Alright brethren, let's go to
Galatians chapter 5. And I'll tell you from the beginning,
I prepared this message to preach for the main message. So I may
go a little longer here with it, but I wanted to... The second
message is on the Lord's table, and I just think it would be
good to have it before we observe the table. So we'll look at this,
this, this hour, and then the next one, the next. Let's go
to Galatians 5, let's look at verse 5. Paul says he gave those
three fatal consequences. And now he says, verse 5, for
we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision. but faith which worketh by love. Now, the saints at Galatia, they
were being entangled in this bondage in two ways. You had,
as the Judaizers came there, you had some true believers who
were being beguiled that they needed to be circumcised. They
had to add circumcision, come under the law, to do and not
do, in order to add to Christ, in order or they couldn't be
saved. So that was one way they were in bondage. But another
way there was bondage is there were some believers there who
weren't being circumcised. They knew that was wrong. And
they saw that as sin to add something to Christ. And they were puffed
up over that because these brethren were sinning by being circumcised. Well, by being puffed up at that,
instead of being humbled and mourned and broken and contrite,
they, too, were coming into a yoke of bondage. So Paul is speaking
to all of them. And he's telling us to put no
confidence in circumcision or uncircumcision. You see what
I'm saying? Some were putting confidence
in their being circumcised. The others were uncircumcised.
They weren't putting any confidence. Paul says neither one of those
is something to put confidence in. They both bring you into
bondage. But Paul wasn't brought into
it. He simply wrote to them and he
declared to them the gospel because he knows it's the spirit of God
that must mortify our flesh. the Spirit of God, and so he
writes to them and says, we through the Spirit are waiting for the
hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ, neither
circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love. We're waiting for that day when
Christ returns and perfectly conforms us to him in righteousness. in body, soul, and spirit, perfectly
conformed to Him. That's the hope that we have.
And it's a sure hope, a good hope, because Christ is risen.
That's what we're waiting on. And so from the day He calls
you to faith in Him until you enter into glory with Him, it's
not your doing that we should put confidence in, nor There's
things we don't do that we should put confidence in. It's not being
under the law that we should put any confidence in. And if
we know we're not under the law, that's not something to put confidence
in. Christ only. Christ only. Faith which worketh by love.
Now let's look at this hope of righteousness. He says, first
of all, we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. Now he says, we through the Spirit. Now everything that you and I
as sinners do that's godly, we do it only through the Spirit.
We can't do anything but through the Spirit of God. Our spiritual
life began by being born of God. We couldn't do anything godly.
There was nothing about us godly. We had to be born again of the
Spirit to enter into these things. Spiritual life continues the
same way by the Spirit of God. We through the Spirit, we live
by the Spirit living and abiding in us. And all fruit, everything
that's produced that's godly is the fruit of the Spirit. We
can't glory in it because He creates it. He creates it. And it's only by the Spirit that
our flesh is mortified. We depend on the Spirit to mortify
our flesh. And so if we are able to lay
aside sin, we can't glory in the fact we did that. If we don't
sin, we can't put confidence in that because the Spirit of
God enabled you to do that. He gets the glory. He gets all
the glory. Now the life of God's saint is
one of waiting. We, through the Spirit, wait.
Now that tells you this has to be in the Spirit of God because
waiting on the Lord goes against everything in our flesh. We don't
like to wait for anything. That's just our nature, not to
wait. But this whole life for the believer
is waiting. We're waiting. And just like
we have to wait, we can't just make ourselves go into the kingdom
of God and be perfectly conformed to Christ. We gotta wait on him
to bring us there. Well, that's the same thing in
everything we do in this life, in dealing with our brethren
and with our own self, we have to wait on the Lord. We can't
make things happen. We have to wait on the Lord.
We have to wait on the Lord. The lust of the flesh is pride. That's what, when I speak of
self-righteousness, it's really pride. Every sin at the head
of it is pride. That's what made Lucifer fall
from heaven, because he said, I will. I will be as the most
high. And that's the pride of our flesh.
