Paul concludes his list of the
fruit of the Spirit in verse 23, Galatians 5.23, saying, against
such there is no law. There's no law. And what he means
by that first is that the law has no jurisdiction here. The law has no jurisdiction in
regards to these fruits of the spirit, because the law's purpose
is to call sin, sin. And assigning guilt, it assigns
punishment for that sin. That's why the law was given,
to show us our sin. And then second, since the law
binds the flesh, it puts the flesh in bondage, well then you
that are born of the spirit, you that live by the spirit,
you're not in that bondage, you're not born of the bond woman, you're
born of Jerusalem which is above, the mother of us all, all of
faith. All of faith. You're not born
into bondage. You're not under that law. And then third, since
the law has no purpose here, the Spirit may bear this fruit
in us abundantly. Abundantly. There's no restrictions
or limitations where the Lord says, now don't go too far. Don't love too much. Don't be
too patient. Don't be too gentle. or don't
be too edifying, don't be good, don't be too good, right? There's
no law, there's nothing to limit us. Look back in Galatians 5,
18. Paul said, if ye be led of the
Spirit, ye are not under the law. You're not under that law
of Moses, which is the strength of the law of sin and death.
It's the strength of sin and death. And then he confirms this
truth now in verse 23. You're not under the law, and
then he says in Galatians 5, 23, against such there is no
law, no law. Not even the law of liberty,
not even the law of love or faith has any limitations on the fruit
bearing of the spirit. If the Lord will bear a hundredfold
in you, or 60 fold or 30, it's of the Lord. There's no limit
except according to the measure that the Lord gives you faith,
meets out that mercy and faith to you. You know, I remember
when I was young, we didn't know a whole lot about nutrition necessarily
or supplementation and my mom got me these Flintstone vitamins. And those things are no good.
They're just chemical garbage. And so it was important that
you didn't have more than one. There was a limit on those things
because it was not good for you. I would pop them things like
candy because my mom didn't have candy around, but it wasn't good
for me. But with regards to the Spirit,
there's no law. There's no limit. Just love. It's not gonna hurt you. It's
not gonna hurt you. It's not gonna come back on you.
It's of the Lord. Now, without law, without law,
we're not under the law, we're without law, except for the law
of love and liberty, but we're without law as in the law of
Moses. Paul, with that being the case,
Paul says something incredible in verse 24. Look at this. Without
the constraints of the law, he reminds us that they that are
Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Why would they do that? There's
no condemnation for us under the law. We're not under the
law. So why would you do this? Why would you crucify the flesh
with the affections and the lusts? Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. He's bearing it. There's no condemnation
for you. You've been taken out from under
the law. So why would believers crucify the flesh with the affections
and lusts? Why? Because they are new creatures. New creatures born again. Believers
live by the Lord Jesus Christ. We live by him. We're born of
his spirit. This is not a fleshly work here
that the Lord has done. This is a work of his spirit,
a work of his grace. And so this grace and the fruits
of grace, the fruit of the spirit is not of us. It's not of this
flesh. Christ is the tree of righteousness. rising up in you and bearing
those fruits of righteousness in their season as it pleases
him. He brings forth these glorious
fruits, which are food for your brethren and a comfort to them
and a help to them. So our fruits are by the effectual
working of Christ in his people. They're his fruit. It's his fruit,
it's his bearing, he brings it forth in his child. And so according to the scriptures,
we think of this word crucifixion. According to the scriptures,
we're told that our old man is crucified with Christ. That is, when he went to the
cross bearing the sins of his people, his people were in him,
and they too were put to death so that we died to the law of
Moses and we're not under that law anymore. We're now free to
marry another, even the Lord of glory, the Lord our Savior,
who has brought us to himself. We are his beloved bride. You're the bride of Christ. You're
the bride of Christ. And so we died with him. We are
delivered out from under the law. We're delivered from its
penalty. The curse of the law is not our curse. It's not our
curse anymore. We have no fear of the second
death. We're delivered from that because
we've been put to death in Christ and now live by him. We live
by his spirit. But this death of which Paul
speaks now, it's something that follows our death in Christ.
It's something accomplished in us by the life and the spirit
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, he said, they that are
Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust.
