Chapter 5. We'll begin our reading
in verse 11. And the title of the message
this evening is, The Law of the Free. The Law of the Free. Paul says, And I, brethren, if
I yet preach circumcision, Why do I suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
a cease. I would that they were even cut
off, which trouble you. For brethren, you have been called
unto liberty. Only use not liberty for 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 of another. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Now the Apostle Paul, remember,
he is in this passage out of love and desire for these that
are believers in Galatia, that they would hold fast to the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made them free, that they should not be
entangled again in the yoke of bondage by the law. And he likened
the believer's life to a race. Every believer here is running
a race. We are running a race. This race
is began by faith in Jesus Christ. This race is completed by faith
in Jesus Christ. And this race is run by faith
in Jesus Christ. But someone had come in and hindered
them by teaching law and grace. He said, Who hath hindered you? You did run well. Who had hindered
you? That you should not obey the truth. Therefore, as believers
in running a race, we are encouraged then to throw off every weight.
throw off everything that easily besets us, that sin of unbelief
that easily besets us, and run with patience, the race set before
us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So
then Christ is the end of the law. What does that mean? We
know that in Romans chapter 10 and verse 4. Christ is the end
of the law to everyone. He is the fulfillment. He is
the satisfaction of the law. He has honored the law and all
its demands. For what? For everyone that believeth. For every one of us. He has done
those things. He is the end of the law. He
is satisfied, fulfilled. And now, they which should joy,
those that should rejoice in this are who? Sinners. This should be the greatest thing
that a sinner has ever heard. The end of the law, the thing
that condemned you, the thing that held you under the wrath
of God. Those who believe in Christ,
He is the end of that. He has satisfied the law in our
behalf. To men who cannot and will not
obey the law, the gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ should
be the greatest joy. But what is it to natural man?
What is the cross to the natural man? It's an offense. The cross, the thing, the only
thing that would save a sinner is the most offensive thing to
the sinner. The cross of Jesus Christ. to the workmonger, to the legalist,
the cross is very offensive. And so then, look now, Paul said
this, Our brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I
suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. Paul was persecuted because of
the offense of the cross. Behold, look at the Savior as
He suffered and died upon the tree. What was he dying for? What was
he suffering for? He was suffering in the stead
of God's people. He was doing something that man
could not do. Satisfy God. Go over to Lamentations. Look at this and hear the words
of Christ. Lamentations chapter 1. And look
at verse 12. Invitations 1 and verse 12. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ
as they are spoken by the prophet. He said, Is it nothing to you,
all you that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me. wherewith listen
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger who
afflicted Christ upon the cross it was the Lord it was God it
was his father who afflicted him from above he has set set
fire sent fire into my bones and it prevails against them
He hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back, he hath
made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke, listen, of
my transgression. Bound by his hand who put the
yoke of that transgression upon the neck of our Savior It was
his father. It was bound by him God. He had
no sin Yet God made him to be sin for us and it was bound up
in him by the hand of God They were wreathed and come up upon
my neck and He hath made my strength to fall. The Lord hath delivered
me into their hands, for whom I am not able to rise up. The
Lord hath trodden underfoot all my mighty men in the midst of
me. He hath called the assembly against
me to crush my young men. The Lord hath trodden the virgin
and the daughter of Judah in a winepress." Listen, that's
you and me. Where were you? You were in Him.
When He was being trodden down, so were you. He was being trodden
down for His people. And for these things I wept mine
eyes, mine eyes runneth down with water, because the Comforter
that should relieve my soul is what? Far from me! My God, my
God, why hast Thou forsaken me? behold Him, how He suffered for
our sins, how God hath made Him to be sin for us, and herein
is the misery. He who knew no sin, that was
His misery, wasn't it? To be made sin, who knew no sin? All we know is sin. He knew nothing but righteousness.
And God hath made Him to be sin for us. and by his cross, listen, he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's what this
did. You that pass by, do you not
behold and see the suffering of the Savior, the dying of the
Lord of glory, as he perfected forever them that are sanctified?
