray.