Tacoma Conference: 1997
Table of Contents
Genesis Abraham and Lot
Lessons from Exodus
Individual Faithfulness
Galatians 4-6
Address—C. Hendricks
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Galatians.
And chapter 4. Not everyone was with us on Friday night. We had the first 3 chapters.
Then.
Now we'll start with chapter 4 of Galatians verse one. Now I say that the air as long as he is a child different nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all.
But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Even so, we, when we were children, were in ******* under the elements of the world.
But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them, that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying ABBA Father.
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son.
And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ, howbeit then when he knew not God, he did service unto them, which by nature are no gods. But now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye again desire?
To be in *******.
He observed days and months and times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.
Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am, for I am as ye are. Ye have not injured me at all. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh, I preach the gospel unto you at the 1St. And my temptation, which was in my flesh, despise not nor rejected, but received me as an Angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? For I bear you record that if it had been possible, you would have plucked.
Out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy? Because I tell you the truth, They zealously affect you, but not well. Yeah, they would exclude you that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me ye that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law?
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman.
But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise, which things are an allegory. For these are the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to ******* which is Hagar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is and is in ******* with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is mother of us all.
For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not break forth and cry thou that travelest not. For the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband now. We brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, Even so it is now.
Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture, cast out the bondwoman and her son? For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.
So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
Well, that'll be enough reading right now.
Now I say, he says that the air.
As long as he is a child.
Differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all.
The Jews in the Old Testament state of things were like servants in ******* under law.
And now he's going to bring out that under grace they would be brought into conscious, known sonship, and in the enjoyment of it, liberty and sonship established by grace.
But even though they were heirs, that the heir as long as he's a child differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Even so, we now he's making the application is he's applied this now he's bringing it home to the Jews. Even so we, we Jews, when we were children, babes were in ******* under the elements of the world.
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Law is a principle of the world.
Grace.
Comes from God. The world does not deal in grace, does not like grace does not.
Want grace because it gives to the first man no place at all.
Grace is the most humbling of everything. It makes nothing of man and everything of God. And that's why man doesn't like it. He wants to do his part. He wants to make his contribution towards his salvation.
Maybe not towards his salvation in the beginning, but to keep himself saved. And so there are many Christians, you know, they, they say, yes, we're, we're justified and saved by faith in Christ. But once we're saved, then we have.
To do our part and we have to keep the law and walk in obedience to it in order to remain safe. Well, that's just as bad an error as the first one.
Because according to what we're reading here in the teaching of Galatians, we're justified initially by faith in Christ and we're kept by grace all the way through. The pathway to put ourselves back under law, as so many have done mistakenly, is to reestablish the the first man, give him a place that he can do something to maintain his salvation.
Even if he can't get it in the first place.
And that's it. That's the very serious error.
It's grace from beginning to end. Every step of the way is God's grace, and that grace supplies us all that we need in the way of power to walk in holiness down here in in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. We'll see how that's all developed. Well, when they were children, he says, when we were children, that is the Old Testament state of things. We were in ******* under the elements of the world.
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and well let me quote it from the first chapter. I'm quoting the wrong verse. In the 1St chapter it says Who gave himself for our sins verse four, that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father.
Delivering us from this present evil world includes delivering us from the principles upon which the world operates, and it operates on the principle of law. And he's delivered us from that and brought us into an altogether new, a new way of.
Operating, and that is grace. When we were children, we were in ******* under the elements, the principles of this world. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His son. Now that that corresponds with verse 23 of chapter 3. Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Wherefore the laws our schoolmaster until Christ came, and now he has come. And so it says, when the fullness of the time was come, then the Jews were taken away from, delivered from the state of the servant, and brought him to the position of sonship.
God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. That would be the Jew. Gentile was never put under law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. So what has happened in Christianity is that the servant state of things, though the man was heir of everything when he was a child, he was under tutors and governors until the time came when he could.
Properly assume the responsibilities of.
