Galatians 5

CHAPTER 5THEME: Sanctification by the Spirit; saved by faith and living by law perpetrates falling from grace; saved by faith and walking in the Spirit produces fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:1

SANCTIFICATION BY THE SPIRITThis brings us to the third major division in Galatians after the Introduction. The first section was personal, and it was important for us to know the personal experience Paul had had. Following this was the doctrinal section of justification by faith in which Paul insisted that our salvation must rest upon God’s salvation and that there is only one gospel. We come now to the practical side, which is sanctification by the Spirit. Justification is by faith; sanctification is by the Spirit of God. Scripture tells us, however, that the Lord Jesus Christ has been made unto us sanctificationthat is, God sees us complete in Him. Regardless of how good you become, you will never meet His standard. You will never be like Christ in this life. Christ is the only One about whom God said, “…This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mat_3:17). But the body of believers, the church, has been put in Christ. He is the Head of the body; those of us who are believers are His body in the world todayand we should represent Him, by the way. The method of sanctification is by the Spirit. In this section we see the Spirit versus the flesh. Either it is a do-it-yourself Christian life or somebody else will have to do it through you. His method is doing it through you. In this section we see liberty versus bondage. Any legal system puts you under bondage, and you have to follow it meticulously. Let me illustrate this from my own experience with civil law with which all of us are familiar. As I was driving my car early one Sunday morning, I came to a corner where there was a stop sign. It was so early, no one else was out; I looked up and down the street, but I didn’t stopI just crawled through. A traffic officer appeared behind me; he came up to me and asked, “Did you see that stop sign?” I said, “Yes, I saw the sign; I just didn’t see you!” Then he asked, “Do you know what that sign means?” And he proceeded to give me a primary lesson in law. He said, “Stop means stop.” Well, I already knew that; I just wasn’t doing it. Believe me, the law puts you in bondage. And if you are going to drive a car, you had better be under law, because a lot of folk drive through stop signs and cause accidents.

Stop means stop. I agreed with him on everything except one: I didn’t think I deserved a ticket. I argued with him about that. And he was a very nice fellow; he saw my point. He said, “Well, I grant you that there is nobody out this morning, but hereafter you stop. Will you?” I assured him that I would stop.

Ever since then, even if it is early Sunday morning, I stop at that signand wherever I see a stop sign. Now that is legalism. It is an example of legalism that we all understand. SAVED BY FAITH AND LIVING BY LAW PERPETRATES FALLING FROM GRACEPaul begins on the note of liberty which we have in Christ. His subject in these first fifteen verses is “Saved by faith and living by law perpetrates falling from grace.” This is what it means to fall from grace: you are saved by faith, then you drop down to a law level to live. We will see this illustrated as we move into this section. He is saying here that not only are we saved by faith rather than by law, but law is not to be the rule of life for the believer. We are not to live by law at all. The law principle is not the rule for Christian living. Paul is saying that since we have been saved by grace we are to continue on in this way of living. Grace supplies the indwelling and filling of the Spirit to enable us to live on a higher plane than law demanded. This all is our portion when we trust Christ as Savior.

It is in Christ that we receive everythingsalvation and sanctification. Don’t tell me I need to seek a second blessing. When I came to Christ, I got everything I needed. Paul tells me that I have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. Let’s believe Him and start trusting. Let’s stop trying some legal system or rote of rules. We have a liberty in Christ. He does not put us under some little legal system. We do not use the Ten Commandments as a law of life. I don’t mean we are to break the Ten CommandmentsI think we all understand that breaking most of them (i.e., thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, etc.) would lead to our arrest by local authorities. Certainly Christians do not break the Commandments, but we are called to a higher level to live. That level is where there is liberty in Christ.

I have a liberty in Jesus Christ, and that liberty is not a rule, but a principle. It is that I am to please Him. My conduct should be to please Jesus Christnot to please you, not to please any organization, but only to please Him. That is the liberty that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Galatians 5:2

Circumcision was the badge of the Law. A badge indicates to what organization or lodge you belong. Perhaps Christians should wear a badge because that is about the only way you could tell that some people are Christians. But Paul says that if you so much as put on the badge of the Law, which is circumcision, then Christ does not profit you anything. Let me use a homely illustration to prove the point. Years ago a tonic called Hadacol was advertised. I don’t think it is sold any more. I am not sure of the details, but they found it was about seventy-five percent alcohol. A lot of people were using it. The company that made it was giving out glowing testimonials about its product.

