Galatians: Keep in Step with the Spirit (5:16-26)

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This is the second lesson.

Galatians 5, verses 16 to 46.

What I say, walk by the Spirit, and we will not gratify their desires of the flesh.

But the desires of the flesh are against the spirit.

And the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.

But 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, anger, rivalry, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, or use, 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 love.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its 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, and envying one another.

This is the word of the Lord.

Now the words of the flesh are evident.

Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalings, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, or abuse.

And things like these, I warn you, as I've warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now, this is one of those passages where the lead pastor gives it to the curate.

And he says good luck and then he plays in the band.

This is a text that I completely acknowledge offends a lot of people.

It offends our own selves if we really like dwell on it.

I acknowledge that we all here probably have friends, or we know people who have friends or family members who are same-sex attracted.

I also acknowledge there's people here who know people who struggle with alcoholism.

I completely acknowledge that.

But we've been going through Galatians, and we are a church that believes in the Bible, so we need to look at what God's word says.

We need to go through it verse by verse.

So as we walk through it together today, let's go through it together.

Let's walk together as we look at this text.

Let's not walk away from it.

Because it's very important to always look at every single part of God's word and not just the parts that we like to hear.

So before we go into it, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we come to you wanting to learn what your word says.

Father, we come before you wanting to, for you to speak deeply to our hearts, to our hearts and to our minds, Lord.

Father, please pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.

Father, just uh convict our hearts, encourage our hearts, um, but above all, we want to lift Jesus high, Lord, and everything we do as we hear from you.

We praise in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now Paul is coming into the last section of his letter, as Creighton mentioned last week, that he has been going through, um, he's written a letter to the Galatian church, and now he's coming to the part that's more practical.

He's been kind of going through it, um, kind of giving more philosophical arguments through the first couple chapters, more handy arguments.

But now he comes down, he starts to write, and he's writing at a very more practical level, hands-on level, almost in a sense, like get your hands dirty kind of level.

He's showing the church in Galicia what they need to do and what's been going on through it.

He's showing them what they need to do.

So he's going to seem more practical in this aspect.

And for me personally, I find this these parts of the letter is a lot easier to understand and other parts that are more heavy, where you have to think about other parts of the Bible and link it all together.

Paul is leaving that part of the letter and going right into being practical, which is very, I find it very crucial.

So please turn to Galatians 5, verses 16 to 26, here in the Bible here.

Galatians 5:16–26

Um, turn to that.

It's also in your bulletin if you have that with you.

Now, Paul is being very wise in the letter.

And just to recap, what's going on here is that Paul planted the church in Galatia.

And what's going on after he left?

Some teachers came in who are teaching, like, yes, it's good to believe in Jesus, but you also need to do the Jewish law to be completely right with God.

So Paul is writing to them, because this is a serious matter, it's taking, it's taking their eyes off the cross and putting it directly onto what they can do for God to make themselves right with God.

And that's what pretty much the whole letter is about.

And now he's being very practical about it.

And he really wants to make sure, before he gets to this part, it's very wise that he leaves it for the end, that he wants them to know that they, just like you and me, are justified by faith alone.

There's nothing else that we can do that will make us right with God.

It is only in believing that his son on the cross that makes us right with him.

And it's a free gift.

The title of this sermon series is Grace Alone.

And it is truly by grace alone that we are saved.

And he wants to remind the church there that this is the first, this is the utmost importance that you need to know.

You need to believe in this, and nothing else saves you.

And he hammers it home over and over again through a full letter at each word, week in and week out.

But what happens when you come to faith?

When you put your faith and trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, what happens?

The Holy Spirit enters in you and you become a new creation.

You become a child of God.

But with that, you don't just get to sit back and relax and kick up your feet in this sense.

There's a whole other element to it.

Now I stole this line from Timothy Keller in his commentary.

He says, resurrection power dwells within you.

And that is the Holy Spirit of the faith.

The same, and this is just a sentence I wrote out to keep reminding myself.

This is what you're gonna hear all through the script.

The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, and we have access to it through Jesus' saving work on the cross.