Mature sonship, and then he's brought into that, and that's what we have in Christianity. We have mature sonship in contrast with the baby state or the infant state of things, which was Judaism.
It's sad when you hear a Jew who's become a Christian give testimony and then he'll say and spoil the testimony by saying, but I'm still a Jew. But he's not. He's not any longer a Jew. You're either a Jew or a Gentile or a member of the Church of God, one or the other. You never hear any of us Gentiles say, but we're still Gentiles. We have nothing to boast of. But they cling. They cling to the old.
And it's hard for them to get a hold of the new not realizing.
That the new is infinitely better.
Who would cling to his childhood after he had become a son and in possession of all things that the father has, and able to commune with and enjoy the father's fellowship in a way that the child cannot?
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That we're brought into in Christianity.
That we might receive the adoption of sons. That's the Jewish believers. And then verse 6 is the Gentile believers. Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying ABBA Father.
This expression occurs 3 times. The first time is in Mark's Gospel. When the Lord was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He cried ABBA Father, Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. And it's also found in Romans 8. And here we cry ABBA Father having received the adoption, Romans 8, whereby we cry ABBA Father. Here it says, Receive the spirit of His Son.
And so there's this wonderful cry.
Of intimate nearness of relationship for the Christian, because ye are sons. God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your heart, crying ABBA, Father, conscious, known and enjoyed sonship.
Wherefore thou art no more a servant. Now he's going back to the Jewish, going back to the Jewish group that was there. And he said, you no more a servant, but a son. You've been brought now out of that servant place to the place of sonship. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. All that Christ has won for us is now ours. And this is to be enjoyed.
In the intelligence of no one and conscious sonship.
Albeit then when ye were, when ye knew not God. Now he switches again back to the Gentile believers when he knew not God. That expression never applies to a Jew. They knew God, but the Gentiles did not know God.
And he says when ye knew not God, he did service unto them, which by nature are no gods. They were idolaters, they were worshipping false gods and idols, and that's what he's referring to. But now he says after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in *******?
Somewhat might say I don't understand why those two against are there because they were never under law and this is the danger they were facing of listening to this other voice, the voice of the legalists, the Judaizers that were seeking to place these gentile believers under law, yet them circumcised.
Bring them up to their level, so to speak.
Jewish Christians looking down upon the Gentile Christians is not quite up to their level until they were circumcised.
How false that is. And as Paul says, and we quoted it the other night, circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but faith which worketh by love. So what were they doing?
In their Pagan religion.
They worship false gods. They had a ritual. It was something like Israel's ritual, different, of course, but it was still a ritualistic system. It was something to do. It was things that they had to do in connection with their religious observances. So with the Jews, so with the Gentile. So to go back, go to law for the Gentile was to go back in principle to the very same thing that they'd been delivered from when they served idols.
Very same thing. And so he says. Now after that ye have known God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, where unto ye desire again to be in *******. Ye observe days and months and times and years, and all you have to do is look round about you at Christendom. And we see that Christendom is full of the observance of days and months and times and years. This epistle was written in the 1St century to deliver Christians from that sort of.
But so natural is it for us to gravitate back there to the law principle that that's exactly what's happened.
And we tend to do that, even though we may be well established and instructed by grace. And as one has said, grace is the hardest thing for us to really understand and lay hold upon and be in the conscious sense of all the time. All the time. We tend to get back in our thinking, in our ways and habits to the law principle, and we start dealing with one another in that way.
And that's a sad thing.
Because that's *******. That's *******. If you walk into a meeting and grace is reigning in the meeting, you feel that you're in a place where you can breathe freely and enjoy the fellowship of the Saints, but where there is a legal spirit. It's like a dark cloud which stifles one's very breath that he takes. And one can feel that it's a legal system of things.
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Rules and regulations this do this.
And don't do that. And so on. And one feels like he's in a straight jacket, afraid to move lest he does something that will displease those that have set up the rules.
