In this sermon, the preacher focuses on Galatians 6:4, which encourages individuals to examine their own work and assess their standing before God. The preacher emphasizes the importance of allowing God to examine our lives and finding that we can stand His scrutiny, which gives us reason to boast in God's grace. The sermon warns against the tendency to compare ourselves to others and despise those who have fallen into sin. Instead, we are called to have our minds renewed and think in terms of giving and doing good to others. The preacher also highlights the contrast between the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, emphasizing the importance of cultivating the latter. The sermon concludes with Paul's own hand-written greeting in Galatians 6:11, highlighting the authenticity of his letters.

Lord Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita that if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another. All had been speaking to the Galatians about their responding to another gospel which had brought them back under the law, and one of the results of this other gospel is that those who respond to it are again defeated by sin. Grace enables us to live in victory over sin, and this is one means by which we can distinguish the true gospel of the grace of God from a gospel which is actually another law, maybe not exactly the same as the law of Moses in all its details, but bringing people into bondage and condemnation, just like the Old Testament law did. Paul described the gospel in Acts chapter 20 as the gospel of the grace of God, and the mark of grace is described in Romans 6.14 as sin not having dominion over us, those who have come under grace. So the gospel of the grace of God, we could say, is the gospel that brings freedom from the dominion of sin in our life. This is how we know whether we have heard the true gospel. Has it brought us freedom from the dominion of sin in our life? If we have only received forgiveness of sins, then we must remember that they had that even under the law. Psalm 103 tells us, Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgives all your iniquities. They experienced that, they experienced healing and the gifts and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, but they could not come into freedom from sin's power. And that's what you see the Galatians were brought into, Galatians 5.15. They were biting and devouring one another. They were backbiting, gossiping and hurting one another. They had grudges against one another, and those who have not understood the gospel of grace, they still bite one another. They backbite, they gossip, they criticize, they have hidden grudges against their fellow believers. All these are indications of the fact that people have responded to another gospel, whereas the true gospel enables one to live in love. And this is the conflict fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself, and as much as you do not bite and devour yourself or gossip and criticize yourself, as equally you do not gossip against and criticize your neighbor, your fellow believer particularly. In Romans 8.4 we are told that under the new covenant the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled inside of us when we do not walk after the flesh but after the spirit. And this requirement of the law is described in Galatians 5.14 as love. Love is the fulfillment of the law, and this love is fulfilled inside our hearts, for under the new covenant the law is written inside our hearts and our minds. And thus the law is fulfilled when our hearts and minds are filled with love or made perfect in love, as John says in I John, chapter 4. To be made perfect in love is to be filled with love, with no place for anything which is unloving. Now our capacity may increase, but as our capacity increases we are to be continuously filled with love and with nothing else. This is how the law is fulfilled inside of our hearts, and this is how we are made free from an external law, for when it is fulfilled inside of us there is no need for it externally. So we have the contrast between those who have received the true gospel of the grace of God, who find the law being fulfilled inside their heart-Galatians 5.14-they love their neighbor with their whole heart and mind, and those who have received another gospel which permits them or still keeps them in a place where they bite and devour one another and ultimately they are consumed one of another. This is how we are to know whether we have received the true gospel or another gospel. And then Paul goes on to say in verse 16, But I say, Walk by the Spirit. This is what we saw in Romans 8.4, that when we walk by the Spirit, what happens? The righteousness of the law is fulfilled inside of us. We are told that very clearly in Romans 8.4, and this is the mark of all who walk by the Spirit. The law of love is fulfilled in their heart, not just in the external, but in their heart. And Paul says the same thing here in Galatians 5.16. If you walk by the Spirit, you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. All unloving attitudes, all unloving thoughts and all actions that spring from an unloving motive are all the result of giving in to the desires of the flesh. For in the flesh, we are told in Romans 7.18, there dwells no good thing. Nothing good dwells in this flesh. In other words, everything that comes out of this flesh is unloving. But if we, through the Spirit, put that to death, then we can walk by the Spirit, and then the righteousness of the law, the righteous requirement of the law of love, is fulfilled inside of us. We are told in Galatians 5.17 that the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. This is how we can know whether we have been filled with the Holy Spirit. There are many spirits in the world that can give us thrilling experiences. Evil spirits can give us thrilling experiences. Evil spirits can produce healing. Evil spirits can speak in unknown tongues. Evil spirits can give us tremendous talents and abilities, but there is one thing that evil spirits cannot do, and that is that they cannot enable you to overcome the lusts in your flesh. The evil spirits are friendly with the flesh, whereas the Holy Spirit is in enmity with the desires of the flesh, and the flesh fights against the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit fights against the flesh, and these are in opposition to one another, so that you cannot do the things that you please. And so when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we shall find ourselves being strengthened to fight against the flesh with all of our hearts. And if we have not received this power to fight and overcome the flesh, then we need to seek God for this baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, which gives us power to put to death the desires of the flesh. It is not enough that we have received an anointing that enables us to have the gifts of the Spirit, for there are many who have received the gifts of the Spirit who are still being overcome by the desires of the flesh. But the Holy Spirit, we are told here very clearly, fights against the flesh. Have you received this Spirit in your life, the power of this Spirit who is constantly fighting the flesh in your life? In verse eighteen we are told, If you are led by the Holy Spirit, then you are not under the law. What that means is, if you are fighting the desires of the flesh, for the Spirit leads us. In verse eighteen we are told about being led by the Spirit. The Spirit is like a general, leading people into battle. Into battle against what? Not into battle against other believers. That is the devil who leads people into battle against other believers. The Spirit never leads you to backbite other believers. The Spirit never leads you to hate another believer. The Spirit never leads you to hate any other man, never leads you to speak evil of others. That is always an evil spirit. What does the Spirit lead you into battle against? Against the lusts in your flesh. And if you allow yourself to be led by this general into battle, the Holy Spirit, you will find that you do not need an external law which says, Do not kill your brother. You do not need that law because you are obeying the Holy Spirit so that you do not even hate your brother, you do not even get angry against your brother, you do not even despise your brother. Now if you have come to that deeper life where you do not despise or lose your temper against your brother, you do not need an external law which says, You shall not kill. You are free from that because that law is being fulfilled at a far deeper level inside your heart itself. You love him in your heart. Then why do you need an external law which says, Do not kill, do not commit adultery? This is how the Spirit frees us from the law and brings us under grace, and so we are called to follow the leading of this Spirit. We turn now to Galatians 5. Verse 16. But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. We were considering last week how the Spirit is like a general that leads us into battle, and He leads us into battle against the flesh and its lusts. We of ourselves are incapable of going to battle against the flesh and its lusts. They are too powerful for us, and the law could not help us overcome the flesh. A mere set of rules and regulations do not help us to overcome the flesh and its lusts. What we need is power, and that power did not come until the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out. Now the Spirit has come to give us power and to lead us as a general against the flesh and its lusts. And if we follow the Holy Spirit, we walk in the Spirit, in the power of the Spirit, then the flesh has no power over us. This is how we know whether we are walking in the Spirit or not, whether we are Spirit-filled in our life or not. If we are defeated by the desires of the flesh, then we are not following the leading of the Spirit. If we follow the leading of the Spirit, then we overcome the flesh. And it says here in the last part of verse 17, You may not do the things that You please. That is to show that we do not give in to the desires of the flesh. We do not do those things which please the flesh. We are able to overcome them. And further we read in verse 19 of the deeds of the flesh, and it says, These are evident. There is no way of hiding it. These are evident on the outside. Immorality, impurity, sensuality. Notice the deeds of the flesh. They begin with impurity in the sexual realm and with an indulgence of the sensual desires that there are in our body. Immorality, impurity and sensuality. Idolatry. This can be anything which takes the place of God in our life. It need not be a wooden or a stone idol. It can be the worship of our job. It can be the worship of a human being whom we adore or love, maybe a child or a married partner. It can be the worship of money or pleasure. Sorcery. That has to do with the demonic. Enmities. Any type of enmity is a deed of the flesh. Strife. Even if we carry out a strife for what we call religious purposes, for holding up the faith given to the saints once for all, strife is always the result of the flesh getting power over us. Jealousy and all the resultant attitudes towards people as a result of this envy in the heart and jealousy of someone else's gifts or talents or property or position or anything is a deed of the flesh. Outbursts of anger. We may think that to lose one's temper is just a weakness of temperament, it is just that the man is a choleric. But here we are told very clearly that it is a deed of the flesh. When you see a person losing his temper, that is a deed of the flesh. Disputes and dissensions and factions, all types of arguments, an argumentative spirit and bringing divisions among people. Not divisions because of our standing for the truth, for that division Jesus said He Himself would bring. He said He did not come to bring peace, but a sword. And very often standing for the truth brings division in a home, Jesus said. Two will be against three, and three will be against two. The apostle Paul went into synagogues and brought division in the synagogues. That was a spiritual division for the sake of the truth, but here it speaks of a division for fleshly reasons. Envying, sitting and envying another person, drunkenness and carousing, overeating is just as bad as getting drunk with wine, satisfying the sensual desires of the flesh. And that is not the end of the list. There are many other things like these, says Paul in verse 21. All these are the desires of the flesh fulfilled by the mind yielding to the desires of the flesh. Then a man sins, and he says here that I must warn you as I have warned you before. When Paul was in the regions of Galatia, he went around the churches in that region and warned them about this before. What had he warned them about? All themselves believers must take heed to very, very seriously, for there are many who call themselves born-again believers who manifest some of these things listed in verses 19-21. If you say that you are a born-again believer and you have envy in your heart, then you listen to the word of God. Those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. No, they will not. They will not inherit the kingdom of God even if they call themselves believers. They are deceiving themselves. What about a believer who claims to be a believer anyway, who has outbursts of anger mentioned in verse 20? Those who have outbursts of anger cannot inherit the kingdom of God. What about those who have impurity in their life? Those who have impurity in their life cannot inherit the kingdom of God. All these are put in the same category as idolatry and sorcery. To have strife with somebody is as bad as heathen idolatry. To have jealousy in our hearts against someone, verse 20, is put in the same category as sorcery. Sorcery and jealousy and outbursts of anger are all in the same category. To have disputes and strife and envying is just as bad as drunkenness and carousings mentioned in verse 21. So we cannot despise the man who is drunken. What would you think of a man who claims to be a believer and who indulges in drunken carousals? What would you think of a man who calls himself a believer and who practices sorcery and witchcraft? What would you think of a man who calls himself a believer and who bows down to a stone idol? Well, the Bible says that such people cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but it also says equally that those who have jealousy and impurity in their life do not have any impurity in their life. If you have any impure habit in your private life, jealousy, outbursts of anger, impurity and envy are exactly in the same category as those who practice impurity, sorcery, idolatry and drunkenness and carousings. One cannot despise the other. The salvation that comes through grace is one that frees us from all these things mentioned in verse 19, and every other deed of the flesh. Many people have never been freed from these things because they have never deeply repented of sin in their life. They have never put off the old man, they have never come to the place of seeing that their old man has been crucified with Christ, and so they remain defeated by these things. Well, here is a word of warning to all such people. Do not deceive yourself, for I have warned you before and I warn you again that such will never inherit the kingdom of God. We turn now to Galatians 5. In verses 19-21 we considered last week how Paul speaks about some of the deeds of the flesh, which Paul said that those who indulge in would