October1931
T h e
R i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
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(k'Jnternaiional LESSON COMMENTARY Lesson Outline and Exposition Blackboard Outlines Golden Text Illustrations Children’s Division By B. B. Sutcliffe By Bessie B. B u rch By A lan S. P earce By H elen Gailey
NOVEMBER 1, 1931 World’s Temperance Lesson Lesson : Galatians 5:13-26: Romans 13: 1-14. Lesson Text : Galatians 5:13-26. Golden Text: “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit”- (Eph. 5:18). I. I t G uards A gainst A ll L icense (13-15). The gospel of grace frees the believer from the hindering and binding restric tions of the law, and it enables him to please God. The one who is under grace pleases God, not because he must, as a slave, but because he will, as a friend ; not because, as an enemy, he fears to do otherwise, but because, as a son, he loves the One who commands him. He seeks to live in a manner that will please God, not because of pressure from without, such as the law imposes, but because of a principle within, which springs from the hidden presence of the living Christ. He begins to experience the fact of which Paul speaks in Galatians 2 :20 : “I am cru cified 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.” He is do ing God’s will to please God, rather than his own will to please himself. He who, more than all others, will ex alt his own will is that wicked and law less one, the enemy of God and the instru ment of Satan, the Antichrist. And the man who says that, since grace has de livered him from the law and the law’s curse, he may live in a lawless manner not. only reveals that he does not know what the grace of God is, but he shares the spirit of the Antichrist. The gospel of grace sets the believer free, not to sin but from sin: It gives him the power to live pleasing unto God, and it guards him from the license which de nies both the holiness of God and the value of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. II. I t G uards A gainst the D esires of the F lesh (16-25). 1. It supplies a new. principle of livina (16-18). Walking by the Spirit means “accord ing to” the Spirit. Walking according to this principle, one does not fulfill the desires of the flesh. The words, “not fulfill,” have in their meaning the thought of interruption in a journey, so that the end is not attained. The Chris tian may begin to fulfill the desires of the flesh, but so long as he is walking according to the Spirit, he is divinely hindered; consequently, he does not ful fill the desires of the flesh. But such living will arouse the oppo sition of the flesh, which is as contrary
to the Spirit as the Spirit is to the flesh. The words, “the flesh,” describe the nat ural man, as he has become through the fall—always evil and opposed to good. The Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, who comes to abide in the be liever. He is always good and opposed to evil. Neither the flesh nor the Spirit can be changed, nor can they be recon ciled one to the other. They are always antagonistic. Because of this antagonism of the Spirit to the flesh, the believer “may not do the things” that he would according to the flesh; that is, he is not forced to do them. Thus we see that it is the gospel of the grace of God which alone can deliver one from fulfilling the desires of the flesh, for only the gospel can offer the Deliverer, the Holy Spirit. Led by the Spirit, the believer is free from the law, not only as a medium of salvation, but also as a rule of life and conduct. Being led by th e .Spirit implies both willing and intelligent following. There might be the former, without the latter; as an animal might be willingly led, and yet ignorant of the master’s purpose. In this passage, it is the state of the Christian which is in view. His standing is described in Colossians 3:3: “hid with Christ in God.” The character of his service is implied in John 17: 11, 18, 21; he is “in the world,” yet separate from the world, to be a witness to the world. Best Things B y H. V. A ndrews Only melted gold is minted; Clouded skies are rainbow-tinted; Only wax that has been softened takes the die. Plastic clay the potter useth; Tempered steel the wise smith chooseth. Clear the reason; none the need to question why. Untilled soil is never seeded; Unsown fields are never weeded; Reaping never comes where seed has not been sown. Skill awaits the toiling fingers, Comes where patient effort lin gers; To the humble, earnest seeker truth is known. To the humble soul God calleth; In the softened heart seed falleth; Richest fruits of righteousness the sowing grace. O f the plastic will God maketh ■ Vessel that His image taketh; Tempered lives He chooseth for the highest place. —A lliance W eekly .
The state of the Christian is one in which the flesh is ever attempting to drag him down, while the Spirit is ever ready and able to hold him up. Just as one may be taken up in an elevator while the law of gravity continually tries to pull him down—the law of the ele vator giving deliverance from the law of gravity—so the only hope of deliver ance for the Christian lies in the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. In the measure in which the believer yields him self to this latter law, he is set free from the former. 2. It supplies a new power for livina (19-24). ■ The works of the flesh, unlike the de sires which give rise to them, are manifest (vs. 19-21). The works of the flesh, it is said, are sensual in a fourfold way, reli gious in a twofold way, social in a nine fold way, and personal in a twofold way. Hence the works of the flesh may have their rise in religion just as truly as in sensuality, in the treatment given to one’s fellow man as much as in the treatment given to one s own body when drunkenness or revellings are allowed. When the apos tle says, “They which do such things,” he refers to those to whom such is an ha bitual course of conduct. The fruit of the Spirit, unlike the works of the flesh, come by quiet and nat ural growth, springing from the hidden desires of the new life within the re- generate man. Read carefully verses, 22 and 23. They present a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and show that the new life of the believer is that of “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Yielding to the Spirit gives the indwelling Christ an op portunity to reveal, in the manner of the outward life, what He is within the be liever’s heart. 3. I t supplies a new plane for life (25). This new plane is found by reckoning the passions and desires of the flesh to be crucified at i the cross. Such things are good or evil according to their source. One may have swelling passions in the new life in Christ, passions that boil with resentment against sin, •or desires that quiver with intensity of yearning after holiness. But unlike them, the passions and desires of the flesh, whether good or evil, religious or vicious, moral or im moral, in the opinion of men, are all con trary to the Spirit and therefore not to be tolerated. It is on this new plane of life that the Holy Spirit works in us and for us the victory which He secures over the works of the flesh. III. I t G uards A gainst S piritual P ride (25, 26). Walking in the Spirit is the only sure method of deliverance from vainglory; that is, pride in what we are, or have, or can do; pride that tends to awaken envy and jealousy in other people. We should
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