Open your Bibles with me to the
book of Galatians chapter 5. The past several Sunday mornings
I've been dealing with the subject of Christian warfare, the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit. Dealing with several passages,
mainly Galatians 5. I know I've spent a little while
in this chapter. might ask, well, how long are
you going to spend in Galatians 5? I was looking at a sermon,
a website on the internet, and looked at one fellow's exposition
of Galatians 5, and he had like 30 some messages, but I'm not
going to have that many. But I would remind you that living
the Christian life, running the race, is not a hundred yard dash,
it's a marathon. So keep that in mind, you know,
you don't want to jump in too fast. But I do have two more
messages that I want to preach from this. I'm not going to do
both of them today, but one I wanted this morning concerning the subject
of living and walking in the Spirit. Living and walking in
the Spirit. And I want to look at verse 16.
Look at verse 16 of chapter 5. Apostle Paul writes, he says,
this I say, then walk in the Spirit. Now that's a Hebrew way
of saying live. That's how you live your life,
walk in the Spirit. Not just take a walk, but it's
how you live your life. So I call it living and walking
in the Spirit. That's the Holy Spirit. So he
says this, I say then walk in the Spirit, and you shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against
the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these, the flesh
and the spirit, are contrary to one to the other. They're
at odds. They're enemies. And he says,
so that you cannot do the things that you would. And as most commentators
would agree, that refers that we cannot do the things that
we would in both ways, the ways of goodness and the ways of evil.
We cannot be perfectly, perfectly like Christ in every way because
of the presence of the flesh, indwelling sin. But at the same
time, we cannot go the full way of our evil desires, our depravity,
because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. And so we thank
God We read there in first John 3 in the opening one day. We
will be like Christ perfectly in every way We're righteous
right now You know John said there behold now are we the sons
of God? We don't have to wait to be children
of God. We're children of God right now
in Christ We're forgiven We're cleansed from all our sin before
God. We're righteous in him as He
is so are we in this world, but in ourselves ourselves we're
still not yet what we will be which will be free of all contamination
of sin so you cannot do the things that you would verse 18 but if
you be led of the Spirit now to live in the Spirit to walk
in the Spirit is to be led of the Spirit under his leadership
He says, if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the
law. Now I want to deal with that this morning and then next
week I'm going to finish out this chapter on the works of
the flesh and fruit of the Spirit. But what he's talking about here
is the life and walk of a child of God. One who has been saved
by the grace of God. One who's been washed in the
blood of Christ. He died for me. That's what I
can honestly say. The reason I know that so is
the witness of the Spirit not only in the Word, that's important,
that's necessary, but also within myself, in my own heart. The
Spirit bears witness with my spirit. My spirit being the life
of Christ within. Spiritual life. So this is the
life and the walk of a child of God. One who is justified
fully and freely before God. One who cannot be charged with
sin in the courts of God's justice. Now we're sinners. The fact that
I cannot be charged with sin in the courts of God's justice
doesn't deny or contradict the fact that I'm still a sinner
in myself. The Bible teaches that. Some
may have a hard time understanding it. That's why That's why we're
taught in the scriptures concerning the issues of substitution. I
have a substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. I have an advocate, the
doctrine of imputation. My sins were charged to him,
his righteousness charged to me. And so, from that the spirit
gives us life and he indwells us. We're born again by the spirit.
This is the life and walk of one who has been born again by
the spirit. Christ said, you must be born
again. Without the new birth, we're spiritually dead. It means
we have no spiritual life. We have no desires for the glory
of God in Christ. Have no real conviction of sin.
