All right, take your Bibles and
turn them into Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. We'll title
this message, The Law of the Free. The Law of the Free. Or the Law of Liberty, as James
says in his epistle. The Law of Liberty. Let's look
at this in verse 13, that's where we begin. He says, 4. Brethren,
you have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law
is fulfilled in one word, even this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. But if you bite and devour one
another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." Now
the apostle, having encouraged those believers, now this whole
time he has made distinctions between the law of Moses and
the law of grace. The law of works and the covenant
of promise, two distinct and separate covenants, and you are
either under one or the other. You cannot be under both. You're
either under grace or you're under the law. These will not
mix. This is the whole point. And
he got to the point where now he's talking to you who are sons
like Isaac. You are at liberty. You have
been made free from the law of sin and death. You've been saved
by the grace of God, by the power of his grace. And he says, stand
fast. Hold fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made you free. And don't be entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. Some of those in Galatia had
been entangled. They started to run well, he
tells them, you did run well. It's the last message I preach
concerning the race that the believers run. We run a race,
we begin this race by faith in Christ. How do we run this race? By faith in Christ. How do we
finish this race? By faith in Christ. We run by
faith. And someone had come along and
hindered this church by adding law. And he said earlier, remember
in, I believe it's chapter 4, he says that which is of law
is not of faith. You can't run by faith if you're
looking to the law or looking to your works. Now listen, this
is popular in our day because every believer wants assurance
of their salvation. They want a measurement. They
want to measure. How much have I grown? You know,
kids, when we put our kids, we put that little mark on the wall,
measure how high they are, and then about, you know, two weeks
later, they go back and try to measure again to see if they've
grown. That's all, that's what we want to know. We want to know
if we're growing. We want to know if we're actually, and what
the problem is, is that people are going back to the law to
measure their growth. No. No, you don't go back to
the law, because if you go back to the law on one part, you've
got to take the whole thing. And so you're hindered. He said in verse seven, you'd
have run well, but who did hinder you to not obey the truth? This
persuasion is not of him that calleth, it's not of Christ.
I want you, that's a vital statement, isn't it? What you're doing is
not of him that calleth. It's not of God. Notice this, a little leaven,
leaven's a whole lot. Well, I believe in grace. I believe
salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. I believe
that. But, you know, I need to help
in this matter of sanctification. That's all I'm saying is that
I need to add my obedience to the righteousness of Christ.
No, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Remember, leaven
is a picture of sin. You put a little sin in it, the
whole thing's ruined. So that's what he's saying, you
put your works into it just a little bit and you've ruined the whole
thing. If this cup of water was 99.9999%
pure water and I add just .00001% poison, you want some? No. It ruins the whole thing, doesn't
it? It's what we do when we add our works to the work of Christ. We cannot do that. He says, I
have confidence in you through the Lord that you will be none
otherwise minded. If you're a true believer, I
know this. You'll come around to this. I have confidence, not
in you. I have confidence in you through
the Lord. I know this, the Lord will bring you around. But he that troubles with you,
he shall bear judgment whosoever it is. And I, brethren, if I
Yet preach circumcision, why do I suffer persecution? Then
is the offense of the cross ceased. Paul was being charged here with
preaching that circumcision was necessary. And this is what men do, is that
they try to add, you know, men to it. They say, well, this doctrine
I'm preaching, when Paul said it, See, I think it gives it
authority, right? Paul said it. But Paul said,
I never said such a thing. I remember witnessing to a guy
believed in baptismal regeneration. He believed that you must be
baptized in order to be saved. And what he did is he found an
off quote from Charles Spurgeon. He knew that I liked to read
Spurgeon. So he said, well, Spurgeon said, Spurgeon's not authoritative. I don't care. What saith the word of God? See,
they said, well, Paul said, no, you're just taking Paul out of
his context so you can use him as a stepping stone. Paul said, no, look, if I really
preach that, then listen, nobody be mad at me. But yet you know
this, everywhere Paul went, he was being persecuted, persecuted. And so now, We get down here
and he said, I would that they would even be cut off the tribe.