not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, in contrast to this, in verse 22 Paul speaks about the fruit of the spirit, and the fruit of the spirit, he says, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Notice that he speaks of it in the singular. These are not different fruits, but one fruit. The fruit of the spirit is these things altogether, for the fruit of the spirit is the life of Jesus, the divine nature, and these are in contrast to the deeds of the flesh. And earlier on, in verse 17, he had spoken about the flesh and the spirit in contrast to one another, in opposition to one another, and he had said earlier in verse 16 that if you walk by the spirit you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. It is an either-or alternative. If we walk according to the flesh, then what is mentioned in verse 19, 20 and 21 will be manifest in our life, and so we do not have to deceive ourselves concerning whether we are walking according to the flesh or according to the spirit. If we see the things described in verses 19, 20 and 21 and such like things being manifested in us, however much we may claim to be born again and filled with the spirit and all the rest of that, we are really walking according to the flesh. A man who has outbursts of temper in his life cannot claim to be spirit-filled. He is living in a deception even if he speaks in other tongues. A man who has strife and envy and jealousy in his life cannot claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He is living in a self-deception even if he is a great Bible teacher. No such people cannot inherit the kingdom of God. There are many people who have the gifts of the Holy Spirit who still walk according to the flesh. We are told in Matthew 7 that in the last day Jesus said, Many will come to Me and say, Lord, we prophesied in Your name. Now how can you prophesy in the name of Jesus unless you have that particular gift of prophecy by the Holy Spirit? In Your name we cast out demons and did many miracles in Your name. Now you cannot do a miracle in the name of Jesus unless you have the gift of miracles by the Spirit. And Jesus said that He would say to them in that last day, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice iniquity. They lived in sin. They did the deeds of the flesh, and so there was no place for them in the kingdom of God. For the kingdom of God is not miracles and casting out demons and prophecy. No, the kingdom of God, we are told very clearly in Romans 14.17, is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Note that very carefully. Not healing and miracles and speaking in tongues, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Now there is a place for these gifts of the Spirit. The apostle Paul spoke in tongues, healed the sick and did miracles too. But that was not the reason why he inherited the kingdom of God. No, it is because he had righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That is why he inherited God's kingdom. So it is possible to walk according to the flesh and serve God with gifts of the Spirit and find oneself outside God's kingdom in the final day. And that is why we see that the fruit of the Spirit is the test of whether we are in the kingdom or not. The gifts are to enable us to serve in the kingdom, but the fruit describes the character of the kingdom. The fruit of the Spirit is love and righteousness, mentioned in Romans 14.17 as the first characteristic of God's kingdom, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That righteousness is actually the righteousness of the law. And that righteousness of the law is fulfilled in one word, and that is love. So the New Testament speaks of righteousness as love. Love is righteousness in the New Testament. Love towards God and love towards our fellow believers. And so we see in Galatians 5.22, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, is exactly the same as Romans 14.17, where we are told the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And so this is the kingdom of God, and this is why those who do not have this characteristic cannot inherit the kingdom of God, he says in Galatians 5.21, for the kingdom of God has this character, the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace and so on. Now the love spoken of here is different from human love. Human love withers up when it does not get loved in return. You can love somebody intensely, but if that person keeps on hating you and keeps on speaking evil against you, if you have human love, your love for that person will wither up very soon. But if you have divine love, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and which is that character of the kingdom of God, that will not change even if the other person hates you. Even if the other person does evil to you, you will continue to love him even though he has become your enemy. That is the love which Jesus spoke of in Matthew 5 when He said, Love your enemies. It is a love which is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It is the love of God. God loved us when we were His enemies, and He gives us that love which enables us to love our enemies. The same thing with joy. If you have a joy which dries up when circumstances are against you, that is not the joy of the kingdom. The joy of the kingdom is something which has nothing to do with circumstances. It has nothing to do with people. If you can lose your joy because a servant in your house broke something expensive, you can be sure that was a human joy. The joy that God gives us through the Holy Spirit is something which is not going to die when some material thing is broken. It is not going to die because you did not get a promotion in your job or you did not get an increase in your salary. Many Christians lose their joy when they do not get an increase in their salary. That itself is a clear indication that their joy is based and founded on money, on material things, and it is high time they woke up and found their joy in God. It is when we find our joy in God that we find the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit produces a joy which has got nothing to do with money or material things. It has got nothing to do with whether circumstances are against us or for us, whether people are against us or for us. It is a joy which is indestructible, unchangeable. It abides forever and ever, which is the fruit of the Spirit, likewise with peace. We are told in Galatians 5.22 that peace is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Here again there can be a peace which is deceptive. We can be calm and at rest when everything is going all right, but that is not the time when we discover whether we have the peace of God. In Philippians 4.6 we are told that in verse 7 the peace of God can guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. In the earlier verse, Philippians 4.6, He speaks about not being anxious for anything, but in everything committing our needs to God in prayer, and then the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds. We can ask ourselves, What is the peace of God? That is a peace which is completely undisturbed by any person, any circumstance. There is absolutely nothing that can happen that can take God by surprise. God knows everything, and He is never taken by surprise. He is never tense or anxious, wondering what is going to happen next. That peace can be ours. This is the fruit of the Spirit. Now when we see that our peace is lost in a trying situation, we know that was a human thing. We need to say, Lord, give me the fruit of the Spirit. All these things mentioned as the fruit of the Spirit have their human counterfeit. There is a human love that withers up, there is a human joy that withers up, there is a human peace that withers up. And when we see that what we have is human, we need to say, Lord, acknowledge