Galatians chapter 6, and we'll
read from verse 1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to
be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let
every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing
in himself alone and not in another. For every man shall bear his
own burden. Let him that is taught in the
word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit
shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint
not. As we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are
of the household of faith. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. The Lord Jesus Christ frequently
took opportunity to stress to his disciples during his ministry,
they spiritual relationship that we
have with God, the necessity, the essential spiritual relationship
that we have with God. And he did so at a time when
the Jews around about him, the religious Jews of that day, were
preoccupied with rules and rituals and religious observances which
they followed and which to them distinguished them and provided
for the ground of their approach to God and was the evidence of
God's good will towards them. There were many do's that they
taught and lots of don'ts as well. And the Lord Jesus Christ
would have his people know that for there to be any true union
with God, that union must be spiritual. It isn't to do with
our works, it is to do with faith. It isn't to do with the lifestyle
that we live or the people that we are. It is to do with that
spiritual indwelling power that has come to us through God, the
Holy Spirit. Indeed, there is no approaching
unto God who is in his essential nature of pure arise than to
behold iniquity, who is holy and who is perfect. except we
come by the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ through faith and
by God the Holy Spirit through faith. Faith is that vehicle
that leads us into the experience of spiritual life with the Godhead. And yet, there are still plenty
of people in our own day who will set before us any number
of works and duties and actions that are required to initiate
a relationship with God, or perhaps more likely, to consolidate our
relationship and to enhance our relationship with God. They will
tell us that, yes, you can be converted, you need to be converted,
you need to have that spiritual new birth, you need to be born
again, you need to have that indwelling of God the Holy Spirit,
but then you begin to build on that foundation of grace with
those things which you do, the practicalities of your religious
experience. Well, you know, it's a very, description of our relationship
with God because that addresses one of man's greatest desires
and that is to work, work and labour in order to gain praise. We rejoice to do that. We love to do that. It seems
to be a win-win situation. We can do good for other people
around about us and we get to feel good about ourselves in
doing so. And so those people who come
to us and say that God is pleased if we live in a certain way or
we dress in a certain way or we talk about certain things
and we don't go to this place and we do do that, they find
a ready ear in the minds of men and women. But we have to ask ourselves
the question, what was the Lord Jesus Christ saying to his disciples
when he taught them the necessity of faith in any spiritual relationship? What was it that the Lord Jesus
Christ said? Simon Peter, of course, was one
of the Lord's disciples and He invariably was the spokesman. He was the one that liked to
be heard, the one that liked to have something to say in every
situation. And well, I guess sometimes the
things we have in common with these disciples are more than
just a namesake. But when we see Peter, as he
was asked of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom do men say that I am? He was able to come back with
an answer as to who the Lord Jesus Christ truly was. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And Jesus immediately, as it
were, it seems with some abruptness, told Peter that that revelation
was a spiritual revelation. And I say this to anyone. If
we are going to know the Lord Jesus Christ, it must be spiritually
revealed. It must be that we are given
faith by which to receive the promises of God and to enjoy
and engage in those things that the Lord has for us in our own
spirit. It seems to me that the Apostle
Paul was emphasising exactly the same thing when he asked
the Galatians at the very outset of this letter, how had they
begun in the faith? How had they begun in this Christian
following after Christ? It was by the Spirit. It was
a spiritual relationship. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
to Peter, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. If we are to know anything of
the Lord Jesus Christ, it must be spiritually revealed to us.
And the only way that we have any spiritual understanding is
by the gift of faith granted to us by God. He continued in
John 3, verse 6, and he was speaking on this occasion to Nicodemus.
And again, we see the emphasis of the Saviour as he spoke to
that man, that child of God, that beloved of the Father from
all eternity, that man Nicodemus, who was so steeped in the religious
practices of the Jews. And he says to him, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. So once again, we see that there
is this contrast being set before us, that there is flesh and there
is spirit. There is spirit and there is
flesh. And that which comes from the flesh is flesh, and that
which comes from the spirit is spirit. In John chapter six,
verse 63, it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth
nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit. They are spirit and they are
life. How were the words of the Christ? How were the words of the Lord
Jesus? Spirit and life to these men. but that they received them by
faith. Everybody that stood around heard
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, but not all who heard the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ had spiritual life. It came as life
to those who had faith to receive it. So the Lord Jesus Christ
taught his apostles and his apostles repeated through the epistles
and the writings that they have sent to us that we can never
earn, we can never merit, we can never please God by the flesh. The flesh just will not please
God. The works of the flesh cannot
please God for the simple reason that this flesh of ours is fallen
and it is corrupt. When Adam and Eve went into that
garden, they were put there in purity. But when they fell, a
gulf was set between God and man. And it is only now through
the Spirit and by faith that we can have a relationship with
God at all. The flesh. The flesh. You know, I suspect that it takes
us a whole lifetime, how many years the Lord will give us,
to truly understand the deceptiveness of our own flesh. Because it
seems that every year with the turning of the year, with the
coming round of the calendar, we just learn a little bit more
about the deceptiveness of the flesh and I know some of you
are a little bit younger and some of you are a little bit
older but I'm sure that you think you've got a handle on these
things and then you discover that actually you don't have
a handle on it at all because it just keeps jumping up and
biting you from where you least expect it. We are motivated in
our flesh by base and lustful passions. And I would say more
than that, I would say more than that. I would say that the natural
man is so hardwired in his opposition against God that he will endeavour
to prove God wrong. He will do all in his power to
demonstrate that God is wrong and that he is better than God
imagines him to be. And that's, so when the Lord
tells us that there's nothing in our flesh but corruption and
sin, man says, no, I'm better than that, and I'll show you
that I can be better than that. I'll prove to you that I can
be better than that, which is in itself the epitome of rebellion,
because there's no humility in such an attitude. And while we
are saying to God, no, I'll show that I'm better than that, we're
actually saying, God, you don't know what you're talking about. So when God gave the law to man,
That law, which ought to have humbled us, ought to have witnessed
and attested to our corruption and the weakness of our nature,
ought to have been employed to expose our sin and show us the
true nature of the kind of people we are. We, in turn, rather employed
it as a platform upon which to stand and shake our fist at God. We said God has shown us a picture
of his holiness. Thou shalt have no other God
before me. Thou shalt not make any graven image. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. All the laws that he
gave and all those that flowed from those laws, we climbed all
over them. We climbed up on top of them.
We said, this is our ladder. This is our platform to please
God. We'll show him what we can do.
And so it is that we prove in our flesh the true nature of
our corruption. If we are going to please God
in any way at all, it must be by faith. That's the only way
of pleasing God. The apostles, as I've said, heard
this message that the Lord gave them. When the Lord said that
the flesh profiteth nothing, Peter was able to take that little
phrase of the Lord Jesus and he Restated it a little bit like
this in 1 Peter 1, verse 24. He said, That's all it is. It's
just like grass. And John also, knowing what the
Lord had taught him, he was able to say in 1 John chapter 2 and
verse 16, So I'm beginning A little bit of a long introduction,
but I'm beginning this evening's thoughts by laying down a marker,
if I may. The consistent testimony of God's
word is that the flesh profiteth nothing. Our flesh will always
be a hindrance to our spirit. Our flesh will always be a hindrance
to our spirit. just as it proved to be with
Peter, James, and John in the garden of Gethsemane. The Lord
Jesus Christ said to them, the spirit is willing, but the flesh
is weak. That's the reality. That's the
reality. The spirit is willing. That new
man that has been implanted into our life, that holy man, that
secret man of the heart, There is a willingness to worship God. There is a willingness to honour
God. There is a willingness at every level to do that which
pleases God. And yet we discover that the
flesh is weak and it hinders constantly and it struggles constantly
with the spirit as ever we come into the presence of our God. And the Apostle Paul, he knew
this too. He was a regenerate believer.