And yet surely this is an offense. Can you imagine this to be an
offense? It is an offense to the legalist to one who was supposed
to add something to it to please God. To suppose that that cross
was not sufficient, it's offensive to tell him it was. It's offensive to those who would
try to mix their works and obedience and their religious deeds to
the death of the Son of God. The cross is offensive. To them, the victory The perfect
redemption of Christ that requires nothing from the sinner is offensive. Can you imagine that? You that believe, I know you
can't imagine that. You and I know what we deserve.
We know what He did. And we rejoice in the cross of
Christ. We're not offended by it. We embrace it. In fact, that
cross, that man who hung upon the cross, is my only hope of
pleasing God. But for the sinner, the vile
rebel against God, the cross of Christ, the substitutionary
death of Christ, is not offensive. I'm offensive. I see myself as
an offensive. I see the beauty of this cross.
I see the glory of His cross." Now obviously here in this passage
there were some who tried to twist the Apostle's words and
actions so as to imply that he too taught law and grace. And
we assume that this was what he had done for Timothy when
he had circumcised Timothy so that Timothy would have an audience
with those Jews. these legalist had no hearing
so they what they did is accused paul of preaching the same thing
as they were preaching so paul says look if i'm preaching what
you're preaching why am i in prison if i if i was preaching
what you're preaching i wouldn't be in prison but if i'm preaching
what you're preaching that is the offense of the cross sees
and so is the power if i preach what you preach i remember witnessing
to a man who believe in free will work religion specifically
baptismal regeneration and as i was witnessing to him and we
were talking about the subject using the scripture this is the
best way to witness don't you don't have to quote me just quote
god be fine you got you got the best of everything right here
But once he could not answer scripture, I remember him going
to one of the men that I admire, one preacher that I admire, and
he tried to use this man's words and twist his words so as to
say that this man was preaching what he preached. The man was
Spurgeon. He had taken a message of Spurgeon,
and he had taken a section out of context and said, well, Spurgeon
believed this. That's exactly what they were
doing with the Apostle Paul. They took one action that he
had done, and they took it out of its context, and they said,
we'll see Paul's preaching this over here, too. And so Paul is, by this statement,
by this question here, silencing those accusers. Those accusers. If I preach circumcision like
you, then why am I persecuted? Surely, if I would consent to
your doctrine, if I would just give some credence to your doctrine,
I could not be stoned or cast out of a city. I would not be
imprisoned or be on trial for my life if I was preaching what
you... if I just would consent. I thought
this interesting. I was reading some church history
a while back, and do you realize that the Romans really didn't
care that Christians believed in Christ? They didn't so much
care as much as if they would just do one thing, burn incense
to Caesar. If you would just light that
one incense giving recognition to Caesar, then they wouldn't
be persecuted. Most Christians were persecuted
because they wouldn't do it. They wouldn't do it. They couldn't
do it. Now listen, believer, if you
want to escape a lot of trouble, all you got to do is consent
to their false doctrines down the street. If you do that, you won't have
any persecution. So if we would consent But yet,
it would also remove the offense of the cross, which is vitally
linked to it. The victory of the cross, the
victory of the cross is the offense. And once you remove the victory,
you remove the offense, but you also remove the power, if you
remove the victory. Listen, we preach a successful
Savior. That's what free grace is all about. That's what sovereign
grace is all about. that jesus christ didn't try
to save anybody jesus christ actually did say everyone he
intended to say and as long as you preach that
you'll be a you'll be an offense you'll be an offense to the natural
man and so many have for the sake of so-called unity and so-called
peace allowed such vile teaching as works in free will religion
to feel tray infiltrate the church listen believer paul would not
give an inch to it neither should we this is the whole point of
this tape we should not give an inch the false religion not
give one ounce of credit they preach another gospel and another
crime you're not going to be the most popular person well
you'll be popular alright just in a negative way you'll be the
one everybody aboard You'll be the one everybody talks about. And let us therefore be bold
then to suffer persecution of this world and its religion.
Let us take our place outside the camp. Isn't that where Christ
was? Outside the camp? Then we are to take our place
outside the camp, rather than lose the cross, lose its offense. And so in love for the saints,
it is here their pastor, the apostle, with all his heart's
desire, he says in verse 12, I would that they were even cut
off that trouble you. I would to God that he would
kill them that trouble you. But I know this, Paul said, I
would that they'd be cut off, not that Paul was going to go
out there and do it. He would that God would do it. Remember,
whose vengeance belong to? The Lord. I'm not mad at false
religion. I was dead just like they are. I hate their gospel. I despise
it. And I won't hear it. I won't
listen to it and I won't give it an inch. But I know this,
it's not for me to cut them off. It's not for me to set them straight.