our need and cry out to God for the divine. Then the Spirit will work within us that divine love, joy and peace, etc. We turn now to Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Here we have a description of the character of the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Christ, and therefore the character of Christ, and therefore we could say here is a description of the divine nature as it is found in a human being. Here we have a description of the life of Jesus. That divine nature that was seen in Jesus Christ, the glory of God that was seen in Jesus when He walked on this earth full of grace and truth, is described here. And that was produced in Jesus as He, as a human being, walked by the Spirit and put to death the deeds of the body. For Jesus came to earth in a flesh like ours, with desires in His flesh, just like we have in our flesh, but He put those desires to death by the Holy Spirit. This putting to death of the desires of the flesh is called the dying of Jesus. This was the cross which Jesus bore every day of His earthly life before He finally died on Calvary's hill. This is called the dying of Jesus in II Corinthians 4. Paul says in II Corinthians 4.10 that we now bear in our body this dying of Jesus, this putting to death of the flesh, and the result is that the same life of Jesus that was manifested in Jesus Himself when He walked on earth, we are told in II Corinthians 4.10, can now be manifested in our body. This is the fruit of the Spirit, but it comes through the flesh being crucified. And that is what we are told in Galatians 5.24, that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Now, the flesh is not the same as the old man. The old man was crucified with Christ, Romans 6.6. It was God who put the old man to death. We do not do it. We can put off the old man. We are told in Ephesians 4 and in Colossians 3 that we put off the old man by faith because God has crucified the old man on Calvary's hill. That corresponds to the Egyptians whom God buried under the Red Sea. The Egyptians are a picture of the old man. The Israelites did not put the Egyptians to death. God put the Egyptians to death, and God has crucified our old man with Christ, and the old man is this mind and will that agreed with the flesh and that wanted to sin. We have been born with an old man that wants to sin. Jesus never had an old man. He had no desire to sin at any time in His life because He was born of the Holy Spirit. Now when we are born again, we also are born of the Holy Spirit, and when we are really born again, it is the result of the old man being put off and a new man being born within us, a mind that desires to do God's will, a mind set on the Spirit against the flesh. This is where Jesus began His earthly life, and this is where we begin when we are born again. But the flesh is something that we have with us till our dying day. That is different from the old man. The flesh is something we carry with us till our dying day, but we are to crucify it. In Galatians 5.24 it says, it doesn't say God crucifies the flesh, it says those who belong to Christ. Do you belong to Christ? Then it says in Galatians 5.24 that you have crucified the flesh. It's we who do it. This corresponds to the Canaanites. God did not slay the Canaanites like He slew the Egyptians. The Israelites had to slay the Canaanites, but with God's power. It is we who crucify the flesh by the power of the Spirit, and when the flesh is crucified by the power of the Spirit, then what is manifested in our life is love, joy, peace, patience and so on, described earlier. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with all its passions and desires, and thus they walk according to the Holy Spirit, and in their life is produced love, joy and peace, as we saw last week. The character of God is patience, that is, bearing long with others. When other people provoke us and irritate us, maybe our own children, we don't get impatient. Impatience is a result of the flesh, but if we walk the way of the cross, the way of the Holy Spirit leading us, we put to death that impatience that comes forth from our flesh, and it does not enter our heart, and patience is manifested in our life. Kindness. The flesh is unkind, and when we are unkind to other people, we can be unkind to a servant in our home. That is a result of our yielding to the flesh. We can be unkind to someone of a lower level of society on the street, but that can be put to death so that the life of Jesus is manifested, so that we are kind. Goodness. There is nothing good in the flesh. We don't desire to do good to other people. We don't think good about other people in our thoughts when we are in the flesh, but when we mortify that and come into the Holy Spirit, then we are good to others, not just externally in our actions, but even in our thoughts we become good to others. Are you good? Do you think good thoughts about others? This is the result of the spirit putting to death the works of the body, the deeds of the body, and putting the flesh to death. Faithfulness. The flesh is unfaithful, but when that is mortified, we become faithful, not just in the big things that other people can see, but in the little things which other people cannot see. It is faithfulness in money matters, absolute righteousness in small things. It is faithfulness in the way we spend our time and in little things. Gentleness. There is no gentleness in the flesh. The flesh is hard and harsh, and when you hear some people speak, there is a hardness and a harshness in them, not a firmness against sin, for Jesus also was firm against sin, but a hardness. We can be hard towards our children, we can be hard towards our married partner. These are all characteristics of the flesh, but when that is mortified, the life of Jesus can come forth in us, which is gentleness. And self-control. Self-control also is a result of the Holy Spirit's working. Don't believe those people who say that when the Holy Spirit filled them, they lost control of themselves. If you lost control of yourself, it must have been an evil spirit that got a hold of you, because the fruit of the Holy Spirit is self-control. And when the Spirit fills us, we don't lose control of ourselves, we have much more control of ourselves. The Spirit doesn't take your body and throw it over to another corner of the room. Only evil spirits do things like that. When we lose control of ourselves, we can be absolutely certain that we are not under the influence of the Holy Spirit. I have heard of many people who speak of experiences where they lost control of themselves in meetings. That is certainly the work of evil spirits or their own emotions, for the Holy Spirit gives us complete control of ourselves. We have control of our tongue, we have control over our hands, control over our body. The Spirit does not possess us like evil spirits do. He fills us, and there is a difference between being filled and being possessed. Evil spirits possess people, and they lose control over themselves. The Holy Spirit never possesses. He always fills and leaves us free so that we can be controlled by the Spirit but not possessed by Him. We have self-control, and this is one of the clear marks by which we can distinguish spirit-filling as opposed to demon-possession. When a man is possessed by a demon, he loses control of himself. When a man is filled with the Holy Spirit, he has control over himself. Here is a mark of the Spirit's fullness in a man's life. Seek for this, seek for this fruit of the Spirit in our life, and then we shall come under grace and be free from the law. We turn now to Galatians, Chapter 5, verse 24. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Now in the whole section, beginning with verse 13, Paul is speaking here about life according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. In the earlier parts of Galatians we have seen that Paul's great burden is to deliver the Galatians from a gospel which brings them back under the law, brings them back into bondage and desires to bring them into the true gospel of the grace of God which will bring them under grace. Now we could say this, that as he continues in Galatians 5.13 onwards to the end of the chapter and draws this contrast between walking according to the flesh and walking according to the Spirit, we can say that those who live under the law walk according to the flesh. Those who live under grace walk according to the Spirit. And so this is how we know whether we are under law or under grace. If we are still walking according to the flesh, defeated by the desires in our flesh, overcome by them, then we have not understood the gospel of the grace of God. If, on the other hand, we have been freed from the passions of the flesh and we have known what it is to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, as we just saw in verse 24, and to yield to the Holy Spirit's leadership, as we see in verse 18, where does He lead us? That's very clear in verse 17 of Galatians 5. He leads us in opposition to fight a war against the flesh. Those who are led by the Spirit like this, we are told in verse 18, are not under law. So Paul's desire to free the Galatians from a gospel of law and to bring them under a gospel of grace was so that they would be freed from the passions of the flesh and brought under obedience to the Holy Spirit. And it is this which many have not understood. They have understood that the law means we are to obey, and to be under grace means we don't have to obey. This is a deception. That is a worse gospel than the gospel which brings people under the law, for the law could at least clean up a man's external life. But if we hear a gospel that does not even clean up our external life, then that is one step lower than the gospel of the law. The gospel of grace is something that leads us higher than the gospel of the law. Not only cleans up our external life, but writes God's laws, the law of love, in our heart and in our mind. The whole law is fulfilled in one word, verse 14, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you live under law, verse 15, you will bite and devour one another. If you walk by the Spirit, verse 16, you will not carry out the desire of the flesh, because the flesh and the Spirit fight against each other. If you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, verse 18, you will not fulfill the desire of the flesh, and therefore you will not be under the law. This is how we are freed from the law. It's so clear as black is black and white is white. Now the deeds of the flesh He mentions in verse 19, 20 and 21, which will not enable a person to enter God's kingdom. In contrast, those who are led by the Spirit to fight against the flesh, to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires, verse 24, those who are led by the Spirit like this, what happens in their life? Love, joy, peace, etc., mentioned in verse 22 and 23, are manifested. They are brought forth by the grace of God in their lives, and against such things, verse 23, there is no law. The law is against the things mentioned in verses 19, 20 and 21. If you are immoral or sensual or indulging in idolatry or sorcery or jealousy or strife or outbursts of anger, then there is a law for you, the law which says, The soul that sins, it shall die. But the law which says, If we live after the flesh, Romans 8.13, we shall die. But if we have been freed from that because we have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts and the life of Jesus is manifested in us, then there is no need for any law. There is no law that can touch us because we have fulfilled the law. And so in Galatians 5.25 we are told, If we live by the Spirit, in other words, if you have received the Holy Spirit, if you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, don't just glory in that experience. Unfortunately that is what many Christians are glorying in. They glory in an experience. They glory in having come into a crisis. But here He says, If you live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. That is a daily life where we walk in the footsteps of Jesus, who walked in obedience to the Holy Spirit all the days of His life. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Who are the ones who are boastful, who want to show off, those who have not crucified the flesh, those who still walk according to the flesh? Who are the ones who want to challenge others and envy others, who want to show themselves as superior to others and who are jealous of somebody else being superior to them, those who give in to the desires of the flesh? They have not understood the law of love. And He goes on in the next verse to say, Chapter 6, verse 1, supposing you did see another brother who has fallen into some sin, caught in a trespass, what should you do? Are you going to be boastful? Are you going to show that you are superior to him? Then you are walking according to the flesh yourself. No, we are told in verse 2 of Galatians 6 that we are to bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ. The law of Christ is a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you. How did Jesus love us? He bore our burdens. He bore the burden of sin, which was the greatest burden we were carrying. And that is the law of Christ. He who bore our burdens, He tells us now to love others as He loved us, and if He could bear the greatest burden that we carried, which is the burden of sin, surely we can bear the little burden that another person has. And if we do not bear other people's burdens, then we do not fulfill the law of Christ. Then we are still under the flesh. We are still not experienced grace in its fullness. And so, brethren, if somebody is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual-not everybody, but those who are spiritual. Who are the spiritual ones? Those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit, those who put the flesh to death. These are the only spiritual ones. Restore such a one. If you see a brother fallen, don't go speaking about him behind his back, don't condemn him, but restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Now gentleness is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If we are harsh and hard towards a brother who has fallen, then we are walking according to the flesh ourselves, and we ourselves are fallen. But who is the one who can help a brother who has fallen? The one who is spiritual, the one who is controlled by the Holy Spirit and who has a spirit of gentleness towards the one who has fallen. And it says here, looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Remember, you who are spiritual, that even you have a flesh, and if you are not careful, you also can be tempted, and if God withdraws His grace, you too can fall. So when you see a brother having fallen into sin, slipped up, what should your attitude towards him be? Say to yourself, If it were not for the grace of God, I would have done that same thing myself. If the grace of God had not kept me, I would have fallen, just like him, perhaps into something worse. That gives us an attitude of humility and meekness, because we realize that it is only the grace of God that keeps us from falling. Then we have the right spirit to go to a brother to help him, and if we do not have that spirit, it is far better we do not try to help others at all. It is far better that we keep quiet and ask God for mercy upon our own self and to give us grace to have a right attitude. The law of Christ is a law of love, and it seeks to restore people and not to condemn them. When you see a brother fall, your attitude to him shows you whether you are in the flesh or in the spirit. If you are in the flesh, you will condemn him and backbite against him. If you are in the spirit, you will humbly seek to restore him. We turn now to Galatians chapter 6, verse 1. Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another. For each one shall bear his own load. Now, one of the great tendencies that is found in the flesh of man is to compare ourselves with others. When we were in the world, we compared ourselves with other people in the world and considered ourselves better than them. There are unconverted religious people who think that God cannot refuse them a place in the kingdom because they are so much better than their neighbors in so many things. Therein they show their folly and their deception. When we are converted, this habit does not usually leave us till we have understood what it is to walk in the spirit. There is constantly this tendency to compare ourselves with others. Full-time Christian workers can commit this folly, preachers can compare themselves with one another, and even in prayer we can compare our prayer with somebody else's prayer in the meeting. This spirit of comparison, which is from the flesh, is deeply rooted in us, but it is the mark of a spiritual idiot. In 2 Corinthians 10, verse 12, Paul says that those who compare themselves with themselves are without understanding. That means they are idiots. When a man compares himself with another in any way, he is, spiritually speaking, an idiot, even though intellectually he may be very clever. Remember this, dear friends, that when you compare yourself with another believer, you are manifesting that you are a spiritual idiot. Now God seeks to save us from being idiots spiritually and being wise. God seeks to save us from this comparing of ourselves with others. This is what Paul is speaking of in Galatians 6. Verse 4, Let each one examine his own work and see how he is in relation to God's assessment of his life. If God were to examine his work, where would he stand? Then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone. In other words, if I can allow God to examine my life and I find that I can stand God's scrutiny, then I have something to glory in in God's grace before Him. Otherwise, he says in Galatians 6.4, all you have to glory in is in regard to another. That means that you are better than somebody else. And this tendency is what makes us despise someone else when he has fallen. And that is the context in which Paul is speaking. brother is caught in a trespass, has fallen into sin, immediately you are tempted to compare yourself with him and to say to yourself, I have not fallen like him. I am better than him. Maybe you are, but Paul says that is being a spiritual idiot, to compare yourself with another person, particularly with one who has fallen. No, he says, and if you think that you are something, verse 3, if anyone thinks he is something when actually he is nothing, he deceives himself. And when we compare ourselves with somebody else who has fallen and thereby congratulate ourselves that we have not fallen, we are deceiving ourselves. We are not deceiving anybody else except ourselves because we think we are something when we are nothing. And why is it we are nothing? Because we don't love that person. If we really want to be something, we must love that brother who has fallen. We must bear his burdens, verse 2, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. Now if I cannot bear his burden, then I am nothing. Because the mark of spiritual strength, we are told in Romans 15, verse 1, is very clearly that we can bear the weaknesses of others. Romans 15, verse 1, says, we who are strong, that is, the spiritually strong, ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength. Now if I cannot bear with the weaknesses of those who are not strong, then I am not strong myself. The mark of a baby is that he cannot lift any burden. When we are grown up and strong, we can carry burdens on our shoulders. We can help other people carry their luggage, but a baby cannot do that. And likewise, when we cannot bear with the weakness of another brother, that shows we are babies ourselves. There is nothing to glory in. We are nothing, and yet we think we are something because we did not fall into that particular sin which that other brother fell into. And then there is a great danger of thinking that we are something. And Paul says, if anyone thinks he is something, he is deceiving himself, because actually he is a nothing which is proved by the fact that he cannot bear that other man's burdens, that he cannot love that other man as Christ has loved us. And so if I cannot love another brother like Christ has loved me, I am a zero, I am a nothing. That's very clear. In 1 Corinthians 13 He says, If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and I have all faith so as to remove mountains, and I don't have the love of Christ, I am nothing. This is what makes me a nothing. The only thing that gives me value in the kingdom of God is when I have love. Then I may be something in God's kingdom. But if I don't have love, then I am nothing, and then I deceive myself if I think I am better than somebody else. But he says in verse 4, Let each one examine his own work, not his own knowledge. If we were to examine our own knowledge, we may say, I have got more Bible knowledge than that other man. If we were to examine our gift, we may say, I have more gift than that other man. But here He says, Let him examine his own work. And our work is not just our ministry, it is the work that we have done with our body. What work have you done with your tongue? Have you gossiped and scandalized others and criticized? Examine your work and see if the love of Christ is in it. What have you done with your hands? What have you done with your body? What is the work that has been done through your body, through the members of your body? Is it the life of Christ that has been manifested in that work? Then you have something to praise God for. Then you have something to really thank God for, that the love of Christ is being manifested through the members of your body. Let each man examine his own work. That's a good exhortation. Don't examine your knowledge. It's easy to increase in knowledge. There's no one who's got Bible knowledge as much as the devil. So that's not anything to be proud of, that we've got Bible knowledge. And if we increase in it, it proves nothing about our spirituality, but our work. Have we learned what it is to bear with others and their weaknesses? Has the fruit of the Spirit been manifested in our life, or is it the works of the flesh that we considered earlier in Chapter 5, verses 19 to 21, that are being manifested in us? Then, even if we haven't fallen in the way that another brother has fallen, it proves nothing. We are also fleshly, carnal babies like that other person, and there's no use glorying that we are just as slightly better than him because he's in the flesh and we are in the flesh too, and God puts us both in the same category. And so He says, Don't deceive yourself when you are a nothing, but seek to be something. Bear your own load, He says in verse 5. Each one shall bear his own load. There is a load which Jesus gives me, and that's described in Matthew 11, verse 29 and 30. Take My yoke upon you, Jesus said. Every day My cross, that's My load. My cross is to die to Myself. That is the load I must carry every day. And if I carry that load every day, then I shall find it easy to forgive My brother, easy to be gentle with him and to be gracious with him when he has fallen, and to lift him up when he has fallen down, instead of comparing Myself with him and thinking that I am more spiritual. Each one must bear his own load, and My load is the cross. If anyone will