but by faith. For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a faith, a certain kind of faith, saving faith, obedient
faith, loving faith, willing faith, faith which worketh, not
idle faith, faith which worketh, motivated not by law, but by
love. That's the freedom and liberty
of Christ. Now, I was preaching last Sunday
morning from Colossians 3 down in Madisonville, and I found
a verse here that deals with what we're talking about right
now. So you just leave the text for a moment and go to Colossians
3 and look at verse 3. Now back there in verse 1, this
is written to a certain people, those who are risen with Christ,
seated with Christ in the heavenlies. And he tells us to seek those
things which are above, and verse 2, to set our affection. That's
not emotions, feelings, affections, that's singular. Set your affection,
that's your heart, your mind, your soul, on things above and
not on things on the earth. For you're dead. You're dead. What does that mean, you're dead?
You're dead. Well, it means first of all that
you're dead to sin. Now you've got to follow me in
this scriptures. Romans chapter 6. This is a study
time, so don't hesitate to use your Bibles. And follow where
I turn. We're dead. What does that mean,
you're dead? Well, it means you're dead to sin. Romans 6, verse
6. Knowing this, Romans 6, 6, that
our old man is crucified with Christ. See, you can't be risen
unless you've died. He said, if you be risen with
Christ, set your affection on things above. Seek those things
which are above. Well, there's no way for a man
to be risen who's not first been crucified. dead. So you've been crucified with
Christ, your old man has, with him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed. And henceforth we should not
serve sin, for he that's dead is free from what? From sin. From its rule, from its reign,
from its dominion, from its curse, you're free from sin. All right,
now back to my text. It says you're dead. Colossians
3 says you're dead. Dead to what? Well, we're dead
to sin. Secondly, turn to Romans 8. We're dead to the ceremonial
law. The law of Moses. Touch not,
taste not, handle not. Sabbath days, feast days, circumcision. We're dead to the Mosaic law.
Romans chapter 8, verse 2. For the law of the Spirit of
Christ, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free
from the law of sin and death." That's what the Mosaic Law is.
It didn't bring life. Paul said, when the law came,
I died. The law killed me. It didn't give me life. It killed
me. You've been made free from the
law of sin and death. But what the law could not do,
and it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh, we're dead to the Mosaic law. To all of its sacrifices
and ceremonies and rituals and feast days and holy days, we're
dead. And then he says, you're dead.
You're dead to sin, you're dead to the Mosaic law, and you're
dead to the curse of the law. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us. And in Colossians
2 verse 16, he tells us that. In Colossians 2 verse 16, let
no man therefore judge you in meat, in drink, in respect of
a holy day, or the new moon, which determine the feast days,
or the Sabbath days. These are shadow things to come,
but the body is of Christ. You're dead to the law of sin
and death. You're dead to the ceremonial law. You're dead to
the curse of the law because Christ's been made a curse for
you. And then you're dead to this world. Turn to Galatians
chapter 6. Galatians 6. You're dead to this world, to
its applause or to its frowns. I'm a dead man. As far as sin,
it's curse, it's condemnation, it's penalty, it's presence,
it's power, I'm dead. I'm crucified with Christ. As far as the Mosaic Law, which
is touch not, taste not, handle not, Sabbath day, tithing, all
these things that were commanded in the Mosaic Law, I'm a dead
man. It has no charge and no commandment
for me. As far as the law of sin and
death and the curse, I'm dead. As far as this world is concerned,
it's applause, they don't appeal to me. It's frowns don't scare
me. It's approval doesn't court me.
It's rejection doesn't bother me. I'm dead. Crucified with
Christ. That's what he says in Galatians
chapter 6 verse 14. God forbid that I should glory
saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which this world
is crucified unto me, and I unto this world. That's what that
means. You're dead. You've been set
free. Free. Oh, one other thing I want
you to see in that Colossians scripture, Colossians 3, look
back at it one more time. One more time. He says in Colossians
3, verse 3, you're dead. But he says, but you live, and
your life, your real life, eternal life, spiritual life, is hid
with Christ in God. You're dead, but your life is
hid with Christ in God. Now the key to this thing, of
course, is our life is in Christ, in Christ we live. But one word
here helps us, it's hid. What does that mean? Your life
is hid. But first of all, it denotes
the spirituality of it. It can't be seen. When you're
born of the flesh, baby comes forth into the world, there it
is. The type which is born of the flesh is flesh. You can see
that. You can touch it. You admire it or not like it.
Boy, he's ugly. Boy, he's pretty. But spiritual life, born of God,
you can't see. It can't be seen. It's hid with
Christ in God. It's internal. And then secondly, hid means
this, as far as its globe is concerned. It can't be understood
by men. It can't be understood. by me,
and they can't see it. Or they can see a baby, see a
boy, they can see a man, but they can't see a son of God. The world knows you not, Christ
said, because it knows me not. It knows not him that sent me.
They never experience spiritual life, so they don't understand
it. And the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, the foolishness to him. And he can't know them, He can't
discern them. What does the word discern mean?
Understand them. He can't understand spiritual
life. He can understand religion. He
can understand walking an aisle. He can understand being baptized.
He can understand switching candles and blowing them out. He can
understand the uniforms of religion. He can understand all the do's
and don'ts, but he can't understand life, the life of God. The natural man does not understand,
but he that is spiritual understands. He that is spiritual understandeth
all things, yet he himself is understood of no man. So you're
dead. You're dead to things, you're
dead to the world, you're dead to sin, you're dead to the law,
but you're alive to Christ. And that life is hid. It can't
be seen with the natural eye. It can't be touched with the
natural hand. It can't be understood. It can't be explained. It's a
mystery. It's hid. It's a mystery. Something that's
hid is a mystery. Paul said, quoting God, I'll
work a work in your day. Ye despisers, ye won't understand
it though a man explains it to you. Let me read that to you. You won't understand it. He says
here, and in the book of Acts chapter 13,
he says in verse 41, Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and
wonder, and perish. I work a work in your days, right
before your eyes. A work which you shall in no
wise believe, nor a man declare it to you." You see, this thing
comes by revelation, not explanation. It's a mystery. Your life is
hid with Christ in God. It can't be seen, can't be understood,
can't be explained, and can't be lost because of where it is. He said, they're in my hand.
No man pluck them out of my hand. They're in my Father's hand.
No man pluck them out of my Father's hand. My life, I'm dead. My life
is hid with Christ in God. And who can separate me from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus? My brethren, you've been called
under liberty. freedom. Nobody's free from the law like
a dead man. Police aren't looking for dead
men, they're looking for living criminals. And nobody is free
as one who's already paid the debt and died. Only, listen,
Galatians 5 verse 13, only use not that liberty. Don't use that
liberty as an occasion for the flesh. That, no, no, no, we don't
do that. We're accused of that. We're
accused of that. Oh, if I believed what you believe,
I'd sin all I want to. I sin a whole lot more than I
want to, don't you? A whole lot more. Believers don't want to sin.
You don't use this liberty as an occasion to the flesh. We don't use this liberty as
an excuse for sin. A man who do that is a is twisted
and warped and unconverted. We don't use this liberty to
serve ourselves. We don't use this liberty to
neglect works of faith and labor of love. This freedom from sin
is free to serve our Lord. Turn to Romans 6 and read what
Paul says about this. Romans chapter 6. Free to serve
Christ free to love Christ, free to serve one another. In Romans
chapter 6 verse 14, listen. Sin, Romans 6 verse 14, sin shall
not have dominion over you. You're not under the law, you're
under grace. What then, shall we sin? Because we're not under
the law, we're under grace? God forbid. What in the world
ever caused you to think a thing like that? Know ye not that whom to whom
ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are?
To whom ye obey, whether sin unto death, or obedience unto
righteousness? God be thanked, ye were the servants
of sin, ye were an egotistical, self-loving, self-righteous hypocrite
one time, a servant of sin. But ye obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you, being then
made free from sin. You became a servant of righteousness,
free. Brethren, we've been called to
liberty, freedom. But you don't use that liberty
and freedom of Christ as a license to sin or an excuse to sin or
an alibi for your sins or to serve yourself or neglect works
of labor, works of faith and labor of love. But listen, but
by love you serve one another. Not by law. By love you serve
one another. By love. That's the motivation. You see,
under the law, this Mosaic law, the Old Testament, circumcision
was a sign. It was a sign that a person was
an Israelite. If a man wasn't circumcised,
he wasn't an Israelite. He was a pagan. He was a heathen.
If a man was circumcised, he was an Israelite and all his
family came under his benefits. That's the way you could tell
an Israelite by circumcision, but not now. How do you tell
one of God's spiritual Israel people? How do you know a man's
one of God's own? By this shall all men know you're
my disciples if you love one another. That's how you know. Circumcised heart. God's operating
on the heart, not the flesh. That's how you tell a believer.