I pray that God take them out. Now listen, he didn't say you
should go ahead and take them out. He didn't command the church
or the believers to go in there and pick them out and kick them
out of the church. No, he left that to the Lord. It's not our business. It's not
our business to try to straighten people out. Man, that's not our
business. I'm not here to straighten you
out. Not gonna do it. You know, that's God's business,
isn't it? I just leave him, if I leave it alone, God'll straighten
it out. It will straighten, he straightens
me out. He does. The Lord will take care of his
own. And so now we get down, and I had a whole bunch here,
but I need to get down to my text. I'm kinda moving a little
fast, but I wanna get down to the text tonight. And so now
here in this portion of Scripture, there's no big transition here.
But I want you to see in verse 13, the apostle begins the transition
from doctrinal to practical. He's going to take that which
he had preached, and now he's going to put it into a real situation
here. And he says, for brethren, You
have been called unto liberty, only use not your liberty as
an occasion to the flesh, but in love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
but if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be
not consumed one another." And then he sums it all up. Everything
in those verses are summed up in verse 16. Look at this. He
says, I say then, walk in the Spirit. and you shall not fulfill
the lusts of the flesh." The first point I get here is a practical
application of spiritual liberty. A practical application is this,
you that are sons of liberty, you that are born again of the
Spirit of God, listen, I say then, walk in the Spirit. And the consequence of that is
you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. He is now testifying of how a
son of liberty then is to walk in this world. And so when I
say walk in the spirit, I must preface this by saying this.
You must be spiritually alive to walk in the Spirit. If you are not born again of
the Spirit of God, you cannot walk in the Spirit. Impossible. Not possible. He's talking spiritual
things. Back over in John 3, where I
just read a minute ago, but you remember the Lord's talking to
Nicodemus there. And he said this, you must be
born again. The wind bloweth where it listed.
You can hear the sound thereof, but you can't tell where it's
coming, you can't tell where it's going, even so is everyone
that is born of the Spirit of God. You know, when the Lord
saved me, there was a bunch of people in that church. I was just as lost. When I entered
into that building, I was just as lost as everyone else in the
building. I wasn't looking for Him, but the wind blew where it listed,
and it blew right here. That's all you can say. There's
no difference between me and them, none whatsoever. I wasn't better
than them. God was merciful. You must be
born. You know the word born again
means born from above. Nicodemus said, how can you enter
your mother's womb? He said, I'm not talking. This
is spiritual things. I'm using earthly language to
tell you of a spiritual thing that's happening. It's not a
physical birth. It's a spiritual one. So we were born of the Spirit.
Without this, you cannot walk in the Spirit. And this is what religion tries
to do. They try to walk in the spirit fleshly by obeying outwardly
those ordinances. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't
smoke. Don't do this. Don't do this. And they outwardly
do these things. And believe me, they appear more
moral than God's people. But that doesn't mean they're
walking in the spirit. They have to be born of the spirit. You
see, we who are born of the Spirit, we were chosen of God in eternity. Our spiritual life was ordained.
Isn't that amazing? My spiritual life was ordained
of God. It was decreed of God, predestinated
that I should be an adopted son. And that means of my adoption
was predestinated as well, that by Jesus Christ I should be a
son. that by Jesus Christ I should
be holy. And the Lord Jesus Christ that was ordained to be my Savior
came into the world and by His perfect obedience to the law
and His perfect sacrifice He purchased me, He redeemed me,
He perfected me by His work, by His blood, by His obedience. But it was not until the Holy
Spirit came to me that I knew any of this. It was not until
He came to me, I experienced what God purposed. I experienced
what God, what Christ purchased for me. The Spirit of God convicted me
of my sins. He exposed me and by the power
of His grace, unmerited, unprovoked, unwarranted grace, He gave me life. Therefore, all of you who are
born again, I want you to know that you are different. You are
different. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
1 Corinthians chapter 4 and look at verse 7. Paul asked this question to believers,
to you who are born again of the Spirit of God. I think it's a good question.
