5 the name of the message is
unity through love unity through love so open your Bibles if you
would again to Galatians chapter 5 we're going to read verses
8 to 15 now this letter again is written to the various churches
in the Roman province of Galatia and these folks are they came
over A lot of it is said that they came from Scotland and then
they were married into the Gauls and all that and now the Gauls
have a very Celtic influence and they're very superstitious.
Very, very superstitious. So Paul's writing this letter
to the Judaizers who have now tried to say you must be circumcised
to be saved along with faith in Christ. And he's writing to
say no, we're saved in Christ and Christ alone. So let's read
verses 8 to 15. So what he's saying there is
this false teaching by the Judaizers doesn't come from God. This persuasion
to be circumcised in order to be saved doesn't come from God,
not at all. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump. Again, a drop of poison is all that we need to
kill us. I have confidence in you, through
the Lord, that ye be none otherwise minded, but he that troubleth
you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren,
if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?
Then is the offense of the cross ceased. I would that they were
even cut off which trouble you remember that when we looked
at that study that's amputated in the Greek that's cut right
off so he's he's saying I wish these false teachers were cut
right off so they don't disturb you anymore that was that was
the reasoning for brethren you have been called into liberty
again that's freedom Only use not liberty or freedom for indication
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. So we're not to
use our freedom in Christ and go out and do whatever we desire. That's the opposite of grace,
isn't it? That's the opposite of grace.
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 of one another.
Now last week we looked at verse 13. And we've seen that we've
been called into liberty. Freedom. What freedom we have.
I don't think we fully understand the freedom that we have in Christ. It's absolutely amazing. We've
been liberated. In the Greek it means freedom.
Freedom. So we've been set free, beloved.
What have we been set free from? Well, we've been set free from
the prison house of sin. We've been set free from the
dominion of sin. It once had dominion over us.
We're still sinners, but it once had dominion. It ruled us, right?
We're set free from the justice of God. It has no claim on us
anymore. We're set free from the wrath of God falling upon
us because it fell upon our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he
shed his precious blood for us. We're redeemed by his precious
blood. So we're set free, beloved. We're set free. And it says here
that we're not to use that freedom, that liberty that we have, as
an occasion to the flesh. So we're to avoid all appearances
of evil, and we're not to use the liberty or the freedom, again,
for an occasion of flesh, but by love serve one another. And
remember we looked at that earlier in this chapter, where we saw
that we're motivated by love, We're motivated by love, not
by works. We're motivated by the love of
Christ within us to serve our great God. That's why we serve
our God in whatever capacity we can, right? That's why we
serve our King. And that's why we willingly do
it, is because it's out of love for Christ. It's out of love
for our King. And then so we're to serve one another in love
as well. And then we see in, or let's
wait, listen to this in the Greek literal Bible of this verse. For you brothers were called
to freedom, but not the freedom for an opportunity to flesh,
rather serve one another through love. So we're not to use this
freedom as an opportunity to say, well, I can go and do whatever
I want then. Now, we're accused of that often.
I can't count how many times already since I've been here
in eight years that somebody's told me, if I believe like you,
I could do whatever I wanted to. And I say, no, you can't.
Because you won't want to. If you're truly born again, you
won't want to. And if you do, you are going to go through the
grinder. Right? I'll tell you what, the
Holy Spirit convicts us, and He convicts us, but we can live
in this liberty, we can live in this freedom that we have
in Christ. It's absolutely wonderful. Notice
our verse tells us that we who are the redeemed of the Lord
are to serve one another by love, and this ties right into verses
14 and 15, which we'll look at today. Faith, which worketh by
love, is actually the believer's rule of life. Faith, which worketh
by love. Some folks say, well, the law
is the believer's rule of life. No, we're not under the law anymore.
Love for Christ is what motivates us now, right? Love now motivates
us. The love we have for Christ.
And our love for Jesus Christ is what moves us to love his
gospel, to support his gospel, to defend his gospel, and to
desire to sit under steady diet of the preacher. You ever think
of this? You ever think of this? I was thinking about this this
week. I heard a preacher mention this, and so it's not original. He said,
you know, we come to church, and the preacher tells us how
bad we are, right? And then he tells us about the
wonderful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we keep coming back
every week to hear how bad we are, and how wonderful Christ
is. And we love it. We love it. I was standing out there today
before everybody got, and I'm watching all those cars go by,
and I thought, what a privilege. You have me here with the folks
here, and we love the gospel. And so many drive by, and they
have no care at all. Who made us to differ? Only God. That's the first thing I thought,
only God. God's given us a desire to be here and to hear the God.