Under the law of the Sabbath, listen to me, under the law of
the Sabbath was set aside and men and women were required and
forced to rest. on the Sabbath day, to do nothing,
to come to the temple or the tabernacle and to offer praise
and sacrifice. It was required. And if you didn't
do it, just cut off. What about now? Are we required? Is this a duty we're doing here?
Our Lord said, talking to the woman at the well, she said,
you Jews say worship in Jerusalem. That's what they did every Sabbath
day. We say worship in this mountain. Christ said you don't know what
you worship. The day is coming when they shall
neither in Jerusalem worship God or in this mountain. God's
spirit. And David worshiped God. Worship
him in spirit, heart, and truth. God seeketh such to worship him. him. Don't give me a day to keep
and require me under law to do anything like that. God won't
accept it. He won't accept that kind of
worship. Under the law, the tithe was
required, 10%. If you flubbed up, it was 50%.
10% on everything you had, and 10% off of the 90% sometimes. It was required of everyone,
demanded of everyone, support the kingdom, support the priesthood,
support the poor. My storehouse, storehouse tithing,
the Jew had to do it, he was forced to do it, he's commanded
to do it, or he's cut off. What about a Christian? Paul
said every man as he purposes in his heart, so let him give."
Where does the purpose start? In the heart. As he purposes
in his heart. Not grudgingly, not of necessity,
not a requirement, not a duty, but an act of love. And God loves
the hilarious giver. I'm not under the tide. Don't
hand me a 10% tax to pay. I ain't going to pay it. My nature
rebels against it. What I give, I give out of love.
Love for God, love for His people, love for His preachers, love
for His missionaries. You take the joy out of giving
when you start telling people how much to give. And that's not grace. That's
law. And Paul said, don't you come
back under those laws. That's bondage. Christ has set
you free. Under the law, Israel obeyed
the moral law. You commit fornication, they
stoned you. That's why they kept the law.
If you bore a false witness, they stoned you. If you lied,
they stoned you. If you didn't keep a Sabbath,
they stoned you. Out of fear of punishment, they
kept these laws. In Christ, verse 14, Galatians
5, he says, not by law, but by law serve one another. Verse
14, for all the law is fulfilled in one word. Even in this, I
shall love thy neighbors thyself. That's our law. Obedience motivated by fear is
not acceptable to God. Obedience motivated by duty for
reward is not acceptable. But that obedience is motivated
out of love for Christ. The love of Christ constrains
it. If he died for me, then I was
dead. And he died that I should not
serve myself but him. And what a delight, what a wonderful
privilege and pleasure to serve such a gracious master and do
his will. I delight to do thy will, O God. But that starts here. That's
that light you can't see, can't explain, can't be understood
except by somebody who has it. Verse 15. But if you bite and
devour one another, Take heed you be not consumed one of another.
If you give in, and sometimes religious people do, to critical,
unkind, unforgiving spirit, it'll destroy the unity and peace of
the church and of the family, and eventually it'll destroy
you. God is displeased with that kind
of spirit, the spirit of division and strife and discord. It'll
destroy the peace, and then after a while, it'll destroy the people.
Turn to Colossians 3, and he gives us some instructions about
this thing of loving one another. In Colossians 3, verse 12, put
on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels
of mercies. That's bowels, the word bowels
is innermost being. You'll run into that often in
the scripture. The bowels, that's talking about the innermost being. Kindness, put on bowels of mercy,
kindness, humbleness of mind, neatness, long-suffering, forbearing
one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel
against any, do what? Even as Christ forgave you, so
also do you. And above all things, put on
love. That's the bond. That's the bond
of perfectness. I have a little say in here.
I'm going to put in a bulletin in a couple of weeks. Love is
the, he said it's the bond. That's which bonds things together,
like glue. Love is the cement which holds
different stones together in the temple of God. We're all
built up a holy priesthood and a holy temple, and we're living
stones. And love is the cement that holds
them together, keeps them off in all different directions,
holds them together. Love is the fence around them that keeps
out the worlds of division and discord and strife. Love is the
sheet music which enables all the different instruments and
voices to play the same tune and to sing the same song. Martha
and Carolee and Mike, they all have sheet music. She has it,
he has it. Why? They have the same song.