come after Me, Jesus said, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. And Jesus said, My yoke is easy and My load is light. It is a load of criticism and comparing others that's very heavy to bear, but when we die to ourselves, that's an easy load which Jesus gives us, for love lightens the burden, and then we fulfill the law of Christ. We turn now to Galatians, and chapter 6, and verse 6. And let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches. Here is an exhortation concerning bearing the financial burden of those who minister the word of God to us. In verse 2 He had spoken about bearing one another's burdens and thus fulfilling the law of Christ. One of the characteristics of love is that we bear the burdens of others, and if we love others as Christ has loved us, Christ's love for us made Him carry our burden of sin, and we, in turn, love others so that we can carry their burdens. And, in the first five verses, we saw last week how Paul speaks about bearing the burdens of the weaknesses and failures and faults and slip-ups that other people have with whom we have to do. In verse 6 he speaks about the financial burden that those who give themselves to the ministry of the word can have. In 1 Timothy 5, verse 17, we are told, Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing, and the laborer is worthy of his hire. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul says that the Lord has directed that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living from the gospel. That is a permission that the Lord has granted, but I did not do that. I did not use that privilege of living from Your offerings, even though I preached the word of God to you. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul says, If we sowed spiritual things to You, is it too much if we should reap material things from You? It is quite right and proper for us to give financially money and other material gifts to those who spend and give themselves faithfully to the ministry of the word to us. If they have given us spiritual profit and they spend their time doing that, it is right for us to support such people with our finances. That is what Paul is speaking of in Galatians 6. Let the one who is taught the word-are you being taught the word?-then share all good things with him who teaches you the word. That is right and proper. That is one aspect of bearing the burdens of others and fulfilling the law of Christ in our life. Now this is not an exhortation to the teacher. It is wrong for a teacher of the word to hammer away with this verse those who listen to him and expect money from them. No, this is an exhortation to those who hear, but it is up to their freedom of choice whether they give or not or whether they support or not. So if you are in full-time Christian work or you are a teacher of the word, living by the gospel, we are not to expect others to fulfill this word. Our trust must be in God and not in men. But here is an exhortation for those who receive help. Further he goes on to say in verse 7, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. That is a principle in nature, that if we sow potatoes, we reap potatoes, if we sow wheat, we reap wheat. In exactly the same way, he says, if you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption. That is definite. But if you sow to the spirit, then from the spirit you reap eternal life. Eternal life does not mean just living forever. Eternal life is a life which has no beginning and no end, and therefore it refers to the life of God. It speaks not of quantity of life, but of quality of life, the character of God. If I want to reap that in my life, that is the fruit of the spirit we considered earlier in Galatians 5.22 and 23, then I must give myself to sowing to the spirit. I cannot expect the fruit of the divine character if I do not sow. Galatians 5.22 speaks of the fruit of the spirit. How does fruit come on a tree? You have to sow the seed, and the tree has to come first. And so Paul says, you must sow to the spirit if you want this fruit of eternal life to come forth in you, just like we sow to the flesh and reap the fruit of corruption in past days and will continue to reap that fruit of corruption in the future if we continue to sow to the flesh. Every day, by our thoughts, we are sowing a seed. By our words, we are sowing a seed. By our deeds, by our attitudes, by our motives, by the things that we live for, by our ambitions and plans, we are sowing seeds all the time. Now what is going to come forth as the harvest for you in the final day? And even in this life, what is the harvest you are reaping? That can be clearly mentioned. It is the seed that you have sown in the past, that you are reaping a little measure today and that you will reap in a great measure in eternity. And God cannot be deceived here. Do not be deceived, he says. You cannot fool God, because however much you may claim to be spiritual, what you sow is what you will reap, what you do in your hidden life. That's what you're going to reap in this life and throughout eternity. And therefore, he says, let's not lose heart in doing good. This is the seed we must sow, even if we don't get immediate results. No farmer gets immediate results from the seed he sows. He sows, he waters and waits for many weeks and months before he gets fruit out of it. If it's a mango tree, for example, or a coconut tree, it takes years before we reap the result of the seed we have sown and planted and watered and cared for and nurtured. And so he says, let's not lose heart. One day you'll see abundant fruit coming forth, eternal life, the character of God, coming forth in you. So let's not lose heart in doing good. Don't be selfish. The flesh is full of selfishness. It only thinks in terms of receiving from others but not doing good to others. We can see whether we are in the flesh by our attitude to gifts. Do we love to give to others or do we long to receive? That shows whether we are in the flesh or in the spirit. The one who is in the spirit will follow Jesus' words, who said it is more blessed to give than to receive. The one who is in the flesh will always be expecting others to give him, and those who are in full-time Christian work are particularly in danger here of always expecting other people to give them gifts. They are in the flesh, then, and they cannot lead others into the spirit if they themselves are in the flesh. No, we are to have our mind renewed so that we don't think in terms of getting but in terms of giving, not in terms of others doing good to us but of our doing good to them. And if we keep on doing it, in due time we shall reap. For what we give, the Lord says, it will be given back to you, full measure pressed down and running over, if we don't grow weary. We are not to give up. So then, He says, while we have opportunity. When is it that we have opportunity? Now in this life. Don't wait and postpone. One day death will come, and then we shall have no opportunity. Now when we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, for we shall pass through this life only once. And if we can bless somebody with good words, encourage someone with words of faith, if we can do some good, help somebody who is poor financially, whatever good we can do in this life. Let us follow in the footsteps of Jesus, about whom it was written in Acts 10.38. He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, and He went about doing good. To follow in the footsteps of Jesus is to crucify this selfish nature of ours and to do good to all men, but especially our priority is the household of faith. We can't help every beggar in the street, but we can begin with helping the poor among the believers. And first with the household of faith we begin to do good, and that good can extend to other men outside. And