In chapters five and six of Paul's
epistle to the Galatians, we reach the pinnacle of Paul's
arguments for the grace of God in salvation. Not of works, but
of free grace alone. We reach the pinnacle of his
arguments. And in many ways in these last
two chapters, in various truths presented to us in them, We reach
the very heights, the mountaintops, the summit of the glory of the
gospel of God. In chapter 6 and verse 14, Paul
has this to say, but God forbid that I should glory, save in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I unto the world. God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the glory of the gospel,
not in man, not in Paul, not in his works, but in God's grace,
seen in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world
is crucified under Paul, and Paul unto the world. And in chapter 5 also, especially in the latter part
of chapter 5 as we come to consider the work of the Spirit of God,
the fruit of the Spirit, and walking in the Spirit, we see
the tremendous heights and glory of the Gospel, that the believer
should be said to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. That God should dwell not just
with man, but in man. And that man should walk not
just with God, but in God. What communion there is here. What heavenly heights are scaled
here. What glory is here. In chapter five, as we've seen,
Paul has this threefold exhortation. To stand, to run, and to walk. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage, he says. And in verse 7 he says, ye did
run well. Who did hinder you that ye should
not obey the truth? Once you ran in the truth, but
now this persuasion to turn back from grace to the law of God
and to your own works has come in, and you're hindered. Hindered. Don't be hindered. Run in the
truth. Set aside the works of man, stand fast in liberty, run in
the truth and walk in the Spirit. Verse 8. This persuasion, this
persuasion to turn from grace, from Christ alone, back to the
law, come if not of him that calleth you, A little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump. But I, Paul, have confidence
in you Galatians, through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise
minded. Despite this error that's come
in, despite this persuasion, I'm confident in you. I'm confident
of your beginnings. I'm confident that you will be
none otherwise minded. But he that trouble if 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 offence of the cross
ceased. I would they were even cut off
which trouble you. For, brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to deflesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law
is fulfilled in one word, even in this. Thou shalt love thy
neighbour. as thyself. But if ye bite and
devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of
another. This I say then, walk in the
spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the
flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot
do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit,
ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are
manifest which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, envions, murders, drunkenness,
revelings, and such like. Of the which I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. and they that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live
in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be
desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. No, let us walk in the Spirit,
seeking the glory of God and not ourselves. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If ye
be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. If we live
in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit. Yes, Paul here considers this
third aspect of the believers walk. He said to stand, He said
to run unhindered in the truth. And now He exhorts us and the
Galatians here to walk in the Spirit. In the Spirit. This is a tremendous exhortation
and a tremendous height and glory which is revealed in the Gospel. that the believer can be said
to walk in the Spirit, that he can be exhorted to walk in the
Spirit, and that he should indeed walk in the Spirit. That God
should be in his people, leading them, guiding them, taking their
every step, putting one foot before the other, watching over
them, caring for them, communing with them, speaking unto them,
hearing them, being mindful of their condition,
being mindful of their weakness, lifting them up when they fall,
picking them up when they stumble, correcting them when they err,
forgiving them when they turn again, repentant, watching over
them in all things. What a nearness and communion
there is for the true believer as he walks with his Lord and
Master. God is not a far off He is not distant. He is not
remote as he once appeared in the Old Testament under the law. These Judaizers came into the
Galatians, these Galatians who'd heard the Gospel, who'd been
quickened unto life by the Gospel, who knew what it was to be in
Christ, who'd been brought into communion with the living God. And they would lead them back
to that law under which the Jews of old were set at a great distance
from God. For that law brought down the
condemnation of God against their sin. And they saw, as it were,
God at a distance. Yes, it made known something
of God's glory, His righteousness, His justice. but it was at a
distance. They stood outside the tabernacle. They stood out at a distance
as the priest took the sacrifice for their sins and went in, hidden
from view, went in to the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood
on their behalf. Yes, there before them in type
and figure was God set before them, His holiness. There before
them was the figure of the gospel that blood must be shed for their
sins and that forgiveness would be wrought through the shedding
of blood and the sprinkling of that blood upon the mercy seat
of God on their behalf. But they stood at a distance
as one went in on their behalf. And would these Judaizers bring
these believers who'd come to know such nearness to God back
under such a way that had such a distance between man and God? Where the relationship between
man and God was one of fear, one of dread, one of a hearing
of the rumblings of thunder, and the darkness of thunderous
skies above. Would they bring them unto such
a way again, these who had had the veil rent in two, these who
had been led by Christ their great High Priest, through the
altar, past the altar, into the presence of God, into the holy
of holies. He their priest had come to the
Galatians with his shed blood on their behalf, and had led
them forth on that ground upon only which he could stand as
he sprinkled his blood, yet he led that people into the holy
of holies, into the presence of God, unto his Father, into
a nearness which the Jews of old could only look unto as it
was promised unto them in the gospel, but which in their day
they never experienced. And yet this is the nearness
that the gospel brings in. And yet these Judaizers would
take their heroes back out. Back out from the Holy of Holies. Back out from that rent veil.
