Good morning to everyone. Good to be back. Thank you, Mark, for leading us. And thank you so much for filling in last week. By all accounts, it was a wonderful message. So I appreciate that. Everyone doesn't realize how difficult it is to get a call at 10 o'clock Saturday night and say, "Hey, can you preach tomorrow morning?" So I appreciate that very much. Everything is well at our home, and we're glad to be back here and to preach the word.

I got humbled a little bit last night. Bobby and I went to a movie, which we do about every three or four years. The kid at the movie store, or at the theater, gave me the senior discount. Then we stopped at Culver's on the way home. I got ice cream, and the kid gave me the senior discount at Culver's. So I was going to tell Aubrey that I think maybe it's just I need a haircut, is what it is.

We are continuing our study this morning in the book of Galatians in chapter 3. Sometimes I was thinking, as I was preparing for this message in the book of Galatians in general, we've talked about how difficult a book this is, really, but how important it is to study. Paul is really fired up because of these false teachers that have come in, and he's saying some hard things.

As I was preparing for this message, I was thinking about the truth that sometimes we have to say hard things. We have to deal with hard things. We have to deal with the truth and make the necessary implications in our lives in order to maintain the gospel and to bring that truth clearly to a lost world, as well as for ourselves and our own minds as believers in Jesus Christ to be clear about the gospel so that we are preaching the right message.

So Paul's been forcefully, clearly explaining the gospel truth and the implications of that truth in the Christian life. The gospel is at the heart of the matter here because of those false teachers, the legalistic Jews who had come from Jerusalem, from James, they claim, seeking to trouble the believers, to pervert the gospel of grace. 

The essence of what they were teaching is a grace plus works system. It’s important to remember that the false doctrine they were espousing was not void of faith in Christ. They taught that one must believe Jesus, that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. But they also taught that one must be circumcised and observe the law of Moses in order to be saved, as we see in the council in Acts 15. This was a perversion of the gospel. It destroyed the good news of salvation by grace through faith alone and Jesus alone. For if it is of grace, as Paul says in Romans 11:6, it is no longer of works. 

So Paul makes abundantly clear that no one is justified by the works of the law. That justification is totally independent from the law, from works, and comes only by the grace of God through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and His death in our place for our sins. But justification was not the whole of the problem concerning the gospel perversion. This law teaching, this twisting of the gospel, had tremendous implications concerning the believers' understanding of sanctification as well.

We saw Paul move into his defense of sanctification by grace through faith at the end of chapter 2. If you'd look at chapter 2, verse 18 with me, please, just to refresh our memory. Listen to what Paul writes. He says, “For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” Now, this is in the context of Peter and Barnabas and so forth, and he's saying here, if I build again the law in my life. 

Look at verse 19. “For I, through the law, died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Paul's talking about the life that he now lives in Christ. He's talking about righteousness by grace in the Christian life in our daily walk. Go back to that chapter 2, verse 11, and let's look at what happened with Peter there. 

“Now, when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed. For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.”

Well, here we have a matter of Christian living. Peter was hanging out with the Gentile Christians, having a ham sandwich. Everything was fine, no problem. But when the Judaizers came and started preaching their gospel of grace plus works, Peter would no longer fellowship with the Gentiles. He separated himself with the Jews. 

And what's really interesting to me is what Paul says in verse 14. “But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, 'If you being a Jew live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as Jews?'”

The truth of the gospel has tremendous important implications to the Christian life. It’s not only justification, but also sanctification that is by grace through faith according to the gospel. When Peter withdrew himself along with Barnabas and the other Jews, they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel. Because the truth of the gospel permeates our entire salvation, not just our justification. 

So there are two levels on which the attack comes at the gospel. Some teach justification by grace plus works. This will include most of the mainline Christian denominations today. We're not talking about Islam or Hindu type of false teaching. This is a Christian message, including faith in Jesus, but adding works. But this message, such as those who teach sacramentalism in our day, that we are saved by God's grace, but it is dispensed through the sacraments by our participation in religious rituals and because of our good works, this message is a sort of progressive justification, if you follow me there. In other words, we are continually earning our way to heaven by works. 