Now suppose a testimonial read something like this: “I took 513 bottles of your medicine. Before I began using Hadacol, I could not walk. Now I am able to run, and I am actually able to fly! I really have improved. But I think you ought to know that during that time I also concocted a bottle of my own medicine and used it also.” Now, my friend, that final sentence certainly muddied the water. There is no way to tell if it was the 513 bottles of Hadacol that cured him or his own concoction.

The minute you put something else into the formula, you are not sure. Now notice carefully what Paul is saying. If you trust Christ plus something else you are not saved. If you go so far as to be circumcised, which is only the badge of the Law, or if you go through some other experience and rest your salvation on that, “Christ shall profit you nothing.” How can He profit you anything when you have made up a bottle of your own concoction rather than trusting Him alone for your salvation? The way Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer put it always impressed me. It was something like this: “I want to so trust Christ that when I come into His presence and He asks me, ‘Why are you here?’ I can say, ‘I am here because I trusted You as my Savior.’ If He asked me, ‘Well, that is commendable, but what have you done? I happen to know that you were president of a seminary, and that you were baptized. You were also a member of a church. You did many fine things during your ministry,’ then I would reply, ‘It is all true, but I never trusted in any of it for salvation.

I trusted only You, my Lord.’” My friend, is that the way you are trusting Christ? Paul makes it very strong when he says, “if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.” If you trust anything other than Christ, you are not a Christian.

Galatians 5:3

You cannot draw out of the Law just those things that you like. You cannot leave out the penalties and a great deal of the detail. You must take the whole Law or nothing. I am delighted that I am not under the Law. I have liberty in Christ! I must confess that I have a problem of always pleasing Him, but He is the One I am trying to please. I am not following some legal system. “For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.”

Galatians 5:4

If you have been saved by trusting Christ, then go down to the low level of living by the Law, you have fallen from grace. This is what “falling from grace” actually means. I can remember as a student in a denominational seminary hearing one theologian say, “Falling from grace is the doctrine which the Methodists believe and the Presbyterians practice.” However, falling from grace does not mean falling into some open sin or careless conduct, and by so doing forfeiting your salvation so that you have to be saved all over again. It has no reference to that at all. “Falling from grace” is the opposite of “once saved always saved,” although both expressions are unfortunate terminology. Paul deals with this matter of falling from grace in the remainder of this chapter. He also deals with it in his Epistle to the Romans.

In Romans he begins with man in the place of total bankruptcywithout righteousness, completely depraved, as unprofitable as rotten fruit. Man is a sinner before God. Then at the conclusion of Romans you see man in the service of God and being admonished to perform certain things. Not only is he admonished to perform certain things, he is completely separated to God, and he must be obedient to God. There are two mighty works of God which stand between the man in his fallen condition and man in service to God. These are salvation and sanctification. As we have seen, salvation is justification by faith. That is all-important. Sanctification means that after you are saved you are to come up to a new plane of living. I think the greatest fallacy is to believe that service is essential in the Christian life, that you must get busy immediately.

The early church was more concerned with its manner of life, and that life was a witness to the world. Today the outside world is looking at the church and passing it by because we are busy, as busy as termites, but we do not have lives to back up our witness. Rather than concentrating on trying to do good, we ought to live “good.” If we are pleasing Christ, we will be doing good also. I think there is more about sanctification in the Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians than anything else. Now how does God make a saved sinner good? Well, He gives him a new nature. Then he is to keep the Law? Oh, no. Emphatically no. This doesn’t mean he is to break the Law, but he is called to live on a higher plane.

There is no good in the old nature. Paul found that out, and he also found out from experience that there is no power in the new nature. As to salvation he said, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing,” and he also found out, “…to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not” (Rom_7:18, italics mine). And he cries out as a saved man, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom_7:24). He is not afraid that he is going to lose his salvation, but he is a defeated Christian. God gives a new principle.

We will find in this chapter that the new principle is the fruit of the Spirit. Living the Christian life by this method for some Christians is as farfetched as living on the moon! They never expect to live there. Perhaps they have never even heard about the possibility. My friend, this is the life He wants us to liveby faith. We are saved by grace; we are to live by grace.