Back out from the tabernacle to stand without and to look
on in dread again as they see their sins break in that law
which they would strive to keep. and break every day as it's set
before them as their rule of life which only brings them death
and they be brought back under bondage and condemnation. Is
that the gospel? Is that where we are brought?
I tell you it is not the gospel. It is not the gospel and it is
not the walk of the believer. The believer walks not under
law, but is led of the Spirit. The believer walks not by the
rule of a carnal commandment under fear and dread, but is
led of the Spirit of God, with a cry in his heart as an adopted
son of his father, Abba, Father. The believer lives no longer
under condemnation, but he lives as one washed under the blood
of Christ, washed in the blood of Christ, under the forgiveness
of sins, with peace and joy in his heart. The believer is he
who has not only heard the gospel and been brought to life by the
Spirit of God in the gospel, but he also walks in the Spirit.
He walks with God. He loves God, he knows God, he's
with God. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. If, if, if we live in the Spirit,
let us also walk in the Spirit. So the first thing we must ask
ourselves is whether that if is true of us. Do we indeed live
in the spirit? Has God in his gospel by his
spirit brought us out of death into everlasting life? Or do
we yet remain in our sins in darkness, blind to the things
of God, blind to the kingdom of God? Do we fool ourselves that we
see when yet we are blind? The Pharisees with their scriptures,
with their law, with their circumcision, with their priesthood, with their
sacrifices, with the oracles of God, with the tabernacle and
the temple, said we see. And yet when the fulfilment of
all those things, all those types and figures stood before them,
they said away with him, we will not have this man to reign over
us. They said of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the Saviour, crucify
him, crucify him. They knew him not. when he stood
amongst them. They perceived not his voice
when he spake unto them. They saw nothing in his person
to be attracted unto him and yet they said they saw when yet
they were blind. We may know the scriptures We
may have heard all of these things. We may have heard the gospel. We may have heard of Jesus Christ. And yet we may remain in darkness,
thinking we see, and yet we are blind. Do we live in the Spirit? Has the Spirit of God, through
the Gospel of God, actually brought us unto life? Have we been born
again? As Christ said unto Nicodemus,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the Kingdom of God. He cannot see it. It's there. It was there in figure before
the Pharisees. it was there in reality in the
person of Christ when he walked amongst them and yet unless they
were born again they could not see and we can have all the scriptures
and hear all the gospel and have all the religion in the world
and yet unless we are born again we cannot see the kingdom of
God except the man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God that which is born of the flesh
is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit that which is born of the spirit
is spirit before we're ever to walk in the spirit We must be
born of the Spirit. We must have the life of the
Spirit of God within. We must hear the Gospel. For by nature we are dead in
trespasses and sins. By nature we are lost in the
flesh. We have turned from God, we have
gone astray, we have rebelled against His will and His ways.