And he's writing in the book of Romans, but he discovers that
there is a continuous warring in his own soul, a conflict between
spirit and the flesh. You can read it in Romans chapter
seven, verse 21 to 25. And it's essential that we hear
the resolution to that battle which Paul describes there in
Romans 7. Because he realises, doubtless
I say by bitter experience, he realises that he cannot deliver
himself from the battle. He cannot shrug off this flesh
and the weakness of the flesh and the sort of ball and chain
that the flesh has become to him, that he finds himself dragging
around, that while his spirit is willing, the flesh is a hindrance
and retards his progress. He cannot free himself from the
shackles of the body of this death. as he calls it. Is it possible to find deliverance
from this, he shouts. Is it possible that there is
freedom from this wretchedness of fleshy failure, of false pride,
of fleshy success? Well, you can have fleshly success. Of course you can have it. But
what does it do but engender pride? Is there liberty and is there
peace in this battle? Yes, says Paul, there is. I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And through Jesus Christ
our Lord and our spiritual relationship with him is the only way that
we ever can please God. And we receive our relationship. We engage in that relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ through God the Holy Spirit and the implantation
of faith in our hearts. So that when Paul leaves Romans
chapter 7 in which he has described the only solution as the Lord
Jesus Christ and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and enters
into Romans 8 and begins with that great verse which says, He continues in verse 2 to say,
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made
me free from the law of sin and death. Now I want to carry that
thought, what we've been saying, as it were, by way of introduction,
and then the testimony that the various apostles have given,
Peter, John, and Paul, and the way in which they re-echoed the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ, and carry that thought into this
passage that we're in, in Galatians chapter six. Because in verse
seven of Galatians chapter six, we read these words. Be not deceived,
God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. In verse three of that chapter,
if you just look up a couple of verses, it says, if a man
think himself to be something when he is nothing, He deceiveth
himself. If we think that we are building
some sort of stock with God, if we imagine that we are putting
together a pile of goodness, accomplishments in this world
and things that are of value, things that we can lay hold upon
and say, well, this is the output of a sanctified life. This is
the product of a believer's walk with God. These are the things
that we have accomplished. If you think you are anything
and if you think you've done anything, then you're deceiving
yourself. Rather, all we are is in Christ. All we are. He is to be our all
in all. And we are not to look to ourselves
and to our accomplishments, to the things that we do, anything
that we can bring as an offering to God, and imagine that in some
way that is garnering God's pleasure. The picture that we have in Galatians
6 verse 7, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap, is a picture of sowing
and reaping, which I dare say is understood the whole world
over, okay? Nobody but nobody from the most
basic agrarian societies all over the world would have any
doubt about the import of this picture. You reap what you sow. You don't sow wheat and reap
barley. You don't plant grass seed and
grow lettuce. It's pretty obvious when you're
speaking about the seed that's sown and the crop that is produced
Now, when we spiritualise that picture and think about what
the apostle is saying to us here, he is saying, don't be deceived. Don't think that you can get
something which is better than that which produced it. Don't think you can make something
holy out of your flesh if your flesh is corrupt in itself. We might try to deceive ourselves
in such matters. What was it Paul said? If a man
think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth
himself. We might well try to deceive ourselves in such matters.
Or indeed, we might try to deceive others. Because if we build for
ourselves a pile of good works, a pile of wealth and riches and acclimation
and popularity in our social group, in our church group, amongst
our fellow men, they'll be the first to tell us, well done. Well done, that's good work.
That's well produced. These things are a testimony
to your faith. They're a testimony to God in
your life. They're a testimony to your Christian
witness. And we can deceive ourselves,
and we can deceive others, and we can allow others to deceive
us. But God is not mocked. God's
not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap. He that soweth to his flesh shall
of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the spirit
shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Sowing to the flesh, the Apostle
Paul is telling us, is so futile. And if we try to become holier,
or if we endeavour to be less wicked, less corrupt, from what
we do or by what we do in this natural body, then we're failing
to grasp, just like the man who puts seed into the ground and
expects something else to grow, we're failing to grasp that the
flesh is and can only produce corruption. And Paul has already listed the
manifest works of the flesh, and he did so in chapter five,
verse 19 to 21. The works of the flesh are manifest,
which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies. These are the things that undergird
the flesh. These are the things that are
the natural desires and experiences of the flesh. And if you want
to tell me something about, you know, what we've never actually
done, most of those things. Well I dare you to say you've
never done any of them but say we grant that you've never done
most of them. Let's go back to Matthew chapter
5. Let's go back to hear about how God actually views these
things. You say well I've never committed
adultery. Well have you ever looked in
a woman to lust after her? I don't know whether you have
email but right now I can't help looking at women. Because every
time I open my email account, some girl from somewhere in the
world has sent me a picture of herself. And that's just the way that
it is in this world. That's just the way that it is
in the society around about us. We are constantly beset with
