I invite you to turn with me to our text this Lord's Day from Galatians 5, verse 13. Galatians 5, 13. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. only use, not liberty, for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Is there a more blessed word to those who are enslaved than the word freedom. For what do you suppose those three poor girls, hungered and thirsted, that were rescued in Cleveland last year after being held captive as sex slaves for years? Freedom. For what would you imagine Christians long who are tortured and held captive in prisons in Iran, like Pastor Abedini. Freedom. For what did the children of Israel, who suffered greatly under the oppression of the Egyptian pharaoh, cry out to God? Freedom. And to what, dear ones, does that miraculous deliverance from Egyptian slavery into glorious freedom from the guilt, condemnation, and power of sin, and freedom into the forgiveness, righteousness, and holiness of Jesus Christ Dear ones, this freedom in Christ is infinitely more glorious than any freedom that you could possibly imagine here upon the earth that someone might enjoy for a few brief years. Because our freedom in Christ, dear ones, begins here, but it continues without end for all eternity. I submit, dear ones, that a Christian who does not praise God from the bottom of his heart or her heart daily for this freedom in Christ has forgotten the cruel bondage under which he or she once suffered in anguish. Just like the children of Israel, after they were delivered, after they crossed over the Red Sea and were in the wilderness, forgot the bondage and the slavery and therefore did not appreciate and love the freedom that they enjoyed. So that will be true of us as well. There's much talk, dear ones, about freedom in the world today. You can hear it all over the place, whether it's political freedom, whether it's religious freedom, whether it's sexual freedom, and even much more, I submit to you, there's There is much misunderstanding as to what freedom truly is. Dear ones, true freedom is not the right to speak and act in whatever way one may choose, nor is true freedom the right to practice whatever religion one may choose. by such false definitions. Freedom would indeed consist in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh to the highest degree of immorality, or in practicing the most explicit, degrading forms of idolatry and witchcraft. Such perversions of freedom might brothers and sisters in Christ only leads to bondage. Bondage to guilt and condemnation, bondage to sin and misery, and bondage to death and hell. It is only the God who has created us and who redeems us through Jesus Christ, who can give us true freedom and cause us to walk in true freedom. For it's Jesus Christ that declared in John 8, 36, If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. True freedom exists only in Jesus Christ. And outside of Christ, there exists only bondage. Regardless of what one may say about how they're enjoying life and doing their own thing, they are in bondage. Their eyes are blinded and deluded. Freedom, dear ones, is in Jesus Christ. But what does freedom have to do with our present series on the Fruit of the Spirit. Well, I submit to you, dear ones, that the Fruit of the Spirit is the experience of true freedom in the life of a Christian. Whereas to indulge the sinful desires of the flesh is taking a walk and a journey back into Egypt, Egyptian bondage, and back into the prison cell from which we were miraculously delivered and set free. The context in Galatians chapter five in which the apostle Paul enumerates the fruit of the spirit is a context beautifully addressing our freedom and liberty in Jesus Christ. Thus, before we press forward in sermons to come, in considering more closely and carefully the fruit of the Spirit specified by Paul in Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 through 23, it's necessary that we first set the stage upon which the fruit of the Spirit is brought into the spotlight before our eyes. Thus, let us consider the following two main points this Lord's Day. First of all, our freedom from the bondage of legalism. And I'll be looking at Galatians 5 verses 1-4. particularly. And then second, the second main point, our freedom from the bondage of the works of the flesh, beginning with Galatians 5.13 and we'll be looking at some of the other verses afterwards, but again, Galatians 5.13 summarizes that second main point. So our first main point is this, our freedom from the bondage of legalism. Galatians chapter 5 verses 1 through 4 summarize I believe this main point very well. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. The book of Galatians is the Christian's declaration of freedom in Jesus Christ. It is our Magna Carta. Martin Luther especially loved this inspired letter. He called Galatians his Catherine. That was the name of his wife, because he said, I am married to it. Beloved, the letter to the Galatians is an unfolding of our liberty in Jesus Christ, which declares us to be set free once and for all from the guilt and the curse of the law. We are set free from the power of sin that proceeds from our corrupt nature inherited from Adam. In fact, whatever consequences of God's curse for man's fall in Adam, whether the curse of death and hell, whether the curse of the power of sin, whether the curse of the miseries in this life, Christ has already legally redeemed his beloved bride from them all by his death and resurrection and shall deliver her from them all. This is not a tentative proposition. This is not a potential or probable proposition. This is an absolute certainty. Dear ones, you have been set free in Jesus Christ. Galatians 3, verse 13, we read, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Likewise, we read of this deliverance in Jesus Christ in Galatians 1, verse 4. Speaking of Christ, it says, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father. Delivered, set free from the curse that is in this evil world. Our deliverance, dear Christian, Therefore, it's not in question. It is an absolute certainty. Those for whom Christ died, he shall also deliver and set free from sin and all its deadly consequences. And so, dear ones, today, whatever your struggle, whatever your daily conflict with sin in your life and in mine, We are overcomers through Jesus Christ. We have been set free. That is a firm hope that will never disappoint. That is a foundational promise and premise upon which we must build the Christian life. If we do not start there, as we shall see in the sermon today, if we do not start there, there will be little progress and advancement and growth in our Christian life. We must understand we have been set free in Christ. In the first four chapters of Galatians, the Apostle Paul has laid out the doctrine of justification by faith alone in the righteousness of Christ alone as being the only true gospel. For the Apostle Paul says so clearly in Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man is not justified, that is declared righteous by the works of the law, That is by his obedience, by something that he would do himself or that would come from him. But by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. You see, faith here is simply resting, it's not doing, it's resting in what Christ has accomplished. That is why Paul says, it is by faith, not by works, not by something we do that we are declared righteous by God, but by trusting, resting, receiving what is offered to us in the gospel. That alone is that which justifies us. Any other gospel preached, Paul says, whether it's preached by man or even if it's preached by an angel, is declared by Paul to be a false gospel, and no gospel therefore at all, in Galatians 1, verses 6-9. However, the false teachers in the churches of Galatia in that historical context in which Paul writes, had been much more subtle than simply declaring, you are justified by your works, or you're justified by works alone. No, they're far more crafty and subtle than that. These false teachers had preached a so-called gospel that included faith in Christ, but they had added to faith in Christ the necessity of being circumcised in order to be declared righteous before God. In Galatians 5.4, the Apostle Paul says, For we, I'm sorry, Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. you are fallen from grace. This is what the false teachers are teaching. In effect, justification by the law. They said, yes, believe in Christ, but then they added something else. Circumcision, some other form of obedience that must be performed before one is declared righteous. Once and for all, before God. Thus the gospel of the false teachers was not faith alone in Christ alone, but was rather faith in Christ plus circumcision equals justification. Now this was, dear ones, a fundamental departure from the true and saving gospel of Jesus Christ. In such a so-called gospel, there really is no good news. That's what gospel means, good news. But that kind of a gospel is not good news at all. For Paul says, this kind of a gospel that adds to faith in Christ, circumcision or any other work, he says in Galatians 5.2, Christ shall profit you nothing. He doesn't say Christ will profit you a little bit. Christ will profit you 90%. Christ will profit you nothing. Because if one is going to add circumcision as necessary to his or her acceptance before God, then it is not just circumcision that must be added, but the keeping of the whole law as necessary to one's justification. He says in Galatians 5.3, For I truly testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Not just circumcision. If we add anything to faith, then it's not just whatever we add. It's perfect obedience to all of God's commandments is necessary and required to our justification before God. Therefore, dear ones, such a gospel can save no one because no one can keep the law perfectly. Such a gospel, dear ones, leaves a person yet trusting in something that he or she can do to make oneself righteous before God. Even if it is an ordinance of God, like circumcision in the Old Testament, or an ordinance of God like baptism in the New Testament. Or whether it's a work of obedience, like a commandment of God, like love thy neighbor. Dear ones, we cannot add anything to justification or we cannot add anything to Jesus Christ's faith alone and Christ alone in order to obtain justification. Nothing but