Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Galatians chapter 5 Galatians chapter 5 and I want
to talk to you a little bit this morning on this subject of being
led of the Holy Spirit Led of the Holy Spirit, that's the title
of the message If you look at Galatians 5 and verse 18 Paul
writes, but if you be led of the Spirit You're not under the
law. And of course he's talking about
here in Galatians 5 what we talked about last week concerning the
warfare of the flesh and the spirit. Remember back in verse
13 we read for brethren. Look at that. Verse 13 of Galatians
5 for brethren. You've been called unto liberty.
We need to understand that liberty. And he says only use not liberty
for an occasion to the flesh. But by love serve one another.
And of course that liberty has something to do we see there
with loving one another and serving one another. And that tells you
right right away that it's not liberty to sin. You know the
one of the most common objections that is raised against salvation
totally by grace without the works of man. That is, I'm talking
about the ground of attaining and maintaining salvation. The
works of men are totally excluded from that ground of salvation. You cannot be saved by works
at any stage, to any degree, in any way. You cannot be saved
by, for by grace are you saved, Ephesians 2a, for by grace are
you saved through faith And that not of yourself, even faith is
not of ourself. You can't even make faith a work
according to the scripture. Many people try to. But through
faith, that not according, not not of yourselves. So for by
grace are you saved through faith and that not that you don't have
by nature. That's what he's saying. All
right. It's not of works, lest any man should boast. And then
immediately there in verse 10, he shows you what place works
do have in the scheme of salvation. And when he says, for we are
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, that is
the fruit. All right, we're going to talk
about that. But unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. So, one of the most common objections
that is raised to salvation totally by free sovereign grace is, well,
you know, I've heard people say, they've said it to me, they've
probably said it to you. Well, if I believe that, I'll just go out and sin
as much as I want to, that kind of thing. And Paul, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, which shows you right there that if anybody
who thinks that way is certainly not being led of the Spirit.
But Paul, by inspiration of the Spirit, he says, no, you can't
use your liberty. Whatever that liberty is now,
we're going to talk about that. Whatever it is, you can't use
it that way. That's not a Christian. That's
not a believer. That's not being led of the Spirit. It's liberty
not... Let me tell you something. When
God saves a sinner, that sinner, for the first time in his life,
is free to serve God. He wasn't free before. He may
have been religious. Most likely was. But he wasn't
serving God. You know, men can be religious
and serve self. Did you know that that's what
salvation by works does. It spawns a group of people who
are religious but they serve sale not not God. But now being free in Christ
we can serve God. All right. So he says in verse
14 for all the laws fulfilled in one word even in this thou
shalt love thy neighbors by sale. Talking about love to neighbor
love love God perfectly love our neighbors our sale. Love,
perfect love, did you know, if we loved perfectly, if we loved
God perfectly, if we loved each other perfectly, we would never
sin. So the liberty here can't be
an excuse to sin. If I loved you perfectly, I'd
never sin against you. That's the problem. We love God
perfectly. So he says in verse 15 but if
you bite and devour one another what he's talking about is the
divisions and the contentions the self-serving ambitions that
even believers get involved in. You see that's why we have to
fight. This is the warfare of the flesh
and the spirit take heed that you be not consumed one of another
don't destroy one another. These divisions that among believers
now he's not talking about denominationalism he's talking about believers.
sinners saved by the grace of God in Christ and So he says
in verse 16 this I say then walk in the spirit You being led of
the spirit you walk in the spirit. That's the conduct of life attitude
And you shall not fulfill the lust the unlawful desires of
the flesh which you do have which I have which we all have and
cannot get away from And he says in verse 17, now,
this is the spiritual warfare. This is the struggle. All right.
Now, what I'm concerned with this morning is this. You know,
everybody has struggles. The natural man has struggles
within, not just struggles without. I mean, we all have struggles
without to. You know, we talked about struggles with the world.
Later on, we'll talk about in another message, just struggles
with the devil, the world, the flesh and the devil. But when
we talk about struggles with the flesh, I'm talking about
an inner warfare within me. You're talking about an inner
warfare within you if you have that struggle. But you see, even
the natural man, even the unregenerate man has struggles of conscience. I had struggles of conscience
before I ever knew the Lord, didn't you? Didn't your conscience
ever bother you? The Bible says in Romans chapter
2 that God has given every man a conscience. Now I know some
people spend their lives trying to squelch that conscience, trying
to kill it. Some are successful. That's right. You ever, you ever read about
somebody commits some heinous crime and people say, well, he's
got no conscience. It doesn't bother him. That's a person.