Galatians 5:5

“The hope of righteousness” is the only prophetic reference in the entire epistle. This is quite remarkable, because in all Paul’s epistles he has something to say about the rapture of the church or about Christ’s coming to earth to establish His kingdom. But here in Galatians he says only this: “the hope of righteousness by faith,” and the hope of righteousness is the Lord Jesus Christ. The only hope is the blessed hope, and Christ is made unto us righteousness. As I have pointed out, the Epistle to the Galatians was very important to Martin Luther and to the other reformers. This is one of the reasons, I am confident, that they spent so little time on prophecy. All the schools of prophecythe premillennialists, the amillennialists, and the postmillennialists have quoted Martin Luther and the other reformers on this matter of prophecy. But I do not think that there was any development of prophecy beyond what the early church wrote until the twentieth century. In this twentieth century there has been tremendous development in prophecy. The Bible institutes were probably the beginning of this movement, then two or three of our seminaries that have emphasized the premillennial position have forced the others to study prophecy. Actually, amillennialists are just a group of the postmillennialists who were forced into the study of prophecy and came up with the theory of amillennialism. Of course, they have been great at quoting the fathers of the postapostolic period.

They say, Augustine said thus and so, and he did say it. He was attempting to build the kingdom here, that is, the church was going to bring in the kingdom. This led to postmillennialism, which was, of course, a false position. I don’t feel that we should criticize Augustine for that since he was living in a day when the study of prophecy was not developed. The person of Christ was the great subject during his time, as salvation was the great subject later on. Therefore the fact that Paul has only this brief reference to prophecy in his Epistle to the Galatians is understandable, since his emphasis is on the gospel and the Christian life. It is important to note the priorities in any book of the Bible and also the priorities that were in existence in any given period. Failing to do this leads to misinterpretation and misunderstanding which is the case in quoting church fathers on the matter of prophecy. After all, the authorities on prophecy are Paul, Peter, James, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We need to note what they have written on the subject of prophecy. But to the Galatians Paul writes simply, “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” I think Paul’s reason for saying this here is that believers are not going to reach perfection in this life.

And the greatest imperfection I know of today is to think you have reached perfection. Folk who think they are perfect are imperfect like the rest of usbut they don’t know it.

Galatians 5:6

No legal apparatus will produce a Christian life. The formula is simple: “faith which worketh by love.” As we advance in Galatians, Paul will give us the modus operandi, but let us remember that it is a simple formula: “Faith which worketh by love.” That is the way to live the Christian life. Faith will work by love. Love will be the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:7

Paul chides the Galatians. He is giving them a gentle rebuke. They were doing excellently until the Judaizers came along. “The truth” is the gospel, of course, and the Lord Jesus Christ in person.

Galatians 5:8

It didn’t come from Christ but from a different source.

Galatians 5:9

In Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, leaven is always used as a principle of evil. In Mat_13:33, when the woman hid leaven in three measures of meal, the leaven was not the gospel. It may be the kind of a “gospel” that is passing around today as legal tender, but it is still evil. In fact, Paul says that it is no gospel at all. The Lord Jesus warned His disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees (see Mat_16:6). I think we need to be warned today of the leaven of legalism.

It is an awful thing. Legalism says that when Christ died on the cross for you and me, over nineteen hundred years ago, He did not give us a full package of salvation, but that I have to go through a ritual of baptism or seek something else from the Holy Spirit to get the rest of it. My friend, I received it all when I accepted Christ. Now I may have experiences after I am saved, but that does not add to my salvation. Christ is the One who wrought out our salvation. The Lord Jesus said that the woman would take the leaven and hide it in three measures of meal, symbolic of the gospel.

In other words, leaven has been hidden in the gospeland that makes it palatable to the natural man. I was brought up in the South, and I never knew there was any kind of biscuits but hot biscuits. My mother used to bake them every day. Even yet I can see those biscuits in the dough stage, rising on the back of the stove. When they reached a certain height, she stuck them in the oven. They had leaven in them. When the biscuits were done, I would put butter and honey on them. There was nothing better! That is still my favorite dessert. There is a lot of leaven being put in the gospel today to make it more palatable. Natural man likes the leavened bread. It tastes good. However, we are warned not to do that.