And we can never know if we are truly saved or if we have done enough. This is certainly a false gospel. It's another Jesus. It's a Jesus who cannot save. But there are also those who teach clearly that justification is by grace through faith in Jesus alone, the pure gospel of grace for justification, how a man is saved. But then they seek to add law to the Christian life. They teach a grace faith justification, but a grace works sanctification.

This is the effect that the false teaching was having on the Galatian believers, bringing all kinds of confusion concerning the gospel and the Christian life. Paul hits them with both barrels concerning this vital truth in our text this morning. Let's look at Galatians 3:1 again, please. “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?”

This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Therefore, he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith, just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness? 

Therefore, know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” 

But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident. For the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,” that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

I've given you four points on your outline this morning. First, the danger of false doctrine. Second, justification by grace through faith. Third, sanctification by grace through faith. And fourth, the just shall live by faith.

Well, first in our text, we see the danger of false doctrine and its bewitching power. This is really the heart of the message this morning. We're not going to get into those later verses until next time. But in verse 1, he says, “Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?” Who has taken you captive, to use Colossians’ language, right? Rape and pillage and captivity and carrying away is the idea. Who has bewitched you? Who has brought you under a spell of false teaching? 

He says, “This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?” And verse 3, I think, is the key verse for our understanding. “Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”

We see warnings all over the New Testament concerning the danger of false doctrine, of false teachers, and the real danger of bewitching, taking captive the believer. Turn over to Acts 20 with me, please. Paul spent three years in Ephesus. He's going to be leaving, not seeing them again. Remember in Acts 20, he calls for the elders to meet him. 

From Miletus, it says, verse 17, he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, “You know from the first day that I came to Asia and what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews. How I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And see now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with joy in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 

And indeed now I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God will see my face no more. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Paul was innocent because he declared the whole counsel of God. And now he's not going to see them anymore. 

What is the one thing he wants to say to them? Verse 28. “Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”

So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Paul says, “I know this.” This is a certainty. Savage wolves will come in among you and men will rise up from within. False doctrine, false teachers, seeking to draw away the brethren, confuse them, cause division and hinder the gospel fruit in the way of witness in the Christian life.

In Colossians 2:6, Paul says, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving, and beware.” Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. 

Beware, look out, take heed. False teachers will come. It's a certainty. What's the answer for that? We must be grounded in the gospel. We must be grounded in the truth of the word of God so that we are not taken captive, rendered useless by being moved away from the grace of God, the pure gospel, the only way to life and the only way of life.

Peter tells us there will be false teachers among you. Jude warns us that they are in the church fellowshipping with us, spots in our love feast. My friends, 2,000 years later, there's no shortage of false teaching in the church under the umbrella of Christianity, claiming the name of Christ but denying Him by their teaching.

And I just want to make one point here. We are called to judge men. We are called to judge messages, churches, by their teaching, their doctrine. Paul started this letter with harsh words about a false gospel. He said this, “Even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed, anathema.” 

How do we judge a man? How do we judge a church? By what they teach. I very often talk to Christians who have loved ones involved in this Christian sect or that one, and they tend to want to believe that the one that they love is saved, and I understand this. Sometimes it is possible that they individually understand and believe the gospel even though they go to a church that does not preach it. But in these rare cases, it is in spite of the false teaching, not because of it.

But here's the point I want to make. When we evaluate whether a man is a false teacher, the only thing that matters is his doctrine. In Romans 16:17, Paul said, “I urge you, brethren, mark out those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.”

We are to judge, we are to evaluate the message, and then mark out publicly and warn the brethren about those who teach a false gospel. It's not a popular thing to do, my friends. Even among conservative Christians, there's a lot of discomfort when you note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrines of Christ, who by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. 

But Paul says, what gospel does he preach? For justification, for sanctification, does he preach grace alone or does he add law to his message? Is it Jesus only, or is it Jesus plus my works? If he preaches a false gospel, if he espouses false doctrine, then you better beware. You better mark him out and avoid him.

I found myself in a discussion the other day with a brother about the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and I've had a good deal of experience with this church, with some of its local leaders where I live, so I simply stated that it's a false church. It teaches a false gospel of works. And my friend said, but they're so close, they're so close to the truth, and they do use a lot of biblical words and talk about the cross and talk about Jesus and faith and all those good things. 