That's the legalism. It may not be the Law of Moses, but it's just as much in principle law as the Law of Moses.
So he says to them, after that you have known God, How did they come to know him? By grace, sovereign grace alone. They didn't do anything. They didn't even have the law to keep these Gentiles or rather are known of God. God is God known few.
How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements They were once serving in that way in their false religion, Where unto you desire again to be in *******? They were in ******* to their Pagan ritual system of things. Now they want to be put back under that same thing in principle. And he is. He's grieved.
You can feel the the grief of Paul's soul as you read the epistle. I marvel he says in that first chapter that you are so soon removed from him that calls you into the grace of Christ unto a different gospel which is not another. Not another.
Oh, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? This is not of him that calleth you. A different voice, another voice that has taken hold upon them, and with the spacious reasonings, and seemingly standing for righteousness. Paul speaks of it as these men are the ministers of righteousness, and yet they were false apostles and prophets.
They were seeking to legalize Christianity and thus.
Destroy.
Verse 12 Brethren, I beseech you.
Thee as I am.
He was one who was the greatest persecutor of the Christian testimony ever, and he was an object of sovereign mercy and grace.
He says be as I am.
I've come in now having forfeited everything because I persecuted Christ.
Saul saw why persecutest thou me was that voice from heaven. He was persecuting the Christians. In so doing he was persecuting Christ.
And he was showing mercy, so he says, be as I am.
One that stands by sovereign mercy and sovereign grace before God.
For I am as ye are, I have no more claim upon.
God than you had they had none, these gentiles.
And they are trophies of sovereign grace.
You have not injured me at all. You know how through infirmity of the flesh, I preached the gospel unto you at the 1St.
We know that he had this thorn for the flesh, a messenger of Satan to trouble, to humble him, to keep him humble.
And he preached the gospel unto them with that infirmity and my temptation which was in my flesh. He says, you despise not.
Nor rejected, but received me as an Angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
Where is then the blessedness ye speak of? They speak of a blessedness being brought into it when they receive the gospel of the grace of God that he had proclaimed to them.
And they, they were brought into it, and they were rejoicing in it. And now he says, Where is now the blessedness ye spake of? For I bear you record that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me. We mentioned in the address Friday night that Paul wrote this epistle with his own hands.
He didn't usually do that. He usually dictated it and a secretary wrote it for him.
But not so here. This was so important that he personally wrote it, and he makes reference to that in the last chapter. I think there was something wrong with his eyes, he says. There were. You would have plucked out your own eyes and had given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
They zealously affect you, but not well.
That is, these Judaizers, these legalists, they were trying to draw away the Saints after them and to alienate them from Paul.
They were zealous in seeking the.
Following of these Saints of the Galatian Assemblies.
And that's what the there he's talking about here. They zealously affect you, but not well.
Their motives are not good. They're trying to draw you away from the truth that I presented to you. Yeah, they would exclude you from us, is the thought. They wanted to exclude the Saints from Paul and turn them.
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After themselves, that she might affect them, that she might follow them.
But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and what they were doing was not a good thing.
They were seeking to alienate the Saints from grace and from the Apostle Paul, who was the apostle of grace.
And put them back under law.
It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
And here you can feel the very pathos in His voice. My little children, they were His. They were. They were saved through His ministry, and they'd come to faith by receiving the gospel of God's wondrous grace.
Then he says, my little children, of whom I travail in birth again.
Until Christ be formed in you, He had travailed the first time as he presented the gospel and labored fervently in prayer for their souls, that they might be brought into the enjoyment of Christian liberty.
By grace, now he has to do it again.
Christ had been formed in their souls and they had seen that Christ was everything and they didn't have to do one single thing. The very idea that we can, even after we're saved, contribute to keeping saved, contribute by any efforts of our own to our salvation. The maintenance of our salvation is to put a slight upon the person and work of Christ himself.
It is Christ, only Christ alone.