This is a little different from what we read in Romans 6, 6,
that we were crucified with Christ when we were delivered from the
law. Here, we've crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts. In another place, Paul words it this way, if ye live
after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. So this mortification,
this crucifixion, is the life and the power of Christ. brought
in us by His power and grace. Some men have noted that crucifixion
is a slow, painful death. It's a slow, painful death. And
this flesh is mortified. We've hung this flesh in faith. We'll see as we go through this
that the Lord He delivers us from the works of the flesh by
His power and glory. And this flesh is still gasping
for breath. Not to be careless with our words,
because it's horrible what they did to our Lord, but it's a slow,
painful death. And it is a slow, painful death
of this flesh. For example, look up at Galatians
5.17. 517, where Paul describes this warfare now in the believer. For the flesh lusteth against
the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary
the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that
ye would. You cannot do those things. It's
still gasping for air. This flesh is dead. It's already,
it's, It's dealt with in the Lord, but we carry this dead
weight around with us until we return to the dust and the Lord
returns and raises us from the dead and gives us a new body
and brings us to be with Him. Now we're told in the scripture
about this sin in our flesh and it's often described as lusts. And there's a lot of scriptures,
but I'll just read a few here. Listen to these, Romans 6, 12. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Here is one from Romans 13.14
Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the
flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Here is Ephesians 4.22 That ye
put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which
is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. And then Peter, abstained
from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. These are those
works that Paul described there in Galatians 5. In Galatians
5, verses 19 through 21. Yeah, through 21 there, where
he describes what they look like. I'll read some of them from Colossians
3, 8, and 9. He says, but now ye also put
off all these anger. wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye have put off the old man with his deeds." Think about
this too. Men who opposed Paul and opposed
the gospel that Paul preached, this is how they operated in
a religious sense. This is how they came at Paul,
pursuing after him, following after him from city to city,
and contradicting him, and blaspheming the things which were spoken
of by Paul and Barnabas, it says in Acts. They blasphemed, they
spoke ill, they lied. And so these works here fit in
every context that this flesh partakes in, whether it's in
a religious sense, or you're on the street, or your home,
your job, your school, wherever you are, these works are preeminent. And what we do in this flesh,
this is how we are towards one another according to the flesh.
This is how we deal. We get angry with others. We
say things about others. We're malicious. We get back
at others. We handle things in a very fleshly,
subtle, conniving, evil little way. evil big way. It's what
we do in the flesh, even in religion. This is how we are by nature
in religion. And we rise up over others and
we want to do what we want to do according to the lusts of
the flesh. This isn't just limited to just
things that we think of as sinful. This is even what we do under
the law. to silence those who we oppose
and would come against, to have our way. This is the works of
the flesh. And they zealously, religious
men, persecuted Paul with these things, and persecuted the Lord,
and persecuted the Lord's apostles. And throughout history, this
is how it works. And it's true in us. It's true
in us by nature in how we deal with one another according to
the flesh. The life that we have in Christ,
His light, His spirit brings to light. This is what I am by
nature. And this is not profitable. This
is not of the Lord. This is me. This is what I am
by nature. So how do we put off? How do
we mortify the deeds? How is this flesh crucified? How is this flesh crucified?
Well, it's not done by our focus and our determination to do better. It's not done that way. We don't
accomplish this death by trying harder. And this is oftentimes
why men turn to the law, because they're trying to discipline
themselves and hold this stuff in and keep this stuff from coming
out. And in that very focus and pursuit,
it just comes out all the more, and maybe in a different way,
sometimes a more evil way, sometimes in a murderous way. And you might
never think of murdering somebody, but you feel justified in the
name of religion to put people to death. And so we've seen it
throughout history. It happens. It happens in all
religions. And so it's quite opposite to
the flesh, because that's how the flesh handles it. The flesh
just focuses and works on it and creates better habits and
new habits and gets more disciplined. And that's how the flesh thinks
to handle it. The child of God is given repentance. from those things. Repentance,
and this is what I mean by repentance, turning from believing that by
doing these things, by doing the law or by focusing that I
can come to God, by improving myself in these areas and fixing
these areas and making these areas right, that's the flesh. The Lord gives his child repentance
from dead works that cannot save, because that's what it is, it's
trusting what we're doing. He gives us repentance from that
and turns us to the Savior. The Savior, the salvation whom
the Father has sent. We're not going to turn there,
but when Paul was writing in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, he's
describing that under the law it's the ministration of death. It's the ministration of condemnation. And the Lord turns his people
from that ministration of death to the ministration of life.
to the ministration of the Spirit, to the hearing of faith, to behold
what Christ has done, what our God has done in Christ. And so
that's why at the end of that chapter, he speaks of, but when
it shall turn, then the veil is taken away. When the heart
is turned from dead things, because the Lord has given us repentance,
then we behold Christ, and the veil is lifted, and the one who
turns us is the Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord who turns us from
dead things that cannot save to look to Christ in faith, believing
Him, trusting that He is my righteousness. He is the one by whom I come
to the Father and am accepted of the Father, received of Him. Because what do we do naturally?
We try harder. We try to be more religious.