Have no faith, no repentance. We hear the word of God preached,
but it means nothing to us really. Or we might admire it, but because
we're spiritually dead, we don't want it. We don't want to live
by it. It's not our life. It's not our food. It's not our
way of life. We don't really see our need
of Christ without being born again by the Spirit of God. One
who has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 25 down
there in Galatians 5. He says, if we live in the Spirit,
let us also walk in the Spirit. We're indwelt with the Holy Spirit. To live and walk as we are indwelt
by the Holy Spirit, to live and walk as we're motivated by the
Holy Spirit, even energized by the Spirit. The ability to see
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is given by the
Holy Spirit. The ability to hear the Word
of God with joy and with meekness, submission, to love that Word,
I've got to have the Word. That ability is given by the
Spirit. and then being guided by the
Spirit through the Word, the Holy Spirit motivates us by the
grace of God in Christ, not by law. The motives he establishes
in the hearts of God's people, the mind, the affections, and
the will, there's grace, which tells me from the Word of God
that whatever I have and claim, and whatever I enjoy, As far
as salvation goes and eternal life and blessedness, I didn't
earn it and I didn't deserve it. Still don't. At my best. Didn't earn it, didn't deserve
it. It's grace. Grace. Paul said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. I didn't get it because I'm better
than you. I didn't get it because I walked an aisle. I didn't get
it because I was baptized. I got it simply out of the free
mercy and sovereign grace of God. And to be honest with you,
the only, I can't give you a reason why except to say this, it seemed
good in his sight. That's the only answer the Bible
gives. Philosophy won't help you in
that area. And really, theology won't in that sense. Motivated
by grace, motivated by love. Paul said the love of Christ
constrains us. We're to do what we do by way
of obedience, not out of constraint of law, but because of constraint
of love. And I want to tell you something
now. Let's be honest. There's a warfare there in every
believer. You have to think about that,
don't you? You have to consider that. and
then establishing within us the motive of gratitude. Thank you,
Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. And then the Holy Spirit energizes
us by the assurances of salvation in God's grace in Christ. You
know, assurance of salvation is not just a privilege of a
chosen few among believers. It's not just a privilege of
the old. I've heard people say, well, faith and assurance are
different. I don't believe that in scripture.
I don't believe scripture teaches that. I really don't. I know there are degrees of assurance.
And there are times in our lives when we certainly don't feel
assured. You've had them, I've had them
too. And I'll tell you exactly what's happening there when you
don't feel assured. You who believe the gospel now.
I'm talking about children of God. I'll tell you exactly what's
happening when you're not having a time of assurance. That's why
I had Brother Joe read Psalm 51. What are you looking to when
you have your doubts? What am I looking to when I'm
not looking to Christ, are we? That's why when we talk about
race as a Christian, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. Look to Christ. Don't look within
yourself to find assurance. And if you do look within yourself
to find assurance, I hope and pray you don't find it. Me too. You say, well, I feel pretty
good about my progress this week. Well, if that's your assurance,
next week will be different. Up and down. Looks like one of
those stock quotes, you know. Nothing sure, nothing certain.
But you keep your focus on Christ, and He never changes. That's
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. One righteousness,
not my own, He has given to me. It is mine by imputation, and
I receive it by God-given faith. It never changes. It can never
be corrupted. I may pray a great prayer tonight,
but I'm gonna tell you something, that prayer can and is corrupted
by the flesh. So if I find any assurance there,
I think a whole lot more of it than I should. But I tell you
what, you can't think more of Christ than you should. You can't
do that, that's an impossibility, isn't it? The Holy Spirit guides
us by the word of God in Christ. This word here, Now, I put in
the bulletin this morning about reading the word of God, and
if you want to read through the scriptures, I think it's a good
thing. I know some people don't see much sense in it, but I do.
And I know his brother Jim Byrd, he published this in his bulletin.
If you want to, there's daily readings for you. I'll put them
in there each week. And if you follow that to a T,
you'll read the scriptures through in a year. And that's a good
thing. You may not understand everything
that you read right off, But you, as I said in the honor,
you may get some nuggets of truth there that you'll take away with
you and read it prayerfully. Read it looking for Christ and
read the Word of God. Listen to the Word of God preached.
That's how the Holy Spirit guides. If we live and walk in and by
the Spirit, we're engaged in a warfare between the flesh and
the Spirit in every way. Remember what the flesh is now.
The flesh is the sum total of all remaining ignorance, all
fleshly evil desires, motives, attitudes, thoughts of sin within
us, and the actions that proceed from fulfilling these sinful
things in our lives. That's what the flesh is. The
spirit here that he mentions in Galatians 5.16, I believe
that's the Holy Spirit himself, the third person of the Trinity.