I'm not just saying again.

The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, and we have access to it through Jesus' saving work on the cross.

You might be thinking, well, how do we have access to this resurrection power, this great spirit?

How do we have access to it?

Well, Paul lays it out here in the letter in this part in chapter 5, and he does it in three ways.

And I'm just gonna, these are the titles I came up with.

How not to do it, how to do it, and what does it look like or what it looks like.

So we're gonna begin in at verse 19.

So just let's uh let's take a look at it.

Now the works of the flesh.

Now, when he says flesh, he's talking about just our skin.

He's talking about our whole inner being, this whole idea that we, like your body, your desires are leading you in this direction.

It's your whole heart, your heart's direction.

So when he says, when he says, now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, or disease, 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.

So what Paul's doing, he just lists it, he just goes right for it, he lists it right out how not to do it.

And at first reading this, it's easy to point the finger outside of our walls.

It's really easy to do that.

But what Paul, if you've got to remember, he's writing to a Christian church.

He's writing to you and me.

And so it's within.

Paul's writing to Christians.

And you can divide this list into two sub-lists.

And the titles of these would be Irreligion and Religion.

Now, obviously, these are interchangeable, we see this happening within the media when you hear of church leaders falling.

But normally it's separated in these two aspects.

So irreligion, sexual morality and purity, sexuality.

Now, sexual morality, the word, the Greek word is ornia, and what that means is that sexual morality means that any sexual knowing outside of a marriage covenant between a biological male and a biological female falls under this category and it is sin.

And in Kirby and sensuality, it's just it on steroids.

Now he also says drunkenness and orgies.

We know what drunkenness is, but orgies is actually a poor translation here.

It should be more like drinking parties, like a big uh, like a kegger or something like that.

Just like a big, big drinking party, like a wild party basically.

And then we go into the religious aspect of his list.

He says, idolatry and sorcery.

This is witchcraft.

This is things that we we that people tend to replace God with.

Idolatry and witchcraft is looking at demonic things.

And then there's enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalies, dissensions, and divisions.

Now these are things we see pop up in our church all the time.

Maybe it happens here, maybe it happens in other churches.

But these are things if we don't leave them unchecked, if we leave them unchecked, they pop up and they become very bad things.

They divide people, schisms happen in churches.

All these things happen.

But there's something that you need to notice here when he says, he says, do them.

After he gives the list, he says, those who do them.

Now do them he means by those who practice them.

It's a habitual practice.

He's not talking about people who slip up.

He's talking about there's this habitual practice that your heart is constantly directing you in that way.

But there's more to it than just listing off a list and pointing a finger.

There's more to it.

Look at verses 16 and 17.

Where he says, But I say, walk by the 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.

Now, when he says desires, that's it's actually not going far enough about what he truly means, desires.

In the old King James Version, it says lust, but we can't say lust now because it's conceptualized.

But lust in the old language means this, again, this this you crave it, you want it.

So a better translation for desire would be over-desire, this all-consuming desire for these things that completely control your life.

That's what he's talking about here, this consuming desires.

Now, I'm a big fan of Lord of the Rings.

I wouldn't say I'm a Lord of the Rings, a Lord of the Rings kind of um, like I can't remember the names that well, but I like the concepts that uh Tolkien writes about within Lord of the Rings, these certain themes all through his books, not just his Lord of the Rings books, because they're all in a part of his uh legends that he writes about.

And but one of the main ones that we all here probably know is the ring.

The one ring to rule them all.

You hear this quote all the time.

But instead, the things of this ring, this ring holds all power, holds anyone who wields it, has this power.

And when people hold it or have it around their neck, they become so bound to it, so consumed by it, that they, in the Hobbit and then in Lord of the Rings, they call it their precious.

When they become complete, when it takes them over completely, we start calling it their precious.

They're consumed by it.

Even Sarah, the one who, like the ultimate boss in Lord of the Rings, when he made the ring, he wanted the control, the power so badly that his soul became a part of the ring, and he became part of it, that he was bound to it, bound to this ring.

