Galatians // Footsteps [Galatians 5:16-26] (Andrew Linton)

Father, thank you again for the fact that you are a rock, that

you are unchanging God, that you're reliable.

But also, Lord, thank you for the your mercy, the fact that

you don't treat us like we deserve to be treated despite

who we are and the things we've done.

You've provided a way for us to connect to you through Jesus

Christ. Well, we just pray for Andrew

this morning as he brings your word to us.

Well, we just pray for, yeah, we thank you for his diligence in,

in, in studying that out and working it out and communicating

with you to, to figure out what it is that the important parts

of this message that we need to know.

And Lord, we just pray for us this morning that we would have

our, our hearts and minds open to, to listen, to be changed by

your word, maybe be rattled by a little bit, but whatever it

takes all we want to be closer to you.

And so we just pray for that this morning.

Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to give an offering

to you and, and, and we present that offering to you now, Lord,

And thank you that we know it all comes from you.

And as a token, we, we want to demonstrate that throughout

offering as an act of worship. And we thank you for the

opportunity to do that, Lord, thank you that you're a God who

who sees every little detail in their lives and cares about it.

And we thank you for that. Thank you for a chance to

together worship and learn and grow this morning.

Pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Great. Good morning everyone and

welcome again if you're a visitor especially and what a

special day it is. I thought I was fairly safe

volunteering for this little message on Galatians Chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

And then of course, we had the baptism arranged as well, and

fellowship lunch and everything else too, so that we've got a

real small dashboard today and it's just such a bonus.

So thank you for your support. Thanks for flying in to hear the

message and we'll look forward to God's Word.

Nothing to do with me whatsoever.

Please turn to Galatians chapter 5 and we're going to take a

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

reading 1st and then we'll have some words of introduction.

We're reading from Galatians 5 verse 16 when I say, walk by the

Galatians 5:16

Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the

desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the

things you want to do. But if you are led by the

Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are evident.

Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery,

enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries,

dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things

like these. I warn you as I warned you

before, that those who do such things will not inherit the

Kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,

patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self-control. Against such things there is no

law, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the

flesh with his passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the

Spirit. Let us not become conceited,

provoking one another, envying one another.

This is the Word of God. These verses that we have read,

especially concerning the fruit of the Spirit, well known to

many and very much enjoyed by many.

And I'm sure you'll be thinking, well, that would be just a

lovely subject to go ahead with today.

You see, everybody, as far as I know, likes fijos.

Is anyone here in the room who doesn't like fijos?

Excellent, excellent. I'm with you.

I'm not a future fan who likes fijos.

OK, wonderful, wonderful. So most most enjoy a message on

Fiji on fruit. And here's a photo of grandson

Daniel. And he just loves fijos.

For technical and logistical reasons, his mother only allows

him to have one a day. But today I actually want to

focus on fate, not fruit. You see the book of Galatians

has a lot to say about walking and this chapter in fact

Galatians 5 is actually all about walking talks and verse

one about standing talks about running well and verse 7 verse

16 to walk and verse 25 to keep in step.

Little Daniel is in this photo not just enjoying the future,

but he's actually almost about to walk.

In fact, just a week ago he started to walk and he's on the

way to catching up with his friend Boaz.

So that's going to be an interesting journey.

Just like in Christian life, there's progress, there's

failure, there are old ways to give up, and there's new lessons

to learn. And today, of course, we are

witnessing the baptisms of James and Kate and Jasmine.

And for you, my prayer is that this will be a an important step

in your journey of faith. This step of obedience will be

part of a continuing walk of faith, of freedom and bearing

fruit in Christian life. So to understand this passage,

we need a little bit of background and we need to review

the journey of Paul to this stage.

And we're going to call it Paul's footsteps.

And please stay tuned because as we do that, we'll actually

discover how it was Paul also made the decision to be baptised

and take that step of obedience. So first of all, Paul was a

Pharisee. He was brought up in the ways of

Judaism and he was a an expert in that field, so much so that

he was at a young age sent away from home, from Tarsus to

Jerusalem to study at the feet of a famous rabbi called

Damelio. And he was an absolute

intellectual giant. He was well versed in the ways

of Judaism. Of course, Judaism is a very

important religion of the Jews. Where their way of faith and

living is based on the first five books of the Bible, the

Torah, and as part of that they also add in other rabbinical law

and various ways of living of diet and also the right of

circumcision. And as part of that, they are

trying to follow God's will for them.

