All right, Galatians chapter 5, we finished chapter 4 last week where Paul was giving us this analogy between law and grace, the free woman and the bondwoman, obviously a reference to Isaac and Ishmael, and we saw the comparison between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion over there, the Jerusalem that is above, and Hebrews chapter, I think it was Hebrews chapter 12. So we come to chapter 5, and really probably in the next three weeks or so, four weeks maybe at the most, Will be done the book of Galatians. So Just praying is what we're gonna do next the Before I do this the Lord put put when I was praying the Lord put on this prison ministry and on my heart So be praying about that. We struck out seems like we were struck out at two places. So Yeah, so just be praying about that No, we haven't but we haven't heard anything. So it seems like it's not going anywhere So I need to send out some more emails to some other volunteer people at some of the prisons. So just pray for that. I have a heart to do that, but the Lord has not opened that door yet. So try to send out us some emails to a few other places. So I'm sorry, I didn't want to divert there, but the Lord had put that on my heart when I was praying. All right, Galatians 5. So I just kind of recap what we did last week as we finished up chapter 4. So Paul says here, Galatians 5, 1, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. And one of the things I appreciate about the Bible is you read verses and when you understand a book and a context of a book, the verses kind of, they kind of take on maybe a different meaning because you understand what context they're in. Now the context of what Paul is saying here, stand fast therefore in the liberty where Christ hath made us free. is the context of we're not under the law, we're under grace. We're not under the bond woman, we're under the free woman. We're not under Mount Sinai, we're under Mount Zion. Now, a lot of Christians will take verses like this and they'll talk about freedom in Christ. You've heard that? Oh, we're just free in Christ. And what they mean by that is, you know, I can just kind of do what I want. And I can just, you know, I want to listen to this kind of music and I want to go to this place and we're free, freedom in Christ. Well, that's not the context at all of what Paul's talking about. And notice what he says in verse 13 of the same chapter. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh. And that's exactly what Christians do today. We use Christian liberty and Christian freedom as an occasion to the flesh. And that's not, it's exactly what Paul is saying not to do. The liberty he's talking about is the liberty that we have, we're not under the law anymore. We're not under the bond woman anymore. And what he's saying is, don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage, the yoke of coming to God with your circumcision. Look at verse 2. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Now, I want to make a distinction here, because in verses 2, 3, and 4, I believe Paul is talking to the unbelievers in the group. And I've said before, when we started out the book of Galatians, that Paul doesn't address it to the saints and those that are in Christ. So he's dealing with a group of people that are saved and that are lost in his midst. And notice verse 1, Paul's talking to believers. But in verse 2, Christ shall profit you nothing. Verse 4, Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. So he's talking about us that are free because we have come out of the law and we've been saved by faith in Christ. Now he's turning in verse 2 to some of the unbelievers in the group and he says in verse 2, I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. This is a great verse because what were these people trying to do? They were trying to come to God and come to get their salvation by, probably with Christ, believing and recognizing what Christ had done, but coming with circumcision. And you know, there's a lot of faiths that do that, religions that do that. Catholics do that. They come to God and they say, well, yes, we believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He died, buried, buried, He rose again. but they also come with something else. And Paul says, if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. You cannot come to Jesus Christ adding anything. Whether it be circumcision, whether it be keeping a commandment, whether it be going to church, anything that you try to add to Jesus Christ alone, Christ is not gonna profit you. There's no prophet. You can believe in Jesus Christ, you can believe he was died, buried, and rose again, but if you come to God through that plus anything, fill in the blank, Christ's not gonna profit you anything. Right? I mean, you're not gonna be saved by adding anything. You can give lip service, but it's not gonna profit you. And that's what he's telling these unbelievers in the midst, that you've come to God, you've come to him, and yeah, you acknowledge Christ. but you're adding circumcision to it, and by doing that, Christ is meaningless. You're not getting anything. You're not profiting anything by adding anything to Jesus Christ. Verse three, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. It's all or nothing. You're either gonna you want to follow law knock yourself out You want to try to come to God with the law and keep the commandments and do all that and never violate your conscience? Go ahead but if you're doing that You might you got to be a debtor to the whole law. You can't just come with circumcision and What I think Paul's trying to do is trying to bring the weight of the law on these people Oh, you you can just check a box on circumcision. Why I've been circumcised. Look at that You know, pat yourself on the back. Well, no, if you're gonna do that, you're indebted to do the whole law. Go to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three. Paul says in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Now what are they trying to do? Trying to bring the law in, circumcision. And he's saying, no, there's a righteousness of God without the law. Verse 22, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all them that believe, for there is no difference. And then what does he say in verse 28? Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So if you want righteousness under the law, you gotta follow the whole law. But now there's a righteousness that's without the law. And it's by faith, and you can't mix the two. Verse four, Christ is become of no effect unto you. He's kind of said that already in verse two, Christ shall profit you nothing. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Now, the reason I made a point just a few minutes ago about these verses being written to unbelievers is because some would say, Well, these believers are falling from grace, and that means you can lose your salvation. In fact, the RSV says that you're severed from Christ, the Revised Standard Version, which is the version that came out in the late 1800s, one of the first new Bibles, I think, that came out on the market. But they say, basically, whosoever you are justified by the law, they probably word that differently, but they say you are severed from Christ. Well, you're never going to be severed from Christ. You're in his body. He's not going to cut you out. He's not going to slice off his finger or his toe. But you can fall from grace. Well, how can you fall from grace? Because you as an unsaved person, you have heard the message of the gospel and you've gone back to the law. You've fallen from grace. You've heard the message and you never accepted it. You rejected it. So you've fallen from grace. And in that context, Christ has become of no effect unto you. Because you're bringing the law into the deal, and that's not part of the deal. You can't bring law into it. It's only by faith. And so, you've fallen from grace. Even by adding one thing. You may accept everything else about Jesus Christ, but you've added one thing in that circumcision. You're falling from grace. Now in verse five, he goes back and he's talking about believers now. For we through the Spirit, notice that? Now he's back to us. Now we have the spirit, we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Now we have the spirit, verse five, those in verse four and three and two, they didn't have the spirit. They had fallen from grace, they were adding works, they were bringing circumcision to their salvation. And now he says, for we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Now the hope here, The hope of righteousness is talking about the blessed hope. And I got a lot of references here. Go to Romans chapter eight. Let's look at that one. I'm not gonna go to all these references just for the sake of time. So the hope he's talking about here, verse 10, The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Talking about the spirit, talking about righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. And we have a great hope of righteousness that's by faith. Now we have been given imputed righteousness and our standing before God is a standing of righteousness But we have a hope of righteousness, don't we? I mean, we're kind of like two-thirds saved, right? Our soul is saved, our spirit, but our body's not saved yet. So our standing is right, we're imputed with righteousness, our soul is as holy as it's ever gonna be, but we have a hope of righteousness because of our faith. And that hope of righteousness ultimately is that blessed hope. And that second coming of Jesus Christ, I've taught before, is really in two parts. It's the rapture and the second coming. So when we're going to be raptured up out of this world and meet the Lord in the air, we're going to get a new glorified body. That's the hope of righteousness he's talking about, is that when Jesus Christ takes us up on out of here. Then he goes on, for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. When you're in Jesus Christ, there's no boasting. Well, I was circumcised. Yeah, so what? How'd you get to Christ? By faith. At the cross, it doesn't matter if you've been circumcised or not. At the cross, it doesn't matter if you were baptized or not. At the cross, it doesn't matter if you were good to your fellow man or not. Now, that's a glorious truth. In Christ, it don't matter. What you've done or how you lived, if you come simply in faith, circumcision is not gonna give you anything. Uncircumcision, you're uncircumcised, you're no better off. You're not trusting in your uncircumcision, well that's fine, what else are you trusting in? It doesn't avail anything. None of our works in the context of our coming to Jesus Christ mean anything. And I'm gonna talk about that again when we get down here to verse 11. What does matter, faith which worketh by love, Faith which worketh by love. And you can just go over here later in the chapter, we're not gonna get to it tonight. But what's the very first fruit of the Spirit? It's love. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, that last verse, now abideth faith, hope, and charity, but the greatest of these is? Charity. I preached a message on that, I don't know, a couple years back about greater, there's no, charity, nothing greater than charity. You know I'm afraid a lot of problems in churches are just just because of oftentimes not doctrine not you know those kind of things it's just people that don't like each other and there's just problems and Paul says what matters not circumcision not uncircumcision Which is what these Judaizers were all priding themselves in well. We've been circumcised you have it well that don't matter faith which worketh by love is what matters and When we did our study in 1st Thessalonians, those young believers there, one of the things that Paul commended them for, do you remember that, was what? What were they commended for? They were commended for their love. It says 1st Thessalonians 1.3, verse two, Paul says, 1st Thessalonians 1.2, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love. And what do you have here in Galatians 5, 6? Faith, which worketh by love. And we saw that in Thessalonians. Go to 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 9. You have faith and love working together. And in verse 9, he has another verse on love. He says, 1 Thessalonians 4, 9, but as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. Paul says, I don't need to write to you about brotherly love. Your testimony is a testimony of love. And there's another reference, I didn't write it down here, where it talks about faith and love. But you have the one there in verse three, which talks about your work of faith and labor of love. And that's what matters, faith which worketh by love. And I've said that to you all when I preach. You can have all the right doctrine, you can have all the right book, but if you don't love each other, it's not gonna be a place where the Holy Spirit's going to be able to really work and minister in the way He wants to work and minister. Because you ultimately have to love each other. One of the things I pray as a pastor is, I pray that I love my wife and my kids and my family, but I pray that I love people in the church. Because I know how important that is. You can be a great preacher, you can be a great teacher, you can have a lot of head knowledge about the Bible, you can even know a lot of Scripture, and that's going to help you as you let the Holy Spirit fill you up. You don't have love, you know, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, it profits you nothing. What if you can speak with the tongues of men and of angels? What if you can make the sounds that are great and the greatest sounds of ever? Well, if you don't have charity, what does it profit you? All right, now you know he's talking to believers now, because he said ye did run well. Ye did run well. Well, if you're unsaved, you didn't run well. But you did run well. So he's also addressing in the context here, we know some of these people that had come to faith, they had believed, But they were being pulled away. And they were going back and being like, well, you know, maybe these guys are right. Maybe we do need to have circumcision. Maybe we do need to teach that. So he says, ye did run well. Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? They started out well, they were running well, and they were hindered. And I tell you what, that's probably one of the most discouraging things as a preacher, and y'all probably have seen it as well, is someone that's running well. and then they get out. And Paul's concerned about that. Who did hinder you? Who can hinder you? Well, a lot of things can hinder you. A relationship can hinder you. You young people, you know, you better be real careful who you marry. It can really mess you up. You know, I look at my life and I think of where the Lord's brought us, my wife and I, and I'm blessed with my wife. She's followed me to some, we didn't have some narrow views we have, I mean the right views, you know, the right Bible views, but my wife's followed me that whole way. You need to find yourself a spouse and don't get running off to get married. That spouse can really hinder you. Family can hinder you. Mama and daddy can hinder you. You know, trying to do something God wants you to do. Maybe sincerely. My parents have been blessed and they always were like, just serve the Lord and do right. Man, I was blessed, my parents to this day are a blessing. My 84-year-old mother calls me in, I mean, she's 83, I don't know how old she is. She's in her 80s. She prays for me and prays for our family and she's just faithful. When I'm sick, she's sick. She's got lung things going on and she's praying for me. She was sicker than I was. They're not a hindrance to me. They were always a blessing to me and they are a blessing to me. But man, I'll tell you what, you get someone running well and you know what the devil does? Tries to hinder you. And it's not always people. It can be money, success, fame, ego. I saw something the other day. I didn't read it. But the Eagles won the Super Bowl. And apparently, there was one of the other players on the team that thought he should have won the MVP of the game. I'm like, you just won the Super Bowl. I mean, come on, man. But that's ego. Your ego is going to hinder you. It's going to get in the way. Your flesh is going to get in your way. We're going to see that later here. And those things are going to hinder you. And we'll talk about that here in a minute. I'm not going to preach on it. It'd be a good message. But in verse 17 where it talks about the flesh and the spirit. But your flesh is going to be a hindrance to you. And you need to work on that. You need to walk in the spirit. But who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? That persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. That's self-explanatory. That hindrance, that truth that you're following after, that wouldn't come in from the Lord. That wouldn't come in from me. It cometh not of him that calleth you. You had truth, you were given truth, you followed that, you listened to that, and now you're hindered. That's not from God. That's not from the Lord. See people come into church, they get out of church. I'm like, that's not of the Lord. That's not of God, you know? Verse 9, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Now notice it says a little leaven, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. You know it doesn't take a lot of leaven and I don't know how much because I'm not a cook I don't know nothing about bread but I mean I know there's leaven and it helps it rise right is the idea. I don't think there's a whole lot of it that goes into bread that makes it rise. So the point Paul is making is a little leaven. They're all just trying to add that just circumcision. They're not trying to bring all this other stuff in. It's just circumcision. It's just causing all kinds of problems. And often the little leaven can be more dangerous than like the huge leaven. And that's true. I mean, if I stood up here and tried to preach some whack-out, totally unbiblical doctrine that was so black and white obvious, people would reject that. But, man, it's just a little bit of a lie. A little bit of leaven, you know? That's what's so dangerous about some of these, the New King James Version. Man, you better watch that. Because that's just, well, that's just, they're going back to the Texas, no, they vary from that. They say they go back to the right manuscripts, the Texas Receptus, but, you know, which we don't go back to the Texas Receptus, but it's a little leaven. You know, I mean, if a church started reading from the, if we got, you know, some church, even a mainstream church in town, if they got up and said, you know, we're gonna, our official church Bible is the good news for modern man, people would be like, what? Because that's not a little leaven. But a little leaven is, you know, well, let's just use the NASB, or let's use the new King James. It's just like the King James. They just take out the these and the that. Yeah, and a bunch of other stuff. That's a little leaven, and it leavens the lump. I'd say what in your lives you better be careful for that little bit 11 Because that's oftentimes what trips you up and what trips me up You know, I'm 56. I'm not gonna fall for some whacked-out doctrine. I'm just not I'm not trying to be arrogant about it I'm just I know what I believe and I know the Bible on it but there's a little bit 11 that can come in and get you off a little bit and That's gonna fast forward one two, three four years down the road It's gonna live in the whole lump I have confidence in you, verse 10, in you through the Lord, that you will be none otherwise minded, but he that troubles you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. Now, Paul is expressing some confidence here, and I think he's doing that to encourage him in the matter. Now, Paul doesn't know these people that were running well and that were hindered. He says, I have confidence in you through the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded. I have confidence in you that you're gonna come back to the truth, but he doesn't know that. And I'll do that with my kids sometimes, or with maybe someone I'm working with in church, and I'll say, man, I'm confident that you're gonna, you know, that you're gonna follow the Lord. I believe you're gonna be faithful. I don't know. Part of that, I'm just trying to hold a bar up for him, to say, you know, I have confidence that you're gonna walk with God. And if having that confidence and expressing that confidence to somebody will probably make it more likely that they'll step up and do it. And so Paul doesn't know what they're gonna do, but he's expressing to them I'm confident in the Lord that you'll be none otherwise minded, that you're gonna understand what I'm teaching you and you're gonna come back to the truth. And then he closes out verse 10, but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment whosoever he be. So I don't know if there's a ringleader in the midst here, but there clearly is at least one person, if not multiple people that are troubling them. And Paul says, you know what? I hope he bears his judgment whosoever he be. And clearly it's the Judaizers in the context of the passage, but you can make some spiritual application to a lot of things, people that are hindering you and troubling you in your life. And Paul says, pray God judges them. Pray God judges them, because they sure are causing a problem. Verse 11, and I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased. And what is Paul saying here? If I was preaching circumcision, I wouldn't be getting persecuted. I mean, think about that for a minute. If you walk up to somebody and you say, you know, yeah, that's right. You're going to mass and you're doing those good things. And yeah, God, yeah, that's good, brother. Just needs to add a little bit of Jesus. But you're good, man. God's gonna recognize that. if I preach circumcision, if I preach a little bit of flesh, if I preach a little bit of your goodness, no one's gonna persecute you. Because why? Because man, there's no offense in that. The Bible says, then is the offense of the cross ceased. If I am preaching and appealing to your flesh, and what does your flesh say? Your flesh says that, well, God should accept me. Your flesh is Cain. God should have accepted my sacrifice. It was a good sacrifice. I brought it sincerely. I worked hard. It was a good sacrifice. God should accept it. And if somebody comes along and he says, yeah, you're right, brother. God should have accepted that. You're not gonna get persecuted for that. That's not the offense. The offense of the cross is you're a slime bucket. You're a sinner. The wage of sin is death. And the only righteousness that matters is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that goes against the flesh of man. And man's gonna persecute you for that. they're gonna persecute you. You add a little bit of works into salvation, that just appeals to flesh. There's no offense in that. There's no offense if I preach circumcision, why am I being persecuted? The offense of the cross would have ceased. There'd be no offense of the cross. You gotta understand, and you, especially young people, and I've talked about this enough, but when you preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, Paul says that, go to 1 Corinthians 1, Verse 21, for after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Verse 23, for we preach Christ crucified. And that's the message we preach, Christ crucified. And that's the offense of the cross. Why did Jesus Christ die? I don't need Jesus. I don't need him. That's fine. He was a good man. But I don't need you. I mean, sure, I'll acknowledge he was a good man. I believe that he died, whatever. But look at me and my works and my goodness or whatever. But the offense of the cross is you got nothing absolutely in yourself. You got zip to offer God when it comes to salvation. You got nothing, zero. You're a big fat nothing when it comes to coming to the cross of Christ. And that's offensive to people. Paul's saying, if I preach circumcision, I wouldn't be persecuted. I wouldn't be offensive to people. Why were the disciples and the apostles getting persecuted because they preached Jesus Christ? I was offensive to people in the early church. And it's gonna be offensive to people now. You better understand, especially young people. I've been around long enough. I know people don't like it. I know when people cuss at me, I just expect it. But the message of the gospel and the message of the cross is offensive to people. smacks him in the face, and they don't like it. They don't like it. All right. I would that ye were even cut off. I would that they were even cut off, which trouble you. I mean, Paul's just saying, I wish those people were cut off. I wish they weren't even there. I wish God would get them out of that. Get them out of your church, get them out of your midst, whatever. They were cut off. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. And I talked about that verse a little bit already. Go to Jeremiah 7, a good passage of scripture on kind of the idea of quote-unquote liberty that people often, the liberty mentality that people often espouse. Jeremiah 7, verse 8. Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incest unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations. So here you have people doing all these wicked things. They're just free in Christ. I mean, we're in the Old Testament. They're not free in Christ, but go with me on the analogy. And then they just come into the house of God and say, well, we're free for these things. We're free to do those things. And what were they free? They felt free to do things in the flesh. And that's exactly what Christians do today. They just take the liberty that they have in Christ. Well, I'm free to drink and all that. You hear it all the time. It's very pervasive in our more secular churches today. This freedom in Christ stuff, and I'm free to do that. No, you're just indulging your flesh is all you're doing. You ought to be free to love and serve one another, not for an occasion to the flesh. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now Paul's really hitting home on this. He says in verse 6, what matters? Faith which worketh by love. Verse 13, by love serve one another. Verse 14, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So Paul's really hitting home with these people that are just using their liberties and he's saying really what matters is that you're loving each other and you're loving one another. But if you bite Devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another and No doubt in the context of what was happening here in the midst and the and the people that Paul was writing to there was some biting and devouring going on he had some that were teaching circumcision and pulling other even believers into this view and maybe there were others that didn't believe that and there was some biting and devouring one another And man, I'll tell you what, that'll destroy a church. You get people biting and devouring each other, you know? And it's not good. You can consume one another. And I'm glad. That's not the case in our church. That's a blessing. We have a good church family, and people have a lot of grace, and they really try to help each other and minister to each other. That's a blessing to me. I don't worry about this. I don't worry about people like, you know, slandering people and going after each other. That's something I worry about as a pastor. But I know preachers that have been through it and been through some real nasty stuff in their churches. And a lot of it's just, it's what I've been talking about Sunday. It's biting and devouring with the tongue. And that's where it happens. Starts in the heart and comes out in your mouth. We're gonna get down to verse 18. We're doing good on time here. Verse 16, this I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that ye would." Now verse 16 is a good verse, because what it says is, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And what you gotta understand in your Christian life, is that in order to not walk in the lust of the flesh, you gotta start by walking in the spirit. People say, well how do I get victory? If I share testimony of maybe some things that God's given me victory over, people are like, well, how'd you get victory over that? I just kind of grew in my walk with God. I just try to get close to the Lord, and those other things, those lusts of the flesh kind of just go away. But a lot of Christians are like, well, I'm gonna deny my flesh and deny my flesh, and well, you're not, that's fine, that's a good attitude, it's a good focus, but you need to walk in the Spirit. You can't just get up in the morning and say, well, I'm not gonna get my phone and spend this much time, and I'm not gonna hop in the computer and do this, and I'm not gonna, okay, praise God, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna put there? They always say, I've heard preachers say this, and I've probably said it, but if you're taking someone out of your life, what are you gonna put in there? You gotta put something in there. And when you put the Lord Jesus Christ, you put his word, you put other good believers, you put a good church, you could put preaching in your life, and you start walking in the spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. You won't have to be like, oh, I gotta stop looking at that, and I gotta stop. You won't be obsessed with that. You'll just be walking with the Lord, and all of a sudden, the Lord, you'll notice that, wow, I'm not struggling with that as much anymore. And I'm not battling that. There's always gonna be a battle between the flesh and the spirit, but God'll go start giving you victory in that. But a lot of preaching today is just, well, stop doing this, and stop doing this, and stop doing this, and stop doing this, and amen, you should stop doing those things. How am I gonna stop doing those things, preacher? Well, you need to walk in the spirit. You need to walk in the spirit. And you shall not. The result of walking in the Spirit will be the lust of the flesh. They're going to be there, but they're going to... God will start giving you victories, and you'll start noticing that those things that you struggle with are not as much of a struggle. And then he says, verse 17, really verse 17 is a great synopsis of Romans chapter 7, which I want to read here, just a few. I'm not going to read the whole chapter. Because what does Paul say in Galatians 5.17? Against the spirit and the spirits against the flesh. These are contrary the one to the other so you cannot do the things that you would Talk what Paul is like schizophrenic. I I got the flesh. I got the spirit I want to do this, but I don't do it and he describes that really well in Romans chapter 7 Romans chapter 7 and I'm just going to read about 10 verses here where Paul describes this and Romans chapter 7 verse 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God first bid. But sin that it might appear sin worketh death in me by that which is good. That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold unto sin. For that which I do, I allow not. But what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I." It's like, Paul, what's going on? If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. That's his flesh. For I know that in me, verse 18, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present with me, that's the spirit, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. It's exactly what he says in verse 17, that ye cannot do the things that ye would. I got this flesh versus the spirit thing going on. My spirit wants to do right. My flesh wants to do wrong. I want to do right, and sometimes I do wrong because of the flesh. Verse 20, now if I do that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. That's his flesh. I find then a law that when I do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members. That's your flesh. Warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin Which is in my members Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Have you ever felt that way Lord? I mean, I just want to be I just want to be free from this body of death this body that just craves and wants and lusts and wants for itself its pride and Well, you're gonna get freed from this body of this death but until that time And Paul describes it in Romans 7, he puts it here in verse 17 of Galatians 5, the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. And what do you gotta do? Well, you gotta walk in the spirit. You're never gonna completely and totally not have a flesh that wants the things that it wants. But as you walk in the spirit, you're gonna find that the lusting that's happening between the flesh and the spirit, the spirit's gonna be coming out on top a lot more. than he is if you start feeding your flesh. One thing you've got to be careful of with your flesh, and I've seen it or observed it myself, is if you start giving your flesh anything it wants or whatever it wants in this area, you can't isolate it. So once you start giving into your flesh and giving your flesh things that it wants, you're feeding it and you're going to make it harder for the spirit to Victory over it and that's just that's just reality and that's what Paul says here So if you walk in the spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh Well, if you don't walk in the spirit, you will fulfill the lust of the flesh I mean, that's that's what the that's what scripture says, but if he be led verse 18, we'll stop here But if he be led of the spirit you're not under the law and These Galatians that were getting back under the law. We're not doing it. We're not doing it by being led by the Spirit If you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law anymore. You understand what I'm telling you, you know? And so Paul closes it out there and we'll pick up there in verse 19 next week.