Christ all sufficient, and to add anything to that is a serious slight upon Him and His work.
My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you.
They needed to have that set before them once again.
That Christ was the all sufficient object before their hearts. It wasn't the law.
It wasn't doing anything now. It was Christ himself. He was the power of the new life.
He was the new life that they had, and He, as the object before their souls, empowered them to live pleasing to God.
Until Christ be formed in you, that you see that he and he alone.
Is everything.
I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you. Are you really Christians?
Are you really Christians? We might ask that question of many that claim to be Christians today because they are mixing law and grace. Terrible mixture. And that's the most dishonoring thing you can do to Christ.
As though he needs our help in any way.
The very statement of it shows the folly of such a thing.
We cannot. We don't need to help Him in our salvation. We don't need to help Him keep us saved. It's all grace from beginning to end.
And we are dependent upon him altogether.
For the maintenance of our salvation as well as getting it in the first place.
I stand in doubt of you. Tell me ye that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? We mentioned on Friday that the law is absolutely unforgiving.
The law shows no mercy.
Knows nothing of grace.
It can only hold our blessing to the obedient and the one that obeys perfectly.
Perfectly, if you fail in one point, you're guilty of all, and the law condemns.
The law condemns it, kills it curses.
Grace justifies, gives life, and gives blessing.
Grace.
It gives the sweetest sound the soul has ever heard.
Well, he says, tell me ye that desire to be under the law, Do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bomb maid and the other by a free woman.
But he who was of the bondwoman that was Hagar was born after the flesh. But he of the free woman Sarah, was by promise Ishmael and Isaac.
Which things are an allegory for? These are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to ******* which is Hagar?
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For this, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Jerusalem.
In Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is and is in ******* with her children.
So that Jerusalem that the Jews were in at that time and going on with the old order of things, speaks of *******. The Jerusalem which now is, he says, which is Hagar, that's *******.
But Jerusalem, which is above.
Is free, which is our mother? I think it ought to read that is she is the Jerusalem above is our mother.
Those that are Jews by the flesh, they have the Jerusalem here which is in ******* and they're in ******* but the Jerusalem above.
She's our mother, and she speaks of freedom and liberty and grace, for it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not.
Break forth and cry thou that travellest not.
For the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Right now, for the last 2000 years, and even before that, Jerusalem has been in a state of desolation.
She has not been in relationship with Jehovah as her husband. He has written over her. Not my people, lo am I?
And in her in the the state today when Jerusalem was in a state of desolation and grace is reigning, there are many more that have been won for the Lord in the day of grace through the Jerusalem which is above the Jerusalem which is above which is free. So during this time of of the Jews, Jerusalem here below being in a state of desolation, there's another Jerusalem above.
Which is free, and she is our mother. And there are many more that have been saved under grace than were ever brought to know God when the law was enforced. The desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Jerusalem is in a state of desolation, but there's a heavenly 1 now. And so those that believe in this present day are brought into that now. We brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise, the children of grace. Promise is grace. It's not law at all. We're the children of promise. But as then, he that was born after the flesh.
Persecuted him that was born after the spirit even.
And so it is now.
Nevertheless, what saith the scripture?
It's interesting that was Sarah that uttered these words, Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for she shall not be heir with my son, the son of the free woman. That was Sarah that said that, and it's recorded here as being scripture. Cast out the bondwoman and her son. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So their very scriptures testify that that which came of the flesh and which spoke of ******* and which spoke of the law was to be cast out.
And that which speaks of grace, and born of the Spirit, and came from the Spirit, and His liberty, speaks of that which we are brought into. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free, the free woman.
Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of *******. So he's encouraging the Saints here to get free of this legalistic spirit that was being impressed upon them, and to enter into the liberty of grace. Stand fast, therefore, into the liberty wherewith Christ have made us free, and be not.
Entangled again with the yoke of *******. Behold, I Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, that's all they wanted to do. They wanted to circumcise these Gentiles. They wanted them to have a mark in their flesh in which they could glory, something in the flesh in which they could glory, something that would give a place of prominence to the natural man. Circumcision.