trusting in Christ and in His obedience. Yes, we are saved by works. We are saved by obedience, but not by our own. We are saved and justified by the works and the obedience of Jesus Christ alone. As He suffered upon the cross, it was His obedience when we trust in Him that is imputed to us, credited to our account. Dear ones, we must be absolutely clear on this point. We cannot miss this point. We cannot be wrong about this because this is the foundation. This is the foundation of the gospel. Faith alone in Christ and his obedience alone is that which justifies a sinner in the sight of God. Get that wrong and Christ will not profit you, Paul says. Get that wrong and you are a debtor to the whole law, to keep the whole law perfectly. Beloved, it was circumcision that these false teachers were adding to faith in Christ and to his righteousness, which made Christ of none effect to them but by way of application. We need to understand that there is no lack of other works besides circumcision, that false teachers and corrupt churches today continue to add to the foundation of faith alone in Christ alone. Whether it be, as we said, baptism that must be performed in order to be justified, and declared righteous before God, or whether it's love that must be added to faith in Christ alone in order to be justified before God, or whether it's prayer, or whether it's reading our Bible, or whether it's keeping the Sabbath, or whether it's other works of obedience to God's commands. All these, dear ones, a Christian will do that I just mentioned. A Christian will do by way of loving obedience to Christ. But a Christian does not do those things in order to be justified. A Christian does those things because he or she is justified. To the contrary, all such works in order to be righteous and acceptable before God, render the finished work of Jesus Christ as insufficient." That's what they say. Christ, you did not suffer enough. You did not obey God's law enough. Your work on my behalf is not sufficient to save me. Contrary to what Christ declared from the cross, in John 19.30 when he said, it is finished. It is finished. The Greek word tetelestai means paid in full. Everything we need in order to be justified before God, is found in Jesus Christ. Everything we need in order to be sanctified and to grow in our sanctification, Jesus Christ has purchased for us. And in our Christian life, we continue to exercise faith and loving obedience and walking in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit in producing fruit and dependence upon Jesus Christ. but it all flows from what Christ has already finished upon the cross for us, his people. So when we think we are adding by something we do to our justification and acceptance before God, we are in effect declaring that Christ's finished work was not enough. It was not enough. And this, dear ones, is something very subtle, very insidious that can creep up upon even those who are truly justified by faith to think that as they're obeying the Lord, as they see the Lord working in their life, that this is something that makes them more acceptable before God. There is nothing but Christ who can make us now and for all eternity acceptable before God. Our acceptance, dear ones, is not ever based upon our own works, but upon the work of Christ, because our works are never perfect. His always are. Let me add to that application another one. If we start down that path thinking we must make the work of Christ complete by our obedience, then we will be continually riddled with the question, when is enough enough? When have I finally done enough whereby Christ will accept me? That was the dilemma that Martin Luther found himself in. When is enough enough? That nearly drove him crazy. How can I be sure that I have finally done enough or evidenced enough love in the works I have performed in order for God to be pleased to accept me and to declare me righteous, for God to be satisfied? Well, dear ones, if our justification before God depends upon us, then only absolute perfection will be enough. The Church of Rome and other corrupt churches that walk in Rome's footsteps even go as far as to teach that God does not promise His children, nor does He want His children to have an assurance that they are God's child now and for all eternity, that they have the forgiveness of God, that they have the imputed righteousness of Christ. that they have now presently everlasting life, not a temporary life that can be taken away. Roman churches, other churches that walk in her corrupt steps even say that it's not safe to have such assurance for it will lead to a false sense of security. and falling away from Christ. However, I submit, dear ones, on the basis of Christ's testimony, the testimony of God's Word, that a firm assurance in the promise of a God who cannot lie is of great benefit to the Christian and is a gracious blessing in our lives. This is what we find in 1 John 5, Verse 13, for example, this assurance. The Apostle John says, These things have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. That you may know, not doubt, not disbelieve, but that you may know with confidence and certainty that you have eternal life. Not only, dear