It's for us just to preach the gospel. Declare the gospel. You see, you don't have to do
much to make them angry. You just got to preach the gospel.
Just declare the truth. Now, it's here at this point,
he leaves off, leaves these to the judgment of God. He has made
it very clear that only, that any mixture of law and grace
is not of God. That faith in Christ, the faith
of Christ has justified us without the law. But then the question
must be asked. How, then, is a believer to live
in this world if we are not under the law? That's a valid question,
isn't it? If we are under the covenant
of grace and not under the law in any measure for our justification,
sanctification, redemption, righteousness, or wisdom, what are we to live
by? What is how we are to live in
this world? And so Paul begins to answer
this in verse 13. From this point, he is now turning
to the practical application of liberty. he is now going to
tell us as believers what law and what rule we are to live
by and so and i've noticed this
in your head i don't know if you found this so far in the
book of galatians but there's not really a clear transition
in this book it is is written with his own hand and it seems
to be written with that you know the uh... i know that uh... Romans
was written with his heart, but you can follow a very clear concise
It's kind of like building blocks in the book of Romans. You can
follow it. It's just one block It's squared off and then there's
another block and it's square in the Galatians. It's mixed
It's just it's just all through this so but this is I believe
the point where he now puts it into very practical terms and he starts to apply it i think
this is uh... his point is found in verse sixteen
he says this i say then walk in the spirit walk in the spirit
and you shall not fulfill the last he is now testifying of
how a son of liberty is to walk how are you to walk in this world walk in the Spirit. And this reminds us of something,
that we have spiritual life. This is a fact, isn't it? You
and I who are believers in Christ, we have a spiritual life. We
are spiritual creatures. Every believer in Christ has
a spiritual life that is the product of the work of the Spirit
of God alone. Over in John chapter 3, you know
this, John chapter 3, our Lord's talking to Nicodemus about the
new birth, telling him he must be born again. And he says this
in verse 5, he said, "...verily, verily, I say unto you, accept
a man to be born of water, even of the Spirit." He cannot enter
into the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. See that
there's a distinction here. Christ makes a distinction of
flesh and spirit. Every one of us are born with
what? Flesh. Every man is born with a natural
fleshly nature. But that which is born of spirit
is completely separate from that which is born of flesh. What
who's the cause of this? He said marvel not I said in
thee you must be born again the wind bloweth where it listed
You hear the sound thereof, but you can't tell whence it cometh
or whether it goeth So is everyone that is born of the spirit you
who are believers? Are you not spiritual beings? You are you have spiritual life
we believe on Christ were chosen to this and And that's something. You were chosen to have this
life. You were ordained, predestinated of God to obtain this spiritual
life. And this spiritual life was not
by any merit of your own, not by any goodness of your own,
but by Jesus Christ. God determined it. It should
be by Him. By His perfect obedience in blood,
we were purchased, redeemed, and perfected forever. but it was not until the holy
ghost came to us It was not until the day of grace that the Spirit
of God appointed our birth. Isn't that amazing that your
day was appointed? There was no way... I remember,
you know, I've talked often of J.D.' 's conversion, and he was
always so fearful. He would say, tell me, he said,
what if I had missed? What if I had not been there?
What if I had not come in? What if... No, there was no way
to miss it. There was no way for us to miss
this spiritual life. It was ordained that you should
have it. It was bought and purchased before you obtained it. And when
you got it, it was exactly the right time. How many times have
you regretted not to be born sooner? You said, oh, if I would
have just been born sooner. No. No, you couldn't. It was
necessary that you be born at the time you were born. It's not until God the Holy Spirit
came and He convinced us of sin, righteousness, and judgment,
He sent a man to preach the gospel to us. How beautiful are the
feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad
tidings of good things! And by the preaching we heard,
and by the hearing we believed, and this all by the free unmerited,
unprovoked, unwarranted grace of God. You get that? Unmerited, unprovoked, unwanted. You didn't want it, and God gave
it to you anyway. He gave us faith to believe in
the Son of God, therefore we who are born again We are born again, are not proud. Anyone here have spiritual life,
are you proud of yourself? No, there's none to be proud
of. There's no boasting, is it? And then what he said, where
then is boasting? It is excluded. Done away with. No boasting here. No boasting
among God's people. But we say with the Apostle Paul,
who maketh thee to differ from another? or what have and if you receive
how as it why do you glory though you've got behold the blessings and promises
of god by the grace of god we have now received christ by faith
according to what You get that, that it doesn't...