And so he says, if you are circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. You will be adding circumcision to Christ in his finished work. Add anything to Christ in his finished work, and you make your standing before God, even the maintenance of your salvation, to depend on yourself.
To depend on your own works, and then you get no profit from Christ. I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I certify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
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We can't pick and choose. Once you're under law, you are in ******* to all of it. You must fulfill it all.
You miss in one point and it condemns. It condemns.
But Grace saves. Grace maintains.
Grace is liberty.
Grace flows from Christ himself.
I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Now to fall from grace is not to commit some great awful sin, like murder, or stealing, or adultery.
It's simply to abandon the principle of sovereign grace.
While the principle of law, that's what it is to fall from grace.
To put oneself under ******* again.
Works instead of faith.
We read there again. I referred to it in the 23rd verse. Before faith came, we were kept under the law. But now that faith has come, now that Christ has come, the object of faith, all is changed. We're no longer under the schoolmaster, no longer under the law, but set free. Now we are sons, no longer servants, and we are no longer bond maids, children, but the children of the free.
Who is the mother of us all?
Our Mother Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, your fallen.
From Grace. Terribly serious thing.
When you think of how much of Christendom this is true of.
For we, through the Spirit, wait.
For the hope of righteousness by faith.
We're not waiting for righteousness. We have that in Christ. Christ is our righteousness, but we're waiting for the hope of it.
That's it. That is to be placed in His presence just like Himself. We're waiting for the hope of righteousness by faith. It's not something we can earn. It's not something we work for. It's all by faith.
Pouring Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by love.
Doesn't matter whether you're circumcised or uncircumcised, Jew or Gentile. There is no advantage either way in Christianity. It's faith which is working by love.
Christ is everything.
He did run well. You started well. What did hinder you? He says that ye should not obey the truth. We brought you the truth when we first came, and you received it, and you were full of joy and.
Rejoiced in it.
Now you have listened to this other voice.
He ran well, who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. They had been called into the grace of Christ by the Spirit of God, by the Lord Himself, and now there was another voice that was persuading them in another direction.
Turning them back to the law principle.
And he says this persuasion, what you've been listening to is not of him that calleth you. God's not sending that message. No, it's the enemy that is a little leaven loving it. The whole lump that verse is found into it is far worse.
Far worse, the doctrine that sin is not evil is far worse than the sin itself.
Because it teaches that God is a partner to evil, that Christ is. And this is what you have in Galatians. You have the principle of Levin that would reestablish the first man.
And deny that Christ is everything.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole up.
I have confidence in you through the Lord, that you will be none otherwise minded, but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.
This legalist that was troubling the Saints was going to be.
Judged himself and I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offence of the cross ceased. All he had to do was to remove the To remove the offense of the of the cross would be to circumstance to promote circumcision.
That's all he had to do.
But no, he would not do that.
He promoted it as Saul of Tarsus. He was the chief defender of that kind of thing until he was converted, until he was saved by grace. And now he sees that all that would.
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Bring credit to the first man.
To the man in the flesh.
Is a gross dishonor to the Lord and to what he has done and accomplished, where that man has been judged and set aside. And the principle of law is to establish that there's some good in man after all. He can do his part and gain acceptance with God, or contribute to his acceptance or improve upon it. Any any of those thoughts are a gross dishonor to Christ in his work, and they're the lie of the devil. I brethren, if.
He had preached circumcision. Why do I yet suffer persecution then? Is the offense of the cross cease? You see he says in the last chapter, verse 12, he says, as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh. These compel you to constrain you to be circumcised, that they lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. They don't keep it, but they want you to be circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
Well, we'll come to that.
Verse 12 he says I would they were even cut off which trouble you.