temptations. and the flesh responds and reacts. And we deceive ourselves if we
think it doesn't. The application surely is clear. You can do all you want, you
can put every effort you like into ploughing the ground of
your life, into drilling Your walk in this life, into
watering and fertilising and hedging, those seeds that you
sow, you can expend so much effort upon it, but those seeds must
come up in kind. After it's kind, after it's kind. That's just the way you reap
what you sow. And what will come up will be
corrupt. The application's clear. If we
try to gather holiness, if we try by the obedience to the law,
by the works that we do, by the way in which we live, by the
way in which we dress, by the way in which we talk, by the
things that we eat, by trying not to do this, by trying to
do more of that, if we start to build a whole pattern of lifestyle
and rights and wrongs, It is futile, because that which is
born of the flesh is flesh. If you imagine that you can please
God by the works of the flesh, it's a mere self-deceit. For,
as the Lord Jesus Christ said categorically, the flesh profiteth
nothing. You can tell it as you like,
it's only weeds. So what Does this mean, when
we read in verse 8, he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh
reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of
the spirit reap life everlasting? What is it to sow to the Spirit? Because surely what we're after
in this world is life everlasting. Surely that's what we are looking
for. That's what we are hoping for.
That's what we aspire to, life everlasting. Well, how do you
get life everlasting? Well, you sow to the Spirit.
That's what Paul's saying. What is it then to sow to the
Spirit? How do you sow to the Spirit? Well, what works are to the flesh,
faith is to the spirit. Sowing to the spirit is taking
God at his word. It is trusting the divine promises
of mercy and grace. It is believing in the power
and the efficacy of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
cleansing power of the blood of Christ. It is believing that
when God says that he has cleansed us from our sins, that he has
made us righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ, that that is true,
that that is real, that that is fact. It's a faith-based holiness. It's a faith-based righteousness. We receive the benefits and the
blessings of God to us, not by what we do in this body, but
rather what we sow to the Spirit by our faith and by our trust. When the Lord God speaks of imputed
righteousness, we believe Him. When he speaks about cleansed
from sin, we believe him. When he speaks about the fact
that we are whole in Christ, holy in Christ, we take him at
his word. And that's gospel faith. That's what it is, to have an
understanding of our relationship with God for all that God has
done to us. Sowing to the Spirit is resting
from all our labours in the Lord Jesus Christ, resting in Him
for all our righteousness. It is believing it to be true
when God says we are holy. It is affirming, it is affirming
when every fleshy sense and worldly temptation calls upon us to reject what God has said. When someone says you're deceiving
yourself, Peter, that's not right. This is how you've got to live.
This is what you've got to do. We say, get thee behind me, Satan. We say the ground of my acceptance
with God is nothing to do with this amoral, corrupt body of
flesh, body of death. It is all to do with faith, all
to do with resting and trusting in the completed work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The testimony of the Lord is
sure. Our union with Christ is unaltered
by our good works or our bad works. The covenant of grace
is ours. It's eternally ours. It doesn't
get affected by time or space or things done or things not
done. The peace that we have in Christ
is founded in the deep, strong, and unmovable everlasting love
of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, if we thus sow to
the Spirit, that is, by faith, what shall we reap? We will reap
that which we have sown. We will reap those blessings
that our faith holds on to and yet those blessings will not
be as a result of our faith, they will be because of the Spirit
in us. And Paul has already spoken about
that as well in Galatians chapter five, the fruit of the Spirit. So the corruption of the flesh
is manifest, and the fruit of the Spirit is manifest. There is a corruption that comes
from the flesh, that's ours, and there is a fruit that comes
not from our faith, but from the Spirit. So the fruit is a
spiritual fruit that we receive and enjoy, that we taste and
savour, and it is a spiritual work in us. It's not our work
that creates these blessings, be it in our minds or in our
hearts or in our souls, be it to do with our inward confession
or our outward profession. These things are precious to
us because they are ministered to us by faith. So what do we see? What do we
see then in someone who is sowing to the Spirit? How does such
a person live? Well, we observe what grows in
their life. We see what is growing. Just in the same way as the seed
sown to corruption brings forth all of these corrupt things,
these weeds, we see the fruit of the Spirit in the life of
the people of God. Those who have faith in Christ
manifest, not their own good works, but they manifest the
fruit of the Spirit. Love. joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. We see
these exhibited in the lives of God's people. You show me a poor sinner who
sows to the Spirit That is, he trusts in Christ for all his
holiness and righteousness before God. He sows to the Spirit, trusts
in Christ for holiness and righteousness before God. He leans not on his
own understanding, but he takes God at his word and he says,
I believe it. Though so many would militate
against me, though so many would endeavour to rob me of these
joys, these promises, yet I will take God at His word. I'll not
lean on my own understanding. You show me such a one, and I will show you the evidence
of love. and joy and peace and every spiritual
blessing in the life of that dear saint. That's just the reality. The
praise is not ours, but when the Holy Ghost comes into an
individual's life, you see a difference. We use the word conversion. Again,
I've mentioned, I think recently somewhere, perhaps it was here,
that conversion is so misused these days. It's so misused when
we think about what's conversion and we're looking for someone
to put up their hand or make their way to the front of an
auditorium or a church and we say, well, that's conversion.