We try to be better Christians. But that's just dead works, instead
of looking to Christ. So when Paul says, they that
are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts, or the passions and lusts, he's saying, they that are Christ's
have been given repentance from trusting dead works to believe. to come through Jesus Christ
their Lord. They've been given repentance
to turn from dead things to the living Savior, to look to Him. We're not trying to make ourselves
better Christians and make ourselves acceptable to the Lord. We're
brought to look to Christ. And we still do it. We see how
we try to improve ourselves, and we focus on things that we
think, if I could just fix this, if I could just stop doing this,
things would get better. And that's not how they're going
to change. You're not going to change it
by your focus and attention. When you see it, we should breathe
and cry out in the spirit, Abba, Father. Have mercy. Lord, keep me looking to you,
instead of looking to this flesh and taking up my own justification
and vindication by something I do in the flesh. And so, here's
a thought. When you're looking at the fruits
that you should see, where are your eyes? They're on what you're
looking at, the flesh, and what you think you should see, and
they're not looking to Christ. They're not looking to Christ.
We come by faith through Jesus Christ. How did you first come
to God? by faith in Christ you came to
everything fell away when the Lord showed you you're a sinner
and that Christ is all everything melted away and you came believing
Christ believing God this is your promise that you receive
those who come in Christ, Lord, receive me. Bring me in Christ. We came believing the word of
God, the promise of God, that he receives all those in Christ. Their sins are washed away. That's how we came. So how would
we come now then? The same way, in faith, in faith,
believing him. Look back at Galatians 3. Galatians
3, verses 1 through 3. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye
should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath
been evidently set forth crucified among you? This only would I
learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law
or by the hearing of faith. Are ye so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect by the
flesh? You manifested faith by the hearing
of faith. You heard the gospel, how that
God saves his people in Christ, and he drew you in faith. You came by the hearing of faith,
and so all other fruits All other fruits that are genuine fruits
of the Spirit are going to be wrought in you in that same manner. In the hearing of faith, the
Lord teaching you, showing you Christ, comforting your hearts
with Christ, showing you what He has done and accomplished,
how He has accomplished your redemption. how the warfare is
put away, is settled in Him. We're not still striving and
laboring and spending to come to Christ, to the Lord. You already
are the Lord's people, and there's a warfare going around, but the
battle's won. It's in Christ, and we rest. We have peace in our souls with
our God and our Savior. So we come by the hearing of
faith. We live by faith in Christ. Look at Galatians 3, 11. Reminds
us, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
it is evident, for the just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith.
OK, we'll compare that to Galatians 5. I'm not even in Galatians. Look at Galatians 5, 21. where he says that, oh, where
he says at the end of verse 21, that they which do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. That means they're not
justified with God. They're not just, so we can't
say, well, he's talking about justification over there, but
here now in chapter five, he's talking about sanctification.
He's saying you do these things, you won't inherit the kingdom
of God. If this is your life, if this is your salvation coming
in the flesh, you won't, you're not justified. And so he's saying
whether we're talking about justification, or we're talking about sanctification,
we're talking about wisdom, redemption, our righteousness, whatever it
is, It's all accomplished by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're talking about faith that
is looking to Christ for everything, start to finish, start to finish,
from the beginning to the end. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
He's the author and finisher of our faith. And so We walk
in faith, we continue in faith. We started in faith, we're going
to finish in faith. Because it's the Lord that does
it. It's not this flesh. Now, in your bulletin this week,
don't look at it now, but there's an article by the late Pastor
Scott Richardson, and at the end of what he said there, it
says, as in the matter of life, it is Christ alone, so in the
matter of living, it is Christ alone. As in the matter of life,
it's Christ alone, so in our living, it's Christ alone. And
that's a wonderful commentary for verse 25, Galatians 5.25. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. We are alive in Christ and we're
living in Christ. And it's all by faith. It's all
by faith. It never becomes this flesh. It never becomes the works of
this flesh. So it's a continual walk of faith, not looking to
the production of spiritual fruit. As soon as we start looking to
what we're producing and looking for fruit, now we become judges. We become judges of ourselves,
we become judges of our brethren, we become judges of God, because
now we're looking for fruit and what we should see. When we are
troubled, because we are troubled, we see what we are in this flesh,
but it makes us to cry out to the Lord. Have mercy on me. We're
humbled by it. We're brought low because of
what we see in ourselves. And we're brought to cry in faith,
Lord, save me. Lord, receive me. Lord, keep
me. Lord, don't deal with me according
to my sins. And so we're brought to cry out
to him in faith but rather than looking to the spiritual fruit
production keep your eye looking to Christ look to Christ you
know Simeon in the New Testament Simeon when Christ was born in
Luke chapter 2 and they brought him in on day 8 and Simeon was
told that that he would not die till he saw the Christ And that's
true of every one of us. We will not die. This flesh will not die till
you see Christ. And when he saw Christ, he said,
now let thy servant depart in peace. Let me die, Lord, because
I've seen your Christ. I've seen your salvation. And that is a picture of our
living in the spirit. That's exactly what it is. We
are made by the grace of God to see God's salvation, the Christ. And this flesh dies, died with
him and lives with him. And now being alive in him, we
continue, Lord, Now let me depart. Let this flesh be mortified. Let it be crucified, Lord. I
have no need for it anymore because you've given me everything in
Christ. That's the spirit talking. The flesh doesn't talk like that.