I will. I will. Rather than wait, I will. And that's our flesh. It has
to be continually mortified. When we put any confidence in
our works, in works of our flesh, in good deeds or in abstaining
from sin or anything, if we start putting confidence in that, that's
our prideful self-righteousness saying, I will. It's a sinful
desire to be independent from God. That's what Adam's sin was
in the garden. We can't affect obedience in
ourselves and we can't affect it in our brethren. We have to
wait on the Lord. The only way a sinner can be
made to believe Christ and trust that He's our only righteousness
so that we wait for that hope of righteousness by faith is
by the Spirit of God. By the Spirit of God. Now here's
what we're waiting for. We're waiting for the hope of
righteousness. The hope of righteousness. Now
right now, born of God, the Spirit of God has convinced us in our
conscience of sin, that we cannot do anything to please God. and
he's convinced us of righteousness. He convinced us that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the righteousness God's pleased with. We know that
because he's risen. He's risen. He convinces this
up to us in our heart. And by giving you faith to believe
on him, he makes it known in the court of your conscience,
you're justified. That's righteousness. You're
justified. God says, I've put away their
sin. Christ has redeemed us. He's purged our sin. God says,
I remember them no more. I remember them no more. And
so we trust we're justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. God set him forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood. And he brings you there to rest
in Christ. He's our righteousness, we're
justified right now. But we're waiting for that day
when we're gonna be raised and made new in body, soul, and spirit
with no sin and be righteous through and through, holy through
and through by Christ. That's what we're waiting on.
And that's coming, brethren. He's gonna bring us to that day.
That's the hope of righteousness for which we wait. It's a confident
expectation. It's a sure hope because Christ
is risen. He's read, justice is satisfied
for his people. We're just waiting to, he calls
all his people out and then we're going to be with him without
sin, to be with him. So it's through the spirit we're
waiting for the hope of righteousness and we're waiting by faith. Faith
is trusting Christ. Faith is casting all our care
on Him and trusting Him for our full acceptance with God. We're
not trying to do anything to make ourselves more than what
Christ is to us. And we're waiting on Him. In
our life and everything, there we go, we're waiting on Him,
trusting Him, looking to Him, believing Him. Now right now,
We're righteous, we're justified, but we're waiting for that hope
of righteousness. Look over at 1 Peter 1 and look
at verse 3. The full consummation of righteousness
in glory with Christ, that's what we're waiting on. 1 Peter
1.3, he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten
us again, there's the Spirit, through the spirit unto a lively
hope. We have a living hope. I hope
that's a lie. By the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. Remember in Hebrews he said,
our hope enters into the veil where Christ our high priest
is, where he's alive, seated. That's our hope, it's him. Now
look, and here's what we're hoping for. He's gonna give us an inheritance,
incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you. Now how are we gonna get there?
We're kept by the power of God. There's the spirit of God. We're
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. It's ready to be revealed in
the last time. There's nothing else to do. Paul
said, he called it a crown of righteousness that's laid up
for me. It's not a physical, literal
crown. It is being made perfectly righteous,
conformed to Christ. And so right now, by the power
of God through the Spirit, and we're waiting. We're waiting.
Now, look at this next thing back in our text. Because this
is the case, and we know this is the case, that we're complete
in Christ, we don't have any confidence in our flesh. Any. Now, we shouldn't. We do often
fall into having a lot of confidence in our flesh, but the Lord's
gonna teach us. He's teaching us by and by to
have no confidence in his flesh. But look here in Galatians 5
verse 5, I mean verse 6, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
avails anything nor uncircumcision, neither one. Now look at that
first part, in Christ Jesus. Now brethren, remember what Paul
said, and the more you study Paul's writings, the more you
see, he just preached the same message in every epistle. Romans
6, 7, and 8, he's saying the same things he's saying right
here. Right here. And he said over there in Romans
8, ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that
the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now that's what he's saying here.