Really? No, conversion is how we live.
And when we live with the Spirit of God in our souls, when we
live by faith, the manifestation of those spiritual fruits will
be evidenced. And I'm not saying that, you
know, we'll look at that person and we'll say that that's the
most loving person we've ever met, or that's the most long-suffering
person in the whole town, or any of these grand sort of accolades
that deceivers like to put on one another. But when it comes
down to where the rubber meets the road, we'll find those qualities
in a believer, because that believer has Christ living in them. And
that's what makes the difference. Proverbs 3, verse 5 says, Trust
in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths. Now I'm going to address a specific
question here. I just want to mention this because
someone might ask in relating to this interaction between flesh
and spirit, how are we to understand and apply the New Testament admonitions
to strive against sin? and to fight or to put to death
or to put away or to cleanse ourselves, to overcome and to
mortify the old man and the works of the flesh that is part of
that old man's existence. When Paul talks about putting
to death or putting away these things, how do we deal with that? How are we to understand those
very practical admonitions of fighting against sin in our lives? And as an add-on to just looking
briefly for a moment or two at that question, I want to say,
does the law have a role in us doing that? Well, before I try to answer
those questions, let me ask a few questions of my own. Where does
every good and perfect gift come from? Where does every spiritual blessing
in Christ Jesus come from? What is it that the just shall
live by. And what can Paul possibly mean
when he says in Philippians 3 verse 9, And be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. Abel, we're told in the book
of Hebrews, obtained witness that he was righteous. How? How did he obtain that witness
that he was righteous? What law did he have? What Mosaic
law did Abel have? Enoch had this testimony that
he pleased God. How did he have that testimony? How did he know that? The answer to all of those questions
is by faith. It's by faith. By faith we contend
in this world. Not by force of arms, not by
military might, not by the strength of our arguments, not by the
quickness of our tongue, not by our intellects, not by our
energies. The Lord's people surely of all
people know that these physical things, these fleshy things have
no power. We know that when we are wrestling
with these evil things in the world, we have to do it spiritually. We have to do it by faith. We have no power with which to
effect spiritual change. We have no strength to withstand
temptations of the evil one outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
every grace comes from God and every grace must be received
by faith. Faith in the promises of God,
faith in the work of Christ, faith in the power of the Holy
Spirit. Mortification. There's a good
old word. We probably don't hear too much
about it these days but these are the sorts of questions that
exercised the minds of men and women perhaps many years ago
more than perhaps they do today and you would hear about monks
in their monasteries and nuns in their convents and trying
to mortify the flesh, trying to whip it into subjection, trying
to live perhaps a more simple lifestyle, hoping that in some
way they would be thereby able to mitigate the temptations that
come upon them from the outside world. mortifying themselves
or battling, battling with their flesh, putting off these natural inclinations and endeavouring
to put on these graces. But how were they to do that? Not by secreting themselves away
in some corner and breaking up the walls and locking the doors.