if we continue in this way, we shall reap a harvest of the divine nature and eternal life in abundance. We turn now to Galatians, Chapter 6, verse 11. Paul is now concluding this letter to the Galatians, and as it was his practice with the letters that he wrote to a number of the churches, he would write the concluding greetings with his own hand. And so he says in verse 11, See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. There was the danger in those days of people writing, claiming to write as or on behalf of the apostle Paul. We read of one example of that in Second Thessalonians, Chapter 2, verse 2, where he says that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter, as if from us. There were people who were using the name of Paul and seeking to deceive others who thought that Paul was writing this particular letter to them. And so we read in Second Thessalonians 3.17, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter. This is the way I write. Now, Paul was in prison most of the time when he wrote these letters. He was old and infirm in many ways, and he usually got someone else to write the letter as he dictated. But to avoid a forgery, to avoid people writing as though Paul had dictated that letter, at the end of a letter he would write with his own handwriting so that people could distinguish this has come from Paul. And he says, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter. This is the way I write, and this is what we see in Galatians 6.11 also. See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. And obviously his eyesight was weak, and so he had to write with large letters. And then he writes this concluding paragraph with his own hand. Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. And in those days when there was this conflict between Christianity and Judaism, it was possible to avoid the reproach and persecution that could come by the preaching of the cross by submitting to the Jewish rite of circumcision. And there were those who did not want persecution who compromised the message of the gospel to avoid persecution. And these are the people about whom Paul was writing here. Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh, that is, those who desire to get the honor of men, would try to compel you to be circumcised so that you are not persecuted by the Jews. But if you stand for the freedom of the gospel, then you will refuse that circumcision. You will say, There is no need to go back under the law of Moses, for through the cross of Christ I am free from the law because I have come under grace. And then Paul says concerning these people who are so keen on your getting through an external ritual, those who are circumcised do not even keep the law themselves. They keep the external ritual of circumcision, but they do not keep the law. For example, the law which says, Thou shalt not covet, Paul, who tried to keep the law with his whole heart, says very clearly in Romans 7 that he was found out when it came to that one commandment. So he says, Those who are circumcised do not keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. The world is full of people who look for a following, and he says these people have come with their compromising message in order to get a following for themselves, and they want you to be circumcised so that they can include you also in their number. Jesus never looked for people who would add to His congregation, neither did Paul. They looked for disciples, but these people wanted numbers, and so they tried to get these Galatians circumcised. But Paul says, I cannot boast in any of these things. I don't boast even in you Galatians as my followers. I don't look for these things. He says, God forbid, may it never be, Galatians 6.14, that I ever boast in anything except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. If there was one thing Paul boasted in, it was the fact that Jesus died on the cross for his sins and that he, Paul, was crucified with Christ on the cross. In Paul's mind, these two went together, Christ dying for his sins on the cross and he, Paul, the old man, dying with Christ on the cross. These were not two things that were separated in Paul's mind. They were together. Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ. Galatians 5.24, those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh, and here in Galatians 6.14, the cross of Jesus Christ, not just where He died for my sins, but through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. The purpose of the cross was not just forgiveness of sins. No, it was beyond that, that there might be a definite breaking of our connection with the world, and that's what Paul is referring to here in verse 14, that just like Jesus, when He died on that cross, His connection with the world was broken, and the world's connection to Christ was broken. He says, As I have been united with Jesus in that death on the cross, my connection to this world has been broken, and the world's connection to me is broken. Now when Paul speaks of the world, what's he referring to? He's not referring to the people of the world, but what John says the world consists of. In 1 John 2.16-17, the world consists of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, the love for material things. Paul says my connection with it is gone once and for all through the cross. The desire for worldly pleasures, he says that's been cut off through the cross. The pride of life, my desire to be popular, to be esteemed by men, even by you Galatian Christians or by any other Christians, that desire has been cut off, he says, all that is of the world. And what Paul is referring to here is if you really want a circumcision, a cutting off, here is what really needs to be cut off, your attachment to the world and the world's attachment to you. That's what the cross really does. It does a circumcision in our heart, and that's the real circumcision that we need, that cuts off our connection with the flesh and its lusts and its desires, and he says that's the only circumcision I will ever boast in, the circumcision of the heart affected by the cross of Christ on which I was crucified, by which the world is now no longer an attraction to me. Now dear friend, have you had that circumcision of the heart in your life? Has the cross of Jesus not only brought forgiveness of sins to you, but a cutting off of this world and its pull continuously which comes to you, that you have been circumcised from it? That is the purpose of the cross. And Paul goes on. This external circumcision, he says, has no value. Verse 15. The external uncircumcision has no value. The only thing that has value is a new creation. Galatians 6.15. A new creation in Christ with the old buried and a new one created. A new creation, a new man whose mind is now set not on the things of this world or the lusts of the flesh, but on the things above and the glory of God. And Paul says in verse 16, Those who will walk by this rule, this rule of being crucified with Christ, this rule of the new creation, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. The Israel of God is the church. Peace and mercy be upon them. And from now on, Paul says, let no one cause trouble for me, and no one can cause any trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus. In this body the dying of Jesus is taking place, and therefore I have been cut off from this world. I bear that in my body, and no one can trouble me now. And he says, Dear friends, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, this grace that can free you from sin's power, may that be with your spirit, brethren. Amen. And that is something that we too can think of, this grace that has come through Christ, that it might be ours to forgive our sins and to free us from sin and deliver us from this world.