and the condemnation of his holy law sounds out from heaven above
upon us. We're dead. And we must hear
of that which will bring life. And life is to be found in the
gospel alone. Life is to be found in Christ
alone. Life is to be found by grace
alone. Life is to be found through the
Spirit alone. We will only know it if the Spirit
of God opens our eyes to see it. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, I have not seen nor ear heard Neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God have prepared for them
that love him. Oh what God has prepared for
his people in Christ. And yet it never enters our hearts. We can never perceive it, we
can never hear it, it never enters our hearts. We can search the
Word of God in and out and we never truly understand, perceive
or see just what it is to be in Christ. Just what it is to
have His life. Just what an inheritance awaits
all those whom God has loved in His Son for all eternity. And yet Paul says that God have
revealed these things unto us, unto his people, by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him?
Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual
things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeeth
all things, yet he himself is judge of no man. For who have
known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness under him.
Foolishness. Well they are, aren't they? To
us by nature the things of God, the gospel, is foolishness. We cannot comprehend it. It seems
so counter to what we want and what we perceive. We will go
our way. We won't go that way. Our wisdom
says another thing. And the wisdom of God says this
thing. and try as we might the natural man for all his study
and all his learning can never never receive the things that
are Spirit of God for these things are spiritually
revealed but in the Gospel in the power of the Gospel under
the grace of God the Spirit comes and the Spirit of God takes of
the things of Jesus Christ. He takes his words, he takes
his truth, he takes his person and he presents these things
unto his hearers. He comes unto those who are dead
And He opens the eyes, and He opens the ears, and He awakes
them out of their dead condition. He shows them what they are.
He sounds the sound of the wrath of God, the alarm in their heart. He sounds the sound of heaven's
thunder against their sins. He shakes them up, He rattles
them. And full of the dread of God's
wrath, they cry out for mercy. And when they cry, in love, in
mercy, in adoration, he leads them unto that one whose side
was thrust through with a spear. Unto that one who hung upon the
cross in the place of his people. Unto that one from whose side
the blood flowed. That blood which cleanseth from
all sin. And He shows unto that people,
that iniquitous people, that people who feel black and guilty,
full of sin, full of condemnation, He shows unto them that blood
has been shed to wash you from all of your sins, from every
sin, from the first unto the last. and he takes that blood
and he washes them and he cleanses them from head to toe and they
who were once blind, they who were once dead brought to life
come to see and to hear and rejoice in their salvation They rejoice
as those who are born again, those who are alive, those who
were once blind but now see, those who were once dead but
now live, those who were once lame but now jump for joy. Have you been brought there? Have you looked, have you seen,
have you rejoiced in Christ and his bloodshed for you? Do you
know that your sins have been forgiven? And do you live in
the Spirit? If you do, then you know that
firstly, the Spirit brings life. He brings life in the Gospel. And in bringing life, He brings
faith. He brings faith to hear and believe
the truth of that Gospel, to receive that which once you rejected. to rejoice in that which was
once foolishness, to receive that which once you turned away
from. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Have you heard the truth of Christ
and his redemption? Have you heard the gospel? Have
you heard the grace of God that brings salvation? Has the Spirit
brought you faith? Well if you have then you will
know what these Galatians knew. You will know this salvation.
You will know this grace. You will know this life. And
yet these Galatians were turning from this life and turning from
their walk in this life back to their own deeds away from
looking by faith alone unto Christ alone at what He has done by
grace alone for them away from looking purely upon that blood
that washes them clean aside to look into something that they
can do to wash them clean they were turned into a persuasion
that came not of Him that called them A little leaven had come
in to leaven the whole lump. They were troubled. And yet Paul knows, Paul has
confidence in their beginning. He has confidence that they who
have been brought to life will be granted that discernment between
truth and error. For the work that the Spirit
begins, He completes. And those whom He brings to life
and brings to faith in the Gospel, He leads into all truth. The Spirit does not save us to
leave us floundering. He does not save us to set us
on our own path by our own strength. but he gives discernment, he
gives wisdom, he gives teaching. He teaches us truth from error. He leads us into truth. He will
not leave us falling. He will not leave us in confusion. We have to say, like the Galatians,
that their experience is often our experience we're frail by
nature though we may be born again though we have the spirit
of God in our hearts we still have the flesh and the
flesh is so easily deceived and so easily taken in by error so
easily then how can those who were still weak in the flesh,
discern good from evil, truth from error, light from darkness.