If you're born of the Spirit, you're in Christ Jesus. You're
in Christ Jesus. It's what he said in Colossians
3. If you're risen with Christ, you're in Christ at God's right
hand. Now that's how God sees it. That's how he sees it. That's
how he says it is. That's how God declares it to me. He said,
you're dead with Christ. Paul said, I am crucified with
him. I was there, I was in him, just
like Levi was in Abraham's loins and he paid tithes in Abraham.
I was in Christ, you were in Christ who were chosen of God,
and you were crucified there. God says that happened so that
our judgment was settled there. Our judgment was settled at Calvary.
Our body of sin died at Calvary. And we're risen with Him. We're
risen with Him. Our life is in Christ, right
there in God's presence. So before God, God says, this
is how it is. You've already died. and you're
risen with Christ. Now, the only way we're gonna
not have confidence in our flesh, we get the fact that, okay, I
see, I can't go keep the law. I understand, I can't go keep
the law. I just can't do it. I think we
get that. We get that, I just can't. I'd like to, but like Paul said,
when I would do good, evil is present with me. all the time. If you looked at it and thought,
man, it's touching the law, blameless. All these I've kept from my youth
up. If you did it that perfectly, still the spirit of God will
keep you knowing evil is present with you always. You can't put
any confidence in it. Not at all. Where we have problem,
I think, is when we sin. and we start losing our confidence. We start losing our assurance
and thinking that that's made us less righteous because we
sin. And maybe if we don't feel it
about ourselves, which we do, but if for some reason we didn't
feel that about ourselves, you let a brother do it and we start
questioning them. and doubt. And what Paul is saying
here, because you just know this, if somebody came in here preaching
law and declaring that you had to be circumcised and come under
the law, and some here decided we got to be under the law and
started trying to press that and push that. And some of you
that said, no, we don't have to be under the law. We know
that's not so. You know what's going to happen? really easily we all become entangled
in the bondage of legal bondage. And that's what was happening
at Galatia. That's why later he says, be careful you don't
bite and devour one another. Because any time anything like
that happens, we forget. We totally just so easily we
become entangled and get puffed up. And think that that can't
be a child of God. He thinks he's under the law.
He thinks that he needs to be... And then what we're really thinking
is, I didn't submit to that. Well, Paul says, if you're circumcised,
that'll make you less a child of God, that'll make you less
righteous. And if you didn't do it, that'll make you more
righteous. Our righteousness is Christ.
And this is what we need to get. You're going to sin. I'm going
to sin. That don't change what we are
in Christ. We're righteous in Christ. I'm
not saying do sin. I'm just saying if we're not
careful, we're putting confidence in what we do or don't do by
how we regard somebody that did what they shouldn't have done.
You get what I'm saying? It's how God sees you is how
it is. That is how it is. And he said
this, he said this in Romans 8. The reason he said that in
Romans 8, if Spirit's in you, you're not in the flesh. Now
that's how it is before God. You're in your flesh, but you're
not before God in the flesh. You're in Christ and you're righteous.
Nothing can change that. But he said this, if the spirit
of Christ is in you, the body's dead. There's two things that
means. One, it's been crucified with
Christ. That body's dead before God. It's crucified. It's judged. But also, you're dead. You're
spiritually dead. But the spirit's life because
of righteousness. And he says, but if the spirit
of him that raised up Christ from the dead be in you, he will
also quicken your mortal body. He'll quicken your mortal body.
You know what he's teaching us? He's teaching us, don't try to
constrain one another. Don't try to make one another
do anything. He'll quicken your mortal body.