And therefore they sing the same thing. And when you have love
for one, that's the sheet music that keeps you in tune and keeps
you on the same song. You're not singing different
songs. Play in harmony if you've got
the same sheet music. Love is a cloak that covers a
multitude of infirmities we don't see. I wish that we didn't see
the infirmities of our brothers and sisters in Christ like we
can't see the infirmities in ourselves and our children. Can't find a thing wrong with
our grandchildren anyway, can we? for our children. But we
can find things wrong with everybody else's. But love is a cloak that
covers all the blemishes, all the infirmities, and hides all
the failures. And you just love each other. The whole law fulfilled in one
word. All right, verse 16, 17. And
this I say unto you, walk in the Spirit, and you'll not fulfill
the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary
one to the other, so that you cannot do the things you would."
What's that saying? It's saying that every believer
has two natures. That's right. Walk in the Spirit,
and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I've got a spiritual
nature, I've got a fleshly nature. And you have to. When God gives us a new nature,
he gives us a new heart and a new spirit and a new nature. But
that old man is not dead. We kill him daily. We crucify
him daily. We subdue him and put him down
and mortify him and dead him. But he'll be up next morning,
bright and early. Very much alive. And God does
not eradicate that old nature of flesh, and we spend our lives
in a conflict. That's what it says here, the
flesh lusteth against the spirit. The flesh is an enemy of the
spiritual man, and the spiritual man hates the flesh. We hate
that flesh, despise it. But we spend our days with conflict
within. Paul explained that in Romans
7, he very clearly explains that. You turn to Romans 7 and let
me read it to you. Romans 7 verse 18. And this is a redeemed man talking,
this is not Paul before the Lord saved him, this is Paul after
the Lord saved him. I know that in me, that is in
my flesh. Now, not in the spiritual man.
The spiritual man does no sin, has no sin. It's the life of
Christ in you. But in my flesh, well, it's no
good thing. To will is present with me. That's
the same man. He wills to obey God. How to perform that which is
perfect, I find not. That word good is perfect. The rich young ruler said, good
master. Christ said, hold on. Why you call me good? There's
none good but God. This is God good here. God good. Paul wasn't talking
about robbing banks here. He didn't have a problem with
that. Paul wasn't talking about getting drunk. Paul wasn't talking
about the things of the flesh that we people carry on in this
generation. Paul was talking about any inclination. of his heart that's not bent
on righteousness, that's sin. Anything that's not perfect is
sin. Anything that's not as holy as God is sin. To know to do
good and do it not, that's sin. The thought of foolishness is
sin. Since you've been in here, have you thought anything foolish?
Well, you're sinning. The very thought of foolishness
is sin. That's right. Anything that's
not perfect is sin. And that's what he's talking
about here. How to perform that which is perfect? I don't find
that in me, and you don't find it in you either. The good that
I would, what kind of good is that? Constant, constant holiness. Word, thought, and imagination.
Dreams and deeds. Perfect like God. I don't do
that. But the evil which I would not
that I do. I get angry. I say things that
shouldn't say. I give a frown to people. I'm
impatient. I'm not content with God's good
providence all the time. I get upset with God, don't you? That's sin. And the evil I would
not that I do. Now if I do that I would not,
it's no more I that do it, it's sin that dwelleth in me. It's
not the Christ in me and the God in me. It's not that life
here with Christ in God. It's sin! It's that old nature. Dwelleth in me. evil present with me. Verse 22,
I delight in the law of God. Now that proves this is a saved
man. No unsaved man ever delighted in the law of God. No unsaved man ever delighted
in the law of God. That's not so. The only man who
delights in the perfectness of God and the holiness of God and
His perfect law is a man that has Christ in him. And that's
why he delights in idolizing the law of God after
this inward man. But I see another law in my members
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members." I had a friend that ran into
one of these fellows that said he'd never sinned. And he said to him, he said,
I'm a believer like you are, I believe God, but I do sin,
I do sin. He said back some years ago I
had a son in the service in the World War II, in the Navy, and
he'd been away for quite a while. And I was down at the railroad
station to pick up some boxes and the train got in and a boy
got off the train in a sailor uniform and he said, I thought
it was my son. And my heart just leaped, and
I rejoiced, and I ran toward him, and when I got almost to
him, I saw it wasn't my son, it was my neighbor's son. I wasn't as glad to see him as
I would have been to see my boy. I didn't love my neighbor as
myself. I'm a sinner. He illustrated this. He could
not rejoice. That wasn't his boy. You having trouble with things
like that? If anybody's wife tonight's got to get cancer,
would you raise your hand and say, let it be mine? Come on
now. Anybody. I don't care who it is. Just
anybody. Just raise your hand and say, let it be my wife. Let
it be me. No, we'd rather be somebody else.