Not in living up in a cave on the top of a mountain, not in
trying to seclude yourself from the troubles of this world, that
I'm never going to open my email again in case somebody from Russia
sends me something. But these efforts to produce
a fleshy goodness, a fleshy holiness, will never bear spiritual fruit
because the seed follows after, or the product follows after
the seed. You reap what you sow. Believers
mortify the deeds of the body through the Holy Spirit. Not by the works of the law,
but by faith. Faith is the vehicle, faith is
the channel of all and every good and perfect gift. Faith is the channel of all spiritual
growth and blessing. Paul says to the Colossians in
chapter three, verse three, for ye are dead and your life is
hid with Christ in God. Now you don't have to mortify
anything if you're dead. You're dead and your life is
hid with Christ in God. We're dead in the flesh, dead
to the corruptions of the flesh, but alive to Christ. The flesh
is unimprovable. It can't be improved upon. And every time we think you've
got rid of one weed, another one is sure to spring up. I was
trying to remember what you call, and I still haven't got the answer,
so if you know, tell me at the end. I was trying to think what
you call that children's game where the child has a hammer
and the little worm or the little rat pops its head up through
the hole and the child has to hit it. on the head and every
time he hits it on the head, it pops up through another hole
and then you've got to hit it again. That's sin in our lives. That's what it is. And no matter
what we try and do, we used to call it something like whack
the rat, but I think that's slightly different. But no matter what
we try and do, we're always going to find that those weeds are
coming up where we least expected to see them. In Christ, by grace,
through faith, we mortify the flesh by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, mortification of sin
is not something accomplished by our personal works, our adherence
to the law, our effort or strength, but comes by faith in the indwelling
power of the Lord the Spirit. It is grace that bears up the
child of God and carries him through every trial, every temptation,
every battle with the devil, every interaction with the old
man and with this world. Colossians chapter three, if
you're looking for a good chapter for all the great put-offs, put
off all the different things, Colossians chapter three is your
chapter. It's a put-off and a put-on passage. Read it at your leisure and read
it remembering that all of our blessings and all of our benefits
come by grace. and are received by faith. All our righteousness is in Christ. And therefore Paul says in conclusion
in that chapter, in verse 17 of Colossians chapter three,
and whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. What's that saying? That's saying
do it by faith. Because that's our only strength. That's our only weapon in this
battle. We do it by faith in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatsoever ye do, in word or
deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
God and the Father by Him. Another verse which speaks of
the same thing, and I'm nearly finished, is 2 Corinthians 7
verse 1. There the apostle writes, Now
think about that for a moment. 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1. Let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh. Oh, go on. Go ahead. Be my guest. Cleanse yourself
from all filthiness of the flesh. Perfect holiness in the fear
of God. How are you going to begin to
do that? How are you going to begin to perfect holiness in
the fear of God? Will you be perfecting your holiness
while you're cleansing yourself of all filthiness? Or will you
need to fulfill the cleansing of filthiness first before you
start to perfect your holiness? It's by faith in the finished
work of Christ that all these blessings flow to us. It's not
of our works, it's not of our doing. We cleanse ourselves of
all filthiness in believing the promises of God. We perfect holiness
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing to do with works, nothing
to do with the law. So the Lord Jesus Christ says,
Paul was sent to preach the gospel. When the Lord met him on the
Damascus road he says to him, Paul I want you to go and preach
the gospel, to open their eyes, that is the eyes of sinners,
the eyes of the Gentiles, the eyes of these disobedient, idolatrous,
lustful, You name the sins that the Gentiles got up to in the
classical days of Greece and Rome, the very people that Paul
was to go and preach to. Open their eyes, turn them from
darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that
they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance amongst
them that are sanctified by faith. that is in me. And that's it. That's all I've got to say tonight.
That's all I've got to say. What are all the weapons that
we're going to gather? What's all the strength that
we're going to endeavor to bring into this labor that we have
against the flesh in this life? Only one thing. our trust in
the finished work of Jesus Christ. Be that for justification, be
that for sanctification, be that for our perfection, our holiness,
for our everlasting life, it is faith. Faith is all that we
have. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord help our faith to
grow. May he teach us what it is to
rely upon him alone, to trust him and his promises day by day
in all of the challenges and all of the difficult experiences
that we have, realising that we cannot endear ourselves to
him by this flesh or anything we do in it. but we are united
to him in Christ and we believe it to be so. Amen. Closing hymn is number 40.