And he said this, he said, it'll be by his spirit dwelling in
you. Therefore brethren, we're debtors, not to our flesh. not to our flesh, to live after
the flesh. We think of living after the
flesh as adultery and murder. Those brethren that didn't, that
weren't circumcised, that weren't beguiled by that, that were saying
y'all are wrong for being circumcised. We're not doing that. They were
living after the flesh. Get what I'm saying? They were
falling into that entanglement of bondage. We're not debtors
to live after the flesh, at all. And he says, "'Cause if you do,
you'll die, but if we, through the spirit, mortify the flesh,
we'll live, we'll live." So we can't have confidence in the
flesh, not in anything outward. Not in anything else. No moral
virtue, no spiritual fruit that God creates in you, don't put
confidence in that. If you have more fruit in you
than somebody else, don't put confidence in that. Because that
will land us in the spirit of bondage. If we trust in the outward,
it's bondage. It's bondage. We don't trust
in our faith, we don't trust in our repentance, we don't trust
in our prayers, we don't put confidence in mortification of
the flesh. If you had moral purity to the
point that you were just as near as the likeness of Christ in
your walk, that don't contribute to you being justified before
God one hour ago. Not one bit. And by the same
token, if you fall, that don't diminish it either. It's Christ. It's Christ. It's him only. But when we start condemning
because you think about this, and this is interesting because these folks were coming under
the law and trying to do right. But they had the motive of their,
they had to do this. That was sin, just like if they
were committing adultery, because they were breaking the old law,
because their motive was wrong. Their motive was wrong. Now let
me show you this, and I'll try to hurry. The Spirit makes us
wait by faith, which works by love. And we see an example of
this. We see Paul doing exactly what
he's telling them. He's doing exactly what he's
telling them. You see, Paul knows it's gonna only be by the Holy
Spirit that this flesh is gonna be mortified at Galatia and they're
gonna be brought to look to Christ and quit biting and devouring
one another. That's the only way it's gonna
happen. So you know what he did? He wrote a letter to them declaring
this good news to them. It's not your circumcision or
your uncircumcision. It's not what you do or don't
do. In Christ, we're waiting. We're justified in Him and we're
waiting to be perfectly conformed to Him. And we're waiting by
faith, which works by love. And here you see love working. You know how love's working?
How does love work? Trusting Christ and loving even
folks who are being your enemy. By doing what? Declaring the
truth of Christ to them. What does love do? How does the
love of God love our enemies? When you're being stoned to death
like Stephen was, you preach Christ to them. Preach Christ to them. Now look
at Paul's doing that right here. He looked at these brethren at
Galatia who were all in this over some thinking they should
keep the law, some not. And they're in a feud. And Paul sees there some poor
beggars who don't have any food and are naked. And faith, being under the law
of liberty, standing fast in liberty wherewith Christ has
made us free, he exhibited these works of love by trying to feed
them the bread from heaven and clothe them with the righteousness
of Christ, trusting Christ to come in spirit and feed them
and clothe them. And that's what you do when you're
under grace. If he'd have went there and said,
now these brethren who weren't circumcised, they're right and
y'all are wrong. What would that have resulted
in? Division. That's all. Because those that
hadn't been circumcised would have went further into the bondage
of their flesh and their law thinking, yeah, I'm right because
I didn't do that. He didn't do that. He said, we're
all guilty in ourselves and can't do anything. Only Christ is our
righteousness. Look to him. Look to him. Now let me show you this over
in James chapter 2. Go over there with me. We're
waiting, as we're waiting for the hope of righteousness, to
show us that He's going to do this for us in the end, that
He's going to perfectly conform us to Him in the end. You know
what He does all along this life of faith? He shuts you up in
such a predicament at times, like what Paul was in here, to
where you can't do anything. You can't put your hand to it.
You can't make anybody obey. You can't make people be brought
down for being puffed up in their flesh. You can't do anything. But wait on Him. And declare the gospel in love
and mercy. And when he's broken our heart
and really giving us a contrary heart, that's what we do. And
then as you're doing that, he comes and he feeds and he clothes
and he brings his people down to see him and trust him and
know nothing's changed. You're still righteous in him.
And that makes you know. When you see him do that, you
know. It increases your hope. He's
going to do this in the end. He's going to perfectly conform
us to him because I see him doing it little by little in these
trials all the way through. Now look here in James 2 verse
8. He said, he said, let me get there. Hold on one second. He said if you fulfill -- no,
no, no. I want to go back up. Here's
where I want to start. Let's just begin in verse 1.