Isn't that wonderful to hear the gospel and to love the gospel,
love the Christ of the gospel? It's amazing. And that's all,
I'm just gonna keep setting Christ before us. Because that's what
we want to hear, right? We keep wanting to hear about
the remedy to our great need. Yeah, we're sinful. But Christ
is a great savior of sinners, the only savior of sinners. And
it's absolutely wonderful. So our love for Christ is the
reason we love one another too as well, in brotherly love. We
come from all different walks of life, from all different places.
And the thing that unites us, beloved, is our love for Christ.
And that love that he shed abroad in our hearts. My, it's absolutely
amazing. This is why we prefer one another.
This is why we serve one another. This is why we pray for one another.
This is why we minister to one another. This is why we forgive
one another. This is why we encourage and
edify one another, is our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the reason. In our natural state, we're not
loving. We're loving to our family. Right? But sometimes they can
even take us off, right? Yeah. Just for a moment, Dave. Preach it, brother. Help me preach.
Just for a moment is right. Oh my, I'll tell you. But this
love is being put in our hearts, beloved. It's foreign to us.
It's foreign to the natural man to love the gospel. So you have
something and I have something that was foreign to us when we
were born. This great love for Christ that
has been shed abroad in our hearts by God, by God himself. Think of this. This love evidences
our love for him. It evidences our salvation. We're
going to sing that song, Oh, How I Love Jesus. Why? Because he first loved me. Right? Oh my. Think of this. The love
of Christ constrains us from sin. 2 Corinthians 5.14. That's what constrains us. And
think of this, too. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
right? One of the main... is love. Faith
works by what? Love. This love of Christ shed
abroad in our hearts. Think of this, too. Faith's nothing
without love, is it? There's nothing without love.
Tongues is nothing without love. Paul tells us that in 1 Corinthians
13. Just read that chapter and you'll
see. Prophesying is nothing without love. Charity in the scriptures.
Nothing. Understanding is nothing without
love. Self-sacrifice is nothing without love. And God is love,
and God's people reflect that love. Again, it's not natural
for us. It's been given to us and shed
abroad in our hearts by our great and glorious God. And I'll tell
you this, you find a professing Christian without love, that's
all they are. They're just a professing Christian.
My oh my. Wherever love is absent, God
is absent. My. But praise be to our great
and glorious God for shedding his love abundantly in our hearts.
I'm not saying we love perfect. None of us love perfect. But
we have this love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts that we
never had before. And it's absolutely wondrous. And we're motivated
again by that love to serve our great God. So praise God, praise
him for shedding out abroad in our hearts abundantly. Now let's read verses 13 and
14 together. For brethren, you being called
unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Now notice the latter part. Notice the latter part of verse
13. By love serve one another. That's
how we're to serve one another. with Christian love. Our love
for Jesus is what moves us to love his gospel, again, to support
his gospel, to defend his gospel, and again, to want to be under
a steady diet of his gospel. That's the only reason we desire
to be under the gospel, is because of our love for Christ that he's
given us. It's wonderful. See, again, it
all ties around again, right? Salvation's of the Lord. Just
keeps going around the big circle. Salvations of the Lord. We're
just merely receivers of this mercy and grace in Christ. Oh
my. And again, the reason we love
one another and prefer to be with one another and fellowship
with one another is again because of this love in our hearts. My
oh my. So this love put in our hearts
is evidence of a work of grace. It's an evidence of the work
we're going to see in the next few weeks. When we hit the fruits
of the Spirit. We're going to look at the fruit
of the flesh first. Then we're going to look at the fruit of the Spirit. And
remember it's always the fruit of the Spirit. It's not the fruit
of our doing. It's the fruit of the Spirit working in us.