Galatians 5:10

Paul believed that the Galatians would ultimately reject the teaching of the Judaizers. He says, “I have confidence in you” that when you get your feet back on the ground, and your heads out of the clouds, you will return to the gospel that was preached to you, and you will see that the teaching of the Judaizers was an intrusion, that it was leaven.

Galatians 5:11

This verse is important to note. Paul asks, “If I preach circumcision, why am I persecuted?” Adding something to the gospel makes it acceptable. The gospel, by itself, is not acceptable to the natural man. Preaching the gospel does antagonize some folk. Paul asks, “If I am including something else in the gospel, why am I being persecuted?” “Then is the offence of the cross ceased.” Actually, the cross of Christ is an offense to all that man prides himself in. It is an offense to his morality because it tells him his work cannot justify him. It is an offense to his philosophy because its appeal is to faith and not to reason. It is an offense to the culture of man because its truths are revealed to babes. It is an offense to his sense of caste because God chooses the poor and humble. It is an offense to his will because it calls for an unconditional surrender.

It is an offense to his pride because it shows the exceeding sinfulness of the human heart. And it is an offense to himself because it tells him he must be born again. You know, that was almost insulting to the Pharisee Nicodemus that night when Jesus told him, religious as he was, that he must be born again. For the same reason, a lot of ministers who are preaching the New Birth get in trouble with their congregations. Some members don’t want to be born againthey feel like they’re good enough as they are. It’s an insult to them.

The Cross is an offense, but we need to guard against magnifying it. One of my professors in seminary said a very wise thing. He said, “Young gentlemen, do not tone down the gospel, do not change it, because there is the offense of the Cross. You need to recognize it, but don’t magnify the offense.” Sometimes we become offensive in the way we give the gospelmay the Lord forgive us for doing that. When I was a pastor, a man on my staff antagonized a family and caused them to leave the church. I said to him, “Now look, you and I are not to antagonize people. If anything antagonizes them, let it be the gospel I preachnot you or me, but the gospel.”

Galatians 5:12

I wish these Judaizers were removed from you.

Galatians 5:13

There are three methods of trying to live the Christian lifetwo of them will not work. One is a life of legalism, which Paul has been discussing. The other is the life of license, which Paul discussed in Romans 6: After we are saved by grace, can we live in sin? Paul’s answer is, “God forbid.” You can’t live in sin and be a Christian. Now you may fall into sin, but you will get out of it. The Prodigal Son can get in the pig pen, but he won’t settle down therethe pig pen won’t be his forwarding address. He will leave it. The Christian life is neither the life of legalism nor the life of license. The third method of living the Christian life is the life of liberty, and in the remainder of this chapter he will give us the modus operandi for living by liberty. The life of legalism includes not only the Ten Commandments, but a set of regulations that Bible believers follow today. They tell you where you can’t go, and what you can’t do. I remember a wonderful woman who was a Bible teacher in Texas. She did an outstanding job of teaching the Bible. One day a dear little saint came up to me and asked, “Do you think she is really a Christian?

She uses makeup!” Who in the world ever said that makeup was a test of whether or not a person is a Christian? I told this dear saint that the Bible teacher was living under liberty. She might have been using too much makeup, but at her age she probably needed to spread it on a little thicker. Candidly, I do not think it helps her too much, but she has liberty in Christ. Whether you eat meat or do not eat meat won’t commend you to God. Whether you use makeup or don’t use makeup won’t commend you to God.

Paul is saying that you can keep every commandment and still not live the Christian life. You can not only keep all Ten Commandments, you can follow every commandment others put down for you to live by, and you still would not be living the Christian life. Also there are the antinomians who think they can do as they please and be living the Christian life. These folk are as extreme as the legalists. The Christian life is not either one; it is liberty in Christ. “Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh.” What does the gospel of grace do for the believer? It is grace, not law, that frees us from doing wrong and allows us to do right. Grace does not set us free to sin, but it sets us free from sin. You see, the believer should desire to please God, not because he must please Him like a slave, but because he is a son and he wills to please his Father. He does what God wants, not because he fears to do otherwise like an enemy, but because he wants to do it, for God is his friend. God is the One who loves him. He serves God, not because of pressure from without such as the Law, but because of a great principle withineven the life of Christ that is within him. We serve God because we love Him. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (see Joh_14:15). I have often wondered if a disciple had said, “I don’t love You,” would our Lord have said, “Then forget about My commandments”? The whole basis of obedience is a love relationship to Him. The Law never could bring us to that place. It was negative to begin with.