But my brothers and sisters, if you study the Millerites and LNG White and look at the founding and history of this sect, and if you consider their doctrine and the gospel they teach, it's clear that this is a false system based on grace plus works, just as the Judaizers in the book of Galatians.

I couldn't sleep on that; I had to go back and refresh my mind concerning their doctrine. This is my main point: If we are to evaluate a teacher, we must look at what he teaches, not what one man says, not what my uncle Harry believes, but at the official doctrine of the church. If anyone preaches another gospel, Paul says.

And the Seventh-day Adventist sect really gained popularity as a date-setting group who proclaimed that Jesus was coming back to earth in 1844. When this false prophecy was exposed and Jesus did not return to the earth, LNG White revised her prophecy and said that Jesus did not return to earth, but rather He moved from the holy place to the inner sanctuary of heaven where He began the investigative judgment. 

This is one of the key doctrines you need to understand, the investigative judgment. This doctrine states that Jesus began investigating all believers, starting with Adam and Eve in 1844, and working chronologically, examining the works of those who claim faith to see if they are worthy to enter heaven. 

This is wrought with so much confusion we don't have time to go into all the twistings of Scripture and the outright inventions of the mind of White, but listen to this doctrine stating the conclusion of this investigative judgment from the SDA church. They base this teaching in the Levitical Day of Atonement, as much of their teaching is based in the Old Testament law.

And by the way, the SDA church teaches that the mark of the beast, you all wonder what the mark of the beast is? They say it's Sunday worship. I have a very lengthy paper that a local SDA church official wrote by hand and gave to me explaining that all who worship on Sunday are taking the mark of the beast, and if they do not repent and worship on the Sabbath of God according to the law, they will perish in hell.

Listen to these words, this doctrine concerning the investigative judgment. “Whenever one of God's followers commits a sin and asks forgiveness from God, this sin is transferred into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. It remains there in the sanctuary until the investigative judgment is completed. At the end of time, all the sins of the righteous are transferred from the sanctuary onto the scapegoat, who is Satan. Satan then suffers the final punishment for his sins and all the sins of the righteous.”

The investigative judgment is called the time of probation in their official writings, that's an interesting word, and it says that if the conduct of the believers do not conform to the law of God—Isn't that what the Judaizers said?—if they don't conform to the law of God and he has sins still unconfessed and forgiven at the time of judgment, he will perish. You just have to believe Jesus and keep the law of Moses. 

The SDA Church teaches that when a believer dies, his soul sleeps; he does not go to be with the Lord, and they do not believe in eternal punishment but annihilation. My brothers and sisters, I understand how difficult these things can be and how unpopular it is to state the truth with so many that teach a false gospel, but the question must be: What do they teach? 

It must be according to their official doctrine, it must be for the point of warning the brethren so that they are not taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophy, so that the gospel is not perverted and we are not unclear in our preaching and teaching and evangelism. If these precious people are caught in false teaching as I was, as many of you were, trusting a false message of salvation, then we must bring them to the clear gospel of grace so that they might believe and be saved. 

The truth matters. How difficult was it for Paul to withstand Peter to his face publicly and Barnabas, his partner and friend, but they were not straightforward about the gospel and they were to be corrected for the sake of the gospel. They, as believers, needed to get their minds straight about the truth of the gospel and its implications in the Christian life so that they could minister to others.

So we see that the danger is false teaching, the danger is false doctrine, and the remedy to this confusion begins with the right understanding of justification by grace through faith. And again, Paul's very clear about this. If you look at verse 16 of chapter 2, I just feel Paul's heart here at this point saying, “How else can I possibly say this?” Listen to Paul's words: “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

We looked at Galatians 3:19 and following last week concerning the purpose of the law—Why did God give the law? You know, from Adam until Moses, a vast expanse of time there was no law. Adam was given a law, then the law came with Moses—From all that time there was no law. Why did God give the law? Galatians 3 tells us, to show us our sin, to show us how far short we fall, to lead us to faith in Jesus.