Now, by the way, there's actually nothing too wrong with

law, is there? I'm actually quite pleased that

there's a common community law at the roundabout here at at

Clarkin Rd. And I quite like the fact that

here in New Zealand we pretty much respect queues at the bank

and at the supermarket and especially when we have lunch

afterwards. You know, it's quite good to

have laws that actually teach us the right way and keep us on

track. But the problem with the way of

Judaism and the problem for Paul was that he was advancing in

such a way that he actually was becoming radicalised.

And part of the way of Judaism is a way that feeds the thought

of achievement, of keeping regulations and going down a

certain pathway and as a result, potentially becoming very proud.

And so Paul was actually a very good man.

He was an intellectual, he was a Pharisee of Pharisees, he was a

Hebrew of Hebrews. He was trained and schooled to

walk a good journey as a Pharisee, but with that came

performance and with that came pride and with that came

comparison and rules. And as he went down that

journey, he actually turn into Paul the persecutor.

I was a blasphemer, A persecutor and an insolent opponent, he

writes. And then we read that Saul his

his first name before he became known as Paul, Saul, was

ravaging the church and entering house to house and dragging off

men and women and committing them to prison.

Paul was actually a murderer. Paul was at the feet of those

who were persecuting the church. He was behind it all.

He was consenting to it, and he was violent.

He was murderous and blasphemous.

He persecuted the Church of God so violently because he was

convinced that his way was the right way and the best way, and

he was opposed to all that. Christianity represented the way

as it was called in those days. It's an interesting type title

for it. He was convinced that his way

was the right way and what they were doing was something that

had to be squashed out. We read in ex.

Exodus 9 · chapter mention

Chapter 9 that Paul actually got letters from the authorities and

he was out to murder and to destroy the church.

And as he was walking along, travelling on the road to

Damascus with these letters to arrest and to bring to justice

these people that he was opposed to, as he was travelling along

with a group of people, a light shone from heaven, and a voice

came. And the voice had so, So why do

you persecute me? And soul was struck to the

ground and unable to see. And he said, Who are you, Lord?

And the voice from heaven said, I am Jesus who you are

persecuting Paul the Pharisee, pull the persecutor.

And now asking this question from this light from heaven, who

are you, Lord? And by the way, there is

probably one of the most important questions that you and

I must ever ask. Perhaps you've never thought of

that before, but have you ever asked that question?

Who are you, Lord Jesus? Who are you, Lord?

That is a question we almost answer in our lives.

And by the way, this light from heaven was a light that did not

fade in Paul's memory. In fact, as he got older, he

recalled it even more vividly. He described it here as a light

from heaven. But later on, as he spoke to

officials and gave his testimony, he said it was a

great light from heaven. And later on he said it was a

light brighter than the noonday sun and that light shone and

arrested him in his pathway in his journey.

Paul said to this light, Who are you, Lord?

He's led to Damascus and we read an ex Chapter 9 that he's

Exodus 9 · chapter mention

praying and God spoke to a man called Barnabas and said to him

and a nice, I think it is, let's just go back to that and says to

him analyse, go and visit Wall. Go and see this man and he is

praying, an analyst says to God, Lord, I've heard things about

this man. This man is persecuting the

church. He's here to destroy the church.

And you asking me to go and see him.

And the word came Go analyse. He is a chosen instrument to

carry my name before Gentiles in kings and the children of

Israel. And then an ice came to this man

at this point called Saul, and said, Brother saw the Lord Jesus

who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me,

that you may regain your sight and be filled with His Holy

Spirit. And immediately something like

scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.

Then he rose and was baptised. Now I want you to notice the

sequence of events. Paul sees the light from heaven.

He hears the voice. He prays to God.

He receives his sight and then he's baptised to Baptism is not

salvation. We don't get baptised to be

saved, but we get baptised when we receive the light from heaven

and understand our condition before God.