That's the over-desire that Paul's talking about.

This all consuming that your soul, your body becomes so locked into this desire.

That's what he's talking about.

When he gives this list, when he gives the desire to the flesh, the flesh is what begins to lead you to what he's talking about.

So we can look at, when we look at this list, it's not just a list pointing at people's faults.

He's talking about, when he's writing to the church, he's talking about if you continue to follow, if you get locked into the Jewish law, you're gonna begin to become so burdened, so bound by these fleshly desires that you're gonna struggle with them.

That's what he's talking about here.

He's talking about this desire.

These overdesires.

Now you might be thinking, I don't do this.

I don't do these things.

I'm a pretty good person, Matt.

Well, the thing with over-desires, it's not just about the bad thing, about this list that he lists.

It's not just about these uh sins that he talks about.

See, overdesires can be also, it can happen into good things.

That we get these desires that we think we're doing really good things, so God's gonna make you right, we're gonna make ourselves right with God.

And that could be anything.

That could be we have we can have this deep, deep desire for a good family, which is a good thing to have a good family.

But when they become our gods, when they become these things that take our eyes off God, they overwhelm us and they consume us.

It could be jobs, it could be wanting to be successful in jobs, it could be our health, it can even just be music.

You have this over desire to have for music to be played perfectly well.

For me, when I used to really be into rock climbing, it consumed my life.

I had this desire for it that was so that so gripped me that my everything I did pointed towards rock climbing, to make rock climbing better.

But if I didn't do it, I would not be in a good mood.

I always thought about it, I always wanted to do it.

It always directed my life, my purpose in life.

Anything I did, my vacations, my work, anything I did brought me to do more rock climbing.

And that's what that's what this all-consuming desire is.

And Paul's writing about it, he says desire multiple times, at least seven times in this, in this area, in this um in this text.

So it's something that he really wants to hammer home this sense of desire, this over-desires that can control us.

See, when we allow our flesh to lead our desires, we become trapped by them.

We become bound by them, we become consumed by them.

Now, what does that sound like?

If you've been tracking through Galatians, what does that sound like?

That sounds like the law that Paul has been talking about all through Galatians.

See, when we become consumed by these desires in our lives, they become laws in our lives, and they bound us to it, and we don't become free anymore.

You have to remember that if you're the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, and we have access to it through Jesus' saving work on the cross.

Look at verse 18.

And he says, But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now, what is he talking about here?

You have to remember that what he's talking about here is that we have been, we are free through Christ's work on the cross.

Christ has set us free.

As he says at the beginning of chapter 5, for freedom, Christ has set us free.

But you might be thinking, well, that's a good concept, but how do we do that?

How does that happen?

Well, look at verses 24 to 25.

And those who belong to Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

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

Now, what is he talking about here?

So when he says crucify, when we've crucified our flesh, he is not talking about, there's other parts of his letters where he says you need to crucify this thing out of your life.

But what he's talking about here is that if you notice, he says you belong to Christ.

Those who belong to Christ, Jesus, have crucified the flesh.

So what he's talking about here is that when you put your faith and trust in Jesus, and when you remind yourself of this great truth every day, that you're saved by grace, you are saved by faith, that you have a spot in heaven, that when Jesus returns, there's great hope.

When you remind yourself of this, it starts to crucify things in your life, put them to death, that they start to go, they go down at the feet of Jesus at the cross.

So when we says we need to crucify things in our lives, what he's talking about here is that we need to apply the gospel to certain areas in our lives, these things that pop up in our lives.

If you have these things that pop up in your lives, it means that you haven't given them to God yet.

And that you need to take the gospel, this saving word through Jesus, and ask Jesus, Lord, how can I take this and give it to you?

How can I give this to you?

And you pray for it.

And the spirit within you starts to break these things apart and starts to they start to go away very slowly.

But it's only through the saving word of Jesus that this happens.

You might think about times in your life in your Christian walk where you keep doing this thing that you know you shouldn't do, and you're like, I gotta stop, I gotta stop.