If -- don't have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
of glory with respect of persons. If it comes to your assembly
a man with gold ring and goodly apparel and there comes a poor
man in vile raiment and you have respect to him that wears the
nice clothing, you say, sit here in a good place, and you say
to the poor, stand over there, sit here under my footstool,
you be impartial in yourselves, you become judges of evil thoughts. Brethren, God's chosen the poor
of this world, rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom of God,
which he's promised to them that love him, but you've despised
the poor. Rich men oppress you, they draw
you before the judgment seat, they blaspheme the worthy name
by which you're called. Now listen to this, brethren.
That's what was happening at Galatia. That's exactly what
was happening at Galatia. That's what happens all the time
when one sins, a brother sins, whether he's going under the
law and he's trying to do the law the best he can, but he thinks
that he's being righteous by that. You know, you see a man
who is doing something like that. He's not doing what he should.
He's sinning. And another one who's not doing that, we're more
apt to tell him that you sit here in the chief seat and you
pour one there that you think you're still in the law, he can't
be a child of God. And we're having to respect the
persons based on what? The outward, the outward garment. That's not salvation. That's
law. That's the only way there is
to it. That's all there is to it. Now, watch this. Verse eight,
if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, you do well. But if you have
respect to persons, looking at the outward, now think about
works here, looking at the outward, whether one is measured up or
not measured up in your estimation. You commit sin and you convince
the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the
whole law and offend in one point is guilty of all." He said, don't
commit adultery. He also said, do not kill. If
you commit adultery, but you kill, you're a transgressor of
the law. The Galatian believers were learning what we're learning
every day. We're guilty of the law. You try to keep one, you're
going to break another. And what we do very often is
we base things on a respect of persons based on the outward.
That's breaking the law. We're righteous in Christ, that
don't change. Teach to love one another knowing
no man after the flesh. It doesn't matter if you're a
Jew or a Gentile, male or female, rich or poor. And when somebody
sins, the purpose of that is to remind us that believer hadn't
changed in Christ. And the Spirit of God's gonna
work in him. Now my job is not to try to whip him into conformity,
but to speak the truth to him. In love, and I'm talking about
Christ the truth. Remind him, preach what I'm preaching
right now to him. Now look, watch this. Verse 12,
so speak ye and so do as they that should be judged by the
law of liberty. Paul said, stand fast in the
law of liberty. Christ has made us free from
that yoke of bondage. Speak and do as those that's
gonna be judged by the law of liberty. Well, how does that
work? He shall have judgment without mercy that showed no
mercy. But mercy rejoices against judgment. That's the law of liberty. Mercy,
mercy, mercy. Mercy, mercy. Judgment's been
settled at Calvary. If you fall into sin and everybody
that you know starts judging you, you know who you're gonna
hear? You're not gonna hear them speak
to you. You know who you're gonna hear? You're gonna hear the brother
that comes to you mourning and weeping and speaks to you and
says, Christ has put away your sin. You're righteous in him. And he's gonna wait on the Lord
to bless it and break your heart and turn you from whatever it
is, and let you know Christ fed you with the heavenly manna,
robed you in his righteousness so you know nothing's changed,
and that will grow you so that now you'll be a little more careful
not to come under whatever it was you came under. Now watch,
is that not what he's teaching us? What is a prophet, my brethren,
though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Faith which works by what? Love. Not judgment. Not whipping people
into conformity. Mercy. It goes against the flesh,
it goes against our intellect, it goes against everything we've
ever read in a book. It's what God has to work in
us. He cuts to the thoughts and intents of the heart. The flesh
can't do this. It's enmity against God. It can't
submit, it can't subject itself to the grace of God. But when
he works this in your heart, you're gonna love. And he gives you an illustration.
Can faith save him without this work of love? Here's the illustration. This is just a physical illustration.