He had one, but through that process of depravity, the Lord
has allowed him to go that full swing of what the Bible calls
in Romans chapter one, the reprobate mind, the mind without law, the
mind without conscience. That's what it is. But even the
unbeliever has struggles of conscience. Now, here's what I want us to
find out here from the scripture. I'm in a struggle. I'm in a warfare. I want to know if my struggle
is the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. Is that really what
it is? Or is it just natural conscience,
legal struggles? Because everybody has those.
And he says here in verse 17, for the flesh lusteth against
the spirit. That's the Holy Spirit. Remember, I told you that The
warfare of the flesh and the spirit really isn't a warfare
between one part of me against another part of me. It's a it's
a warfare between me and the Holy Spirit. And he says in the
spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one
to the other. And that's so that you cannot do the things that
you would the things you desire. Now what he's talking about there
is the desire that God puts in a believer by the Holy Spirit
to be like Christ. It's true. We can't go the full
swing of our depravity. Thank God. We can't do that. And here what he's talking about
is we can't like Paul said in Romans chapter 7 which is a chapter
I'm going to deal with in this series of messages. They Paul
said I want to do good but how to do good. I don't even know.
I don't even know how to do it. I've never experienced that.
I see Christ. He's good. He's my goodness.
He's the perfect one. But how to be like him, I don't
even know how. I just struggle with him. And
then he says in verse 18, but if you be led of the spirit,
you're not under the law. Well, remember, what is the flesh
here? The flesh is the sum total of
ignorance of spiritual things. It's the sum total of remaining
desires and motives and attitudes and thoughts of sin within us.
The actions that proceed from fulfilling things, those sinful
things in our lives, that's the flesh. It's not something running
around inside of me, it's me. I still have sinful desires,
you still have them. The flesh also describes, as
I told you last week, and this is important now, man's efforts
to fight sin on his own, by his works. That's what Paul's talking
about there in Romans chapter 8, I believe, more than anything
else. When he talks about the carnal mind as enmity against
God. Think about Saul of Tarsus in
his religion. That was a carnal, fleshly man.
That's what that word carnal means, flesh. He says, they that
are in the flesh, that's unregenerate, not born again. They cannot please
God. No matter how you improve man
in the flesh, that's the way I like to say, you know, I hear
some people say, no matter how you improve the flesh, you don't
improve the flesh. No matter how you improve man
in the flesh, he cannot please God. You can make him religious. You can give him a 12-step program. You can get him baptized. You
can put his name on a church roll. You can get him on a missionary
trip. But he cannot please God in the
flesh. You can't improve in the flesh. It's impossible. And so they
there in the flesh cannot please God. When you talk about man
in his natural state at any stage, at any way, in any terms, whether
it's immorality or it's high religion, you have to say he
cannot please God. He cannot please God. False religion
is just as fleshly as the one who's out robbing banks. Just
as fleshly as the pimp and the prostitute, false religion in
God's Son. And I know now that, you see,
that's against our natural thinking now. And that tells you something
right there about being led of the Spirit, isn't it? If it's
against my natural thinking, then I know it's not me. It's
the Holy Spirit. Well, he talks about there about
the in Romans 8, he says in verse 16, the spirit itself, the Holy
Spirit himself, what it should be, beareth witness with our
spirit, our spirit. Now, what's he talking about?
Our spirit. He's talking about spiritual life there. That's the person
who's been born again of the spirit. We have a spirit, we
have a regenerate, we've been regenerated. We've been given
life from God. That's born again. You know,
Christ told Nicodemus, you must be born again. What is that spirit? Well, it's the sum total of all
spiritual life and knowledge that I didn't have before I was
born again. The desires, the motives, the
attitudes, thoughts of godliness imparted to us by the Holy Spirit,
by which we seek to know and to believe in and rest in and
follow Christ. Look back at Galatians 5, look
here, he says in verse 19, listen to this. He says, now the works
of the flesh are manifest, which are these, and he mentions these
sins. And I'm gonna go back over these later on, but he talks
about adultery and fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
and remember, in the context here, you have to understand
how the Bible defines these things. It's not just the action now.
