Good morning to everyone. Thank you, Mark and Diane, for leading us again. I was kind of hoping Tucker was going to be here this morning. My buddy sent us a picture of Tucker Carlson down at Dietz's gas station yesterday. So I told Bobby, maybe he'll be in church this morning. I guess not. 

We always, when people are on his program and they're talking about the gospel, I always think, man, I wish I could be there to make the gospel clear, because there's always so much confusion. Well, maybe he'll be here this morning, and I can make the gospel clear.

All right, we're continuing in the book of Galatians, in verses 16 to 26. Last week, we began our study of this truly crucial text in Galatians 5 for our understanding of sanctification and the Christian life. I want to spend our time here again in this text this morning and try and mine out some more riches for edification. 

There are some other scriptures that we didn't get to. There are so many scriptures in the New Testament supporting the doctrine that Paul is explaining here. We established last week that there's a clear distinction between those who are in Adam and those who are in Christ, in fact, several distinctions. 

But the main contrast that Paul is establishing in our text is that the lost man is under the law and in the flesh. He walks according to the flesh. However, the man in Christ is not under the law but led by the Spirit. He has crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. We saw this explained in greater detail in Romans 8, 1 to 11. We are not in the flesh; we are in the Spirit. We are led by the Spirit. 

Paul's exhortation to us is this: Since we are led by the Spirit, we must also walk by the Spirit. This is God's plan and intention for us—to live the Christian life. It is not a life of works by the law but of faith and grace by the Spirit. Notice that in verse 19, the works of the flesh are tied to the law. Verse 22 gives us the contrast, the fruit of the Spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit and the life of Christ in us. 

Jesus gives us this great picture of the Christian life in John 15, explaining how it is that God intends that we live a new life, a holy life of fruit. Here's how Jesus explained the Christian life: He said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine; neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me, you can do nothing." 

The Christian life is Christ in you. But as we study the New Testament scriptures over and over again, we see that as believers in Jesus Christ, not only is Christ in us, but we are in Christ. He says, "Abide in me, and I in you." Christ is in you, living His life through you as you abide in Him. But you also are in Him. It is inconsistent with who you are in Him to live like who you were in Adam. 

I thought of 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul wrote to the Corinthians concerning some awful sins that they were committing, living in. What was his instruction to them? Did he give them a list of laws and tell them it was wrong for them to do these things? He said, "Such were some of you. This is not who you are. Stop acting like who you were. It's not consistent with who you are." Additionally, he said, "You are in Him. If you join yourself to a harlot, then you join Christ to a harlot." 

What we find is that the answer to a life of holiness is not the law. In fact, we will see that a life by the law is actually contrary to bearing fruit, the fruit of love. Rather, it's an understanding and knowing what it means that Christ lives in me and I in Him, and the power that works in me by God's grace through faith to produce the fruit of holiness. It's a fruit of the Spirit. 

Knowing the depths of these verses, these truths, the magnitude of regeneration, our union with Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection is the beginning of a fruitful life. Because after you know these things, the battle comes next. We must reckon these things to be so. In a continual way of living, we choose to renew our minds to these truths of God's Word, choosing to believe God and affirm in our minds what He says is true, and then yield to His way of fruitful living by the Spirit and not by the letter. 

That is the message of our text and the message of the new covenant Christian life. That is what we will explore again this morning as we continue through these great verses before us. 

Let's look at Galatians 5:16 again. Paul says, "I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." 

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. 

I've given you four points on your outline this morning. First, law works versus grace faith. Second, finding fault with them. Third, the new covenant promise, and fourth, against such, there is no law. 

Well, first, by way of reminder, I want to look at the law works life contrasted with the grace faith life. In Galatians 5:18, it says, "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." 

Verse 19: Now the works of the flesh are evident, and then Paul lists the works of the flesh. Those things manifest out through our members when we attempt to live by the law, walking in the flesh. This is clear throughout the New Testament for the man in Adam. When he seeks to justify himself by the law, to keep the law, then he finds himself in bondage to the law and to the sin that controls and dominates him. 