ones, in scripture is an assurance held out to those who believe in Christ alone, but I would submit to you, dear ones, that even nature teaches us the benefits of such an assurance. It is the child who questions from minute to minute, questions from hour to hour, questions from day to day, that he is a member of his parent's family, is that that child that is most likely to grow in love, to grow in interacting among family members as those who are family members to show the fruit of the spirit? Or is it rather the child that knows that he is a part of this family, will always be a part of this family, that is in the better position to grow in love and joy and obedience? Dear ones, One who is continually, listen closely, I have counseled, I have experienced this in my own life. One who is continually going back to rebuild the foundation because one believes his or her works of obedience or disobedience actually, have destroyed the foundation of one's justification is one who will not be building upon the foundation a truly transformational life of godliness and bearing fruit to the glory of God. They will continually be going back to the ABCs but not growing to learn the rest of the alphabet and to put the alphabet into meaningful words and sentences and living out those words and those sentences in their lives. Paul's emphasis in Galatians chapter 5, 1 through 12 is upon the liberty we have in Christ from all condemnation and works of righteousness for our righteous standing before God. It is found, dear ones, alone in Jesus Christ, as we read in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For He hath made Him, that is God made Christ, to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that is Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Dear ones, Christ will have to fall before our justification in Christ can fall. Through faith alone, in Christ and His righteousness alone, we have legally before God passed from the sentence of death and hell and into the sentence of righteousness and life forevermore. According to John 5 the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 5 verse 24 Jesus says verily verily I Say unto you he that heareth My word and believeth on him that sent me Now nothing added to that right he that believeth on him that sent me I path everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Before faith and trust in Christ, he is or she is viewed as a condemned criminal. Trusting in Jesus Christ, he passes from the sentence of condemnation in hell to the sentence of life, forgiveness of sin, and righteousness forevermore. That is, dear ones, the liberty in which we as Christians are to stand fast. According to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5, I want you to stand fast. Be immovable in your justification before Do not go back and forth. If you trust in Christ, dear ones, and in his promise made unto you of everlasting life, forgiveness of sin, you trust in his righteousness, looking away from yourself and anything you can do, stand fast. God declares you righteous. Not because you or I deserve it, but because Jesus. Jesus is our righteousness. Be not moved from that liberty. Be not moved from that liberty of no condemnation and of complete justification in Christ. Remember, that is a liberty in Christ that is foundational to our daily transformation into the image of Christ. That's foundational. That's the liberty that Paul begins with in Galatians chapter 5, establishing that liberty in Christ. Let us now move on to our next main point. Second main point, last one for this Lord's Day. Our freedom from the bondage of the works of the flesh. Our freedom. And again, I will just read Galatians 5.13. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Only you is not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. This is our freedom from the bondage of the works of the law, dear ones. The Church of Rome and those who follow in her footsteps claim that such a freedom from all condemnation in Christ once and for all will inevitably lead to a bondage to sin and lawlessness. a carelessness, if you will, as to walking in holiness and in obedience to God's commandments. It is argued by Rome and it's also argued, dear ones, by our own sinful love within ourself, the sinful passions within us that are stirred up. It's argued to seek our justification from something we do and that if we are once and for all set free from all of God's condemnation now and for all eternity through faith alone in Christ alone, that it is declared and claimed that is what will keep us continually strained into the broad path and away from that righteous narrow path. It is claimed that rather the fear of losing one's salvation is that which keeps one walking in the straight and narrow rather than the grace and the power of Christ to keep his own. However, I submit, dear ones, that there is no power, there is no power to keep God's commandments in the law of God. The law of God, dear ones, does not provide the power to keep the law of God. Legalism is simply living under the covenant of works. which is powerless, powerless to save, powerless to justify, powerless to sanctify. There was the covenant of works declares the