1 Corinthians 4 chapter 4 and verse 7. Who maketh thee to differ
from another? Are you different? Now who did that? I want you to know this. To say
that there is no difference is not humility, it's just unbelief.
You are different. But who made you to differ? Religion
says you make you to differ. Well, I believe because I willed
it. God accepts me because of this thing that I've done. Not
us. We're different. We're different
because God had made us different. What hast thou that thou hast
not received? I like that, that it didn't use
the word accepted. Did it? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? And now if thou didst receive
it, why in the world are you glorying? That was their problem
in the Corinthian church. They were glorying in men. They
were glorying if God made you to differ. If you've received
this, how did you receive it? And if you received it, then
why are you glorying? As though you didn't receive
it, as though you merited it in some way. The gospel has a way of abasing
us, doesn't it? Has a way of putting us in the
dust. You have salvation? Okay, who
gave it to you? How'd you get it? Did you accept
it or receive it? You received it, didn't you?
Now, if you received it, then why in the world would you set
yourself above someone else? As though you didn't receive
it. As though you merited it in some
way. You that are born again, you
received it by the grace of God and we cannot glory in anyone
but Christ. We can't glory in ourselves.
We have nothing to boast in. Go to 2 Peter. Look what Peter
says about the same thing. 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1. and look at verse 2. He says
grace, grace and peace be multiplied unto you. Now how is grace and
peace multiplied unto us? Now I like grace and I love peace
and I want it to be multiplied unto me. I want to, I know it,
I know grace, I have experienced grace, I have experienced the
peace of God, yet I want it to be multiplied, don't you? Well,
it's through the knowledge of God and of our Lord, of Jesus,
our Lord. Well, my goodness, how in the
world then do I get this knowledge? Well, I'll tell you what, maybe
I'll just study really hard. I'll get a bunch of big books
and I'll start reading. I'll go to seminary school. Maybe
then I could learn and know of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
According to verse two, This is how knowledge comes. According
as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain
to life and godliness. How in the world we receive this
power, this knowledge? By divine power. You can't get
anything in here or in here except by divine power. That's pretty astounding. You
mean I can't study it? Yeah, you can study, but without
divine power, you ain't getting it. You could be an academic scholar,
but not get it. See, this knowledge we have that
are born again of the Spirit, talking about walking in the
Spirit, this knowledge is not carnal. It's by divine power. divine power and he gives us
all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge
of him that hath called us to glory and virtue whereby are
given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by
these great and precious promises you might be partakers of the
divine nature. Oh man, you understand that? He who called you, listen, He
has given you some great promises. He's promised some mighty high
things. Joanne, God has promised to give
you holiness. That's a promise. Is that not
a great promise? Is that not a precious promise? Precious, isn't it? To a sinner
saved by grace, it is precious. It's great. It's so great I can't
attain to it. I can't understand what that
means. I know God is holy, and God promises
to give me holiness. to give it to me without merit,
without works, to give me what Christ has purchased
for me. That's a great and precious promise.
And by these, listen, this is the reason, you are made partakers
of the divine nature. When you were born again of the
Spirit of God, I want you to see what happens is that God
gives you a new nature. What Peter says is a divine nature. Paul in Ephesians chapter 4 says
that the new man is created. You don't have to be a scholar
to understand what something's created. It wasn't there before! How'd the world come into existence?
It was created. Out of what? Nothing. Exactly
what happened inside of us. God created in us a new man which
is after God. It is in the image of God. And what he says is this, not
just holiness, it's true holiness. It's not pretend holiness. It's
not make-believe holiness. It's not like holiness. It is
true holiness. You that are born again, do you
see what great power it took to make you a new creation. We are new creatures. New creations. This is all according to the
promise. We're talking about that covenant promise. This is
the experience of it. The rubber meets the road here.