In Romans 7:5, Paul says, "For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death." Verse 8: "But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire." Verse 22: "For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." 

This is the reality of life for the man in Adam under the law—a slave to indwelling sin. But this is not true for the man in Christ as we see in Romans 8:2, where he says, "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. On account of sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 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." And that righteous requirement is love. 

As Paul also points out in our text, which is so very important to the intent of this letter to the Galatians, the man in Christ still has sin indwelling him. If he goes back to the law as a way of life, as a deterrent to sin, as a means to holy living, then that same sin in him will take that same opportunity by the law to produce the works of the flesh, reviving the body of sin. 

Paul stated this clearly back in chapter 2. He said, "For if I build again those things which I destroyed," speaking of the law, "I make myself a transgressor, for I, through the law, died to the law in order that I might live to God." 

This is the same truth we find in Romans 7: "I, through the law, died to the law in order that I might live to God by the Spirit, not by the letter." Paul says, "If I, as the Galatians were doing, under the influence of the Judaizers, if I build again that which I destroyed in coming to Christ by grace through faith, having begun in the Spirit, if I now attempt to be made perfect by the flesh, then I will make myself a transgressor." 

So as much as the church today tries to marry law to grace, works to faith, one of the most important lessons in our text is that the two cannot be lived simultaneously. We either live by the letter, by works, or we live by the Spirit, by the grace and power of God and His life in and through us as we walk by faith. 

Next, we see in our text, finding fault with them. I'm borrowing this point from Hebrews 8, if you're wondering, but I want to briefly make this point because it's important. When we say that the law is not God's means to holiness, His way of living the Christian life, we're not saying that there's something wrong with the law of God. The law is holy, righteous, and good. 

But as we just read in Romans 8:3, the problem is indwelling sin in man. The law has no way to deal with that, only to reveal it. We're singing that song, "Rock of Ages, be of sin the double cure," right? Save from wrath—that's justification—and make me pure—that's sanctification. The power of sin is the law, according to 1 Corinthians 15. 

So it's not that the law is bad; it's just not given by God to protect us from sin. It's given by God to produce holiness in our lives. It's not a means to righteousness; it's given to kill us, to show us our sin, to condemn us. The law brings only wrath. It's given to lead us to Christ by faith, and after faith has come, we're no longer under the law. 

Turn over to Hebrews 8 with me, and let's look at verse 6. Hebrews 8:6. At the beginning of Hebrews 8, this tremendous book, the author says, "This is the main point of the things we are saying." So in chapter 8, we find the summit of the book of Hebrews. 

In verse 6, it says, "But now He, Jesus, has obtained a more excellent ministry, and as much as He is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second." 

Because finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." So Jesus is mediator of a better covenant built on better promises. The new covenant is far superior to the old, and we will see why here in a moment. 

But notice verse 7 of Hebrews 8: "If that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second." The old covenant was flawed in that it could make no one perfect, as we see in Hebrews 10. It couldn't make them complete, couldn't make them holy and righteous, couldn't deal with that indwelling sin problem. 

Then verse 8, "Because finding fault with them." Notice he doesn't say finding fault with it—the old covenant. The old covenant's not the problem. The law's not the problem. The law's good. He says, "Finding fault with them." The limitation of the old covenant was because of the sinfulness of man, what the law could not do because of the weakness of the flesh. 

So I want to be clear that the law is not the problem. The law is not bad. The law is holy, righteous, and good. It reflects God's character and nature. It's good if we use it as God intended, if we use it lawfully. Before we close these thoughts on the law and the Christian life, I want to look at one more passage. 

1 Timothy 1:3. This is an unbelievable passage here. We could spend months here. 1 Timothy 1:3: "As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus—why? Why did he want to leave him in Ephesus?—that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine." What is he saying? No other doctrine but the gospel. No other doctrine but grace and faith—the grace, faith life. 

"Nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification, which is in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, from sincere faith, from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm." 

Now we'll stop here for a moment. My brothers and sisters, this is an amazing passage. Paul urged Timothy to remain in Ephesus and charge some that they teach no other doctrine than the gospel of grace by faith—a life by grace, by the Spirit. In verse five he says the purpose of this commandment to teach no other doctrine than grace and faith is love from a pure heart. 

He says, "Some have strayed from this, desiring to be teachers of the law, desiring to bring the law back onto the believers, to bind them again with the law as a rule of life." Paul continues, "Understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm." 

Now pick it up at verse 8, 1 Timothy 1:8: "But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully." Look at verse 9: "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly, for sinners, for unholy and profane." This is an abundantly clear statement by Paul: the law is not made for a righteous person. 

And we know once again he is referring primarily to the moral law because he lists the violations of the Ten Commandments in this list of who the law is for. It would be nonsensical to say that the ceremonial law is not for a righteous person. He cites murderers, fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and if there's any other thing that's contrary to sound doctrine. The law is not for a righteous man. 

We're going to see the same truth in our text when Paul says, "Against such, there is no law." But first, I want to look at the heart of what Paul's driving at in our text and in the book of Galatians, the promise of the new covenant and all that it entails. Go back to verse 18 in our text, please, Galatians 5:18. 

"But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand just as I also told you in time past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 

The truth is that we are led by the Spirit. The truth is that we are not under the law. That we experience the fruit of the Spirit as we walk by faith, that we have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, that we live in the Spirit, and all of these truths are encompassed in the new covenant promise found back in Ezekiel 36, also in Jeremiah 31, realized in Christ after the cross. 

I want you to turn back to that Ezekiel passage with me, Ezekiel 36 at verse 24. God says, "For I will take you from among the nations," speaking to Israel, "gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land." It's the future promise, the new covenant. "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from your idols. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit, a new spirit within you, and I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people, and I will be your God." 

This passage is the promise of the new covenant that we just looked at in Hebrews 8, where the author of Hebrews quoted Jeremiah 31, another prophecy about the new covenant. But did you notice here, and in Hebrews 8 and Jeremiah 31, that this new covenant is made with Israel? God makes no covenant with Gentiles. We are blessed out of the covenant of the house of Judah. Paul says in Romans 11, we do not support the root, but the root supports us. 

We are grafted into the tree of Israel, the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It seems many want to cut that tree down at the roots in the church today. But let me ask you this: I wonder, where does that leave the branches who were grafted in? If the root supports us and we cut that root, where does that leave the branches? 

So we see the promise of the new covenant in Ezekiel 36 made to Israel, a promise to gather them from the nations, bring them into their land, then promises of regeneration, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. These promises have not yet been realized in Israel; we do not see them fulfilled. But we do see a pre-fillment of this in the church age—the spiritual blessings that we experience of regeneration, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

These truths are the basis of our new life in Christ, as we've been studying. We have emphasized the necessity of first knowing these truths—who I am and what I have in Christ because of regeneration, because of the Holy Spirit in me. And knowing these things, we must reckon them to be so, count up the facts that God has given us, choose to believe what He says, then yield to His life and power in us, abide in Him by faith, and as Paul said, eagerly anticipate what He will do in our obedience. Daily, you should be eagerly anticipating what God will do in our obedience. 

As I've told you before, my greatest concern is that most of the church does not even know these things, and if they do not know them, how can they believe and apply them? I see teachers constantly cutting the legs out from under the Christian life by attacking the very truths of our regeneration and who we are in Christ, and how it is that God intends for us to live a life pleasing to Him, effective for His purpose. 

To be honest with you, I wonder sometimes if I'm just really weird—if my brain works like other people's brains—if I'm weird. I hope it's a good kind of weird. Someone sent me a clip from a sermon by Paul Washer this week; some of you may know Paul Washer. He was preaching on Ezekiel 36:25 and following, what we just read, and as he so often does, he was appealing to believers to question their faith, the reality of their salvation, and to do this by looking at their performance and to the degree with which God is chastening them, searching the depths of their heart, and so forth. 