The flesh is still looking to hold things back, but the spirit
looks to Christ. And so that's how we live. That's
how we continue to live, looking to Christ. Our Lord says in John
15, John 15 verses 4 and 5, our Lord
says, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye
can do nothing. You're going to bear fruit. You're
not going to see it, perhaps, your brethren are edified by
the spirit bringing it forth. I remember Kevin Thacker, Pastor
Kevin Thacker over in San Diego said once that, or probably several
times, but that fruit that's brought on that tree isn't for
the tree. It's not for the tree. It's for
those who come and take of that fruit. And so your brethren,
They're blessed. The Lord purposes it for their
edification and for their good. And so it's not for you. You're
not going to see it. You're not going to know it,
but the Lord works it. The Lord manifests it for the
good of His glory and for the good of His people. And so we
know what we are in the flesh, and so we don't see what we would
see, but you keep looking to Christ. You keep your eye on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and He takes care of everything. He'll
bear that fruit. He'll bear that fruit. He'll bring it forth.
You and I won't in this flesh. He does by the Spirit. Now, when
we look at Christ, we see His holiness and His perfection.
The eyewitnesses who saw Christ, who walked with Him, who saw
Him put to death, who saw His resurrection, they tell us that
He was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the
people. Peter tells us in Acts, after
the resurrection, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy
Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing
all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. Will he then that is holy and
perfect let you down? He who worked all good, all perfection,
will he fail to accomplish his will and purpose in you? Will
He come short? Will anything come short that
the Lord will do and work in His child? Everything that He's
provided. The Lord says, My grace is sufficient
for you. Not as a license for sin, but
to trust that our Savior is doing and providing everything, working
that in you. And He gives you a heart that
looks to Him and believes Him and trusts Him for all your righteousness
and salvation. Paul told Timothy that Christ
hath saved us and called us within holy calling, not according to
our works, meaning your salvation is not resting in any way on
this flesh. It rests entirely upon the shoulders,
the righteousness, the perfection, the obedience of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he's doing with you exactly
as he purposes and wills to do. Now, with him being good, wicked
men with wicked hands took and crucified the Lord of glory.
They slew him, hanging him on a tree. And they thought they
had taken the heir. and seize the inheritance for
themselves. But God brought forth good, eternal
good and eternal salvation for his people. He brought forth
everything in his weakness. In that death, in his burial,
in his resurrection, man thinking he had overcome God, In that
point, that's where Christ wrought our very salvation in life. And
so it is that Christ In our weakness, Christ will accomplish. He'll glorify his name. He provides
everything for you. You shall be saved. You are saved
and you shall be saved. You are redeemed, you shall be
redeemed at his appearing. And we look for him. We look
for his appearing. So Christ himself is the bearer
of fruits in us. Walk in that hope of your faith,
not in your flesh. The last verse there in Galatians
5.26, he said, let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking
one another, envying one another. That all comes when our focus
is on us and this flesh and doing what we think ought to be done.
That's where that gets produced and seen. He says to you as child,
be not faithless, but believing. Don't be faithless, believe him.
Believe him, trust him, come in Christ. Keep coming in faith,
trusting that He'll bear everything that He purposes to bear in you,
and everything else will fall into place. I close with this. Matthew 6.33 says, But seek ye
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
things shall be added unto you. You just seek Christ. You keep
your eye upon Him, and everything else is added as it pleases the
Father. I pray you bless that word. I
pray you bless you and comfort your hearts and keep you ever
looking to Christ. Amen. All right, let's close
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we, Lord,
you know the weakness of our flesh. You know the folly of
our thoughts and Lord, it would seem sometimes
that our intentions are good And yet, it's full of sin. And when we would focus on being
better and improving ourselves, we come up far short of the glory
of God and show ourselves to be sinners who are foolish and
stumbling about in darkness and do not know the way. But Lord,
when by your grace we hear, by the hearing of faith, we see
Christ and behold His glory, His perfection, His righteousness,
and we are made to look to Him and to keep our eye on Him and
to come in faith, Lord, that's where we need to be, looking
to Him, seeking those things which are above, our Savior,
looking for His appearing. Lord, help us to see Christ trusting
you to do all things and to bear that fruit of righteousness for
the good of your people, for their edification. It's in Christ's
name we pray and give thanks. Amen.