But the Holy Spirit gives His people spiritual life from Christ. In fact, we can say that if we're
born again by the Spirit, we live and walk in the Spirit,
we're sinners saved by the grace of God, we have within us the
life of Christ. The life of Christ within us.
And that's the sum total of all spiritual knowledge. Any knowledge
I have, it comes from God. Any knowledge of eternal things,
of the glory of God, it comes from God. It's not based upon
intellectual prowess or a high IQ or anything like that. It
comes from God. Christ is the teacher of his
people. We're disciples. That means we're
learners. All spiritual desires, if I have
any desires that are honoring to God, that's the spirit within,
that's spiritual life within me. That's the new heart that
Ezekiel spoke of. That's the new life within. Spiritual motives. Those motives
of grace, love, and gratitude. That's the life of Christ within
us. As He dwells within us by His
Spirit and by His Word. Attitude. Our attitude. I find myself all too often just
having a poor, pitiful attitude. towards that. But if I have any
attitudes that are glorifying to God and honoring to him, it's
the spirit of life within me. It's Christ within me. The thoughts
of godliness imparted to us by the Holy Spirit, the law written
on the heart, the truth written on the heart, all of those things
by which we seek to know and believe in and follow Christ.
And then of course We talk about the graces of the Spirit. Talk
about faith. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, a person who really
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is a walking, talking miracle.
You have to understand that. If you truly believe in Christ,
you don't do it because you're better than those who don't.
You do it because God gave you faith. Repentance. And see, that's where this warfare
is. It's in the mind, it's in the
affections, it's in the will. I'm talking about this inner
conflict. You know, we've talked about the warfare the believer,
the church, has with the world. And when I finish this, I think
I'm going to go to Romans 7, but later on I'm going to go
to the warfare we have with Satan. I want to talk about that a little
bit. But this conflict is the product of two powerful principles
within us. Paul called them a law. Some
people call them natures. And that's okay. They say we
have an old nature and a new nature. That's fine. I don't
have any problem with that as long as you stay within the biblical
parameters of what that is. Don't go beyond what that speaks
of. And so many do. But you see,
Paul called them principles and laws, a powerful principle of
sin, a powerful law of sin. He called it in Romans chapter
7, I find a law within my members, he said. But we have a principle of holiness,
a law within us. And simply put, the conflict
between the desire to do right and the desire to do wrong. But
it's right according to God's standard of right. What honors
and glorifies and what submits to Christ? And what does not? There are some who believe that
when you become a Christian, you don't have these sinful desires
anymore. That's a lie. That's not true. And if you're honest with yourself,
if that's your definition of a Christian, you're not one.
And I'm not one. There are some who believe that
you can eventually grow into a point in this life where you
don't have these desires. That's a lie too. In fact, I
want to tell you something. One of the biggest, biggest aspects
of true growth in grace is as you grow, you'll see yourself
as a sinner even more and more. And you'll see your need of Christ
even more and more. Even when you get old. The only
difference is when you're old, sometimes you can't do anything
about it in fulfilling the lust of the flesh. But it's there. There are some who believe that
to have the desire is not sinful, only if you give in. That's a
lie too. That's a lie. Christ taught that
in the Sermon on the Mount. That's one of the basic tenets
of Christianity. To have hatred in your heart
for a person, Christ said in Matthew chapter 5, is to be a
murderer. Now that's something we just
don't want to hear by nature. Somebody, some fool comes along
and says, well that means you might as well go ahead and murder
him. No, idiot, that's not what it's saying at all. Sin upon sin upon sin. But the
reality is this, the reality is this, that there's none righteous,
no not one. And by deeds of law shall no
flesh be justified. I have no hope of salvation,
of holiness, of righteousness, but Christ and him crucified
and risen again. And that's what the spirit of
God shows and convinces his people of. Paul's understanding of the
Christian life is really quite simple. It's not really complicated.