And so he read the next Chapter 9 that when he rose and was

baptised, he took food, and he was strengthened.

And so after James and Okay, then Jasmine get baptised,

they're allowed to take food and they'll be strengthened.

I'm sure they're looking forward to that.

Not too nervous, but you see the sequence event is very clear.

Salvation and then baptism. And so Paul the Pharisee, Paul

the persecutor then is very radically transformed and he

becomes poor, the preacher. And we read in Galatians chapter

one that they said of him, isn't this amazing?

This man who was once persecuting the Church of God is

now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they

glorified God. This was the miracle.

This was the transformation in the life of Paul, and a few

weeks ago one of our speakers referred to this as one of the

convincing proofs of the gospel in the New Testament.

The transformation of Paul the Pharisee, the persecutor, to now

be preaching the faith he once wanted to destroy.

What did he preach? Well, the book of Galatians is

very much part of what he preached.

But here in Galatians 2 verse 20, I have on the screen one of

Galatians 2:20

the key verses that pull the preacher spoke, and this was his

testimony to the readers. I have been crucified with

Christ. It is no longer I who live, but

Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh.

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave

himself for me. So what does it mean to be

baptised? Well here in this first we have

a very beautiful picture of what it means to be baptised.

I have been crucified with Christ.

The person who has been baptised is literally saying that they

are identifying with the death of Christ.

They are dying to self. I have been crucified with

Christ. It is no longer I who live.

And so we baptise someone who has died.

Christ lives in me, in the life. I now live in the flesh.

I live by faith and we rise again.

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave

himself for me. And so we have Dine with Christ,

we have burial with Christ, and we have rising with Christ.

And that is the picture of baptism that we'll be seen in a

little while. Baptism is not salvation.

Paul was saved, he received his sight and was then baptised.

And baptism is an immersion in water.

It is actually going under the water, just like a burial.

It is death to the old and rising again to newness of life.

Baptism is a step of obedience and a public testimony of

identification with Jesus and a commitment to follow in the

steps of the Lord Jesus. What a wonderful testimony it is

to hear from James and Kate and Jasmine today how they have been

on this journey and come to this decision to receive Christ as

Lord and Saviour, and then to publicly testify in the waters

of baptism their obedience. And so the gospel is revealed,

not as a system of rules and regulations and external

behaviour, but the gospel is presented as new life in Christ.

It is not achieving, but it is believing.

It is a relationship, not rules. We are justified, Paul says, by

faith and not by works that we have done, not something that we

put on on the external, but something that happens within

us, by the renewing, rescuing work of the Holy Spirit of God.

The message of Galatians sets us free.

The message of Galatians tells us that we should not go back to

the old way, the old way of living, the old way of rules and

self effort. There is no other gospel.

Now there's a story of a believer who was baptised and as

they came out of the water they said.

I am so glad that now I won't have to struggle with evil

thoughts to which the person who had baptised them said.

To achieve that, I will need to hold you under the water for a

little longer. You see, the crucified victim

took a long time to die, and the Christian life is a battle that

has been one at the cross. Through the finished work of the

Lord Jesus, the penalty for sin has been paid in full, but the

power of sense still lingers until that glorious day when we

are liberated forever from the presence of sin.

So in these 11 verses. Pull the preacher gives us 3

steps. Three steps in the process of

learning to walk and taking the footsteps of faith.

Just for the sake of time, for the sake of those who have been

baptised and for the testimonies to follow, I'm just going to

really just give you that outline this this morning and

speak briefly to these verses. Faith in Jesus Christ brings

forgiveness and freedom. Following Christ yields fruit

and then these 3 verses 33 sections we have a conflict.

There is thought of being walking by the Spirit, there's

control being led by the Spirit, and there is a commitment to

keep in step with the Spirit. Pull the writer who reminds the

Galatians about a war that is going on between two forces, the

flesh and the spirit. It's an irreconcilable conflict.

It's a civil war that is going on consistently.