This is where it actually happens. It's all theory in our minds
until when? Until the Spirit comes and creates
in us that holy, divine nature. It is the power of God. We are
now partakers of the new nature, the holy nature. Go to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians
chapter 1 and look at verse 17 it says, At the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. This is Paul's
prayer that he gives us the spirit of wisdom and revelation. How? Through the knowledge of him.
Well, how do we get the knowledge? I'm breaking over this. I'm kind of going over and over
what Peter said. We want peace and grace through
the knowledge of him. How do we get it? Peter says,
by the divine nature. Given a divine nature. That's
how we understand. That's how we know. Paul says
the same thing. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His
calling. Do you have hope? Do you have
hope? What's our hope? Christ is our
hope. He is the hope of the calling.
Christ is. And what is the riches of the
glory of the inheritance in the saints? And what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to us who believe? Listen, according,
this is how it's happening. This is how you get the knowledge
of him. This is how you get the hope of his calling, the riches
of his glory, the inheritance of the saints. How do you get
it? By the greatness of his power.
This matter of salvation is not a decision. It's not an act of
will. That's not how we are enlightened. It's not our amount of study
or our sincerity. It is by the exceeding greatness
of his power we are enlightened. Listen to what he says. Which
he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead. What
kind of power does it take to save a sinner? You see, it's more power than
the preacher's got. I got no power. I got no power to make
anyone believe. Get this, you have no power within
yourself to make yourself believe. It takes the power of God to
give us spiritual life. Faith in Christ is the evidence
then of a spiritual life that is given by the grace and power
of God. It was God's will to give us
spiritual wisdom and power and knowledge. And it took the power
of God to give us this new nature by which we now believe. So how much power did it take?
It's not the power of man's will, nor it's the act of man's obedience. You can't obey the law enough
to give yourself this life. This is the working of God, the
Holy Spirit. Therefore, we who are born of
God have been made to differ. In this, we have been given spiritual
life. That's the difference. That's
the difference. We are new creations, spiritually
living creatures, partakers of the divine nature. Whereas once
we had only one nature. The nature of our father, Adam,
was given to us. Wherefore, as by one man's sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men for all have sinned." Now that's what we received in
our original nature. We only had one. It was a nature
that went after the gods of our imagination. It was a nature
that dressed ourself in our own righteousness. But now we have another nature,
created of God and holy in every way. So now we are made living
creatures and now we, therefore, we as living creatures, we make choices that no other
man has the ability or will to make. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Everyone who is born of the Spirit
cries, yes. Yes. Of course I do. You see, not
everybody can do that. But then again, who maketh thee
to differ from another? Why do you believe and others
do not? It is the grace and power of
God alone. There's nothing in us. And such
a life, such difference, is not made by our obedience to the
law, but by the Spirit of God. And every believer in Christ
surely confesses that we are saved by the grace of God, listen,
without the deeds of the law, without the merits of the flesh.
There is nothing that I have done, there is nothing I am doing,
there is nothing I ever will do that will ever add to what
He gave me. Nothing. I give no credence to
anything I have ever done. All my hope is His righteousness
and blood. That's it. This is the believer's
heart. We confess that we are saved
by grace. Our lives We, our lives, we live
by grace and power. And we are forever changed in
that God has made us free from the guilt of sin. You that are
living, you that are capable of walking in the spirit, listen
to this, God hath given you liberty from the penalty of sin. I like
to think of it like the children crossing the Red Sea, a good
picture of that. The sea is always a picture of
God's justice and judgment. In that place it was, because
remember when Pharaoh tried to cross it, what happened? The
sea consumed them. It was a picture of God's justice
and judgment. And all who are outside of Christ,
all who do not have the blood of the Lamb. Remember, Israel,
they escaped how? By the blood of the Lamb. You
that have the blood of the Lamb, listen, the justice of God is
parted and you now walk through on dry ground. It was fearful for them to walk
in that sea. In this life we are often fearful. But we are assured of this. You
that are born again of the Spirit, not one drop of God's judgment
will ever touch you. Why? Because Jesus Christ already
bore it in his own body on the tree. He already suffered it.
And God, being just, cannot demand twice payment. You are free,
liberty, free from the penalty of sin. You will never pay for
your sin. Why? It's already paid. This
is the freedom we have in Christ, is that we are free from the
penalty of sin. And listen, we are also free from the power
of sin, the dominion of sin. Whereas once we were lame and
unable to come, now then we do what? We come. Jesus said, no
man can come to me. What? Except the Father would
just send me draw him. You come to him, don't you? Will
you ever stop? I'm like Peter, Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We've got no
place else to go. I'm often confounded. I'm often
troubled. When I get to these places and
I've got nowhere to go, that's the best place. Because I always
go to the same place. Every time I got nowhere to go,
I go to him. I do this willingly. Why? Why
is it that you do this so willingly? Why is it that God, every turn,
he hymns us in. He does. He hymns us in until
we have no place else to go. And where do you always go? You
always go to Him. Why is that? That's because you
are free from the power of sin. The others, they can't do that.
They're under the dominion of their nature. They will not come. They cannot come. But you come.
You come. And you do it willingly. So this
spiritual life is then the result of the Father's election. It
is the result of the Son's redemption. And experimentally, it is the
result of the Spirit's grace and power to give us both life
and faith in Jesus Christ. Now then, I made that clear that
our spiritual walk, nobody can walk in the Spirit except those
who are spiritually alive. Now, we're going to go back to
verse 13, look at your text now, the you that are alive, I'm speaking
to you, he says, brethren, sons of liberty, You have been called into liberty. That's good. I like that. Only, listen to this, only use
not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. But, instead of that, conversely,
listen, by love, serve one another. Now, again, there's a transition here
and I want you to see this because it's vital for our understanding. Paul is now taking his gaze off
of those who failed. He's dealt with them. He said,
look, I hope that God cuts you off. Okay, I'm done with you.
Now he turns over here to the people who stayed faithful and
he says, walk in the spirit. And this is what it means, listen,
brethren, you sons of liberty, I'm talking to you now, don't
give occasion, don't use your liberty as an occasion to flesh.
Now what does he mean by that? Does he mean like, well, I'm
afraid they're gonna go out and commit fornication. Not what he was afraid they were
going to do. What he's fearful of is this,
that they would in some way think themselves superior to the ones
who fail. The occasion of the flesh is,
aha, I told you so. I told you not to go there. See? I'm a son of liberty. Look what
you did. That was the natural inclination.
That's our natural inclination. When people leave the church,
they hurt us. When someone leaves here, and
they go away, and they follow exactly what these Galatians
were doing, I'm hurt. My heart is broken. I've lost
my brother. I've lost my sister. They've offended me. They've
hurt me. They've despised the gospel that we once loved and
enjoyed together. They're gone. Peradventure, God be gracious
to them. Show them what they've done and cause them to repent. And
then they come back into the congregation. What's my inclination? My inclination is to be angry. Is to be upset. Why? Because
I'm human? Because I still have that old
man of sin? And so what do I do? I begin
to think myself superior for staying. And I believe them to
be inferior for leaving. Paul says no. That's not walking
in the Spirit. That's walking after the flesh. And so Paul now is turning to
those who remain. And so in this, Paul is also
answering the question that remains, how then am I to walk? Paul,
you tell me I'm not under the law, I'm under grace, I'm a son
of liberty, free from the penalty of sin, free from the power of
sin, yet I know this, Paul, I'm not free from the presence of
sin. So how am I to walk? You walk in the spirit. That's
exactly right. That's the rule of life he's
getting to. How shall we live in this world? Are we lawless?
You that are believers, are we lawless? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Does the absence of the law as
a rule of life then promote sin? Because that's what they're going
to say, isn't it? Paul here is going to answer
this question. And make no mistake, we are at
liberty. We are free from the law. We
are not under the law in any measure or any part, but under
the covenant of grace. Does the apostle mean that believers
are now free to sin? Is that what he means? Romans
6. I like the way that scripture
is kind of like the ocean. It just goes out, comes back,
and goes out, and comes back, and runs over. The same ground,
constantly churning it. Constantly showing us this. Romans
chapter 6. Paul preaches grace so much.