I know men like to make it complicated. I know fellas who get hold of
these things and they try to theologize them and bring out
some things and apply scriptures that don't even believe. Listen,
it's not complicated at all. Since we're called to be free
in Christ, and we are, therefore we're to walk in that freedom
that's given us in Christ and applied by the Spirit. That's
it. But nowhere does Paul say it's
going to be easy. It's not. It's a warfare. It's a battle. And it's an everyday
battle. It doesn't let up on Sunday,
does it? It's an everyday battle. Paul does not say that by walking
in the Spirit we'll be able to subdue all the passions of sin,
the flesh, in our lives and therefore attain to a state of perfection
in this life. Sinful desires are not eradicated
when we're born again. So in all of that, how do we
walk in the Spirit? Well, let me give you some things
about this. First of all, I want to talk to you about the power
of walking in the Spirit, living in the Spirit. What is that power?
Well, look across the page or back a page to Galatians chapter
2 and verse 20. And we could go all over the
Bible with this, but let me just give you a few this morning.
The power of walking in the spirit, this is number one, the power
of walking in the spirit is the power of Christ himself. It's not your power. It's not
my power. It's Christ himself. Look at
verse 20 of Galatians 2. Paul wrote, he said, I'm crucified
with Christ. Now what does that mean? It means
he died for me. He took my sins upon himself, was made a curse,
was made sin, and he put my sins away on the cross. He did it
as a representative, as a substitute for Paul. And I can say he did
it for me too. Can you say he did it for you?
Well, you gotta go on. Look, he says, nevertheless I
live. I died in Christ. Remember he
talked about that in Romans chapter 6. When Christ died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
When he arose again, I rose again. He was made sin, I was made the
righteousness of God. He said, nevertheless, I live.
Now just because I was crucified with Christ doesn't mean I stayed
dead. From his death comes life. He says, yet not I, Now, what
is he talking about here? Is he saying, no, it's not really
me. No, he's not saying that. He's
saying that the power, the source of this life is not in himself.
That's what he's saying here. I live now, but the power of
this life, the source of this life is not me, not I. All right? But Christ liveth in me. The life of Christ in me. How
does he live in you? Is that some kind of a weird
science fiction? No! He lives in me by his spirit
who indwells me and by his word. That's how he does it. It's what
the scripture teaches. Alright? And he says, in the
life which I now live in the flesh, now the flesh there just
means the physical body, the physical world that we live in.
He says, I live by the faith of the Son of God. In other words,
I live by what Christ did. My life, what he's saying here
is my life, the power of my life does not depend on what I do
and don't do. It depends on what Christ did and what he accomplished.
Now, my life in Christ determines in great, great degree what I
do and don't do. You see what I'm saying? That
doesn't mean that what you do and don't do isn't important.
But that's not the source of life. That's what he's saying.
What we do and don't do is very, very, very important as believers. We're to live and walk in the
spirit, by the spirit, you see. And what we do and don't do is
necessary, but it's not the source of life. It's not the ground
of righteousness. It's not the cause of grace. It's the fruit. It's the result
of Christ living in me. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. What's he saying?
I live, but I'm not the source of it. Christ is. I'm righteous
before God, but I'm not the source of it. Christ is. I'm forgiven,
but I'm not the source of it. It all comes from Christ. There's
the power of living and walking in the Spirit. The Spirit comes
forth from Christ and gives life in the new birth. He's called
the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of truth. The Spirit indwells
us to cause us to continually be convicted of our sins and
look to Christ for assurance, for power. The Spirit continually
drives us to Christ. You know, somebody asked me,
he said, how do you know, you know, when even the natural man,
the unbeliever, has struggles of conscience? Well, we do too. Believers do too. How do you
know the difference if it's really the warfare of the flesh and
the spirit or just the struggle of natural conscience? I'll tell
you how. If it's the warfare of the flesh and the spirit,
if it's the Christian warfare, you won't find any relief, any
hope, any assurance except in Christ. That's how you know.
If you find it anywhere else, if you find it anywhere else,
It's not Christian warfare, it's not of the spirit. I had a fella,
tell me one time, he's a local preacher, he's talking about
a fella who was dying in the hospital on his deathbed, he
couldn't get up out of the bed. And he said the fella wanted
to be baptized. And he said, you know, he said,
if a man wanted to be baptized, and he couldn't do that, he said,
I would sprinkle him. just for his peace of mind. And
he asked me, he made a mistake, he asked me, would you do that?