The Scripture says the desires of the flesh are against the

spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh,

and these are opposed. There's a battle going on in the

life of the believer, and if there's not a battle going on in

the life of believer, it may mean that you are not walking in

the Christian way like Paul in Romans.

We sometimes even cry out what a wretched man I am who will

deliver me from this body of death.

The results of the flesh I listed.

And at first glance they seem like a a sundry list of vices

and evil. But the categories are moral and

relational and behavioural. And as we dig deeper, we find

there's a common thread, a common denominator in all of

these works. You see these works that are

described there? They're listed for us.

They are all works that involve control.

They are works of the flesh that refer to that which is in

control within us, the work of self.

You see, the work of self is to please and satisfy one's own

desires. All the addictions, the

appetites, the ambitions are symptoms of who and what is in

control in our lives. These works that are listed here

in verse 19. Immorality, impurity,

sensuality, idolatry, and so on. They are all that which derives

from a heart without a moral compass, dominated by the fleet.

For example, idolatry is something apart from God, which

receives our worship. Digging down into the words

behind these, the Greek words, you'll find that the word for

immorality is actually porneia. And that's where we get the word

pornography from, from everything that is related to

sexual immorality, the appetites of the flesh, the word for

witchcraft is the word pharmakeia.

And again, there's the thoughts that even drug use, drunkenness

all refers to that loss of control and allowing the the the

evil spirits of this world to take control of our lives.

I wonder if we can consider it in this way.

Most of us are familiar with YouTube, but have you noticed

how subtle and how pervasive YouTube is?

So if you actually search on something footy or chess or

cricket or whatever, you'll find that from then on that algorithm

works, that it will actually populate related videos and

clips to that topic. Likewise, if you are a fan of

Team You, you'll find that if you are looking for, say, some

reading glasses, you'll find that for weeks and weeks you'll

get a lot of related thoughts and communications on glasses.

Choose anything else you like. Choose a hat, choose clothes,

choose shoes, whatever. You'll find that that algorithm

will continue to construct and populate and flash into your

senses and into your brain. And you can say, well, I could

get that there and that I could actually fill the house with

reading glasses. This is how the works of the

flesh operate, and as we start small, we find that actually

things start to get bigger and bigger.

Sorcery is a life that has been given over to the forces of

darkness. Drunkenness for example, is a

disease of a body and a mind out of control and each behaviour

starts small and then multiplies.

And verse 21 says this. Those who do these things will

not inherit the Kingdom of God. When we read that verse, we

might be saying, does that mean I'm disqualified?

Well, let me be quite clear here.

The Word of God is, say, stating here that those who are

habitually practising this way are not in the pathway of the

Kingdom of God. It's referring to the ongoing

habitual practise of godlessness, which may be an

indication that you are not a child of God now.

There is no truce in this civil war.

There is no there is no middle ground.

There's no kind of no man's land where you can say, ohh, well,

today I'm going to just make peace with this enemy of the

soul. Some years ago, many, many years

ago actually, I owned some Guinea pigs and I named them

after two famous chess players in the 1970s, which may give you

an indication of my age. Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer

and Boris and Robert were great friends.

They got on really well together until one day I made a big

mistake. I allowed a friend to borrow

Robert for a little while. On his return, Robert treated

Boris as a fierce enemy and they fought everyday.

They were clicking their teeth, they were biting and tearing

clumps of fur and hair from each other.

And finally, in desperation, I changed the cage and I divided

the cage into two. And still they hated each other.

They insulted each other everyday.

It was a very sad end to my Guinea pig days.

And don't be fooled, the ceasefire will not last, and the

ceasefire does not even exist. There is no truce.

You must stand on the right side.

I want to give James and Kate and Jasmine 3 words today from

these verses and the the first word is this.

You must stand. Stand on the gospel.

Stand on the finished work of the Lord Jesus.

Stand on the fact that Christ has won the victory for you and

paid the price for your forgiveness and all your

salvation. And verse 22 says this.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and all of those

fruits are those which express the victorious, sanctified work

of Christ in the life of the believer, where we can stand on

the promises of God and His strength in our lives to bring

us to victory. Let's think about these fruits

for a moment. There's something about fruit

that is very remarkable. It's it's something very

beautiful. It's fragrant.