These that were advocating circumcision were pressing a cutting off of the flesh, something that they could gory in in the flesh. And so he used that very word cut off and applies it to them. He said I would they were cut off or they would cut themselves off, which throw you into confusion. Very strong language. He says in the 1St chapter, if any other anyone an Angel even from heaven, preach any other gospel than what we've preached and what you've received, let him be accursed.
And now he says.
I would that those that were doing this, that were sowing this leaven, this false doctrine, this law, legal law principle, I would they were cut off which trouble you or brethren, you have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh.
But by love serve one another. He anticipates here the objection to grace. The objection to grace is and it's always been. Well, if you're saved by grace, then you can do as you please. You know, if you're saved by grace, then you can do as he pleases.
You've been delivered by grace from self and from doing your own will.
And from allowing the flesh a place, now you're free to do his will and to please him. That's the liberty into which we've been brought. So he warns them. He says, don't think that you can use grace as an excuse for doing anything.
Oh no, turning the grace of God into licentiousness is the worst evil that there is. Using grace as an excuse for sin or as allowing you to sin.
Do not use liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
For all the laws fulfilled in one word, even in this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. That's what will happen when you have a legal atmosphere that pervades in assembly. You'll have this system of biting and devouring one another.
Finding fault and not dealing with one another by grace.
I want to say I said it the other night, but I want to say it again, that nine of the 10 commandments are embodied in the New Testament. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Christian believes that practices that thou should not make an idol an image of anything in heaven or earth. The Christian believes that thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Christian certainly believes that the 4th commandment is the ceremonial one. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
That is not found in the New Testament. That's the only one of the ten that isn't found there. The 5th commandment is honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. That's certainly in the New Testament. Thou shalt not kill. That's certainly there. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not lie.
Thou shalt not lust there. The 10 commandments, they're all incorporated in the New Testament. But we're not under law. And we don't fulfill those precepts by being under law, but by being under grace. Grace is the power to produce that which is morally pleasing to God. And there's nothing wrong with the law. Don't get the idea that because we're not under law that the law is bad. Is the law bad? No, it is holy and just and good. It's God's will.
Expressed in that way and.
Man needed something to go by to see if he could gain acceptance with God on that basis. And so God gave him the law and he broke the first 3 commandments before Moses ever brought the 10 commandments into the camp. First three he broke.
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They said when they heard it all that the Lord has spoken, we will do and obey. And they didn't. And if you're under law, you are condemned, you are under a curse because you've placed yourself under a principle which condemns you.
The only man that was perfect and kept it perfectly, flawlessly was the Lord Jesus himself. But no one else has, and so it can only condemn.
Thank God, brethren, that we're under grace.
Thank God, because if we weren't, if we were under law, everyone of us would be dead.
Everyone of us, no exceptions, would be dead because it kills the offender and we've all offended.
Well.
Verse 16 this.
I say that 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, it ought to read, should not do the things that ye would. There's this conflict between the flesh and the spirit.
There's a conflict between Satan and Christ.
There's a conflict between the world and the Father. We have the three for us, the Father, the Son and the Spirit, and we have the three against us, the world, the flesh and the devil.
But greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. We have on our side that which is far more powerful than Satan, and don't ever forget that.
Sometimes when you hear Christians talk and all the plans that Satan has and how he's going to carry out those plans, he's not going to carry out one of them that God does not allow.
God is in control, not man or not Satan. Satan is not in control. He he acts like he is and he wants you to believe that he is but God.
Is in control and He will bring everything to pass according to His blessed will. If we walk in obedience to the Word of God. By the Spirit of God, Satan cannot touch us.
The only way He can touch us is through the flesh and through the world, and if we refuse the flesh and the energy and power of the Holy Spirit and turn our backs upon the world, He cannot touch us.
Well, he goes on to say the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh. So these are contrary to the one, to the other, that ye should not do the things that you would. But if ye be LED of the Spirit, you're not under the law. You meet a Christian, and if he's under law, he's not a spirit LED Christian. If you be LED of the Spirit, you're not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these? And he enumerates them. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife.
Seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such night like this is not a complete list, he says. And such like he's given a sample of the works of the flesh, and then he says.
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, this is constantly being misquoted, as though it said the fruits of the Spirit, it doesn't say that it says the works of the flesh.
So you have works in contrast with fruit and you have flesh in contrast with spirit, but it's the fruit of the spirit. I like to think of it as a nine flavored fruit. And what is what are the flavors of this wonderful fruit? Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, hate, meekness, temperance. And then he says against such.
There's no law.
The Spirit of God works in the heart. He produces this, this fruit. It all speaks of Christ.
All of these 9.
Characteristics, if I can put it that way, are speak of Christ.
Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith or faithfulness, meekness, temperance, or self-control.
This is all produced in the soul by the Spirit of God.
And they that are Christs.
Have crucified the flesh.
With the affections and lusts, are you Christ?
Well, you have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
You have taken sides with God against the flesh.
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When you receive the Lord Jesus, you have said, as it were, the flesh prophets. Nothing I can do nothing in the flesh that will gain my favor with God.
I flee to Christ and say Amen to the judgment of God against the flesh.
If we live in the Spirit.
Let us also walk in the Spirit.
Let us not be desirous of Vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another. Chapter 6. Brethren.
If a man be overtaken in a fault.
He which are spiritual.
Now I detect the others. I understand this.
Paul is he's addressing this, speaking to the conscience of these these legalists who fancy themselves to be more spiritual by the way, than the others. Anyone that is in that spirit of legalism, he fancies himself to be more spiritual. So he says he which are spiritual you that so think then show it by restoring the erring brother.
Ye which are spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Now a legalist doesn't tend to consider himself he's he sits in judgment upon his brother, thinks himself superior to his brother, but he can't restore him, and he doesn't think he needs to consider himself lest he's tempted. And so it's a word to the conscience of these legalists.
A word to the conscience.
Ye which are spiritual.
While I don't think anyone that is truly spiritual will go around saying I'm spiritual, that's not the characteristic of true spirituality. If one says it or thinks it, he's not. Bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ bearing one another's burdens, whatever the problem one may be undergoing, to help them and to bear it.
And that's the law of Christ, the law of kindness, the law of love.
The law of Christ.
Be there talking about law. They're trying to impose legalism on these Saints, he said. I'll give you a law to follow, the law of Christ.
The law of Christ, the fixed principle that he operated under as he went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him.
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. The law of Christ is the law of kindness, the law of compassion, the law of love.
So he said, there's the law for you to follow.
Where if a man think himself to be something, and these legalists did that very thing, you see a man that's filled with himself, he's usually legal.
When he is nothing.
He deceiveth himself.
The more we understand grace and the more we go on with God in grace, the more we realize what we are.
And we won't think highly of ourselves.
To think more highly of our brethren. We'll see Christ in our brethren and see how we fail in so many ways where our brethren excel.
That's where it ought to be.
Not the other way. But the legalist doesn't see it that way. He's got his rules and regulations and he thinks that he's measuring up to them. And if you don't, then he looks down upon you.
Because you don't measure up to his standards.
The man think himself to be something when he's nothing. He deceiveth himself.
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. Each one of us has a burden. Each one of us has a responsibility that we have to maintain before God. And no one can do that for us. In verse 2, we're to bear one another's burdens. But here this is a different kind of burden. This is one that only you can bear, only you are responsible for, and it's for you to bear it.
Your responsibility. Every man shall bear his own burden. Each one of us is responsible to walk in the light of the truth that God has given us. You can't blame it on someone else. You can't blame it on your parents, You can't blame it on your children if you're not walking in it.
You're you're held responsible to bear your own burden, whatever it is. Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. The teacher is to be supported by those that receive instruction from him. Those that are taught in the Word, they're to communicate to help him on along the way 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? This principle of God's government is irrevocable and irreversible and unchangeable, and it applies to all Sinner. And St. God is not mine.