You know, Christ dealt with that in the Sermon on the Mount, didn't
he? Because the Pharisees were teaching that these sins were
just in the action. Like you think about adultery.
You say, well I've never committed the act of adultery. But have
you ever thought about it? See, that's the key. You know
what Christ said, well that makes you an adulterer. Now that's
against our natural thinking, isn't it? And so understand that
and he talks about these things fornication uncleanness Those
are sexual sins lasciviousness and then he goes to religious
sins when you see idolatry and witchcraft don't necessarily
think of just that that idolatry somebody who bows down to a wooden
image I Dollar you know one of the old Puritans defined idolatry
this way. I think it's a good definition.
He says Not attributing to God qualities of character that belong
to him and attributing unto God qualities
of character that do not belong to him. It may be a little hard
to grasp, you know, but what he's talking about there is if
you don't say the right things about God, the God you worship
is an idol. And if you say the wrong things
about God, the God you worship is an idol. False religion is
an idol. Witchcraft or sorcery That would
include anything of the mystical things like astrology or anything
like that. You don't have to wear a pointed
hat and hang out around cauldrons, you know, to be in witchcraft,
you know, or have black cats. It's superstition. And then he
talks about hatred and variance. That's rivalry. You ever have
rivalries in the church? You know, somebody, somebody
hurt somebody alive. Yeah, you're right. It's really
a sad, sad thing that, you know, people vying for position, for
recognition, get their way, emulations, that's jealousy, wrath, that's
anger, strife, that's selfish ambition, seditions, that's divisions,
heresies, that's dividing over opinions. You ever hear people,
they get an idea, or they get a word, or they get a definition,
and you've got to buy into their way of thinking, or they're going
to split with you? That's what that is, that heresy. Envying, murders, drunkenness,
reveling, all of those, those are the product of unholy, fleshly
desires. That's what they all are. The
Spirit of God never, never leads a sinner to do those things. When those things are thought,
when those things are acted upon, it is not the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God would never, the Holy Spirit never, never
leads a child of God into any kind of liberty that would make
these things okay in any way or any context. Not in any way. So when these things rise up
in our lives, in thought or in action, you cannot attribute
them to the Spirit of God. That's you, that's me, that's
the flesh. That's what he's saying. They're the works of the flesh.
And he says, in such light, verse 21, of the which I tell you before,
as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things.
Now what he's talking about, he's talking about those who
are unregenerate here. who have no struggle between
the spirit and the flesh. They may have struggles of conscience,
but those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. If that's your lifestyle, see, there's no repentance here.
That's what he's talking about. Here's a person with no repentance,
no spiritual struggle. That's the kind of person who
doesn't have Christ. He's not saying if you're not sinlessly
perfect, you won't inherit the kingdom of God, because if he's
saying that, none of us are going to inherit. But he's saying that
person who lives that kind of lifestyle with no repentance,
no remorse, no godly sorrow, no struggle, they cannot inherit
the kingdom. They don't have Christ. They
don't have a mediator. They don't have the grace and
the mercy of God. They don't have the spirit of
God. But now, verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit, and I love
the way this is put. You know, he says back in verse
19, the works of the flesh. But here in verse 22, he says
the fruit of the Spirit. And that's because that's what
it is. It's the fruit. Now, who's the vine? Christ is
the vine. Christ is the life. The Spirit
is life because of righteousness, he says over in Romans chapter
8. What verse was that? That was verse 10. In Romans
8, he says, if Christ be in you, how does Christ dwell within
his people? By his Holy Spirit and by his Word. See, there are
two essential things for the new birth. The Holy Spirit, who
gives life from Christ, and the Word of God. The Word of God,
which is life. And he says, if Christ be in
you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit, the Holy
Spirit, is life because of righteousness. There can be no life without
righteousness. Did you know that? Well, hold
on to that thought. I'll come back to it. But he
says the fruit of the Spirit. And he says it's love. That's
godly love. Joy. That's joy and peace in believing. That's not just being happy at
a given moment. See, in the flesh you can be happy, but it's not
going to last. All right. I mean, you can be happy today
and you could be in a tragedy tomorrow. You know that. So that
changes. But this joy and peace is in believing that is resting
in Christ. And that'll never change because
he's the same yesterday, today and forever. Our state before
God in Christ never changes. I may be healthy today and sick
tomorrow, rich today, poor tomorrow. I may have the world by the tail
on the downhill slide tonight and then I might be struggling
uphill tomorrow. But that doesn't matter with