Think of this in terms of the gospel. This is what Paul was
doing at Galatia. If a brother's sister's naked
and destitute of daily food, Paul looked at those Galatians,
caught up in all this accusing and excusing one another. and
trying to come under the law. Some under it, some refusing
to be under it, but all of them under it because they were blaming
one another. And he saw there his brothers
and sisters naked and starving. Why, they weren't feeding on
Christ the bread. They had thrown off the garment
of righteousness and they were all trying to weave their own
garment and make their own bread. What's love gonna do? Jump in
there with them and try to whip them all into conformity. Turn
his back on them and say, y'all all a bunch of rebels. What's
love gonna do? If the spirit of God's working
and there's really a broken and contrite heart, the spirit of
God's gonna say, here's Christ the bread. Here's Christ's righteousness. And not only that, gonna wait
on the spirit to bless it and feed them and clothe them. Look
here. If you just say, depart in peace,
be warmed and filled, but you don't give him those things which
are needful to the body, what's the profit? Faith, if it hath
not works, is dead being alone. These are the works we're talking
about. Using the gospel instead of the whip and judgment. Using the gospel. using the gospel. You're not going to do that all
the time. I'm not going to do that all the time. I need you
to be to feed and clothe me with the gospel and you need me to
feed and clothe you with the gospel. But what we don't need
is to bite and devour. That never works. At some point
you have to say, I'm not rehashing that. We're going to be merciful
and forgive. and look to Christ and wait on
him to mend, because I can't fix it. You have to do that. You have to. At some point, you
just have to. And he has to work this. Nobody
can work this but him. But when he breaks your heart,
you see, you know your sin. You know your judgment. You know
your rebellion. And you hate it, and you mourn
it, and you're broken and contrite. but he's the one that's got to
feed you the bread and clothe you with his garment and make
you look to him and stop condemning. This is grace. This is grace. Forgiveness is
always right. You can't find a reason in these
scriptures to say not to forgive. We can't find a reason in these
scriptures not to be merciful. This is always right. There's only one sin that won't
be forgiven. You know what it is? To say,
I'm not going to hear that. I'm not bowing to that. To leave
Christ and go try to weave your own garment and make your own
bread. That's apostasy. That's the only thing that God
won't forgive. But brethren, even then, we still
just keep feeding the bread and giving the garment to the poor.
Let's look real quick. I promise you the next message
is going to be shorter, but this one I want to go a little longer.
Go to Romans 5 with me. I want to show you this. Paul puts it all together, everything
I'm telling you right now. What I'm saying is, Overall,
we're waiting on that hope of righteousness in the end. But
all through these little things the Lord's doing, could He have
stopped all that at Galatia? He could have. That's how we
learn this. You're not going to learn this
by simply reading the book or reading some other book. You're
going to hear it preached, and He's going to teach you in your
heart, and then He's going to put you through this trial to
show you this is not theory, this is real. And so in each of these little
trials, you have to wait on Him, the hope of Christ our righteousness
coming and turning His child to Him and robbing you again
in His righteousness and giving you the bread and making you
look to Him away from yourself and away from your brethren.
And when He does that, He grows you a little more to see, I need
to just wait on Him. I need to just wait on Him. Let
me show you this. Romans 4 verse 24, look at the
second part. By His grace, we believe on Him
that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.
He's taught us we're righteous now. We're righteous. Therefore,
being justified, having already been justified, made righteous
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand. What's he talking about? Stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. We got
access into this grace where we stand by Christ. Stand in
it. Stand in it. Now watch. And rejoice in the
hope of the glory of God. Wait, rejoicing that we're going
to be made righteous at the end, perfectly conformed to Christ.
We're rejoicing in that hope of righteousness. Now watch this.
And not only so, but with glory in tribulations also. Why? Knowing tribulation works patience. We're waiting, we're being taught
to wait for that hope at the end. In each one of these little
trials, you know what he's teaching us to do? Wait. With patience,
wait. Wait on the Lord, be of good
courage. He'll strengthen your heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. That's the
answer, always. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. Watch this. And patience teaches
us experience. As you wait on the Lord, you're
gonna learn and you're waiting, just like we're waiting for him
to come in the end and make us perfectly righteous in each of
these trials. We're waiting for him to come and turn us or our
brethren back to Christ to wait on him, to trust him by faith
and work by love. That's what we're waiting on.