How can they? By the Spirit. By the Spirit,
through His Gospel. The natural man receive if not
the things of God, not the things of the Spirit of God. But he
that is spiritual, judge if all things. He has the mind of Christ,
the mind of the Lord to instruct him. He may be deceived in his
flesh for a time, but when the truth comes in the gospel to
correct him and to bring him back onto that right path, that
right walk, he says, yes, that's the way. Yes, that's true. Yes, that's true. When Paul comes
and says, if ye live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit,
he says, that's right. That's the only way I can walk. I've tried walking in my own
strength and it brings failure and ruin every time. Yet the Spirit leads him to all
truth. He knows it. He knows the teaching
of the Spirit. He knows that nothing that he
knows he has learnt of himself. But all that he knows, all that
he knows of God, all that he knows of the truth, is that that
the Spirit has taught him. Anything else is worthless. It's
but wood, hay and stubble to be burnt up. But he knows that
what the Spirit has taught him is everlasting. As the writer to the Hebrews
tells us, This is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be
to them a God and they shall be to me a people. They will
walk with me, walk with me, one with me. They will walk in the
Spirit, and they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every
man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. They will not exhort
one another to study it out and to work it out. But they will
be one people taught of God, and they shall all know Me, from
the least to the greatest. They shall all know Me, for the
Spirit dwells in them all. And He teaches and He leads and
He guides. Is there a better guide? There
isn't. Is there a better walk? There
isn't. There isn't. The Galatians turned to another
walk. They turned to the law and all
it brought was trouble. All it brought was pride and
envying. They bit and devoured one another. They lorded it over one another.
They consumed one another. They provoked one another, envying
one another, being desirous of vain glory. That walk brought
them nowhere. So Paul tells them, walk in the
Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You've
turned to your law, you've turned to your works and what have you
done? You've fulfilled the lust of
the flesh. Your pride in your religion. Your pride. You may use your law to check
your outer sins. Outwardly you may appear holy. But in so doing the pride of
your heart has swollen up. And you've crushed one another
as you lord it over one another. The lust of the flesh has been
fulfilled by such a walk. But if you be led of the spirit,
you are not under the law. And if you walk in the Spirit,
you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these
are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things
that ye would. You cannot. You want to live
before God, but you turn to the law, and you are condemned by
it. The evil that you would not that
you do and the good that you would that you do not as Paul
says in Romans 7, that's the experience isn't it? Yet the
walk of the Spirit brings fruit, it brings fruit, real fruit,
lasting fruit, true fruit, We must be dead unto the law that
we may bring forth fruit under God. And that fruit is the fruit
of the Spirit. The flesh is works of manifest,
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envions, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like. That's
all it brings. However much you may wrap it
up in religion, that's all you get. Wraths, strifes, seditions,
heresies, hatred, idolatry. These things are not just describing
carnal behavior. They're describing religious
behavior in the flesh. Idolatry in religion. Witchcraft
in religion, spiritual adultery and turning from Christ to the
law, spiritual fornication and uncleanness, hatred of one another,
wrath, anger, malice, heresies in turning from the truth, envions,
murdering your brother. All of this comes under such
a walk. All of it. The flesh lusteth
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Don't walk
that way. Don't walk that way. If we live
in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. For the spirit's
fruit is of a completely different order. Oh what a tremendous description
Paul gives of the fruit of the Spirit of God here. We can but
touch on it today. But what depths, what heights
there are here. What riches, what glory. that this should be wrought in