this joy because it's joy and peace in resting in Christ. Seeing
what you read Joe and Romans 8 1 there is therefore now no
condemnation in Christ no matter how you look at me and what state
or our context I'm going through in this life. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ. And so he says
that's joy, that's peace, that's peace with God and peace within
my heart. 1 John 5 says this, even when my
heart condemns me. God's word doesn't change. Long
suffering, that's perseverance. Gentleness, that's being kind. Goodness, this is exactly what
it says. Seeking to be like Christ. Faith
or faithfulness. Meekness, that meekness is submission
to God's word, God's will. Temperance, that's self-control. It's not, you know, when we say
self-control, we're not talking about being controlled by our
own power there. We're talking about submitting
to the power of God. And he says, against such there
is no law. The law doesn't forbid those things. And then he says
in verse 24, and they that are Christ, they who belong to Christ,
that's a possessive there. They who belong to, do you belong
to Christ? Do I belong to Christ? We've crucified the flesh with
the affections and lust. We've put them to death on the
cross. Now what does that mean? Well,
does that mean I no longer have these sinful desires? No, it
doesn't mean that at all. If I didn't have these sinful
desires, you know what? There'd be no struggle. There'd
be no struggle at all. But how do you crucify the flesh
with the affections and the lust? That's the passions. Well, I
realized what sin is and I realized that the only way The only way
that I can be saved from sin is through the blood of Christ
That's what it means It's what it means and he says in verse
25 if we live in the spirit That's how we live the spirit lives
in us and we live in the spirit And then we're led of the spirit.
Let us also walk in the spirit That's walking according to God's
word. And there's three things I want to give you on that. But
hold on. He says let us not be desires of vain glory provoking
one another in being one another. That's what that biting and devouring
up there was all about. They were provoking one another
in being one another because of vainglory vainglory that's
pride pride. Well the conflict between the
flesh and the spirit is something that every Every child of God
goes through all the days of their life here on Earth. There's
no exceptions. The conflict, the warfare. It's
a continual, everyday thing of denying ourselves. Christ said in Matthew 16, 24,
he said, if any man will come after me, follow him. Let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now, here's
the question. How do we know that our struggles
with sin are truly spiritual warfare, the warfare of the flesh
and the spirit, the struggle of a child of God and not just
legal, natural conscience struggle? Well, he says in verse 18, if
you be led of the spirit, you're not under the law. And really,
this has everything to do with that liberty. Liberty, you being
called unto liberty. That really, if we understand
that liberty, then we understand something of the warfare of the
flesh and the spirit. Back up in verse 1, listen to
this, of Galatians 5. He says, Now I know one thing
about this liberty right away. I didn't make myself free. I
didn't set myself free. I couldn't do that. I didn't
break out of jail. Christ set me free. Whatever
liberty this is, it's a sovereign act of the grace and mercy of
God in Christ. Whatever this liberty is. It
wasn't a product of my free will. If it were, then Christ wouldn't
have had to set me free. I could set myself free just
by my choice. That's not the way it happens.
Stand fast. That means stand firm, immovable.
Don't be moved away from this. In the liberty where with Christ
hath made us free. And don't be entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. What is that yoke of bondage?
Well, basically here it's legalism. And I'll show you something more
about that. But verse 2, he says, Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Now
that's kind of strange, isn't it? What's he talking about? Well, he's talking about false
religionists who crept into these churches teaching That even though
Christ is your Savior and you're saved by grace, you have to be
circumcised to really be saved. You have to be circumcised really
to be holy, to be righteous. And Paul says that's a denial
of Christ. Look at it in verse 3. He says, For I testify again
to every man that is circumcised, that is for that reason, that
he's a debtor to do the whole law. Listen, if you have to do
one work to be saved, then you have to do the whole law. If
you have to do one to be righteous, then you're a debtor to do the
whole thing. You can't take part of it. You can't say, well, Christ
got me started, now the rest is up to me. No, you're a debtor
to do it all. That means to satisfy it in its
justice and its precept. He says in verse four, Christ
is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you're falling from grace. You're denying grace,
that's what that means. If you think that Christ alone
and what he accomplished on Calvary is not enough to save you and
to keep you saved and to bring you to glory, then he's really
no good to you at all. And he says, for we through the
Spirit, through the Spirit, that is by the Holy Spirit, wait for
the hope of righteousness by faith. How are we made righteous
in Christ? And we're waiting for the hope
of righteousness by faith. What is the hope of righteousness?