And you try harder and harder to stop doing it.

But what happens?

The temptations, the temptations to do it just keep springing up more and more.

As Paul says in Romans 7, where these things I know I need to do are at war with each other, and I can't do them because these other things pop up.

And he calls himself a wretched man because he's so conflicted by it.

But then in Romans 8, he says, for freedom, Christ has set you free.

That's what's going on here.

That's when you have to crucify the flesh.

He's talking about that you have to remember Jesus on the cross and what he's done for you.

Because you're free through that and nothing else.

You have to remember the gospel and apply it to your life.

And then the next part it says, live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit.

What is he talking about here?

What he's talking about here is that if you've noticed, if you notice in verse 17, it says the desires of the Spirit.

See, there's over-desires of the Spirit.

And what are they?

What are they?

If we have access to the resurrection power and keep in step with the Spirit, we must glorify Jesus with our lives.

Because that is the desire of the Spirit.

In John 16, verse 4, Jesus is talking to his disciples in a very intimate moment.

John 16:4

And he's talking about he's going to send the Holy Spirit to them.

And he says the desire of the Spirit is to glorify God.

So when we keep in step with the Spirit, when we lay our lives down to Christ, we give him glory.

We bring glory to him when we give him our lives to do with what he pleases.

Every aspect of it brings him glory.

And the more we do it, the more glory that it brings to Jesus and his saving work on the cross.

It points to the cross, to his saving work.

It doesn't point to us anymore.

So the desires of the flesh are inward focused.

But the desires of the Spirit are outward.

They're outward towards the cross.

And through that, through living through the spirit, it just these things start to happen within you as you give your life to Christ, that you start serving people, you start wanting to serve people and better society and all that kind of things.

And it says here in verse 26, he warns them, let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

See, when we live by the flesh, that's what happens.

But when we truly live by the Spirit and lay down our lives to Jesus, we become more and more like Jesus.

It's the only over-desire that will truly free you.

Now what does it look like?

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.

Now what is he talking about here?

What he's talking about, a good illustration, because it's fruit, is you think of a garden.

And you need good soil for a good garden, for things to grow.

And that's what he's talking about here.

Is that you need to, what is your foundation?

What is your soil that you're using?

Is it from the first list or is it from the second list?

Is it from is it from gospel soil or is it from fleshly soil?

And if you notice in verse 22, he doesn't say fruits.

He says fruit.

It's singular.

It is one thing that grows at the same time.

It's not multiple things that grow all over the place.

That's what he's talking about here.

It's when you give your life to the Spirit to Jesus, this fruit starts to begin.

Now, a good illustration could be a diamond that has many sides, but you can also just think of a pumpkin.

It has these lines that divide it.

It kind of goes in like all around.

And you can picture that that each section of the pumpkin is another section of the fruit of the spirit.

So as you lay down your life and you apply the gospel to your life, you ask Jesus to change your life, to be more like him, to be more pleasing to him, to be more what his word says.

Fruit begins to start to grow in you.

It's one fruit.

And it takes time to grow like a garden.

You don't see it happening right away.

You don't all of a sudden become amazing at things.

It takes time.

Anyone who's gardened here knows that you don't really see fruit or vegetables grow.

It's always when you wake up in the morning that are a bit bigger and a bit bigger, and they start to change color and become bright.

And that's when you pick it.

The gospel sets you free from being enslaved to the laws that we put over our lives.

And also the laws, the Mosaic law, it frees you from it.

But through that, we don't become, we don't start to do whatever we want.

We do it, we follow God's commands because of love.

Not out of this way to please him, but to we do it out of love for him because he saved us, his great love.

Now the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, and we have access to it through Jesus' saving word on the cross.

Friends, let's journey together as we support each other in keeping in step with the Spirit.

Father, I just pray that you would show us areas in our lives that we hold on to so dearly that we need to lay at your feet.

Father, help us to remember always your saving word through your son, Jesus Christ on the cross.

And Lord, we just ask that.

That we always remember that.

Great, grateful.

We pray us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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God bless you and keep you today and every day.