The Bible is clear from beginning to end that salvation is based in promise, the promise of the Deliverer, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the Christ, the substitutionary death of Christ, satisfying the wrath of God in my place for my sins. The promise is all the way back in Genesis 3, the promise is in Genesis 12, Genesis 15. Paul uses Abraham as his example, and he says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 

Paul goes on in this chapter to emphasize the promise of God through faith in Jesus Christ. In Genesis 12, God promised to bring the blessing to all nations through the seed of Abraham, who is that seed? Christ. It's not by the law, but by the hearing of faith that a man is justified. Salvation is given as a gift to those who believe, receive the promise, who place their faith in Jesus alone and His work accomplished on the cross of Calvary. 

Turn to Romans 3:19 with me, please. Romans 3, verse 19, we're just going to nail this down. Paul says, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, for what purpose? That every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, by good works, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” 

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God. So we have no righteousness of our own. Isaiah said all of our righteousness is as filthy rags before a holy God. I cannot keep the law, I cannot do it, so I have no righteousness. How can I be saved? How can I be righteous? Because Jesus said I have to be as righteous as God is righteous in order to enter heaven. 

Verse 22, he tells us, “The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe.” I receive His righteousness by faith. He imputes credits to my account, His very righteousness making me fit for heaven. He says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” 

Like Mark said this morning, He bought us back. He bought us at a price. What was the price? His own blood, His death on the cross. Jesus bought us back, brought us back into a right relationship with God if we believe, if we trust Him. “Whom God set forth as a propitiation,” that word means a full satisfactory payment for the sins of the world. “Propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness.” 

You see, God has to punish every sin. This is the problem with religion, this is a problem with men; they think, “Well God will wink at my sin, He's corrupt, He'll let it go, I'm better than this guy, I'm better than that guy, so I'm gonna get in.” God is just. God has to punish every sin. Where did He punish your sin if you believe Jesus? He punished it at the cross. He's able to remain just by punishing Jesus for my sin, but He's also able to be the justifier of the one who has faith in Him. 

If I believe Jesus, He gives to me His righteousness; He puts my sins on Christ on the cross; He receives that full payment, and I'm justified before God. “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, apart from the deeds of law.” Not including the deeds of the law, apart from the deeds of the law. 

The Scriptures are abundantly clear that justification is by grace through faith in Jesus alone, salvation is a free gift of grace accomplished solely by Jesus in His one-time death in our place for our sins. But Paul's also concerned with the present situation going on in Galatia, and it's a situation that we find in much of the church today, a misunderstanding of sanctification by grace through faith and the role of the law in the life of the believer.

The believers had been taken captive, they'd been bewitched, caught under the spell of false teaching of life by the law of Moses. In verse 3, “Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit?” That’s justification, right? They began by faith in the Spirit. “Are you now being made perfect?” That’s sanctification. Are you now being made perfect by the flesh, by the law, by works? “Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Therefore, He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?”

Paul here is talking about sanctification. He's talking about the Christian life, as we saw so clearly at the end of chapter 2. He says, “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect?” How are you being made perfect? How are you being made like Christ? How are you being made mature? How are you being sanctified? The problem with binding the law on the believer, no matter how you define it, is that it makes the law a means to holiness. 

It makes the law a means to sanctification, a guide, a way to holiness, or as my Reformed brothers like to say, a rule of life. The problem with this is that it was never God's intent for the law to produce holiness, but rather to expose unrighteousness in the man and animal. 

I want you to turn to 1st Timothy 3, and if you're starting to nod off a little bit, wake up, pay attention, because this is important. 1st Timothy 1 at verse 3. Paul's writing to Timothy. Timothy's in Ephesus; he's got problems down there. He says, “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine.” No other doctrine than what? The gospel of grace, that's what he's talking about. 

“Nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.” He says the purpose of this commandment, to teach no other doctrine, is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, from sincere faith. Now look what he says in verse 6. “From which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, what? Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.” 

That's a pretty big question there, isn’t it? How do we use the law lawfully? Look at verse 9, “Knowing this, he says, this is quite a statement, my friends, that the law is not made for a righteous person. The law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.”

The law is not for a righteous person. The law is good. There’s nothing wrong with the law. The law is holy, righteous, and good. It's a reflection of God's character and nature. It's beautiful. But its intent was never for a righteous person. Its intent was for the murderers and liars and the insubordinate, to show them their sin and bring them to faith in Christ.