Our final glory in Christ. I'll give you three words about
this liberty. Word number one is motivation.
Motivation. Word number two is cultivation. Cultivation. Word number three
is destination. Destination. Those three words
describe our liberty, basically. Motivation describes the ground
of our salvation, the ground of our liberty. What ground do
we stand on? Because whatever ground you stand
on, that determines what motivates you in your struggle. Whatever you're struggling in,
an inner struggle, whether it's to sin or not to sin, What motivates
you? You say, I want to be the best
person I can be. I want to be the best father. I want to be
the best employee, the best mother, the best whatever that I can
be. And that's the way it should
be. We all should strive to be the best in those areas that
we should be. But here's the question. What ground do you
stand? What motivates you? Now, that'll show you. Are you
led by the spirit or not? Or led by something else? It
could be society. It could be conscience. Whatever. It could be a desire for heaven
and hell. I don't wanna go, you know, it's just like a lady told
me one time, she's talking about, you know, being a good person,
and I said, well, what motivates you? She said, well, I can't
afford not to be. Why? And then when we talk about cultivation,
what are you talking about? You're talking about fruit, aren't
you? Farmer plants a seed and it comes up, you cultivate it.
He prepares the ground, All that, you're talking about the fruit,
all right? And then destination, what is
that? That's the goal. Motivation is the ground, cultivation
is the fruit, destination is the goal. What is your goal?
Now those three things define this liberty and show us whether
or not we're led of the spirit or led by natural conscience
or led by society or whatever. Whatever. Let's talk about motivation,
the ground. What does that mean? What is
the ground of salvation? Well, notice what he says in
verse 18 of chapter 5. If you be led of the spirit,
you're not under the law. What does that mean? That means
you are no longer condemned by the law. You are, hear me? You're no longer condemned. You're
no longer under the curse. Look back at Galatians 3 and
verse 10. He says, for as many as are of
the works of the law, they're under the law. What is it to
be of the works of law? They're trying to be saved by
doing the best they can do. They're trying to be accepted,
to be righteous, to be holy, to be rewarded by their works. He says, for as many as are of
the works of the law are under the curse. Now, why is that? Because here's what the law says.
For it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. You're trying to be saved by your works. Well, here's what
your works equal under the law. Cursed. What does cursed mean
in the Bible? It means death. When Paul wrote
in Galatians 6 14 God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said by whom the world is
crucified under me. Who did they crucify. Well look
at verse verse 13 he says Christ hath redeemed us. This is Galatians
3 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being
made a curse for us for his written cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. That means death. Cursed means dead. Paul said,
by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
I'm dead to the world, and the world's dead to me. You see, the liberty of a child
of God is the fact that we have been totally saved from the penalty
of sin, from the curse of the law, by the blood of Christ. Period. Not by our works. Not by our cooperation. Not by
our continuation. But by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Period. Think about it. Look back at Romans chapter 7
with me. We read a little bit of this
last week in Romans chapter 6. Romans 6 and verse 7 where he
said, If he that is dead is freed from sin. If we died with Christ,
we're justified. What is the ground of our salvation? The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the liberty
of our justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ. Look
at verse 7. Look at verse 4. He says, Wherefore, my brethren,
you are become dead to the law. That's what we're talking about.
That's the motivation. I'm dead to the law. What does
that mean? That means the law cannot condemn
me. I've already died. Well, when did that happen? At the cross. When Christ died
under the law for my sins. I died with him. That's what
Romans 6 says. When he was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I arose
again. How did that happen? It's called representation. It's
called substitution. It's called imputation, that's
how. God fully accounted all the penalty
of my sins to the Son of God incarnate. And he was made sin,
that's what the scripture said. Christ who knew no sin. Now we
might be made the righteousness of God. We are become dead to
the law, now look how. By the body of Christ, by the
death of Christ. Remember in the Lord's Supper,
he said, this bread is mine, this symbolizes my body, which
is broken for you. He says that you should be married
to another, united to Christ, even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. What's
the ground of it? The death of Christ. What's the
fruit? The life that the Holy Spirit
gives to each and every one for whom Christ died. You see the
difference? So what motivates me? Well, look
over at verse 5 there of Romans 7. He says, for when we were
in the flesh, that's unregenerate, the motions or the passions of
sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring
forth fruit unto death. Now that, the passions of sins
which were motivated by an unregenerate person's view of the law. That's
what he's talking about. The law does not promote sin.