He was talking about Ezekiel 36, applying it wholeheartedly to the church with no qualifications. I could let that go graciously, right? But then he began to talk about the pouring clean water over us, and he said, "It is as if in cleansing me each and every year of my Christian life, God is opening up another dark and evil chamber of my wicked heart." 

Then he said, "If God is not doing this in your life, then you have something to be concerned about." This I couldn't take. Do you see the folly here, my friends? Do you see the undermining of the truths of regeneration in the very passage that promises it? First of all, the pouring clean water speaks of regeneration. Ezekiel goes on to say, "I'll give you a new spirit and a new heart. I'll take out your heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh." 

In Christ, in this new covenant time, the pre-fillment of the covenant made with Israel is ultimately fulfilled in the kingdom. We are new creations. When we believe in Jesus, we are washed, set apart with the washing of regeneration by the Word. 

Titus 3:5, "Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." 

The pouring of water, cleansing, giving a new spirit and a new heart refers to something that happens in a moment when we believe, not over a lifetime. It is regeneration, the new birth. And in this, we are given a new heart. God doesn't have to pry open the decaying chambers of our wicked heart to expose the filth year after year in our Christian life. This undermines our understanding of who we are in Christ, what God says is true, what we must choose to know and believe if we're ever to experience the fruit of the Spirit as we walk by faith and not by law. 

If you want to find your assurance in your performance, look to the law. Look to yourself, and you'll find defeat and depression and disappointment. If you believe that you are wicked in your heart, that the depth of your sinfulness can only be understood by looking to the perfect law of God, and that the height of maturity is realizing that you never ever do what is right and constantly perpetually do what is evil, then you're going to have a different kind of Christian life. 

I say you have a different understanding of salvation. These things matter, my friends. Paul wants us to understand the promise of the new covenant, of regeneration, of the new creation, of death to sin and law and death, of the power of the Christ life, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the life of fruit by grace through faith. 

We don't need to die to ourselves; we died with Christ. We don't need to crucify the flesh; we have crucified the flesh. We don't need to put off the old man; it was done in our union with Jesus—death, burial, and resurrection when we believed, and we have put on the new man, as Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4 say. We are not sinners. We are not in the flesh. We do not live by the law. These things are all true of the man in Adam. 

We live in the Spirit. We have new spirits and a new heart. We have the very power of God living and working in us. We have the mind of Christ. Christ lives in us. What the New Testament teaches us far more often is that we live in Christ. We are in Christ. We are in Him. 

Have you thought about that? Bobby and I were talking about this truth the other day. It's one thing to know that Jesus Christ lives in us, but somehow that in my mind leaves me in some sort of control. He's in me, and it's true that I have choices to believe, to obey, but the thought that I am in Him—that I am seated in the heavenlies with Him—that I am wholly united to Him in Christ, reminds me that He is Lord. He is master of my life, of my existence, of my future, of my eternity. 

I am in Him, and all that this means, my brothers and sisters, we are in Christ, and He will never leave us or forsake us. Last, as we consider the grand truths of who we are in Christ, what we have in Him, that the Christ life is lived by the power of the Holy Spirit, by grace through faith—not by the law and works—I want to look at the truth of Paul's statement that "against such, there is no law." 

Verse 22: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law." This statement—"against such, there is no law"—is really the heart of the message to the believers in Galatia. 

If you're a new creation, if you have the Holy Spirit, if you have a new heart and a new spirit, if Jesus Christ lives in you, and by His grace, He's conforming you to the likeness of Christ as you walk by faith—then where's the law in that? That's what Paul is saying. There is no law. Against such, there is no law. 