It's quiet it it just seems to happen.

I have. I have these feature trees

outside my office and every year, without fail, seemingly

out of nowhere, these these beautiful, beautiful fruit

develop quietly, fruitfully, blessing each of us.

And then they're gone again. In a weeks time they're gone.

You know when they start to arrive, everybody's so excited.

In fact, Gavin told me that it's green gold.

You know, that was two days before all the other features

arrived, and then everybody doesn't want to know.

But for about two days, everybody wants to have these

features and then everybody's got fejos and then they're gone

again. This autumn fruit is just so

amazing. The fruit of the Spirit is

described as singular, and if you were to cut this this fruit

in half, you'll find that within this fruit there's clusters.

It's one fruit, but within that there's these different parts.

Likewise in the fruit of the Spirit.

It's a fruit that is actually in many parts, but it's all one

unit interrelated, and each of these qualities are actually the

qualities and the personality and work and life of Christ

within. You see, His love is a perfect

love, the love of God and the Lord Jesus brings a joy and a

peace that this world cannot give.

And as we have His Spirit in our lives as believers, we have that

love and that joy and that peace unfolding and blessing.

And that fragrance results the joy and peace this world cannot

give. And you can't mass produce this

figure. You cannot produce this in the

factory. Lots of people try, but they

cannot do it because it's actually a result of inner life,

connection with the source of life.

John 15 tells us that to be fruitful we need to abide or

remain connected to the source of life, which is the true Vine,

the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we are connected to that,

we are able to walk by the Spirit.

And so James, Kate and Jasmine stand and walk.

Choose today to abide in this wonderful source of spiritual

strength and vitality and nutrition, to allow yourself to

walk by the Spirit and live by the Spirit.

And as you do that, you'll find that the fruit of the Spirit is

that which relates to God and relates to others and also

relates to your own personal walk and relationship with

Christ. You will have that gentleness

and faithfulness and self-control that only comes

from being connected with the source of life.

The fruit of the Spirit is liberating.

It is that which is so compelling and so fragrant that

people will walk into a room and say what a beautiful person to

be with, because the fruit of the Spirit is abounding and

fragrant and liberating. And that is the work of Christ.

It is not something that we can do of our own accord.

It's not something we can put on.

We cannot mass produce it. We cannot do that by keeping

rules and regulations. It is a relationship with

Christ, the source. Thirdly, for our baptises today,

the thought in verse 25 is this. If we live by the Spirit lead,

that's also keep in step with the Spirit.

And here the Word I want to leave with you is the Word

follow, stand, walk and follow. Keep in step with the one who

has called us. And like Paul, we must answer

that same question. Who are you, Lord Jesus?

And also we need to ask that question, what will you have me

to do, Lord? That is another question that

Paul said he asked on that journey.

Today, believers in Christ, we stand on the gospel.

It is a gospel that is not one by rules and regulations.

It is a life that is lives by a connection with the Christ who

has died for us and paid the price for us and and set us

free. This is the gospel.

There is no other gospel. And Paul says to his readers,

don't go back. Don't go back to the old way.

Stay true to this journey that you have committed yourself to

Walk in the Spirit. Live by the Spirit and follow.

Keep in step with the Spirit and very soon we will be singing

this song. There is no gospel like this one

and I wanna just give you my little testimony here.

You see, today is a a lot about testimonies.

Paul's testimony, his journey and the test means we are about

to hear. But my test may simply there's

that the words are poor in First Timothy chapter 1, where the

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

words that I read at the age of about four or five and these are

the words from First Timothy. This is a faithful saying and

worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world

to save sinners, of whom I'm the worst.

That was Paul's testimony and that is my testimony.

That is how I became a Christian at the age of four or five in

India on the basis of that verse.

And from there we have been able to keep in step and follow the

Master. I pray today that you all today,

James and Kate and Jasmine, find the reality of walking step by

step with the Master and know His peace in your heart and know

the joy of fellowship with Christ.

And as you do that, you'll continue to find that victory

which is won through the freedom of knowing the Lord Jesus as

Saviour and Lord.