He preaches grace to the point where men are going to ask this
question. Shall we sin that grace may abound? If grace is so wonderful,
if grace covers all my sin, then Paul, what you're saying is that
I can go out and sin all I want to and everything's going to
be alright. He says, what shall we say then?
Grace is so wonderful, isn't it? And it does cover all our
sin, doesn't it? Doesn't it? What sin is not covered
by grace? Even those willful sins are covered. What shall we say then? Verse
one. Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abandon? the strongest language you can
come up with, God forbid. Don't talk like that. How shall
we who are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know you not
that as many as have been, we are dead to sin, how shall we
live any longer therein? Know you not that so many as
were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore, we are buried with him in baptism into death, that
like as Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so also should we walk in newness of life. We have
been baptized. We were in union with him when
he died. We were in union with him when he rose again. We were
in union with him when he created in us that new nature. Isn't
it just reasonable for us to walk in newness of life? If you
have a new life, isn't it reasonable to walk like that? It is, it's
just reasonable. That's just so to a believer
in Christ. So all who profess to be at liberty
and cry, grace, grace, and then just live in sin. I've known people
like this. I've known people who are doctrinally,
academically sure about the grace of God, but yet they have no
qualms about living in sin, none whatsoever. See, no problem with
it. No problem with it. All who profess such things,
they're not under grace. This is what the Lord said in Revelation,
that group of people, the Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans, they loved to
preach grace. Why? So they can sin. That's
what they did it for. They did it so they can live
anyway that the flesh desired to live. Christ said, I hate
them. Go to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians
6. This is what Paul says. He says, no,
you're not. Don't you know this? Verse 9. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9. No, you're not. that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Don't you know that?
Don't be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such
were some of you. But you changed your ways. Know
what it says? Does not say that, does it? But you started doing better.
You stopped this and you started that. No. What's the hope of
every believer? Yeah, we were like that. We confess that's who we were
by nature. That's who we... But you are
washed. But you are sanctified. But you are justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. When you became a believer, did
you completely cease from sin? These things written here, could
they not be said of us at any given point in our life? Remember,
fornication or adultery is just a thought. You don't have to
do the action. Our Lord said that. It's a thought.
It's a motivation. Could we not all be guilty of
any one of these sins or worse? Yes. We did not cease from sin. But you that are washed, you
that are sanctified, you that are justified, you can't constantly
live in this. I'll give you an illustration
of this. There's a man I knew named Ben.
He was a believer. He was a drug addict for many
years before the Lord saved him. And when the Lord saved him,
he never lost that desire in his flesh. There were times where
he would fall. He would put himself in bad places,
in bad situations, and it was horrible to watch him fall into
this. But one thing was true about
this man is that the Lord never let him stay there. I've seen him come back like
a dog with a tail tucked between his legs, feeling the sorrow and the guilt
and the shame of his sins. God's people can and do fall,
but this is not the tenor of their life. Why? Because we who are saved by grace
know this, we don't have any desire to live in this. We do
fall in it, but it is not our heart's desire to live in it.
So God gives his people grace, and they do come, they do return
again. And they return, not by law. Every time that he came back,
it was the message of Christ's love that drew him back. It was not a message of, hey,
you need to stop that. Hey, you don't need to do that. It was the message of, I love
you. Look what I've done for you.
Behold my hands. Behold my side. It was the message
of the love of Christ that constrains him. What is it that constrains
you from sin, you believers, you that walk after the Spirit?