And I said, absolutely not. And he said, well, just for that
fella's peace of mind? I said, absolutely not. And I
said, I'll tell you why. I said, I don't want him to have
his peace of mind over his baptism. I want him to have peace of mind
because he's looking to Christ. You see what I'm saying? If you
can find relief anywhere but in Christ and Him crucified,
it's not of the Holy Spirit, friend. If you find peace in
your religious exercises, I'm going to talk a little bit about
baptism. That's okay. We're to be baptized. That's
a command. But my friend, our peace of mind, our assurance
of salvation, our hope is not in the baptistry. It's in Christ. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. There's the issue. That's the
Holy Spirit's work. There's the power. Paul wrote
in Ephesians 6 and verse 10, Paul wrote, when I'm weak, I'm
strong. Because when I'm weak, what am I doing? I'm looking
to Him. I'm living from Him. Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom, nor the rich man in his riches, or the mighty
man in his might, his power. But let him that glorieth, glorieth
in this, that he knows the Lord. He knows Christ. There's the
power. Secondly, here's the second thing.
Let's talk about the means of walking in the Spirit quickly.
Now God, now listen to Him. God has ordained certain prescribed
means, instruments, tools, you might say, by which we as His
children are to walk in the Spirit and live in the Spirit. And we're
to use these tools. Now these means, these tools,
are not the cause of salvation. Again, there's no saving power
in any of these tools. The saving power is in Christ.
All of it. These tools, these means, they're
not things that qualifies for God's grace. Let me tell you
something. If you're a recipient of grace, that means you're totally
unqualified because that's the only people who need grace. You
understand what I'm saying? The only people who need grace
are the unqualified. God justifies the what? Ungodly. If you think you're qualified,
you don't need grace. You don't need mercy. So these
means are not ways by which we become qualified. Grace is always
undeserved and unmerited. It's a gift through Christ. That's
why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 10, as I just quoted part
of it, but by the grace of God, I am what I am and his grace,
which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. but I labored more
abundantly than they all. What do you labor for, Paul?
For the glory of God, not for salvation. Yet not I, but the
grace of God which was with me. Sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. These means, these tools do not
make us righteous, that's Christ. You see what I'm saying? It's
the work of Jesus Christ in his life and death that merits our
salvation and all the blessings of grace. We have life by the
Holy Spirit, all gifts of the Spirit, all graces of the Spirit,
all the fruit of the Spirit as the result of what Christ did
on Calvary, his obedience unto death. And the means of grace
then are benefits, they're instruments, they're tools, conduits you might
say, by which we grow. and by which God gives us strength
and assurance, by which he seals and signifies our standing in
Christ. And again, it's the power of
the Holy Spirit that makes these things effectual in our growth.
He leads, and how does he do it? He leads us more and more
to Christ. More and more to Christ. He motivates us more and more
by grace and gratitude and love. He causes us to find hope and
peace and relief and assurance in Christ alone, walking in the
liberty of God's grace, not in legalism and bondage. Let me
give you these means of grace. Number one is His Word. That's
the first means of grace. His Word that we may grow spiritually,
the gospel and its truths, His words read, preached, Meditated
upon. First Peter chapter two, let
me read that to you, where Peter's talking about growth here. And
he's talking about the fight. He's talking about the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit. He talks about in verse one of
First Peter two, lay aside all malice, that's hatred, all guile
and hypocrisies, envies, evil speakings. Who's he talking about
there? Talking about believers. You mean a believer can still
have malice? Oh yeah. That's why there's a
warfare. You have malice towards anybody?