This is not a mere Christianity, is it? It's not mere Christianity, uh-uh. No, there's no such thing. My
friends, it takes divine power to make a believer in Christ.
Divine power. Listen to what Peter said. Grace
and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God
and the Lord Jesus Christ. well how'd you get the knowledge
in of of god in the lord jesus christ according as his divine
power have given unto us all day that pertain into life in
godliness through knowledge of him who called us to glory and
to virtue i like what it says in the patient
go defeated chapter one i want you to see this is this came
across my mind as i was Going back over my message Ephesians
chapter 1 We're still talking about a spiritual
life Ephesians chapter 1 in verse 17 He said that the God of Our Lord
Jesus Christ the Father of glory may given to you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of
your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the
hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of the
inheritance of the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
of His power." Now, how is it your eyes were open? How did
you have the knowledge of Him? How is your understanding enlightened
to the hope of His calling? It was by the exceeding greatness
of His power to usward who believe according to the working of His
mighty power. He didn't say exceeding power
wasn't great enough. He had to have mighty power,
too. It was just exceedingly mighty power. That's what called
us to life from the dead, which He wrought in Christ when He
raised Him from the dead and set Him on the right. The same
power it took to raise Christ is the same power it took to
enlighten you, to give you this spiritual life. It was the will of God's purpose
to open your eyes and understanding to the truth. And how should
this spiritual life and knowledge come? By human will, by human
merit, by human power? No, by the exceeding greatness
of His own power, by the working of His mighty power in us. Therefore, we who are born of
God, we say, who maketh us to differ from another. Have you been made to differ You've been given spiritual life.
But I want you to know this. You are made to differ. Friends, you have been separated.
You got that? You have been separated from
the herd. You have been separated, isolated. You have entered into the flock
of Jesus Christ. Into His fold. We, by grace, do now differ from
the rest of mankind, don't we? If you have spiritual life, you
are different than the natural man. You're different than every
lost man in this world. And we know who made us to differ,
don't we? It was God. God made us to differ. We are
spiritual, living creatures. We were once only children of
Adam, only having one nature of sin, full of false gods and
vain dreams of self-righteousness, but now we have another nature
created after God in true holiness. So now we are made as living
creatures, and so now as living creatures, what are we to do?
We have choices. Whereas men who are dead have
no choices. They have nothing that they can
do, being dead, but now we are alive. Alive unto God. Servants of God. And this is
evident mostly in your faith, isn't it? Can you believe? Can you believe? If you can believe,
you can do something that the other man can't. Do you love
God? Do you love each other? You see,
you do something that the natural man can't. Now, do we always
do those things? So is it not incumbent upon us
to realize that this is necessary for us to do, is to believe and
to love and do those things which we can do? Whatsoever thy hands
find it to do, do it. with all thy might as unto the
Lord, as living creatures do." As living creatures. But such
life and such a difference was not made by the law, was it?
No. This difference was not made
by the law, therefore this is not our rule of life. We are
made living creatures, not by the law, and therefore we are
not to return to the law as living creatures. Every believer in
Christ surely confesses that we are saved by the grace of
God without the merits. Our lives by the grace and power
of God are now forever changed. I'm so thankful I'm not what
I was. Walking in religion, confident of heaven, but yet heading to
hell. That's what I was. But now God
has made us to differ. We have changed. God has made
us free from guilt of sin. He has made us free from the
dominion of sin, which is evidenced again by our faith and love.