That's us. And that's what Paul's talking
about here. I'm not talking about just two-bit holiness that people
are preaching and living above sin in this life. That's not
so. I know what we are by nature. Thank God I know what we are
by grace. I thank God I have a Savior. I thank God I have
blood to cleanse me from these awful thoughts and this selfishness
and self-righteousness, this wickedness, bringing me into captivity. That
man that met that train was in captivity to self-love. Oh, wretched man, Paul said that
I am. Who's going to deliver me? Who's
going to help me out and get rid of this body of sin, this
body of death that I hang around with all the time, that bothers
me all before I go? Well, I thank God through Jesus
Christ my Lord. So with the mind, with the new
man, with the new nature, I serve the law of God. I love the law
of God. But I've got another nature, and it's not subservient
to the law of God. It's in captivity too much to
this flesh. Now verse 18, quickly, if you're
led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. You're not under
the law. Now, when I was an unbeliever,
I was under the law, and the law pronounced me guilty. and
led me to guilt and depression and condemnation and fear. But
by His grace, I've been delivered from the law. It's not my leader,
not my inspiration, it's not my motivation, it's not my rule
of life. The Holy Spirit is my leader. Inspiration, motivation, and
love is my rule of life. The law make for a while corral
a rebel. hold him in a stockade of religion,
of requirements, of laws and rules, and you keep him for a
while. But he's seized within, and he can, he'll break out somewhere. He'll break, they all do. They
all break out somewhere. But the Spirit of God and the
love of Christ sets a man free. He's not in a stockade. He's
not in bondage. He's not in slavery to rules
and laws and regulations. He's free! Christ said he'll
go out and come in and find pasture. Well, what keeps him in line?
Ha! The love of Christ. The love
of Christ. He loves God. loves his word,
loves his people, loves to worship, loves to give, loves to pray,
loves to read, loves to study, loves to fellowship, loves to
walk in holiness, just loves it. Now the works of the flesh
are these. You know what they are. works
of the flesh are manifest, that the adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness,
revelings, and such like, of which I tell you before, as I've
told you in times past, they which do these things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit Here's the fruit of
the Spirit. That's the works, plural, works
of the flesh. Effects of the flesh, works of
the flesh. Here's the fruit of the Spirit.
And notice it's not plural, it's singular. It's the fruit of the
Spirit. And all of these, to some degree, are found in all
believers. Let's look at them. Love, joy,
peace. Patience, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no love.
Now that's fruit. Not fruits, that's fruit. And
all of these, to some degree, dwells in believers. It's the
fruit of the Spirit. We take no credit for it. We
take no credit for what God's done for us, or in us, or with
us. If we have love, God shed it
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. If we have faith, that's
the gift of God. If we have joy, we join Christ. If we have patience, God has
taught it. But these are in every believer. You can't have love without faith. You can't have peace if you don't
have joy. Isn't that right? You certainly can't have gentleness
without kindness. So these are all the fruit of
the Spirit. Not our fruits, His fruits. It's
not I, but Christ that liveth in me, Paul says. But to some
degree we have all these things, and they grow. Listen to these
verses. Let me read them to you. You
know the Lord said when a man sowed the seed on good ground,
it came forth, that good ground, some thirty, some sixty. Some a hundredfold. But the ground didn't produce
the same amount of blessing. You had thirtyfold or sixtyfold
or a hundredfold. And that's the way it is with
young believers. They grow. He said in 2 Thessalonians,
your faith grows exceedingly. Your love abounded. You see,
in the early days when you come to know our Lord, we love Him,
but not like you love Him later. You believe, but your faith grows. You have joy, but not like you
do later. Peace? He wrote again in 1 John, These
things I have written unto you, that your joy may be full. And then he said this in Romans
15, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
faith, that you may abound in hope through the power of the
Spirit of God. Romans 5 says trials produce
patience. So the fruit of the Spirit dwells
in all believers to various degrees, and it grows. Exceedingly, abundantly,
he said. And then he says in verse 24,
And they that belong to Christ have crucified this flesh, suppressed
it, put it down, put off the old man daily with his affections
and lusts, and they live in the Spirit, and they walk in the
Spirit, And verse 26, and they're not desirous of vain glory, personal
glory and recognition. That's not their motivation at
all. That's not it at all. Provoking
one another and envying one another, that's not it at all. It's to
glorify our Lord and honor Him.