What about a brother or sister in Christ? Yes. Guile, that's hypocrisy. Envy, it's evil speaking. And
he says in verse two, now how are you going to fight that warfare
against those things? Well, use the tool. He said,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may
grow thereby. If so be that you've tasted that
the Lord is gracious. Do you have a hunger for the
preaching of the word? The preaching of Christ. The
Bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
In James chapter 1 verse 18 he says we're begotten again by
the word of truth. We're born again under the preaching
of the truth and the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
works in and through the word read, preached, and studied. To seek to live and walk after
the Holy Spirit without the word of God is like seeking to grow
physically without eating food. See what I'm saying? The Spirit works through the
Word to convict us of sin continually, to reveal God's will continually,
to point us continually back to the sufficiency and wholeness
of Christ and what He accomplished on Calvary to put away our sins
and establish righteousness, to remind us that His righteousness
imputed is our whole justification before God now and forever, and
His blood is our forgiveness. Christ said, search the scriptures,
for in these you think you have eternal life. They are they which
testify of me, the word of God. That's the first means. Secondly,
prayer. Prayer is another means. Look
over at Hebrews chapter 4. Now prayer is not a tool that
believers use to get God to change his mind or to badger him or to influence
him. in any way to get what we want. And I'm not going to go all through
this on prayer. I've dealt with it in several
messages, but prayer is a means of blessing. It's a worship tool. It's a tool of faith. It shows
our dependency on God. It's a reminder. It's a remembrance.
Look at verse 14 of Hebrews chapter 4. He says, seeing then that
we have a great high priest, Hebrews 4.14, that is passed
into the heavens or through into the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God. Now, prayer is founded upon the
person and work of Christ. He's our high priest. He's my
advocate. He stands as my intercessor, pleading the merits of His blood
for my whole salvation. Now, seeing that that's true,
let us hold fast our profession, our profession of faith in Him.
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities." Praying out of our weakness.
That's what infirmities are. The natural weaknesses that we
have because of who we are. We're human beings. Even save
centers. I was telling some folks last
night, I heard a fellow say he'd been a priest for many years,
a Catholic priest. And you know, that's a false
gospel. I mean, that's just so. But he
said out of all of his, in his old age, all of his studies,
he said he really only knew two things for sure. And a fellow
said, well, what is it? He said, there is a God and I
ain't him. And that's it. But we know more than that for
sure, don't we, because of God's word. We know we have a high
priest, but we pray out of our weakness. And we try to figure
it all out, don't we? But we can't. We're just groping
in the dark when it comes to providence. But he says, but
was in all points tested, tempted, like as we are yet without sin,
let us therefore. Because of his strength and his
power, his person and work, and because of our weakness, let
us therefore come boldly, confidently unto the throne of what? Grace. That we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. That's what prayer is,
it's praying out of our need. Many times we don't know the
will of God. Most of the time, we don't know what would be good
for us. We think we know. Lord, give me this. I want that.
If I only had that. If I only had this much. We don't
even know. We're like our children. They
don't know what's good for them, but we do. That's why we guide them.
That's why we raise them and nurture them. That's why we're
children of God. When it comes to the eternal
scheme of things, we don't even know what's good for us. We pray
unto God. That's a tool. That's a means
of grace. And the Spirit motivates us to
pray, not to change God's mind, but to seek His mind. That's
why we pray. Here's another key to prayer.
Thy will be done. Here's the third means. Public
worship and fellowship with brethren. Turn to Hebrews 10. This is living
and walking by the Spirit. You know, people will read passages
like Ephesians 4 and verse 30. Remember what that says? It says,
grieve not the Holy Spirit. The context shows you what he's
talking about. He's talking about believers at odds with each other.
Grieving the Holy Spirit. What's the remedy? What tool
do we have? Public worship and fellowship
with brethren. That's what it is. Recognizing
that we're all in the same boat. That's right. You say, I look
at you and I say, you ought to act better than that. Well, what
about me? You ought to think better than that. What about
me? Well, look here, verse 23 of Hebrews chapter 10. He says,
let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.
Now, what is the profession of our faith? It's Christ. Look
into Christ. My hope is all in Him. He's my
all in all. For he's faithful that promised.
Now here's the foundation of it. You see the foundation, the
ground of my perseverance and endurance here is not me, it's
him. He's faithful that promised.