You see, in Christ, in the new covenant, we have a much more powerful motive and more powerful resource than the law to live a holy life of fruit, glorifying God. When I read this statement, studying again and again, "against such, there is no law," I remembered our time in the Bahamas and Spanish Wells. 

As many of you know, a couple of years ago, Bobby, Sarah, and I traveled down to Spanish Wells to see some of our friends and work with them in their ministry to Haitian refugees. We met with several of these people, preached in their church, had Bible study, and got to know the islands a bit. 

This is an interesting place. It's very diverse. You have white Bohemians, largely wealthy in the lobster fishing industry who came from English roots. You have black Bohemians who largely came from slave roots. You have an influx of Haitians into this small, tight-knit fishing community. When you travel to these kinds of places, safety is always a concern. If you go to Nassau or you go to Freeport, you probably don't want to get too far off the beaten path. They have laws, but people don't always follow those laws. 

But Eleuthera and Spanish Wells, where we were, is quite peculiar in a special way. In 1648, Puritan adventurers wrecked their ship on a reef off of these islands called the Devil's Backbone. They were looking for a new place to live where they could practice their faith without persecution. They managed to make their way to a beach—a beach we stood on, watching the waves break over that reef. 

Just inland, they found a cave, and it's called today the Preacher's Cave, a beautiful cave with a skylight in the middle, the light coming in, and beautiful surroundings. They found this cave, and they carved out a pulpit from a large stone, holding services for many years. I stood in that beautiful cave and behind that pulpit as well. 

But what developed over time in these small, remote islands was deep Christian roots. Nearly 100 percent of the people there were born-again believers from the beginning of the settlement without outside influence. So when we were there, it was estimated that over 50 percent of the population were true Christians. 

You can imagine that, and the influence on the culture was undeniable. There was no crime, no violence, no persecution—no worries. It's perhaps the safest, friendliest place that I've ever been. Here's my point: They have the same laws that Nassau and Freeport have, that they have in Jamaica and Mexico. 

But you can't go to those places and wander around through the jungles or cities and meet people and find fellowship. You'll end up on the news. But in Spanish Wells, the people are not living by the law. They are, by and large, living by the Spirit. And against the fruit of the Spirit, there is no law. 

The law cannot restrain evil men, cannot cause them to love. In fact, the law cannot do this for saved men either. But if you have come to faith in Jesus, if you know Him, if you've been born again, regenerated, made new, given a new heart, and living in the Spirit, abiding in Christ, you walk by the Spirit by faith and see the fruits of the Spirit manifest in your life. Against this kind of life, there is no law. 

There's no need for a law, an external standard to look to because our motive is love. The love of Christ compels us. It is thankfulness for His grace that moves us to live for Him. We love Him because He first loved us. 

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul writes, "For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." You can't get this kind of motive and power from any kind of law. 

You have to have it on the inside, and my brothers and sisters, we do—because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. It's just that we need constant reminders of these things. We need to renew our minds to these truths. We need teaching, preaching, fellowship with like-minded believers around these things. And at the center of everything, we need Jesus and His Word. 

That's the battle, my friends. Be encouraged by these truths—who you are, what you have in Christ—and expect to see the fruit of the Spirit every day in your life as you walk by faith, as you walk by the Spirit, abiding in Christ, living for Him. This is what matters. 

I was talking to Josh last week about building a family, discipling children, a community. These are the things that matter. We talk about a lot of things that don't matter, especially in this world, but what matters is understanding who I am and what I have in Christ, and living for Him—understanding that He died for me, and now I want to live for Him. 

I want more than anything to live a holy life, to be a witness. But I need to know how God intends to work that out in my life, and fight the battle at the right point. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank You for these great truths, this unbelievable salvation, this indescribable gift that You have given to us by Your grace. We thank You that we are in Christ, and He is in us. Thank You for the promises that we have in Him, and all the promises are yes. 

Thank You for the privilege of being Your ambassadors, Your servants, Your witnesses in this world. Thank You for the life that we can now live and the life eternal that we look forward to. In Jesus' name, amen.