It produced a negative goodnesswhich is the kind of goodness a great many people have today. Oh, if I could only get this truth through to a great many of the saints! Your negative goodness is a legal goodness. You can say, “I don’t do this and I don’t do that.” But what do you do? My friend, all legal systems produce only negative goodness. They never rise to the sphere of positive goodness where one does things to please God for the very love of pleasing Him.

He wants us to serve Him on that kind of basis. Now Paul is going to reduce it to a simple statement, then he will amplify what he means.

Galatians 5:14

Here the Law is reduced to the lowest common denominator. This is the acid test for those who think they are living by the Law. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” The “one word” is love.

Galatians 5:15

I have always wanted to preach a sermon on this text, and I would entitle it “Christian Cannibals.” Did you know that in many churches today the Christians bite, eat, and devour one another? And the bite is as bad as that of a mad dog. There is nothing you can take that will cure the wound. All you can do is suffer. There are a lot of mad dogs running around today. They will bite and devour you.

Unfortunately, the world has passed by the church in our day, and I’m sorry it has because there are many fine people in our churches and many wonderful preachers throughout this country. But the lives of some Christians are keeping the world away from certain churches. I personally know examples of this. I know churches in which the Christians have no love for each other, but they bite and devour one another. It is a terrible thing!

Galatians 5:16

SAVED BY FAITH AND WALKING IN THE SPIRIT PRODUCES FRUIT OF THE SPIRITNow Paul is going to contrast living in the desires of the flesh with walking in the Spirit. This whole section gives the modus operandi. As we enter this important section, I want to make a recapitulation and tie it in with what we have had. In this section the theme is sanctification by the Spirit. Paul has told us that we are to “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (v. Gal_5:1). From what has Christ set us free? Paul has already mentioned several things in this epistle.

In chapter 1, verse Gal_1:4, he tells us that Christ has set us free from this present evil world. That is, we don’t have to serve it. Then in chapter 2, verse Gal_2:20, he says, “I live; yet not I.” You and I cannot live the Christian life, but Christ can live it in us. What wonderful liberty! In chapter 3, verse Gal_3:13, he tells us that we have been delivered from the curse of the Law. We have been delivered from the judgment and the condemnation of the Law.

In fact, we have been delivered from the very Law itself: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal_4:4-5). Now Paul is going to contrast what it is to live in the desires of the flesh with the life of walking in the Spirit. Here is his injunction. This verse states the great principle of Christian livingwalk by means of the Spirit. The word for walk is peripateo, which means just “to walk up and down.” This Greek word was used for a school of philosophy in Athens, Greece, in which the founder walked up and down as he taught. The principle for us is walking in the Spirit. If we do, we will not “fulfil the lust of the flesh.” The word lust in our usage today has an evil connotation, which the Greek word does not have. Lust of the flesh refers to the desires of the flesh, many of which are not immoral, but are of the flesh (music, art, and works of dogooders, etc.). There are many things which in themselves are not evil, but they can take the place of spiritual things. Some Christians can get wrapped up in a hobby which takes them away from the Word of God. Many Christians spend a lot of time worshiping before that little idiot box we call TV. Now don’t misunderstandI watch TV. I am not under any law that says I can’t watch TV. There are a few programs one can enjoy. But watching TV is a desire of the flesh. If it takes you away from that which is spiritual, then it is wrong.