You understand that? When he says the motions or the
passions of sins which were by the law, he's not saying that
there's something evil in the law that promotes sin. No, the
law doesn't promote sin. In fact, Paul deals with that
later on in Romans 7. He says the law only commands
that which is good. But he's talking about how an
unregenerate person in the flesh looks at the law. And let me
tell you something. He says, what will happen to
that person, that unregenerate person who's in the flesh, when
that person looks at the law, it'll work in his members, not
because of any fault in the law, but because of the flesh, it'll
work in his members to bring forth fruit unto death. It'll bring forth fruit, but
it'll be unto death. And it'll show itself in one of two ways.
It'll show itself in just total abject rebellion against the
law. Y'all know anybody like that?
Read about anybody like that? They just, they see the law,
they wanna break it. We often use the analogy of a
little child. You put him in a room and surround
him with four toys. And you say, now you can touch
these three and play with these three, but this one you cannot
have. What's the one he's gonna go for? The one he can't have. That's human nature. It's just,
you know, I've often told the story about my grandchildren.
We have like 15,000 remotes in the house. And one of them works. You give them the one that don't
work, they want the one that works. And how they can spot
it, I don't know. Must be some kind of a fleshly
radar. But they can always spot that one remote that works that
you don't want them to have. That's the one they want. That's
human nature. So this fruit unto death will show up in rebellion.
Let me tell you another way it shows up in false religion. In fact, that would fit more
with the context here because the Apostle Paul is talking about
himself before he was regenerate. And what was he before he was
regenerate? He was a religious man. He was
a Pharisee. He was a moral man. He was sincere
and zealous for his religion. He was trying to stamp out sin,
but he was trying to do it in his own power. by his own works. That's fruit unto death too.
What was his motivation? He was trying to make himself
righteous before God. That's flesh, my friend. That's
not being led of the Spirit. What does being led of the Spirit
mean? It means finding righteousness,
forgiveness, hope, peace, satisfaction, pardon, Assurance in one place
Christ and him crucified It means dying to the law look over at
Galatians chapter 2 Listen to this And look at verse 19 Paul writes here in Galatians
2 19 for I through the law am dead to the law Now, what does
he mean, I through the law am dead to the law? Well, what's
he talking about? Well, he says that I might live
unto God, not that I might sin more, but that I might live unto
God. What does he mean, I through the law, I'm dead to the law?
Look at verse 20, I'm crucified with Christ. I'm dead to the
law. That means I'm justified. The
law cannot condemn me. The law can demand no obedience
from me in order to gain or maintain salvation. Now, how did that
come about? By ignoring the law? No. By breaking
the law? No. By lessening, lowering the
standard of the law? No. It was through the law that
I became dead to the law. How did I become dead to the
law? Through the law. Christ kept the law perfectly
for me. And so he says, I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. That's saying it's not by my
power that I live, but it's Christ living in me through his spirit
and his word. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, in this human body, that's what he means there, I
live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. And I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. If I'm trying to make myself righteous before
God by my works, then Christ died in vain. You see what he's saying? You
can't have it both ways. Grace and works will not mix.
What is the ground of my salvation? It's the blood and righteousness
of Christ. What motivates me in this fight, in this warfare? I'm not trying to save myself. I'm not trying to make myself
righteous. But I'm fighting because I've already been blessed with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You see,
it's like the difference between a forced slave who's working
to try to pay a debt that he owes, and a bond slave, a willing,
loving bond slave who serves his master because he loves him,
because the debt's already paid. Christ paid my debt. I'm not
working to pay my debt. I'm not fighting this warfare
to pay my debt. Christ already paid it. That's
the motivation. That's the ground. It's motivation
of love. It's a motivation of grace. It's
a motivation of gratitude. And then on the other end of
it, where am I going to find relief? Where am I going to find
any peace here? Where am I going to find any
assurance from looking within myself and seeing how much I've
improved? If I do, that's flesh. You see,
if I'm led of the Spirit, the Spirit's going to lead me to
one place. for peace, for rest, for righteousness, for holiness,
for assurance, and that's Christ and Him crucified. Look at John
chapter 16. And here he's describing the
new birth. In verse 7, talking to his disciples,
he says in verse 7, nevertheless, John 16, I tell you the truth,
it is expedient or necessary for you that I go away. What's
he talking about going away? He's not going on vacation, is
he? He's going to the cross. And he says, for if I go not
away, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will not come unto you,
but if I depart, I will send him unto you. You see, the work
of the Spirit is the fruit of the work of Christ. If he didn't die on the cross,
there'd be no work of the Holy Spirit, because there'd be no
life to give. But because he died, his people have life by
the Spirit through him. And he says, and when he's come,
verse 8, he will reprove or convince the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment, of sin because they believe not on me. In other
words, the Holy Spirit convinces me that without Christ, I'm nothing
but sin. Everything I am and everything
I do in the sight of God is sinful without Christ. Without Christ,
that's where we are. Sin, S-I-N, sin and self. And then of righteousness because
I go to my father and you see me no more. The Holy Spirit convinces
me that the only hope of righteousness that I have is in the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood and righteousness alone.