Whatsoever a man saw it, that shall he also reap.
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We don't get away with anything.
None of us do. We might seem to, but it'll catch up with us sooner or later. We reap what we sow.
For he that soweth to his flesh, to his own flesh.
Shall of the flesh reap corruption?
That he that soweth to the Spirit.
Of the Spirit reap life everlasting. We have that choice. We're either going to sow to the flesh or sow to the Spirit. God has given us His Holy Spirit.
We cry, ABBA, Father, by the Spirit of God we have the conscious sense that we belong to him. By the Spirit of God we sow to the Spirit. And what do we reap? Life eternal.
Life eternal, what life really is. Young people will go out and they'll say we're going to see light and they go out and party and indulge the flesh in many ways. So they're not looking at life at all, they're looking at death.
They're looking at this world which has the stamp of death upon it.
Really look at life and be in the enjoyment of life. You will sow to the Spirit and then you will reap.
That which is really life, eternal life, and let us not be weary in well doing, for we in due season we shall reap if we ain't not.
Let me just say this, I think of as an example of something that's a wonderful thing you can do. Children, young people. You don't have to be old either to do this.
Visit an older person.
In a nursing home, visit them.
Children.
Young people visit them. That's something. That's a good work that the Spirit of God will bless.
And you, you'll have to take some time to do it. You'll have to interrupt your busy schedule to do it. But it's a wonderful thing. I, I don't know of anything that that cheers up an older person more. And you go to a nursing home when there's some children present, they usually look at the children, not at the adults that come.
Children can be a rate, a real cheer to someone that is shut in cannot get out, so I would encourage you to do that.
Sometimes you sit down, you say there's nothing to do today, there's nothing to do.
And there's always good work that we can do if we open our eyes to see the needs. Verse 11.
Verse 10 As you have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially.
To them who are of the household of faith.
All men don't have to limit it to just the Saints, but do good to all men, but especially to those of the household of faith. And then he says, You see how large a letter, or with what large letters I have written unto you with mine own hand.
This was so important, this epistle. The evil was so serious that had it gained a hold, Christianity would have been lost.
And he wrote that with his own hand.
As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh.
These legalists, they constrain you to be circumcised only, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised, keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
And then Paul says, 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, the cross has closed the door to everything that Paul once gloried in, as Saul of Tarsus closed it, and now he can glory in that which has set him aside.
And giving him a new life.
And a new object, and a new principle to live by. Principle of grace.
Even glory in that.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation, new creature, new creation.
And this is what he's glorying in.
That's the rule that he sets before them. You want a rule to live by? Live by the rule of the new creation.
Christ risen from the dead and at the right hand of God. Let him be your life and have him as your everything. The rule of the new creation. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away, all things have become new.
And all things are of God, who has reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ, and given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, a new creation.
And as many as walk according to this rule, the rule of the new creation, peace beyond them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God, the Israel of God are those who are true believers amongst the children of Israel. He is not a Jew which was 1 outwardly, but he is a Jew who is 1 inwardly, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Judah means praise. A true Jew is one that gives praise to God, and a true Israelite is one that has faith.
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In the Lord Jesus.
And walks by faith and and knows and understands and appreciates the grace that has brought him into such favor of a place of sonship.
That he now enjoys.
From henceforth let no man trouble me. He had been troubled, he had been persecuted, he had been opposed and afflicted by his brethren after the flesh, He says, From henceforth, let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks.
Of the Lord Jesus. They wanted to put a mark in the body of these Gentile Christians, the mark of circumcision. He says I glory in the marks that I have on my back in my flesh, the lashes, the whippings, the floggings, the smitings and all that I've gone through for Christ and in the service of Christ. Those are the marks that I glory in. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Brethren.
Notice how this epistle ends the grace.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ, be with your Spirit.
May the spirit that pervades in the assembly and in our personal lives be that spirit of grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with your Spirit.
Amen.