And he'll make it, he'll put it where it looks virtually impossible. And then he'll come do it. And
what do you learn by that? Experience gives you more hope. He's really going to come at
the end and make me righteous. How do you know? He did it today. That's how I know. When I didn't
think there was any hope, he came and did it, showed me. Wait
on him. And he taught me by experience,
hope in him. He's going to do it. Now watch
this. And hope never makes you ashamed. Why? Because the love
of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost, which
is given to you. Now here's what he means by that.
Listen to this. He said faith works by love. This love of God
comes into your heart in each of these tribes. And He makes
you look at everything you try to do to make everything work
out like you want it to work out. He brought it to nothing.
He made you wait on Him. Then He came and worked it better
than you ever could have worked it. And He does this and He shows
you. He reminds you of this. Here's
the love you remember. Verse 6. When I was without strength, in due time, He came. He came
the first time. When I didn't have any strength,
He came the first time. and died for me, the ungodly. Why did I try to put my hand
to it? He did this for me when I had no strength. It's just the love he reminds
you of in each of these trials. Look. Look down at verse eight. He commended his love toward
us, and while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Much more
than being now justified by his blood, being brought into this
liberty, do you think he's going to let you not stand in liberty? We do everything we can not to
stand in liberty. We do everything we can to try
to get back under that yoke of bondage. We're like a vehicle
going down the road that's out of line, and if he just takes
your hand off of it, We're right back into that yoke of bondage,
either in murderous and adulterous sin or in religious moral sin,
either way, or in condemning one or the other, just right
into that bondage. And he brings you back and says,
I'm not going to let you be in bondage. I'm going to keep you
looking at me and knowing I've given you liberty. And look,
so being justified by him, we'll be saved from wrath through him.
For if when I was enemy, he reconciled me to God by the death of his
son, being now reconciled, I'm gonna be saved by his life. Not
just in the end, brethren. Not just when he finally brings
me and makes me righteous in him and makes you righteous in
him. Right now, in every trial you go through, look to him and
remind each other of what he's done and that in Christ, Neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision avails. What I'm saying to you,
we have a tendency to think the only way the flesh can be mortified
is if we get puffed up and do something about it. That's the
flesh that's gotta be mortified. Getting puffed up and thinking
we can do something about it. That's why Paul said at Corinth,
they gotta go. You're not mourned, you're not
been brought down, you're not been broken to look to Christ
only. That's where we gotta be. And
that's where he's going to keep his people. And if somebody's
not going to do that, you don't have to try to fix it. Wait on
him. He'll fix it. He'll fix it. Keep declaring the truth to one
another. Don't turn each other to the
flesh and to this wrong and that wrong and the other. Turn each
other to Christ. When somebody's come and spoken
to you and whispered to you and turned you to somebody's flesh,
has it helped you hear the gospel? Be honest. Has it? It hasn't. that sowing discord and that
sin to turn each other from Christ to the flesh. I don't care what
it is. And the thing that Paul was preserving at Corinth and
at Galatia and everywhere he preached was turn each other
back to Christ. He'll mortify the flesh. That's
how he does it. Mortification of the flesh is
not that you put all your sin away and now you live spotless.
Mortification of the flesh is treating your flesh like it's
dead, crucified at Calvary. You do that, you won't live in
sin, immoral or religious. And if you fall in sin, you won't
turn away like you're somehow changed. you'll still look to
Christ and know nothing's changed. And that keeps that flesh mortified.
That's what the Spirit did. Read Romans 8, that's exactly
what he said. But if we by our flesh try to mortify it, we're
gonna die. Don't forget that, brethren.
All right, let's stand together. Our Heavenly Father, we pray
you would bless this word. Lord, don't let us hear this
gospel in word only. Make us hear it in power. Break our hearts. Make it so we have to look to
Christ. Lord, make us wait on you. Make us believe you and stir
up love in our heart to point one another to Christ. And rest knowing you will, according
to our good hope, you will turn your people to you, clothe us
and feed us just like you're going to do ultimately in the
end. No more than we can make ourselves be perfectly righteous
and raise ourselves from the dead in the end. We can't raise
ourselves from this body of death right now or we ask you to do
it. In Christ's name we pray, amen.