Whereas sin kept us from faith and love, now by grace and spiritual
life we can believe and we do love. For He has made us willing. in
the day of His power. We who are unable to come, Jesus
said, this is the will of the Father which is sent me, that
all He had given me should come to me. And so spiritual life
is the result of the Father's election, the Son's redemption,
the Spirit's regeneration, and God has given us everything,
as Peter says, that pertains to life and godliness. Everything
you need, you have. What else do you need? You have
everything that pertains to life, eternal life, and this life. You have everything you need. Which he's going to later tell
us concerning the fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, meekness,
temperance, faith. You have all of these things.
You know that? You have everything. Is that not what he says? All
things are yours? So what's left? Nothing. You have everything you need. And though there is no clear
transition here, we're going to see this. Paul tells us, look
again, go back to your text. We need to move on. He says this, "...for brethren,
you are called unto liberty." Here it is, "...only use not
liberty for an occasion to the flesh." but by love serve one
another." He's already dealt with justification, liberty by
the faith of Christ, received by faith in Christ, as a result
of the spiritual life given to us. And so now the question must
be asked again, since we are under grace and not under law,
if the law is not our rule of life, then how should the believer
live? Here it is, in liberty. In liberty. But this, only use
not liberty as an occasion to sin. How shall we live in this world?
Believer, are you lawless? Are you without law? You're not under the law, but
does that mean you're without law? No. No, you have law. We're not antinomian. To be at liberty doesn't mean
to be without law. Does the absence of law as a
rule of life then promote sin? Now, that's what the legalist
will say. Well, if you don't have the law of God, law of Moses,
then, man, your people are going to run wild. They're going to
go crazy. Well, if they're my people, probably.
If they're God's people, they won't. Why? Because this exhortation
rings true to my heart. Use not liberty as an occasion
to sin. Paul here is going to answer
these questions, and make no mistake, we are at liberty, we
are free, we are not under the law, but under covenant of grace.
Remember, these were two separate covenants. These cannot be mixed
covenants. You are either under one or the
other. We are under grace. We are by no means in any measure
under the law. Does the apostle mean that believers
are free from saying is that what it means saying we are not
under grace but under the law are we free to see it of course
not what he's telling you he's telling you this is very practical
you that are at liberty don't use your liberty as an occasion
for flesh which, listen, we are prone to do who's not prone to such things? Paul makes this same argument
over in Romans chapter 6. I imagine he makes it clearer
here in Romans 6. But he's saying the same thing.
Romans 6 verse 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know you not that so
many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into
His death? Therefore we are buried with Him in baptism into death,
that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so are we should walk in newness of life. You got a new life? Then walk
in newness of life. Isn't this reasonable? You know
what Paul said in Romans 12? He said, it's just reasonable.
It's your reasonable service. I beseech you by the mercies
of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy
and acceptable unto God, which is just reasonable. And to a
believer it's just reasonable for us to avoid sin. To leave
off sin. And not use our liberty as an
occasion. Now there are many who do profess
liberty by the grace of God, and yet their lives are spent
wallowing in sin. You seen them? These licentious and wicked men
supposed to espouse the doctrines of grace. They say the right
words, may be faithful in their church, but in their private
life is full of vile, wickedness, adultery, fornication, thefts,
murders, drunkenness. But such who practice things
are deceived. They're not really the children
of God. You know what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6? He says,
Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor adulterers,
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. Does this mean that true believers
will never commit these evils? No. The Scriptures are full of
examples of believers who have committed every one of these
sins. David murdered and committed
adultery. Abraham lied and then committed
adultery with his wife's handmaiden. Moses smote the rock against
the will of God in rebellion in his heart. Now God's people
are so prone to sin, so prone to wonder, Lord I feel it, prone
to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh take and
seal it for thy courts above. We are prone to these kinds of
sins. I remember a man, a believer,
a friend of mine. He was so addicted to drugs.