Galatians 5:17

A transliteration of this verse will help convey the meaning: “For the flesh warreth against the Spirit, and the Spirit warreth against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” that is, the things that the old nature wanted to do. This is very important to seethe flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit wars against the flesh. A believer has a new nature. This is what our Lord said to Nicodemus when He said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Joh_3:6). The believer still has that old nature of the flesh, and he won’t get rid of it in this life. The idea that we can get rid of that old nature is a tragic mistake. John said, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1Jn_1:8). My friend, if the truth is not in you, then you must be a liar. That puts the “perfect” individual in the position of being a liar. We have two naturesthe old and the new. That is what Paul describes in the last part of Romans. He himself experienced the turmoil of two natures, and this has also been the experience of many believers. The flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit wars against the flesh. Therefore, we cannot do the things that we would like to do. The new nature rebels against the old nature. They are contrary; they are at war with each other. Have you experienced this in your own life? There is a song we sing entitled “Come Thou Fount by Robert Robinson. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise. It is a wonderful hymn. In the last stanza are these words: Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; After this song was written, someone looked at it and said, “That is not my experienceI’ll change that.” So in some hymnbooks we find these words: Prone to worship, Lord, I feel it, Prone to love the God I serve. Which is true? Well, both are true. I have a nature that is prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love. There are times when this old nature of mine wants to wander away from the Lord! Have you had this experience? Also I have a new nature that is prone to worship the Lord. There are times when I am riding along alone in my car, and I just cry out to Him, “Oh, Lord, how wonderful You are! I love You and worship You.” That is the expression of my new nature; my old nature never gets around to praising Him or loving Him. Every believer has an old and a new nature. There are folk who say, “Well, I can’t tell whether I am walking in the Spirit or not.” Don’t kid yourself about this. You can know. Paul has spelled it out here so that you cannot miss it.

Galatians 5:18

The Holy Spirit of God brings us to a higher plane. Now Paul makes clear what the works of the flesh are:

Galatians 5:19

This is an ugly brood of sensual sins, religious sins, social sins, and personal sins. Sensual SinsAdulteryomitted from the best manuscripts, included in fornication-102Fornicationprostitution-102Uncleanness(akatharsia) impurity, sexual sins including pornography-102Lasciviousnessbrutality, sadism (we see this abounding in our day)-102Religious SinsIdolatryworship of idols (this includes money and everything that takes the place of God)-102Witchcraft(pharmakeia) drugs (drugs are used in all heathen religions)-102Hatredenmity-102Variances(eristhe Greek Eris was the goddess of strife) contentions, quarrels-102Social SinsEmulations(zelos) rivalry, jealousy-102Wrath(thumos) a hot temper-102Strifefactions, cliques (little cliques in a church hurt the cause of Christ)-102Seditionsdivisions-102Heresiesparties, sects-102Envyings(phthonos)-102Murdersomitted from the best manuscripts probably because it is included in other sins mentioned here (the Lord said if you hate you are guilty of murder)-102Personal SinsDrunkenness-102Revelings, wantonnessNotice that Paul concludes this list of the works of the flesh by “and such like,” which means there are many others he could have mentioned. “They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” “Which do” indicates continuous action. Our Lord gave the illustration of the Prodigal Son who got down in the pig pen but didn’t stay there. The only ones that stay in a pig pen are pigs. If a son gets there, he will be very unhappy until he gets out. If you can continue to live in sin, you are in a dangerous position. It means you are not a child of God. Now, having listed the works of the flesh, Paul will list the fruit of the Spirit. Notice the contrast: works of the flesh and fruit of the Spirit. The works of the flesh are what you do. The Ten Commandments were given to control the flesh. But now the Christian life is to produce the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22

The Lord Jesus Christ talked about the fruit of the Spirit in John 15. He said that without Him we could do nothing. And fruit is what He wants in our lives. He wants fruit, more fruit, and much fruit. In His parable of the sower, He spoke of seed bringing forth thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and an hundredfold (see Matt. 13). He wants us to bear much fruit. Now the fruit is produced by the Lord Jesus using the Spirit of God in our lives. He wants to live His life through us. That is the reason I keep saying that you are never asked to live the Christian life. You are asked to let Him live through you. No believer can live the Christian life himself. The old nature cannot produce the fruit of the Spirit. Paul makes it clear in Rom_7:18 that the new nature has no power to produce the fruit of the Spirit. He said, “…to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” That is the problem with many of us. How do you do it? This is not a do-it-yourself operation. But how are we going to let the Spirit of God produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives? The subject of fruit bearing is an interesting one. When speaking about it, I like to use the illustration of my ranch. I have a ranch in Pasadena. It is not what you would call a big ranch. It Isaiah 72 feet wide and goes back about 123 feet. My house is right in the middle of it.