But love. Love is paramount. It's paramount. Oh my. Look at verse 22. Look at the first fruit of the
Spirit mentioned here. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love. That's that foreign love. That's that love we have for
the gospel and for Christ and for one another in Christ that
we didn't have before. And notice it's a fruit of the
Spirit. Now we have natural love for our children and for our
family members, don't we? That's natural love. But this love spoken of is a
work of the Spirit in us. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against
such there is no law. My, it's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. Romans Romans says this love
worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is to fulfill
in the law in our text in verse 14 Says for all the law is fulfilled
in one word even in this thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself
Now I know there's none of us here that loved our neighbor
like ourselves We're called to but you know how we did that
only in Christ But doesn't mean we're to be mean to our neighbors
I See, some people take that and
say, well, I can't do that, so I can be mean to people. No,
that's not what that's saying. That's not what that's saying
at all. Let's ask these questions of ourselves. Has the grace of
God made us more gracious? We would answer, no. But other people who know us
would say, yes. I see in you guys graciousness
from the Lord. And I see you being gracious
to one another, serving the body. It's amazing. But we ourselves
would say, man, I'm such a sinner. My, oh my. Has the love of God
that we believe made us more loving, tender, and kind person? Has the forgiveness of your sins
taught you how to forgive? Has your friendship with the
great friend, the Lord Jesus Christ, taught you how to be
a true and loyal friend? Having received the heavenly
gifts freely from God's merciful hand, have we learned to give
to others freely and graciously? And we've studied the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, but have we learned Christ? We're being taught, aren't we? All by grace. Amen, brother.
All by grace. See, we see ourselves as so insufficient. Every preacher, we see ourselves
as so insufficient. Every believer, we see ourselves
as so inefficient. That's a good place to be. Because
in our weakness, he is strong. Right? He is strong. Oh my. The true evidence that
you or I or anyone has of the fact that we know Christ and
have truly been with Christ is that we demonstrate it in attitude,
action, in the ways and wills of Christ. Do we love the things
of God? Was there a time when we didn't
love the things of God? And now we do. We can tell you,
sister, amen. We're new creatures. We still
got this body of flesh. People look at us and go, oh,
you're still weighing. Yeah, I'm still weighing. Of course,
I'm still weighing. But there's a new spirit here. There's a new creation
in here. Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. And now loves the things of Christ, right? Do you war
against your body? Against your flesh? Yeah, we
all do. My. So in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul
is saying, you can have all these giftings, but without love, they're
nothing. They're nothing. See, it's the
fruit of the Spirit within us. And I really believe the Lord
is working that in the body here more and more. In the last three
years, I've seen so much growth within the body, beloved. It's
been amazing. It's been absolutely incredible
to see, to witness. And it's all God. It's all God. It's all Him. One may know orthodoxy, they
may know the doctrines, they may be able to lay out the doctrines
of the faith. My, they may have gifts of religion,
but if they don't have love, they're nothing. A contentious, unloving, ungracious
person is a stranger to the grace of God. If you've met a person
who professes to love Christ and they're contentious and they're
ungracious and they're unmerciful, I'm going to say it, that person's
testimony is a sham. Because God changes us. Now,
don't start looking and going, oh, I'm ungracious all the time. I'm not saying that. I'm saying somebody over a period
of time, because we can be ungracious sometimes, right? We can be unloving
sometimes, and we can be unmerciful sometimes, right? But I'm talking
someone that's a continuous thing over years. There's something
wrong. There's something wrong there. By this shall all men know that
you're my disciples, right? By the love that they have for
one another. There it is. This love that we have for one
another and for the work here and for the Lord is from God
and God alone. So Paul's bringing forth here
in these verses that this unity that we have is because of the
love of God's shed abroad in our hearts, beloved. That foreign love now, you see? And isn't it wonderful? It makes
us rejoice, doesn't it? It makes us think upon the things
of Christ and goes, Christ did that for me. A sinner who deserves hell, and
he saved my soul just because it pleased him to do so? He shed
his blood for me to redeem me from all my sins? Yes, it's true. And it's wonderful, isn't it?
It's wonderful, and it fills our hearts with joy. And that
joy, when our hearts are filled with joy when we're thinking
about that, that's the fruit of the Spirit, beloved, working
in us. That's the Holy Spirit working in us. Because the gospel
never bought us joy before we were saved. He didn't want to hear it. Now. That's all I want to hear. Is
it so with you? Oh my. It's wonderful, isn't it? It's
wonderful. Tell me about my King. Tell me
about the Lord Jesus Christ. My. My, oh my. Love is a universal
language and love can be communicated without speaking a word. Listen
to this. Actually, turn there. 1 John
chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. Turn there if you would. 1 John chapter 4. We're looking at verses 10 to
11 here. Look at this. Actually, let's go up to verse
9. Look at this. And this was manifested in the
love of God toward us. So he's writing to believers,
right? How was the love of God manifested toward you and I as
believers? And everyone that... I skipped up the verse. And this
was manifested in the love of God toward us because God sent
his only begotten son into the world that we might live through
him, and that's eternal life. So you've heard me say many times
that the greatest manifestation of love this world's ever seen
is at the cross. There it is right there. God
manifested his love by sending Christ into the world to die
for our sins. Here in this love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins, the sacrifice, the atonement for our sins. That's
what he did. So his love was manifested towards
us in the fact that he sent Christ to die and bleed for his people. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected
in us. Hereby know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because
he hath given us his spirit. My oh my. Without speaking a word, think
of this too, without speaking a word, God manifested his love
for us by sending his son. He didn't speak a word, did he?
But his love was manifested by sending his son. My oh my. sending his son, the only begotten
son, to be a sin-atoning sacrifice for the sins of his people. Again,
there's no greater manifestation of love than what was demonstrated
on Calvary's cross. As our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ was crucified and died for our sins. My oh my. It's true we must hear
the gospel and it's true that we must hear the voice of Jesus
Christ and the preaching of the gospel. And beloved by the power
of the Holy Spirit of God, believers in Jesus Christ see through the
eye of faith, right? We see through the eye of faith
Christ even though we've never seen him face to face. We see
him through the eye of faith. My oh my. We see him bleeding
and dying for us. We see the love of God manifested
in the fact that Christ is bleeding and dying and facing the wrath
of God for us. We see God's love manifested.
We see that He endured the cross, despising the shame, so that
we could be made acceptable. Acceptable in God's presence.
My, what love. Immeasurable love. Depthless
love. You can't plummet the heights
and the depths and the widths of this great love. And it's all by the power of
the Holy Spirit of God that we see Christ. Is our great sin
atoning sacrifice you ever heard someone say now now there's a
christian who really loves jesus You ever hear people say that?
I ran into folks like that and they're like Man, that person
really loves jesus. Well, you know all of god's people
love jesus all of them Whether it's manifest in a in
a in a big way or whether it's manifested in a little way every
single one of God's people love the Lord Jesus Christ. My. All of God's children are
Christians. All of God's children are born
again blood-washed saints. And all those who are born again
by the Holy Spirit of God love Christ. All because of God. Because of God because in our
natural state remember this love is foreign in our natural state.
Do we love God? Do we want anything to do with
God in our natural state? Nope, let's be honest. Nope But all when the Lord saves us
my In the love of God notice it's the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts I My, oh my. Even the love we have for
Christ comes from God. Salvation's of the Lord, isn't
it? It's from the Lord. Oh my, it's all Him. The whole
kit and caboodle, it's all Him. From beginning to end, He's the
author and the finisher and everything in between of our salvation. Now none of us love the Lord
Jesus Christ as we should. None of us, we're sinners. Our
love is tainted with sin. And we don't love him like we'd
like to love him. And we don't love him as we're
gonna. Now rejoice in this. We don't love him like we're
gonna love him. We're gonna love him in heaven without sin. Perfect love. We can't wait, can we? Oh, what a glorious day that'll
be. Oh, my dear brothers and sisters who went before us, they're
loving Christ perfectly. Absolutely perfectly. My, oh
my. And that love again has been
put in our hearts. Peter said, Though now ye see him not, yet
believe, and ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said, A new commandment I give unto you,
that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye love one another. John chapter 13
verses 34 and 35. Now let's read verses 13 and
14 again. It says, for brethren, you've
been called into liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the love
is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shall love the
neighbor as thyself. It's God's work in us that moves us to love
one another. And God is so gracious that he
moves for us and in us to allow us to love one another. And God's
mercy is freely bestowed upon us, and it moves us to show mercy
to others. Since we're receivers of God's
grace, right? We now desire to give grace to
others that we didn't before. And then since God's forgiven
us, it's easier for us to forgive others. Right? Just put it aside. I've learned
that. I've learned that in the last few years. Just put it aside. Just leave it be. Just move forward. Keep building the wall, right?
Love the brethren and just keep building the wall. Do families
have disagreements? Yeah? Well, then this family
will have some disagreements too, right? We just move forward. Right? Forgive one another and move
forward. My oh my. And that's include the whole
body of Christ. Think of God's patience with us. Think how long-suffering
is with us. That's what makes us long-suffering
with others and patience with others. And love is a universal language,
but the love of God shed abroad in the believer's heart is a
barrier that Satan cannot penetrate. He can't counterfeit this love
either. because it's a fruit of the spirit. He can't counterfeit
the love of God, the true love of God in a believer's heart.
He can't counterfeit that. And oh my, he tries to get a
foothold by using someone to bring an accusation against one
of our brothers or sisters. What will happen to us? What
will the love of God move us to do? If someone brings an accusation
against you, Dave, the love of God should move us to defend
you. and say, that's not right. He's
my brother. And that includes all of you. For me, defending
all of you. A few years back, about five
years back, someone called me and they said, well, we didn't
agree with such and such that happened. And this guy, a fellow named
people. And I said, you better stop. You're talking about my
family. And he stopped right there. See, serious stuff when people
start bringing accusations against my brothers and sisters in Christ
to me. No way. Don't even start. We love one another. We defend
one another. My oh my. It's incredible. So we don't
want to hear anyone slander one of our family members. I'd rather us talk face to face,
right? That's how we should. Matthew
tells us that. If you have a problem, you go to the pastor. If you
still have a problem, you go with two. If you still have a
problem, then you go with church, right? There's an order in the
scriptures. And that's not just with the
pastor. That's with any brother or sister in Christ. There's
an order to it that we should follow. But some folks just go off and
start slandering other people. That's not right. That's not
right, beloved. That's not right. And I'm not
saying we have that problem here. We don't have that problem here. Praise be to God, right? Praise
be to God. My oh my. The Apostle Paul said this tongue,
right here, no man can tame this little member. It'll set the
world on fire. Right? And we can, can't we? Okay, husbands and wives, do
we not know each other's buttons to push? My wife can get me fired up just
by pushing a button that she knows. And vice versa, right? We don't do it. We try not to
do it. But there's certain buttons, right? Certain triggers that
we've learned over the years that can fire off our spouse
just like that. Or even our kids. My oh my. My oh my. But we try not to do that because
of the love that we have for one another. We do not want to
upset one another, especially if we're believers with a believing
husband and wife. God help us to realize that we're
his blood-bought children, that he loves us. He loves us with
an everlasting love. He loves us the same yesterday,
today, and he'll love us the same forever, beloved. His love
doesn't change. Never. It doesn't change because
of our circumstances. Not at all. And that's a good
thing. That's a good thing. And we are
just to serve one another by love. But it's a bad thing if
we offend any of God's children. be better if a millstone was
hung around our necks. Mine be cast in the deepest sea,
than to offend one of God's little children. Now let's read verses
13 to 15. It says, Now we see here in verse 15 the result The result of this error that's
being crept into this church where they're saying you must
be circumcised to be saved. This is a warning by Paul, actually
by the Holy Spirit of God through the pen of Paul, bringing forth
if we're critical, unforgiving, unkind, filled with bitterness
and strife, that it will destroy the unity and peace of God's
church. It will. It will. The love of
God shed abroad in our hearts is the cement that binds us together.
We're like bricks, beloved. We're like bricks. Next time
we go out, take a look at the building here. It got all that
bricks, right? And in between all them bricks is mortar, right?
The cement. Oh my. That's what the blood
of Christ is for us. That's what the blood of Christ
is for us, beloved. And that's what the love of God
is, too. It's the cement and the concrete that holds us together,
that binds us together, enables us to live together in peace.
In the church in Glacier here, As in countless churches today,
there was much strife and division, backbiting and slander, bitterness
and jealousy, and root of the cause of all this evil is carny,
fleshly legalism and self-righteousness." Those men, these false teachers,
were exalting themselves to a position that they had no authority to
exalt themselves to. They're saying, Paul's wrong.
Paul's just preaching the gospel. Paul's sent by God to preach
the gospel to the Galatians. And these folks are saying, is
Paul really preaching the gospel? What would our answer be? Just
listen to him. Right? If God's given you ears
to hear, you're going to hear the gospel, because that's what
he's preaching. Oh my. My oh my.