righteousness of God's law. It is based upon the law of God. There's nothing wrong with the law of God. It is a righteous and holy standard. But dear ones, understand the covenant of works, the law of God, does not provide the grace and the power to keep it. It only can condemn us for breaking it. Those who follow legalism, dear ones, are like the Pharisees in offering their own obedience and keeping the rituals of the law, rituals of the church, as that which will secure God's acceptance. But Derwin's legalism cannot justify, but neither can it sanctify. Only the grace of God, found within the covenant of grace, which Christ Himself perfectly fulfilled for those who trust Him. Only this grants us the faith to trust Christ. grants us the love to obey Christ and will truly liberate us from the condemnation of the law and from the power of sin. That is the only key, dear ones, to unlock the door to the prison of sin and condemnation in which man suffers and languishes, just like Peter could not unlock himself from the prison It took the power of God to unlock the prison doors so that he could walk through into freedom, into the city. So it is only the grace and the power of Jesus Christ that unlocks the door to our prison, to set us free, to walk in liberty. Whereas justification has to do, as we noted, with a foundational liberty in Christ in removing us from a state of cursing, condemnation, and death to a state of blessing and righteousness in life, sanctification has to do with a transformational liberty. Foundational liberty in justification, transformational liberty in sanctification. the transformational liberty of not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh by walking according to the works of the flesh, but rather walking in the Spirit and bearing the fruit of the Spirit each and every day as we grow into ever greater conformity to the moral likeness of Jesus Christ. For you see, dear ones, the end and goal of God in justifying us and declaring us righteous in His sight is not simply to change our sentence from condemnation to righteousness. But the goal is to change our moral likeness from one who is self-centered to one who is Christ-centered. The goal is to change us from one who follows the lusts of the flesh to one who follows the Holy Spirit and the commandments of Christ. The goal is to change us from one who devours people through the works of the flesh to one who loves people through the fruit of the Spirit. That's the goal. Conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. That's the goal. But now, Paul demonstrates that our true liberty in Christ beginning with Galatians 5, 13, is not a lawless liberty. It is not a careless liberty. It is not a self-serving liberty to serve our own corrupt desires, but is rather a glorious liberty to serve Christ and our neighbor by means of love in fulfilling the commandments of God. Dear ones, rather than leading to producing the works of the flesh that are found in Galatians 5, verses 19-21, true liberty in Christ leads us to producing the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, verses 22-23. It leads, dear ones, true liberty leads to the very life and DNA of Jesus Christ flowing through us. That's true liberty. Paul emphasizes that being set free from the condemnation of God's law and justification does not leave one in a lawless state wherein one is free to live as he or she pleases. So often what is called by many Christians living in the spirit is simply living according to their own sinful desires, not living according to the commandments of God out of love for God, out of gratitude to God. It's simply living according to what they want to do or they think is best rather than living according to what God says. is right and holy in his word. How many false teachers have misled professing Christians by teaching that in coming by faith to Christ we're no longer under any obligation at all to walk in obedience to God's commandments? It sounds very much like what Paul says in Romans 6.1 which I'm paraphrasing, since Christians are no longer under the condemnation of law, then can we sin that grace may abound? God forbid, Paul says. That, Paul says, is not true freedom. That is bondage to the power of sin from which Christ has set us free. By way of just an illustration, kind of distinguishing various ideas of freedom. When a train rolls along the tracks at a high speed, it is in a very good sense, free to speed along to its destination. can find following the tracks that are set for it. However, when a train leaves the tracks and speeds in reckless bondage, it's not free. It's free from the tracks, but it's not free. It's in bondage to destruction. So likewise, dear ones, is our loving obedience to God's good law and to producing the fruit of the Spirit, our freedom, in leading us to the likeness of Jesus Christ. It actually gets us to the destination of likeness to Christ. As we look at the law of God that is in the hands of Christ, our Redeemer and our Mediator, no longer condemning us, but as a righteous rule for our living daily. It is the tracks along which the Christian rolls to the destination of conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. Whereas those who define liberty and freedom in doing what they want to do, what pleases them, that kind of liberty is actually a bondage which leads them to destruction and off of the tracks. And dear ones, let me make it very clear to you. I'm sure you have realized this as well, but I want to emphasize it. There is no tyrant. so vile and so cruel as our corrupt nature. Just because the Christian is delivered from the curse of sin and is judicially forgiven all his or her sins and is declared righteous through faith alone in Christ alone is not an excuse to sin all the more. but is the very cause and reason for the Christian to be filled with love for Christ and thankful obedience to his commandments, not to go back under the cruel tyranny of that corrupt nature, fulfilling the lust of the flesh, dear ones, is to place yourself back under tyranny and bondage, not freedom. Paul makes it ever so clear that this freedom in Christ is not without law, but that this liberty in Christ is a glorious freedom to walk in obedience to God's law and in producing the fruit of the Spirit that is fulfilled and made complete in love. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter 5 verses 13 and 14 for brethren ye have been called into liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another for all the law is fulfilled in one word even in this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Jesus said in summary of God's law, it is fulfilled in loving the Lord, our God, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and in loving our neighbor as ourself. In Matthew chapter 22, verses 36 through 40. Dear ones, love for God and our neighbor does not replace God's moral law. Love, Paul says, fulfills God's law. That is, love makes full God's law. Love completes God's law. Dear ones, if love completes and makes full God's law, then God's law cannot be said to be annulled, replaced, or cast away in the new covenant. In fact, Paul says in 1 Timothy 1.5 that the end of the commandment is love. The goal or the end of the commandment, God's commandment, is love. That doesn't tell us that the commandment has been replaced or annulled. It's telling us that obedience has in view our loving obedience. Out of gratitude, for what God has accomplished, making us and causing us to show and demonstrate our love to God and to one another. In fact, the Apostle John declares in 1 John 5, 3, this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. and His commandments are not grievous. If God's commandments, dear ones, are grievous to you, that if having to suffer for the sake of Christ in obedience to His commandments is grievous and is such a heavy burden for you to bear, I submit to you that most likely the reason that they are so heavy is because obedience to God's commandments is not motivated by love for God, love for your neighbor. That's always true in my life. When God's commandments become grievous to me, I have to do some fruit inspection. Is the fruit of the spirit of love, that which is evident, that which is being produced through communion, fellowship with Jesus Christ daily. Am I enjoying Jesus Christ? Is Christ my first lover? Have I brought other lovers into my life to replace the love of Jesus Christ? Because when I love God, His commandments will not be burdensome, will not be grievous to me. They will be my delight. my joy to obey and to fulfill, regardless of what I have to suffer. Dear ones, this true Christian liberty of which we're speaking here, in which Paul is speaking, beginning with Galatians 5.13, does not lead us to satisfy our own selfish desires, but rather leads us to lay down our lives for one another in love. Love is expressed not simply in word. Love is expressed, dear ones, in sacrificially giving of ourselves, laying down our lives for one another. That's how love is expressed. In Galatians 2.20, notice how Christ showed his love. I am crucified with Christ, Paul says. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. How is love demonstrated? by Christ in giving himself for us. Look at Ephesians chapter five where it speaks of the love that we as husbands are to have for our wives and the example that we find. Husbands, love your wives. Don't just assume that your wives love you, husbands. Don't just say, honey, I love you. But notice what Paul says, husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. How did he show that he loved the church? And gave himself for it. That's how husbands show their wives that they love them by denying themselves, taking up their cross, and following Christ, putting their own sinful desires wherein they want their needs to be met first, where that is the emphasis rather than saying, God has made me a husband that I might lay down my life for my wife, that I might lead her, that I might be one who goes before her, and says, follow me as I follow Christ, who seeks to win the heart and the affections of his wife through his self-sacrificial love and giving. That's the leadership that the Lord calls a husband to have, which Christ had and whose example we as husbands are to follow. And where, dear ones, the fruit of the spirit of love through sacrificial giving is not being grown and is not being shown, Paul says there's something that will happen. Where that's not happening, we will rather be devouring and consuming one another like wild beasts. It won't simply be a kind of a peaceful coexistence, but there will be a devouring, biting with our tongues, with our deeds, one another. Without the fruit of love, dear ones, Paul says we become cannibals. We become cannibals feeding upon one another with anger and resentment, estrangement, pulling away jealousy, unforgiveness, hatred, envy, and a cold, yea, even a frozen heart toward the one that we are supposed to love. We read in Galatians 5.15 that Paul says, But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another, one of another. Paul then contrasts, dear ones, bondage, which he identifies as the works of the flesh, with freedom, which he identifies as the fruit of the spirit. You see, dear ones, in the life of every Christian, there is a war. in progress. And this is not spoken of in regard to a non-christian because a non-christian doesn't have the Holy Spirit within his or her life. This is talking about the life of a Christian, that there is this conflict, this battle that goes on between the Holy Spirit and the flesh or that the corrupt desires of our nature inherited from Adam, which is called the flesh. This battle wages, he says in verse 17, Galatians 5.17, for the flesh lusted against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7 likewise teaches the same truth. Romans chapter 7 verses 22 through 23. When he says, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. That's the new man. That's the equivalent to the spirit of God working in the heart and life. of the Christian, verse 23, 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. But dear ones, though the battle rages in the life of a Christian, I'm here to tell you, by God's grace, our liberty in Christ is the precious, blood-bought declaration that the flesh, or corrupt nature, will not and cannot be victorious in the life of the Christian. The flesh cannot win. It may want to give us the impression that there is no hope. There is no hope in Christ. That liberty is vain. that we are bound to follow the desires of the flesh. But that is a lie. That is a lie. Because the fruit of the spirit will always win out over the works of the flesh. Because it is the almighty spirit of God that produces the works of the flesh. The Spirit of God cannot be defeated. The Spirit of God cannot lose. Walking in the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, is to be in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, dependence upon the Word of God which is inspired by the Holy Spirit. producing the fruit of the Spirit that we find in Galatians 5 verses 22 through 23. It will not lose. The fruit of the Spirit will not lose. Granted, the devil, your corrupt nature wants you to believe you can't win. But those desires, those temptations that continue to afflict you, dear Christian, as they do me, but again, What is our confidence in? Is our confidence in a liar or is our confidence in a God who cannot lie? Are we walking by sight or are we walking by faith in the promises of God? And therefore, dear ones, the fruit of the Spirit will be victorious over the works of the flesh and subduing them. As we continue to commune with Christ as branches drawing life from the vine, how do we receive the life that God promises us to produce this fruit and to overcome the works of the flesh through our communion with Jesus Christ? our union and communion with Jesus Christ. And that union and communion is evidenced as we delight in Him, as we spend time in prayer, calling upon Him, as we think of Him throughout the day, as we fall before Him in loving obedience to His commandments. The Lord continues to supply to us that life of Christ that will overcome and must overcome the works of the flesh. But someone might ask, someone might ask, why does God allow such a struggle to continue in the life of the Christian? Why not just deliver them once they're justified? Why not just perfect them once they're justified? Well, let me just suggest to you the following three reasons. First of all, to remind us of the prison and bondage from which we have been delivered so that we grow in our hatred for it. You know, every time one of those besetting sins appears and I fall into it, the Spirit of God causes me all the more to hate and despise that besetting sin. And as I grow in my hatred for it, I grow in my love for Christ and His work, His commandments, the fruit of the Spirit. I resolve all the more by God's grace to walk in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, to walk in obedience to God's commandments out of love for the Lord. A second, reason I would submit why God allows this struggle to continue in the life of a Christian. To reveal to us the weakness of our own mere determination and resolve to overcome the flesh. To show to us, dear ones, that the covenant of works will, if we allow it, we will walk in the shadow. If we truly walk, if we've really been brought into the covenant of grace, we can never be brought again under the covenant of works. But we can walk in the shadow, as justified Christians, walk in the shadow of