I have no other hope of righteousness. And then, verse 11, of judgment,
because the prince of this world is judged. Who's the prince of
this world? That's Satan. When was he judged? Christ said
it in John chapter 12 when he went to the cross. He judged
Satan. What is he talking about? He's
talking about Satan, the accuser of the brethren. And he's saying this, that because
of his death on the cross, the accuser of the brethren has no
valid accusations. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justified. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. My sins
have already been judged on Calvary. That's what he's talking about.
Now, in this second part, in the matter of cultivation, the
fruit, what's he talking about? Growing in grace and in knowledge.
That's the liberty of our spirits by the work of the Holy Spirit
in us. Why are we serving the Lord? Why are we fighting the
fight? Why are we seeking to be like Christ? It's because
we see and know, by the grace of God, that we have no hope
of salvation but that which Christ has already accomplished for
us on Calvary's cross. And therefore, therefore we serve
him out of love and grace and gratitude. And over here in Galatians
5, we cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. How do you do that?
Well, you do it by prayer. You do it by fellowship. You
do it by the Word of God, the preaching. This is what we're
doing today. Cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. We fight
the good fight of faith, Paul said. The Holy Spirit delivered
us from the blindness and deadness of heart, opens our eyes to see
and believe on Christ who redeemed us and justified us and sanctified
us. We hear his Word. We didn't hear
it before. Not the way we do now. We may
have heard it before. I know my own self. I can make
a clear distinction in my mind of how I heard it before and
how I hear it now. Before, my whole, really, there
was a segment in my life when my whole goal was to prove this
book wrong. And it wasn't because I was immoral
or irreligious. But now my whole bent is to show
the rightness of this book. This book is my life now. I can't
go without it. This is the word of God. Thou
hast the words of life right here. My whole life is dedicated
to the study of this word. Whereas at one time my whole
life was dedicated to proving it wrong because I didn't like
what it said. It was too narrow for me at that
time. You mean to tell me That the only way a person can go
to heaven is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Come on now. That's
what this book says. We hear that word and we believe
that word. Our life is hid in Christ and
the Holy Spirit motivates us. And then our destination, our
goal is what? To glorify God. And ultimately
to be free from the presence and influence and power of sin.
in this life. Those who believe on Christ through
the work of the Spirit shall yet be saved from the presence
of sin and glory as the ultimate effect of his work on the cross.
Christ does all the saving. He does all the keeping. He does
all the glorifying. But David expressed it this way
in Psalm 1715. He said, As for me, I will behold
thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. John said it this way, he said,
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us
that we, sinners, should be called the sons of God? Therefore the
world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now
are we the sons of God. We're not fighting this fight
and seeking to be like Christ in order to become sons of God.
We're doing it because Christ, by his grace, hath made us the
sons of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. It doesn't even appear to us
what we shall be. Sinless perfection, does that
appear to you? There's only one way sinless
perfection appears to us, and that's as we look to Christ.
But when you look at yourself, does sinless perfection ever
appear to you? If it does, you're in trouble.
It doesn't even appear what we shall be, but we know that when
he shall appear, when Christ shall appear, we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. That's the fight, that's
the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. Motivated by grace,
cultivating the fruit of the spirit by the word and by prayer,
by fellowship. Seeking to glorify him in all
that we do. All right. Let's sing as our
closing hymn at the cross hymn number 129 at the cross