I have a nice nectarine tree out in front, which really produces fruit. I have three orange trees, four avocado trees, a lemon tree, and a few other trees. There is never a period during the year in California that I do not have some fruit on some tree. I have observed that fruit is produced by the tree, not by self-effort. As far as I can tell, the branches never get together and say, “Let’s all work hard and see what we can do for this fellow, McGee, because he likes fruit.” I do enjoy fruit but, as far as I can tell, these branches that bear fruit just open up themselves to the sunshine and to the rain. A bloom appears, then the little green fruit forms, grows, and then ripens. Another thing that I have noticed is that the limbs never leave the trunk of the treethey don’t get down and run around. Our Lord said, “…As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” (Joh_15:4). Our problem is that we offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, but when the altar gets hot, we crawl off. We are to abide in Christ if we are to produce fruit. Paul is stating the principle of fruit-bearing so that we can understand it. The fruit is produced by yieldingby yielding to the sweet influences that are about us. I am not talking about the world and neither is Paul. We are to yield to the Holy Spirit who indwells us. The Holy Spirit wants to produce fruitit is called the fruit of the Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.” Notice it is singular: is, not are. You can argue about the grammar used here, but it happens to be singular in the Greek. This indicates that love is the fruit, and from it stems all other fruits. Love is primary. Paul says that without love we “…become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal” (1Co_13:1). First Corinthians 13 was never intended to be removed from the Bible, beautifully framed, and hung on the wall. It belongs to the gifts of the Spirit, and the gifts are not to be exercised except by the fruit of the Spirit, which is love. You cannot exercise a gift without doing it by the fruit of the Spirit. Love is all-important. Paul continues to say in 1 Corinthians 13 that if you give your body to be burned and give everything that you have, but don’t have love, you are a nothing. We need to recognize the importance of what Paul is saying. Another thing that Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 is that “love never seeks its own.” Love is always doing something for others. A gift is always to be exercised in the church. It is a manifestation of the Spirit to all believers. All believers have a gift, and it is to be exercised for the profit of the body of believers. My eyes operate for the benefit of the rest of my body. They guide my body in the right direction.

They are important. I cannot imagine my eyes walking out on the rest of my body and saying, “We like looking around, and your feet get tired, so we are going to leave you for awhile.” They never do that. We need to recognize that no gift apart from the fruit of the Spirit is to be exercisedand that fruit is love. This is the kind of fruit the Lord Jesus was talking about in John 15. The fruit is the fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (vv. Gal_5:22-23). There is “no law” against them, and no law which will produce them. You cannot produce any of these by your own effort. Have you ever tried being meek, for instance? If you tried being meek, and accomplished it, you would be proud that you became meek, and then you would lose your meekness and humility. For a moment let us look at the fruit of the Spirit. It should characterize the lives of believers. I used to hear the late Dr. Jim McGinley say, “I am not to judge you, but I am a fruit inspector, and I have a right to look at the fruit you are producing.” The question is, are you producing any fruit in your life? Now love ought to be in your heart and life if you are a believer. But, friend, if there are sensual sins in your life, you will never know what real love is. There are many young people today who know a great deal about sex, but they know nothing about love. Love is a fruit of the Spirit, and God will give this love to a husband for his wife, and to the wife for her husband. I don’t think anyone can love like two Christians can love. My, how they can love each other! I shall never forget the night I proposed to my wife. She did not accept me that night, but when she did, we had prayer and dedicated our lives to the Lord. I told her, “I am a preacher who speaks out plainly. I may get into trouble some day. We may find ourselves out on the street.” I shall never forget what she said to me: “Well, I’ll just beat the drum for you if you have to get out on the street!” That is love on a higher plane. When we lost our first little girl, I did not want the doctor to tell my wifeI wanted to tell her. When I gave her the news, we wept together and then we prayed. Love like that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Joy is a fruit that the Lord Jesus wants you to have in your life. He came that we might have joythat we might have fun. I wish we had more fun times in our churches today. The world has what they call the “happy hour” in cocktail parlors all across our land. People don’t look too happy when they go in, and they sure don’t look happy when they come out! They are a bunch of sots, if you please. That’s not joy. John says, “And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full” (1Jn_1:4). These things were written that you might really enjoy life. Are you really living it up today, friend? I hope you are as a believer. The third fruit is peace, the peace of God. Religion can never give this to you. Only Christ can give you deep-down peace”…being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom_5:1). There are some other fruits. Are you longsufferingthat is, patient and long tempered? This is an area where I need some help, and only the Spirit of God can do it. I found out that I cannot do it. Then there is the fruit of gentleness, which means kindness; there is goodness, which means kind but firm. Faith, in this list, means faithfulness. If you are a child of God, you will be faithful. If you are married, you will be faithful to your husband or wife. If you are an employee, you are going to be faithful to your job and to your boss. If you are a church member, you are going to be faithful to your church. You are going to be faithful wherever you are and in whatever you do. Next comes meekness, and that does not mean mildness. Two men who were truly meek were Moses and the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps you don’t think Moses was meek when he came down from the Mount, found the people were worshiping a golden calf, and administered disciplinary judgment (see Exod. 32). But he was meek. Was Jesus meek when He ran the money-changers out of the temple? Meekness is not mildness and it is not weakness. Meekness means that you will do God’s will, that you are willing to yield your will to the will of God. Finally, there is temperance, which is self-controlChristian poise is so needed today.