The law is good if we use it lawfully, but it's not for a righteous man. The law is for the unrighteous, to show them their sin. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul says, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly you are an epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the flesh, that is, of the heart.”

And he says, “And we have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.” Listen to this, he said, “who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. Not of the letter, not of the law, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 

But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, what would that be? The law was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away. How will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? Or if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.

Notice that Paul draws a clear distinction here between the old and the new covenant. And he characterizes the old covenant with the law. What law? This is so important, my friends. We're told by many teachers in the church that when Paul writes to the Galatians, he's talking not about the moral law of God, but the ceremonial law. Yet the issue was the days and festivals and rites and rituals, and this is included. 

But to leave out the Ten Commandments as part of the law of Moses is quite an interesting twist in my mind, especially in light of passages like 2 Corinthians 3 and Romans 7 and Hebrews 8, where the authors name specifically the Ten Commandments, the law engraved on stones and the whole law becoming obsolete in contrast with the new covenant power of the Spirit. We now minister in the new covenant by the Spirit. 

We now live by the Spirit and not by the letter. My brothers and sisters, there's a subtle deception in the church today, the placing of the law of God on the believer as a rule of life. The Scriptures state emphatically clear that the believer is no longer under the law, that we have died to the law, that we have been freed from the law for the very purpose that we might live to God. 

To go back to the law is to destroy the gospel of grace, either as a way to life or a way of life, to build again those things which I destroyed. This is why Paul says in Galatians 2, “If he builds again those things which he destroyed, he makes himself a transgressor.” If I go back to the law as a way of life, there's no hope. God's made a better way. God's made a new way, regeneration, Christ in me. 

He says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Jesus Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Next week we're going to look at Romans 8. I just want to give you a quick preview and I promise we'll stop. It becomes a great question, you know, in Romans 7 at the end, Paul's characterizing himself as Saul and he's talking about being in bondage to the law of sin and his members. But then in Romans 8:2 he says, “I have been made free by the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life has made me free from the law of sin and death.” 

God did it, what the law couldn't do because it was weak through my flesh. God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin; He condemned sin in the flesh. Then he says in verse 4, “In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” 

He's talking about walking; he's talking about living the Christian life in that whole section. So Jesus did this, He condemned sin in the flesh; He freed me from sin. God crucified my old man and I died to sin and He freed me from indwelling sin's power. Why? In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 

What's the righteous requirement of the law? Romans 13:8 Paul tells us, love. Love fulfills the whole law. Now what is the command of the new covenant? 1 John 3:23 and 24, “Believe Jesus and love one another.” What can I now do in Christ that I could not do in Adam? Self-sacrificial love, right? 

Like he says in Ephesians 4, I think it's 27, “Let him who stole get stuff for himself,” that was him in Adam; it was all about him, all about me. “Let him who stole steal no longer; let him work with his hands so that he might have something to give him who has need.” That's a transformation, isn't it? He's loving people; he's working with his own hands, minding his own business, leading a quiet life in submission, and he's taking what he has and he's giving it to those that have need. 

He couldn't do that before; he’s stealing, taking for himself. So the righteous requirement of the law is love. The command of the new covenant is love. Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, love one another as I have loved you.” He said, “By this they will know you, that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

How do we love? Fruit of the Spirit, right? Love is the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus is the only one who can live the Christian life, but He lives in me. He says, “If I'll abide in Him, if I'll remain with Him, if I'll focus on Him, if I'll believe Him, if I'll go to His word and I'll trust what He says, instead of trusting my emotions and my feelings and my experience, then He will produce that fruit like a vine producing fruit out through the branches.” 

Man, I wish the Lord would impress this upon our hearts. But we'll talk more about that next time. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful, so thankful for the gospel, for your grace, for your love for us. That while we were yet sinners, while we were your enemies, while we were against you, Christ died for us. Thank you that you've redeemed us. Thank you that you've regenerated us and made us new. Thank you for your intention and your purpose to make us like Christ, your promise. 

Help us to believe you. Help us to know your word. Help us to sort out that we hear that it's not consistent with your word, with the doctrines of Christ. Help us to beware of those who would pervert the gospel. Help us to live for you and to love men like you love men and love them enough to tell them the truth. In Jesus' name, amen.