the hearts and in the lives of those who were once dead in trespasses
and sins that God could bring forth fruit like this from those
who are wretched, carnal, worldly by nature that He should bring
such unto life and put His Spirit in them and bring forth the fruit
of the Spirit the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. Against such there is no law. What fruit is this? What fruit
is this? Is this the fruit that comes
from your heart? well you will cry out it's not
the fruit I see so often I'm so mindful of the fruit of the
flesh the works of the flesh that which comes from the flesh
oh that's all I see but if you live in the spirit
and you walk in the spirit then God, God will bring forth this
fruit This fruit, what a contrast between the flesh and the spirit
here. What a difference. This fruit,
love. not affected love, not vain love,
not fleshly love, not lust in love, but the love of God in
the heart wrought by the Spirit of God. Love, joy, joy in our
salvation, joy in Christ our Saviour, joy in an accomplished
salvation, a free justification. joy in the grace of God from
start to finish, joy in eternal life and eternal glory to come,
joy in Father, Son and Holy Ghost, joy, peace, peace with God our
Father, peace with Him from whom we were once estranged, Peace. Peace with our brothers and sisters. Peace in the church. Peace in
our travail and condition. Peace in the sufferings which
we are brought to walk in. Peace. No longer fretting and
biting. no longer fretting over this
trial and this trouble but in the midst of adversity the Spirit
brings peace, long-suffering, gentleness. Where's gentleness
by nature? It's absent but when the Spirit
of God works in his children they're gentle, goodness, they're
good, faith, they look to Christ alone, meekness, they're meek,
temperance, they're calm, they're quiet, they're at peace with
God, they're godly. Oh what fruit there is here,
what glory. What a contrast. Paul here speaking
of the believers' sanctification, their walk, their life, their
life in that gospel that brings forth this fruit, that gospel
unto which Paul was separated. He says in Romans 1, 1, I was
separated unto the gospel of God, unto this message, and unto
this power, and unto this fruit. Separated, separated from the
flesh, separated from the world, separated from the wisdom of
man and the world's teaching, the world's gospels, the world's
thinking. Separated from the earth unto
heavenly things. A heavenly walk, a spiritual
walk. Separated from the flesh unto
the spirit. Separated. This walk, this walk
in the Spirit is heavenly. The law speaks to the flesh,
to the carnal man here on earth. But the Spirit speaks to the
man of grace, the new man, the new man within. And his head,
his life is in the heavens. He doesn't follow the world. He doesn't seek the world. He
doesn't seek the world's approval or acclaim. He follows Christ
and Christ alone. He has a life which is from above,
life in the spirit and he walks in that spirit. Yes he has life,
a new order of life, a different quality of life, not earthly,
not fleshly, not of this world, but life which is of God by grace
through Christ in the Spirit. Life, he doesn't seek his own
glory, he doesn't seek man's glory in the flesh, but he seeks
God's glory alone, by grace, through faith. This life seeks
God and God alone, it walks with God, it communes with God, it
loves God. It doesn't just live in the spirit
and turn to the flesh but being alive in the spirit, it walks
in the spirit, it seeks God every day. Every day it longs to commune
with his Father. The child of God longs for his
Father. He longs to walk with Christ. He longs to walk in the Spirit. He cries out Abba Father. This
is his walk. This is his walk. Where is your
walk? Where is your life? What are
your thoughts and affections? Where are they? Are you born
again? Do you have this life? Do you? Well if you do, if Christ has
died for you, if he washed you in his blood, if you were brought
to look by faith to him alone for salvation, if the Spirit
of God quickened you and brought you to life to look to him by
faith alone, if you live in the Spirit, then don't ever turn
to the law and to your works again. If you live in the Spirit,
then walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit and God give
you grace to continue, to continue to walk in the Spirit and bring
forth that fruit which He alone can bring forth. Love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. Praise God. Amen.