Galatians 5:24

When was the flesh crucified? When they reckon that when Christ died, they died, they will yield themselves on that basis. In Rom_6:13 Paul says, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourself unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col_3:3). “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal_2:20). In all of these passages the thought is that when Christ was crucified, the believer was crucified at the same time. The believer is now joined to the living Christ, and the victory is not by struggling but by surrendering to Christ. The scriptural word is yield; it is an act of the will. This is the key to it all:

Galatians 5:25

A professor in a theological seminary called my attention to the word walk in this verse several years ago, and it has meant a great deal to me. As you recall, back in verse Gal_5:16 a “walk in the Spirit” is parapateo, but here “walk” is a different Greek word. It is stoichomen, which is basic and elemental, meaning “to proceed or step in order.” In verse Gal_5:16 we were given the principle of walk; here in verse Gal_5:25 it means to learn to walk. Just as we learned to walk physically by the trial and error method, so are we to begin to walk by the Spiritit is a learning process. Let me illustrate this principle with a ridiculous illustration. What is walking? Walking is putting one foot in front of the other. You may have heard about the knock-kneed girl. One knee said to the other, “If you let me by this time, I will let you by next time.” That is walking, putting one foot in front of the other. This means to learn to walk.

How did you learn to walk? Were you given a lecture on the subject? Did you go to a school and take a course in learning to walk? One summer my grandson, who was about twelve months old at the time, stayed with us for a time. He was just standing and wobbling along. I did not put him in his high chair and tell him about the physical mechanism of the foot.

I did not give him a lecture on the psychology of walking or the sociological implications of walking. If I had explained all of these things to my grandson, could he have lifted the tray of his high chair and walked off? No, my friend, that is not the way you learn to walk. You learn to walk by trial and error. One time my grandson fell down hard, and he had a big knot on his forehead. He fell many times, but before long he was walking and running and climbing as surefootedly as a mountain goat.

He learned to do it by just doing it, by trial and error. This is the way we are to learn to walk in the Spiritby trial and error. I know people who have attended Keswick conferences, spiritual life conferences, and Bible conferences; they have their notebooks filled with notes on how to live the Christian life. Still they are not living it. What is the problem? You have to learn to walk in the Spirit, which means you are to start out. Why not start now? Say, “I am going to walk in the Spirit. I am going to depend upon the Holy Spirit to produce the fruits in my life.” Perhaps you are thinking that you might fall down. I have news for youyou are going to fall. It will hurt. You say, “How many times will I fall?” I don’t know. I am still falling. But that is the way you are going to walk in the Spirit, and that’s the only way. My friend, you need to step out today and begin leaning upon the Spirit of God. Yield yourself to Him; it is an act of the will. Every day I start my day by saying, “Lord, I can’t live today in a way that pleases You, and I want You to do it through me.” I find there are times when I don’t get but a few blocks from home when something happens. One morning a woman in a Volkswagen cut in front of me. I had been so nice and sweet up to then, but I drove up beside her car and I told her what she had done. And she told me a thing or two right back. When she drove off, I thought, My, I sure fell on my face! When I do that, I just get up and start over again.

Galatians 5:26

“Let us not be desirous of vain glory"you and I are never going to be wonderful saints of God. He is wonderful. Oh, how wonderful He is! He is worthy of our worship. Let’s start walking, depending on Him like little children. That’s what He wants us to do. “Provoking one another” is challenging one another. We are not to challenge and envy one another. We are to get down from our high chairs and start walking in the Spirit. The Christian life is not a balloon ascension with some great overpowering experience of soaring to the heights. Rather it is a daily walk; it is a matter of putting one foot ahead of the other, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit.