Bible Guys Classics: Galatians 5

Well, today we're going to look at how the apostle

Paul like he man says I have the power.

We're talking about freedom and Christ and bearing much fruit.

He's Chris, I'm Jeff, and we're the Bible guys. Okay, Chris.

Yeah.

So of all the segments we've done yes over the

last few weeks, by far, the biggest response was the

segment that we did what made Chris Mad this week?

People loved it. You have big opinions, big feelings, big emotions.

You respond to things in big ways, and so people

just really enjoy hearing and they resonate. They resonate with

last time you talked about somebody leaving a shopping car.

Yeah, it was the top.

Ye.

Yeah, everybody's passionate about that time.

Oh, you're particularly passionate about everything. And so then this

this is we love what made Chris mad this week?

So I'm gonna ask you the same question, Chris and

just Enlightness. What made Chris mad this week?

Well, it actually happened today. Yeah. On the way here. Okay,

So on the way here, I'm driving and I'm in

the right lane and there was a car in front

of me that didn't pull up, and yet all he

had to do was inch up about I'm not even kidding,

like six inches, and then I would be able to

move to the right and go into the empty turning lane. Yes,

so I could turn right right, But instead he makes

me wait, or she whoever it was made me wait,

Actually it was it was it was a she. I looked.

I looked. I looked a him when I passed him, but.

With a mean look, just to say, like, like seriously,

because here's what happens.

We pull up to the red light, and this person

has almost almost an entire car lank, an entire carling.

So it wasn't as if like, hey, let me get

a little closer to this bumper. Which, by the way,

I'm not against people who say I don't want to

get too close to this car. Listen, you have the

prerogative to leave an entire car length every time you

stop read light.

That's just be considerate.

It's not the issue like, however you want to stay

far back, That's not the issue. The issue is this.

Here's here, here's here's a clue for people. Okay, driving

is a communal thing. It is you have to consider

other people. It's not about you, there's other people, everybody together.

It's a thing that we all do together.

There's kind of unspoken rules. It's a dance.

Yes, right, it's a dance. So so here I'm thinking

to myself and I almost want to use the word never,

but but let's.

Just say go ahead, just go ahead. We love the passion, okay, never?

Okay, Well, then I will say this. I will. I

would never be in a turning lane and see the

guy behind me super close to me without thinking to myself, oh,

I need to inch op six inches, especially since I'm

actually turned that way, but my whole front of my

car is turned that way, where it's pretty obvious that

if I'm going to go just around him, I write,

tires going to go over the bumper. Right, But this

guy or girl, it was a girl, she decides. I

hesitan say girl because it doesn't matter, right, but I

know who it was. It was a girl. So she

decides to look in the mirror see me, and not

to pull up. And let me just tell you something. Man,

I got so infuriated, so I had to sit through

this entire light when I didn't have to. Okay, and

so listen, just consider this, just be just.

Be considerate drivers out there. People.

It doesn't take a lot of effort.

It doesn't.

Just be aware of what's around you.

Put your carts away, yes, and pay attention to the

turn lanes and make enough room for.

People, and be nice to the waitress and be nice.

Oh that's right, because you said that, yes, yeah, okay,

well just be kind. Well, Chris, I think most of

us resonate with with that. I do think it's funny

that you were rate up on our bumper. What were

you going to intimidate her into moving forward?

I was trying to send the message because I want

to give people the benefit of the doubt. So benefit

of the doubt is she's just dominant, doesn't She's not

being inconsiderate. It could be right, she's just a person's

answering text whatever. But when you look up in your

rearview mirror and you see somebody is pulled to the

right and his in the corner of his cars at

your bumper, and you know there's a turning land on

the right hand side, and all you have to do

is move up six inches, she knew. She just decided,

you know what, He's not going to intimidate me to

move up six inches.

Wow. So she's a strong woman girl.

It made Chris mad this week?

Yeah, okay, actually that's what made Chris mad this week? Today? Today,

we should change his segment. What made Chris mad today?

What made Chris mad this morning? We could do that

every day. What made Chris?

We start filming at nine a m. So I'm not

sure there'll be too.

I'm sure. So that's great, man.

Hey, I think everybody agrees with me.

I do.

Hey, you know what, comment? Please comment about your driving

frustrations and put them in or email us at info

at bible guys dot com, because I think that can

you know, driving responsibility and being aware. Yeah, it's something

that we all.

Need to Yeah. So I realized that driving is a

community thing and a dance thing. In Cairo, Egypt, everybody's

honking be beat beat, beat, beep, and I'm thinking why

and nobody is honking because they're mad. It's like it's

they're they're like geese, just saying I'm here, I'm here,

I'm on your right, I'm on your left. Just dbbbt

beep and everybody just kind of moving through like this.

Same same in India.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, same thing.

And even though India is horrific in terms of people

and traffic and everything else, and there's no rules, there's

no right.

The people aren't horrible, it's just there's so many people.

I was about to say, it's like the safest and

most pleasant, even though it's so frustrating in terms of

the quantity of people. It's everybody is super polite. They

let everybody in, and I'm thinking, well, this is amazing.

Nobody's mad, right, Although I was in one cab ribe

one time and in the course of one mile, we

hit another cab, we hit a bicyclist, and we hit

a pedestrian. Oh and our cab just kept yelling out

the window. We never stopped, so we're only doing like

fifteen miles an hour. But you know how it is.

You get in there and there's just NonStop, just bumper

to bumper traffic. But we hit another cab, a guy

on a bicycle, and a pedestrian and we never stopped,

just yelled. He just yelled at people. So he might

be the only angry cab driver in Cairo. But wow,

it's crazy.

Maybe India is better.

Yeah. Anyways, we said all that to say bad drivers

make Chris mad today. Yes, that's it. Okay, well good,

let's move on. We're going to we're coming close to

wrapping up Galatians. Galatians is kind of like James. It's

a short little book. He gets right to the point,

he goes right after it. Yesterday is his main theological argument,

right of comparing or making it clear that the promise

of Abraham was not a law. The promise of Abraham

as a savior. That's the whole idea behind Isaac. Isaac

represented the sun that was going to be sacrificed, right,

all those things. So he ties the whole argument into

the promise of Abraham was the fact that a Messiah

was coming and that we can be free from the

law by faith. Then now we're getting into the practical

application of it, the everyday thing. These are the things

that for you and me in particular, we're not maybe

struggling with Judaizers coming in trying to get us to

become Jews before we become Christians, although we do sometimes

struggle with trying to apply old religious norms and old

religious rules and forms into our Christianity. Now this becomes

the very practical application of how to live it out.

The freedom that we have in Christ.

So freedom in Christ, living by the power of the Spirit.

For the Spirit that's right. So here we go. We're

just going to read this chapter chapter five. So so

Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that

you stay free and don't get tied up again in

slavery law. Listen, I Paul tell you this. If you

are counting on circumcision to make you right with God,

then Christ will be of no benefit to you. I'll

say it again. If you're trying to find favor with

God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation and

the whole law Moses. For if you're trying to make

yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you've been

caught off from Christ. You've fallen away from God's grace.

But we who live by the Spirit eagerly want to

receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.

For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there

is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What

is important is faith expressing itself in love. You are

running the race so well. Who has held you back

from following the truth? It certainly isn't God, for he's

the one who called you to freedom. This false teaching

is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole

batch of dough. I'm trusting the Lord to keep you

from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever

he is, who's been confusing you. Dear brothers and sisters.

If I were still preaching that you must be circumis

size as some say I do, why am I still

being persecuted. If I were no longer preaching salvations through

the Cross of Christ, no one be offended. I just

wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by

circumcision would mutilate themselves. Oh that's rough statement. For you

have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters,

But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead,

use your freedom to serve one another in love. For

the whole law can be summed up in this one command.

Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you are always

biting and devouring one another, watch out, beware of destroying

one another. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide

your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful

nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which

is just the opposite of what the spirit wants, and

the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what

the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting

each other, so you're not free to carry out your

good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit,

you're not under obligation to the law of Moses. When

you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the result

are very clear. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy,

outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties,

and other sins like these. Let me tell you again

as I had before, that anyone living that sort of

life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the

Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self control. There is no law against these things.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions

and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and

crucified him there, since we are living by the spirit,

let us also follow the spirits leading in every part

of our lives. Let us not become conceited or provoke

one another or be jealous of one another.

Yeah, there it is.

Yeah. So he finishes his argument, and then he says,

here's what it looks like to really live in freedom

and walk in the spirit. He says, you walk in

the spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.

You know, I know that, I know that I'm sort

of jumping right to the end there. But let me

talk about this sort of statement where he says, anyone

living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom

of God.

It's a strong statement.

It's a strong statement because if not careful, you could

misconstrue that and say, oh, so then you can do

bad things and therefore not go to heaven because of them. Right.

So it appears on the surface that this is a

statement about works gets you to heaven.

Right, which is exactly the opposite of what he's trying

to say.

It is it is, But I think I think what

he's obviously because here's what happens when when a verse

is written this way. What you have to do is

It's this is why it's so important to take the

context right, the context around it, and not only that,

but also to measure it versus every other promise and

truth that is given in the scripture. Because if this

were true and taken by itself, just you know, this

one verse quoted, you know, and not given in context,

you could make it to say that if you're a

person who has wild parties and who gets drunk, you're

going to hell. You can totally make it to say that, right.

But yet it's interesting because Paul's message is quite literally

the opposite. So if you take Galatians chapter one all

the way through Galatians chapter six, the message is clearly

the opposite, over and over and over again. Not that

you know, these things are good things, That's not what

I'm saying. I'm talking about getting to heaven. Yeah right,

how good deeds cannot get you to heaven and bad

deeds cannot keep you from heaven. That's the message. So

what Paul is saying here clearly is he's talking about

a person who never comes to God, a person who

has their life sweat away and they spend their entire

life living this way. Meaning they're the people who don't,

you know, see the truth. They're the people who don't

ever come to God or accept the truth of the

Gospel of Christ. He's talking in generalities because otherwise you're

forced to believe that you know your works can send

you out.

So sin does lead to death, and all of us,

even those are Christians, our bodies will die. So what

he's doing here is he's talking about the lusts of

the flesh versus the fruit of the spirit. So the

lust of the flesh will always lead to death. And

there's condemnation in that right judgment in that the judgment

is physical death. So all of those things, none of

those things are good. All of them are the results

of our sinful nature, all of them. So he's not

endorsing saying, now that you've got grace, go ahead with

all your sexual improprieties or immoralities or impurities or idolatry

or sorcery or coraling or parties. He's not saying it's

okay now that you have grace. Sure it's still going

to lead to the destruction of your life. It'll ruin

your life. And he said, those are the lifestyles of

people who are far from God, right, So don't live

that life. People that are far from God, those that

are under the judgment of God live those lives. And

why would you let your flesh do the same. So

he's there, he said, Instead this battle, this physical battle

versus the spiritual battle, those two things are butting heads

and fighting. So he says, but the Holy Spirit produces

this kind of fruit. And you know, by the way,

the law can kind of be thought of as a factory.

It just keeps turning out a certain product. But fruit

cannot be turned out of a factory. Fruit has to

be nurtured over time. And it's real life. It's not

just some plastic product. It's real life. And so he says,

the fruit of the spirit is love and joy and

peace and pat and kindness and goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and

self control. When you and I think of the very

best of humanity, that list covers it. Yeah, when we

think of the worst of humanity, the other list covers it.

Me at my best is when I'm walking in the spirit.

Me at my worst is when I'm living in the flesh.

So he says, there's no law against those things. So

he said, since we are living in the Spirit. Let

us follow the spirits leading in every way. What he's

saying is, let's walk in the spirit. There's another phrase

in here where he says verse sixteen, So I say,

let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't

be doing what your sinful nature craves. So your sinful

nature will lead to death and destruction every time, it'll

ruin your life. But if you walk in the spirit,

then you won't give into those cravings because the Holy

Spirit's producing a different kind of fruit in it. For sure,

that's what he's saying. Yeah, and in my opinion.

Well I'm just talking about that one phrase. Yeah, those

will not inherit. The Kingdom of God sounds sometimes.

He uses that statement multiple times.

Right, it sounds like what you're saying, that's not a

statement about getting into heaven. No, right, that's what you're saying.

So you're saying, the Kingdom of God can be the

Kingdom of God on earth, meaning blessings, the movement of God,

right of God.

I think what he's saying here the way that it's

translated into English versus the way that he's actually saying

it in Greek. I think what he's personally I think

what he's saying there is that's the lifestyle of the

people who are not getting into heaven, right, So why

would you live that life? That's what he's saying.

Yeah, well, it's interesting because my life application study Bible

says those who ignore such sins or refuse to deal

with them reveal that they have not received the gift

of the spirit that leads to a transformed life, which

is what I was saying earlier, which is he's referring

to that type of person because you can tell that

a person does not know Jesus because of what's coming

out of them. It's not the fruits of the Spirit,

it's this right. So in other words, I'm addressing it

because I've heard this statement before. I remember being at

a kid's camp and we partner with another church, and

this guy was quoting Fruits of the Spirit, and he

was actually saying, if you don't live these things out

and you live poorly, you're going to go to hell.

And he was actually using this verse to support that.

And the statement that he clung to was if you

do these things, you'll not inherit the Kingdom of God. Right,

In other words, you're not going to have it. The

Bible's really clear.

Yeah, I've seen, which is taking out the whole rest

of the book. The whole restalation is out of context.

It's taking everything out of contact.

He does use that phrase with various lists in Corinthians

and in other passages where he does say these kinds

of people are not the kind of people that are

going to inherit the kingdom of God. And then he

always pushes you to grace in faith. Right, so if

you're relying on the law. Earlier it says that if

you're lying on the law, then you have to keep

the whole law and you can never break it. The

Book of James says that if you've broken any part

of the law, you've broken the whole law. It's like

breaking a glass window. You break a part of the window,

the whole window has spirit placed. It's not like, oh,

I just broke that little corner. So you know you

mentioned the ten Commandments the other day, well, as long

as I get a passing grade. That's a false statement

in a misunderstanding of the law. What he's saying is

if you're trying to earn your way to heaven by

the law, you can't have one error in your entire life.

And Paul, who is trying to be at the beginning

of this book, he gives his credibility, saying, I was

a fabulous pharisee. I lived a holier life than anybody

reading this, as far as just not breaking any of

the laws. And I was desperate because I was still

a sinner, right. And so the only hope that any

of us have for salvation is by faith in Christ. Now,

if we really have the Holy Spirit, it's going to

be less and less wild parties, less and less drunkenness,

less and less right. The stronger the spirit gets in

our life, the weaker the flesh gets in our life.

The weaker the spirit is in our life, the stronger

the flesh is in our life. This is the battle

he talks about in Romans eight, that the things I

want to do I don't do. The things I don't

want to do, I do. And you know he's battling

this is kind of the same thing. So he says,

feed the spirit. And you know, we've told that story before,

and it's been many times. You know, the man who

has the two dogs, the white dog and the black dog,

and sometimes they'll fight over food, and the other guy goes, well,

which one wins? And he said, whichever one I feed

the most? And that concept is true. Which one wins

in my life, the spirit of the flesh, whichever one

I'm feeding the most. This is why having daily devotions,

spending a little bit of time every day in God's word,

you're feeding the spirit. For a few minutes. Now the

Holy Spirit has something to bring back up in your

mind again. Can we pivot just a moment. Yeah, how

do you feel about him saying I wish they'd cut

themselves off Earlier he says they're cursed with the word

anathema means I wish they'd go to hell. So he says,

these people who are teaching you these wicked things, trying

to add to the law, they're altering the gospel. And

this one he said, I wish they'd mutilate themselves, like

they're trying to get you to mutilate yourself. And he's

literally saying King James says, castraight themselves. And then the

other one he says, they're saying you're going to hell.

I wish they'd go to hell. They're cursed, right, Yeah,

those are some really strong statements about his concern about

those perverting the Gospel.

Yeah, I think that it makes me question, Like I

remember one time I went to my pastor when I

was in high school, and I said, should we hate

the devil? I said that should we hate the devil?

And he said, why are you asking such a question?

I said, because the Bible says not to hate, right,

And so if the Bible says not to hate, shouldn't

we show compassion? Because after all, because I'm a movie guy, right,

every criminal could be redeemed. Darth Vader picks up the

emperor and throws him down, right, and nobody ever thought

he would do that, Right.

What is this saying about him not to hate?

Well, it says the opposite. It says love should love

one another, forgive your enemies, right, That's what I'm saying.

And so so it's like it's like, if the Bible

tells us love, why shouldn't we have compassion on you know,

the Darth Vaders of the world, and the ultimate Darth

Vader would be, of course the devil. And then my

pastor is like, yeah, I understand what you're saying, but yeah,

we should pretty much hate evil. And he says we

should detest evil, and he started quoting all the things

about about evil and darkness, and how the Bible is

pretty clear that we should run, we should not have

compassion toward, we should not have empathy or sympathy toward

things that are downright evil. We should we should rebuke

all of those things in the name of Jesus Christ.

So I take it that Paul's statement here is not

just like I'm mad at these people they should be cursed.

It's more like, do they understand that they're they're committing

the atrocity of trying to lead people away from the

truth of Jesus Christ, which is in the category of

anti God, anti truth. And so he makes a strong

statement here, your love for truth should be so great, yes, that.

Anything that's the enemy of truth is your enemy, right right,

And so so it's not about the person I In

Psalm chapter was one hundred and one, maybe one hundred

and three hundred and three. Verse one, David says, I

will set no wicked thing before myne eyes. I hate

the work of those who turned away or turn aside.

It's not going to stick to me. So I can

hate those things that work against the truth and goodness

without hating the person. Right, you can hate the evil,

you can hate the thing. But you know, in today's

culture where what you do is your identity, people are

offended by that. But that's it's what you do is

not your identity, and that's just a false concept. So

in this situation, what Paula is saying is I love

the truth so much that I wish God would do

whatever it took to get these people out of the

way because they're perverting truth. Yeah, right, and by the way,

and that that's that's not an unreasonable or unbiblical view, and.

Only that, But think about it this way. So paul

is saying strong words against somebody who's bad, but Jesus

turns around and uses the same terminology against somebody who's good,

because because it's not about the person, to your point,

it's about how how much we should love truth in

the word of God. So Jesus says an unbelievably controversial

statement and says, if you're not willing to hate your

father and mother, right, then you can't follow me. And

so once again he's attaching this word to to something.

In this case, it's good. It's like I love my mom,

So why are you telling me to hate my mom?

And it's not that Jesus is meaning that we should

hate moms. It is that our love for Jesus should

be so strong that everything else should look like hate

in comparison.

Right, right, It's it's the love is so huge and

so great that it seems to make minimize everything else,

to the point where people will, how come you don't

love me that way? Yeah, it feels like you hate me.

And by the way, that's because to my point about

this exact passage, it's because you take everything that Jesus

says in context with each other. Right, So, just because

that one simple verse says that exact phrase, people say, well,

wait a minute, Jesus is saying this. No, no, no, no, no.

You have to take the context and which Jesus is

explaining this. He's talking about giving up your life, taking

up your cross, following me, you know, because if you

if you, if you deny yourself, you're you know, you

can't gain life unless you do.

So, it's not a mistake that that idea is in

the same passage of the battle between the Holy Spirit

in our lives and our flesh. Right, So we should

hate the first list in our lives, and we should

love the second list. Love and joy and peace and

gentleness kind of self control. Right, that should be it?

That our love for the for the work of the

Holy Sparent in life is so great that it pushes

away everything else. So I think that's where we should

wrap up today.

Yeah, me too, and we will see you next time

on the Daily Bibble guys.

Mhm h