the covenant of works. And dear ones, the covenant of works says, you can do it. You can do it on your own, your own resolve, your own determination. You can do it. The covenant of grace says, without Christ, I can do nothing. But I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And thirdly, that battle continues, I submit to you, to draw us to Christ, to draw us to the power of His death, the power of His resurrection as our only hope to overcome the works of the flesh. Paul's summary of the works of the flesh and we're not going to do anything with them per se today except just to put them into four categories. We'll be looking at the works of the flesh in conjunction with the fruit of the spirit as we contrast in future sermons the fruit of the spirit with the works of the flesh. But let me just say these works of the flesh are placed in four separate categories. First category are sins of sexual immorality. Those are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness that Paul mentions. The second major category, sins of false religion, idolatry, witchcraft. The third category, sins of contention and destroying peace among brethren. Interestingly, that's the longest list. that Paul mentions. Sins of contention and destroying peace among brethren, which are hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders. In the fourth major category, sins of immoderate excess, drunkenness, revelings, Paul says. And as we consider these particular sins, works of the flesh, we'll see again the heinousness of them as we see them against the backdrop of the fruit of the spirit. And by God's grace, we'll grow to hate and despise and abominate these works of the flesh all the more as we grow in our love for the fruit of the spirit, which is the very life of Jesus Christ, the DNA of Jesus Christ. We have a baptism today and I want to just close the sermon by turning our attention to the matter of baptism by way of application. For dear ones, I submit to you that baptism is a badge of our freedom. and liberty in Jesus Christ. It is our badge that we have been granted and given by Christ to wear that we have been delivered. That God promises deliverance in Jesus Christ from the condemnation of the law and from indulging the flesh. Two, life and righteousness and forgiveness of sin. And two, walking by the spirit in obedience to his commandments in love and producing the fruit of the spirit. Baptism, dear one, signifies and seals the work of Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection, in delivering his people from the curse of the law, all of the consequences, all of the effects of the curse of the law, and in setting them free to stand before him in the righteousness of Christ, and setting them free to walk by the Spirit in loving obedience. to God's commandments and to produce that fruit, that life, that DNA of Jesus Christ. That's what Paul says in Romans chapter six. When Paul asked the question, because we're justified, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Well, he comes around to talking about baptism. He says in Romans six, Verses 3 and 4, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. It's a badge of our freedom and liberty. to walk in newness of life, not to return to death, not to return to Egypt, not to return to Babylon, but to walk in freedom and liberty Christ has purchased in one force in his death and in his resurrection. And so, dear ones, as we close in prayer, remember your baptism is your badge of freedom in Christ. Have you ever thought of it that way? Have you ever considered your baptism is your badge of freedom in Christ, your liberty in Christ? Another good reason to improve upon your baptism, to reflect upon your baptism. When you get discouraged, when you fall into despair, look to your baptism. God gave it to us for that reason, not because baptism saves us, but it is a sign and a seal of what Christ promises to us and which we have received by faith alone as we trust in Jesus Christ alone. But it is a sign and seal of those promises made to us. And so, dear ones, your baptism is your badge of victory in Jesus Christ. Let us stand in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, take thy word even now, thy victorious word. Take, O Lord, the freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus. Burn it into our hearts, our God. Cause us, our Lord, to look upon the badge of that freedom, the badge of our victory in Christ, even our baptism, as something glorious that thou hast bestowed upon us to help us, our God, in those times. to build our faith in Jesus Christ, that the promises made to us are certain, and Thou has given to us this sign and seal to confirm those promises. We pray, our Father, that Thou would minister unto us, Thy people, that we might walk in the liberty, stand in the liberty, and walk in the liberty wherein Christ has made us free. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Still Waters Revival Books is now located at PuritanDownloads.com. It's your worldwide, online Reformation home for the very best in free and discounted classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, MP3s, and videos. 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