What constrains you not to use your liberty as an occasion to
the flesh? One word. Love. Not your love, but Christ's love. It is, Paul
says, the love of Christ that constraineth us. If we try to interpose anything
but the love of Christ to restrain us, we'll fail. We'll fail. I can't tell you
how many times I've tried to restrain myself from sin. only to have it explode in my
face. But if my eyes were to be fixed
on the love of Christ, it always constrained me. Now it didn't constrain the feeling
or desire to do it, but it did keep me from it. It is the love
of Christ that constrains us. So when Paul says this in our
text, brethren, brethren, You've been called to liberty, don't
use your liberty as occasion to the flesh. Either to look
down on someone or to commit these other offenses. Whatever
the flesh desires to do. Don't use liberty as an occasion
to it. But what? Conversely, by love. By love. By the love of Christ. Serve
one another. Wouldn't that be best? You that are walking, this is
what it is to walk in the spirit. It is by the love of Christ to
serve one another. Now this is one that gets me.
Forgiveness. What does Christ say about forgiveness?
He says, forgive one another. How are we to forgive one another? Even as God, for my sake, has
forgiven me. How free is His forgiveness?
What does He require of you for forgiveness? Nothing. What should my forgiveness require
of you? Nothing. I can only do that by looking
at His love. I can only do that by the power
of His Spirit giving me that grace. And notice this in verse 14,
I'll move on now. He says, for all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Now, he spent all this time pointing us away from the law. Why would
he mention this here? Because of this, the law is fulfilled.
Isn't that what he said? He says, for all the law is fulfilled.
Who did that? Christ did. All the law is fulfilled in Christ. So this statement here, thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, isn't this the desire of everyone
who has the law fulfilled within them? Look at Romans chapter
5. No, I think it's chapter, well,
I'll get there. Romans chapter 8, it says, there
is therefore now no condemnation. To them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the
law of the spirit of life hath made us free from the law of
sin and death. For what the law could not do, and that it was
weak to the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, listen, that
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled, where? In us. In us. I just told you I spend a lot
of time talking about the new man. The new man is without sin. So this law of love thy neighbor
as thyself isn't already done. It's already fulfilled in us. Therefore, isn't it this desire
of our heart to love? But if children, I'm sorry, then
go back and look at this. He says, but the converseness
of this, if you bite and devour another, take heed that you be
not consumed one of another. I say then, walk in the Spirit. What is it to walk in the Spirit?
It is to walk by the power and grace of God. It is to walk by
faith and love. That's what it is to walk in
the Spirit. This is our law. It is the law of faith. It is
the law of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, is this something
you do once? No, faith is, you know, in scripture,
faith is always present tense, isn't it? Why? Because faith
10 minutes ago and faith 10 minutes from now will not help me. I
need faith now and now. And now, and now, I must believe
now. Constantly. This is our law.
It is the law of faith. This is how we walk in the spirit.
And secondly, love. Love is our law. The law of love. And those who are believers in
Jesus Christ, we will walk in the spirit, and then walking
by faith and love does what? It nullifies the lust of the
flesh. That's what it does. If our eyes
are set on Him, it nullifies the desire of the flesh. Now
listen, Paul is not saying that you don't have this desire. He's
acknowledging you do. You have the desire of the flesh.
But what counteracts it is what? Faith and love. Faith in Christ. The love of
Christ. And by faith and love, what do
we do toward each other? I may do something to you, I
may make you mad, and you may want to do something evil to
me. What nullifies that? His love. Faith in Him and love. It nullifies what we desire to
do. That's what Paul's getting at in these next verses because
these people, they're headed for a collision course. Those
who are Christ are going to come back. And when they come back,
Those ones that stood faithful, they're gonna wanna get to them.
They're gonna wanna show them because they were hurt. And Paul's
saying, no, don't walk that way. He says, walk by the law that
is given us, which is what? Not the law of Moses, but the
law of faith and the law of love. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Our Father, please dismiss us
with your mercies. I beg you to instill faith and
love in the hearts of your people. I pray that you would give us
grace to be servants of Christ. And not just servants of Christ,
but servants of one another. That you would always cause us
to see others better than ourselves. Give us grace. And I ask this
in Jesus' name. Amen.