And then he says, and let us consider one another to provoke
unto love and to good works. Too many times we provoke each
other to other things, don't we? Anger, envy. But he said,
let's consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting, encouraging, building up one
another, and so much the more as you see the day, the day of
his return approaching. That's what he said, building
up. We're to be here to build up each other, not to tear down
each other, not to divide each other, but to build up. That's
a means. A means of grace, a means of
walking in the Spirit. Here's the fourth one. The ordinances
of baptism in the Lord's Supper. Now, some people call it the
sacraments. But I don't like that term because
sacrament indicates some sort of saving power. There's no saving
power in baptism. Peter said that. Look over at
1 Peter chapter 3. There's not, listen, nobody is
saved by getting baptized in water. The act of baptism does not wash
away my sins. The blood of Christ washes away
my sins. But the ordinance of baptism
is a tool, a means of confession. That's what it is. And you know,
it's something that every believer is commanded to do and every
believer can do who has the physical ability to do it. And we can
all do it equally. Now, let me tell you what I mean
by that. Not every one of you who are
believers can get up here and preach the gospel. Not every
one of you who are believers are able to communicate as well
as some others. But I'll tell you what you can
all do equally. You can identify and confess Christ in believer's
baptism. When you stand in that baptistry
and go down into that water and come up out of that water, that's
confession, that's identification with Christ. I'm confessing this
grace of God in him. And like I said, look here, Peter's
talking about baptism in verse 21 of 1 Peter 3. He says, the
like figure where into even baptism doth also now save us. Now what
does he mean by save us? Do you mean like the church of
Christ says, if you don't get baptized, you can't be saved,
and if you get baptized, you can be? No, that's a lie. That's
a false gospel. Look at what he says. Not the
putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of
a good conscience towards God. Now, what is that answer of a
good conscience? I want to do what Christ commands me to do.
And so he says, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I want to do
what Christ says to do. That's what he's talking about.
It's an ordinance of confession. And then the Lord's Supper. We're
going to take the Lord's Supper tonight. What is that? It's an
ordinance of remembrance. We live and walk after the Spirit
when we meet together and we take those elements, the wine
and the unleavened bread, the wine that represents His blood,
the unleavened bread that represents His sinless body. We're confessing
publicly in taking that ordinance. as a fellowship of brethren that
Christ is our only hope of salvation now and forever. It's a tool. And then, lastly, trials sent
from the Lord to teach us and wean us away from the world.
Turn to James chapter 1. Now, most of us would say, well,
this is one tool we don't like to use. Trials. Trials come in many forms. They
come in many ways. Trials come in many degrees. And listen to me, I'll say this,
trials come for many reasons. Sometimes trials are directly
related to our own bad behavior. Sometimes they are. I'll give
you an example. If you go out here and speed
today and the policeman stops you and gives you a ticket, that's
a trial for you. I know, I've been there. But I'm going to tell you something,
if he does, you get exactly what you deserve. Why did you get
a ticket? Because you were speeding. That's easy to figure out, isn't
it? Don't do it again. Well, we don't learn the lesson,
do we? Sometimes trials will come, and
we don't know why they come. Think about old Job. He had a
heck of a time trying to figure it out, and he never did figure
it out. He wanted to meet with God and talk with him about it,
and God just flat told him. He said, well, I'll tell you
what, Job. He said, if you can answer these questions, I'll
discuss this issue with you. Where were you when I hung the
stars in space? Where were you when I put Leviathan
in the sea? You see, if you're going to meet
with God and reason with God on that kind of an issue, He
put you in your place. We can't figure this thing out,
folks. But they're trials. And what
are they for? Well, look at James chapter 1. He says, Verse two of James chapter
one. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into diverse or various temptations. That's testings. He's not talking about temptations
to sin there. He's talking about testings,
trials. Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. What's patience? That's endurance.
That's long-suffering. But let patience have her perfect,
that's complete, finished work, that you may be perfect and entire,
wanting or lacking nothing. That's what they're for. Endurance. And what do these trials do?
Well, I'll tell you exactly what they do. They wean us away from
this world and they drive us more and more to Christ. They
drive us to the Word. They drive us to prayer. They
drive us to each other. You see what I'm saying? They're
means of grace. All right, I'm gonna quit there
and we'll pick up there next week and finish up Galatians
chapter five on these.