He had gotten on drugs early, and when the Lord saved him,
he never lost that addiction. He never lost the ability to
leave it. He would strive. He really would
come to worship God and repent and turn and weep and long for
God to deliver him from it, and then he'd just fall again. One thing about this man is he
never stopped. leaving it and despising it. And I know people who are, Grace! Grace! I'm saved by grace! All
the while living with a woman all his life, and you have a
woman living with a man all her life and saying, Oh, I'm saved
by grace! Saved by grace! No feeling of remorse for their
sin, no guilt, no repentance of their sin. Now friends, that's
what these Nicolaitans, remember you read about those in Revelation
when Jesus said, Thou hatest the Nicolaitans whom I also hate. That's who they were, licentious
men, who claimed grace and only lived in sin. No repentance. But notice what Paul says in
that text I just read you, But, such were some of you, but you
are what? Washed. But you are sanctified, but you
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the
Spirit of our God. You notice that he didn't say
this, such were some of you, but you turned it around. Such
were some of you, but you no longer have any sin in you, you're
no longer fornicators, idolaters, you're no longer... That's not
what he said. He said, you were washed, justified, sanctified,
where? In the name, in the person of
Jesus Christ. And that's what true believers
hold to. Therefore we no longer desire to wallow in our sin. Why? Because we turn to Him in
faith and we love Him. So what is it then to walk in
the Spirit, friends? It is to not use our liberty
as an occasion to deflect. That's what it is to walk in
the Spirit. It is to walk by the law, faith and love. Faith and love. Paul makes it clear in Romans
chapter 3, he says, where then is boasting? It is excluded. By works? By law? No. By the
law of faith. See friends, there's no boasting
in the law of faith. Why do you believe? Remember,
that's the work of the Spirit. Why do you have life? That's
the work of the Spirit. Why are you redeemed? That's the work
of Christ. Why were you called? That's the work of God. So in
faith there is no boasting. And that is our law, is to continually
believe on Christ. You know what the measure of
true faith is? The measure of true faith is
this, it continues. Yeah. I'll tell you what, sometimes
our faith is weak. Sometimes our faith is strong.
That's not the measure of true faith. The measure of true faith
is that you have faith at all. That's the measure of true faith.
And it continues. It endures. He said Christ obtained
peace with God by the blood of His cross if you continue rooted
and grounded in the faith. If you continue. Now that's a
measure of true faith. Jesus said if you keep my words
Keep my commandments. Then are you my disciples. Then
are you my people. If you keep these words. If you
love me. If you keep my commandments.
And His commandment is this. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. The second one is the one mentioned
here is love. Look at this in your text one
more time. He said, "...only use not occasioned liberty, occasioned
descent 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."
Love. Friends, I'm sure that we have
a mixed up view of love, don't we? Most of us consider love
only by emotion. Now, love surely involves emotion. It must. It surely involves affection,
but that's not the whole of it, is it? It's not just emotionalism, but
it does have affection. And our affections, what is your
affection? Where is it set? If you're walking in the Spirit,
it is set on Christ. If you're walking in the spirit,
your love is set on service to other believers. Paul said this in Romans chapter
12 and verse 9. He said this, let love be without
dissimulation. You know what that was? Let love be without hypocrisy. This is what it is to walk in
the spirit. This is a very practical thing, isn't it? And by love,
we know this, that the law is fulfilled. If we love, we understand
that the law is fulfilled by love. Not our love, but His love. His love fulfilled the law, and
so the object of our love is His love. And as we love and obey Him,
We also obey His commandment, love one another. Now listen,
this was going to, this issue in Galatians was going to cause
great strife. It already caused much strife.
But after Paul wrote this letter, he knew that there were going
to be greater strifes to take place. And so he said this, he
said, don't bite and devour one another. He said, that's only
giving an occasion to the flesh. You know, those who kept this,
the truth, and obeyed the truth, what do you suppose the temptation
was for them against the ones who failed? The temptation was
to set themselves above those and to bite and devour them because
they had fallen. The other ones who were stuck
on that side were going to bite and devour the other ones who
stayed and obeyed the truth. Listen, that's not what God's
people are to do. That's not what it is to walk
in the Spirit. It's not to divide and devour or try to set yourself
above one another, but rather serve one another. This is what
it is to walk in the Spirit. And listen, if we are walking
in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust
of the flesh. I don't want to fulfill this
lust of the flesh, do you? It's there, it's always, always
tempting, always trying, always willing. The remedy is simple. Faith and love. Obey the truth. Walk in the Spirit. Why? You're
spiritual creatures. God has given us everything we
need to fulfill what he's commanded us to do. Let us not give excuses
as to not doing it. I pray God to help us in this.
Strengthen us in Christ. Let us stand and be dismissed
in prayer.